I'll admit, this was easily one of the toughest parts of building my fantasy world, maybe even the toughest. By and large, the world is largely unified under their goddess-queen, and the biggest nobles, the twelve Great Families, are particularly loyal to her. That said, the goddess-queen is beloved and trusted by the people, and she refuses to violate that trust, with this extending through to the Great Families, especially the three most involved with the military. While all three of these Great Families join together as the crux of the military, military matters, particularly war, ended up being rare, so fortress and bases, while still present, are nowhere as numerous as on Earth, and those that do exist tend to focus more on protecting against disasters (usually of the natural variety) rather than standing armies. Even with this unity, there are still some notable differences, though bear in mind that none of them are set in stone. Outside of what few military matters there are, one of these three Great Familes focused on cities, essentially becoming their world's police force, so their fortresses (or what could perhaps charitably be called such) function more like police stations, jails, and prisons - though thanks to national policy, the number of incarcerated remained low. Another Great Family focused on the countryside, essentially becoming their equivalent of the Parks and Wildlife Service in the US, so their fortresses are not only the most sprawling, but are the equivalent of the various bases used predominantly for training in the US due to this Family being the foremost experts in wilderness survival. The third Great Family watches over the seas and thus became not so much a navy as it is a coast guard, protecting anyone who went out to sea from the most dangerous of sea life and rescuing any survivors of lost ships. Outside of the Great Families, there are other fortresses, but these are always smaller - not because of any law, but because the more minor nobility recognized that it is best to not try to oppose any of the aforementioned three of the Great Families, as what standing military units there are function more like special forces than a traditional army, so they would get through any fortification built, regardless of how long it took or the method(s) used. It became a belief among the populace that if someone was building any sort of fortress and were not part of the Great Families, that someone had something to hide. As for the one and only palace, the one where the goddess-queen resides, it is quite different. In terms of size and function, it is much closer to the White House than to, say, Versailles. The goddess-queen is the only resident of the palace (for reasons I delved into in the story for which I built this world, and I will not be including these or else this post would be much longer), and what servants that are there function more like the staff at the White House. Styling is closer to that of Versailles, but that was done at the insistence of the Great Families rather than the goddess-queen (again, for reasons from the story). Regardless, despite the comparatively small size of the palace and its luxurious yet welcoming design and layout, it is arguably the most defensible location in all of this fantasy world, akin to how modern embassies are designed and built, and it is made even more so by the loyalty of the Great Families and the people in the town surrounding it. So yeah, you can see how coming up with these fortresses was pretty difficult, especially when I also included technological advancement for this fantasy world (and I am not including this for the same reasons regarding the palace, but feel free to imagine how that goes). Still, it was... maybe not so much fun as it was interesting and thought-provoking. It really made my inner military history buff ponder long and hard about so much.
I like the way castles are integrated into your setting. More so than just for usual defense! The goddess being the sole resident makes it quite unique compared to... well Versailles.
In my setting, one major city has a large bridge that crosses a river ravine connecting what is considered the north the country’s landmass to the south of the landmass. The city is on the northern side with walls and battlements increasing towards the river/bridge including (previously) a large castle keep right beside it, while the southern side has no major settlements and (after a brief and nearly disastrous rebellion following which all fortifications and structures there were leveled) was historically forbidden from any development. This was set up when the armies faithful to the current religious authority defeated their rivals of a different sect to the south and marched over the river to exile the sect off the landmass. As a result, the city was built right on the former divide of the sects with the religious authority’s headquarters as the centerpiece - the other side of the river soon cleared so the southern rulers could never again mount a defense and rise up to challenge the church or the lords in the north. In recent times, however, after the city went through many invasions and razings (as it turns out, no matter how good your defensive plan is, people just really like conquering important cities), the current lineage of rulers have placed a palace where the old castle keep once stood, and have recently been developing the other side of the river with the major addition of the palace of government as part of their project to centralize the state (much to the disdain of the ever-more-paranoid religious leadership, believing this a dangerous step toward empowering the south they’d mostly kept under northern rule).
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I'll admit, this was easily one of the toughest parts of building my fantasy world, maybe even the toughest. By and large, the world is largely unified under their goddess-queen, and the biggest nobles, the twelve Great Families, are particularly loyal to her. That said, the goddess-queen is beloved and trusted by the people, and she refuses to violate that trust, with this extending through to the Great Families, especially the three most involved with the military. While all three of these Great Families join together as the crux of the military, military matters, particularly war, ended up being rare, so fortress and bases, while still present, are nowhere as numerous as on Earth, and those that do exist tend to focus more on protecting against disasters (usually of the natural variety) rather than standing armies.
Even with this unity, there are still some notable differences, though bear in mind that none of them are set in stone. Outside of what few military matters there are, one of these three Great Familes focused on cities, essentially becoming their world's police force, so their fortresses (or what could perhaps charitably be called such) function more like police stations, jails, and prisons - though thanks to national policy, the number of incarcerated remained low. Another Great Family focused on the countryside, essentially becoming their equivalent of the Parks and Wildlife Service in the US, so their fortresses are not only the most sprawling, but are the equivalent of the various bases used predominantly for training in the US due to this Family being the foremost experts in wilderness survival. The third Great Family watches over the seas and thus became not so much a navy as it is a coast guard, protecting anyone who went out to sea from the most dangerous of sea life and rescuing any survivors of lost ships.
Outside of the Great Families, there are other fortresses, but these are always smaller - not because of any law, but because the more minor nobility recognized that it is best to not try to oppose any of the aforementioned three of the Great Families, as what standing military units there are function more like special forces than a traditional army, so they would get through any fortification built, regardless of how long it took or the method(s) used. It became a belief among the populace that if someone was building any sort of fortress and were not part of the Great Families, that someone had something to hide.
As for the one and only palace, the one where the goddess-queen resides, it is quite different. In terms of size and function, it is much closer to the White House than to, say, Versailles. The goddess-queen is the only resident of the palace (for reasons I delved into in the story for which I built this world, and I will not be including these or else this post would be much longer), and what servants that are there function more like the staff at the White House. Styling is closer to that of Versailles, but that was done at the insistence of the Great Families rather than the goddess-queen (again, for reasons from the story). Regardless, despite the comparatively small size of the palace and its luxurious yet welcoming design and layout, it is arguably the most defensible location in all of this fantasy world, akin to how modern embassies are designed and built, and it is made even more so by the loyalty of the Great Families and the people in the town surrounding it.
So yeah, you can see how coming up with these fortresses was pretty difficult, especially when I also included technological advancement for this fantasy world (and I am not including this for the same reasons regarding the palace, but feel free to imagine how that goes). Still, it was... maybe not so much fun as it was interesting and thought-provoking. It really made my inner military history buff ponder long and hard about so much.
I like the way castles are integrated into your setting. More so than just for usual defense! The goddess being the sole resident makes it quite unique compared to... well Versailles.
In my setting, one major city has a large bridge that crosses a river ravine connecting what is considered the north the country’s landmass to the south of the landmass. The city is on the northern side with walls and battlements increasing towards the river/bridge including (previously) a large castle keep right beside it, while the southern side has no major settlements and (after a brief and nearly disastrous rebellion following which all fortifications and structures there were leveled) was historically forbidden from any development.
This was set up when the armies faithful to the current religious authority defeated their rivals of a different sect to the south and marched over the river to exile the sect off the landmass. As a result, the city was built right on the former divide of the sects with the religious authority’s headquarters as the centerpiece - the other side of the river soon cleared so the southern rulers could never again mount a defense and rise up to challenge the church or the lords in the north.
In recent times, however, after the city went through many invasions and razings (as it turns out, no matter how good your defensive plan is, people just really like conquering important cities), the current lineage of rulers have placed a palace where the old castle keep once stood, and have recently been developing the other side of the river with the major addition of the palace of government as part of their project to centralize the state (much to the disdain of the ever-more-paranoid religious leadership, believing this a dangerous step toward empowering the south they’d mostly kept under northern rule).