Settlement Districts — The City’s Anatomy
Districts are the settlement’s functional zones — residential, commercial, industrial, or specialized areas that hold population and define local character. They’re abstract rather than precisely mapped.
In engine terms, districts are spatial groupings of settlement layer nodes. They’re the address context that makes building nodes locatable and gives People layer NPCs a findable home.
What is a Region/District?
Ex Novo divides settlements into regions — abstract spatial units defined by lines on your map. When a region is developed, it becomes a district with population and character. Use natural features and organic shapes for boundaries.
District Types
| Type | Function | Common Buildings |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | Where people live | Houses, apartments, tenements, manors |
| Commercial | Trade and services | Markets, shops, taverns, inns, banks |
| Industrial | Production and craft | Workshops, forges, mills, warehouses |
| Administrative | Governance and law | Town hall, courts, guard posts, archives |
| Religious | Worship and spirituality | Temples, shrines, monasteries, graveyards |
| Military | Defense and training | Barracks, armories, walls, watchtowers |
| Cultural | Entertainment and gathering | Theaters, parks, plazas, libraries |
| Specialized | Unique to this settlement | Wizard academy, gladiator arena, observatory |
District Character
Beyond function, each district should have sensory identity using Street Magic principles — sights, sounds, smells, feel.
Example: The Forge Quarter: blackened stone buildings, constant hammering and furnace roar, smell of hot metal and coal smoke, uncomfortably warm even in winter
Districts Through Time
Historical events create temporal layers. The temporal frame of buildings maps to Beak, Feather & Bone’s suit system: ♥ Social and ♦ Financial nodes dominate active districts; ♠ Past nodes accumulate in declining or transformed ones.
Abandoned Districts as Adventure Sites
When an event destroys a district, mark it as ruins. These are ♠ Past nodes: instant dungeon sites, monster lairs, buried treasure, and lore nodes waiting to be explored. They’re also low-entropy targets for player-initiated collapse — “I know a place in the old harbor quarter…”
Population & Density
| City Size | Low | Medium | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village | 100 | 250 | 500 |
| Town | 150 | 500 | 1,500 |
| Small City | 200 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| Large City | 600 | 5,000 | 25,000 |
| Metropolis | 1,500 | 15,000 | 100,000 |
In practice: don’t worry about exact population. The number of districts and density feel is sufficient for play.