Overview of Urban culture on Hârn

Compared to other regions on western Lythia, Hârn is not very urbanized. The proportion of Hârnians who dwell in towns varies by region, but nowhere exceeds 15 percent. Towns are, in fact, outside the mainstream of Hârnic culture and represent a somewhat alien sub-culture with its own values and societal patterns.

Unlike the countryside, towns are dominated by the activities of the powerful guilds and it is the activities of these guilds that justify a town's very existence. Towns are essentially defensible markets. The relationship between town and country is fairly clear. The countryside trades its surplus agricultural produce for the "civilized" artifacts of the city. The relationship is symbiotic; each has its own monopoly, but the countryside could exist without towns while the converse is untrue.

The term "city" is commonly applied to any walled town. Hârn has seven such settlements, which are shown below and described on the following pages.