How to Build A Castle When Writing Fantasy

Fantasy writers learn how to create mood and evoke emotion with a single structure. A castle. Situated on a high, hard to reach location above the village, it presents a looming silhouette. It doesn't matter if it's situated on a steep cliff, hilltop, or a peninsula point along a rocky shore, when writing fantasy build the castle on a hard to reach location. A difficult to reach location presents magical moments to introduce conflict and tension along the road as characters endure hardships throughout the journey to and from its formidable walls.

Within your storyline, strategic location offers not only a natural first line of defense but makes for a fantastic setting. Consider the frozen wonders of the castle belonging to the witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Castle Frankenstein located up on the hill as the angry torch-bearing villagers stream up the hillside to storm the castle.

Castle Building Basics for the Fantasy Writer

As a fantasy writer, know that no two castles are exactly the same. This works to the fantasy writer's advantage. However, it is important to keep some basics in mind. For instance, you'll want to know the different terms within the castle construct to help build a clear image to allow readers find their way around.

Dig deep, wide moats outside the castle's curtain wall and fill them with water to present a habitat for hazards unique to your fantasy.

Drawbridges raise and lower to gain access to the heart of the castle, called the keep. (This is where the lord and his family live.) However, just because the drawbridge is open travelers can't always get in. An iron grating called a portcullis hangs at the gateway as added protection.

How to Lay Out the Grounds--The Castle Keep

When aspiring fantasy authors write a storming the castle scene, it's important to know that a castle is actually a fortified group of buildings. Based on history, learn how to lay out the castle grounds, so when the action gets heavy the reader doesn't become confused.

The main building (known as the keep) towered above the surrounding curtain wall. In the keep, the lord, his family, skilled servants and craftsmen lived along with some of the lord's best soldiers. If the enemy breeched the wall, the lord headed to the security of the keep where twenty-foot thick walls offered added protection

Think of scenes where a battering ram pummels a sealed drawbridge, and soldiers defending the castle pour boiling pitch onto advancing armies, while archers line the parapets, and catapults thrust bone-crushing stones into the horde of attackers. Many of the people protecting the castle lived there and others gathered at the castle when war threatened the land. Under the feudal system, in war, vassals fled to the castle and helped defend it.

Develop A Plot and Build a Castle

With that in mind, as you develop your plot, realize people within the castle walls know their way around. Add secret passageways and rooms. Limit the knowledge of these secrets to a select group and use the information to weave elements of suspense. Remember, the keep wasn't just a tower where the lord lived. It worked more like a stockade, or a second line of defense in case the enemy breeched the outer walls.

Build defense strategies into your castle. Normally the entrance of the keep was placed high into the wall and out of reach without a ladder or stairs. Historically, wooden steps leading into the keep could be pulled up behind retreating defenders at the first sign of danger to cut off access.

Inside the Keep

The entrance of the keep led into a tunnel that spilled into a great hall, one of the largest rooms in the castle. The hall served as a dining room, office and more all rolled into one. In fact, in the Hierath Trilogy by Joanne Hall, a great festive feast was regularly held in this hall during Winterfest. The royals sat on a platform separated from the servants. The great hall is a big room available for the fantasy writer to rearrange. Make it a playroom, a war room or sanctuary created to work with your plot.

Sleeping chambers belonging to the lord and his family connected to the great hall by a balcony while in the belly of the keep below the hall, creepy dungeons and storerooms offer settings for the makings of a treacherous rendezvous to overthrow the king, or a secret way into the castle. In the fantasy novel Hierath (the first in Jo Hall's series) large steamy vats reached by ladders present dangers to the young woman employed in the laundry found in the bowels of the castle.

Like I stated earlier, every castle is unique. Castles underwent improvements as new owners moved in which opens the door to construct a castle that works for your fantasy story. Include enough detail to make navigating the halls a learning experience.

How to Build Castle Walls and Plot Twists in Fantasy

Fantasy writers should take time to determine placement of structures strategic to the plot. For instance, flanking towers often connected the outer curtain wall, which was anywhere from 6-20 feet thick. Servants that lived within the castle confines, but not within the keep, dwelled in small wooden or stone structures in the castle yard, which was known as the bailey.

Passages behind the parapet known as wall-walks, lined the curtain wall. This means of access make for exciting scenes as people prepare for battle, flee from the enemy or even for lovers to meet away from the keep in a secret embrace. Wall-walks were reached by stairs running parallel to the wall. Even the stairs offer a great place for a swashbuckling sword fight.

Another man-made defense built into the curtain wall were three to twelve foot long arrow loops. These were usually narrow slots (about 2 inches or less wide), which allowed the firing of arrows from behind the wall's protection. Arrow slips evolved over time presenting a more practical range for the archer as horizontal and wider slots were added.

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 Castle in Fantasy Writing

When writing fantasy, the writer can also learn from history to defend the castle. If you check the article 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.