Architecture of Whitewall

From: jorganos <joe_at_...>
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 14:45:32 -0000


The History of the Kingdom of Night states that Sestarto was killed by Panaxles the Architect out of jealousy. It doesn't give a date, though.

However, both these guys were known for their ziggurats rather than for hill forts.
But Heorling architecture has an astonishing reservoir of advanced building techniques to shame the Dara Happans, which are only rarely tapped. And when they are, a typical adjective is "dwarven-built".

Cyclopean walls are known in Vingkotling Era architecture. The fortresses of Nochet and Old Karse are specifically mentioned to be such.

Sartar and Wilms sort of revived this technology, or brought it back from Heortland. IMO there are some examples of fairly advanced architecture all over Heortland, like the purpose-built Mount Passant (admittedly with Western influences), the city of Vizel built into the cliffside (a less grand version of Minas Tirith or the Boldhome pockets), the stone bridges of the Heortland highways (Smithstone, two at Jansholm, Durengard, Duchamp).

Roman (=Malkioni) style city/castle walls (that's what the mediaeval technology really is, folks) prevail in the city walls of Heortland and Esrolia, and in the keeps. See Knight Fort, too. I don't expect this for Whitewall, though (neither for Smithstone, prior to Baron Sanuel's keep), but New Karse is a very advanced example of this.

For Hill Forts, my "Celtic appreciation" trait lets me prefer gallic wall drystone technology, also for the very practical reason that these walls with their Ginna Jar-like building philosophy can be maintained without need for specialists and yet pose a serious challenge to even advanced siege technology. These things withstood the Mostali assaults during the Vingkotling Age (compare Anaxial's Roster, various mechanical beasts) probably better than the cyclopean constructions. This is what Caesar's engineers faced at Alesia.

Broyan _is_ a stronger version of Vercingetorix, after all (and Kallyr a slightly more successful Boudicca). (While I'm tossing in historical parallels, Fazzur has a lot of Belisarius, with Tatius taking a Narses role with more magic (and presumably intact testicles). Of course, Fazzur also is Wallenstein, and the Sword Hill Argrath some Gustav Adolphus.)

Troy has been cited repeatedly to characterize the relations between leaders during the siege. Funnily the besieged Heortlings got the Achaean comparisons... But indeed the besieging Lunars fit better to the pan-Asian mix mentioned for the defenders of Troy, with exotic allies like Amazons, Puntians and Mesopotamians.

The siege still has something of a 30-years War parallel - while the Heortling defenders are gathered in the city, Fazzur overruns Rikard's Kingdom of Malkonwal applying military force and bribes in a most economic way, then infiltrates Nochet and breaks the ground for a Lunar Temple there. Nochet may have lacked the extra draconic energies of New Wind Temple, but if Tatius had cooperated with Fazzur's plan there, Sartar would have become just another happy Lunar province about as important as Balazar.

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