Farming in Bretawald

Once a simple endeavour, a traditional role filled with little thought beyond ensuring a good harvest, the most prosperous farms employed magic to provide more favourable weather. That was before the Risen Dead. Now, farming is a dangerous profession, and being in such isolated communities puts one at risk of attacks by the risen dead at any point. Farmsteads are now built with sizable fortifications, warriors are as often in the employ of farms as are the field hands themselves, and few tenant farmers have less than 40 acres, as smaller farms rarely have the spare coin to pay for the protection needed.
Over the generations, the smallest farms merged, families joining to pool their resources and work together to survive this threat. Cities send regular, extensive patrols of mounted troops, sweeping through their outlying farmlands in search of threats, making farming near a town or city the safest. However, the diminished farmlands do make it much less productive.
Most farms have coalesced into a spoke and hub layout, with the fortified farm complex sitting at the centre of their field systems. Some larger farms have built minor fortifications out in rings in the further fields as a fallback location for farm hands and their field protectors.