Urban Architecture

Residence Buildings

Dynastic City Villa

The typical estate of a Dynast in the Imperial City is a square, 130 yards to the side, taking up a total of some 3.5 acres. The estate is encircled by thick walls, often stone or earth surfaced in wood or plaster and roofed over with clay tiles. A main gate is on one wall; a secondary, or "back" gate is placed elsewhere, usually on the opposite side. Though many estates have existed for centuries, shaped according to the whims of the Exalted aristocrats residing there, 'typical' estates (built according to the traditional Shogunate pattern), can be divided into three parts, north to south.

The south is taken up by an elaborately designed garden, usually with an artificial pond complete with islands and bridges linking the islands and the "mainland." Many villas are known for the particular form and beauty of their gardens.

The middle third is the courtyard and secondary buildings, usually open pavilions and servant’s quarters branching down from the main house.

The northern third contains the main building, with doors facing south, for the villa owner’s sleeping chambers, treasure rooms, offices, and sitting rooms. It is a point of pride amongst some Dynasts especially those of Earth and Water aspected Houses, a sign of wealth, to maintain only a single story for all villa buildings, though most Air and Fire-leaning Houses will have much higher main buildings or towers.

Patrician-Merchant House

A standard dwelling for a rich merchant or patrician family consists of two halls, connected by side corridors to surround a central courtyard. This courtyard is the primary light source for inner rooms, and a place for children to play and the family to chat, relax, or keep a small garden. The first floor houses an entry hall at the front door, as well as sitting rooms, dining rooms, kitchens and pantries. The upstairs houses offices and bedrooms (usually numbering around 10). Some such houses contain shops in their lower floor, and some have been converted into apartments, with one family per bedroom and additional bedrooms replacing other rooms on the lower floor. In many cases, either for expanding families or more rental apartments, an additional one or two stories is sometimes added.

Poor Tenements

Tenements for the urban poor are cheaply built rental buildings butted up against one another in rowhouse-like fashion, rising several stories high. In terms of plan, these basic units consist of only one room divided into two zones – the front functioning as the entry, kitchen and working area, while the rear section was a raised platform surfaced with tatami mats used for living, eating and sleeping. Invariably, two rows of apartments would face each other forming a very narrow alley. This central space, which is utilized as a common ‘courtyard’ for all the tenants, is a very lively place, though invariably filled with the filth of human habitation.

Privacy Architecture

Living arrangements in the Scarlet Empire are not private affairs... the Dragonblooded are a united brotherhood of warriors, and must live as close as brothers, particularly when they are young. Privacy is earned through age and experience.

Dynastic architecture reflects this requirement, as do the patrician styles which seek to replicate the dwellings of their betters. A dwelling's 'inner' chambers, those furthest from the entrances, belong to the senior members of a household, with children and then servants occupying successive rings further out. For towers, the highest and lowest floors are likewise reserved (the latter usually only chosen by Earth aspects, who prefer deep basement suites where such can be built).

Manses: While this style of architecture is useful in mundane buildings, it is often at odds with geomancy that seeks to channel essence, obstructing flows to the centrepoint of the manse. Larger manses can sometimes approximate, but most smaller manses do not reflect this style.

Sorcerers: Sorcerers live alone more often than not, in distant rooms or detached chambers, rather than together with their Exalted brothers.

Spies on the Breeze: While aspects of air have a natural affinity for breezes, flows of wind matter to all Dragonblooded. It carries positives with it, for wherever wind can reach, messages can be sent into one’s ears near-instantaneously from across Creation, a highly useful tool in governance and scheming both. However, wherever the wind can reach, any word spoken can be carried to a listening ear, rendering all secrets and plots compromised. Dynastic architecture accounts for this with ‘sealed rooms’, located at the center of buildings. Some are entirely sealed to air, some use complex systems of shutters to shatter air flows and prevent them flowing within, some use twists of manse architecture or artifice to still the surrounding air. Those who can afford such rooms are able to enter them and trade easy communications for private conversation.

Indoor Plumbing

During the First Age, technology had advanced to such a level that one could expect to find running water in all Exalted dwellings and across urban areas. The infrastructure and knowledge to build such systems has been lost over the course of the Shogunate and the Realm years.

In some urban sites or country manses, even smaller towns or villages based on ancient ruins, there are complex systems for the removal of sewage and the entry of fresh water. This includes parts of the Imperial City, which predates the Shogunate, but NOT the Imperial Palace, which grew up only after the Empress' ascent and whose initial system of plumbing ceased to function some time before the present century.

Almost all city villas have running water in and sewage taken out, as do many patrician homes. Public water troughs and sewage cisterns are dispersed throughout the poorer areas and also connected to this complex sewer and water system… ditches run alongside many poor tenements, into which sewage is emptied and carried to drains leading into the sewer system.

Within the Palace, and most outlying housing, a combination of manually flushed septic pipes, gong pits, and chamber pots are used to confront sewage, while large kettles are filled from wells or sloped pipes and placed for use in kitchens and rooms.

Hot and cold tap water can also to be found in some areas of the Realm, though often as a by-product of a manse' Essence-bleeding mechanisms. Larger baths, saunas, and tubs are heated with fires underneath, or inserting boxes of hot coals. Some dwellings also make use of Transperfect Domestic Tools.