Who owns the buildings in Sartar?

[Brootse]

My guess is that the buildings in the countryside are built communally and owned by the clans, but who owns and builds the buildings in cities and towns?

[Joerg]

In the rural clans, I think that buildings are owned by a free household in the sense that they are allotted to the holders of the plot of land. Yes, there will be many hands involved in raising a house - but think of it as something like barn-raising, an activity hosted by the future inhabitants, "feasting" the helpers who pay forward to when they need everybody's help in raising or re-building their own house. The rural US has (or used to have) the tradition of a barn raising, the spirit of which may have been sacrificed to neo-liberalism in urban communities.

A tenant household may not own the building, and the obligation to keep it intact may be part of the rent activity to deliver, and in a big part to the rent-giver to organize. (That is feasting the helpers, providing the building material, ... or deducting that from the rent owed).

In the confederation cities, the city plots are owned by the tribes, the major temples, or by the guilds.

If you are a master of a guild, you are "an owner" of the guild with dominion over the guild plot your work shop is occupying. Without someone ranked as a master of that guild, your family will only be a tenant of that house.

If you are a tribal citizen of the city, some of the rules may be similar to those of guilds, some may be closer to rural. Many a craftsperson will be a tribal citizen inhabiting a tribal house, expected to give rent for the use of that plot. Upkeep of the building or replacing a decrepit building with a new one serving the purpose of the occupant is where things get murky and interesting. Who provides the building material and feeds and pays the work force? Occupying that plot will be worth a rent to the tribe, but your presence and office may in return create an obligation of the tribe to your household, and cancel out that rent, or even over-compensate for it.

Temples are similar to tribes and guilds in their role as land owners.

I see urban plots with houses as something like a leasehold to the tribe or guild if you are a full (ranking) member of said group. If you aren't, then you are a tenant inhabiting tribal or guild property.

Land ownership comes with duties - like upkeep and at times extension of the city walls, roads, water works, sewers (if present), upkeep of the constabulary and guards, the city officials (at least the portion that is not provided by the confederated tribes), etc., and in the end the tenants are going to be the ones who provide that.

Rural towns (including almost urban ones like Clearwine and Runegate) are somewhere in between. The main stead buildings may be inside a town (or even city) confines, and so will be some paddocks and garden plots. There are towns with generous open space inside the confines, and there are towns as densely built up as Nochet.

If we go with square(ish) enclosed areas as the standard plot in Heortling cities, these enclosures may see some fowl, possibly stables, possibly gardens or potted plants or fruit trees or vines on the walls and overhead, possibly in a verdant abundance. And quite likely on the outer walls facing the roads as well. A stroll through the alleys of Clearwine may almost feel like walking through a vineyard, and I suppose that the local cuisine will make extensive use of wine leaves. You will recognize newly erected buildings by the absence of vines on the walls.

This greenery in town may play a certain role in the income of the inhabitants as food, or food supplement. Or as fodder. Pigs and chicken will feed on the discards from beets, plant stems, etc. before the rest will become compost, alongside with the dung and nightsoil produced by the inhabitants. That may see management, too, possibly by tenants of the earth temple(s).

Ownership over the building/plot may decide over who has (or is paying for) such duties. (Not that different from funding public schools from property taxes.)

Ownership always comes with obligations. So does tenancy. Even squatters will be faced with some of that.

[soltakss]

I have a vague recollection that Citizenship of Pavis is only available to those who own property, but would have to look it up to be sure.

Joerg has got it right, I think.

In rural or traditional areas, all the land is owned by the Clan or the Temple and is allocated out on the basis of need and reward. Those favoured by the clan will get the best land, those out of favour will get the marginal land. Sometimes, the land is owned by bloodlines rather than clans, but the principles are the same, the different families in the bloodline are allocated sections of land.

In Clan-based towns and cities, it will be similar, with most of the land held by organisations and allocated out. So, a building might be owned by one clan and apartments allocated to families from that clan, or a Guild might own a building and allocate rooms to craftsfolk to use. In cities, instead of bloodlines, families might own land, but they are effectively the same anyway.

Private ownership of land can be tricky.Are you given usage of the land until you die? Does this carry down to your descendants? What is the difference between permanently having usage of the land or owning it? Can such title be transferred to someone else? I think that is the difference between being permanently allocated land and owning it, you can transfer the title to someone else if you own it.

Although Glorantha has a tithe for every cultist, it does not seem to have much in the way of taxation. nowadays, we assume that tax is an individual burden, with each person paying their own tax, but historically that wasn't always the case. Landowners would be taxed and they would then raise their own levy on their tenants, to pay the overall tax. So, Tax Collectors would come to a clan and demand 10% of the Clan yield and the Clan would ask its members to pay something towards that. Owners of land would be thus liable for taxation.