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Thanks guys!
Alright, here's the next update. I decided to split the top level of the outbuilding into a few smaller rooms, so the servants have a decent place to sleep. In my previous iteration they'd have their rooms in the cellars, but that was probably a bit rude of me. I mean, they're only doing their job, right? So I went and gave them some rooms for themselves.
Some back lore you might wanna skip if you're here for the map alone:
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Some more info on the sleeping arrangement in the outbuilding. In winter, when the garrison is in, the servants tend to bunk together in groups of four, but during summer, when the war band is on the rove, the servants tend to spread out a little bit, with the seniors taking possession of the rooms and the juniors moving to the barracks/dorm room. The cook is the only exception: even at full occupation he has a room all for himself (and his wife and children, obviously).
It's worth mentioning that several other servants have a house of their own in the town just outside the gates, so the castle is seldom filled to its full potential. There's just enough space for everyone in case of a siege, if you cram 'em in a little, but most of the time there's plenty of room for all the servants to have a little privacy. In the past, some really distinguished servants have occupied rooms in the keep itself!
I mean, what?
Maybe it's fun to elaborate a little on the keep too. You'll notice there's this double staircase winding through the adjoining turret. The nobles' staircase takes you from the Great hall directly to the Lord's and Lady's reception rooms on the second and fourth floors respectively. The servants staircase doesn't open up to these floors—it doesn't even have an entrance on the ground floor—but it's perfect for servants bringing up food to the solar on the third floor (in between the Lord's and Lady's Rooms and easily accessible for both of them using the stately stairs in the core of the building). That's where the nobles like to have their breakfast and lunch, and where they spend a good deal of their spare time when the weather is too bad to go exploring.
You'll notice too the spiral staircases don't go all the way up. The nobles' staircase ends on the fourth floor, and the servant's staircase only goes to the solar—although, and interestingly, it goes on a little further still so it can be accessed from the fourth floor through a trap door in case of emergency... or a bad case of the midnight munchies. The childrens' and guest floors can only be accessed through the central staircase. So imagine you're a guest staying on the top floor and you want to go to your room. What you do is you enter the Great Hall, get on the (nobles') staircase, get off on the second or fourth floors and take the central staircase to your final destination. No peeking into the solar though, that one's off limits! So hey, maybe I should limit that trip to "through the fourth floor only". *
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Alright, back to the map. Apart from the extra rooms in the outbuilding, I also added all the labels, and whitewashed the top three levels of the keep turret. They're an integral part of the rooms now! In fact, one of the main characters in my novel will be sleeping in the turret room on the 5th floor. *
* Which leads me to think that maybe I should start adding walls to the keep as well. It will be a pain in the butt with a ton of redoing an erasing, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do huh? (oh no, that means I'll have to redo the cutaway too? Nooooo! Alright, this just moved to the "definite maybe" pile. Although having the full layout would help in envisioning the story. God I hate myself)
Enough! Here's the image!
Callowyn_exploded_5.jpg
Let me know what you think!
Originally Posted by - JO -
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