Haltherrion
First Post
EnWorld discussions often wander into "the presence of 'X' will change what a castle looks like" where X might be gunpowder, magic, or what not. These discussions can be fun but often suffer for a lack of a definition of what is a castle.
This thread is not really an attempt to define a castle, more a light-hearted, "I know what a castle is when I see it." I've collected what I hope most will find a survey of castle-like structures, mostly western and limited to 9 (I believe that is the poll limit).
Multi-voting is allowed and my thought is that folks vote for the ones they think are castles in the sense of what they usually mean/think-of when playing a fantasy FRPG. Feel free to offer other exemplars and comments.
Hopefully most of you will recognize what I mean for these sample castles. The links are to the wikipedia article on the subject which you can also find with your own searches if you don't trust my links.
The samples:
Wooden Roman Camp. Roman Republic and Empire
Stone Roman Camp. Roman Republic and Empire
Wooden Motte-and-Bailey. 11th and 12th Centuries.
Caernarfon. Built 1284. Large Edwardian castle.
Star Fort. 1450s to 1600s. This article has a good overview of transition to these forts as gunpowder weapons came into the fore. Vauban created highly refined forts in this theme.
Deal Castle. Built 1540. Crenellated but squat.
Japanese Castle 16th century hey-day for the well known stone ones.
Fort Putnum. Built 1778. US Revolutionary War fort. The wikipedia picture doesn't do it justice; it has big stone walls.
Neuschwanstein Castle. Completed 1892. “Mad” King Ludwig’s palace.
Samples are in chronological order and I tried to cast a wide net.
Remember to multi-vote: vote for any or all you think of as a castle.
This thread is not really an attempt to define a castle, more a light-hearted, "I know what a castle is when I see it." I've collected what I hope most will find a survey of castle-like structures, mostly western and limited to 9 (I believe that is the poll limit).
Multi-voting is allowed and my thought is that folks vote for the ones they think are castles in the sense of what they usually mean/think-of when playing a fantasy FRPG. Feel free to offer other exemplars and comments.
Hopefully most of you will recognize what I mean for these sample castles. The links are to the wikipedia article on the subject which you can also find with your own searches if you don't trust my links.
The samples:
Wooden Roman Camp. Roman Republic and Empire
Stone Roman Camp. Roman Republic and Empire
Wooden Motte-and-Bailey. 11th and 12th Centuries.
Caernarfon. Built 1284. Large Edwardian castle.
Star Fort. 1450s to 1600s. This article has a good overview of transition to these forts as gunpowder weapons came into the fore. Vauban created highly refined forts in this theme.
Deal Castle. Built 1540. Crenellated but squat.
Japanese Castle 16th century hey-day for the well known stone ones.
Fort Putnum. Built 1778. US Revolutionary War fort. The wikipedia picture doesn't do it justice; it has big stone walls.
Neuschwanstein Castle. Completed 1892. “Mad” King Ludwig’s palace.
Samples are in chronological order and I tried to cast a wide net.
Remember to multi-vote: vote for any or all you think of as a castle.
Last edited: