These are noblemen's houses. This is where the richest of the rich live. They'll only live in your city if you meet their considerable demands. A nobleman is hungry for fish, bread, meat, and spices. He thirsts for cider, beer, and wine. He insists on wearing linen garments, leather jerkins, and fur coats. He's a voracious reader of books. He expects a nearby marketplace, church, and tavern. He even expects a debtor's prison, because he didn't get to be a noblemen by just giving his money away.

But the advantage of a nobleman's house -- and this is going to seem counter-intuitive -- is that more people can live there. 40 people can live in a nobleman's house, as opposed to 25 in a patrician's house, 15 in a citizen's house, and 8 in a peasant's house. This means there are far more people paying taxes out of a neighborhood or noblemen. City block for city block, this is as lucrative as it gets. And with enough nobles, your city can build the grandest of monuments in Dawn of Discovery, the Imperial Cathedral.

One of the disappointing things about Dawn of Discovery is that these noblemen don't care one whit about aesthetics. You can put them next to pig sties, peasant huts, and alms houses swarming with beggars. They don't care. Geography is a strange non-issue in this game. Furthermore, there are plenty of aesthetic upgrades available, but they seem to have no effect as anything other than money sinks. In many city builders, the demands of the higher classes include beautification such as landscaping, sculptures, and decorative roads and squares. Not so in Dawn of Discovery, which offers you a bunch of stuff that seems to do absolutely nothing.

But the game is still plenty lovely even if you don't spend a nickel on beautification. Check out the larger version of the noblemen's neighborhood by clicking the picture below.