who came first to make a village?

[briansommers]

Beginning with an empty piece of land, how would a small village form or come together?

This is more of an exercise for me than to be used in-game but I thought it might be good because I'm hoping I'll have a rich little history about the place.

So does a wondering family move in and set up shop?
Or would a rich person come and say, hey this makes a great place for my manor and then decide they want to expand into a village?

I mean for every village it was once nothing, someone had to move in first and get the ball rolling. Who would that be?

 

[dragoner]

For Humans, a riparian forest habitat is ideal - Riparian forest - Wikipedia Then usually another town or group subdivides like a single celled organism, to found the new town, at which point it begins to collect new residents from other areas.

 

[Istbor]

Well are we talking who turned the hamlet or group of farmsteads into a proper village, or who/what began the hamlet? Who was the first to actually settle on the land? Those can be pretty different, and very far apart in a time line.

Take for an example the small town I grew up in. It started as a grouping of farmers along a stretch of road that connected two cities. Over time more people and houses collected there. Then one industrious member built a store to accommodate those farmers, built a post office as well. With a close relative putting in the first general store. From there, the hamlet grew into a village, then to a town.

That is only one example. I can think of a few villages, that formed due to a church being build in an accessible/central area to service the faith of those living in the countryside around it. Over time more and more houses and people settled there, or created families that expanded the community.

When I make a village/town/city, I like to think about why those people are there. Trade route? Good farm land? Clean running water? Resources? Defensible location?

That helps me understand then the type of people who started the endeavor and what their likely motivations would be.

 

[Usus]

The village, where I grew up, has been there for 1000 years, growing and expanding, but it is actually older than that, as villages would actually move. From time to time the villagers would tear down buildings for materiales, abandon the site and move a few kilometers for fresh farming lands, and typically in a place out of sight from the coast to avoid raiders.

Other villages were founded, when a part of the population would leave their village to settle a new one. Often they would clear land (and thus a part of the village name includes a word refering to 'clearing' and they would at times take a name from one of the settlers, presumably whoever led the group to the new site).

In later periods some villages were founded by manor lords, when they wanted their indentured peasants to work on certain Lands.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I mean for every village it was once nothing, someone had to move in first and get the ball rolling. Who would that be?

A village could start at the site of a regular gathering. Like a market day, or a religious festival, or whatever. Or it might start at a site frequented at a certain time of year, for hunting or refuge from flooding or whatever seasonal exigencies might apply. Eventually, some folks start to stick around the area, maybe specializing in something relevant. They build a temple at the site of the religious festival. Or craftsmen start living at the site of the market day. The village grows up around those beginnings.

Villages also notoriously got founded at crossroads, or fords (how many ______fords are there?), or other places where people coming from or going to different more distant places would meet. It'd become a place /too/ meet. Then, maybe a waystation, inn, fort or the like might be built, and it's a place in it's own right. A village could grow up around it.

And, of course, a village could grow up around a natural resource, a river/lake/stream even spring or well, a mine, good farmland or hunting grounds - in a fantasy world, the spring could have healing properties, the resource could be rare/magical herbs, crystals, or something that could be gathered, or a place blessed by a deity or spirits or the presence of kindly fey or even a territorial 'monster' that doesn't care about the humanoid inhabitants but scares off other hungry/dangerous monsters.

 

[dragoner]

Here is an interesting blog post on world building that I found: A World Building Checklist | Articles | cru’s D&D Reading Room

 

[Umbran]

In the US, foundation of a village was often a group affair - Roanoke, Plymouth, and many other places were founded by someone getting a largish group of people together, and getting them all to move and set down in a new place.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Why would there be a village at that location? Most of the time, it is do to it being along a trading route but others it is because there is a natural resource in the area. I will use a few examples; Charleston SC is a deep water port that allow safe harbor but also entrance to the interior. Columbia SC was the point up river where granite could be mined and sent down river (later it was picked as capital), it was also where the river could no longer be traveled by barges, so good were sent to it and then shipped down to Charleston. Charlotte NC, first gold mine and rush in the U.S.

People just came as support to the industries as they started to grow.

 

[pogre]

One of the largest early towns in my state started near a source of salt. Later, coal was found and fueled industrial expansion.

 

[Salthorae]

Resources of some sort or a confluence of them dictate a town location for most small villages and towns.

Water and food accessibility.

Beyond that? Religious or political will drive people to locations.

Also depends on the structure of the larger society right? Is the area in a kingdom? Wild West where you could found a town willy nillly? An political structure?

Could form as a collection of families for protection or shared labor.