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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tzor" data-source="post: 1099567" data-attributes="member: 12826">I think that castles will always exist whatever the relative level of magic in the campaign world.  How that castle will look, and even what that castle is called will change significantly however. Someone mentioned that the canon was the death of the castle.  Actually the canon caused the castle to evolve.  The square castle evolved to a lower five sided structure which would eventually become known as a "fort."  These stone structures were common into the early 20th century.A more common strucutre is the keep.  Smaller than a castle, this fortification can serve as a early warning defense system around the outter borders.  Attackers have to decide on attacking the keep or going around the keep.  Doing the former will cause the enemy to know of your invasion, and it will waste some time, even with the earthquake causing clerics on your side.  Doing the latter will risk the potential of having your forces flanked as reinformcements are teleported to the keep's location.In fact, magic helps the castle more than it hurts it.  When you can open a portal to the plane of water, and when clerics can conjure food from the air, who cares if you are being seiged?  High magic is highly beneficial to gurrelia war tactics, so unless you are beloved in the lands you are in, your forces will be constantly bothered until they loose all morale.The castle becomes more symbolic than functional, a location for diplomacy rather than for defense.  Castles evolve to mannor houses where the more complex warfare between governments, churches and guilds takes place.  More complex defenses are still needed for prisons, however, and these structures still look like castles or keeps.  (The tower of London and the Bastille are two examples of such prisons.)Still, troops need roofs over their heads that will at least allow them to get a good night sleep.  The basic elements of the castle will still be there.  The castle will evolve to meet the needs of the campaign world but as long as there is a desire for man to make something big huge and impressive, there will always be castles.</blockquote>

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