World Basics

The purpose of this page is to give us modern readers a few key points to understand just how different the world used to be. If you have engaged yourself in re-enactment or medieval studies, you can probably skip this page.

Daily Life

Food

Almost all food consumed is both local and seasonal in nature. Especially the basic foods of peasants and served in low-cost inns will be whatever is available in the area at this time of year. In summer and autumn, fresh vegetables are plentiful, while in winter, the selection of available food is much lower.

Livestock

Animals are all around, everywhere. Peasants often sleep in the same (the one) room with their livestock, chickens run around in the castle yard, dogs and cats roam the area. Not only is the scale of animal farming much smaller than today, living animals are also the cheapest and most convenient way of keeping their meat fresh. So armies on the march are be accompanied by herds of animals used for milk and slaughtered when meat is needed.

Nights

Nights can be really dark, depending on the cloud cover and moon phase.

Without electric or gas light, there is very little light outside during the nights, even within the cities. In a forest, when clouds cover the moon and the canopy blocks the starlight, it can be pitch black.

Within the houses, that means as soon as the sun sets, fires are lit. Commonly, wood fires. Fireplaces provide both light and warmth. Candles are too expensive to be just burning all the time, but are fairly common. They are somewhat affordable by the common folk at low quality, but the wealthy and nobility would use higher-quality candles. Oil lamps were also popular for those who could afford them. There are also many other variants, such as the rushlight or grease lamps.

Fire

Fire is a great killer. Both inside the house (cooking is often done over open fire) but also on the larger scale. Villages and towns can burn down from a single out-of-control fire, and often do. Not to mention that arson is a popular tool of war.

Outhouses

In most cases, outhouses actually are outside, away from the main house. That includes outhouses at inns. At the edge of villages or at a roadside inn in the middle of nowhere, people often go when the sun goes down, need or no need, and then try to avoid going to the outhouse in darkness.

Travel

In general, most people travel much less and shorter distances, due to the absence of cars or trains. Commoners, especially, often travel only within the general area of their birthplace and might take a trip to the nearest city once a year for important matters.

Those who do travel often travel most of the time. Mercenaries and merchants, sailors as well as craftsmen with rare skills, but also generals and high officials and even some kings and dukes spend most of their time in travel due to the sheer amount of time it takes. Many of these people do not even have a permanent residence.

Roads

Roads can be anything from trampled dirt (that turns to mud when it rains) to cobblestone. But even with a road, travel speeds would be around 20 km per day, 25 on a good road, as walking is the fastest long-distance travel speed available to most. Horses are good for short distances, but have less endurance than a human and can't keep up the speed for long. Over a whole day of travel, most people can actually walk faster than they could ride. Most carriages and waggons are without suspension and travel in them is far from comfortable.

Inns

Many wayside inns offer a limited selection of food and drinks, and in simpler establishments it is not uncommon that there is only one dish on the menu.

As far as sleeping opportunities are concerned, most inns offer the so-called common room, which is a shared sleeping room. It can be a room with bedrolls, but very often it is simply the bar room after closing time, where patrons can sleep on the benches, tables or floor for a few copper pieces.

Shared sleeping rooms are the most common accomodation in traveller inns. There will be a bedroll and a chest (that can be locked, for valuables) for each patron. Six, ten or twenty people sleep in such a room, often close to each other. In higher quality inns, the shared rooms will be smaller, down to four places, and bedrolls will be replaced with simple beds.

Drinks

Alcoholic drinks are omnipresent and ale is pretty much the go-to thing an inn serves. One main cause is that in many places it is not safe to drink the water, especially in cities. Sewers are unheard of in all but the most advanced locations, and sewage treatment is a concept nobody has ever thought about. Alcohol kills germs, however, making the drink safe to consume. Most of those alcoholic drinks are fairly light in alcohol. Anything above 10% would be considered a strong drink and only distilled spirits - all of which are considered hard liquours - go above 20%, though sometimes considerably. The exception are dwarven beers, which are at least 25% strong and many go above 40%. Not that precise measuring methods would exist, but that is strong.

Water

Water, in general, is valuable because people have to draw it up from a well or haul it from the nearby stream or river. When you've carried that bucket for a kilometre or two, you don't just throw it out. Most water is re-used or conserved. Baths would be shared among the peasant family with each member taking a turn, not because because liked to be dirty but because filling the bath was quite a bit of work (both carrying the water and heating it).

Many houses would collect rain water as a relatively easy means of getting some supply of water, but this would depend on the season and general location.

Communication

Most common people can't read or write, or have basic skills at best. Letters are common between nobles, but peasants communicate by speech and news and tales are brought to the villages and towns by bards in the form of songs. Many peasants have no idea what their king looks like, except for the descriptions of him in those songs. Bards are essentially the newspapers of the world, one reason why they can often hope for a free meal and a corner to sleep in at both inns and castles.

Economy

Taxes

Many parts of the world are as bureaucratic as the modern world, especially when it comes to taxes. There is a tax on everything, and tolls and fees on many more things.