The True WINTERFELL according to the books, EPIC 3d model, tour and comparison
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ต.ค. 2019
- Winterfell, the mighty castle of House Stark as seen in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is actually very different from its depiction in the popular TV series Game of Thrones. In this video I explain what's different in the books compared to the TV series and reveal what Winterfell should truly look like with a full 3d model that I spent weeks making.
A big thanks to Yorick for bringing my model into the Unreal Engine for the video. Here's a link to his art station account: yorickpostema.artstation.com
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Apparently the Winterfell SketchUp file is too big to upload to the warehouse so if you're wanting the main SketchUp file you can download it here: drive.google.com/open?id=14e8...
The Winterfell assets can be found here: drive.google.com/open?id=1C3o...
Unsurprisingly the Winterfell SketchUp file is too big for the SketchUp warehouse’s allowance so if you’re wanting a copy of the file you can find a download link at the bottom of the video’s description. Hope you enjoy and if you do end up using the model for something I’d love to see it so please remember to tweet me the results.
Hey Shad please do a fight analysis of the fights in Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans. No beam guns no beam sabers just good old metal weapons and industrial tools.
I'm on fall break at uni. Was supposed to go to chemistry, didn't today, got some back pain and it's my last morning class before i'm off for a few days. I haven't missed any days so far, no harm no foul. Your video was divine justification that i was supposed to skip class today before my long drive home. Thanks m8. When i get some extra cash I've been wanting to buy your novel! Can I hire you to come to dinner parties with me ? Hey, This is my friend shad, he's a NOVELIST. ~watches faces of my opponents light up with amazement for underestimating my friends~. love the channel shad thanks.
You brought castle Honorguard to Unreal engine...
Thats bloody awesome!
Hey Shad !
I'm a concept artist and mattepainter working for the Game/Movie industry
Would you want me to make some fully rendered Cinematographic shots of your 3D model as if they were out of a movie? This would be a pleasure to make !
Thanks for the vid !
Please do Casterly Rock as well, the show butchered it.
I see why Sansa was so angry when Robert Arryn destroy her snow model of Winterfell
The giant did it, Not noble lord Robert.
Sansa: "I spent 5 months building that!"
@@agent5866 That fucking giant got what was coming to him (got, see what I did there? got? jeje, Im so funny)
Sansaversity!
@@daddyleon, Shanshavershity
"Lord Stark the dead are attacking!"
"They can try..."
If only they did this Castle design. Now I want Shad make a castle model form Eragon the Dwarf city known as Furthrs Dul the first city in the dwarf capital. With the red crystal Rose included cuase the book makes me think it's the Whole Gosh Dam Mountain. While the movie... Made it..... Alot small
@@ambuknight1567 well the movie isn't known for being very good
@@mooshlovely639 I know I have I watch and read the movie and books. And honestly I don't understand why they treated like a Syfy Asylum fantasy movie in it's source material.
@@ambuknight1567 and now i need to reread this whole series the third time
@@ambuknight1567 took me a bit to figure out what we are talking about, since in my native language it has another (nonetheless similar ) name. But you are right, the movie was extremely disappointing😣
I love how huge all the castles in ASOIAF are. It’s like ehh screw it, some ancient magical race built them, no explanation needed beyond that. Big castles are just freaking cool
Well, Brandon, the builder, had the help of giants and the children of the forest.
@@andrewcody2181 According to Westerosi myths. It makes more sense that it was some ancient race.
@@giovannitigalo7011 well children of the forest would be “an ancient race” as would giants…
@@juniornisthal2216plus Brandon is a direct descendant of Garth Greenhand from the age of heroes, so he likely had magic himself, on top of giants, CotF, and more
@@starking2162 Brandon is not a direct descendant. Thats just a theory.
According to the wiki, firewood would not be as essential for heating though it would still be needed for cooking. This is because: "Winterfell has been built around an ancient godswood and over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, making Winterfell more comfortable than other castles during the harsh northern winters."
and in all the small houses and buildings? that is a lot of pipework being done
wood fires are also just a nice aesthetic and good for the human psyche
@@prcervi I did say 'as essential'. You'd still need and use it - just not as much.
Watercooling/heating the Winterfell keep like its Linus's new house
Obviously, this would limit the heating effect to the original stone buildings built by Bran the Builder but it could keep the roofs of those buildings clear of snow and ice - the TV rooftops are actually feasible, even sensible, if all they have to cope with is meltwater runoff.
And you could even use that runoff to fill underground cisterns such as Shad has done in his own Honorguard.
TV Winterfell: Looks like a small castle with misplaced architecture.
Shad's Winterfell: Looks like the capital and heart of the North.
Especially considering that the north is almost as big as all the southern Kingdoms combined it feels weird having Winterfell be a fraction of the Size of Casterly Rock, Kings Landing or Riverrun. And even if they wanted to go with a smaller size for the Castle they should still have put a normal town somewhere in the general vicinity.
@@DerPolygonianer Also they kept saying the North had such a small population compared to the other seven, which was just annoying. Compared to the other seven realms it has an average population, problem is it is spread out over an area bigger than any of the others. Dorne has the small population, the North just has its spread about.
@@Riku-zv5dk It definitely has a much lower population Density, but there is no good Reason why the North should have a lower Population than the Vale. The Numbers are kind of hard to estimate in the book. The north supposedly only has a Million people living there. But some things don't really add up. Also, for the most part the only numbers we ever get is soldiers. And Soldiers only make up a fraction of a working economy. We never ever see any farms in the series though. And nobody believes that they would only have farms in the Reach and transport all the Grain across the Country. That would give the Reach a Power that would make them the undisputed Ruler over Westeros.
@@DerPolygonianer And make the Reach the permanent centre of conflict . . .
@@DerPolygonianer That's TV logic. In the books, the estimated population of the North is more like 4-5 million (about the same as the Vale and the Riverlands), which is far more realistic.
It's actually very logical that Winterfell walls are so big, for all that we know, it was constructed in a time when people fought with giants on a regular basis
Giants actually helped build winterfell.
Bran the Builder had the help of Giants to build winterfell. A theory about the castle actually says it was the site the war for the dawn was won. Hence the name, Winterfell.
40 ft of snow on the outside during winter, walls have to be big.
I imagine it needs to be so big for when Winter comes and the North becomes impassable. There are glass gardens and hot springs, a great place to winter.
Id say its more to do with the stagnation of technology It doesn't seem to ever improve in the asoiaf universe after the andals byt whern you are constantly warring in peacetime you are probably going to keep improving your defences and after thousands of years you end up with a beast like Winterfell
Winterfell is huge. It’s a pretty big deal. Now you know why it’s so significant that Bran the Builder (who built the Wall) also built Winterfell.
Bran would have only built the oldest portion of the castle. As the Stark’s power and influence grew through the ages, so did castle and structures. The only part of Winterfell we can accurately attribute to Bran the Builder is The First Keep, The Godswood, and The Crypts
And the gatehouse at Harrenhal alone is as big as Winterfell. I really wish they would have gotten the scale of these castles right in the show
@@bloodmuffins793 no it's as big as the great keep of winterfell which is still huge
@@floridaball4896 Nah I'm pretty sure it's the kitchens at Harrenhal that are as big as Winterfell's great keep
@@bloodmuffins793 No. Those kitchens are as big as Winterfells *great hall,* not the entire great keep. I'm reading acok right now and it definetly said that the gatehouse of Harrenhal is as big as Winterfells great keep, not the entire Winterfell.
My understanding was that winter fell was made basically so the entire north could retreat to it during the harsher (imagine an extra long winter means extra years) winters. It stores a large percentage of the north food supply for winter
in the show, the size of winterfell confused me because if they're going to shelter so many people and store food for the people, shouldn't the castle size be huge?
Next do King’s Landing.
Shad three years later, “The walls are done.”
Harrenhal would be truly EPIC. But that would take an eternity to build.
Reiyya maybe he could do Dragonstone
Id wager Shad will have all the castles of Westeros modeled and the friggin last book still wont be finished. :D
Dominik Strnad if he does do all the castles, we have our map for a good Song of Ice and Fire video game. Lol
Of course someone already did it in Minecraft. th-cam.com/video/Ap5uzgONqE4/w-d-xo.html
Who would make a more authentic, realistic, and epic Winterfell?
HBO with nearly unlimited resources
Or a nerdy boi with sketchup and a fondness for castles?
But what about dragons?
The Lord of Winterfell bent the knee rather than face that kind of headache from the Targs
Dont forget hes also Australian
I'd say Shads relationship with castles is much too intense to be described as a mere fondness
The true extent of his love for castles is unimaginable
I think sometimes people forgot that Winterfell was once a kingdom. All of the seven great houses was once a kingdom, so it make sense that it would be massive since it was an ancient castle that used to house a king. Even when I was watching the series I kept thinking "Why is Winterfell so small, if it was once a kingdom, where would the northeners live?"
Winterfell being a kingdom does not affect the size of its kings' castle. There are huge and small kingsdoms even today, and the king of Sweden will have a bigger castle than the king of Agbassa (Nigeria). Also, we have a real united Kingdom in our world (it is calles United Kingdom) and the castles of their once separate kingdoms are of different size.
@@davidkassl2799 yes I completely agree. But Winterfell in the series, to me! Is too small. More like a lord's house rather than fit for a king. Especially if it should house some of its citizens in the long winters.
@@letivarys9607 Northerners under Stark rule would not live IN Winterfell, they would live around it. Only the King and his family lives in the castle called Winterfell.
@@letivarys9607 the north is the most vast of the kingdoms they're not going to all live in Winterfell. That's how you get a rats nest like kings landing
The north was its own kingdom not winterfell that would be a tiny kingdom
8:30 Winterfell is referred to as a uniquely large castle within the books a lot. Harrenhall is bigger than Winterfell (Harrenhall is grotesquely large), but Riverrun definitely isn't. That to one side, this is insane. I'm getting a headache just looking at this. To be fair GRRM has acknowledged that he's really bad at scale so I dont think he knew Winterfell would be this absurdly big
It makes sense that it's this large though. The Stark territory is massive and the castle had been slightly remodeled as the 8000 years went by.
@@brianmerritt5410 except The North is mostly empty. Them having enough men to garrison a castle this size would put a significant strain on resources
I think that it's rather fair because it was Bran the builder who made Winterfell. Unless he made the old keep and tower?
@@dansomething7742 The North has a similar population to dorne and the Vale, it’s nowhere near as empty as people make it seem.
@Legbiter 14 true but it's much bigger. Which makes it comparatively emptier
If Winterfell, supposedly a conservatively sized castle, looks like this, then I am seriously scared what Harrenhal looks like.
There is a reason being lord of Harrenhal is considered cursed. Either you know you can't afford it, or you'll learn the hard way.
I'm pretty sure that Winterfell was considered to be quite large even in the Song of Ice and fire universe
It's the size of New York.
if i remember right the towers of Harrenhal were said to be so tall they would touch the clouds.
Winterfell is 1/3 the size of Harrenhall if I remember correctly, I think the Godswood is somewhere around 20 acres.
Send this to George, he might hate fanfiction but he LOVES fan art, especially something as detailed and historically respectful as this
Just imagine this in a game engine like the unreal engine, with complete interiors and the catacombs below the castle, that would be awesome
@@warrengouldthorpe5091 I don't think there's an engine strong enough to handle something this big. Especially if we're talking open-world of the entirety of Westeros
@@nikki607 thats actually a good point maybe in 20/30 years there might be but if there was a game based around westeros they probably would shrink the map down to make it smaller so computers and games consoles could handle it, a bit like how skyrim is meant to be a massive continent and each city is ment to be massive but isn't
Acutally this would be fairly easy. All those houses and walls are pretty low poly and the textures are not that high rez. if you would make the interior lowpoly aswell it would work easily. How do you think Witcher III is possible otherwise? - > Studied 3D Art and Game Design
@@50733Blabla1337 You could do it with high resolution, the way you can do it is with level streaming. You can unload alot of things once you are in the city, You can make it like skyrim handles it. This way you can have massive cities without loosing performance. You could even make subsections in the city with loading screens. And the loadingscreens would not even be that long, although you will loose immersiveness by adding the loadingscreens.
Riverrun is actually nowhere near the size of Winterfell. Winterfell is probably the 2nd largest man-made castle in Westeros after Harrenhal (Casterly Rock is basically a carved out mountain).
as opposed to the naturally-occuring castles of course
@@metallicoustic6733 What? You haven't heard of Squirrel-made castles?
@@AstaraBrightwing talking castles here
@@metallicoustic6733 Valyrians build their castles using dragons and magic 🤷🏽♀️
@@Ariaasu Forts (No castles except Dragonstone which is more fort
This castle is so defensible it looks like they could hold back the armies of the dead.
Of corse!
Then the geniuses chose to fight outside it.
@@cheesecakeisgross4645 Let's hope GRRM would rid us of that
Should we twit this to George R.R. Martin? If he liked a drawing of the throne he’s gonna be amazed by your model.
Please do!
Everyone need to do it so he'd actually watch it. I already did mine.
Supposedly he doesn't listen to fan theories and I'm not sure if it would leak into this.
@@mrprimor227 hopefully he'd appreciate the sheer effort and detail that went into this. It's not like shad is making up a load of bs fan theory stuff...
@@mrprimor227 this isn't a fan theory. Fan theories are about who live, who dies, and things like that. This is taking the books, and creating a model based off of what the author already created. Also Shad, wonderful job, both by you and your crew.
Stone mason: So how many towers do you want?
The Starks: *YES*
D&D: here's our winterfell design
*Eddard Stark has left the chat*
The starks are older than all the other paramount houses the only houses as old as them are just vassals. They lived there for thousands of years.
I mean.... It was built by the same guy who built the Great Wall if the North lol. What do you think Bran The Builder would do in his own home? With a name like "The Builder"? hehe Plus it was back in the times where Giants and magic was more known and more available :)
@@JaayCeez " Hey Bran so why do they call you the Builder anyway? "
* Bran, putting the final touches on the 478th tower on Winterfell *
" I dunno man, people are weird ya know "
* Giant slotting a roof on a citadel like a Lego *
" Eyyy Jerry careful will ya! "
@@TwinIonEngines haha, yup, seems about right.
A part of the story that I find even more amazing now that I can visualize the scale of Winterfell, is that Theon and his Ironborn men climbed these walls to take the castle.
Ironborn were hardcore raiders
Martin has admitted he was bad with scales but it being massive does explain. How it was hard to find bran and rickon when they were escaping
How many men did Theon have with him again? Surely it would have been impossible to really "take Winterfell", let alone hold onto it for even a tiny amount of time (I.e. garrison it), and that's ignoring the strategic problems.
How many troops would he need to control all that area? Doesn't matter if he took the key keep, the sheer size would make it like trying to hold a city with a tiny force. He wouldn't have enough men to control more than a tiny percentage of it.
@antiochus87 most of Winterfells garrison left with Robb for the war, a very small amount of men were left behind and most of those left to go free Torhens Square from the ironborn by Brans order. Which left an already very undermaned castle essentially empty. Even then the only reason the Iron born got into the castle was because Theon knew a bunch of stuff about the castle that allowed them to sneak in.
@@aqueousvessel8 Thanks for replying. Interesting. It seems to me that Winterfell is impractically big and extremely difficult to defend, and the Starks couldn't really hold they fortress for the same reason Theon couldn't, but with the only advantage being for them it was in friendly territory.
It seems too big for a reasonable garrison, and the North too empty, bleak and underpopulated to support the kind of garrison to cover all its defenses effectively, so a well provisioned enemy would wear them down in a siege.
So basically the show's version of Winterfell was a giant's outhouse.
the show version of Winterfell looks pretty dull not gonna lie
@@abominable.7800 The show version is still quite impressive. Keep in mind they created the castle back in 2009 when filming and production began.
Shad: "100 000 people could be on those walls in the case of a big battle"
Battle of Winterfell: *places majority of army outside*
Wouldn't make much of a difference if the White Walkers could besiege the castle indefinitely - the defenders would run out of food at some point, what with that amount of people manning the defenses.
@@kaptenlemper That's probably true. But that would mean Winterfell binds the majority of the White Walker forces for the siege over a long amount of time instead of adding it's defenders right to the enemy forces. Almost like it was designed for exactly that purpose...
@@GanzBestimmt but the white walkers have infinite amount of time. Will never get hungry or tired. So... having yourself and an army of hundred thousand confined in a castle would still be a bad idea.
In the show version of Winterfell, there is no chance that 100.000 people could be inside Winterfell you idiot.
@@arvinvillaluz5097 Totally agree. But it would be even worse to have your army confined right in front of the castle walls. The other option would have been to flee south. But to stand your ground and not using your most valuable asset is kinda suicidal.
Winterfell in the TV show was barely a castle. Now this model looks like it is prepared to fight against the White Walkers.
Which is what it was designed for
Well yes and no, they where designed against dragons. That's why they the castle where so massive in the book.
In the series the castles are a joke like Shad says.
@@11Berry113 They wheren't designed against dragons. Thats why 3 dragon riders managed to unite westeros. Herranhal was completly invincible to any normal army, and it was gone within hour upon a dragon assault.
TV-Winterfell, was fine. It has the scale and look of what you might expect from a medieval castle on earth. More relatable to the average viewers. Had they made Winterfell to scale; TV-audiences would be like:"suuuuuuure"....I like to think that the show and the books are two separate things and visions.
@@11Berry113 They weren't. Winterfell was built by Bradon the builder, who existed waaaay back before the Targaryens came to Westeros.
You forgot one detail. The granaries would need to be way bigger compared to conventional granaries since winter is coming and it's going to last for for quite a while.
Ya gotta remember for hundreds of years this was the capital seat of a massive Kingdom.
Actually it was thousands of years. It was build after The long night by Bran The Builder 8 000 years before A Game Of Thrones.
I see why Catelyn didn't want Bran climbing
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHHAHAH
I think it's a MIRACLE that Bran survived the fall!
Bran should have been a splatted tomato
Bran the broken.... More like bran the boy who lived 😂
@@DavidbarZeus1 Probably. But there's snow in the ground, so it must've softened the fall.
And Brand was climbing all this. Absolute mad lad.
*bran
Explains why Catelyn were so concerned lmao
Imagine falling 30 meters and only breaking your legs.
@@noahmay7708 he also broke his spine, but still he is very lucky to be alive
He trained for assassin's creed, but then 3eyes raven happened
The castle becomes even more impressive when you add in the facts that the keep was built on a spot where there is a natural abundance of warm water which is spread across the keep keeping it warm. Also the winters are multiple years long.
Winterfell was heated by pumping the hot springs throughout the castle walls. a crucial element that was missed -- but outstanding job nonetheless.
developers like cd project red should hire you, at least as a consultant, for adaptations of medieval/fantacy novels.
Theon's men scaling the walls, swimming the moat and then scaling the inner wall all with simple climbing spikes is suddenly so much more impressive...
The tactical genius that theon wasted for daddys favor is truly tragic.
Ludicrous rather. Many of the scenes in the book are ruined after seeing this. GRRM can't math. It is known.
@@LA-MJ It is known
@@dv9239 It is known
@@LA-MJ It always confused me, even in the books, that the Greyjoys had to have lost thousands of men at Fair Isle and thousands more defending the Iron Islands during the Rebellion just a decade ago and suddenly are able to invade the North with thousands more during the War of Five Kings and the North was just unable to repel them on their own?
The Manderlys have the most land, most gold, a thriving port and a whole fucking city and can only raise 2000 men? like that is straight up bullshit.
Your passion for fantasy and history is psychotic, and I LOVE IT
It makes theon's taking of winterfell that much impresive, visualizing how it looked like.
The scale of this castle only makes sense with the world building of Game of Thrones. This castle wasn't meant to house one great family and their servants. Nor was it built to withstand a siege of another nation. This castle was meant to house and entire people and withstand the siege of the White Walkers.
That's such a key component, isn't it? Assuming no magical influence, a people would only expend the amount of energy, time, sweat and resources to build just the inner wall if they had fear of a great, great enemy. A sanctuary to withstand a force that couldn't be confronted in open warfare but had to be outlasted.
yes, to defend all of the seven kingdoms from the zombie horde
That and in the books Winterfell was built over thousands of years and expanded, renovated and rebuilt. Not to mention the HUGE amount of resources the north has at its command
Thats why it was built where it was, where they defeated them for the first time, magic in the crypts, iron longswords to protect against the cold, the Crown of the Kings of Winter. It's all in the books, but the show threw it all away.
Of course, the idea to make a powerful stronghold to be against a mighty foe and they expected it to happen again since they live and breathe in the north, the Great Wall of the north is another representation of how large the walls of Winterfell is suppose to be as a go-to holdout. Of course with some logical reasoning of its past of why it was built for, how it should defend and what they are up against because they did not have a dragon at first to scale around the defending force's walls and did not expect to bust down the Great Wall until Dreanery's came about to play out in the movie, but Winterfell was a logical place for the dead to go to instead of King's Landing which is kind of odd to place. Although Winterfell should have fallen to the dead and the rest of the houses before king's landing.
I know my grammar is kind of shit because i have a difficult language learning disability. :)
This is what true passion looks like. You go, castle guy. You go.
Yas
Winterfell was warmed largely by hot springs, in the book they said that the hot springs heated the whole city castle, kat said the place was almost unbeatably hot
“Ned Stark always said 500 men could hold Winterfell again 10,000.”
Yeah they'd just need to man the gate, no one's getting through those walls anywhere
@@edwardbrown3721Who said though? I think a far smaller force could take the city. That's a lot of wall for these 500 men to cover, and not so many choke points.
@@antiochus87 You want to try to climb an 80ft wall? You can't really build a ladder that tall, and if there's a layer of ice/sleet, no way. The gatehouse is the only real way in
Theon climbed the wall@@theshadowling1
@@Diego-sb1bw Because he knew his way around it and had a lot of timing analyzing it.
This makes it much more believable when they say that Winterfell is a stronghold
Shad watched GoT and went full Crocodile Dundee. "That's not a castle. THIS is a castle"
'straya!
The fact that you're giving those files out for free is truly impressive, considering the amount of hours you spent. I salute you, sir!
I have to say I really didn't think your design would be particularly aesthetically pleasing but what you've done here is spectacularly beautiful. The white accents against the grey granite is a really nice touch. You should be proud.
The first time I saw Winterfell, it looked like something that had been here for thousands of years, and would be here for thousands of years after I was dead. I saw it, and I thought, "Of course Ned Stark crushed our rebellion and killed my brothers. We never stood a chance against a man who lives here." - Theon Greyjoy
From which book is that quote?
@@blackfalcon4708 Hey, it is from the TV show; Season 2 Episode 10 - Valar Morghulis.
Too bad Winterfell in TV series didn't really looked like it. More like some poor God forbidden military outpost.
@@Mandrak789 It did look like a castle but not the castle of the warden of the north. It looked like a castle for a different noble family.
@@rafaelmontoya1454 Yeah, Starks aren't rich as Lannisters and Tyrells, and North is not populated as South, but I would expect that one of the most powerful families in Westeros had bigger home.
6:50
Shad: I’m not gonna cut any corners
*shows us two circles*
Me: but Shad, there are no corners in that model.
That‘s why he can‘t cut them
Michelle Virinam indeed
Imagine managing the finances and upkeep of such a huge castle. Poor Catelyn.
One thing that could be implied through the text, any towers on the walls/the old keep should be square. The curved towers were described as being a later invention in the books, with the first men using most square towers, largely without mortar. Moat callin and one of the castle Jaime visits on the river lands was also like it. Winterfell is reported to be larger and older.
So, you see Shad.
With such an epic defensive capability, the only logical conclusion fighting the dead is placing all the infantries, calvery and artillery outside of this humongous epic defensive capability, Duh.
They didnt want to appear as filfty casuals
Lololololol
i agree, as an ewok who's genius is only rivled by the gods themselves... this is a valid statement
You should also put the women and children near the dead, and not evacuate them
I mean otherwise there would be the risk of your army getting lost within the castle😅
The night king would of looked at that an been like. "Ah hell they updated. Nah let's go around they'll freeze out. We're going around guys."
3 days later: "We made it guys, we made it around the castle!"
@@FlyingFox86 (Dragons fly overhead)
Night King: (Sniff) Somethings burning.
@@FlyingFox86 Lmao! Nice.
That's how I would've written season 8, episode 3. The Night King smells a trap and goes around; leaving a section of his army behind to distract the army of the living and kill as much of it as possible while the Night King heads south and spreads both winter and the long night (i.e. the clouds blot out the sun) across Westeros.
The night king only appears in the TV show, not the books. Don't know if he'll be written into future books. The books are much more complex and nuanced, and the night king might not be needed at all to make the story work.
The interesting thing about winterfell as a whole is that it's meant from the ground up, to be a capital city for the kingdom of the starks, so while it is bigger than many many conventional castles, I feel it's fitting for being so damn big.
The battle at Winterfell would have been so much more epic at your version of the castle.
The best part is knowing Martin, his actual mental image of Winterfell is probably half the size of this and he just sucked at scale.
probably
Winterfell was designed by Bran the Builder. The same guy who very possibly made the Wall. He didn't believe in "small"
Either that or GRRM just sucks at scale.
Martin has said that he didn't mean for the wall to be as big as he described it. They took him to a quarry that was 700 feet tall for some scouting, and he realized that 700 feet tall in his head was more like 200 feet tall in real life.
@@elephantofdoom lmao
@@elephantofdoom That probably only means that Martin has tiny feet.
If this is the true Winterfell, it makes putting your army outside the walls even more ridiculous.
I am sure the army of dead would run out of zombies, before they could climb all these huge walls😂
Yes, because entire army would fit there. Even with dragons, comfortably.
@@tz6070 "yea umm screw you Night King, I'm going home"
That's how the Seven Kingdoms stayed stable for thousands of years before Aegon's Conquest
With behemoths like Winterfell, Casterly Rock, Highgarden, Storm's End, and more - even some of the minor castles like Castamere and the Dreadfort are formidable opponents.
@@markpock1139 bra casterly rock is giving me nightmares and harrenhall
This design is truly shocking...... it shows how epic the castle is. And it also shows how it is impossible to be taken by force. I suppose this also indicates that Jon's force and Stannis's force can’t possibly take it by their armies. It is up to the vast northern's men to help Jon. It is a monstrosity... I can only imagine a long siege or dragons to defeat it. Couldn’t even imagine the white walkers overtaking it (well that’s up for debate but this castle is simply so majestic). Terrific work!
Remember, winter can last years. Inhabitants can be snow bound for months. Even disregarding sieges, the food stores would have to be massive. The greenhouses are meant to be productive in full winter utilizing the hot springs for warmth.
It was the Age of Heroes when Winterfell was built by legendary Shad the Builder
Imagine an army of White Walkers trying to take this version of Winterfell. A man can dream
With that moat, all that they needed to worry about would be the dragon!
Lol they'd have no chance..
They could pile the wights in one spot and climb over, fill the moat with more
@@Manaphypalka i havent calculated but id bet that 100,000 bodies would not be enough and even if it is, i dont think there will be enough wights left to climb it and still be a considerable threat
It was taken by a small company of Vikings.
They used subterfuge, but still.
If we ever visit Winterfell in House of the Dragon I really hope they redesign it very similar to this and the books. With the budget for the show I definitely think it’s possible.
Winterfell is confirmed to appear in season 2 so I hope for a redesign just like this one!
I love Shad’s redesign but they’re probably going to keep the same design as GOT for continuity purposes.
Time to reread the books and visualize this model everytime winterfell is mentioned.
You do realize that we now need a model for all the other castles, right? :D
Amazing work man, congratulations!
Highgarden!
Casterly rock! Oh and harrenhall!
Sunspear!
Dragonstone!
storm's end
I officially want to see Kings Landing, Casterly Rock, Dragonstone, and The Eyrie
I think they pretty much nailed King's Landing.
Highgarden pleez!
HARRENHAL
@@derdingsreturnsnochmal5177 Yes, exeot the red keep is not as tall in the books as it is in the show.
The Eyrie is so insane in the books lmao
Wow! I’ve always identified with House Stark out of all the houses in GoT, and this is such a treat. It’s a true castle for the King in the North! This is amazing! Thanks so much for creating this resource and sharing g it for free! ❤
I know this is years late, but I’m here. You made this more epic than anyone could imagine. George R.R. Martin should have a look at this. And maybe have you work with him on other castles in the future. And anyone wanting to create Medieval video games should be beating on your door. Again, this is truly amazing!
So Winterfell is a castle, in a castle, inside of a castle with a couple of castles around it and a park in it. This is capitol city levels of layers. This is where emperors want to live. Which I guess makes sense.
I mean back when the North was its own Kingdom it was the castle of Kings. Makes you wonder what Highgarden and Casterly Rock are really like
Don't forget the city outside the castle that can house all the folk from the surrounding lands during winter.
Highgarden we don't know, but Casterly Rock I always envisioned as something much more mundane (in terms of size by Westerosi standards). I'm sure it would be practically gilded, but they don't need to deal with internal heating and housing for the surrounding lands during winter, plus they're in a much more naturally defensible position. Anything Bran the Builder made is going to be more impressive structurally, excepting anything made by a Valyrian.
@@Riku-zv5dk highgarden is like a much bigger Menas tirith. Just with only 2 tiers to it's cake like design.
And Casterly Rock is literally a hollowed out mountain on the ocean side.
@@davidwilson6577 if you google those places then some images from the book "The World of Ice and Fire" where there are pictures of all of these locations will appear. They're literally the first pictures you see
To be fair, The North is like the size of Canada and Continental USA combined
Only 7 minutes in but man, having the Godswood in the middle actually makes that bit in the TV series "let's all retreat to the Godswood" actually make a slight amount of sense, as opposed to running back to the segmented off minimally-fortified and bottlenecked section of open garden in the TV show.
rayamoroso126 near the end of the battle of winter fell
The battle of winterfell was a disgrace. Just as the whole of 8th season.
@rayamoroso126 They were in the process of retreating to it. Arya easily killed the ancient super strong ice zombie warrior in like 5 seconds. Well before anyone else retreated to it. Theon and Brand were already there before the battle began. The idiotic "plan" was to use Bran as bait but then that seemed nearly completely forgotten.
Winterfell was built by Bran the Builder, the same guy that made The Wall, Storms End, and Highgarden. so it makes sense that this is a massive, impressive fortress that is meant to be one of the greatest castles in existence.
He didn't have anything to do with high garden
That was all Garth the gardener
Not high garden he built the HIGHTOWER in old town
This is stunning. Thanks for the taking the time to do it.
35:40 I actually remember reading that Winterfell was heated by the water of the hot springs. It was engineered in such a way that the hot water flowed through the walls of the buildings, heating them up.
but i think only in the main keep. However you would need massive amounts of firewood anyway :D
thank you, was my only note as well
I said that too and then i scrolled down and saw your comment
Good old Brandon the builder
@@romansongen6284 Nope. The hot water flows through all the inside walls of Winterfell. It's so warm that people flock there in the winter, because its the warmest castle in the North.
Ridiculous. Simply ridiculous. The patience and dedication...I'm in awe.
That being said, firewood is less necessary than you assumed. It isn't well defined or explained, but they have heating from underground, whether that's hot springs pumped through the keep, being on top of an active volcano (think Yellowstone not coastal volcanos), or sitting on top of an ancient dragon's lair.
I don't think much less firewood is needed, especially in the winter, which, worst case scenario, takes a couple of years. You'd want as much firewood as possible for those times, because chopping firewood during winter is difficult, because
A) snow everywhere makes transportation harder
B) The firewood needs more time to dry, since it's all wet and cold because of the snow.
C) Chopping (nearly) frozen wood requires more effort than normal wood.
@@sheikranl3949 My point was more about quantity than existence. Wood is still necessary, it's just that the need for it goes down due to the heating of such massive buildings burning way more than every other use the wood would be put to combined.
Having a built in heating system that runs 24/7-365 reduces the wood consumption by a huge margin. It doesn't reduce it to zero, but puts it in much more manageable numbers.
There'd probably still be stockpiles, but they wouldn't necessarily be in every available space of every building.
@@gogroxandurrac Though when we're talking about a family whose motto is "Winter is coming," I can't imagine there's any such thing as "too much firewood storage."
Slayer 0 this is the North! We don’t burn firewood, we burn broken southron hopes and dreams ;-)
@@gogroxandurrac If we were talking about normal northern European style winters, I'd definitely agree with you. However, the world that ISOAF is set in has harsh winters that last for years. With that in mind, Shad's wood storage makes sense, even if it is mostly used for cooking. I'm also not sure that there is enough food storage in this version of Winterfel to make it through one of the long winters, even with severe rationing.
You absolutely killed it Shad. This is one of the most breathtaking examples of a castle ive ever seen, and a faithful representation yo the books (unlike the live action, unsurprisingly).
100 hours well spent, Shad! Keep coming back to this video again and again. Your reasoning is crystal clear.
Who would win : this monstrosity vs
A few ironborn bois
This monstrosity with 10 men as garrison*
@@kenobi6257 that's what he(Bran) gets for not putting Ser 20 Goodmen on a double duty shift.
@@blitzkrieg2928 I see your a fan of Preston. Wonderful to be in such fine company.
Ford planned it all
Kraken. Hmmm. Strong. So long as they're in the sea! Take them out of the water... no bones! They collapse under their proud weight into a heap of _nothing..._
Nightking: Yeah we will.... save this one for later. Let's go somewhere else instead
QRAPGaming who is Nightking?
@@TheMorfra the leader of the Others in the show.
On the flip side, he has a dragon (in the show) and a metric asston of foot soldiers
@@Lakhshamana and he is given a gift of valyrian steel, wich nullifies all that.
Nightking: Wait, they're all going outside the walls to meet us? Awesome, let's do this.
I remember trying to build this Winterfell in Hardcore Minecraft..
*I died with the God's woods almost finished,* never even started to build the castle lmao
Now I wish this was done with all the other castles from the books. Dragonstone, especially. They made it look better in the spin-off, but it's the most fantasy of all the castles. 100s of Gargoyles aligning every wall. Giant stone dragons everywhere. The main gate is a giant Dragon's head. The gate being inside it's mouth. In the show, they made it very angular
Can we just sit back and applaud how Theon was able to take Winterfell with a handful of Greyjoys?
Not much gruads?
@@nxs12369 Acording to scale ..... even if every man and woman in there, just pick up rock and throw it to them, theon and his gang would die in agony :D
I mean...He did it through treachery and deceit...Not a proper invasion. So...That's less impressive.
@@spartans-4196 Honour doesn't really get you places. Game of Thrones, of all things, communicates that pretty well.
@@Eastcyning Still less impressive than a siege. Less effort required in trickery. But you're right. Trickery was more effective.
You are a literal GOD.
As a huge ASOIAF fan I can say that this is one of the greatest fan projects for the franchise I have ever seen.
Hope you make some for other ASOIAF castles.
Also your book is great.
This is absolutely incredible and now I want to read stories about the regular folk living and interacting in Winterfell!
Man, you put a ton of work into this and it's freaking awesome! Love your channel and major respect.
don't forget crypts are even bigger than winterfel itself
Well, do they have to fit a couple thousand years worth of dead people.
WHAT?!!😱
@@amyrat151 From a single family, so maybe not as big as it could be.
@@ginge641 Do extended family qualify for burial?
For a house that warns against the Others beyond the wall, they appear intent on having a undead army lying under their feet.
@@Gitami I imagine that's something George would want to tackle with a good reason. The show though......oof.
I've got to say as a draughtsman and civil/structural engineer I'm tremendously impressed with the model you have created. I admire the amount of time, effort and knowledge that has gone into making such a spectacular model! I take my hat off to you Shad 😊
He has experience as an architect, definitely helps.
he does? i wondered. i wish i was this good at sketchup.
I hadn't realised, it would certainly explain Shad's ability and understanding. I've used Revit quite a bit and other 3D cad software but am nowhere near the level that Shad has 😲
Did you have to do a civil engineering degree?
@@ElliWoelfin Even more shocking, he's an architect That Pays Attention To Physics!!!
Most architects have a bad habit of "I want the 5 story glass box with no columns" and the Structural Engineers are going "But a light breeze or a cup of water poured on the roof will make it collapse! No! Bad Architect!"
Truly impressive work. Must've been a great feeling to finally hit "Upload" and know that the project was finished!
Some things which came to mind as watching this:
At various points in the books, its pointed out that the terrain around the walls was not even. One side of Winterfell had a hill creeping up, causing the outer wall to be far shorter on that portion (like 40 feet or so).
Also, Winterfell is built on a hot spring, and the great keep has plumbing in its walls to carry the hot water throughout the castle, providing heat (I seem to recall).
Bran "the Builder" would be proud of this.
You mentioned Winterfell being like a small city, going by the books, you aren't far off.
It's said that during the winter, the people of the North all gather to Winterfell and take residence in what's referred to as the Winter Town, a smattering of buildings all up and around Winterfell.
Love what you've done here, this is incredible and an honorable nod to the grandeur of the aesthetics of the books. You're quite skilled Shad, keep it up.
I must say that this is very impressive, I’ve used sketchup professionally for years and taught myself how to use it at 14. But this is probably the most detailed and awe inspiring model I’ve ever seen! Well done!!
hi where you able to download it?
@@ShadowESH no, I was able to get like half of the elements but not the full model
@@jphughes6868 ok thanks for the info. But it seems that the link is down.
I'm simply gob smacked! It's the most beautiful rendition of a realistic fantasy castle I have ever had the pleasure of viewing.
If this was how I imagined Harrenhal looking, and Harrenhal is apparently three times the size of winterfell, I now realize where the curse of Harren the black comes from
Harrehal is absolutely MASSIVE by all accounts in the books. The Godswood at Harrenhal was 20 acres IIRC and it was inside the walls as well. Stormsend has walls like a mile thick (exg). The Dreadfort, Casterly Rock, and Highgarden were equally insane. Harrenhal takes the cake but is of course mostly ruin. Winterfell is supposedly one of the bigger and grander of the House seats. I wish they would have made them more epic for the show
What the books doesn't tell is that he had a very very small dick, and had to compensate somehow
I'd hate to imagine how the Stark ancestors must have squeezed their lands of resources and labor to build this place when Harren the Black essentially enslaved the entire Riverlands population to build his castle.
@@barbiquearea Harren built it during his lifetime, while the Starks and Northeners have been at Winterfell during thousands of years literally.
David Vosspoor Exactly. Winterfell was built slowly over thousands of years, not in one generation like Harrenhall.
Wonder what George R. R. Martin would think of this?
Would be probably mind-blown
"Look, I just wrote down some things that kinda made sense. I hadn't expected anyone to actually try and recreate it!"
"I maybe have overdone it."
@@Lancor84 I remember some people showed George a 700-foot deep canyon or something and he said he made the Wall to tall. He was thinking about 200 feet, it's just hard to think about in your head.
He probably will love it. He loves his Fans creativity. Especially when they took his descriptions and expand it into something even more real and correct his mistakes or fill the gaps which he left.
Shad definitely should send that to him.
This is very impressive! Having read the books before ever seeing the TV show, I was disappointed in the show's depiction. The books make reference to Winterfell being larger then the castle at King's Landing(Red Keep) in terms of area. Very cool.
Great job on this project! Really enjoyed watching this. One thing you might have overlooked, next to the thermal heating in the walls, is that it's mentioned that the castle grew & was renovated/changed a lot during all these centuries. When Bran is climbing it's said that all the buildings are pretty cluttered. In my imagination Winterfell was a mishmash of buildings overlapping each other, walkways going nowhere, abandoned buildings and awkward nooks. Here are some relevant quotes:
"The place had grown over the centuries like some monstous stone tree, and its branches where gnarled and thick and twisted, its roots sunk deep into the earth"
"The builders had not even leveled the earth; there were hills and valleys behind the walls of Winterfell"
Me: I am not watching this whole thing.
Me 41 minutes later: ...
This is why nobody watches TV anymore.
@@ninetalesxyo8842 is cable tv still a thing? roflol. I haven't paid for cable since torrents came out, and since getting Netflix. I figure, 100 plus dollars per month, to watch one or two of my favorite shows, versus, buying the dvd's and streaming live and waiting for it to come out on netflix, works just fine by me.
I was thinking the same thing when I started lol I watched the whooooooole thing!!
@@kimlightfoot yes. I still pay my cable bill. Now, there is a new writer on earth. He is blessed by the fires of hell. Please click me and see his writing. He will destroy the spiritual world very, very soon. Go love him.
👍👍😂😂
Well, that gives a whole other meaning to Theon Greyjoy taking Winterfell with 30 or so man in A Clash of Kings.
goes to show how badass ironborns are
I mean he snuck in due to not enough people covering the wall which looking at the size of winterfell isn’t surprising
@@wickeli yes that makes more sense... And summer was locked in the godswood
Also makes you wonder how Stannis plans to take it .
@@wickeli and when Rodrick shows up its quickly pointed out that the second they attack they'll be quickly overwhelmed so Theons only defense is to threaten to kill civilians inside the castle
this is truly spectacular! what an awesome achievement! thank you so much for this. the show would've looked so much better if they adhered to this version. the best to you and yours always.
WHAT-A-GREAT-WORK !
Watched it again. Every single time since the upload I am impressed. Such a great work, improved my P&P rounds. Thank you so much for givin' us so much proper information to set our gameplay in every setting (at table or larp) next level.
Winterfell is more akin to a city than a castle unlike Skyrim's "cities" that are more like fortified villages than anything else.
When I think of enormous castles, I always think of the fortifications of Constantinople. Those walls enclose an area of of 3456 acres.
You also have to keep in mind that in video games, cities are usually scaled down for the convenience of the player and to save processing power. Skyrim's cities are much bigger outside of the game
Yeah, I never felt any sense of scale when I entered any of Skyrim's cities. Luckily, my imagination filled in the gaps. :)
@@Yora21 Winterfell would be a similiar to the fortified town of Carcassonne France, on a slightly bigger scale.
It reminds me of the big Kremlins in Eastern Europe: A small city inside a fortress.
Shad releases it for Public Domain
ACOK modders “it’s free real estate.”
And the inevitable Bannerlird modders. In FULL GLORIOUS DETAIL! All of the sieges hours long game sessionx trying to take it!
A thing about the construction is that while not as front & center as say Hogwarts, Winterfell was supposedly built with magic as well as giants
The size is ridiculous, I love it
Shad: *recreates Winterfell*
Whitewalkers: Ight imma head out
Timothy bro imagine if Dany helped the rebuild the castle to look like this just in time for when the white walkers come and this is what the fight was in...
With this version of Winterfell, characters on the show would have not needed Plot Armor to survive.
OUTSTANDING WORK.
I pray that George R.R Martin has seen this. I could only imagine his joy at how good it looks