The Castle.

The castle conjures images of knights wearing prized armor, maidens giving their favors to these knights, powerful lords who maintain  these great houses. Even images of dark ruins where ancient evils hold sway, or mysterious wizards working in the highest towers on arcane matters too other worldly for mere mortals.

Castles.

Of all the symbols of a medi-evil world this is the most prominent. For game masters who have difficulty with the creation of their world this page will help. For those who are comfortable with their world creation, this page may offer some new insights into the castle, and its employment in the world as a whole.

For the sake of example, we'll discard the mighty concentric castle for an easier to grasp concept like the mott and bailey system.

Let's place our castle outside the town of Uthren, the local lord is a knight of the realm who recently gained charter from his king to set up his castle here, and oversee the town and surrounding environs. He chooses, for economic reasons, the mott and bailey style. Just outside the town is low hill, lying along side the only road in or out of Uthren. Since Uthren is an outpost port of the kingdom the knights services are needed here to maintain the kings law, as well as repelling any outside invaders.

At the site the knight finds his castle would give a broad view of the terrain and good command of the roadway. Pleased with this he begins by constructing the outer bailey wall near the base of the hill. He uses stone garnered from a nearby quarry. His architect, his adventuring companion, Miles the Mage, and his Cleric friend set about gathering the labor force necessary to build the wall. He places 6 towers along the walls length, evenly distanced, and a gate tower at the side facing the road.

At the top of the hill he places another wall for defense of the stronghold. This wall is shorter in height than the outer bailey wall and also has 4 towers at each corner (this wall is square), again at the side facing the road is a gate tower. The strong hold itself is a simple affair.

It is 50 ft. to a side (square) and 70 ft tall. Each corner is buttressed by a tower like structure, the entrance is through a portcullis with appropriate defenses built in. Past the entrance is a small court yard open to the sky above. Here on the left  the lord and his chief officers stable their mounts. On the right side of the court is where the lord keeps his weaponsmith.

Inside the stronghold, immediately upon entry, is the lords hall. More on this later.

Inside the inner bailey is where the knight stables his cavalry, both horse and rider find housing here. Inside the outer bailey is where the knight will house his foot soldiers and their families, if any. It is in the outer bailey that the knight will also keep his livestock. The knight will use the land immediately around the outer wall for his own crops. What he doesn't have or can't keep on hand he will get from Uthren. This is a basic setup, for complete details on this castle click here.