A Place to Live - Homes, Bunks & Rent¶

"A man's address tells you a great deal about him before he opens his mouth. Cordwainer Street is not Canopy Square; Hearthstone Gallery is not the rough end of the Slag Market. The house says the rest."

Every NPC in Ghelmyon has a home - and where they live says as much about them as their occupation. The world stratifies by wealth and standing: from the patrician villas off the market squares down through burgher townhouses, commoner row-houses, and labourer lodgings to the warren warrens and rough boarding that the desperate call home. Walk into the right neighbourhood and you are walking through a ledger of the city's social order.

The six tiers of housing¶

Ghelmyon runs a hybrid model: the wealthier the household, the more private it is; the poorer, the more people share walls and floors.

Tier	What it looks like	Who lives here
Patrician	Villa or grand house, entrance hall, study, dining room, private bedroom - a copper tub in the bathing room	Merchant lords, guild masters, senior clergy
Burgher	Solid townhouse, kitchen, sitting room, private bedroom, small study	Prosperous traders, skilled guild members, senior officials
Commoner	Modest row-house, kitchen, sitting room, shared bedroom	Craftspeople, working innkeepers, veteran guards
Labourer	Single rented room above a shop or off a shared corridor	Apprentices, dockworkers, day-labourers
Pauper	One cramped room - kitchen, parlour and bedroom at once	Beggars' alley regulars, those recently fallen on hard times
Destitute	A bedroll in a corner, an archway, the hospice floor	The truly impoverished - a signal, not a home

The tier an NPC occupies isn't a fixed stamp - it reflects their wealth and standing in the world. Prosperity can shift it upward; debt or disgrace can shift it down.

The residential districts¶

Each city grew its housing organically. The districts have character:

Ghelmyon - Cordwainer Street (off the dockside quarter). Eight dwellings spanning the range from craftspeople's townhouses to a modest boarding house at the lane's foot. The cobblers and saddlers you'd expect; also a few guild members who couldn't afford the market quarter's rents.

Thornwood - Hollowbough Walk (off Canopy Square). Eight burrow-style dwellings tucked under the old root-canopy. The wealthier burghers keep fuller homes with carved-wood interiors; labourers at the lane's end share a single-room warren.

Greenweald - Brambledown Row (off the Village Green). Eight burrow-dwellings, the deepest and most cosy in the region. The village's well-to-do keep great-burrows with real hearths; the poorer residents rent a room in the Brambledown Warren.

Millhaven - Wharfside Row (off the harbour front). Eight dwellings, fishing-town flavour. The smell of brine never quite leaves the walls; the better ones have decent kitchens and a spare room for a lodger.

Darkhollow - Hearthstone Gallery (near the Slag Market). Eight dwellings in the mine-town tradition: low ceilings, stone walls, a solid stove as the heart of each home. The grander ones have a proper study; the smaller share a communal kitchen.

What you'll find inside¶

Each dwelling is a real, explorable location - not a door that reads "Private" and goes nowhere. The interior areas are described: examine kitchen, look at bed, examine study. What's in each home scales with its tier:

A patrician home has an entrance hall, dining room, study, and a bathing room with a copper tub.
A burgher home has a kitchen, sitting room, study, and a private bedroom.
A commoner home has a kitchen, sitting room, and bedroom.
A labourer's room has a shared kitchen down the passage and room enough for one cot.
A pauper's room is all of the above at once - cramped but theirs.

The bed - the one piece every tier has in some form, from feather bed to straw pallet to bedroll - is the anchor. Sleep there and the night is yours.

Inns: the short-stay option¶

If you need a bed tonight and you're not renting a room long-term, every town has an inn with bunk rooms. The quality varies:

Common room bunks - free or very cheap, rough, no privacy. First come, first served.
Private rooms - available at most inns for a nightly fee. Your pack stays where you left it.

rest at an inn bed heals fatigue; sleep runs time to dawn and fully restores HP for you and your followers. The innkeeper can tell you what's available.

Tips¶

Knock before entering. Most residential doors are unlocked during the day - the occupant may be home. Walking in uninvited changes how they react.
The district reflects the occupant. An NPC who lives in a patrician villa has wealth and connections to match. One sleeping in a pauper boarding house is short on both - and may be more desperate than their public face suggests.
/track <npc> shows an NPC's daily schedule, including where they sleep at night. Useful if you want to catch someone at home.