Player name : Yannig00
Player rank : Builder+
Private or Public : Semi open, see the guide IG or PM me.
Name : Casthenid (strong headland/cape)
Lore : Arnorian town built around an old Numenorean fort later transformed into a noble mansion (GFFort2)
The town was founded around 1 and 411 of the Third Age near an old numenorean fort guarding the Greyflood. The elevated position near the river and the fort made the area perfect for a settlement and the village quickly grew wealthy. Eventually, the fort that was transformed as a fortified mansion was not enough anymore for the local lord and a palace was built next to it.
Like the Gondorian towns during the next millennium, Casthenid evolved into a more grid-like town and got a Cardo Maximus and a Decumanus. The town kept growing and old buildings like the theatre and bathhouses were embellished. The palace got bigger as well.
As time went by, the expansions were less planned, more random and the buildings of that time were mediocre. The war against Angmar pushed most of the inhabitants to flee the town. The Great Plague of 1636 decimated the last persons who lived there.
Many centuries went by and no soul came back. In 2912 the great flood of the Long Winter completely erased the lower town and harbour.
According to the Greyflood/Gwathlo Fort and Town Ruins thread by DarthEnigma on the forum :
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The town was founded at the beginning of the Third-Age And was completely abandoned during the Great Plague of 1636.
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The lower town got wiped out during the flood of the Long Winter of 2912.
According to the Gondor Architectural Epochs doc and if we establish a parallel between the two kingdoms :
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The town would have been founded during the Establishment Period (1-411 TA) and would have been occupied until the Turbulent Period (The Second Evil) 1448-1850 TA
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The town would have gone through four architectural epochs : Early Gondor (1-411 TA), Expansionist Gondor (411-1240 TA), The Gondorian Zenith (1241-1433 TA), The Gondorian Strife (1433-1850 TA).
The architectural epochs that interest us :
Taken from the Gdoc almost verbatim.
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1-411 TA : Cont., architecture begins to diverge from Númenor as culture settles into its role as an expansionist empire. Large Egyptian, Babylonian, and Cyclopean architecture with Roman/Greek Elements, perhaps even more so than before. Large brick surfaces, perhaps Domes more common in this period as well. Cities grew around their palaces similar to how in Mesopotamia cities grew around temple complexes.
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411-1240 TA : Architectural development/beautification period. Palaces were expanded and grew in power in this period; older city centres were embellished and new cities were expanded with grid format. Architecture skill was most likely still top notch due to Minas Tirith probably gaining its black wall around this time from excess material while carving Orthanc several hundred years prior. The Egyptian style develops into something more Cretan, Greek/Roman elements creeping in with the assimilation of new peoples into the empire. Etruscan architecture enters the fold with the assimilation of Andrast and Blackroot
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1240-1433 TA : Cities began expanding at a more frantic rate, less city planning. No great architectural projects at this time in the heartland, though perhaps monuments etc. were set up in conquered lands. This period would further debase architecture from its original splendour; the old methods still were recorded probably, but shelved away due to war on the rise. Buildings from this time period were probably crappy and either remodeled later, or ruined/unimportant for inhabited Gondor.
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1433-1850 TA : Political strife and infighting on the part of multiple periods in Gondor’s history; buildings if added on would have been more frantic with architecture less pristine, mostly crammed in and around cities in order to expand space; parts of cities raided/razed, which could account for the loss of ancient Númenorean methods in order to build (a la Orthanc, Minas Tirith, etc. Buildings added would have been mediocre at best, straying from the planned cities of earlier periods. The loss of architectural tech would have also firmly trapped the Gondorians (and Arnorians too probably) within their new weird Greek/Roman creole mish-mash, with very little influence left of the previous Egyptian periods.
Overhead plan :
(note that the center of the town will be more north than the current warp)
Some places on the slopes will be flatter than what the planning shows.
Reference :
-Founded by the Arnorians and later occupied by the kingdom of Cardolan until the Great Plague.
-See Greyflood/Gwathló Fort and Town Ruins thread.
-Gondor Architectural Epochs have been heavily inspired and adapted to Arnor for this project.
-Lond Daer Enedh analysis / planning was also used as inspiration.
