Everwealthy Architecture

"Stone or timber, gold leaf or moss-wall, it is not the material that marks a home, but how well it holds in the heat and keeps out the damned neighbors."

The buildings of Everwealth are not just shelters, they are stubborn declarations of survival. Forged in the aftermath of cataclysm, raised by calloused hands, and patched with the bones of fallen ages, Everwealthy architecture is equal parts improvisation and artistry. Once a realm of gleaming towers and rail-lit cities, The Fall and The Great Schism shattered both form and function. What remains is a jigsaw of what once was, factories turned taverns, crumbling towers rebuilt with sod and salt, and faded enchantments still flickering behind soot-streaked stained glass.

"Not every ruin’s a ruin. Some are just homes that haven’t given up yet."

Styles of Everwealthy Architecture:

Highland-Bound (Northern Settlements & Bordersword):

• Made of stone, slate, and salvaged steel.

• Designed for fortification and warmth: low ceilings, thick hearths, heavy shutters.

• Roofs sloped steeply for shedding snow and acid rain alike.

• Buildings often incorporate materials from ruins, tiles made from rusted machine plates or decorative walls reusing arcane scrap.

• Often include torch-bays, arrow slits, and reinforced shelter cellars as protection against siege, beast, or storm.

The Folklander Vernacular (Rural Everwealth, Landbridge, Merchant's Meet):

• Wood-heavy construction using local timber, supplemented with sod and clay.

• Homes and shops often built into hillsides or bolstered with root-anchored walls.

• Painted doors and patterned shutters common, each pattern a family’s claim, passed down like a name.

• Chimneys are central and oversized, serving both heat and cooking in shared domestic rooms.

• Common repurposing of Lost Age structures: water towers turned homes, soap factories now working inns.

Urban Patchwork (Opulence, Catcher’s Rest, Greatshadow.):

• A collision of styles layered by conquest, immigration, and desperation.

• Lower districts often stacked with stone-and-brick tenements, each floor a different builder’s legacy.

• Awnings stitched from sailcloth, narrow walkways strung with reed lanterns or oil-lamps.

• Merchant fronts favor outward flair: colored glass, embossed signage, animated paint that whispers deals.

• Many upper floors lean dangerously over alleys, beams blackened from ancient boiler fires left unrepaired.

Subterranean Dwellings (Dwarfish & Red-Dwarfish Influence):

• Constructed within cliff faces or beneath towns.

• Emphasize hidden strength, insulation, and longevity.

• Ornamentation comes in metal filigree, carved support columns, or warm glowing fungus gardens.

• Doors are stone and lock from the inside, hospitality is earned.

• Many chambers bear rusted pipes and ancient magickal conduits still humming faintly—remnants of Lost Age heat-flows.

Fae-Adjacent & Rootwoven (Elfese & Shadow-Elfese Influence):

• Use living wood shaped by druidic magick or patient braiding of saplings over decades.

• Light filters in through leaf-filtered windows, interiors scented by pollen and sacred oils.

• Business signage often takes the form of hanging wind-chimes or flowering glyphs that bloom when spoken to.

• Many homes are part dream, part dwelling, doors shifting, rooms that respond to song, furniture grown rather than built.

Function Over Form, but Never Without Flair:
Even the humblest shack in Everwealth is unlikely to be plain. Personal flair and folk tradition remain at the heart of each build: chicken bones above the threshold for good fortune, carved warnings to ward off debt collectors, or rooftop gardens used to grow calming herbs and nosy gossip. While few can afford opulence, many find ways to imprint their story on their home, and thus, on their community.
Building Materials & Trade:

• Stone & Mortar - Still the most reliable material for permanent dwellings.

• Bog Clay - Popular in marshy regions, easy to shape, and naturally pest-repellent.

• Salvaged Timber - Common in Folklands and city outskirts; often warped or scorched but reforged through craft.

• Scrapglass - Used for windows in urban regions; a dangerous but colorful artifact of Lost Age ruins.

• Ruinbricks - Recycled bricks made from crushed arcane detritus, known to faintly hum or warm at dusk.

• Sealed Waxstone - A waterproofing material once used in aqueducts and Lost Age bathhouses, now used to line roofs and undercellars.

The Role of Hearth & Threshold:

• Everwealthy folk view hearths not just as heating devices, but as the spiritual center of the home. The hearth must be clean, active, and respected. Many bless their hearths weekly, or burn an herb called graymint to ward off both vermin and misfortune.

• The threshold, meanwhile, is a sacred boundary. No guest may cross it uninvited. Some embed teeth of dead ancestors in the step to "watch the door." Others mark it with chalk sigils renewed at the full moon.

Superstition & Structural Symbolism:

• No second-story doors unless stairs have collapsed, considered a metaphor for fleeing death.

• Odd numbers of support beams are said to protect from hauntings.

• Roof-eaves shaped like animal jaws are common in older buildings, said to "eat bad dreams" before they slip inside.

• Chimneys cracked on the west side are seen as ill omens, believed to invite wandering spirits.

• Three knots in a beam means three generations may dwell safely beneath it, four is misfortune.

Common Additions:

• Vault Cellars for food and secrets.

• Alcove Shrines to household gods or lost children.

• Wall Gardens of edible moss or vine-fruit, especially in denser settlements.

• Raincatcher gutters for water, sometimes alchemically filtered, if you're lucky.

• Outsider corners, small, covered porches where travelers may sleep in peace without crossing the threshold.

In Everwealth, architecture is not built for luxury, but it is built with care. It remembers. Each timber-frame tavern, stonewalled smithy, or fae-grown library tells a story, of who raised it, who it’s buried, and who it’s waiting to shelter next. Whether under gold-leaf eaves or a moss-packed roof, a home in Everwealth is a fortress against the dark.