Dude, I just sat through 45 minutes of a guy lecturing me about the layout of a fictional castle, and by the end of it I was legit mad there wasn't MORE.............. I loved this so much hhhhhh
Its that you said the time of the video was 45m. I was just watching and thought it was a 15m Video and went through the commente out of random. Talk about a documentary :P
i'm a canadian engineer in mexico ; building a castle, in mountains, with a fairy-tale style..... [ cinder blocks, and mex are a bargain ] - seeing if dum-dum here, knows anything i do not.........
In my fantasy work in progress most castle design and building is done by dwarves. Im going to name the most famous dwarven architect of all time Shad or a variation of that name, in honor of this video.
As an architect who has used SketchUp professionally, I shudder to think of what the Components window for this model must look like, not to mention trying to use the Follow Me tool to get those walls in the right spots. This would take a 2-3 person team something like two weeks, working full-time, to get modeled at this level of detail. Hats off to you for the dedication and labor. Really impressive work!
This is what happens when somebody runs a channel that features reviews and critiques on the pros and cons of various castle designs. Internet moron: "Oh yeah? If you're so smart, why don't you make a better one?" Shad: "Alright then, I will!"
@@alexmorrison3442 Was just thinking I wish I had more free time, I would love to build this in minecraft. Havent touched minecraft in so long, this is so tempting.
@@g1jetfireandrainbowdash798 winter is coming 10 years dungeon Honestly for a survival shelter it would need to be pretty big, like big enough to feel like outside, like how basketball gyms can feel like that
you don't need billion of dollars, you just need to use your own head & design your own castle as the way you like it! Because billion dollars won't be enough for you to make all the changes you originally come up with! Changes cost more money than the original design :(
Okay lads, we cannot breach the gate houses like that or the zwingers will get us. George, get those cannons in place, they need tons of stones for their graves. Move your asses everyone
I appreciate where you located your granaries. While people would have a point about locating them against your inner bailey wall if they were smaller, the central location has another couple points of merit. Acts of war aside, pests and moisture are problems for any food store. Having your granaries located exposed, across an open area and elevated makes them less accessible to pests such as rodents. The exposed location also keeps the structure from getting too humid from being next to a wall which would block air circulation around the building. Granaries are also one of the first places you would think to sabotage the strength of any enemy's fortified holdout. Your granaries are easily monitored by any of a large number of sentry locations and there are no particularly advantageous approaches to them for a saboteur to use.
Large quantities of dry grain and grain/flour dust is also very flammable. There are several accounts of real castles surrendering after someone on the inside was bribed to set a match to the granary
I would imagine that several cats were very useful in keeping rodents at bay. 24 hour vermin patrol. If rats become a problem, dogs are quite handy, I speak from personal experience on a farm.
@@solarsailer4166 You are correct. There is written evidence the Princes of Wales held cats to be prized possessions in protecting their granary from rodents.
@@solarsailer4166 chickens as well. Chickens themselves are omnivores and have a broader diet than cats. Eating all manner of fibrous plant, insect, rodent, reptile or amphibian. A particularly large rat may give them trouble, but i've seen them team up to take one down. But things like roaches, flies, weevils, frogs, etc would be free game. The one drawback of using chickens as pest prevention is that they are diurnal, making them almost entirely inactive and passive at night.
"Zwinger" roughly translates to enforcer or cage, in case you'd prefer an english wording for it. The word Zwinger has also been used for attack dog cages.
Zwinger in terms of fortress building is the German word for bastion, the extruding part of a polygonal (star) fortress. In Shad castle this part of the wall sticks out but does not function as a bastion: th-cam.com/video/iQG7iVaFSGs/w-d-xo.html
or maybe "thwinger" (th-wing-er /θwɪŋɚ/) but idk I'm not a linguist the proto-west-germanic word was þwingan + er (or, thwinger, I guess) apparently the old frisian word was thwinga (thwinger), and old frisian was probably mutually intelligible with old english. someone who knows the sound changes from PWG to english would need to figure it out. but that person's not me, and we'll probably never know.
As a former soldier, I was entirely unsurprised when you said that the soldier's mess was right on top of the stable. Some general would have insisted on putting the troops where it stinks.
The reason is simple: dont let it stink or every single other soldier will asks who the fuck is the one that was responsible for cleaning the stables Do a poor job at it and well you just have to deal with the garrison
Lord is a catch all title, from the honourary courtesy of adressing someone "my lord", all the way to the Lord, as in God. As such it's not a descriptive term either and King or not any owner is lord of their castle(s). What I'm saying is that if thay are the lord of a castle, then they have some other title as well which no doubt will give you some better hint to what kind of castle you'd expect them to have.
@@Throku I will say lord is an actual title in a monarchy, however it is true that most nobility are referred to by lowborn as "my lord", unless you were a knight which you were referred to as sir. But if you were a Baron to King a peasant or servant would refer to you as my lord, or sometimes "my liege".
@@trentonios6024 No Lord is not a title in any monachy, it's something anyone get's to label themselves as that has any other title, A Lord is anyone with an award, grant or patent of arms, and that means pretty much anyone that¨'s born in a nobel family. Be they mere knight, or Marquee, or Duke, or just the cousin¨'s nephew of either of the latter.
@@TheAtkey I assumed those internal dividers in the windows are metal and tough enough to be impractical for the average fighting man to get through in armor without taking so long and being so likely to get stuck that a child with a kitchen knife could defend it. But yeah, same thought in terms of a potential weakness. I'd probably set it up so you can seal doors to those areas from outside the room so someone who gets in then has to get through another door. Hopefully by then you've gotten some defenders in place.
"Shad's First Word.. A Story" "Shad: Muh..mmm.. Shad's Mother: Oh my God, he's gonna say ma! He loves me! Shad, though more determined: Ma..maaa..maachhicolations! Shad's Mother: ???? Shad: DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, MOTHER. MACHICOLATIONS. THEY ARE CREATION ITSELF." To be continued...
As a plumber I'm well impressed with the effort to have proper water storage and sanitation, it's such a simple thing that many game developers simply ignore to install.
Game designers have a delicate balancing act... On one hand, there is the desire for extreme detail... On the other hand, there is gameplay; keeping the game fast and exciting. Too many details can slow down a game. Where you draw the line between detail and gameplay is, of course, up to the sensibilities of those playing the game; and can vary widely.
Pressure is key here. Without it, the plumbing system simply can't deliver its water supply between its ducts. And it turns out, many medieval (and ancient) aqueduct systems lacked proper sanitation, as we know from archaeological info from the Roman republic.
Just look at skyrim. The only places with 'toilets' are Solitude and some banditcamps where they put a bucket somewhere secluded and laid the 'Lusty Argonian Maid' next to it for reasons.
The fact that you have some background in construction explains a lot. Thanks for this! I'll be saving it to check my work when I design castles for RPGs.
Backstage Bum Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the burning birds thing was from some Kievan Queen, who’s also known for locking some dignitaries in a burning building. Still, the use of disease is a good idea, and knocking down the Don-Jon (if that’s how you spell it) with trebuchets and/or catapults could cause extensive damage to the keep and it’s food stores.
I can't help but admire the level of love, dedication, thought and detail you've put into this design. Absolutely brilliant. If i were to build myself a castle, I would definetly hire you to be one of the designers.
Can you please make a video on your design process? Did you start on the inside and work your way out, or with the outer walls and work your way in? How did you decide what rooms you wanted and which ones you didn't need in your castle?
From my experience working inside to outside is the easier one since you can first design the rooms you need and than build the castle around it. While doing it the other way I got many problems with using all the room I got or having not enough room in other places. (i.e for staircases)
The sheer amount of thought and detail you've put into this castle is utterly staggering. I can barely keep up with the nuances and particulars of your design it's incredible.
This was the nerdiest 45 minutes I've spent this year, and that's saying something! Nice work, Shad. I'd love to see it rendered in an FPS engine so we could walk through it.
I was working as a guide in the museum placed in former castle, one of my responsibilities was open and close tower. When you are closing tower, you need to go all the way up (to look for visitors) and let me tell you, stairs at the medieval towers are uneven, narrow nightmares. I admire our ancestors to function in these structures on baily basis.
This is the third time I come across uneven stairs used as a defensive feature. There was a TH-cam short describing this feature. Many of the people in the comment section disputed the creator's argument that uneven stairs were done deliberately. I commented that the original fortification of the governor's mansion in the city of San Juan in Puerto Rico included uneven stairs in the oldest towers. To take a tour of the mansion one has to sign a release from liability in case someone trips during the tour.
While they may have thought of it as a defense feature after it was built, it likely wasn't intentional. Things were just built weird and wonky back then. Those who lived there would've gotten used to it and it would've been second nature to them.
As a German and fan of medieval history as well as your content, I am glad you added the Zwinger. Also: False floors? Man and I thought this castle couldn't get any more awesome!
just had to say a thumbs up to having all the stairs go the correct direction. People don't realize the direction of the stairs was also a defensive measure. the only time the direction was reversed was if the defensive direction was down, which was rare. Makes it so when you are attacking vs. defending it would be difficult to strike the opponent seeing as most people are right handed. I think this is one reason why they demonized left handed people.
I really do not think the common perception of right and left handed people is caused by the direction of the staircase. The right hand/left hand superstition is responsible for the assumption that all soldiers are right handed.
As a civil engineer, I think the design of the bathrooms and waste management was most impressive, given the time period this would have been built lol
I know you are not a climbing expert, but castles were likely rendered with plaster because they are very easy to climb. You might think a sheer wall would be enough, but only a few millilitres is needed for an effective hold. Not only that, but plaster waterproofs a castle wall, and prevents freeze cracks, from water in the brickwork freezing and cracking the stone and mortar. Also, without plaster, a castle would need repointing every few years else ANYONE could climb it. Certainly weather causes a lot of damage to buildings if the temperature goes below 4*c which iirc is the temperature water begins to expand again. Seriously, please don't dismiss out of hand the defensive properties of plastered walls. My fiancee actually showed me how easy the walls on castles are to climb, she climbed halfway up Conwy castle's wall with no difficulty and no difficulty ahead (no climbing chalk or mat with us so it was too dangerous to go all the way up... and we did not have permission) And the wall we picked was no slouch either, it was a well restored piece of wall. I will also say even a perfect wall will be very vulnerable where towers meet the walls. if there is anything like a 90 degree interior angle in the wall, there does not have to be holds, there will be enough grip to chimney up the whole thing. And if you are not yet convinced, the Japanese sent whole armies up the walls by hand - you might say their walls are easier because they are sloped - the truth is somewhere inbetween, they are harder to climb than western castles, because they are specifically designed to make climbing harder, they have smooth plaster at the top, they actually curve up to near vertical, and have overhanging roofs and completely enclosed castles and towers. Oh, and waaay more machiculations. One easily implemented design feature would be to smooth out some of the harder corners with a 45 degree angle, this would make your castle much harder to climb. Also if you are not rendering your castle, don't use brickwork in the style of a de plastered castle! make that cut stonework really sharp and smooth, and have flush pointing. No sense in all that defence if people can zip up your walls in a minute or two is there?
Jacolite The Pumpkin it's still a good point. Plus what if the person scaling the wall has cover fire or the cover of darkness to aid him. Or what if the attackers strike one side of the castle, to distract, causing honourgaurds men to concentrate on that side, while men scale the opposite side of the castle? I, myself, was thinking of using just such a tactic. Building a massive earthen ramp that would allow my troops to simply march over the walls. While another portion of my army, under the cover of darkness, tunnels under the walls.
David Craft I’m not disagreeing, I am merely pointing out that it wouldn’t be as easy as he makes it out to be. Climbing a wall would also limit the amount of troops that could actually climb, and even if they do get up they will most likely be outnumbered. As for tunneling, that is a very noisy and long process. I think the people in Honourguard would figure it out before the attacking force has a chance to pull it off. As for the earthen ramp, it’s hard to build a ramp if you’re being buffeted by arrowfire and a ballista
I like the sort of 'hard fantasy' stylings here. It's a functional, practical castle, with a couple embellishments to look awesome. That's honestly what we probably would have built had we gotten a bit more architecture practice under our belt before artillery obsoleted most medieval fortifications
I mean, nowadays something the size of a fridge can turn anything within a mile of it into high energy plasma, its so lopsided in favor of the attackers its not funny. The attackers generally have entropy on their side.
For the servant's entrance room with the false floor, you need to make the interior door flush to the inside walls of the false floor room. With the current design as seen in 38:45, if a considerably large army somehow managed to breach the bailey and siege the keep (and more than likely they'd bust down the servant's quarter's door first), then the first few sorry sods would certainly fall to their demise, but it wouldn't be too difficult for an army with siege equipment and siege engineers to take planks and build a makeshift bridge to the stone lip of the 2nd interior door. At which point, the servant's quarters once again becomes an area of defensive compromise. This potential problem could be absolved by simply making the interior doors flush against the wall, thus eliminating that lip.
A character I'm playing in D&D has an old family castle that he's trying to retake as his personal quest. Your videos have helped me greatly in designing that castle.
This video is genuinely so helpful for a writer like myself. A friend of mine who is helping me make a medieval-fantasy castle sent me this, and I cannot that both of you enough. We are building it in Minecraft (as one does) and intend to write a novel set in said castle. Also, you have an extremely calming voice!
Dude, please get a medieval book published, I've been needing to get my hands on a historical fiction from that era for a while. I cant think of a better author to write it.
Pillars of The Earth and Column of Fire by Ken Follett are really good if you're into medieval historical fiction! :) There was a new one released as well, a prequel. It's my next read.
If there's one flaw in the neigh perfect defense of Honorguard it's the first and third gatehouses. Note, that's one flaw because it's only a weakpoint when taken in tandem. The first gatehouse is low enough that you could use siege engines to get on top of it. Not easily, mind, since you're going to need something like a 5 story siege tower with a 20 foot gangplank. After that you could batter down the door to the 3rd gatehouse or use siege ladders to get on top of it. Granted, you're still piling up the corpses of your comrades to use for cover against two flanking towers but it brings the difficulty from "Haha, no." to "You want to spend HOW MANY men?"
when i first saw honorguard in your winterfell video, my jaw dropped because honorguard looks EXACTLY like the castle i built in my mind for a book that i am writing. this is such a beautiful castle. thank you for your time and research going into this!
It feels good to be vindicated that even if not for exactly the reasons I argued, you didn't move the granary. Even with a trebuchet twice the size of Warwolf they would struggle to get anywhere near damaging that granary, and it makes so much more sense for the sake of practicality to put supplies central. Love the design.
I'm so sad there aren't secret passages. :( But seriously, great job! Not sure if you have a video on secret passages, but im sure everyone would love to see that!
The secret passages were rarely more than decently disguised servants tunnels, out of sight, out of mind, also allows them to quickly traverse the castle without happening across the general public
While a *stairway* in a secret tunnel does sound quite romantic, I think it's a pretty big extravagance for a tunnel explicitly for getting out of dodge. An escape tunnel would more likely use ladders, or footholds inside the shaft wall. """""Servant""""" tunnels on the other hand *might* use stairs.
I like a lot of Japanese castles, they have a lot of overlapping bottle necks, Osaka has a staging area that can be hidden from attackers and used to route breaches of the frontal attack. If we’ll orchestrated the defending squads could filter through the attackers then press them from behind through the staging area and into the deep water filled moat. Major Japanese castles often utilise zwingers I really like you’re design, I don’t know much about design principles so this has been a great video. I’d love to see you examine castle designs around the world not just European designs, (I’m a new subscriber from FNT, GDay from Adelaide)
Meanwhilst in Castle Honorguard, master builder doubting his life's work. _"If dragons attack we cannot hold. We have to prepare for the worst. Thine enemy force is strong, my liege, machicolations 'tis required"_
fantastic design, everything seems well thought out and it may be one of the most impregnable castles I have ever seen, sometimes I think hollywood and game companies should just ask you for consulting on their designs because my god man, I am in awe.
I'm curious to know how you find it easy to climb? you can't easily march ladders up the hill, nor can towers be rolled up with any measure of effectiveness, I suppose he could have put a moat or a series of ditches around it to make it harder to assail but even if the assailants got ladders on the first wall the second interior wall would have archers stationed to pick them off as they climb over. Then assuming they actually got a foothold on a section of the outer wall they'd have to carry ladders up the ladders to try and climb the second wall all while being shot at or having rocks tossed down on them, burning oil, etc. The more I think on it though there should probably be ditches, bitches love ditches. This castle would have to be sieged by a massive force capable of overwhelming the defenders or the only other feasible option is to starve them out, assailing the walls half-heartedly will only result in utter defeat. (which was usually the case with sieges anyways)
Holland He is clearly referring to directly climbing the walls themselves, no ladders or siege engines. Because a bare stone wall is supposedly a lot less slippery than a plastered white wall.
I like the idea of isolating the Military, Public, Administrative, Private, Servant, and Utility sections from each other beyond the bare minimum of access points.
The most dazzling castle this side of Minas Tirith, for sure. Amazing aesthetics and relentless attention to practicality. I'd love to live there as much as I'd dread trying to attack it.
King of Honorguard: HAH i'd like to see anyone get through these amazing defences, we're finally safe from any enemy King of Honorguard *get's killed by poison*
Somebody needs to recreate this in a videogame-like environment so it can be properly explored. I would love to just wander around in there for hours and get lost.
Taking this castle would be damn near impossible. Honorguard is unassailable. I think the only way to defeat Honorguard is to let it become obsolete over time. Imagine over the centuries Honorguard is a symbol of power over the land, unquestionable in its defenses. Outlasting siege after siege, then one day a cannon is rolled up and dismantled centuries of power in minutes. (Weeks probably, depending on the cannon size)
Samuelu Johnston I wouldn't use cannon, I'd use a massive ammount of incendiary fireworks-style rockets... Or in preceding eras, attack it through undermining the main keep directly close to the drain exhaust.
I'd use a cannon... it's called "Schwerer Gustav" Otherwise, since it's a fantasy world, I'll just draw upon another Fantasy World and ask Nurgle for Help. Have fun with plagues
WOW WOW WOW, so much thought & attention to detail in this castle, I’ll tell you what, if they built castles in today’s times, 100% this would be what every king/lord would definitely be looking for, you would be one of the richest people in the land, cause your reputation for designing the best castles would be the talk of the town. Well done sir, you’ve created one of the best castle designs ever
Extremely impressive. I did manage to find a fault tho - the false floor in the servant's kitchen entryway has the door swinging inward. If the pit is full of bodies, it might be rather hard to get that door open :P
Good point. All the historic false floors that I've heard of were floors that the defenders pulled back, rather than opened inward. There was one in David's Tower in Edinburgh Castle that was used to guard the king's chambers during wartime. But the tower crumbled under heavy cannon bombardment and ultimately was replaced with the half-moon battery.
I just realized. You want a trapfloor. Turn the floor 90 degrees, make only the outer part fall down, the inner part stable. This gives access between the two doors still in control of the defenders, but a death pit to the attackers. The liwered portion can be operated in a pull-up fashion via chains or ropes and pulleys.
@FlygawneDezert Mage of Mind and if there isn’t we just put two words together we already have, well atleast we did so until we started after WW2 to directly use every English word and tte to lazy, or to shameful to invent our own. And nowadays we start exchanging even words we already have.
If you want awesome German words, I recently came across this gem: Backpfeifengesicht. It basically translates to 'a face in desperate need of a slap'.
So yeah, I'm building this in Minecraft as a visual aid because I want to use it in D&D for the party to capture, clear of Undead, and claim. Thanks bro, I'll credit you and send you a link when it's done.
Project was probably abandoned, the party was most likely killed 100ft from the gate by the trebuchet after failing a stealth check. Defenses too tough rip.
The German "z" is not a soft English "z" because that is covered by the German "s" already. For the hard English "s" sound we have either a double "ss" or "ß", depending on the vocal beforehand - short vocal = "ss", long vocal = "ß"; best example: floss (3. person singular of flow or run but restricted to a liquid, pronounced just like the English floss - well, apart from the brighter "l" sound but that's another story) and Floß (raft, pronounced with a long stretched "oh"). The "z" is instead pronounced like a hard "ts" - think of Fi*tz*gerald or ha*ts*. Also the German "w" is pronounced like the English "v" (we have no equivalent of the English "w") so think of Zwinger being pronounced as "tsvinger". Funnily the German "v" is actually commonly pronounced like "f" with some foreign words like "visage" or "virus" keeping their English/French "v" sound. That means the German "v" is actually completely useless as it could either be replaced by an "f" or by a "w". Last but not least: in modern days Zwinger is more commonly known as a dog's cage.
And let's not forget that Zwinger comes from "zwingen" - to force something. So that's why a dog's cage is a Zwinger, because it forces the dog to stay inside
I want to live here. But as a cook, I don't want to have to bring in heavy loads of groceries on a regular basis over some rickety false floor and risk falling to my death just because my lord can't be bothered to implement more reasonable security measures. ;-P
Great Scot, it must have taken you ages to design this thing but the level of detail you've put in is extraordinary and I commend you for it. Amazing job, and let us know when your first book comes out, I'll be first in line ;D
I'm so happy to have found all this. I'm currently planning a fantasy game with a magic castle. But planning the castle is probably one of my biggest struggles. This will help me a lot.
Hmm, I had guessed, there wasn't an external chapel, because in a fantasy-setting the religious history/background might be different from what we know and thus impacted the design. Anyways, I'm intrigued to hear more about that story in the future :) Shads first law: A writers ability to solve conflicts with a castle is directly related to how well the reader understands said castle
This is amazing and incredibly helpful as a learning tool for someone wanting to write a story that's fantasy, but grounded in historical medieval realism and practicality.
This castle is built under the assumption of near infinite wealth. Even kings during the late period would rarely afford anything of this size. Very few could. For a family to own a massive castle this size, they would be pretty much a superpower of the time.
That was simply THE quickest 45-minute long video I've ever viewed! I'm not kidding or exaggerating! I was like...NO! It's over already?! That was absolutely fascinating, interesting, informative, and entertaining! If I were a billionaire, you would most definitely be a consultant on my castle/fortress/palace/evil lair/fortified compound design team, for damn sure! Well Done! And thanks for creating and sharing!
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is big on fantasy elements, especially when it comes to the cities of Aio; what the franchise is calling "districts" are actually single blocks. And city centres, in that topic, are actually complexes of multiple blocks, as are a sizeable fraction of districts. That being said, if you've seen sandcastle artists lately, some of them may instead be building sand-cities.
When I was a kid I had a book called something like "Incredible Cross-Sections" that depicted a castle in about a third of this amount of detail. This took me right back there and I love it to death. Thanks, Shad.
If that's not just about castles, that sounds like it has the potential to be extremely gory without warning, and it kinda sounds like that's the case.
The most of the additions and tweaks to the castle made since the last video seem to be things that really could have been done to it if it was real, so the original could have been what it looked like before receiving those upgrades in the story. Awesome job, this will serve as reference for me in thinking about fantasy castles in the future! Thank you for your service to the internet!
I had to back up multiple times just to get better awareness of what connect to what and where what is from other parts, but still. 1 hour well spent. I really hope you give us a video on just how this castle would be overtaken (other than draw out seige), how much man power it would take, and what different special units it will need (how many seige works and what type, wall climbers, spies, etc. And if the only way is by long, drawn out seige, how long would it hold with different amounts of notice/preparation?
JHstyle Won Very cool idea. Have a friend that doesn't know the ins and outs of the design, then have him plan out an assault to take it, and see if he can
Kay Lew It would be really helpful if we knew some more about this castle, mainly the number of their garrison, time period (and especially the weapons during this period to know what they would be using), and what is the composition of the hill leading up to the walls. I think we could use the slope that juts out the furthest (near the Don Jon) as a assault point.
Dude, this is so epic. I was kindof like “yawn.. fictional castle” but good god DAMN did you really build this with intention! So smart and well put together, I can tell you’ve obsessed over this a lot and I respect that! I would love to see this beautiful thing done up in all it’s glory some day. Like seriously someone better make this in Wurm or even Minecraft so we can explore it!
It looks to be made in Sketchup, which does have a mode giving you FPS-style controls and letting you walk around. I don't doubt he's walked around the castle. I've seen entire MUDs with game worlds smaller then this castle....
Ever since Shad released this video I've actually been putting a couple hours every week (when I can spare the time) into a Minecraft rendition of this behemoth. At the time of writing this comment I've almost finished up walling the keep. I have also designed the gatehouses and walls but construction on anything other than the keep won't see any progress until the keep is complete. Unfortunately, I no longer have a good way to clear dirt blocks because MCedit is incompatible with 1.13+.
I'm accepting the challenge of building this in minecraft all though I doubt it could be done in survival due to the hight limit, and scaling it right will be challenging.
Wow, I absolutely love this castle, the attention to detail is stunning. I would love to see this used in something like a video game, tabletop RPG, or a show.
I can’t believe it’s 3 years ago this was posted, I’m lost for words, also I can’t believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve, it feels like January was a month ago. As I’m getting older time gets faster.
I don't even need the headphone warning, i know you well enough Shad. Great Video, nice details and very well thought out. Your castle videos are my favorites.
Almost finished, so I doubt you have one, but I think a library would have been very nice. There seems to be lot of bedrooms. Maybe some rooms in the tower could be one? Just personal thing. Well, Shad liked it so must not be that weird.
Personally I would have had some kind of beacon connected to the don jon, it would give the tactical advantage of being able to spot trouble from a distance and send a message to any nearby allies too send aid. Beautiful design overall though, very well thought out.
im wondering about a library too. But i think it is possible that back in those days knowledge and books are so rare that having like twelve books would be quite a feat . So perhaps just a bookshelf would be enough?
Shad is not going for pure accuracy, but realistically combining fantasy and history. Adding library, while maybe not historic, would be plenty realistic.
Most of the elements in this castle seem to indicate a 14th century setting. At that point, it would make a lot of sense to have a sort of study/library, which would hold books collected by the family over the previous generations (books were a prestigious item and lords tended to collect them as a way to show off wealth regardless of their interest in them). That sort of room would also be used for archiving and paperwork; the lord would have literate servants, and probably a jurist, managing that for him. Also, if the lord himself or one of his predecessors was a book enthusiast, he could acquire a staggeringly big collection of books even as a lay lord. So I don't think it's historically inaccurate to add a library in a castle like this one; in fact, I think it might be there in more cases than not!
One does not simply walk into Honorguard.
Lol, oh man this was the best, well done sir, well done.
Mount Doom needed some drawbridges and portcullises.
The one castle to rule them all...
Well memed good sir!
Shadiversity if you don’t write this into the book, I will be sorely dissatisfied.
Dude, I just sat through 45 minutes of a guy lecturing me about the layout of a fictional castle, and by the end of it I was legit mad there wasn't MORE..............
I loved this so much hhhhhh
Yea kinda felt the same way but now I'm just trying to make a castle in any game now, thanks shad for your enthusiasm about castles and medevil stuff.
🤔 Might try making this in conan
Its that you said the time of the video was 45m. I was just watching and thought it was a 15m Video and went through the commente out of random. Talk about a documentary :P
He does all sorts of castle analysis. Check out his other videos. I love castles as well.
i'm a canadian engineer in mexico ;
building a castle, in mountains, with a fairy-tale style.....
[ cinder blocks, and mex are a bargain ]
- seeing if dum-dum here, knows anything i do not.........
If I run a dnd game again I'm going to include a architect named Shad, who's dream is to design a castle someday.
In my fantasy work in progress most castle design and building is done by dwarves. Im going to name the most famous dwarven architect of all time Shad or a variation of that name, in honor of this video.
I’ve got Honourgard the Keep of Viscount Shad the Shatterer in the far north of my world and it kinda looks like this
No, make Shad, the talented swordman.
Who always wears gambeson
Do you have a map of this castle made?
As an architect who has used SketchUp professionally, I shudder to think of what the Components window for this model must look like, not to mention trying to use the Follow Me tool to get those walls in the right spots. This would take a 2-3 person team something like two weeks, working full-time, to get modeled at this level of detail. Hats off to you for the dedication and labor. Really impressive work!
This is what happens when somebody runs a channel that features reviews and critiques on the pros and cons of various castle designs.
Internet moron: "Oh yeah? If you're so smart, why don't you make a better one?"
Shad: "Alright then, I will!"
I read that in his voice!
@@Hello-og I was actually thinking Buzz Lightyear, but Shad works too.
now we need him to make his own medieval town surrounding this with all his castle, who else wants to see that
Me
Definitely.
Yes, please!
Indeed
Omg yes!
He would be the best and worst person to play Minecraft with.
or medieval engineers...
Reminds me of me tbh. All I do is make fantasy stuff and 70% castles
my recommendations thought this is a minecraft video
Watching this video specifically for minecraft architecture.
@@alexmorrison3442 Was just thinking I wish I had more free time, I would love to build this in minecraft. Havent touched minecraft in so long, this is so tempting.
If I ever become a billionaire I'm hiring Shad to construct md a castle.
I too would want this, only addition being a bunker under said castle.
@@g1jetfireandrainbowdash798 winter is coming
10 years dungeon
Honestly for a survival shelter it would need to be pretty big, like big enough to feel like outside, like how basketball gyms can feel like that
Take a castle design like this and modify it a bit to be more efficient with modern building materials like concrete and steel
you don't need billion of dollars, you just need to use your own head & design your own castle as the way you like it! Because billion dollars won't be enough for you to make all the changes you originally come up with! Changes cost more money than the original design :(
Same
14:15 - "Headphone Warning"
Oh of course, thank you.
*puts headphones on*
dude... didnt the jaws theme give you an idea?
We need to get this guy working on a Castle Tycoon game.
Stronghold (the original) is one of the best medieval RTS games! Definitely the best for actually designing castles and fortresses!
Then there's age of empires 2...*facepalm*
Stronghold is shit when it comes to designing castles or giving you the feeling of having one...
ohmygodyes
someone get Shad up with a game developer, this needs to happen it would be such a cool game
Medieval Engineers is a game which allows you to build a trebuchet and a castle. grinding for resources is a bother, but it's one to look at
In this keep, every day is leg day.
lmao
I’m a simple man. I see leg day meme, I upvote leg day meme.
I feel like that applies to most heavily fortified keeps honestly
-Dying Laughing-
Never skip leg day
Shad's Winterfell: You need 10,000 men to man it.
Honorguard: You best be prepared to sacrifice 10,000 men for every section you take.
A keep is nothing more than a massive force multiplier from a statical analysis.
Now I'm just curious as to what would happen if they were two border fortresses that has decades of skirmishes between them.
@@harrymu148 Just look at the history between the Italian cities of Bologna and Modena.
Okay lads, we cannot breach the gate houses like that or the zwingers will get us. George, get those cannons in place, they need tons of stones for their graves. Move your asses everyone
@@general_paul this castle would be hard to siege even with cannons
I appreciate where you located your granaries. While people would have a point about locating them against your inner bailey wall if they were smaller, the central location has another couple points of merit. Acts of war aside, pests and moisture are problems for any food store. Having your granaries located exposed, across an open area and elevated makes them less accessible to pests such as rodents. The exposed location also keeps the structure from getting too humid from being next to a wall which would block air circulation around the building. Granaries are also one of the first places you would think to sabotage the strength of any enemy's fortified holdout. Your granaries are easily monitored by any of a large number of sentry locations and there are no particularly advantageous approaches to them for a saboteur to use.
Large quantities of dry grain and grain/flour dust is also very flammable. There are several accounts of real castles surrendering after someone on the inside was bribed to set a match to the granary
I would imagine that several cats were very useful in keeping rodents at bay. 24 hour vermin patrol. If rats become a problem, dogs are quite handy, I speak from personal experience on a farm.
@@solarsailer4166 You are correct. There is written evidence the Princes of Wales held cats to be prized possessions in protecting their granary from rodents.
@@solarsailer4166 chickens as well. Chickens themselves are omnivores and have a broader diet than cats. Eating all manner of fibrous plant, insect, rodent, reptile or amphibian. A particularly large rat may give them trouble, but i've seen them team up to take one down. But things like roaches, flies, weevils, frogs, etc would be free game. The one drawback of using chickens as pest prevention is that they are diurnal, making them almost entirely inactive and passive at night.
Tower highest rooms 25:05 - tower and feature window 27:25 - Ballroom - 30:24 - Bedrooms 32:43 - Donjon rooms 32:53 - Living rooms 33:33 - Public space 35:08 - Donjon room 36:46 - Servants rooms 37:52 - Basement 39:19 - Undercroft 41:30
You sir are a hero. Your tale will be told through the annals of history
I can see one benefit of living there: just by virtue of being there, you get no chance to skip leg day.
leg day everyday
Even the princess get legs day everyday.
"Zwinger" roughly translates to enforcer or cage, in case you'd prefer an english wording for it. The word Zwinger has also been used for attack dog cages.
It’s also used to refer to people who put their car keys into a bowl when they go to parties.
Zwinger = a kennel (roughly translated). a cage where you keep your dog e.g.
Zwinger in terms of fortress building is the German word for bastion, the extruding part of a polygonal (star) fortress. In Shad castle this part of the wall sticks out but does not function as a bastion: th-cam.com/video/iQG7iVaFSGs/w-d-xo.html
If this word survived in english it might be something like "twinger"
or maybe "thwinger" (th-wing-er /θwɪŋɚ/)
but idk I'm not a linguist
the proto-west-germanic word was þwingan + er (or, thwinger, I guess)
apparently the old frisian word was thwinga (thwinger), and old frisian was probably mutually intelligible with old english.
someone who knows the sound changes from PWG to english would need to figure it out. but that person's not me, and we'll probably never know.
"We have an ARMY!"
...
"We have a Shad."
danteelite we have MACHICOLATIONS!!!!
But what about Dragons?
@Jeremy G. Rainthong We have Ser Twenty of House Goodmen stationed at Bolton HQ
yeah .... shadman...
The Value of a good Shad can change the tide of any war
As a former soldier, I was entirely unsurprised when you said that the soldier's mess was right on top of the stable. Some general would have insisted on putting the troops where it stinks.
At least it wasn't above the shit pit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
stables dont actually stink. Being close to work is more handy I think.
But isn’t it also right next to the pub?
The reason is simple: dont let it stink or every single other soldier will asks who the fuck is the one that was responsible for cleaning the stables
Do a poor job at it and well you just have to deal with the garrison
What Mutton said. Also, if it doubles as the Inn, visitors can stable their horses then go to their rooms without going outside in winter.
If this is just a lords castle; I can’t wait to see the kings castle.
That would be Shads take on Winterfell.
Lord is a catch all title, from the honourary courtesy of adressing someone "my lord", all the way to the Lord, as in God.
As such it's not a descriptive term either and King or not any owner is lord of their castle(s). What I'm saying is that if thay are the lord of a castle, then they have some other title as well which no doubt will give you some better hint to what kind of castle you'd expect them to have.
@@adfkzaha24 Good grief. There really is no hope for humanity is there?
@@Throku I will say lord is an actual title in a monarchy, however it is true that most nobility are referred to by lowborn as "my lord", unless you were a knight which you were referred to as sir. But if you were a Baron to King a peasant or servant would refer to you as my lord, or sometimes "my liege".
@@trentonios6024 No Lord is not a title in any monachy, it's something anyone get's to label themselves as that has any other title, A Lord is anyone with an award, grant or patent of arms, and that means pretty much anyone that¨'s born in a nobel family. Be they mere knight, or Marquee, or Duke, or just the cousin¨'s nephew of either of the latter.
37:15
Keep-Builder:"There is no access inside the keep itself, from these battlements."
Rogue: **Shatters window**
Easily solved by 'pushing' those battlements out 30ft or so and planting a garden in the newly created space (just don't plant trees).
Yeah I noticed that weakness, an oversight by Shad or an intentional flaw?
@@TheAtkey I assumed those internal dividers in the windows are metal and tough enough to be impractical for the average fighting man to get through in armor without taking so long and being so likely to get stuck that a child with a kitchen knife could defend it. But yeah, same thought in terms of a potential weakness. I'd probably set it up so you can seal doors to those areas from outside the room so someone who gets in then has to get through another door. Hopefully by then you've gotten some defenders in place.
Guard: **shoots Rogue as they get stuck.**
Or, you know, you could just not have giant windows there. Maybe a few murder slits for archers to fire out onto the battlements.
"Shad's First Word.. A Story"
"Shad: Muh..mmm..
Shad's Mother: Oh my God, he's gonna say ma! He loves me!
Shad, though more determined: Ma..maaa..maachhicolations!
Shad's Mother: ????
Shad: DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, MOTHER. MACHICOLATIONS. THEY ARE CREATION ITSELF."
To be continued...
Aidan Piwnicki 😄😄😄😄😄
Aidan Piwnicki 😆
Aidan Piwnicki
It turns out MACHICOLATIONS are the source of all life.
Simply glorious (makes me wonder if a child's first word, or one of them, is that then how angry would the mother be at the father, haha).
@@mattaffenit9898 Machicolations are the powerhouse of the castle
As a plumber I'm well impressed with the effort to have proper water storage and sanitation, it's such a simple thing that many game developers simply ignore to install.
Game designers have a delicate balancing act...
On one hand, there is the desire for extreme detail...
On the other hand, there is gameplay; keeping the game fast and exciting.
Too many details can slow down a game.
Where you draw the line between detail and gameplay is, of course, up to the sensibilities of those playing the game; and can vary widely.
Also the desire to not have the player's gaming device of choice burst into flame when you load into a detailed cell.
There is no well there, though. Or did I miss something?
Pressure is key here. Without it, the plumbing system simply can't deliver its water supply between its ducts. And it turns out, many medieval (and ancient) aqueduct systems lacked proper sanitation, as we know from archaeological info from the Roman republic.
Just look at skyrim. The only places with 'toilets' are Solitude and some banditcamps where they put a bucket somewhere secluded and laid the 'Lusty Argonian Maid' next to it for reasons.
I could honestly watch a full series about this castle alone; can't wait to hear more about it!
Next episode: the moat of Honorguard and the Honorcarp therin
David Cox don't forget the killing fields. 😆😆😆
Yeah... me too!!
You do mean; can't wait to *read* more about it? ;)
Me too!
I'm doing rewatch of old shadiversity episodes and I just gotta say in love all the sheer number of kite shields in the castle.
The fact that you have some background in construction explains a lot.
Thanks for this! I'll be saving it to check my work when I design castles for RPGs.
When I got into this video, I thought: 45 minutes? That's a long one. 45 minutes later: It's over??
Time flies when you're having fun :)
It was the same for me!!!
Wow. To break into this castle you are really put through the zwinger
I scrolled down specifically to look for this comment.
I see a major weakness to Shad's impregnable castle. Plug up the toiletries drainage system.
@Backstage Bum you never know what secret passageways would be in there
@@noahtackett6264 Any passage out also works in.
Even secret aqueducts were found and blocked/poisoned.
Backstage Bum Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the burning birds thing was from some Kievan Queen, who’s also known for locking some dignitaries in a burning building. Still, the use of disease is a good idea, and knocking down the Don-Jon (if that’s how you spell it) with trebuchets and/or catapults could cause extensive damage to the keep and it’s food stores.
This is... mind-blowing. The amount of engineering and architectural consideration that went into this is insane. Downright impressive mate.
I can't help but admire the level of love, dedication, thought and detail you've put into this design. Absolutely brilliant. If i were to build myself a castle, I would definetly hire you to be one of the designers.
Can you please make a video on your design process? Did you start on the inside and work your way out, or with the outer walls and work your way in? How did you decide what rooms you wanted and which ones you didn't need in your castle?
From my experience working inside to outside is the easier one since you can first design the rooms you need and than build the castle around it. While doing it the other way I got many problems with using all the room I got or having not enough room in other places. (i.e for staircases)
Export this castle to Unity and do a first person walkthrough.
Was going to say the same, or one of the elder scroll games.
Koa T Honorguard would fit in quite well in High Rock
@@shalvaquthelia8414 you got my vote. How many do you need? D:
@@shalvaquthelia8414 did you make it? please DM me
@@shalvaquthelia8414 did you? :)
The sheer amount of thought and detail you've put into this castle is utterly staggering. I can barely keep up with the nuances and particulars of your design it's incredible.
So your castle is impenetrable?....BUT WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS?!!!!
"Curiosities on the far side of the world are no threat to us."
Yeah. That was my response after hearing his comments on catapults.
Ask Black Harren.
@Backstage Bum so true
And witches flying on brooms, fairies, harpies, and basically anything that can fly
This was the nerdiest 45 minutes I've spent this year, and that's saying something!
Nice work, Shad. I'd love to see it rendered in an FPS engine so we could walk through it.
Just 45 minutes? I had to pause and rewind back and forth to examine it for ~2 hours
nobody: Shad: 3 drawbridges, 8 portcullises, a zwinger, and a warwolf equivalent, just to be safe.
Bruh I don't even have a home-defense shotgun yet.
Need Shad in my life.
@@bjornarmar2462 do u americans really need a home defense shotgun that bad ?
Maxence yes. Minimum.
@@MaxenceBerrier at minimum your average american needs at least 2 home defense shotguns
oh and we will make the final gate out of steel
I was working as a guide in the museum placed in former castle, one of my responsibilities was open and close tower. When you are closing tower, you need to go all the way up (to look for visitors) and let me tell you, stairs at the medieval towers are uneven, narrow nightmares. I admire our ancestors to function in these structures on baily basis.
That's on purpose. One errant twitch and the whole enemy assault party is rolling down Family Guy style.
This is the third time I come across uneven stairs used as a defensive feature.
There was a TH-cam short describing this feature. Many of the people in the comment section disputed the creator's argument that uneven stairs were done deliberately.
I commented that the original fortification of the governor's mansion in the city of San Juan in Puerto Rico included uneven stairs in the oldest towers.
To take a tour of the mansion one has to sign a release from liability in case someone trips during the tour.
While they may have thought of it as a defense feature after it was built, it likely wasn't intentional. Things were just built weird and wonky back then. Those who lived there would've gotten used to it and it would've been second nature to them.
i love how the shields in the guard rooms have your coat of arms lol.
As a German and fan of medieval history as well as your content, I am glad you added the Zwinger.
Also: False floors? Man and I thought this castle couldn't get any more awesome!
just had to say a thumbs up to having all the stairs go the correct direction. People don't realize the direction of the stairs was also a defensive measure. the only time the direction was reversed was if the defensive direction was down, which was rare. Makes it so when you are attacking vs. defending it would be difficult to strike the opponent seeing as most people are right handed. I think this is one reason why they demonized left handed people.
It was what bothered me about the zwinger. It turns the wrong way lol
@@NickGreyden it does not matter there, it is so wide that you can swing a sword none the less
I really do not think the common perception of right and left handed people is caused by the direction of the staircase. The right hand/left hand superstition is responsible for the assumption that all soldiers are right handed.
The word "Epic" is lost on this design. I love it! Double Ultra Legendary! Awesome work Shad!
As a civil engineer, I think the design of the bathrooms and waste management was most impressive, given the time period this would have been built lol
Bathrooms on every floor like that is a serious luxury.
I know you are not a climbing expert, but castles were likely rendered with plaster because they are very easy to climb. You might think a sheer wall would be enough, but only a few millilitres is needed for an effective hold.
Not only that, but plaster waterproofs a castle wall, and prevents freeze cracks, from water in the brickwork freezing and cracking the stone and mortar.
Also, without plaster, a castle would need repointing every few years else ANYONE could climb it. Certainly weather causes a lot of damage to buildings if the temperature goes below 4*c which iirc is the temperature water begins to expand again.
Seriously, please don't dismiss out of hand the defensive properties of plastered walls.
My fiancee actually showed me how easy the walls on castles are to climb, she climbed halfway up Conwy castle's wall with no difficulty and no difficulty ahead (no climbing chalk or mat with us so it was too dangerous to go all the way up... and we did not have permission) And the wall we picked was no slouch either, it was a well restored piece of wall.
I will also say even a perfect wall will be very vulnerable where towers meet the walls. if there is anything like a 90 degree interior angle in the wall, there does not have to be holds, there will be enough grip to chimney up the whole thing.
And if you are not yet convinced, the Japanese sent whole armies up the walls by hand - you might say their walls are easier because they are sloped - the truth is somewhere inbetween, they are harder to climb than western castles, because they are specifically designed to make climbing harder, they have smooth plaster at the top, they actually curve up to near vertical, and have overhanging roofs and completely enclosed castles and towers. Oh, and waaay more machiculations.
One easily implemented design feature would be to smooth out some of the harder corners with a 45 degree angle, this would make your castle much harder to climb. Also if you are not rendering your castle, don't use brickwork in the style of a de plastered castle! make that cut stonework really sharp and smooth, and have flush pointing.
No sense in all that defence if people can zip up your walls in a minute or two is there?
Lubricate (oil, muddy water) the wall and try climb with battle gear.
One word, MATRICUUUUUUUUULATIONS!
If someone is climbing the wall, wouldn’t the Guards just be able to use the Machiculations to shoot arrows at them? Or drop rocks on their head?
Jacolite The Pumpkin it's still a good point.
Plus what if the person scaling the wall has cover fire or the cover of darkness to aid him.
Or what if the attackers strike one side of the castle, to distract, causing honourgaurds men to concentrate on that side, while men scale the opposite side of the castle?
I, myself, was thinking of using just such a tactic. Building a massive earthen ramp that would allow my troops to simply march over the walls.
While another portion of my army, under the cover of darkness, tunnels under the walls.
David Craft I’m not disagreeing, I am merely pointing out that it wouldn’t be as easy as he makes it out to be. Climbing a wall would also limit the amount of troops that could actually climb, and even if they do get up they will most likely be outnumbered. As for tunneling, that is a very noisy and long process. I think the people in Honourguard would figure it out before the attacking force has a chance to pull it off.
As for the earthen ramp, it’s hard to build a ramp if you’re being buffeted by arrowfire and a ballista
I'd hate to be a servant there, I'd get lost in the Keep for sure "What do you mean there's no access from here to there?!"
I'm wondering how many keys this castle needs to operate :)
Lance Elliott id love it, but only because I really enjoy climbing:D
Lance Elliott you should see aircraft carriers the bulkhead makes you have to go up and down to get to different sections 😃
Amokra Aircraft carriers is exactly where my brain went when I read the first comment.
Gabor Szabo - Mannny
This has to be the best video on Shad’s channel.
It’s so informative and unique
I like the sort of 'hard fantasy' stylings here. It's a functional, practical castle, with a couple embellishments to look awesome. That's honestly what we probably would have built had we gotten a bit more architecture practice under our belt before artillery obsoleted most medieval fortifications
In the end of the day, our ability to build will always be matched by our ability to knock shit down.
I mean, nowadays something the size of a fridge can turn anything within a mile of it into high energy plasma, its so lopsided in favor of the attackers its not funny. The attackers generally have entropy on their side.
For the servant's entrance room with the false floor, you need to make the interior door flush to the inside walls of the false floor room.
With the current design as seen in 38:45, if a considerably large army somehow managed to breach the bailey and siege the keep (and more than likely they'd bust down the servant's quarter's door first), then the first few sorry sods would certainly fall to their demise, but it wouldn't be too difficult for an army with siege equipment and siege engineers to take planks and build a makeshift bridge to the stone lip of the 2nd interior door. At which point, the servant's quarters once again becomes an area of defensive compromise. This potential problem could be absolved by simply making the interior doors flush against the wall, thus eliminating that lip.
Could be *solved. Not sure why you added the "ab"
Drew Kosonen does it matter that much?
A character I'm playing in D&D has an old family castle that he's trying to retake as his personal quest. Your videos have helped me greatly in designing that castle.
This video is genuinely so helpful for a writer like myself. A friend of mine who is helping me make a medieval-fantasy castle sent me this, and I cannot that both of you enough. We are building it in Minecraft (as one does) and intend to write a novel set in said castle.
Also, you have an extremely calming voice!
Dude, please get a medieval book published, I've been needing to get my hands on a historical fiction from that era for a while. I cant think of a better author to write it.
Pillars of The Earth and Column of Fire by Ken Follett are really good if you're into medieval historical fiction! :) There was a new one released as well, a prequel. It's my next read.
If there's one flaw in the neigh perfect defense of Honorguard it's the first and third gatehouses. Note, that's one flaw because it's only a weakpoint when taken in tandem. The first gatehouse is low enough that you could use siege engines to get on top of it. Not easily, mind, since you're going to need something like a 5 story siege tower with a 20 foot gangplank. After that you could batter down the door to the 3rd gatehouse or use siege ladders to get on top of it.
Granted, you're still piling up the corpses of your comrades to use for cover against two flanking towers but it brings the difficulty from "Haha, no." to "You want to spend HOW MANY men?"
If there isn't at least one instance of a character screaming "MACHICULATIONS!!!!!" in the book I'll be very disappointed.
when i first saw honorguard in your winterfell video, my jaw dropped because honorguard looks EXACTLY like the castle i built in my mind for a book that i am writing. this is such a beautiful castle. thank you for your time and research going into this!
You have to be the architect for those castles.
It ain't so grand if not made by Shad.
kirby march Barcena yeah because in modern german to force someone to dl sth. means jmd. zwingen etwas zu tun
It feels good to be vindicated that even if not for exactly the reasons I argued, you didn't move the granary. Even with a trebuchet twice the size of Warwolf they would struggle to get anywhere near damaging that granary, and it makes so much more sense for the sake of practicality to put supplies central. Love the design.
Thanks mate, I love seeing you guys thinking about all the different pros and cons.
I'm so sad there aren't secret passages. :(
But seriously, great job!
Not sure if you have a video on secret passages, but im sure everyone would love to see that!
Oh there probably are secret passages but that’s what they are, secret ;)
I believe the secret passages have to do with the way the feature tower's walls don't exactly align with the castle walls.
Indeed, good sir, there are, which is why he did not tell us in the vid. :)
The secret passages were rarely more than decently disguised servants tunnels, out of sight, out of mind, also allows them to quickly traverse the castle without happening across the general public
While a *stairway* in a secret tunnel does sound quite romantic, I think it's a pretty big extravagance for a tunnel explicitly for getting out of dodge. An escape tunnel would more likely use ladders, or footholds inside the shaft wall.
"""""Servant""""" tunnels on the other hand *might* use stairs.
I like a lot of Japanese castles, they have a lot of overlapping bottle necks, Osaka has a staging area that can be hidden from attackers and used to route breaches of the frontal attack. If we’ll orchestrated the defending squads could filter through the attackers then press them from behind through the staging area and into the deep water filled moat.
Major Japanese castles often utilise zwingers
I really like you’re design, I don’t know much about design principles so this has been a great video. I’d love to see you examine castle designs around the world not just European designs, (I’m a new subscriber from FNT, GDay from Adelaide)
Meanwhilst in Castle Honorguard, master builder doubting his life's work. _"If dragons attack we cannot hold. We have to prepare for the worst. Thine enemy force is strong, my liege, machicolations 'tis required"_
fantastic design, everything seems well thought out and it may be one of the most impregnable castles I have ever seen, sometimes I think hollywood and game companies should just ask you for consulting on their designs because my god man, I am in awe.
He forgot one thing though, this castle is extremely easy to climb. Render is not just for decoration!
I'm curious to know how you find it easy to climb? you can't easily march ladders up the hill, nor can towers be rolled up with any measure of effectiveness, I suppose he could have put a moat or a series of ditches around it to make it harder to assail but even if the assailants got ladders on the first wall the second interior wall would have archers stationed to pick them off as they climb over. Then assuming they actually got a foothold on a section of the outer wall they'd have to carry ladders up the ladders to try and climb the second wall all while being shot at or having rocks tossed down on them, burning oil, etc.
The more I think on it though there should probably be ditches, bitches love ditches.
This castle would have to be sieged by a massive force capable of overwhelming the defenders or the only other feasible option is to starve them out, assailing the walls half-heartedly will only result in utter defeat. (which was usually the case with sieges anyways)
Holland He is clearly referring to directly climbing the walls themselves, no ladders or siege engines. Because a bare stone wall is supposedly a lot less slippery than a plastered white wall.
I can't wait to read your book.
I like the idea of isolating the Military, Public, Administrative, Private, Servant, and Utility sections from each other beyond the bare minimum of access points.
The most dazzling castle this side of Minas Tirith, for sure. Amazing aesthetics and relentless attention to practicality. I'd love to live there as much as I'd dread trying to attack it.
King of Honorguard: HAH i'd like to see anyone get through these amazing defences, we're finally safe from any enemy
King of Honorguard *get's killed by poison*
“Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me.”
Coward. Smart but still.
But what if we apply a tall siege tower and use it as a platform to launch Da VInci Gliders? And go OVER the walls?
Cough cough Soviet time travelers cough cough
gets killed by stinky assassins that climbed through the gravity latrines
Those exposed beams also make a great place to hang the banners of your vanquished foes.
Or ya know, _your vanquished foes._
^~^
Or the bodies
Man this channel is such a gold mine for fantasy writters i love it
It would be amazing to see a movie portraying a siege of this castle!
It would probably be a long blocade until surrender, nothing that amazing.
Or they would just-
"CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!"
Hollywood and tactics don't mesh well.
John Mosser best way would to be starve them out
A simulation of an attack would be cool. Not a starvation siege but full on take the castle attack.
ON IT!
Somebody needs to recreate this in a videogame-like environment so it can be properly explored. I would love to just wander around in there for hours and get lost.
Castle walking simulator. That'd be so great!
If I had the time, I would love to make this in the Unity Game Engine and make a simple POV agent so you could walk around it and fly around it.
Quick, some one mod it in to skyrim
Oh man, I was just thinking the exact thing. This would make for an awesome map for a Thief fan mission. I hope someone gets around to making one
There's a game called medieval engineers that might be able to do a half-decent recreation.
Taking this castle would be damn near impossible. Honorguard is unassailable. I think the only way to defeat Honorguard is to let it become obsolete over time. Imagine over the centuries Honorguard is a symbol of power over the land, unquestionable in its defenses. Outlasting siege after siege, then one day a cannon is rolled up and dismantled centuries of power in minutes. (Weeks probably, depending on the cannon size)
Samuelu Johnston I wouldn't use cannon, I'd use a massive ammount of incendiary fireworks-style rockets...
Or in preceding eras, attack it through undermining the main keep directly close to the drain exhaust.
Four words: rain and wind erosion. This castle will fall, it is only a matter of time....
Sounds like the fall of Constantinople.
I'd use a cannon... it's called "Schwerer Gustav"
Otherwise, since it's a fantasy world, I'll just draw upon another Fantasy World and ask Nurgle for Help. Have fun with plagues
What about undermining the walls? Basically dig a tunnel under the walls to collapse them.
WOW WOW WOW, so much thought & attention to detail in this castle, I’ll tell you what, if they built castles in today’s times, 100% this would be what every king/lord would definitely be looking for, you would be one of the richest people in the land, cause your reputation for designing the best castles would be the talk of the town. Well done sir, you’ve created one of the best castle designs ever
Extremely impressive. I did manage to find a fault tho - the false floor in the servant's kitchen entryway has the door swinging inward. If the pit is full of bodies, it might be rather hard to get that door open :P
good point.
I had a question about that... How does one operate and secure it?
Good point. All the historic false floors that I've heard of were floors that the defenders pulled back, rather than opened inward. There was one in David's Tower in Edinburgh Castle that was used to guard the king's chambers during wartime. But the tower crumbled under heavy cannon bombardment and ultimately was replaced with the half-moon battery.
I just realized. You want a trapfloor. Turn the floor 90 degrees, make only the outer part fall down, the inner part stable. This gives access between the two doors still in control of the defenders, but a death pit to the attackers.
The liwered portion can be operated in a pull-up fashion via chains or ropes and pulleys.
Cheap and effective.
7:40 Ahhhhh more proof that there is a german word for everything
@FlygawneDezert Mage of Mind and if there isn’t we just put two words together we already have, well atleast we did so until we started after WW2 to directly use every English word and tte to lazy, or to shameful to invent our own. And nowadays we start exchanging even words we already have.
...that probably sounds angry, too.
except for calling someone a Nob.
German also has some veey specific words, like, Kummerspeck, It literally means "Grief Bacon"
If you want awesome German words, I recently came across this gem: Backpfeifengesicht. It basically translates to 'a face in desperate need of a slap'.
So yeah, I'm building this in Minecraft as a visual aid because I want to use it in D&D for the party to capture, clear of Undead, and claim. Thanks bro, I'll credit you and send you a link when it's done.
I would also love to see this
@@joeyderrico8134 thanks for the reminder
@@kingmasterlord Well, it's been over a year now.
Link?
Project was probably abandoned, the party was most likely killed 100ft from the gate by the trebuchet after failing a stealth check. Defenses too tough rip.
fine, I'll do it myself
Awesome job Shad! This castle is awesome!
Shadiversity Cinematic Universe anyone?
Hmmm... I'm interested.
You mean Shadiverse?
Watched this while building a castle in Minecraft, gave me quite a lot of design inspiration. Thanks shad!
Lol same.
The German "z" is not a soft English "z" because that is covered by the German "s" already. For the hard English "s" sound we have either a double "ss" or "ß", depending on the vocal beforehand - short vocal = "ss", long vocal = "ß"; best example: floss (3. person singular of flow or run but restricted to a liquid, pronounced just like the English floss - well, apart from the brighter "l" sound but that's another story) and Floß (raft, pronounced with a long stretched "oh").
The "z" is instead pronounced like a hard "ts" - think of Fi*tz*gerald or ha*ts*. Also the German "w" is pronounced like the English "v" (we have no equivalent of the English "w") so think of Zwinger being pronounced as "tsvinger".
Funnily the German "v" is actually commonly pronounced like "f" with some foreign words like "visage" or "virus" keeping their English/French "v" sound. That means the German "v" is actually completely useless as it could either be replaced by an "f" or by a "w".
Last but not least: in modern days Zwinger is more commonly known as a dog's cage.
And let's not forget that Zwinger comes from "zwingen" - to force something. So that's why a dog's cage is a Zwinger, because it forces the dog to stay inside
Fitzgerald is a good example, but I personally don't think hats is. The english speaker doesn't emphasize the ts in hats the way a German would.
Jeez as a filipino i thought our language was hard
Hmm. How curious. The Spanish word for machicolation is "matacán", which roughly means "dog killer"
I think the best way to demonstrate the /ts/ sound to English speakers is with the word "pizza".
This is still one of my very favorite Shad Vids.
I return to it all the time. It's like ASMR for me lol
I want to live here.
But as a cook, I don't want to have to bring in heavy loads of groceries on a regular basis over some rickety false floor and risk falling to my death just because my lord can't be bothered to implement more reasonable security measures. ;-P
The lord may have provided planks to lay across the death door which doubled up as back door reinforcements in the event of a siege.
I'm sure the death floor is well reinforced and balanced and can only open if the reinforcements are removed.
Which would take some time. Well, the invaders would also need time to bypass a few walls, so...
Security over convenience... the age old struggle
Yes. It's terribly convenient not to accidentally plummet to my death while bringing in the groceries. ;-)
Shad, I'm sitting here running out of castle reviews to watch at a stunningly fast rate.
You need to make more videos.
Great Scot, it must have taken you ages to design this thing but the level of detail you've put in is extraordinary and I commend you for it. Amazing job, and let us know when your first book comes out, I'll be first in line ;D
I'm so happy to have found all this. I'm currently planning a fantasy game with a magic castle. But planning the castle is probably one of my biggest struggles. This will help me a lot.
You did a really good job. Each design solution has its own purpose.
Just wow
Hmm, I had guessed, there wasn't an external chapel, because in a fantasy-setting the religious history/background might be different from what we know and thus impacted the design. Anyways, I'm intrigued to hear more about that story in the future :)
Shads first law:
A writers ability to solve conflicts with a castle is directly related to how well the reader understands said castle
I really love the fact that
you exist and make videos.
This was super useful, one of my stories has a character living in an old castle. And I love the design of Honorguard!
This is amazing and incredibly helpful as a learning tool for someone wanting to write a story that's fantasy, but grounded in historical medieval realism and practicality.
If i was an eccentric billionaire i would give you money and resources do build me this castle.
God, I would love to see this guy be an engineer in medieval times. Imagine the carnage his designs would of caused to the enemy's army.
Nathan Kendrick this castel would be to expensive to make in medival times
Granted he wouldn't have access to all the resources and knowledge he has today to design them
This castle is built under the assumption of near infinite wealth. Even kings during the late period would rarely afford anything of this size. Very few could. For a family to own a massive castle this size, they would be pretty much a superpower of the time.
@@neurofiedyamato8763 and who says they aren't?
He wanted to make a practical castle that would be an absolute turd to attack (reference the Shadiversity LotR castle analysis video)
That was simply THE quickest 45-minute long video I've ever viewed! I'm not kidding or exaggerating! I was like...NO! It's over already?! That was absolutely fascinating, interesting, informative, and entertaining! If I were a billionaire, you would most definitely be a consultant on my castle/fortress/palace/evil lair/fortified compound design team, for damn sure! Well Done! And thanks for creating and sharing!
Well, who doesn't like to design a fantasy castle every now and then? *Going looking for my D&D books* :-)
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is big on fantasy elements, especially when it comes to the cities of Aio; what the franchise is calling "districts" are actually single blocks. And city centres, in that topic, are actually complexes of multiple blocks, as are a sizeable fraction of districts.
That being said, if you've seen sandcastle artists lately, some of them may instead be building sand-cities.
The time and thought that must have gone into this is crazy. Excellent work, Shad. Always happy to see a new video from you in ye olde feed
When I was a kid I had a book called something like "Incredible Cross-Sections" that depicted a castle in about a third of this amount of detail. This took me right back there and I love it to death. Thanks, Shad.
Wow... I remember that book too. I feel like I just got beaten senseless by the nostalgia stick.
Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections.
If that's not just about castles, that sounds like it has the potential to be extremely gory without warning, and it kinda sounds like that's the case.
The most of the additions and tweaks to the castle made since the last video seem to be things that really could have been done to it if it was real, so the original could have been what it looked like before receiving those upgrades in the story. Awesome job, this will serve as reference for me in thinking about fantasy castles in the future! Thank you for your service to the internet!
I had to back up multiple times just to get better awareness of what connect to what and where what is from other parts, but still. 1 hour well spent. I really hope you give us a video on just how this castle would be overtaken (other than draw out seige), how much man power it would take, and what different special units it will need (how many seige works and what type, wall climbers, spies, etc. And if the only way is by long, drawn out seige, how long would it hold with different amounts of notice/preparation?
JHstyle Won Very cool idea. Have a friend that doesn't know the ins and outs of the design, then have him plan out an assault to take it, and see if he can
Kay Lew It would be really helpful if we knew some more about this castle, mainly the number of their garrison, time period (and especially the weapons during this period to know what they would be using), and what is the composition of the hill leading up to the walls. I think we could use the slope that juts out the furthest (near the Don Jon) as a assault point.
Dude, this is so epic. I was kindof like “yawn.. fictional castle” but good god DAMN did you really build this with intention! So smart and well put together, I can tell you’ve obsessed over this a lot and I respect that! I would love to see this beautiful thing done up in all it’s glory some day.
Like seriously someone better make this in Wurm or even Minecraft so we can explore it!
It looks to be made in Sketchup, which does have a mode giving you FPS-style controls and letting you walk around. I don't doubt he's walked around the castle.
I've seen entire MUDs with game worlds smaller then this castle....
Not building this in Minecraft, but it will influence how I build a castle I've started on a public server. Realism can indeed pair with grandeur.
Ever since Shad released this video I've actually been putting a couple hours every week (when I can spare the time) into a Minecraft rendition of this behemoth. At the time of writing this comment I've almost finished up walling the keep. I have also designed the gatehouses and walls but construction on anything other than the keep won't see any progress until the keep is complete. Unfortunately, I no longer have a good way to clear dirt blocks because MCedit is incompatible with 1.13+.
@@VoltisArt Same. I've definitely been watching his videos on tips how to design mine
I'm accepting the challenge of building this in minecraft all though I doubt it could be done in survival due to the hight limit, and scaling it right will be challenging.
Wow, I absolutely love this castle, the attention to detail is stunning. I would love to see this used in something like a video game, tabletop RPG, or a show.
I can’t believe it’s 3 years ago this was posted, I’m lost for words, also I can’t believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve, it feels like January was a month ago. As I’m getting older time gets faster.
I don't even need the headphone warning, i know you well enough Shad.
Great Video, nice details and very well thought out.
Your castle videos are my favorites.
Almost finished, so I doubt you have one, but I think a library would have been very nice. There seems to be lot of bedrooms. Maybe some rooms in the tower could be one? Just personal thing.
Well, Shad liked it so must not be that weird.
Personally I would have had some kind of beacon connected to the don jon, it would give the tactical advantage of being able to spot trouble from a distance and send a message to any nearby allies too send aid. Beautiful design overall though, very well thought out.
im wondering about a library too. But i think it is possible that back in those days knowledge and books are so rare that having like twelve books would be quite a feat . So perhaps just a bookshelf would be enough?
Shad is not going for pure accuracy, but realistically combining fantasy and history. Adding library, while maybe not historic, would be plenty realistic.
The don jon room at 34:04 would be a good spot for a small libary.
Most of the elements in this castle seem to indicate a 14th century setting. At that point, it would make a lot of sense to have a sort of study/library, which would hold books collected by the family over the previous generations (books were a prestigious item and lords tended to collect them as a way to show off wealth regardless of their interest in them). That sort of room would also be used for archiving and paperwork; the lord would have literate servants, and probably a jurist, managing that for him.
Also, if the lord himself or one of his predecessors was a book enthusiast, he could acquire a staggeringly big collection of books even as a lay lord. So I don't think it's historically inaccurate to add a library in a castle like this one; in fact, I think it might be there in more cases than not!
great job as always shad honorguard was so acurate that i thought it was an actual medeval caste at first .keep up the good work.
I wish I could leave another like. I watched this video when it was new and I've watched it multiple times since. Love it good sir.