The ten kinds of ground a fen is made of, as the in-game Codex's Fen page lists them: whether you can walk it, build on it, and who works it. Pictures are the game's own node pictures and ground textures.
Dry landGround the water has left. Walk it, build on it, and it holds nothing worth gathering.
Bare ground between the grass, with the odd stump, boulder or scrub bush standing on it — and nothing on it worth a crew.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Walkable
- Building
- Can be built on
Open waterOpen bog water. Nothing crosses it and nothing stands in it, but a building on the shore can fish it.
Open, still and near-black, with lily pads drifting on it.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Nothing crosses it
- Building
- Cannot be built on
- Worked by
- Holdfast, Fishing Hut, Great Hall, Net Shed, Boathouse, Emberhall
Open water never runs dry.
DeadfallDrowned trees and fallen timber. It blocks a path and it yields wood to whoever clears it.
Fallen timber, close-packed and leaning every way. It looks like woodland that has come down, because it is.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Nothing crosses it
- Building
- Cannot be built on
WoodlandStanding wood — the copses that survived the drowning. The first thing a new holding eats through.
Standing trees in clumps, with old stumps among them where the water took one.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Walkable
- Building
- Cannot be built on
- Worked by
- Holdfast, Lumber Camp, Lumbermill, Great Hall, Timber Yard, Emberhall
- A fresh tile holds
- 450 units; it becomes dry land when worked out and nothing regrows
Rock outcropAn outcrop or a gravel ridge. Quarry it, and when it is gone it is ground like any other.
Grey boulders and gravel breaking the ground — the only cool colour on land.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Walkable
- Building
- Cannot be built on
- Worked by
- Holdfast, Quarry, Fen Mine, Deep Quarry, Great Hall, Stoneworks, Deep Delve, Emberhall
- A fresh tile holds
- 160 units; it becomes dry land when worked out and nothing regrows
Game coverReed beds and scrub thick enough to hunt. Where a Forager's Hut earns its place.
Low bushes in patches, thick enough that something is living in them.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Walkable
- Building
- Cannot be built on
- Worked by
- Holdfast, Forager's Hut, Great Hall, Hunter's Lodge, Emberhall
- A fresh tile holds
- 120 units; it becomes dry land when worked out and nothing regrows
Built groundSomething of yours, standing. Impassable — which is why a placement that would seal the settlement in is refused.
Trodden pale ground with something of yours standing on it.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Nothing crosses it
- Building
- Cannot be built on
RuinsAn abandoned hold, half swallowed. Excavating one takes a crew and time and leaves them exposed, and it is the only way some doors ever open.
Cut stone half swallowed by the peat, with a violet cast to the ground around it.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Walkable
- Building
- Cannot be built on
Five ruin-caches lie on each fen, at least 20 tiles from the Holdfast. Idle villagers dig them one after another, in an order you cannot choose; each opens after 900 work and gives 8 tools and 40 coin, and the tile becomes dry land.
Reed marshWaterlogged sedge over dark peat. Crossable at half speed, cuttable for reed, and it cannot be built on.
Pale reed standing thick and close, over peat dark enough to read as shadow.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Walkable at half speed
- Building
- Cannot be built on
- Worked by
- Holdfast, Reed Cutter's Stand, Great Hall, Thatcher's Yard, Emberhall
Reed marsh never runs dry, and raiders cross it at half speed too.
Sown fieldGround a farm has sown. It is harvested like any other node and it runs out like one.
Rows of crop on worked ground: the only straight lines the fen has.
In the game's Codex
- Walking
- Walkable
- Building
- Cannot be built on
- Worked by
- Fen Farm, Dyke Farm
- A fresh tile holds
- 300 units; it becomes dry land when worked out and nothing regrows
A Fen Farm sows its own fields on dry land around it.
