Castles are fortified dwellings found in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.
Structures
[edit]Castles are more formidable than smaller fortifications like towerhouses, holdfasts, and manses. Castles are built by masons, carvers, and other craftsmen.[1] They vary in size and shape, including the modest Darry,[2] the beautiful Highgarden,[3], and the enormous Harrenhal.[4] Deepwood is an example of a motte-and-bailey castle,[5] Castles in the rainwood appear to have grown from the earth,[6] and some castles in Dorne are made of mud.[7]
Castles can defend strategic positions, such as Moat Cailin in the Neck,[8] Skyreach along the Wide Way,[9] and Riverrun at the junction of the Tumblestone and the Red Fork.[10] Casterly Rock and Castamere were built around mines, so most of their structures are below ground.[11][12]
A lord and his family usually reside in a castle's keep,[13] such as the Great Keep at Winterfell or Maegor's Holdfast in the Red Keep. The lord can hold court and feast their followers in great halls.[13][14]
Castle complexes often have barracks, kitchens, smithys, stables, and kennels. Maesters tend to ravens in a castle's rookery.[15] Cellar vaults can be used for storage.[16] Prisoners can be kept in dungeons.[17]
Septs are often in southron castles, and godswoods can be found in castles throughout the realm.[18] Southron godswoods are often used for contemplation instead of for worship of the old gods, however.[19]
Entrance to a castle is through its gatehouse. Some castles have moats and drawbridges for greater protection.[20][21] Baileys or wards are yards protected by a castle's curtain walls.[22] Siege equipment like catapults can be used by both attackers[23] and defenders.[24] Soldiers from within a castle can lead sorties against foes without.[24]
Castles are expensive to maintain.[25][26] A steward is responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the castle and acting on the lord's behalf.[27] He or a castellan may be entrusted with the castle in the lord's absence.[8][28]
Culture
[edit]The castles of the Night's Watch along the Wall lack curtain walls or other defensive fortifications,[29] as the mission of the Watch is to defend against foes beyond the Wall instead of from the Seven Kingdoms to their south.[30]
Castle-forged armament of steel is considered high quality.[31]
Maesters of the Citadel normally serve only at castles.[32][33] They can teach their students how to build castles.[21] Some ravens can be taught to fly between castles.[34]
Come-into-my-castle is a children's game.[35]
While most castles are found in Westeros, the Port of Ibben contains the ruined castle of the God-King of Ib.[36]
History
[edit]The First Men often built wooden motte-and-bailey castles.[9] Stronger stone castles came later.[37]
The First Men and the early Andals built square towers and keeps, with round towers coming later in history.[38]
Ironborn control over the Sunset Sea declined as Andals built walled towns and stout stone-and-timber castles to defend the coasts of the Reach, the riverlands, and the westerlands.[39]
House Targaryen use their three dragons, Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, to overcome Westerosi castles during the Conquest.[40][41] The Targaryens also unleashed dragonflame against Dornish castles during the First Dornish War.[42]
King Maegor I Targaryen used Balerion's flames against castles of the rivermen and the westermen during the Faith Militant uprising.[43] Dragons were also used against castles during the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons.[44]
Quotes
[edit]One day I mean to live in a castle. I hope to win a place above the salt before I'm done.[45]
If truth be told, I prefer a good inn. Castles cost too much to maintain.[25]
Arya: I wish you were coming with us.
Jon: Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.[46]—Arya Stark and Jon Snow
The riders have no taste for siegecraft. I doubt they could take even the weakest castle in the Seven Kingdoms, but if Robert Baratheon were fool enough to give them battle ...[47]
The royal apartments were in Maegor's Holdfast, a massive square fortress that nestled in the heart of the Red Keep behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes, a castle-within-a-castle.[48]
—thoughts of Eddard Stark
A castle must have towers wherever two walls meet at an angle, for defense.[49]
Harrenhal was deceptive from afar, because it was so huge. Its colossal curtain walls rose beside the lake, sheer and sudden as mountain cliffs, while atop their battlements the rows of wood-and-iron scorpions looked as small as the bugs for which they were named.[4]
—thoughts of Arya Stark
Brienne: Your door is very pretty. What castle is that meant to be?
Captain's sister: All castles. The only one I know is the Dun Fort by the harbor. I made t'other in my head, what a castle ought to look like.[50]—Brienne Tarth and the captain's sister
The castle was built of old, unmortared stones, no two the same. Moss grew thick in clefts between the rocks, and trees were growing up from the foundations. Most old castles had a godswood. By the look of it, the Whispers had little else.[51]
—thoughts of Brienne Tarth
Stannis: A strong castle weakly held is weak.
Jon: Fifty men inside a castle are worth five hundred outside.[52]
References
[edit]- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Maegor I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 16, Eddard III.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Reach: Highgarden.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 26, Arya VI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 26, The Wayward Bride.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: Men of the Stormlands.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Dorne.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 55, Catelyn VIII.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Dorne: Kingdoms of the First Men.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands: Riverrun.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands: House Lannister Under the Dragons.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands: Casterly Rock.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 71, Catelyn XI.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 45, Catelyn VI.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 28, Bran IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 41, The Turncloak.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 39, Catelyn V.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Arrival of the Andals.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 2, Catelyn I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 34, Catelyn VI.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 53, Bran VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 74, Arya XIII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 11, Theon I.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 69, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 The Mystery Knight.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 14, Catelyn III.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 16, Bran II.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Wall and Beyond: The Night's Watch.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 55, Jon VII.
- ↑ The Hedge Knight.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 19, Arya V.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Prologue.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Theon I
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Free Cities: Ib.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Wsterlands.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The North: Winterfell.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Iron Islands: The Iron Kings.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Aegon's Conquest.
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 57, Daenerys V.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Dorne: Dorne Against the Dragons.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Sons of the Dragon.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon II.
- ↑ The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 10, Jon II.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 36, Daenerys IV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 47, Eddard XIII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Prologue.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 9, Brienne II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 20, Brienne IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 17, Jon IV.