Hey Jake, thanks for the feedback. Firstly, I think you're probably right about the flowers, I definitly didn't think too much about which ones I used at the time. I can try to see what flowers grow more locally and reduce the variety I've got atm!
Regarding cheese and cows: Originally I imagined the septons might graze livestock on the field of fire itself, but i think now that it's not such a good idea. While I *think* you only need a very few cows or goats to justify making cheese, I do agree that a whole building for it is probably overkill, perhaps just a small press outside the kitchen would suffice?
I am aware that the gradient is KL dun, and not at all in keeping with the surrounding area. I did this intentionally after Ric suggested that it could add a link to it's Targaryen construction in the early years of Aegons reign, when he was also building the Red Keep and KL. Personally, I've really grown to like this idea, and although it's some distance from KL, the Blackwater could provide a slightly less ardous means of transportation for stone. The expense and effort to transport the stone could also be considered a show of wealth/power by Aegon. However, I realise that these motivations aside, it's a clearly different palette to the rest of the region and could be out of keeping with the defined gradient areas, so I acknowledge that this needs to be discussed further. I didn't intend to use a stormlands palette anywhere, I was trying to do just the bottom layers of the KL dun gradient for smaller and/or messier walls, but I guess that it is made up exclusively of Stormlands bricks :/
The red clay bricks are only used in 3 medium-small buildings, and were intended to represent later additions to the septry. Both KL and Stoneysept - down and up-river of the FoF respectively - have clay digging/brick making facilities, so I assumed it reasonably likely that the blackwater around the FoF is also suitable for clay digging. There's no signs of it as I was imagining that brickworks would have been temporary and only in existance for the duration of construction. Perhaps some leftover remmants of clay pits along the river could help?
On to the real crux of the discussion, the size of the septry and the number of industries:
Overall, I do still stand by the size of the septry and the idea that westeros probably has a ton of septries, however I do understand your point about the surrounding villages perhaps making the area feel crowded. I don't think that's necessarily a terrible thing, as the area is where the Gold Road crosses the blackwater, making it an area of high throughfare and possibly trade? That said, you're right that there's a lot of other stuff around and the scale of the server makes everything much closer together than it should be. With that in mind, I could see dropping the parchment-making area as it's probably the most industrial part of the septry, removing the cheese-making building, and reducing the size of the meadery and possibly the wax working workshop and bakehouse. In fact, the candle-making could be done entirely outside if you think that would help reduce the impression of complexy/industry? I have also considered the possibility that the fishing weir could overlap with Cobb, being something that the villagers and septons could both use to catch fish. I don't know if that would help the industry overload by sharing it with the hamlet?
The more I think about it, the more I also think that the watermill probably isn't appropriate. Cash mentioned the possibility of adding some crop terraces to the northern slope of the hill a while back - which would have provided grain to mill - but if keeping things small is an issue, those fields are probably not an option, making Girdle the closet source of grain, and Gridle has a windmill already. AerioOndos also had a good idea, suggesting that the orchard and beehives could lie outside the septry walls, near the existing forest. It would require some shuffling around, and I don't think it's necessary, but it would reduce the footprint of the boundry wall.
Up to this point I've been talking about outbuildings and workshops. Regarding the septry proper, do you think that's too big or just the outbuildings? I admit, I'm still not convinced that the septry itself is too large, but you're right that the original brief called for small one :/
Finally, you're totally right that the septry was meant to be devoted to the warrior originally. I suggested to Cash that it be dedicated to the Father instead, for reasons detailed in my application. The statue is just my really bad first attempt at a father statue
Fixing it is on my todo list.
To be honest, I always just imagined a small field chapel, dedicated as a memorial to the battle. Something like the Hougoumont Chapel at Waterloo.
That's fair Dutch, I ran with the idea of an abbey or Septry, rather than a Shrine or Sept :/ I think I imagined the context as something much more similar to Battle Abbey than Hougoumont.
Anyway, thank you for the feedback, I've tried to address everything you brought up! I guess I'll try to hold off on too much further building until there's been some more discussion around this.
