Eyaw Empire

Settlements and Building Style

Aaracokra have a preference for high places, which has a strong influence on the settlements of the Emprie. The cities and villages of the Eyaw Empire are mostly built upon mountain tops, ridges or inaccessible ledges along cliffsides. There are no roads between the different buildings or settlements, simply because they are not needed. The denizens of Eyaw buildings tend to be all Aarakocra, and the occasional land-walking visitor is usualy restricted to specific guest areas.

Building materials

Buildings usually have a stone foundation, either carved into the mountain, or built from boulders carved from said mountain. The buildings itself tend to be construced out of light wood or bamboo, with various forms of paper used for some of the inner walls. This way of building has developed out of practicality. Because most of the resources need to be hauled up to the construction site, light but sturdy materials are prefered. The larger cities, and especially the imperial city of Gaocheng, have constructed cargo elevators which alleviate some of the hauling labour. Because of this, these cities have more heavy materials incorporated in some of the buildings, such as hardwood, non-local stone, or sometimes even large pieces of metal.

Wealth display

The heavier the building material, the more expensive it is to aqcuire. Well-off aaracokra families use this to show of how wealthy they are: By incorporating hardwood pillars, foreign marble, or other unnecessarily heavy things in their family homes. The more remote the location of the home, the better.