Introduction

First of all, a warning: this post mentions plot events that happen pretty far into the story of the original game. With that out of the way, let us proceed!

If you know even a little bit about feudal societies, that bit about margraves and castles in the overview of Gransys might have sounded a bit strange or even nonsensical to you. What’s this about isolated castles who have to receive their supplies and personnel from the capital instead of drawing them from the surrounding lands? Isn’t that counter-intuitive, inefficient and prone to all sorts of problems when done in a feudal society?

Yes, it is! Some of those problems are in fact a key plot element in the original game, where poor logistical support causes a revolt against the Duke in one of these castles. The game mentions a few other consequences of this arrangement when they affect its story, but says little else about it. Here I have a bit more space to explore why things work like this in this particular setting. And once that’s done, we’ll show a couple of example castles drawn from the game. No City Stats this time, but I hope the included plot hooks suffice.

The Border Marches of Gransys

As mentioned in the post about towns, the society of Gransys is in a state of transition between TL 3 feudalism and TL 4 absolute monarchy. This means that Duke Edmun is taking steps to centralize political power in the capital (and thus, in his own hands), while facing resistance from the feudal lords under him. The way the border castles are set up is a big component of that.

Unlike what happens with towns and villages, here it’s entirely appropriate to assume that the castles we see in the map are all of them. There’s the Greatwall and the Shadow Fort over in the west, and Windbluff Tower to the east. They’re all located near some pretty dangerous terrain! The first two are literally on top of underground entrances leading to the monster-infested mountain range to the west, and the last one is close to the mouth of a similarly dangerous valley leading to Bluemoon Tower. They define the borders of Gransys as much as the natural landmarks do.

Now, the way this would work in a purely feudal setting is that the dangerous and important task of maintaining these bulwarks would come with the title of margrave, which is pretty high up in the feudal hierarchy. The margrave gains control of the castle itself and its surrounding lands, and the right to demand tribute and service from their inhabitants. They are expected to use that right to protect and tame those lands, which means they see more fighting than your typical feudal lord. It also means they have more bargaining power than usual when it comes to dealing with their liege.

The Duke has changed that traditional arrangement in this setting. Rather than delegating this border protection duty to his vassals, he’s had the castles built with his own resources and staffed with soldiers answering to him directly. In our adaptation, the commanders of these forts are still called margraves, but they get none of the traditional perks of the job. Instead, the supplies for these forces come from the central government in a way similar to how a modern military base works. This takes the form of a mix of material resources, new recruits, and money for salaries and additional expenses. The idea is that this gives him more direct control over the duchy, and limits the number of uppity nobles threatening to secede if they don’t get special privileges.

It works, up to a point. Gransys doesn’t enjoy the efficient logistics network that a truly centralized state would have, and its transportation technology is lagging behind other areas. This combined with the presence of monsters and bandits within the duchy means that the forts are suffering from a chronic resource shortage, which causes all sorts of morale problems. Each of the castles have found a different way of dealing with this, but they don’t quite cut it.

Someone intent on destabilizing the duchy would surely target these castles. And that’s just what happens in the original game.

The Shadow Fort

The Shadow Fort was built over an entrance to the Frontier Caverns, a vast network of underground goblin warrens leading into the mountains to the west beyond Gransys. Its commander has come to an arrangement with the mayor of the nearby town of Hardship, lending detachments of its soldiers to police the lands around the town in exchange for extra supplies.

The Fort’s main problem is a shortage of personnel. Its current complement is adequate for routine operation in relatively peaceful times, but the greatly increased monster activity pressaging the next coming of the Dragon has greatly increased the pressure on its soldiers. Reinforcements have been requested, but it doesn’t look like they’ll arrive in time, if ever.

Windbluff Tower

Windbluff tower was built over the ruins of a castle that was the seat of power for Gransys’ northern county. It guards the entrance of the Windworn Valley, whose crags are home to a large number of bandits and smugglers. It’s been particularly affected by the duchy’s logistics issues, with much of its actual support coming from backroom deals with wealthy merchant Fournival Frescobaldi, who supplies them in exchange for money and for access to those smugglers.

Since the money often comes from that reserved for the soldiers’ pay and enabling smuggling goes directly against their mandate, morale here is particularly bad. It wouldn’t take much to push them into open rebellion.

The Greatwall

The largest of Gransys’ border fortresses, the Greatwall guards the approach to the Tainted Mountain. The mountain and its environs are the site of a previous draconic invasion, and the ruins located there are still home to some of the peninsula’s most dangerous monsters.

The Greatwall doesn’t actually have many logistic issues, despite being in the most inhospitable location of the three castles. In fact, the upsurge in monster activity has caused resources meant for the other two castles to be diverted here instead.

The Duke’s Manse

Unlike the other three, the Duke’s Manse is a castle built and operated along feudal lines! It controls the surrounding lands, which are the Duke’s personal fief, and draws resources from them. Since the Duke already controls this area directly, he is in no rush to change any of this. It’s usually administered by a castellan, as the Duke spends most of his days in the capital.

Located north of Windbluff Tower, this place is self-sufficient and quite isolated from the rest of Gransys. Few know what goes on in here. As we see in the original game, there’s a reason why it’s labeled the “Blighted Manse” in the map.