Neighboorhood

A neighborhood in this essence is a collection of houses from my previous post. There is often a common theme that binds the place together.

One theme is wealth, it may be poverty (nobodies ever done that before), it may be nobility, it may be somewhere in between. Average wealth definitely sets an expectation for an area. You wouldn't expect to find a beggar covered in rags digging through the dumpster behind the Ferrari dealer on Main St., but you would expect it behind the Joe Shmoe's Diner on 27th St. In any case it's important to have some form of consistency for all the buildings of an area. 

Just as "houses" are not limited to residential one family dwellings, neighborhoods are not limited to a collection of such dwellings.

Many stories take place on a large school campus. Mrs Johnson's math class (the one with the digits of pi covering the walls), Coach Bigg's gym (and the ever present basket-ball hoops), the lunchroom (the noxious odor of the Three Meat Special is a smell you can feel).

The Tonaki an office building. The CEO's office is spacious with imposing furniture, and a picture of his family weighs down his paperwork. The IT dept. is an afterthought in the basement, cables and computer parts litter the tiny work area, and the constant hum of the servers is maddening.

Waterwood Village is a small riverside town with not much more than a lumber-mill, inn and some trades to support the mill (woodcutters and blacksmiths and such). The squat housing seems limited to arms reach in height except for the inn. The Red Rooster Inn was reconstructed from the tavern that preceded, as housing travelers became more lucrative.

All these areas are representative of what i would call a "neighborhood".