The premise of my novel is dragons that live in medieval urban cities. Geographically, my country is forested with large, sometimes hilly areas of green fields. Cities are usually built near forests (not in them, that would scare away game and then they'd have no food.) There are houses (that's what I'm having trouble with) and markets and police stations and fire stations (because it's a city full of dragons, accidents happen, and they haven't discovered electricity yet, much less invented fire extinguishers. They always make sure to build close to bodies of water.) There are also paved roads, not for walking, but for pushing/pulling handcarts. (You can't exactly fly with twenty-five freshly-caught bucks in your talons, can you?) Cities are of various sizes and usually half a day's flight apart from each other. So, what kind of domiciles would dragons in that setup live in? I want something unique, but visible from the air. No magic involved, including floating islands (cool as that would be.) My dragons don't believe in magic, it's a major plot point because the villain is secretly a wizard. By the way, my dragons are twice the size of humans and look like my avatar.
Caves. They started out in natural caves, but as their populations grew, they had to start hiring non-dragons to build their cities for them. Their buildings are generally pretty large, most often with curved roofs. Multi-floor buildings are often dotted with outside entrances for every apartment, because if you can fly why would you go inside and use a stair-like things just to get to your private home or office? Inside, multi-floor buildings almost always have a very large center atrium with open walkway/balconies above--again, why stairs? Stairs are for un-winged employees. Or if there are no sentient non-dragons, there's really not much reason to ever invent stairs at all.
Buildings without walls? Like the shells of skyscrapers before they finish constructing it. Now that is giving me memories of Saturday's Tower in Superior Saturday, by Garth Nix. Dragons could fly in and out of at every single level, and the higher the level, the "higher up" in society they were, with greater demand for the highest levels. And all the detritus and... ahem... dragon waste, let's say, is shovelled from the top, and down to the lower levels without a care in the world, and this is where the dregs of society live. So social strata literally on different levels, as it were.
Stairs would be for a) cramped spaces where you can't fly (like tunnels) or b) where walking seems more respectful/dignified, like how we see walking as more reverent than running. Like in the emperor's throne room, there's a set of stairs where petitioners walk down to the base of the throne. It's not crucial, I could remove the stairs.
Any reason you do not have them build cities on mountains instead of hills? Considering your dragons can fly, it is kind of a strategic failure to not build cities around harder to reach places to take full advantage of their flight capabilities, especially since they seem to still be relatively primitive. 1. It provides significant terrain advantages, including defense against enemies--especially ones that cannot fly. 2. It will be close to forests without being in the forest 3. Different elevations can be used to show social class (if any) or other forms of hierarchy. 4. Buildings can be carved out of the mountain, so there would be less concern of things burning down. 5. You can still have paved roads, and use pulley systems to raise things up. 6. Rivers often start in mountains, so you can still be near water and/or lakes. What I want to know is the logic behind creating a dragon city on hilly pastures. That would really help. Cities are generally built at specific locations for specific reasons. Hobbiton is on hilly pastures because the Hobbits live underground, farm, and fish. The hills make it easier to dig out a hole for their homes. The pastures allows them to farm, and the water lets them fish. Unless your dragons that live on pastures are strictly land dwelling dragons with little to no flight, I find it hard to understand why they would choose an open pasture that mitigates their flight advantages and makes them vulnerable. So... how about more background information?
The reason they live in pastures and grasslands is because there aren't any mountains nearby. They can't just move, either, because the other mountains are spoken for by other dragon species and there's not enough room. So they make due with their circumstances. Plus, their green color camouflages better in a grassy environment. But someone suggested something like their cities essentially being artificial mountains, and that makes a lot of sense.
I doubt their color would provide any camouflage on pastures. The grass on such fields are usually very low. That is not to mention since your dragons can fly, there would be no cover what-so-ever from above. To make use of such coloring for camouflage, they would realistically need to live in the forest, and that is what I would actually recommend based on the information so far. It is possible to live in the forest without worrying about not finding game unless your forest is tiny, and there is no room for more than one dominant species. That would also let them take advantage of the canopy to hide from rivals, and make use of their camouflage for ambushes. Of course if you still cannot do that for some reason, I think it comes down to the political state of the region. It sounds like the city in question is made up of somewhat outcasts that are not strong enough to claim their own mountain or be integrated in with other tribes. If this is a peaceful world where they do not have to worry about being attacked by anyone, then they can probably just build single-story buildings for everything. Make the buildings larger to accommodate for their larger silhouettes. Living on open fields give them access to a lot of horizontal space to expand, so there is no need to build multi-story buildings. Given your world's level of technology, you would probably only have a few two story buildings at best, not including utility structures like mills and whatnot. This is especially true since it is not like there are any advantages to flying besides ease of travel, but also because of this, keeping things low will keep obstacles out of your flight paths. If your world is in a warring state or where territorial conflict is common, then your city sitting in such a vulnerable open field is going to need tons and tons of fortifications. It is probably also going to be made of mainly wood since your primary building resource is the nearby forest. Unfortunately, that means one aerial strike is going to easily level your city since there is no cover what-so-ever. Considering all of this, it is probably best if you went underground. It is not about ripping off Hobbiton, but it is simply the smart thing to do given your environment. Digging homes out of the hills will require less material than building up from the ground, and the hills will provide natural cover from aerial raids. Naturally, you will have a combination of above and below ground facilities. The ones that can afford to live in the hills will do so, and the ones that cannot due to lack of space will be forced to live above ground. All of your important facilities like food storage will also be underground. If none of this makes sense to you, though, how about just a little more background information, like political state, strength and endurance of the dragons, their daily habits, and such?
Right. Information. Political state: Khriza considers itself an empire, but it's not a multi-national empire. (Think Japan.) They changed dynasties a few millennia ago when a weak emperor basically sold them into slavery. There was a revolution and the deposed emperor spitefully thrust the throne upon the ringleader. The new emperor defeated their oppressors and made peace with them. His son Khriza (for whom the land was eventually named) was considered the greatest emperor. He fought in a war started by his brother Fiandarsh, who secretly pushed their neighbor to the southwest to attack them. He found out his brother had betrayed him shortly before winning the war and achieving peace. Fiandarsh had amassed a great army of dark wizards and there was a tremendous battle between the light and dark magical factions, which Khriza won. Then the Rishnaran removed magic from historical memory. There has been peace ever since, except when Khriza stuck its snout into a foreign revolution that ended up getting botched horribly. There hasn't been a war in Khrizan skies or on Khrizan soil since the forgotten war. Strength wise, they have a strong military as well as many allies. They're the second largest dragons, tying with an arctic species up north. Daily habits depend very much on the individual. My protagonists hunt every day and give most of their kills to the protagonist's mother who runs a butcher shop. They also deliver to clients by cart. On their days off they usually fly around the city and pick somewhere to eat and talk. Innkeepers usually work fulltime, keeping order, renting out rooms and bartending. Police are on patrol when they aren't at the station or on leave. Blacksmiths travel to buy metal and forge different items like meat preparing tools (teeth and claws are great but not too precise) armor (for police and military) and nails. My protagonist's father was a blacksmith. Also, my dragons travel regularly, if not frequently (it varies greatly; I have quite a few characters who are simply addicted to traveling, flying from city to city.) Anything I'm forgetting? That didn't feel comprehensive.
Sounds like a peaceful city protected by a powerful nation. You will probably not need to consider defensive structures so much. Sounds like you have a peaceful city in the middle of a powerful nation. They will probably not have to worry so much about military defenses then. I would say go for an urban city with a combination of above ground buildings and caves dug out of the hills. Your city above ground would be primarily single story buildings spread out over the large open land available to you, scaled to the size of your dragons, of course. These will be mainly made of wood or wattle and daub, given the location of your city and the medieval setting. The richest of your city can probably have stone houses, depending on availability of resources and the average wealth level of your city. Considering they have materials to pave roads, though, I can see all of your buildings being made of stone--it would be fire resistant at least--, and the richest possibly even having marble and granite. At the very lease, all your buildings should probably be able to accommodate entering and leaving via flight, but they should not be too tall as to get in the way of navigating inside the city..., unless you like having tall buildings for some reason. The actual building design and decoration nuances will be based on the cultures you have established. These are the things you want to consider to make your city more "unique." Subterranean buildings can be supported by stone or wood frames, and maybe some of them can even be interconnected. Perhaps you should make it so that all homes have a basement under the hill used as the primary residence, and an above ground construction for things like guests and work. If you do not want them to live below ground, though, maybe you can still use them for storage and workshops. Maybe you can even have a hole above so they can fly straight out in an emergency, especially since your dragons like to fly.
