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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5537834" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Throughout most of the feudal period, building anything was problematic.  You needed the permission of the local nobility, who controlled the land.Note that, technically, they didn't own it, they merely controlled it.  The Crown owned it.  The Crown owned essentially all the land under its authority, with the notable exception of church properties.We tend to forget this in our modern view of the period, and in the way we game.  The "cost of the land" was never a factor, since you couldn't buy it.  To be an actual landowner was a special thing.  Over time the nobility all accessed this privilege, at least for their family estates, but for a commoner it was all but unheard of for them to be a landowner.It wasn't until the Renaissance that a middle class developed that could gather enough wealth and influence that a new term found its way into the language:  Landlord.These were commoners who were able to own land, and act as the nobles had in previous times, letting others live on their land, and collecting rents for that use.  Being a landowner got a lot easier when the "New World" opened up, and that was a lot of the attraction for colonists.  Even then, it was and remained such a special thing that it was mentioned in the US Constitution as a prerequisite for being able to vote.  The Founders had no plan to let the common man vote, only the wealthy.Also remember that, during the Dark Ages and well afterward, the common people themselves were considered the property of their lords.  Look up the word "Serf", and you'll see what I mean.  Russia didn't free their serfs until the mid 1800s, right around the time of the American Civil War.  To be a freeman was something special.  It meant that you owned yourself, and were free to travel as you chose.So, while we play at games in a pseudo-medieval worlds, there's an entire spectrum of that world that we almost never even think about, and building homes or strongholds touches on a lot of it.</blockquote>

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