#royal setting

[writerscourt]

Worldbuilding Notes: Naming your Manor House

In order to name a manor house, usually a case specific suffix would have been added to the owner's last name, the region or toher related terms. While today almost all of the following may just be referred to as "Manor," these are the original classifications:

Court – buildings in which lords would receive their tenants (Eg.: Ashton Court, Kemerton Court)

Castle – Places of residence for royalty or residences of feudal barons in rule over several dozen other manors (Eg.: Lambton Castle, Hever Castle)

Park – used typically for houses built in the countryside with well-kept gardens and nature (Eg.: Hartham Park, Sandhill Park)

Place – likely a shortened form of "Palace", used for a grande residence with less royal connotations (Eg.: Hinxworth Place, Icomb Place)

Lodge – residences located in a royal forest during the feudal era, occupied by wardens or keepers of the forest (often specified as to the function: hunting lodge, fishing lodge, shooting lodge, ...) (Eg.: Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, Glen Affric Lodge)

Manor – residences for lords or (since the romantic revival) any grand country house (Eg.: Hughenden Manor, Ascott Manor)

[portside-poetry]

Garden Boy

Once upon an evening,

On a not so sunny day-

There lived a little garden boy who’s job it was to stay;

And tend to all the flowers, serve the food and drinks,

Clean out all the bathtubs, the showers  and the sinks.

Little did he know it,

But as the days went by,

The prince would watch the garden boy and afterwards he’d sigh.

For though he could not say it due to a hand ensnared in glove,

His feelings for the garden boy had changed to those of love.

(I may make a part two but for now this is a one parter <3 | also ‘hand ensnared in glove’ is reference to royal figures frowning upon homosexuality in this setting)

[writerscourt]

Worldbuilding Notes: Differentiating between noble/royal residences

Palace

luxurious residence for high nobility

symbolical display of wealth and governance

often not or barely fortified

Castle

residence for nobility with fortifications and military structure

symbolical display of military power

often positioned strategically (on mountains or lakes, in river bends, …)

Fortress/Stronghold

purely functional defensive military outpost

usually in/near border regions for military to operate out of, lead offenses from and shelter retreating forces

Citadel

the most fortified area of a town or city (defensive core & last line of defense)

in form of a castle, fortress or simply a fortified center (defended through walls, elevation a maut, …)

houses military command, food storage and in time of war royalty

Keep

strongest, most defensible part of a castle in form of a tower

became highly uieffective with the invention of improved artilliary, as it became an easy target for cannons

alternate version would be a "bergfried," a tower with essentially the same function but not meant for permanent residence, only as a shelter during active invasion

Manor House

residence of a noble overseeing their lands and local peasants

mainly differs in function only

can be architectually very similar to a castle or could also be more similar to a farmhouse

typically no strong fortification, but often enclosed within walls or ditches

Bastion

a structure projective outward from the walls of a fortification, giving artillery better defensive positions and a greater range

contrary to a lot of modern (and even historic usage) a bastion is merely an architectual element, not its own kind of building

Keep in mind that the difference between some of these terms is mostly semantics. Often several terms could be applied (but don‘t have to be) or a term that wouldn‘t be fitting is applied because of its historical usage.

[writerscourt]

Worldbuilding Notes: Types of Prisons in a Castle

Dungeon

underground cells, locked by bars or a wooden door

prisoners usually kept in chains or locked in cages in cells designed for discomfort (slanted floors, too small to stand or sit, ...)

damp, cold, dark, and often infested with vermin and rodents

Oubliette

narrow pits accessible only through a hatch in the high ceiling

prisoners either left to starve or given just enough food to survive for months of even years, alone in the darkness

after the prisoner's death the body was either removed or kept, to be discovered by the next prisoner

used for those that the captors wish to forget

Prison Apartments

typically for royals or nobles who are kept under house arrest in apartments instead of a cell

usually just normal rooms with guards positioned outside; in some cases prisoners were even allowed to move around the castle but not leave it

Torture Chamber

attached to the cells and equipped for the purpose of torture

somestimes made up of several chambers, in which prisoners would be taken from one to the next with progressively worsening conditions

a lot of the torture devices we think off when thinking back to such chambers have no record of ever being actually used (eg. the iron maiden)

Disclaimer: Most of this information is collected from the internet. If you think something important is missing or should be corrected, feel free to comment about it.