CASTLE THE SERIES - 00000015

THE FOLK

Where necessary or possibly helpful to some, there are notes at the end on word usage.

Castle is in the main a coastal settlement of nearly thirty-five thousand persons on a world, elsewise,(1) as far as they are aware, empty of humankind, whose inhabitants refer to themselfs as the Folk. In times beyond memory and myth a castle was built on the granite sea cliff to the south of the estuary of a major river, the Arder. The castle gave the settlement its original name, though the settlement subsequently expanded to include Outgangside, a small collection of dwellings, workshops and warehouses outside the castle, Dockside, a settlement on the other side of the estuary, and various holdings and enterprises farther afield.

The castle has over time become referred to as the Keep, and Castle has now become the name occasionally uest(2) for the entire settlement near the Arder, but most oft for the world itself which without any question, or explanation, is accepted to be a spherical object spinning berount an axis running from the far north to the far south. The spin is accepted to be responsible for day and night as Castle orbits its primary, naemt(3) the Mother, which orbit mysteriously causes the seasons.

Land is not owned, it is worked, and there is land enough for any to work what she wills(4) or can. Castle was a feudal settlement once, yet though the Ladyship of Castle is still hereditary, the Folk have moved on considerably from those early days, and the incumbent has effectively become the chief executive officer of a rural coöperative. Few Folk memories, or even legends, of feudal times remain.

Castle is an unspoilt, beautiful and barely exploited land, with game, fish, bountiful harvests, both wild and cultivated, and good grazing for livestock. The climate is harsh, so plentiful supplies have to be stored from the warmer season and the good years for both folk and their livestock to overwinter and survive the lean years. Hunger and rationing are all too familiar. A sporadic disease, callt(5) the fevers, more than decimates the population on average every twelve years. To survive coöperation is vital, and all are valued, but especially children.

Children are reared by educating them within family, kin, clan and friends, collectively known as kith, which involves learning reading, writing, arithmetic and familiarisation with both the Castle Way, the code by which the Folk live, and the ways throughout the castle. It also oft involves learning the skills of which ever crafts their clan follow. Those who find learning difficult are not expected to waste their time and thus be maekt(6) to feel inadequate because there are many highly regarded and necessary crafts they can follow which have no requirement for literacy or numeracy. Children are usually apprenticed at fourteen Castle years, which equates to an age of approximately eighteen Earth years, to a Mistress or Master crafter though many choose to apprentice much younger.

It is not uncommon for adults to change craft, they’re then known as lærers(7) rather than apprentices. Many adults cross craft over two or more crafts. Those whose major craft is essentially a warmer season out door activity like forestry oft follow a different indoor craft over the cold season. Many join the Keep staff over the winter. Whilst not compulsory, most crafters wear a broach on their right shoulder the design of which indicates their craft and rank. Most are not just a badge indicating their craft, but a cherished, highly ornate broach of exquisite craftsmanship, a piece of jewellery many of which have been handed down over the generations from times before the Fell Year which is as far back as records go.

By custom, tradition and right any citizen, woman, man or child, may on Quarterdays, days of public celebration, state their needs, wishes, desires or opinions publicly before all. This is referred to as making an appearance. For the Folk attendance at the Quarterday appearances is seen as a civic duty, and the assembled crowd, which is always large, listen, and if need be, approve or not. Many issues are resolved in this way. Matters of partnership, both marital and craft, adoption, of children, parents, siblings or indeed any others, for example, the merging of families, kinsfolks or clans into a single unit, or the separation of such a grouping into smaller sub-units are oft dealt with at Quarterday. Quarterday resolutions are the ultimate and highest form of law, since they are attested and approven,(8) potentially at least, by the entire population. There are four Quarterdays in a Castle year. Second Quarterday, mid-summer, is the high point of the year. The first day of the year, the first of Faarl is the day following the shortest day, the thirtieth of Topal.

Most medium to long term planning is evolved and overseen by the Lord(9) and his Council. Historically there have been as many Ladies as Lords. There has always been the rare Castle citizen who has had, in the words of the Folk, powers beyond the normal. They are characterised by high intelligence and acute sensitivity to the psyche of the Folk, both as individuals and as a people. Powers beyond they normal does not imply the para-normal, or no more so at any rate than exhibits itself in the daily lifes of the Folk who have always been more concerned with survival than considering the future of generations as yet unbirtht.(10) These individuals sit on the Council along with the Lord and his agreän,(11) the Lord’s heir and her agreän,(12) the Master at arms,(13) the Master huntsman,(14) all significant craft Mistresses and Masters, as well as various other prominent, highly regarded citizens.

The office of the Master at arms is the office of civic responsibility and law. It handles all the short term administration, and it is responsible for the keeping and maintenance of the official archives. The Master at arms usually has five or six personal assistants and a general staff of a hundred, which number varies at need and the availability of appropriate personnel. His rôle is that of the premier, the most senior administrator, and the incumbent is by tradition a vassal of the Lord of Castle, the head of state. In practice, he’s a much over-worked civil servant, as is the Lord of Castle. As with Lordship, historically, there have been as many Mistresses at arms as Masters.

In the historically rare event of major transgression, the full Council could theoretically be called upon to pronounce on the matter, but in practice the Council would expect the Master at arms to deal with the matter, and inform them as to the outcome at the next Council meeting. In the event of a matter serious enough to require the issue of a deadth(15) warrant, it would be issued by the Master at arms, and its enforcement carried out by the Master huntsman via his squads of trackers, hunters and guardians.

The principal rôle of the Master huntsman’s office is one of meat provision, but also, when required, that of enforcement of the Way. The Master huntsman also is by tradition a vassal of the Lord of Castle, and also in practice a hard pressed civil servant. Again, historically there have been as many Mistresses huntsman as Masters. The rôle of the guardians is a flexible one. Most are hunters or trackers approaching retirement, their numbers are maekt up to the required number by the young and inexperienced. Many hunters and trackers periodically craft for a lune or so with the guardians which allows them to spend more time with their families than they can usually manage. Oft, pregnant hunters and trackers choose to become temporary guardians till they resume their usual craft. The guardians patrol the community, more oft shutting doors and returning straying beasts rather than enforcing public order, though that is in their remit.

There have also been rare individuals, known collectively as ‘the changt’,(16) whom it is believed Castle has affected whilst enwombed. These individuals vary to the degree they have been affected by their changes but the changes are the same for all, women and men. They are all more intelligent, stronger and faster with more acute senses than normal. Their metabolisms are faster giving them a higher body temperature, a greater ability to withstand the bitter climate, an ability to metabolise alcohol, which they enjoy, that is so rapid they simply can’t become incapacitated even by strong spirits and they have a highly active libido that has to be satisfied.

The changt are loners and can’t cope with too many persons too close at a time, including those of their own kind, yet they are driven to other folk to satisfy their libidinous needs. They are distrusted by many of the Folk, but not by the intelligent and the perceptive, and there has been a steady increase in their numbers over the centuries. There are currently believed to be just over a hundred and twenty of them, though they tend to be secretive concerning their kind.

There have been, over the centuries, incursions of persons from Earth, usually between two and three hundred persons at a time and at forty to fifty year intervals. These incomers or incursionists, as they’re known till they acquire placements and become newfolk,(17) have always ranged in age from the newbirtht(18) to centenarians, and it has not been usual for many to have been related, nor have many been known to each other. Typically most of the incomers in a given incursion have come from the same general geographical area, but not all from the same time. They arrive usually taken from across the time span that has elapsed since the previous incursion.

There is a general acceptance mongst(19) the Folk their ancestors originally came from Earth. Most of the incomers have spaken(20) the language of the Folk, though with subtle but discernible differences which are known to have increased with time despite the new words brought by each incursion and subsequently assimilated into the spaech(21) of the Folk. There have been several incursions recorded where none of the incomers have spaken anything like the language of the Folk. The incomers learnt Folk quickly, but they introduced considerable numbers of new words, particularly personal names which due to their novelty rapidly became popular and part of the Folk’s history. Castle livestock and many other things on Castle are familiar to most incomers, but there is no longer any evidence, or even mythology, regarding whence the ancestors of the Folk came, or when they first came to Castle, and it is not known if ever there were such evidence.

The Folk themselfs are physically diverse with adult highth(22) typically ranging from four feet and two spans,(23) to seven feet and two spans. Individuals at and beyond both extremes are relatively common. There are many individuals of a large build with a heavy musculature, but most of the Folk tend to be relatively lightly built, irrespective of their highth. Skin colour ranges from very pale alabaster to dark brown with most of the population being at the pale end of the spectrum, though there has always been the odd individual with skin of raven’s wing black. Albinism is rare but not unknown.

Eye colour has a wide range and includes: violet, blue, green, hazel and brown. Eye colours all exhibit a spectrum, and every gradation between any two colours exists. Individuals with hazel eyes that could more accurately be described as yellow are known, as are individuals with brown eyes that could best be described as black. A small number of the Folk have eyes of different colours, and an even smaller number have sunset(24) eyes. Hair colour is not as variable as eye colour, but every shade of brunette exists between darkest black and whitest blonde, similarly every shade of redhead exists. The population has a high proportion of red haired, green or violet eyed individuals, typically with very pale complexions and of slender build. The Folk are always surprised at the high proportion of right handed persons in the incomers because they only account for half of the Folk.

The Keep archives go back over five hundred years, but the Keep itself provides internal evidence of having been in existence for over a thousand years. Incomers are well come,(25) but with some reservations, and during the early days of an incursion the archives recommend the temporary reinforcement of the guardians with a large number of mature hunters and trackers. Usually, as well as the incomers an incursion brings animal breeding stock, both wild and domestic, and vegetable matter, seeds as well as other propagable materials. There are several records in the archives of new birds, fish and water mammal species being discovered shortly after an incursion, and though none could say with certainty the new species were part of the incursion it was believed they were.

Children and young incomers have always been well come, and they have invariably been placed in a new family within a few days. Older incomers have tended to be mixt,(26) including many who had no problems fitting into Castle society. There have also oft been a number for whom the only solution had been the issue of a deadth warrant. There have been incomers who had inherited riches and social position and others who had earnt further riches and social position by manipulation of riches. As a result of never having done a day’s work in their lifes they had oft found adjustment difficult or even impossible, and many dien(27) as a consequence.

In contrast, many incomers had come from the bottom of Earth society, and for most Castle had provided a new beginning to a worthwhile and rewarding life. Once, a number of inmates from a high security prison became highly regarded citizens, none(28) cared what they had done elsewhere, for as long as they found placements, accepted the Way and contributed on Castle they were well come. For the shiftless few who would not contribute Castle had always provided deadth.

Centuries over,(29) the Council recognising the value to their society of the better incomers, many of who brought new crafts and arts of great benefit, decreed a settlement grant could be maekt to establish an incomer in her craft. It had never been automatic, and there had never been a fixt(30) grant involved, for who could tell what may be required? If the craft employed others or gave pleasure to many it would be reasonable to make a larger grant.

THE CASTLE WAY

The lifes of the Folk are regulated by a complex code of conduct callt The Castle Way, usually referred to as the Way. Most of the Folk assume the Way has always been the same, but it has never been set in stone, and it has changed with them over the centuries. The Way is the distillation of what the Folk regard as what is necessary for survival, and hence it has always been flexible enough to allow them the freedom and self determination they require to flourish. The Way is the codified will of the Folk not their ruler.

Marriages are a matter of personal decision, and they may be maekt and unmaekt at the will of any one of the persons involved, but obligations to children are non-negotiable, and whilst a marriage may founder all agreäns(31) retain their obligations to all the children they have a care to, which includes any they have adopted, and those obligations extent to the elderly and the vulnerable. Thus a member of the Folk who marries someone who is intellectually impaired may braek(32) their marriage, and even remarry, but they will always have obligations to their ex-agreän. In practice such folk do not braek their agreement but marry again and have two or more agreäns, and they may, or may not, continue to sleep with their impaired agreän. Even should their impaired agreän break their agreement and marry again, the ex-agreän still has obligations, though of lesser order.

Adoption has the same status as blood relationship and is a common practice which enables the protection of the vulnerable, serves the formalisation of craft arrangements and numerous other functions as well. Protection of the vulnerable, usually orphans and the elderly, but not exclusively so, is both a social requirement and necessity, but it is dealt with at a family level, which the Way demands. Whilst it is true at fourteen children legally become adults, only under extreme circumstances would any dream of abandoning a fourteen year old, since that would contravene the spirit of the Way. On Castle every member of the Folk, whether likeable or no, is precious.

Castle is by no means a subsistence economy, yet neither is it so rich in resources it can carry social parasites. The Folk won’t carry parasites, for that too would contravene the Way. All who can contribute must do so, or seek a life apart which is effectively a deadth sentence. The Folk have a strong work ethic and regard the main source of their weälth(33) to be themselfs. They all have a care to(34) each other, but every one has to have a placement. A placement in its simplest sense is a statement one is of the Folk or in Earth terms one has a craft, a job.

A placement can also refer to being a family member. As a complex combination of kith ties, a placement involves the social accounting of debts owed and owing into which accounting is accounted one’s craft affiliations. In practice a placement is a subtle and complex measure of social standing, personal riches or credit rating. It has always been a concept most incomers have had trouble understanding. All incomers have to acquire a placement soon after arrival. None will support any who does not, for without it there can be no accounting of debts owed and owing, which is an integral part of society. Without a placement one is not of the Folk. It is however just as true to say the act of becoming one of the Folk creates a placement, even if due to circumstance one has neither family nor craft.

The Folk are open, blunt and honest, and genuinely have a care to each other. They are pragmatic in the extreme and rearrange their families to manage tragedy and other circumstances at a speed which is perplexing to incomers. Yet they will stand by and watch those incomers who will not help themselfs perish, for they have chosen to remain apart from society rather than to join it. They respect that decision, even if they don’t approve of the unnecessary waste of valuable human life involved. There are certain things the Folk don’t do. One of which is thief(35) from each other, nor is sharp practice tolerated, for it is regarded as thieft.(36) The Castle Way is a two edged code, if the Folk don’t do these things then any who does is not of the Folk which is a deadth sentence, and either Castle takes the offenders by cold or starvation, or the Master huntsman’s squads track and execute them.

Some of that which the Way decrees is no longer understood by the Folk, but naytheless(37) they respect that there must have been a reason for the requirement which may still be valid. One such is that the Way states Castle gives water to all, so none may own it and it’s sale is thieft, moreover all who have water are obligated to provide it to any with a want of it. Failure to so do is murder. The Folk do not live a utopian existence, they do have their problems. They consider their problems to be less severe and less frequent than those incomers have telt them the Folk of Earth have due to their smaller population, and greater sense of community. However, to the Folk their issues are just as real and problematic as Earth’s and the price to be exacted and paid by those who cause major problems on Castle is deadth, which whilst accepted, for most is no easier to live with than it would be to any from else where.

THE KEEP

The castle site covers a little more than a thousand acres(38) and is built on a granite intrusion in the north-west corner of an area bounded by the river Arder estuary to the north and a more or less north to south coastline to the west. Inside the inner curtain wall the outcrop has been quarried to provide stone for the castle. The outer wall is roughly a curve-cornered parallelogram in shape with an acute ‘angle’ in the north-west corner. The seaward and nearly parallel landward sections of wall are approximately two thousand seven hundred strides long, and the river wall and its nearly parallel wall are sixteen to seventeen hundred strides long.

On the seawall side, the outer curtain wall sits atop the edge of a ninety five stride high cliff which has a series of overhangs all the way up from the sea. The sea below, even in calm weather, boils berount(39) a bed of braeken(40) rock and braeks(41) gainst(42) the cliff due to the cross currents in the sea caused by the flow from the Arder hitting the igneous obstructions just off shore. The difference between high and low tide is two or three spans in the deepth(43) of the water, which has little effect as to how high up the cliff the sea surges. The prevailing onshore wind lifts the sea spray up the cliff, and a strong wind can make it so unpleasant at the battlements of the curtain wall that the crenel(44) drains are a necessity.

Storms deposit huge quantities of sand and boulders, many heavier than a large man, on to the allure behind the battlements. At high tide, the outer wall on the northern side of the site, built atop the granite which disappears into the ground here, is met by the southern edge of the Arder estuary, a two hundred stride stretch of soft, shifting, treacherous estuarine silt and mud incapable of supporting anything like the weighth(45) of a man. The estuary is twenty-two thousand strides wide where it debouches into the ocean, and at low tide, the stretch of exposed mud and silt on the Keep side of the Arder is over six thousand strides wide.

On the landward side of the site, again where the outcropping granite disappears into the ground, the land is somewhat firmer, but it has been excavated down into the granite. This has created a moat fifty strides wide and varying in deepth from five strides gainst the wall to ten strides at its far side. The moat continues south from the Arder alongside the eastern wall till it meets the Little Arder river, which flows into the ocean alongside the southern wall on the far side of the site from the Arder. The Little Arder would have been a tributary of the Arder but for the intrusion of granite which forced its course southwards.

The outer wall is built on the granite all the way berount the site and rises back up to the top of the cliff, where at the castle’s south-west corner it results in the highest point of the castle where the observation tower is situated. The observation tower places one a hundred and sixty-seven strides above the sea. The outer wall is surrounded by water all the way, and the moat is in effect an artificial arm of the Arder on its way to the sea. The moat is unaffected by the state of the tide and the fillth(46) of water in the Arder, its level varies little more than a span or two over the year. Due to geothermal activity, the temperature of the water in the Arder is cool but constant all year, even in the harshest of winters it changes little. The relative warmth of the Arder current and the salt in the estuarine water mean the moat has never had more than a trace of ice at its edges. The thin crust of ice that perpetually braeks up and reforms in the most severe of winters atop the brackish, silty, constantly-shifting estuarine mud will support no more weighth than the mud itself.

There is a labyrinthine series of deep and wide ditches on the eastern and southern sides of the Keep where the moat would have been directly accessible, with a tortuous twisting roadway running through them from the castle hinterland to the moat, where a set of telescopic, retractile, pontoon bridge sections spans the water. The bridge sections can be brought into the Keep. On the way out of the Keep, once over the moat, the route of the roadway through the ditches changes every lune when one of the two easily moveable bridges that span the ditches is moved at random to a different site. The bridges are alternately moved, so each bridge is in position for two lunes and there are three dozen sites that can take them. At the order of the Council, the bridges can be lined up with the Keep moat bridge and gate houses to facilitate transport of difficult materials, usually whole trees required for maintenance of roof timbers in the Keep. The Little Arder has a bridge outside the ditches.

From inside the south-west corner of the Keep a tunnel, yclept(47) the Postern Deep, delves deep through the granite under the walls and the Little Arder. Its is normally obstructed by a huge counter-weighted granite block and filled with water from the Little Arder which can be quickly drained to deeper storage tanks and subsequently invisibly pumped to a point under where The Little Arder Force(48) cascades into the sea. The granite block and the water can be controlled from within the Keep and also by means of a concealed mechanism at the far outside end of the tunnel which can be rendered inoperative from within the Keep.

The tunnel, initially cut through the granite, is granite lined and four men can walk abreast through its entire longth,(49) without wet or even muddy feet, to emerge, over five thousand strides to the south of the Keep, in a small cave via a door blocked by a hinged large natural limestone slab. The door latches and can be operated from concealed mechanisms on either side. The cave is part of a limestone outcrop in a belt of woodland that now looks natural and is self perpetuating, but which was originally planted to provide cover for any using the Postern Deep. Like all other parts of the Keep, the Postern mechanisms are in full working order and subject to regular testing and maintenance by the Keep ingeniators.(50)

The design of the castle is concentric with two walls. The outer wall is fifteen strides thick at the base and thirty strides high. The inner wall is some twenty strides thick at its base, over forty strides high and is in practice one continuous tower all the way berount. Both the walls are constructt(51) of solidly bonded granite blocks, some of them weighing many thousands of weights.. At regular intervals use is made of tie stones, stones that tie the entire wall together. Tie stones appear to be an ordinary block from the out side of the wall, but they are long enough to be sunk deep into the walls interior. This is unlike all castles on Earth whose walls were built using inner and outer skins of mortar bonded blocks in-filled with mortar bonded rubble. Every eighty strides or so of both outer and inner curtain wall there is a circular or elliptical tower.

There are fifteen stride high interconnecting walls between the outer wall towers and the inner wall which divide the space between them into sections that are only directly accessible from each other via massively heavy, circular, rolling stone doors that roll inside the walls, maekt threefold thick there, operated from above on the inner wall. The towers are five strides taller than the curtain walls on either side of them and are built to the same wall thickth(52) as their curtains. All towers are solid for their first ten strides in highth, again using mortar bonded granite blocks not rubble, and are accessed by stairs. The staircases are within the solid tower bases and may be obstructed with huge, well-fitting, counter-weighted, granite blocks in seconds.

It is possible to walk the complete perimeter of both the walls within them without leaving their protection at any point. These Keep Walkways, as they’re referred to, are provided with a steel portcullis(53) on either side of each tower, which are now normally open other than for testing and maintenance. The Keep walls are equipped with trebuchets(54) of a range of sizes all the way berount, and all of them have a supply of boulders ready to use. The largest, which are in the courtyard, can accurately loft boulders of two hundred and fifty weights, and the ingeniators and many other citizens are highly skilled in their use. Highly contested accuracy competitions are held on second Quarterday with of the order of twenty teams of twelve competing for “The Silver Trebuchet”, a foot high working model of a trebuchet cast in silver.

All the walls, including the outer sea wall, are crenelated,(55) with wider merlons(56) than crenels,(57) and are in addition machiolated(58) all the way berount. The allure(59) inside the merlons is wide enough for several persons to walk abreast and has a safety wall along its inner edge to protect gainst being blown off the wall by the winds which can be dangerously strong. The gate houses which surround the gate are massive, and the watertight gate access is sunk within them like a tunnel which may be flooded to its roof in seconds from the moat. The water, like that in the Postern Deep, can equally quickly be drained to deeper storage tanks from where the water can be subsequently pumped back out into the moat. The gate tunnel is fitted with five massive steel portcullises running in deep grooves in the stonework, with light let in from dozens of murder holes(60) in its roof. All portcullises are entirely constructt of riveted and forge welded steel and they abound in the castle. Many are multiple within the same thoroughfare.

To navigate the castle requires knowledge as the routes are anything but straight forward and lead the ignorant into cul de sac areas which have murder holes and arrow loops(61) above them by the hundreds. The arrow loops or oillets are cross shaped and thus can be uest by both longbow and crossbow. Viable routes climb and drop suddenly and take one hundred and eighty degree turns that were maekt deliberately easy to miss. Stair cases are spiral and are all stone. Half the flights ascend clockwise and the other half anticlockwise,(62) though originally only one in seven favoured left handed defenders. All that rise several flights have anticlockwise flights randomly mixt mongst the clockwise. Roughly half of the Folk are left handed, or as they would put it left threwers.

Over time as the stair cases have been required to be rebuilt they have been built to reflect the proportion of left throwers at that time, which has been an on going creation of left handed versions till the ratio stabilised at equal numbers of left and right threwers. That stabilisation occurred so long ago none now know when, but it is known that the ratio has to reflect the situation in the Folk. All staircases are provided with slots in their walls which enable swords to be stabbed into the constricted staircase spaces, and like the tower stair cases they may be quickly obstructed by counter-weighted granite blocks.

The principal water supply to the Keep comes from a tarn, that is fed by dozens of reliable, high flow springs, in hills five days whilth(63) from the Keep on foot. Water arrives via a two stride wide pipe which has numerous elevated aqueduct sections and tunnels through two hills. It completes the last ten thousand strides of its journey in a stone aqueduct which finally runs over the Keep walls, effectively a pipe in the air. The last overhead section of the aqueduct can be collapsed quickly, from within the Keep, to allow the water to run off into the land on the far side of the moat and render it marshy. This would also prevent the aqueduct from being uest to access the castle, though there are numerous mechanisms to prevent access on top of and inside the aqueduct including several booby trap mechanisms which ensure the collapse if the aqueduct is accessed from outside the Keep. The aqueduct was built to withstand the water freezing, which it always does in winter when other sources of water have to be uest.

In addition the tarn feeds an underground one stride diameter syphon pipe that is completely hidden and enters the Keep via the Postern Deep feeding underground cisterns and overflowing into the sea. The pipe can be drained for maintenance and is at regular intervals. It is also attacker proofed in a number of ways. The building roofs are of span thick slate and have stone gutters which take the rain away to the cisterns cut into the granite below ground level. The granite courtyard has channels which also take rainwater into separate cisterns. Inside the inner wall there are twelve four stride diameter wells, all bored through the granite at angles into a fresh water aquifer, they vary in deepth the deepest being six hundred and fifty-five strides deep. Two of the wells are in huge hidden spaces survivors could retreat to and hide in. These spaces are only accessible via the system of booby trapped secret passageways that pervade the castle which would enable clean water and hidden supplies to be delivered to the remaining defenders in the event the castle had been taken and the other wells poisoned.

Wind powered, geared and ratcheted capstan winches can lift the water in huge pails to the cisterns. In the very rare event of no wind, horses, or even folk, could provide the power. The process of evaporating seawater to provide fresh drinking water is understandt,(64) and facilities for doing so are maintained and utilised by the ingeniators and the salt crafters, many of the later cross craft as Keep food preservers. Seawater can be pumped from the sea directly into the many Keep storage tanks, and is held in reserve gainst the event of fire.

Vessels of five hundred and fifty thousand weights can sail the estuary and dock at the moat dock where they can unload protected by the additional stone tower built in the moat for the purpose. The machiolated moat island tower is founded on the granite below the water level, and it is a long, narrow, easily defended structure. The ships don’t breach the curtain wall, they dock outside and alongside it, and goods and men are hoisted in protective cages by derrick cranes inside the curtain wall protections on the dock tower. The derrick cranes can reach the moat island tower which is the only way persons and supplies may access it.

The tower is built of solid bonded granite blocks from the bedrock to twenty strides above the water level and has living accommodation as well as weapons supplies in the chambers above that. Everything necessary for as many defenders as the tower could possibly require is in a permanently maintained state of readith.(65) The dock entrance and exit each have a double portcullis arrangement operated by tightly(66) protected gearing atop the curtain wall. The current of the Arder is such as to keep the mud away from the dock entrance. The narrowing of the moat serves the same purpose by flushing mud and debris out into the sea where the constant turbulence and current disperses it southwards down the coast quickly.

The moat current is assisted by the swiftly flowing Little Arder river coming from the south-east which joins it at its south-eastern corner. The Little Arder at one time ran in to the sea as a narrow deep channel dropping the last twenty feet as a force(67) over the edge of the granite, but its final sixteen hundred strides or so have been excavated along with some of the granite to form the southern run of the moat, and it is now fifty strides wide and a minimum of ten deep. The Little Arder is only little by comparison with the Arder, and the force of the current where it spills over into the sea as The Little Arder Force is considerable. Much more recently constructt than the Keep dock are the docks and dry docks on the north side of the Arder where there is a small settlement yclept Dockside.

The spaces between the concentric walls, protected from the extremes of wind, are intensively uest for food growing, poultry keeping and keeping livestock during the winter. The fertile soil, which is only a foot deep over the granite, has been brought in and been continually added to over the centuries. The rich estuarine mud, regularly dredged from the moat, mixt with seaweed, sawdust, wood-waste, stable bedding, old thatch, fire ashes, the sand that storms lift over the seaward parapet and even worn out clothing has provided most of the soil. All waste water and lavatory effluent is piped to these areas for the use of the growers.

Tender crops are grown gainst the warmth of the south facing walls, and there are areas bare of soil for fires which ward off the frost. There is a constant effort to conserve food and fodder for livestock from the milder times of the year, and huge supplies are held in the cooler store chambers at and near ground level. Livestock is brought into the castle at the end of the year and slaughtered at intervals prior to being stored in the freeze chambers, chambers in deep shade with shutters which are opened to the cold of winter and closed to the warmth of summer. Breeding stock is also over wintered within the castle.

OUTGANGSIDE

To the landward sides of the Keep is a maze of deep ponds which are permanently full of water many of which are uest as stew ponds for carp and other fish. The ponds, an artificial defensive device, extend for some two hundred strides from the moat. Despite the geothermal activity, to enable the fish to survive the winter the ponds have been dug twenty strides deep so that there is always some unfrozen water at the bottom. Where the road from the Keep finally emerges into the surrounding land with no more ponds the buildings of Outgangside begin.

The houses and buildings of Outgangside are mostly built of limestone from nearby quarries and oak from the endless supplies of Castle’s forests. Roofing, in the main, is of cleft wooden shingles, but a lot of buildings are thatched. Thatch is preferred because of its insulation properties, but straw and reed are not always available in the quantities required. Oft buildings originally shingled have subsequently been thatched over the shingles. The buildings are on streets that spread out radially like the sticks of a fan from the Keep road end. The streets are maekt of packed rubble topped with paving flags and are coped to shed water, but they can become unpleasantly muddy in wet weather since there are no walkways and street drainage is poor.

The water off the house roofs is channelled away with the road drainage in open ditches, and lavatory effluent is piped to a large, low lying area where vegetable waste matter is also composted. The resultant compost is eventually uest by the growers in the nearby area, of several million square strides,(68) where food is grown. This land, yclept The Growers’ Grounds, is subdivided into large plots rather than fields.

Nearly all the Folk who can, live in the Keep. There is plenty of available empty living and working space since only a tenth of the Keep is in use. However, many who live in the Keep have their workshops at Outgangside for the convenience it offers in terms of bringing in raw materials. Most of the Folk have an aversion to living too far from the Keep because in their minds population equates with security. There are a small number for whom living and working some whilth from the Keep is necessary, holders, miners, foresters, waggoners and ship crews to name but a few. There are also many who hunt or forage regularly away from the Keep and spend much of their lifes under canvas.

All of the Folk have kith who live in the Keep, and nearly all spend the winter season at the Keep, Outgangside or Dockside. Few spend the winter remote from the centre of population, and most have a winter craft they pursue when at the Keep. Many craft as volunteer cooks, kitcheners, chamberers and firekeepers to help the Keep function in the extreme cold weather.

DOCKSIDE
The dry docks are at Dockside, and all ship building and maintenance is done at Dockside because on that side of the Arder the bank is firm and pebbly, unlike near the Keep where all is estuarine mud. Originally started twenty years after the Fell Year as a simple jetty to enable the Folk to take advantage of the better hunting north of the river and to bring the meat back to the Keep quickly it was soon appreciated it was a much better site for ship building. The original inhabitants were all shipwrights, but it wasn’t long before their families joined them. Within twenty years most of the small settlement of shipwrights no longer returned to over-winter at the Keep. The settlement’s activities soon expanded to include all the crafts associated with ship building and outfitting: metal ore smelters, founders, smiths, sail makers, rope makers, general chandlers and many more.

Initially, Dockside had a preponderance of younger crafters, and it became known as the place to seek an agreän. The humorous phrase, to be on the dock, came to mean seeking an agreän. Though a very old fashioned expression now it is still sometimes uest, ofttimes a little unkindly, to describe someone desperate to find agreement. It was over a hundred years after the Fell Year before the first dry dock was built. Before then ships were beached at high tide on the sand and shingle and then winched to above the high water mark with horses, which had never been very satisfactory because the small tidal range meant it was hard work. Over the next hundred years another two dry docks were built in addition to digging out a large harbour.

Despite the slight difference in water level between low and high tide most ships can only sail over the igneous intrusion that forms a sill at the entrance to all the docks at high tide. The sill is of the same granite as the site of the Keep. There have been attempts to blast a deeper channel through the sill, but as yet none have been successful.

At the present time Dockside has a population of twelve hundred women, men and children, of which a fifth have no connection with ship building or maintenance. Most of them are hunters or growers though some waggoners are based at Dockside too.

Currently a large dry dock is being constructt which has temporarily increased the population of Dockside by over two hundred. It will be large enough to manage the six huge Explorer class ships that are going to be built to explore and exploit more of Castle than has ever been managed before. It is planned to expose the granite sill by gating off the river and to blast away its top two strides for a wiedth(69) of fifty strides

ANCIENT WORDS - OF JADDA

If one takes what ever animal product is available, however poor it be, cooks it with what ever vegetable matter is available, however poor that be, and one eats it and doesn’t die one has eaten jadda. Ancient tales tell of jadda maekt from shoon,(70) belts or similar cookt with grass, bark and the like. Another tells of jadda maekt with some what better ingredients if not what one would usually consider to be beseeming food for the Folk. Chlochan, a huge, dangerous to hunt, feline predator with revolting tasting flesh and kingfisher, an equally revolting tasting, small bird have both been recorded as ingredients of jadda. Too, there are tales of the Folk first eating slaters(71) which recorded them as being tasty if not fit food for the Folk at the time. Slaters are related to graill(72) and are no longer considered to be jadda but standard food items collected in bulk by the foragers using traps. The use of jadda, the obscene curse, is explained else where.

ANCIENT WORDS - OF GRAILL

Children are telt of the famine that befell the Folk before the Fell Year; the year when the dead were beyond the count of grief and the grief was beyond the heart of any. How long before the Fell Year none now know. The tale tells the tradition of eating graill with the fingers originated in days of famine when the little food available was shared so as many as possible could survive to continue when the famine ended. When graill were available they were available in quantity and all had as much to eat as they could hold. Fedd(73) to the point of surfeit, in times of desperate hardship, constant grief and haunting pain, the story tells of happy Folk feeding each other in joy with their fingers from their own plates and hints at further enjoyments.

No attempt is maekt to disguise or hide the tale’s sexual undercurrents from children which are mirrored by the way graill is eaten. A piece of graill is dipped in the accompanying sauce and offered to one’s partner who sucks both graill and sauce off the fingers of the offering hand. The tradition is that one winks at one’s partner whilst sharing the graill. It has oft been described as making love in public, and for many couples it is. Children fully partake in the ritual too, for it is considered to be an important part of their development. For younger children the sexual elements go over their heads and most are desperate to learn how to wink. The Folk consider when children become aware of the sexual elements and tensions involved then they are old enough to partake in them.

ANCIENT WORDS - OF SPEEDING

“To each and every one of us comes the time when we pass and must be sped. The Way, which is the codifyt(74) will of the Folk, demands continuity and a future for the Folk. Yet as individuals we leave a braeken trail, for sped we leave behind us pets, kith, clan, kin and family we lovt(75) and caert to(76) and they must all continue to be lovt and caert to. How can we as individuals ensure the continuity necessary for survival of all? The Way tells us how to do this and that is why we must nurture it and then live by it, for it is what we all in our deepest being know to be the only way the Folk will survive. The Way is what marks us as different from beasts. Should the Folk ever lose the Way we are loes(77) and to the beasts shall we return.”

NOTES on WORD USAGE

1 Elsewise, otherwise.
2 Uest, used.
3 Naemt, named.
4 She wills, is here being used as equivalent to she wants or she wishes. Want is only uest as a noun in Folk. Folk usage generally defaults to female third person singular and where there is no reason to differ refers to e.g. Judith and Storm not Storm and Judith. There are exceptions, most notably due to rank, a Master craftsman and his female apprentice would be referred to in that order. Reversal of this complex set of conventions would be seen as either a compliment or an insult depending on the exact circumstances.
5 Callt, called or named.
6 Maekt, made.
7 Lærer, an adult trainee.
8 Approven, approved.
9 Currently Yew is Lord of Castle and Rowan is his agreän.
10 Unbirtht, unborn.
11 Agreän(s), spouse(s), person or persons one has a marital agreement with.
12 Currently Siskin and her agreän Weir.
13 Currently Thomas is the Master at arms.
14 Currently Will is the Master huntsman.
15 Deadth, death.
16 Changt, changed.
17 Newfolk, new Folk
18 Newbirtht, newborn.
19 Mongst, amongst.
20 Spaken, spoken. The verb to speak is different in Folk, and uses spaek, spaeking, spake and spaken. Spaech is uest rather than speech. None of its forms have the letter ‘o’ in them.
21 Spaech, speech.
22 Highth, height or tallness.
23 Span. There are three spans to the Castle foot, so a span is approximately four Earth inches or one hundred millimetres.
24 Sunset, Folk word uest to describe the colour orange.
25 Well come, welcome.
26 Mixt, mixed.
27 Dien, died.
28 None, no-one.
29 Over, ago.
30 Fixt, fixed
31 Agreäns, spouses, person or persons one has a marital agreement with.
32 Braek, break. Like the verb to speak the verb to break is never conjugated with the letter ‘o’ in any of its forms.
33 Weäl, well being. Weälth, an abstract noun, that which brings or provides weäl, it is pronounced we +al (hard a as in as) + th, (wi:alð).
34 Have a care to, care about or care for.
35 Thief, thieve or steal, also a noun some one who thieves or steals.
36 Thieft, theft.
37 Naytheless, never the less or in any case.
38 One thousand acres, approximately four hundred hectares.
39 Berount, about or around.
40 Braeken, broken.
41 Braeks, breaks.
42 Gainst, against.
43 Deepth, depth.
44 Crenel, a gap in the top of a castle wall.
45 Weighth, weight.
46 Fillth, fullness or capacity, usually uest in a relative sense as here, the fillth varies little.
47 Yclept, named or called as in English. Unlike in modern English yclept is a word in common usage in Folk though the word is never uest in connection with persons only with animals and places, though there are other less common usages.
48 The Little Arder Force, a waterfall only twenty feet high, but fifty strides wide, and of vast flow.
49 Longth, length.
50 Ingeniator, original form of engineer (civil).
51 Constructt, constructed.
52 Thickth, thickness.
53 Portcullis, heavily armoured gate which slides vertically.
54 Trebuchet, a type of siege engine.
55 Crenellated, the characteristic of the top of a castle wall with alternating higher and lower sections,
56 Merlons, the higher sections of a crenellated wall.
57 Crenels, the lower sections of a crenellated wall.
58 Machiolated, machiolations are sections of overhanging stonework protecting defenders at the top of a castle wall. They enable material to be dropped on to attackers without defenders having to expose themselfs.
59 Allure, the walk way inside the parapet of a fortification, also known as a chemin-de-rond, an allure or a wall-walk.
60 Murder hole, a gap in the roof of a space whose primary purpose is illumination, but also available to defending archers and others.
61 Arrow loop, a hole whose primary function is for archers to fire at attackers. Also referred to as arrow slits or oillets.
62 These would be defended by right handed swordsmen who would have more space to wield a sword than a right handed attacker who would be hampered by the central column. Oppositely built stairs would be defended by left handed swordsmen. On Earth about one in seven flights was built to advantage left handed defenders. Attackers unaware of the staircase layout would be forced to fight under what ever circumstances they found themselves.
63 Whilth, duration of the journey.
64 Understandt, understood.
65 Readith, readiness.
66 Tightly, can mean soundly, properly, well or effectively depending on the context.
67 Force, waterfall.
68 Several million square strides, several hundred acres, a few hundred hectares.
69 Wiedth, width.
70 Shoon, shoes.
71 Slaters, woodlice. Woodlice are Isopods of within the suborder Oniscidea, there are over 5,000 known species on Earth. There are less than that on Castle where they can reach two wiedths long and both a wiedth high and wide.
72 Graill, a giant isopod that lives in the sea and uses the tideline possibly to breed between two and four nights a year. They can reach three feet long and forty weights. The plural of graill is graill.
73 Fedd, fed.
74 Codityt, codified.
75 Lovt, loved.
76 Caert to, cared for.
77 Loes, lost.