A lot of communities are varying degrees of nomadic in the realm of the Quiet Age, dare I say at least half are either highly mobile nomads or seminomadic folks

And this ramble is focusing more on the extremes of highly mobile nomadic peoples.

This sort of "high nomad" lifestyle tends to involve a very rapid pace to live in which folks are constantly traveling around, usually only sticking around in any given place for a couple days to a couple of weeks at most. Nomadic folk on this extreme end of nomadic life trend towards being purely hunter gatherers.

As while there are nomadic pastoralists, usually they tend to stick around in various locations for somewhat longer periods of time, leaning towards being semi nomadic. So for a lot of these folks, they live light, travel place to place to hunt, fish, forage, gather, etc. and the sorts of buildings they live in tend to reflect that very light lifestyle! for the purposes of organizing this ramble I am going to stick it into 4 categories, those being Minimal shelter, Simple shelters, Natural shelters, and Portable Shelters

So first lets start with Minimal shelter

There are a lot of modern nomadic, hunter gatherer groups whom simply don't build shelters if they can get away with it. The Hadza being a great example. Simply said if the weather is nice, sometimes all you need is a comfortable place to lay down and a nice open fire! I would argue this is pretty universal amongst nomadic groups, maybe not as a complex cultural tradition but just as the opportunism of relaxing on an open clearing, or under some nice trees

As frankly after a day of walking around, if a den, or a handful of drekir in a camp choosing to sleep under the stars instead of in a hut or shelter

In fact I think in a lot of nomadic camps of hunter gatherers, pastoralists, or even around hangout spots for more sedentary folk it shouldn't be a surprise to see small little drapes of hide over rock shelters, small piles of bedding under trees, or small remains of campfires where drekir passed the night lounging about

Sometimes the best home is the one with a view of the Raddir up high after all

Next up are Simple shelters

Which are by far going to be the go to for the majority of nomadic hunter gatherers. Whether they're holding off cold, rain, sand or wind, you don't need that much to live ok provided that you know how to build a hut, and thats been true of the majority of human history, Dome huts appear all over the world, from Wigwams to goat hide dome huts to mammoth bone huts.

Wickiups, small stick and rubbish huts, small huts covered in woven mats.

So in the Quiet Age, finding simple huts built of woven branches, piles of leaves, hides, bark, grass and other materials in rudimentary dome shapes, a frame shapes, or small dugout shelters are common

Really common, and immensely varied

so Above there are two examples Uãkoí drekir in southeastern Logáu making dome huts made by bending and fixing giant ferns together, which are then adorned with the hides of various animals such as the giant kiwi Boémar and other large wyrms. Below is a Meché A frame communal hut. They are reasonably quick to build from local resources and don't require the highly moble foragers to carry many specific building materials.

such that a den of 20 drekir or so, a small den, could easily build a camp for everyone with a few hours, some axes, knives, and maybe some adzes. If you look through The Long Hike and its other stories, you will find tons of examples.

The tents from the Scorchers in chapter 2, the wickiups amongst the dragons've paradise and the perrineans. The tents of the Dakoner and Yakotes, the wigwams amongst the Winnebagons. Also in the side stories you will see good examples amongst the Meché in audited, and the simple shelters of the dorer in under the logáu noon

So lets move onto natural shelters

Which is somewhat an extension of minimal shelters as of course this can often mix with that. Humanity and of course the Éldimor in equal measure are keen to utilize natural features when it comes to protecting themselves from the weather around them. Caves may be used as housing for whole dens, large leaning stones may become small shelters for a handful of drekir. Natural ditches may have roofs erected ontop of them to protect from arid winds and small shelters may get built onto fallen trees to keep the rain away

Above we see a den of Alpine drekir in the Logáun Spine sheltering in a Cave at some point in the Quiet Age.

It may not be fancy architecture, but caves and other similar natural formations are fantastic shelters! Shouldn't be a surprise to see drekir sometimes get their cavedrek on

And lastly, Mobile Shelters!


Or shelters that you can pick up and carry with you! These aren't the most common but they aren't nonexistant either. Though usually they're associated more with seminomadic peoples. As if you're moving every few days, lugging the poles and cloth for a tipi or yurt is... a pain. Buildings like tipis and yurts are usually a lot more associated with seminomadic groups who may be highly mobile at times, though may settle down for months in one location. So for mobile hunter gatherers who usually don't have domesticated animals that can lug these things around, its usually the case that they dont always have these

but some do! The Dakoner and Yakotes being examples of pretty nomadic folks who do go through the trouble of carrying their buildings with them

There are a lot of forms we see with this sort of thing. Tents made of hide, felt, blankets, woven mats, or other sorts of things in which can be quickly set up into shelters and put away. Wooden frames, either made at the camp or brought with the travelers that can be quickly set up, with various sorts of prepared cloth or mats set up against these frames

There are loads of fine examples from East Africa, North America, Central Asia etc. that are usually not the sort of thing people build when they're moving around week to week, But are the sort of thing people build when they're setting up in a place for more than a couple of weeks

So yeah!

Highly nomadic folk tend to not build the craziest things, but shelter need not be crazy as home is where your den is, not what your den is in!