Robert J. W.

Robert J. W.

Robert J. W.

ALT

1. City castle. Found in the historical centre of a medieval city, and often as the core part of a larger fortification called a citadel, the urban castle houses the ruler of said city, city-state or realm of which this city is a capital.
2. Rural castle. Built as a standalone structure, this type of castle was more widespread than the urban castle in Western Europe. Often castles planned as standalone structures attracted folks from nearby villages and grew towns around them, eventually becoming city castles and citadels.

• Motte and bailey. The most primitive kind of castle, the motte and bailey is barely above a pre-medieval hill fort. It is usually just a tower or a fortified manor standing on a hill, which may be a natural hill dug over with artificial trenches and berms or a wholly manmade mound (the motte). The motte was also outfitted with extra defences such as a wooden stockade (the bailey). Often the bailey was located sideways of the motte and did not encapsulate it; the steep slopes of the motte made walls unnecessary. Note that not all castles built on mottes are motte and bailey castles: the central section of the famous Windsor Castle, which is far from being "just a tower", has a large motte under it.
• Keep and curtain wall. To improve the ability of a motte and bailey castle to withstand sieges, medieval engineers went for the most obvious decision: build a solid wall instead of a wooden stockade around the motte. They built massive walls, high enough to be unscalable without proper siege ladders, and later augmented those walls with towers. The towers provided defenders a vantage point for raining arrows onto the attackers. The tower also became more fortified and turned into a keep, or donjon - the main tower or fort of the castle, a smaller fortress inside it. Even when enemies breached or otherwise surmounted the curtain wall of the castle, the keep was able to fend them off for a while, hopefully until the relief or backup forces arrives.

1. Moat. To add another layer of impenetrability to the curtain wall, medieval engineers augmented it with a deep ditch, or moat, around it. The purpose of the moat was to stop the attackers from breaking castle walls with battering rams and make it harder to use siege ladders. The moat was also often filled with water to stop undermining (digging under walls to make them collapse). A drawbridge or a permanent bridge could be used to cross the moat and reach the gate.
2. Gatehouse. Because of the moat, the castle gate became the prime target for attempts to breach the walls and break in. So the gate naturally became more fortified, built into a large, wide tower: the gatehouse. A typical gatehouse contained a lot of security measures to make battering the gate harder: corridors, portcullises, arrow slits overlooking the bridge.
3. Barbican. A barbican is another fortification built to protect the gate: a second, smaller gatehouse in front of it, connected to the main one with a pair of walls.
4. Enceinte. An enceinte is the motte, Mk.II, now made of stone! It's an inner solid stone wall surrounding the keep, making it a castle within a castle.

• Concentric castle. Combining all of the above defensive measures resulted in a complex, many-layered castle with two or more sets of curtain walls and a keep surrounded with an enceinte. Such castles were built during the Late Middle Ages.
• Quadrangular castle. A late development in castle building, this style does away with the keep and turns the curtain wall into a large rectangular building with a courtyard. In essence, the curtain wall is used as the outer wall of the building.

• Low-profile and complex structures with thick earth walls were needed to resist artillery bombardments, and castles made way for bastions, star forts and similar fortified structures.
• However, during the period of Romanticism and Gothic literature in the XIX century, interest in castles renewed.
• These "revival castles" served no defensive function and were just stylized stately homes for Blue Blood elites; the most famous example of such a castle is Neuschwanstein in Bavaria, Germany.
• In the 19th and 20th century, the romantic allure of castles even inspired some non-royals with deep pockets to build them as fantasy getaways.

1. Coo. To talk fondly, amorously, or appreciatively.
2. Pout. To push out or purse the lips in a sexually suggestive way.
3. Murmur. A soft or gentle utterance.
4. Sigh. An often involuntary act of sighing especially when expressing an emotion or feeling.
5. Sough. To make a moaning or sighing sound.
6. Desire. A strong feeling of wanting or needing something. It can be accompanied by physical sensations such as an increased heart rate or butterflies in the stomach.
7. Joy. The facial expression can include tightening of muscle around the eyes; "crows feet" wrinkles around the eyes; raised cheeks; and diagonally raised lip corners.
8. Squinch. To screw up (the eyes or face); squint.
9. Wonder. An emotional state that arises when individuals encounter something surprising, unexpected, or profoundly beautiful. This experience can lead to a heightened state of awareness and a desire to understand or explore the phenomena further.
10. Awe. One component of wonder. It is a feeling of reverence and amazement, often in response to something grand or sublime.
11. Admiration. Another component of wonder. It is a sense of appreciation for the beauty, complexity, or uniqueness of the experience.
12. Smiling is an open, approachable facial gesture that indicates warmth and interest.
13. Beam. To smile with joy.
14. Grin. To draw back the lips so as to show the teeth especially in amusement or laughter.
15. Smicker. To ogle and smile amorously—used with at or after.
16. Eye contact. Most Western countries view eye contact as a sign of interest.
17. Briefly closing the eyes and quickly opening them again is called confirmatory blinking and can indicate confirmation or approval of another person.
18. Dilated pupils can demonstrate interest and attraction, while
19. Widening the eyes can signal surprise or excitement.
20. Nodding when another person is speaking is a sign that you are focused and listening. It can demonstrate that you agree with or acknowledge what is being said and validate opinions. Tilting the head to one side is also a sign of attentive listening and respect.

ALT

1. Always Night: The work takes place always at night.
2. Artificial Outdoors Display: The "outdoors" is artificial.
3. Carcass Sleeping Bag: Sleeping inside a dead animal.
4. Death's Hourglass: An actual clock that counts down until someone dies.
5. Fertile Feet: When a character takes a step, flowers grow.
6. Grave Clouds: It's cloudy at a cemetery.
7. Indian Summer: Summer lasts into autumn.
8. Lightning Reveal: Lightning reveals something in the dark.
9. Lying on a Hillside: Lying on a hillside remembering stuff.
10. Rain Aura: A glow around rained-on objects.
11. Rain of Something Unusual: It's raining non-water.
12. Reclaimed by Nature: Nature takes over what society leaves behind.
13. That One Summer: A summer, with its seasonal joys, is a hallmark of lost innocence.
14. Weather Dissonance: The weather is wrong.
15. Weather Saves the Day: A sudden change in the weather saves the heroes.