Castles in Rokugan

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Castles in Rokugan
Rokugan is rich with castles, the crowning architectural achievements of a grand history of military innovation. In theory, the castles of Rokugan have changed little throughout the Empire’s history, for all castles derive from the Imperial Palace, constructed under the tutelage of the Kami according to the principles of the Celestial Heavens.

In truth, a millennium of development and the unique priorities of the clans have resulted in countless divergences from the fundamental and, it is said, perfect design of Otosan Uchi. In addition, the influence of the early keeps of pre-Kami Rokugan can still be felt, particularly among the Phoenix Clan. From those early palisades, those venturesome stockades on hilltops, castles have grown into enduring military installations and hubs of urban and political life

The Role of Castles
It can be said that a castle’s purpose is to serve as a daimyō’s residence. In truth, it is indeed a secure place for a daimyō to live in and for housing their family and most trusted retainers. The castle also functions as a safe place in which a daimyō may do their work, overseeing the activity of their clan, their family, or their domain

A castle is also a display of power and wealth. It speaks for itself: castle construction and maintenance requires the will, the resources, and the ability to train, organize, and mobilize thousands of laborers and craftspeople, to source materials, and to pay and protect those workers. It also requires the resources to likewise train, organize, and assemble a garrison of soldiers to protect the castle even in peacetime. By virtue of a castle’s very existence, its daimyō announces their wealth and power to any who would challenge them

The builder of a castle chooses its location based on its strategic value. Castles commonly overlook important trade routes or rivers or defend vital resources. Many are built in naturally defensible positions such as atop hills or bluffs. Daimyō build these castles in order to strengthen their control in that area. At other times, daimyō build castles in hostile territory, in order to sub-due an uprising, to legitimize a claim on the land, or to otherwise exert control over the unruly area. The Crane Clan built Shiro Kandai, the castle complex at Jukami Mura, to bring law to the town’s disorderly port.

Building a Castle
A castle is far more than a single building, or even a single building surrounded by a wall. Most castles contain multiple buildings (and sometimes multiple fortified walls) surrounding a towering keep that dominates the rest of the construction. Therefore, planning and erecting a castle complex is a massive undertaking involving incredible amounts of organization and labor. Castles may take years to construct and decades to finally complete. Castles can also expand organically. As time passes and a daimyō or family grows in power, they add improvements to the castle

The earliest castles were fortified houses, simple hilltop forts that relied upon the terrain for defense. Innovators gradually improved these structures by surrounding the central keep, called the tenshukaku, with palisades, then with solid walls, then with towers. With each defensive innovation came a clever method to circumvent it, including the use of spies, fire, and siege. Naturally, castles toughened in turn. Daimyō built new castles of stone, they hired ditch diggers and soldiers, and they sought more defensible terrain. Most importantly, they invested in brilliant construction techniques, which define Rokugan’s castles to this day

Common Features of Rokugani Castles
Rokugan’s castles share many common structural features. Among the most striking are gently sloping gables, which are ubiquitous in snowy areas. Gables also provide crucial protection from sun and rain, and they are often richly decorated with meticulous tiling. At the bases of Rokugani castles are ishigaki, or stone walls. These sloping foundations are similarly practical, providing a number of structural, administrative, and defensive benefits. Ishigaki are stunning geometric structures, built laboriously without mortar, such that every stone fits into the wall perfectly and harmoniously with every other.

The tenshukaku represents the castle complex’s heart, the daimyō’s home. Sprawled out beneath it, the castle grounds are no less impressive. Each castle has its own culture, buildings, and its own marvels: some have gardens, others have hot spring baths, and while most have dōjō, some may have elaborate schools protecting the deepest mysteries of a clan or family’s traditions. Things the daimyō wishes to protect and keep close at hand are housed within the castle grounds. The entire complex is surrounded and defended by strong outer walls

Daimyō choose high elevations for their castle estates whenever possible, and the highest point within the castle grounds is consistently where they choose to site their tenshukaku. The tenshukaku is thus the tallest building for miles, commonly boasting more than three stories. It rises high above the surrounding area, allowing anyone approaching it to spot it hours before arriving at its walls.

Mountain Castles and Flatland Castles
Building a castle in the mountains maximizes the political and strategic benefits of height. The mountain castle has high ground, long sight lines, and an impressive and intimidating facade. Further, construction on or near a mountain gives builders a ready source of stone, which saves a great deal of hard labor.

Plains offer their own unique benefits to a castle builder. Flatland castles can more easily cover a large surface area. In the absence of ridges and hills, they can utilize the natural defenses of rivers and lakes. Even on the plains, flatland castles typically have a close connection to water, as it is easier to dig wells there. Some coastal Crane castles are built with complex wet moat systems, which allow for control over the flow of water on castle grounds while avoiding unsanitary and offensive standing water. Residents can even use the moats as canals, silently floating small boats through secret channels under the wall

Castles as Fortresses
Although a castle must be defensible, the majority of castles in Rokugan also serve nonmilitary purposes; for many, warfare is a distant afterthought to diplomacy, economic functions, and display of status. Each castle has a different daimyō, all of whom have different goals. For instance, many Lion Clan castles exist to train and garrison soldiers. The Crane, on the other hand, seek primarily to host distinguished guests, make a good impression on visitors, and tend to their gardens. The safety afforded by a castle makes it a good place in which to prepare the next generation of samurai, so many castles house schools and dōjō. As wealth declines farther away from the cities, so do the ambitions of some daimyō; many are content simply with protecting their family and storing enough food to get through the winter.

A castle is also a staging area for regional military power; a place where the daimyō can mobilize forces for offensive strikes, and a safe redoubt against counterattack. A castle implies to onlookers that its daimyō has deep pockets, the ability to marshal thousands of laborers, and the will to protect the surrounding population. It sends a warning to would-be troublemakers, speaking without words like a hand on a hilt: this is mine, and I will protect it

Passive Defenses
Choosing where to build a castle can be a complicated process, with many factors and opinions influencing the decision. Prevailing wisdom is rarely ignored: build a castle in a naturally defensible location. The majority of Rokugan’s castles rest on hills, cliffs, ridges, by rivers, or on shorelines. These terrain features can drastically limit the directions from which attacking armies can reach a castle. However, the clans must protect their territory wherever it is, and many of the most important trade routes are, by their nature, in accessible and easily passable terrain. For a variety of political and practical reasons, castles can be found on flat plains or at the intersections of wide roads

The most important step in castle construction is the process of creating a nawabari. After selecting a location and before breaking ground, the castle architect creates a “stretched-rope” plan, a nawabari, by placing stakes in the earth and stretching rope between them. The architect measures and arranges the entire castle grounds, down to the last wall. The castle’s very soul is born during this first vital step; its fate is half-determined, making the creation of a nawabari the castle architect’s highest and most prestigious art. If a castle is majestic, or cunning, or intimidating, or mysterious, it is so in large part thanks to a good nawabari

Castle design is a cunning art even on flat, dry land. Rokugan’s castles deceive by design, confusing and disorienting outsiders from the first glimpse. Naturally, the best-kept secrets are the most valuable. Rarely will anyone know every last secret built into a castle. The daimyō may request the construction of confidential storage or a private entrance, but castle architects, construction workers, high-ranking staff, and even audacious visitors have been known to build mysteries into castle walls: hidden staircases and secret rooms that even the daimyō doesn’t know about

Walls and Foundations
Castle buildings are built atop the ishigaki, the massive stone platforms that serve as foundations. Ishigaki can also be built as the bottom portion of a castle wall, so that half or more of the wall is a thick stone slope, with a more traditional vertical wall built above. Ishigaki demarcate the various areas of the castle grounds; the low areas between ishigaki are common footpaths.

Ishigaki are unmortared, allowing them to safely drain away rainwater from the foundation and to shake with the earth rather than crack during an earthquake. Steeper ishigaki are harder to build but also harder to scale. A shallower angle provides a much steadier base but a relatively untroubled climb. New castles are usually built in the notoriously difficult Crane style with curved ishigaki, offering the best of both worlds

Climbing the ishigaki is a favorite tactic of samurai invaders. Some ishigaki are gentle of slope, and some offer easy handholds. One solution commonly built into Rokugan’s castles is drop chutes. From these holes, castle residents can drop heavy stones, boiling water, hot sand, or even whole logs onto climbers. Some drop chutes are permanently open, and some close with hinged doors, but all are too narrow for invaders to climb through. As an additional deterrent, many castles feature rows of intimidating spikes angled downward at the tops of walls and bases of windows.

Gatehouses
Cunning has refined the typical Rokugani gatehouse complex into its current form. The first gate in a gatehouse opens into an enclosed square called a masugata, which has the second, primary gate on its left or right wall. These two gates work together in stages, like locks on a canal, forcing anyone entering or exiting to spend time locked in the masugata. The masugata serves as a well-protected staging area for any departing expedition, and its angled gates force an invading army to rapidly change direction, which challenges the army’s orderliness and quickly dead-ens a charge. Many castles employ several such gate-houses. The castles of the Lion Clan, for example, have as many as twenty masugata on their grounds

Other Defensive Structures
In addition to the tenshukaku, a castle may have dozens of smaller towers, most of them military structures. Guard towers stocked with arrows and spears and staffed day and night with ashigaru or jizamurai, may pepper the castle grounds. Higher towers may serve special purposes: astronomy, falconry, or archery, for example

Moats are a feature of some Rokugani castles. Most castle moats are placed beyond a complex’s outermost wall or between interior walls, and they seldom directly surround the keep. The majority of Rokugani moats are dry. Their primary purpose is to slow attackers and restrict their movement. Additionally, a fall into a dry moat, onto its hard base of stone or earth, can easily kill or injure an enemy soldier. Wet moats are rare, utilizing diverted streams or rivers, or the aid of water kami, to keep the water moving and relatively clean.

Only the most desperate or poor daimyō would con-template a moat of filthy, stagnant water. Moats require significant resources, but the results can be worthwhile for an influential daimyō. Wet moats are almost impenetrable by infantry, especially armored soldiers. Swimming is loud and slow, making unarmored soldiers sitting ducks on the water’s surface. At the bed of a wet moat lies a layer of sticky mud, which ensnares and drowns unprepared invaders in heavy armor.

Castle towers and other castle buildings typically appear (from the outside) to have an odd number of stories, usually one, three, or five. However, only rarely does the frame match the facade. What appears to be five stories on the outside may conceal four to seven stories within. In addition, a castle may have secret floors at the top or bottom—a hidden cellar built into the ishigaki or a concealed attic tucked up under a hollow roof. Secret floors can complicate an invasion, allowing a castle’s inhabitants to hide vital resources in unexpected “invisible” stories.

Castle builders must think beyond heavy gates and confusing pathways. Frontal assault is not the only attack a castle may suffer. Rokugan’s castles of wood are famously susceptible to fire, whether started by arson or lightning, so exposed wood is coated with a fire-resistant lacquer or white plaster. Assassins can be deterred from climbing into windows by the clever placement of spikes at window ledges. Castle floors can be built to creak loudly when walked upon. The chirping sound gives such floors the name “nightingale floors.” Guards practice the rhythm of their footfalls in order to differentiate between the sounds of a friend and an outsider. Occasionally a castle suffers a sapping attack, whereby a team of diggers destroys a section of its walls by digging a tunnel beneath it and then collapsing the tunnel. Enemy forces have also dammed and redirected rivers to flood a castle. These unconventional attacks can be caught early by watchful patrols, but preventative measures also can be taken during the building process. Sturdy ishigaki are less susceptible to sapping attacks, and architects aware of flood danger can build drain-age precautions into the nawabari.

Siege is a serious threat to any castle. During a siege, the attacking force prevents the defenders from leaving and from acquiring supplies. A castle builder can plan for this contingency far in advance by constructing large and well-defended storehouses, digging deep wells, and building clandestine means of ingress and egress through which people and supplies can secretly make their way to and from the outside world

Active Defenses
Effective castle defense relies upon more than just tricks and walls. Garrison soldiers are vital to the security of any castle. Garrison life is one of constant readiness and routine for both ashigaru and samurai, though each castle’s routines may differ substantially. At the walls and in the towers day and night, vigilant warriors watch over a castle, protecting it from fire and invasion

When diplomacy falters and the drums of war begin to echo, the daily lives of a castle’s garrison and population change rapidly as the castle converts into an active military headquarters. All at once, the walls need new plaster, the moats need new depth, and the storehouses need extra reserves in case of siege.

The captain of the guard assigns soldiers extra shifts at watchtowers, bridges, and gatehouses. Guards must remain vigilant in their enforcement of castle security measures such as restrictions on how many retainers may follow a noble into the daimyō’s private quarters or even more trivial rules like the smoking ban at Shizuka Toshi. Patrols are increased, and soldiers train even more constantly than before, their honor and their duty to their daimyō resting heavily on their shoulders.

Intentional Flaws
A castle builder’s greatest trick is the intentional inclusion of a flaw in their designs—or the appearance of such. Of course, the more impenetrable a castle seems, the more it dis-courages invasion. Nevertheless, some may still seek to take the castle, and if they believe they could never breach the castle walls, they may settle into a siege, use incendiary tactics, or attempt another unconventional attack. In order to discourage these subversions of a castle’s defenses, the architect must encourage an invasion by building a semblance of vulnerability into the castle. The architect usually slightly obscures this vulnerability in order to deceive prospective invaders into believing they have discovered a real weakness. However, should an invader take advantage of the vulnerability, they find themselves trapped, baited like trout.

Castle Residents
Alive with activity, the castle is the beating heart of a daimyō’s territory. Much of noble life takes place in it: politics, courtly intrigue, wartime strategizing, trade negotiations, marriage and adoption arrangements, and debate. However, for peasants, castle life consists of hard labor, long hours, cooking and cleaning, and training and guard duty.

Peasants
In most cases, the castle’s peasant staff live in the town outside the castle walls. Very few castles can house their entire staff, comfortably or otherwise. Some cas-tle towns are populated almost entirely of castle attendants. In peacetime, remote castles, castles under construction, and castles high in the mountains are commonly staffed with just enough people on duty to keep them operating smoothly. At the outset of war, or if the daimyō expects special guests, workers are called back to their posts, packing into temporary lodgings inside the castle, and the castle kicks into full gear.

A castle stirs to life before sunrise, as the cooks and bakers arrive through a servants’ entrance to prepare the day’s meals. The quality of these meals is deter-mined mostly by the wealth of the daimyō. Smaller castles and military fortresses tend toward nutritious but unromantic fare, prepared simply and served on a rigid schedule. The palatial halls of wealthier daimyō burgeon with sumptuous aromas; their kitchens may have a bountiful menu on offer at all times of day. The kitchen staff report to the head cook, who reports to the seneschal. Good head cooks are hard to find, particularly in far-flung regions of Rokugan. Reliable and skilled cooks are rewarded with substantial power over the kitchen, outranking everyone but the daimyō and karō regarding culinary matters

Peasant stablehands, who report to the head groom, tend to the daily care, training, and breeding of the daimyō’s animals. Peasant soldiers may serve as part of a castle’s garrison; they are trained and assigned duties by a samurai captain, who is responsible for the castle’s defense. Castle staff may also include hunt masters, musicians, entertainers, gardeners, scouts, cleaners, sake brewers, and more. All the castle staff report, directly or indirectly, to the karō.

Clergy and Samurai
Virtually all castles maintain one or more shrines on the grounds. Priests can be found in most of Rokugan’s castles, but especially influential daimyō might also retain a shugenja to see to the castle’s spiritual needs. The religious advisor on site is tasked with maintaining the castle’s relationship with the spirits, and in many castles is a close advisor to the daimyō

As is to be expected, samurai hold the most import-ant positions in a castle (although in some poor house-holds, positions may be left “unfilled” while a peasant handles their actual duties). While these include a range of roles including the captain of the guard, the emissaries and diplomats, the heads of any military forces, and any shugenja that live in the castle, the most notable samurai in a household is usually the karō.

The karō is the advisor responsible for directing the castle’s daily operation and upkeep. They super-vise and manage the servants directly, they draft the budget, they orchestrate the schedule, and they closely consult with the daimyō on day-to-day affairs. In Rokugan, the karō is frequently a noble, offered the position for political purposes. Due to their broad discretionary powers, the respect they command among the castle staff, and their closeness to the daimyō, the karō’s word is second only to that of the daimyō.

Castle Towns
It is said that a castle is the seed of a city. While a castle complex can itself be a small town tucked inside the castle walls, once a castle is established, a town is likely to form around it. A castle offers protection and employment to people in the area, encouraging urban growth. Eventually a castle town may become an important location on its own.

Each castle town grows differently, developing its own culture and industry along the way. Nevertheless, development often falls into familiar patterns, as the Celestial Order reflects itself in the town layout. Samurai who do not live within a castle usually reside just outside its walls. The highest-ranking samurai tend to build their estates closest to the castle grounds. Most of these towns designate particular areas for merchants and artisans, and craftspeople settle where they will. Smaller temple districts grow on the outskirts of the town, while larger temples may be centrally located.

A daimyō depends upon the local population to support their castle. The castle town processes, pre-pares, and stores food grown in the surrounding lands, supplies recruits, and is responsible for the substantial work of castle maintenance.

The local population, in turn, depends upon the daimyō for support. The castle daimyō often works in tandem with a city or provincial governor to protect the castle town from disaster, disease, and crime. The castle succeeds if the town succeeds, after all. Many daimyō appoint a magisterial officer to represent the daimyō’s interests to the castle town’s administration

Soldiers Among The Clans
Each clan and family takes a unique approach to garrisoning its castles, reflecting its particular priorities and tastes. An individual lord’s personal preferences further color the makeup of their castle’s standing soldiery, to the point that no two castles in Rokugan follow the same model. Not only does the number of soldiers within a castle’s peacetime garrison vary drastically, but so does the nature of the warriors

In the “ideal” castle of the Crane, not a single peasant ashigaru is to be found, but only trusted jizamurai, whose ancestors served in the same role for the previous ten generations. Among the fortifications of the practical Crab, hereditary ashigaru, farmers displaced by the depredations of Shadowlands monsters, and samurai might train and stand vigil side by side. The Lion Clan invariably maintains substantial garrisons that drill constantly and often include a combination of highly trained ashigaru and bushi. The mountain castles of the Dragon Clan may host the most varied and unusual garrisons in Rokugan, where sōhei warrior monks might walk the grounds, and guards whisper of birdlike tengu who are said to patrol the skies above. However, stories of hidden Phoenix castles protected only by guardian kami hint at even more wondrous and nontraditional defenses to be found within the Emerald Empire.