In the last year I had the idea to do daily trips with my so-called „Deutschland-Ticket“, which is a flat-fee public transport card that works in the entirety of Germany (and some border-towns) and I was really trying to walk around cities in my local region. I’m from the Saarland region which used to be around the border between the French and the many German counties that had been present here. That being said, my home region has been heavily influenced by French military construction of the late 17th, early 18th Century and in this article I want to use this knowledge for your TTRPG worldbuilding. In this entry I don’t want to talk about how the castle looks like, but where is the castle or fortress located and how does it relate to its surroundings and how has it evolved over time.
Example: Homburg (Saar), Germany
Homburg is a beautiful town east of Saarland. It has a beautiful old town, several widely known breweries close by and a large ruin of a former fortress that was initially built in the 12th Century. Here, the Counts of Homburg were living on top of a 1000ft high mountain in a castle. The top of the mountain is actually a flat plateau where one could observe the entire region in at least 270 degrees and has perfect view on important streets and transport lanes. Then, over the years, the Counts were replaced by other ruling families like Bavarian emperors or other local Counts. Over the years, the size of the castle doubled and quadrupled, as it was expanded to a Renaissance castle and a fortress. Eventually, the area was occupied by French King Louis XIV, whose fortress master Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban expanded the entire structure into a large, fortified beast. However, it didn’t take long until Louis XIV pulled back and as a matter of concern, they decided to demolish the fortress as they retreated.
Beneath this castle however, was something else, the so-called Schlossberg Caves, a large systems of underground caves inside the mountain, directly beneath the castle that were used to extract quartz and sand for local glass production. Once the material was extracted, the area was used to store munitia. However, it didn’t take long to find out that munitia and stored food went bad because of high humidity inside the caves. Eventually, several centuries later, those caves were also used as bunkers for air raid alarms in World War II.
How can you use this for your castle setup?
Defense Structure & Local Placement: Where is the castle located? Is it placed in a forest? In the woods? In the middle of a town? Most castles are built at places with great visibility over a large area, preferably at a mountain plateau or a high position with a large slope. You should know where your enemies are likely coming from and where they might attack. Those usually have the highest walls or special fortifications installed. In Homburg’s example the fortress area was surrounded by large walls at the mountain top. To the back area, where the forests start, ravelin structures were installed that were better defendable against incoming soldier attacks. Vauban in particular was a very prominent fan of those structures and used them throughout most of his works. In general, you could see a large defendable structure like a city that is created in a pentagonal or hexagonal shape and at each of those corners, additional defendable triangle-shaped structures are placed in that area for observation and placement of soldiers (more on that structure in future entries). Furthermore, as additional safety precaution, nearby rivers were routed around those wall structures.
Verticality & Social Separation: In most of those examples that we will look at in this series, there is not only a large separation in verticality between castle and town, it also shows a separation between a Count or a King and their town’s people. Is it possible for normal workers to visit the castle anytime or are the premises only allowed for the King and his court? Is there also a cultural divide between people up the mountain and the people down the mountain? This could make up interesting conversations and social interactions.
The Cave Inside The Mountain: The mountain itself has been carved out over the years and has been used for storing a variety of things over the years, so there might be a direct cellar entry from the castle to the caves. You might place some remains in there, or there might have been things stored there that give fertile ground for things to grow there, like mushrooms of all kind for example. Or it could be a dungeon for something that’s been left there on purpose.
Global Placement: At the top of the list, we have discussed the best placement of the castle in the local area. But where is the castle located on a global sense? Is it close to a river that is being used by many transport ships? Is a large street close by that would lead many people from one important place to another and the town and its castle is placed just in the middle between those two places, making it a great resting place for travelers. What about the stuff inside the mountain? Is it vital material to create weapons or other stuff? Are there important resources inside that can’t be found anywhere else or not in that kinda quality? What would make this castle important for others to invade or attack?
The Castle’s History Over The Years: As I mentioned above, the castle itself was used from the 12th Century until the late 17th Century with various states of expansions. Those parts could be completely different. Maybe a former kitchen became too small and had to move somewhere else and the soldiers had to relocate to another area, maybe closer to the defendable positions outside the main area of the castle. Think about who was responsible for the expansion and what did they want to accomplish at that time. And of course what is the current situation of the castle? Is it still in use? Has it been destroyed and only the walls remain? If so, how has it been destroyed and why? For example there might have been explosions involved: Have they been planted or was it an accident? This might also could be a great background story for the castle’s history and its former inhabitants.
I hope you enjoyed this little entry on Homburg’s castle ruins and how you might use that for your next castle map location. This might be the start for a small series on some local castles and fortresses in my area and how this might enrich your TTRPG worldbuilding and make it more realistic. If you fancy to have a look at some of my other D&D stuff that I have published on the DM’s Guild, please have a look at this page.
tl;dr
- Where is the castle placed?
Most castles built with defense purpose are built either on top of a high plateau or a defensible position over a large slope. In most cases, the castle serves as a last line of defense for a town that lies beneath the castle. - What can be seen from this position?
Defense castles usually are built to observe ways where attackers might come from like well-observable streets, rivers or near 360-views where a large area can be seen. - Does the castle have additional cellar structures?
Sometimes tunnels are carved out beneath a high-rise castle for storage, mining or shelter. - Consider the castle’s development over time.
If a castle structure had been handed over from generation to generation, this might result in different structures that have been built. More on that in a future part of this series.