Eastwatch Project Thread

[CashBanks]

Eastwatch-by-the-Sea​

Dark Greetings! Now that the Nightfort is getting close to finished, I'm proposing to make a start on Eastwatch under the server build umbrella.

Gawain and Eag_inc have done some great tests for the build along with a mini. Since they're both presently occupied I've received their permission to proceed using their designs and allow them to pitch in as much as they can.


Canon and Background
Eastwatch-by-the-Sea is the easternmost castle of the Night's Watch along the Wall and one of the three garrisoned at our stage of the books. It is located on a grey, windswept shore by the Bay of Seals with a nearby fisherfolk village.

Eastwatch is an important trade hub for the Watch as it is their eastern most castle on the Narrow Sea. The Night's Watch keeps several galleys at Eastwatch, including larger vessels capable of crossing the narrow sea and lean fighting vessels. The galleys patrol the Bay of Seals in part to catch smugglers who trade weapons to the free folk. Ships stationed at Eastwatch include the Talon, the Blackbird, and the Storm Crow.

Some free folk trade with the Night's Watch at Eastwatch; wildlings prefer it to Castle Black, because trading ships visit from across the Narrow Sea. Sure-footed mules are bred by the Watch at Eastwatch.

Key Features
- The castle is currently occupied by ~200 men, so sufficient barracks/living spaces will need to be added to accommodate them.
- Docks, the books mention that the Watch sent 11 ships to rescue the Wildlings at Hardhome (though most of these were commandeered Essosi ships). Eastwatch build should accordingly feature about 3 ships (with at least one presumed to be out at sea)
- Local trade hub, the adjacent village and docks should have trade/warehouse/transport and market infrastructure, adds to the overall impression that Eastwatch has a some-what successful community to accompany it.

Proposed Map

Castle Features
I haven't settled on a full layout yet, but I'll look to follow the design of Eag and Gawain's mini, and including the following features.
- Keep/Barracks
- Tower
- Dining Hall
- Kitchens
- Library
- Dungeon
- Rookery
- Wall gate
- Gravelled stairs up the Wall
- Forge/Armory
- Bath house
- Tunnels
- Fortifications on top of the Wall.

Like the other Wall castles I'm going to avoid adding any curtain walls/defences, but the castle will be on a rocky outcrop with stone/rock foundations.

Terra
Some terra will be needed to clear out room for the castle and village, there's a big rocky outcrop where the village is plotted that will be trimmed. The space to the west will be cleared out for fields/mule stables and some trees will be added.

There's also a worldpainter mountain on the north side of the Wall, this will need to be adjusted to clear space for the gate to exit. I'm thinking we shrink it down and combine the lower sections into the Wall itself.


Inspiration




Let me know if you have ideas/feedback or would like to help out. Pitching to make a start in early Jan. As with the Nightfort, once the castles/village is plotted they will be open for anyone to build.

 

[CashBanks]

More inspiration

 

[AerioOndos]

Forest isn't really supported by the lore, which states that there isn't much of it between Queenscrown and the sea. So I'd make sure the forest looks very heavily managed for brushwood, kindling, arrows etc. Lots of hazel, Hawthorn and ash. Not much pine and conifers because the loggers can more easily cut it beyond the wall

 

[DutchGuard]

Any ideas for re-defining the end of the wall? A lot of the concept art shows a wall which appears to terminate somewhat purposefully, rather than our current arrangement which appears to be sort of half melted into the sea.

 

[Kor_Bro]

Any ideas for re-defining the end of the wall? A lot of the concept art shows a wall which appears to terminate somewhat purposefully, rather than our current arrangement which appears to be sort of half melted into the sea.

I second this! The abrupt end to the Wall as it reaches the ocean in those concept art pieces is utterly awe inspiring. It would be amazing to see if we could recreate the same effect.

 

[AerioOndos]

We just need to make it jut into the sea enough the mammoths can reasonably swim around it. Elephants can swim 32 Km comfortably so I'd say the same for the mammoths, not considering hypothermia.

 

[CashBanks]

Great point!
I'd had some plans to continue the full height of the Wall to the end to create enough room for the fortifications, but yeah we can certainly aim to mirror those inspiration photos as well.

Regarding the north side coastline, I actually like how the show depicted it with these large sheer cliffs and thought I might try those (we can add some sections with lower inclines leading to beaches to give somewhere for the mammoths to swim out from).

 

[CashBanks]

Dark greetings! Progress has been made on plotting the castle and village.

I'd be very open to ideas for layouts of stables, blacksmith, bathhouse buildings to be added to the area below in blue.



Plots have also been opened up in the fishing/trade hamlet.

 

[AerioOndos]

I still like the idea of there being stables for the garron and mule breeding radiating out further from the castle itself, to help make Eastwatch feel a bit more like a compound than the other wall castles. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be stables closer within the castle proper, but this could be tied more to a farriers, saddlery and keeping less hardy horses like Ser Waymar's destrier

 

[CashBanks]

I still like the idea of there being stables for the garron and mule breeding radiating out further from the castle itself, to help make Eastwatch feel a bit more like a compound than the other wall castles. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be stables closer within the castle proper, but this could be tied more to a farriers, saddlery and keeping less hardy horses like Ser Waymar's destrier

Yeah I’d had the same idea for the full stables to be in the neighbouring fields, the Watch could send someone to fetch them when needed.

 

[Bovine]

Hey, seeing as eastwatch lays on the bay of seals, maybe some intigration of this animal could be used? seal hunting would likly be pretty popular this far north, perhaps more so beyond the wall (edit: and also Skagos). Anyways perhaps some inclusion of seal skining, meat, and walrus tusks can be integrated in the local enonomy of the build? just a thought! ( can you tell im Canadian?)

 

[AerioOndos]

Its called the Bay of Seals, but they're not the only thing in abundance. Between East Watch, Skagos and Storrold's Point is the richest fishing ground in the known world. Its teeming with fish. So there shouldn't just be seal rookeries but also a highly developed industry in regards to food and produce from the sea. Also walrus get mentioned in context of the western coast, so maybe less so here and more so Narwhal tusks.

 

[IronGentleGiant]

Between East Watch, Skagos and Storrold's Point is the richest fishing ground in the known world.

Sounds like this area is the ASOIAF equivalent of Codlandia, though Codlandia could be somewhere else in the unknown world, but being the rich fishing ground in all the known world of ASOIAF is pretty much Codlandia in our world. I bet there is Westerosi Cod in the Bay of Seals and from reading Cod: A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky, Cod is a very fine commodity to catch and sell. When preserved right it last longer than other fish, so anyone fishing in or near the Bay of Seals is sure to make a good amount of money off of Cod catching. Could bring in a sizable profit for local fishermen at Eastwatch and a good tax revenue for the garrison at East Watch.

Below is a distribution map of Atlantic Cod, Codlandia or Codhub is the area circled in Red and also known as the richest fishing ground in the world to some.



In our world it was the Basque who mostly and possibly only benefitted from the sell of Cod in the medieval periods as they had a near-total monopoly on it from the 1000s to the mid 1500s. There were whole little fleets of fishing expeditions launched by the Basque to Codlandia in the North Western Atlantic and they made a great profit off their catch when selling to port markets across Europe as the Church banned the sell of meats, except fish, on the Fridays of the year. The sell of Cod fish (and some descriptions of its detail and behavior) is even quoted in Don Quixote:

In Chapter 2
“It happened to be a Friday, so there was no food in the inn except a few helpings of what is known in Castile as abadejo, in Andalusia as bacallao and in other parts of Spain as curadillo – in other words the humble salt cod; but in these parts it was strangely called truchuela. They asked him if he’d like some of this troutling, because that was all the fish there was.”

In Chapter 11
“the eyes that look like pearls are the eyes of a codfish”

In Chapter 70
“Good God! You cold codfish, with a soul like a granite mortar and a heart like a date-stone, more stubborn and unyielding than any peasant once he’s made up his mind” -Altisidora to Don Quixote

--Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,
Don Quixote

Enough rambling about Cod. My thinking is that Eastwatch could boast a fair sized fishing focused industry as Aeks stated above. East Watch could boast a good sized fleet of fishing vessels, but most are probably out on long voyages fishing across the Bay of Seals and on into the Shivering Sea as far East as the River Sarne and as far North as Cannibal bay wherever that is. They probably have a few lucrative trade deals with port towns and cities along the Northern Narrow Sea.

Now go fish for some Cod and read Cod by Mark Kurlansky or read Don Quixote

Sources:

Cod

archive.nytimes.com

Cod's Impacts on Diets

Cod was a major staple of cooking, cuisine, and food in general throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Salted cod was a favored way of preparing the fish and many recipes...

codimpacts.weebly.com

Learn about Atlantic cod

Atlantic cod are common in Massachusetts waters. Read on to learn more about the Atlantic cod.

www.mass.gov

Amazon.com

 

[CashBanks]

Guys we all know New Zealand is the real Codlandia


Love all these ideas for a seal/fishing industry. I've hesitated about making the settlement too substantial so far, but you've made good points about the viability of a more robust fishing/sealing industries. There's scope to add some more plots to represent these, I'll add them in this week.

Thanks!

Also plenty of plots, special builds available (some at Deeplake too!)

 

[Rexstop15]

View attachment 14242


Sounds like this area is the ASOIAF equivalent of Codlandia, though Codlandia could be somewhere else in the unknown world, but being the rich fishing ground in all the known world of ASOIAF is pretty much Codlandia in our world. I bet there is Westerosi Cod in the Bay of Seals and from reading Cod: A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky, Cod is a very fine commodity to catch and sell. When preserved right it last longer than other fish, so anyone fishing in or near the Bay of Seals is sure to make a good amount of money off of Cod catching. Could bring in a sizable profit for local fishermen at Eastwatch and a good tax revenue for the garrison at East Watch.

Below is a distribution map of Atlantic Cod, Codlandia or Codhub is the area circled in Red and also known as the richest fishing ground in the world to some.

View attachment 14243

In our world it was the Basque who mostly and possibly only benefitted from the sell of Cod in the medieval periods as they had a near-total monopoly on it from the 1000s to the mid 1500s. There were whole little fleets of fishing expeditions launched by the Basque to Codlandia in the North Western Atlantic and they made a great profit off their catch when selling to port markets across Europe as the Church banned the sell of meats, except fish, on the Fridays of the year. The sell of Cod fish (and some descriptions of its detail and behavior) is even quoted in Don Quixote:

In Chapter 2
“It happened to be a Friday, so there was no food in the inn except a few helpings of what is known in Castile as abadejo, in Andalusia as bacallao and in other parts of Spain as curadillo – in other words the humble salt cod; but in these parts it was strangely called truchuela. They asked him if he’d like some of this troutling, because that was all the fish there was.”

In Chapter 11
“the eyes that look like pearls are the eyes of a codfish”

In Chapter 70
“Good God! You cold codfish, with a soul like a granite mortar and a heart like a date-stone, more stubborn and unyielding than any peasant once he’s made up his mind” -Altisidora to Don Quixote

--Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,
Don Quixote

Enough rambling about Cod. My thinking is that Eastwatch could boast a fair sized fishing focused industry as Aeks stated above. East Watch could boast a good sized fleet of fishing vessels, but most are probably out on long voyages fishing across the Bay of Seals and on into the Shivering Sea as far East as the River Sarne and as far North as Cannibal bay wherever that is. They probably have a few lucrative trade deals with port towns and cities along the Northern Narrow Sea.

Now go fish for some Cod and read Cod by Mark Kurlansky or read Don Quixote

Sources:

Cod

archive.nytimes.com

Cod's Impacts on Diets

Cod was a major staple of cooking, cuisine, and food in general throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Salted cod was a favored way of preparing the fish and many recipes...

codimpacts.weebly.com

Learn about Atlantic cod

Atlantic cod are common in Massachusetts waters. Read on to learn more about the Atlantic cod.

www.mass.gov

Amazon.com

Not only that!! During the low middle ages the basque were also some of the best whalers. They often sailed to Terranova and Iceland and other nations even adopted their techniques. Fun fact during the 17th century there was a Basque-based pidgin spoken in Iceland, and from the 16th to the 18th century there was also a pidgin known as "Souriquois" spoken by the Algonquian peoples in the gulf of St Lawrence in Canada.

 

[CashBanks]

Looking to finalise the question of the ice around the Eastwatch harbor.
It seems to me like a question of managing the canon, where we know ships still sail in and out of the harbor into ADWD, with our map that has sea ice stretching down past Bear Island.

My compromise has been to show the ship's breaking a path through the ice.

Inspired by icebreaker trails like this
View attachment 17440

Since we've also got the pebble shoreline, I thought it would make sense to add signs of the ice getting broken up by waves, getting stacked and jumbled.


Kind of like this:

Now I'm Australian so I'd be the last person to call themselves an expert on sea ice. So let me know if anyone thinks I'm off the mark on inspiration or execution or if any ideas to improve it.

 

[inactive]

Looking to finalise the question of the ice around the Eastwatch harbor.
It seems to me like a question of managing the canon, where we know ships still sail in and out of the harbor into ADWD, with our map that has sea ice stretching down past Bear Island.

My compromise has been to show the ship's breaking a path through the ice.
View attachment 17438
Inspired by icebreaker trails like this
View attachment 17440

Since we've also got the pebble shoreline, I thought it would make sense to add signs of the ice getting broken up by waves, getting stacked and jumbled.
View attachment 17442

Kind of like this:

Now I'm Australian so I'd be the last person to call themselves an expert on sea ice. So let me know if anyone thinks I'm off the mark on inspiration or execution or if any ideas to improve it.

If we think about this, the reason why the Bay of Seals is such a rich fishing ground is because of a warm southern current that travels up the Narrow Sea, and up the eastern coast all the way past Storrolds Point - it probably also hits currents from the east along the northern coast of Essos, from past Braavos/Lorath Bay.

This would mean that there would be less sea ice on the eastern coast of the North anyways, even though its far north. The east coast of Karhold/Frost is ice free which backs this up. I think a better solution would be odd pieces of sea ice floating around, maybe a water-ice ratio like 70/30 rather than the 20/80 that we have now. Less fast ice too - ice that is attached to the land on this side of the coast - and more sporadic ice floes, that are just floating around.

On a tangent, I probably think the western side of Skagos is much colder esp during winters - which probably drove the Skagosi on that side of Skagos to resort to cannibalism in the past. This combined with probably a drier climate on the northern side of Skagos, is what probably led to the population on Skane being all eaten by starving Skagosi raiders. I reckon the eastern side of Skagos at this point may even have some ice free spots on the coast - still covered in snow - but coves/bays may be largely clear of ice.

 

[AerioOndos]

Now, bear with me on this but I agree partly with the warm currents idea but not in the same way. Its a good idea but warm water current sticking to the coast of the north after the Bite seems a little bit of a stretch considering how Karhold winters still lead to terrible euphemisms like 'going hunting' the same as the Northern Mountains on the west coast (the bay of ice).
Another reason why I don't think a warm current explains this is that warmer waters are often poorer in nutrients than cool waters (this is why antarctic and the arctic oceans are black.
I think I've mentioned it in the Storrolds Point project thread but I have suggested that the prime fishing in the Bay of Seals is effected by the mingling of nutrient rich arctic waters with plenty of nutrients from undersea volcanic vents or miniature eruptions off the coast of Storrold's Point. The main eruption in the past is the Hardhome eruption (imo it was a volcano and possibly a Tunguska like event rolled into one that wiped out the settlement). Volcanic activity dramatically increases the amount of nutrients like iron, magnesium and zinc in water and marine life regrowth after an eruption is significantly faster. Years instead of decades.
Having undersea volcanic activity would also cause slightly warmer water around and a reduction in ice when compared to the Bay of Ice on the west coast.

Cash, I absolutely love the details and thought you've brought to the shore and icebound nature of the port in its older and current state but I think it could feel more appropriate to the world with more free floating ice than being icebound. I'd love to go back to Norrey and add some more ice details to the coast like what you've done at East Watch to improve the dynamism of the coastline.

 

[Die Wursttheke]

Eastwatch-by-the-Sea​

Dark Greetings from the Wall!

Before I start digging deeper, I would like to finally clear up the situation around Eastwatch.
In the first days of Eastwatch, I supported the project a lot and thus slipped into the role of project manager.

After talking to Cash, we came to an agreement that the two of us would share Eastwatch as a coop.

The division is very simple and can be seen using the lines drawn on the map. (Imgur Link)
I am happy to announce that Eastwatch Bay and Port are fully built and updated.
Except for very small things waiting for the 1.18 migration and good canon ships (hopefully still being built) everything is ready for the POST APPROVAL



By arrangement, I will not act as the lead for the castle and wall and will rather provide background assistance from.
Of course I support Cash with questions, terra and floorgradient concerns in and around the castle itself so that there is a smooth transition.

Big thanks to Cash who trusted me and made this project possible for me.

I would also like to thank Aeks, Tobi, KDSteele and Majic for their help with parts of the project, as well as all other builders and probies who built in the town.


Feel free to message me on Discord - DieWursttheke#2718
greetings from the Onionknight

https://imgur.com/a/mpB0Gkb

Edit: The 3 Canon Nightswatch Ships Blackbird, Storm Crow and the Talon are not beein builded till yet. If anyone would like to try their hand at the ships, they are welcome to get in touch.