How To Capture And Defend A Castle
Castles situated on a high, hard to reach locations
makes storming the castle a tapestry of interesting plot
threads that offer opportunities for rich, vivid imagery
when writing fantasy. To create a realistic scene, writers
must know enough history to make a castle attack authentic
from either side of the battle.
How To Capture The Fantasy Castle
To capture a castle, attackers must get beyond the
walls. When writing fantasy, hold onto enough history to
make it real. Fantasy writers should offer hints of how to
capture or defend a castle throughout the plot threads.
Don't offer too much detail, but put the pieces in place
so that when the attack takes place, and these same pieces
come into the picture the reader understands what will
happen and how it works.
Because of the formidable design, historically, the safest
way to capture a castle was to starve out the occupants.
However, this wasn't as easy as it sounds. Remember those
store rooms beneath the hall in the keep? If the castle
residents had fair warning of an impending attack, they
could hoard enough food and drink to survive a lengthy
siege.
If castle occupants make adequate preparation to wait out
the siege, it increases tension and conflict in the
storyline. Action can advance as armies resort to weaponry
of the era. Weaponry opens opportunities for the fantasy
writer to create similar but unique weapons constructed
specifically for the story-the fantasy version of the
secret weapon.
In reality, many lost their lives trying to breech castle
walls. Catapults hurled stones to weaken the wall, but as
attackers stormed the castle, a barrage of arrows sliced
through the sky from the arrow loops.
Another tactic to capture the castle was to fill the moat
with rocks and fashion tree trucks into a rough semblance
of a bridge to make crossing possible. Once the advancing
mob reached the main gate, a large, heavy beam was used to
ram the closed drawbridge until it gave way.
One other weapon used to break through the castle walls
were storming towers. These wooden constructions (covered
in wet hides to prevent burning) were rolled against the
wall to work as a ladder.
Defending the Fantasy Castle
When writing fantasy, the writer can also learn from
history to defend the castle. If you check the article (link)Social
Classes When Writing Sword and Sorcery Fantasy, you'll
learn that the army defending the castle was usually
comprised of the lord of the castle, his knights and
villiens who agreed to fight as part of their service due,
along with vassals paying homage and those who served the
vassal in a like manner. At times professional foot
soldiers were hired to fill out the ranks, and even
knights were known to rent out their fighting skills.
As attacking armies assaulted the castle with storming
towers, defenders shoved the wooden structures from the
wall and into the mob because once the first wave of
attackers made it over the wall, they engaged in
hand-to-hand combat to make it easier for their comrades
to join them.
Other deterrents used to keep the enemy at bay were things
like pouring boiling pitch from the top of the wall onto
the army below, and of course the swarms of arrows
whistling into the angry mob.
If your attackers break through, it results in bloody
hand-to-hand combat, but that's okay. You're readers know
where they are at every turn, how to escape, and engages
the readers to keep reading to see your characters through
the entire ordeal.
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