Nightfort Server Build - Project Document and Status

[CashBanks]

(click the book for link)

The Nightfort is the largest of the Night's Watch castles along the Wall. Once the seat of the Lord Commander, it has now stood abandoned for the last two hundred years. It sits between Icemark to the west and Deep Lake to the east. As the oldest of the Wall castles, the Nightfort figures as one of the most storied and haunted locations in Westeros.

The Nightfort has long been planned as a server build and it’s our intention to keep it that way. I’m proposing that the Nightfort Server Build encompass four elements:

1. Completion of the Nightfort;
2. Completion of Eastwatch, Long Barrow and Rimegate;
3. Updating completed Wall castles; and
4. Populating the Gift with immersion builds.

Whether you’re interested in taking lead on building the Nightfort Kitchens, of you have an idea for an abandoned hamlet in the Gift, or would just like to update Deeplake, with all these elements there will be something for everyone to contribute to.

As with other recent Server Builds like Highgarden, the Arbor and the Westerlands MegaBuild, the plan is to maximise the opportunities for areas of the project to be available as mini-apps to individually apply for under the umbrella of a consistent styleguide and oversight.

I'll be taking point on organising the project, but will be looking for maximum engagement from other mods and builders.

From the outset I need to ask everyone interested in contributing to show patience, respect and courtesy to other builders involved.

There may come a time where someone applies for the same location/building/area as you, and this is just an inevitable part of collaborative projects. Ideally I'd hope that anyone interested in working on the same part of the project as someone else would find a way to combine the best elements of both their ideas and apply jointly. This might not always be possible, so just always measure your expectations and keep in mind that your idea might not get used (take a look at the dozens of unused tests for Highgarden towers, dungeons and gardens floating around test that I made for instance).

That all being said I'm really excited to finally get the Nightfort underway, and finish the Wall, once and for all.

And now our watch begins!

 

[DutchGuard]

Ambitious. Bold. Revolutionary. And that black gate artwork!

This is a really well thought out plan, and especially love that you've analysed the folklore surrounding the Nightfort. The stories really set it apart from other large builds and I'm glad you're considering adding some nods to them. I also really vibe with the "haunted house" aesthetic. I think that is ultimately what GRRM was going for. Fallen glory of a past age. now shrouded in myth and legend.

At first I thought the addition of a Godswood was inappropriate, seeing as CB doesn't have one, but then, looking into it I changed my mind. You have to say your vows at a heart tree or in a sept after all. I think the most likely reason Castle Black has no Godswood is because it was felled after the Conquest. Despite it being in the North, the Wall and Night's Watch was, in a way, under the control of the King, who historically speaking, made frequent visits to the Wall. It also seems likely that the sept at CB was built around the same time.

In a previous post I had mentioned that the Nightfort was completely abandoned in 58AC. Might this be partly due to it's associations with the Old Gods? Would they have tried fell the weirwoods there? It could be interesting if the Godswood had been chopped down, but the roots of the felled heart tree survived (as part of the Black Gate) and re-grew through the Kitchens?

That tidy pocket of Godswood you have planned; maybe it re-grew and expanded in the 250 years since the castle was abandoned, and then spread to the other parts of the castle. A kind of blending of forest and ruins, which is after all, how GRRM describes it; the practice yard is overgrown, and the stables have been replaced by trees. The Old Gods slowly reclaiming their territory...

Imagine great pines bursting through buildings, huge fallen trunks blocking paths between towers, wormways reclaimed by local fauna for burrowing, half-frozen moonlit pools surrounded by underbrush and crumbling stone foundations.

This kind of aesthetic could easily be replicated on a smaller scale at the other castles as well (seeing as they were abandoned much later).
I'm sure this is partly what you had in mind, but just wanted to share my thoughts

 

[Ric]

Great app! It being one of the places I have eagered the most to see finished, it's great that it'll finally begin to happen.

The idea of adding the legends as easter eggs is great, I specially love the armor stand idea. Maybe something similar to Susans cellar could be done with the Rat King too? I think it would be nice to go down a hidden stair and find a giant (maybe crowned?) rat in a cavernous chamber, specially for those who would get the reference.

On what is said about the wall steps, I noticed that (as far as I remember right now) we don't have castles with "long ramps of gravel and earth that [go] up the wall", so maybe one of the castles still to be done could have that added? Would be different and interesting imo. But maybe this is something to propose when the castles themselves are being worked on.

I also like very much the idea of updating the wall-castles. An year ago I made this post pointing out small missing details of our current Castle Black and this could be a good chance of emending that.

Finally, I would like to make a question: in the beginning of the document there's a quote talking about the view north of the Wall from the castle. Is there any plannings for work in that region?

 

[CashBanks]

That tidy pocket of Godswood you have planned; maybe it re-grew and expanded in the 250 years since the castle was abandoned, and then spread to the other parts of the castle. A kind of blending of forest and ruins, which is after all, how GRRM describes it; the practice yard is overgrown, and the stables have been replaced by trees. The Old Gods slowly reclaiming their territory...

Imagine great pines bursting through buildings, huge fallen trunks blocking paths between towers, wormways reclaimed by local fauna for burrowing, half-frozen moonlit pools surrounded by underbrush and crumbling stone foundations.

This kind of aesthetic could easily be replicated on a smaller scale at the other castles as well (seeing as they were abandoned much later).
I'm sure this is partly what you had in mind, but just wanted to share my thoughts

Great points Dutch, I’m glad you’re hyped and would certainly love to get your input on the plans going forward.

The Godswood is a tricky one. TBH my guess as to why Castle Black doesn’t have a Heart Tree is that it was a plot contrivance to give Jon/Sam an excuse to go through the Wall and see a Weirwood grove.

Mormont's justification to Jon was "Castle Black has no need of a godswood. Beyond the Wall the haunted forest stands as it stood in the Dawn Age, long before the Andals brought the Seven across the narrow sea. You will find a grove of weirwoods half a league from this spot, and mayhap your gods as well." So I guess he's saying they didn't need to plant one at CB because they had plenty of good weirwoods over the Wall.

At any rate, you hit the nail on the head with the ideas around trees overrunning the ruins. Although Bran doesn’t specifically mention a Godswood, we do get told trees are all over the place, there are leaves blowing everywhere and there’s a weirwood growing through the kitchens, which had to come from somewhere (though I've wondered it it's connected to the Black Gate).

So I think it’s reasonable to guess that all these factors point towards an overgrown Godswood that has spread new seeds and trees through the ruins. Plus it makes sense that the oldest NW castle of all places would have had one (the Children helped with the Wall after all).

Great app! It being one of the places I have eagered the most to see finished, it's great that it'll finally begin to happen.

On what is said about the wall steps, I noticed that (as far as I remember right now) we don't have castles with "long ramps of gravel and earth that [go] up the wall", so maybe one of the castles still to be done could have that added? Would be different and interesting imo. But maybe this is something to propose when the castles themselves are being worked on.

I also like very much the idea of updating the wall-castles. An year ago I made this post pointing out small missing details of our current Castle Black and this could be a good chance of emending that.

That's a good point, to be honest when I initially read that line, I assumed that to mean Bran was talking about the general ramps and stairs around the Wall castles themselves, didn't occur to me that they were steps and ramps up the Wall itself. I'd be open to updating some of the castles with them if the tests look ok. I would guess they would be in rough shape after years of neglect and they'd be covered in ice and snow now as well, so we'd probably only see traces of them.

And yes we should absolutely update CB to include that piece of canon, well spotted.

Finally, I would like to make a question: in the beginning of the document there's a quote talking about the view north of the Wall from the castle. Is there any plannings for work in that region?

Before the idea of doing the Nightfort got stuck in my head I had thought about a North of the Wall terra project, with an update to the Haunted Forest and finishing the Fist of the First Men. I still totally think it's a crime we haven't done the Fist yet, but don't want to commit to anything as part of the Nightfort build just yet, we'll probably have our hands full with dealing with the Wall. But if someone comes up with a plan though I'd certainly be open to exploring how we can make it work.

 

[AerioOndos]

Remember with the Nightfort that Deeplake has no lake south of the wall, and because of that there is more room for buildings and gift space.
Also, reclaiming the land taken by Deeplake's noncanon lake would make it easier to have the grasslands and bog described as being around the nightfort.
In terms of Castle Vibe, I particularly liked the insp image which had a large bergfried standing out head and shoulders above the rest of the castle. Could the Lord Commander's tower be more similar to this in aura/mood?
Also, it seemed to me that the overall gradient was quite light, especially for the wormways. Perhaps if they utilised more blackstone and had more dirt/gravel/pebble floor to go with the leaves it might feel a bit darker and forboding.

Cash, have you thought of including a Queenscrown terra touch up in this too? If it was shifted further south/SE it might seem a little further from the wall and any streams or bogs you might want to have in the gifts could flow towards it roughly? Also I don't remember there being as big a hill on the northern side as Ollie made.

 

[CashBanks]

Hmm that's a good point, may need to re-think the lake placements up there in that case


I'm guessing the squid tentacle shaped lake and tributary we have beyond the wall is probably supposed to be the lake shown on this map from the Lands of Ice and Fire, which seems to be the only one in the area. We might need to consider if it's close enough to Deeplake to be its name sake, or if we need to move it at all. There's also that rogue lake to the north of the Nightfort that I'm not sure is canon. I'm hoping someone applies to update Deeplake and figures it out

 

[Sapper]

This is the best application I have seen so far. Excited to see this wonderful plan put into action.