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Message: <blockquote data-quote="_Michael_" data-source="post: 9656736" data-attributes="member: 7045276">This is a plausible (meaning it could be built as it appears and physically stand without fear of collapse) cob home with attached (and heated) stables, as found in the villages near the North Umbra Territories of Sintar.    Sintar is home to many large cities, with lots of wilderness between them and the thorps that dot the landscape. While not all of them are really worth the effort of visiting, they nonetheless each have their own personalities that live therein. The veteran traveller will find the following bits of information useful should one have need to travel to any of these localities.     One thing of note is how comfortable the buildings of northern Sintar are. Most are built from cob, a mixture of coarse sand, clay and straw, with thick, high foundation walls, and deep overhangs. Hearths are incorporated into the walls between the home and the barns, which are usually built around the front entrance of the buildings in the same manner, using cob to provide a warm shelter and radiate the heat of the hearth into the barn as well.     Earthen stoves are also built into the walls, and the chimneys and fireboxes of the fireplaces are built of ceramic bricks and tiles, winding through the cob walls to heat them so they radiate warmth through the night. Floors are made of rammed earth with layers of boiled linseed oil and beeswax thinned with turpentine, and are built up to a rock-like hardness as smooth as ice. Natural lime plaster seals the walls to help regulate moisture and the ceilings are vaulted and insulated with lathe board and plaster. Most foundations of these homes are several feet off the ground as well, with a separate door inside at the top of a few stairs creating a stairwell to the exterior door.     Additionally, the Sintari use vatrokamen, or firestones, the size of oranges carved from basalt and granite that they heat in the hearths, then put in small braziers that they hang in other areas of the home to help heat them. Four or five of them hung in a bed chamber will heat the room nicely before long, and warm fur and hide rugs keeps the cold at bay.    One feature bears mentioning due to it’s surprisingly delightful nature. Most homes of those who live in northern Sintar all have well pumps inside the home as well as on the outside, and the interior pumps pull water to large copper tanks built into the wall, with small fireplaces under them and the chimney running through a ceramic shell around the tank to form a narrow air gap before exiting the flue above. This provides hot water on tap for things like baths and washing clothes—a godsend in the frozen tundras of Demar and the surrounding countryside.    All of this translates to extremely comfortable homes and buildings, even in the depths of winter, for both humans and animals. Even within the castle walls, the keeps themselves are often made of brick and cob specifically to keep them warm, though nobles often have them colored brightly with clay tinted plasters in red and blues and yellows, or have elaborate pastoral scenes sculpted into the walls and hearths.    It is truly rare for a home in northern Sintar to be cold and drafty, and the inns that can be found on the road to the North Umbra Territories are some of the warmest and coziest to be found.--Chapter Ten, The Third Millennium Guide To Erdeyn[SPOILER][ATTACH=full]405113[/ATTACH][/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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