Dev Level 7

Regions with this level of advancement represent crude metalworking cultures, supported by bronze-age level masonry, mining, the use of pottery to store and cook food, sailing with small boats and irrigated agriculture. It would be accurate to describe tech 7 as 'backward' - there is little advancement in learning or social structures - yet these are regions recognized by traders and functionally valuable to both geopolitics and the world's food supply. For the most part, while undeveloped, the populations of these regions could not be described as isolated or out of touch. Some, such as Bohus in Norway, Tinin in the Balkans or Vyazma in the heart of Russia, exist in the midst of much more advanced cultures - however, due to lack of resources, difficult terrain and a scant number of inhabitants, the more sophisticated world has passed these backwaters by.

The inhabitants of these regions pursue a religious doctrine that combines elements of animism and mantraism with polytheism and meditation. The family clan retains importance but settlements have a distinctive specialist culture that creates a dual responsibility in much of the populace (is fealty given to the head of the family or to the local overlords?). With irrigation and advanced agriculture, most of the population is wearing wool, cotton or linen; animal skins or furs are worn as luxury items, never as base clothing. Other luxuries consist of well trained horses and breeding stock, metals of every variety (excepting mithril and adamantium), fine weapons, holy articles, carved idols and gemstones, jewelry, carts and boats.

Entities

The region's hinterland, areas farthest away from the towns and cities, will be occupied by family groups that continue to forage for food while trading with village settlements, but their habitat is under threat by venturers who are interested in prospecting, clearcutting and exploring the wilderness for wealth. Towns, settlements of more than 1,000 inhabitants, will not be tribal based; instead, the inhabitants will have developed an identity based upon commerce. This will be even more true of cities, places of more than 5,000 inhabitants, which will have special authority groups, whose purpose it will be to assess the needs of the community in the eyes of the elite, those most successful at gathering resources.

Encounters will include the following groups, divided according to nature of the hex where the encounter occurs:

Rural hexes & open sea: bandits ~ clans ~ drovers ~ crews
Villages: artisans ~ crews ~ tribes
Towns: aristocrats ~ artisans ~ traders
Cities: artisans ~ equites ~ functionaries ~ soldiers ~ traders

See Development Levels