June 2017 Challenge: Stormbringer

[timallen]

This is what I have done so far. The concept is that of a flying/floating castle surrounded by a semi-sentient garden. Now I'm not sure if this is technically a "hanging" garden but I did give it long vines that hand down to the ground so hopefully that qualifies it! Anyhoo, let me know what you think.

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[Mouse]

That story sounds both creepy and like a great opening for a novel!

Nice start on the map, timallen

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

Quite brilliant so far and as Mouse says (forgiving his dreadful pun) the idea of a hanging sentient garden is indeed creepy
I imagine vines, wisteria, clematis so colour being added to the hanging element, perhaps lobelia and begonias too which gives you various shades of blue, white, yellow and bright red
I imagine some hanging plants will be evil so designed to capture and consume anyone attempting to climb them and others benign helping rescue those unfortunate to be caught

The Castle at the top is coming on well but I have some questions:

1. Is it designed to be defended?
2. If so what type of weapons will face it?

I ask because the current design is not best for the defence against artillery or aerial assault. Both would see star shaped style defences but I would look at designs for coastal defence and perhaps St Michaels Mount where 8 Lancastrians held off constant artillery and manned assaults of 6000 Yorkists before finally surrendering on hearing their mother had been captured and slain by Richard of Gloucester (Richard III)

3. I then ask if this map and the world behind it are based on Moorcock's Stormbringer?

If so then the Castle will face aerial attack from both flying craft and dragon riders and will need defences accordingly. The risk is to those o parapets and crenulated walkways. The requirement is for upper stories to also have arrow slits and for elevated artillery

Now the good news
The main ways of assaulting a medieval castle are brilliantly prevented by your design
Fire has no effect on a stone castle though it might harm the vines, creepers and other hanging plants but being sentient they can protect themselves by withdrawing upwards
Battering rams wont work as too much effort to take them up and the vines would I presume have a desire to protect the Castle and thus take hold of any ram and toss it to the ground or tear it apart
Catapults and artillery on the ground would struggle to get sufficient elevation to strike the Castle
Ladders might work but again the vines would drop them to the ground
Your Castle is also protected from being mined by the vines whose roots would be malign to any attempt to dig through them
Siege might work BUT I am presuming that your Castle being airborne that therefore you are supplying it from the air. If so, then a siege would be more like a naval blockade with airborne creatures attempting to encircle to prevent relief to your Castle. This is your vulnerability as your defences cant prevent this
There are four things that come to your rescue
1) the besiegers must be far enough out to avoid your own defensive weaponry and must have large numbers therefore to complete an encirclement at distance
2) airborne sieges are 3D ie the encircling besiegers must look NESW and Up Down and can be bypassed easily
3) As the siege of St Michaels Mount showed, during the siege, the Lancastrians attacked the Yorkists killing their leader (80 vs 2000). The besiegers were spread out; the besieged were able to launch a raid and pin pointed attack killing Sir John Aubrey. Any food run if pin pointed should be able to not only by pass but break through and get food and supplies to you. Getting out is much harder
4) build in a spring and lake with mountains and trees to give you not only the right eco climate but also fresh water. Build in crop fields and grass planes for cows pigs chickens and sheep giving you bread milk cheese eggs and meat. Make your Castle self sufficient in terms of food and wood for fires (trees also generate air and give you even more protection against being mined). Make your trees sentient and then they can offer you a constant supply of dead wood. Your mountains you quarry to repair any damage to your Castle and generally for maintenance and extension of your Castle

You other vulnerability is if besiegers manage to get a foothold on your flying island. You have a number of options

Build a circuit wall right at the edge of the flying island which protects your forests and crop fields but is vulnerable to ground based artillery so ...
also build an internal wall that can be defended against artillery ie six or eight pointed star shaped walls or
put a mountain on your island and build your castle into it thus not only giving you protection against artillery but as is said of St Michaels Mount "20 men could hold the Castle against the world"

My key recommendation (if possible) is that you need to create open space. Filling all of the protected area with buildings means you must trade for food - so create both recreational space and crop fields plus you want a quarry and forest up there. If not then you become vulnerable to being besieged

It is brilliant and my comments may not apply if the world it is in is peaceful or has no artillery

The Sleeping Dragon™

[Josiah VE]

Brilliant and really cool design! It looks wonderful. I definitely think it should qualify.
I hope those vines come alive and eat people, because that would be cool.

[Mouse]

You could even have colonies of man eating spiders and all manner of giant creepy crawlies dropping off them into the city below at night time...

[timallen]

Heh...read that too quickly. I thought it said men, eating spiders.

[Mouse]

ROFL! Well - I suppose you could have them as well

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

Deep fried spiders would work and spiders webs are the basis of penicillin but GIANT spiders and beetles could make nice stews IF they weren't eating us first

Sentient vines present all sort of wonderful opportunities from Triffid like monsters that can actually walk and which poison then eat people like some giant Venus Fly Trap to vines that twist around you then suck the water out of you leaving this dry sack of skin

[Straf]

This is looking really great timallen. Nice work