Project Suggestion: House Darklyn of Duskendale

[Rakdar]

Hello there,

I would like to present you guys with a complete and extremely detailed Project Suggestion for House Darklyn of Duskendale. As the PDF is too large to be attached in this forum, here is the link:

The Darklyn Project (Google Drive)

The Darklyn Project is the result of a long process of brainstorming and fanon creation that began in June 2015, when I properly became interested in House Darklyn due to a forum RPG game held over at Sufficient Velocity, named Ghosts of Valyria. I had the great pleasure of playing the Darklyns of Duskendale in that game and, since then, my interest in the house has only grown. Nowadays the Darklyns are my favorite ASOIAF house and over these three years I have developed an original headcanon about them, which I am now pleased to share with the Westeroscraft community in order to provide assistance and inspiration for your future Duskendale builds.

This Project Suggestion is structured as similarly as possible to a standard project application, although with none of the technical details, as I am not a skilled enough builder to satisfactorily offer them to you. At first I am going to present you with all the canon information we have on Duskendale, the Dun Fort and the Darklyns. Second, I will introduce you to my Darklyn fanon as a source of inspiration for your eventual build. At last, but not least, I offer suggestions as to how a Dun Fort and Duskendale build could look like in the server. I realize that the server’s timeframe is roughly A Clash of Kings, so I know the lordly Darklyns are extinct in your world and Duskendale is ruled by House Rykker. Nevertheless, Duskendale and the Dun Fort were Darklyn constructs and ought to be represented as such. The Rykkers have only ruled the former Darklyn lands for little over twenty years, which is nothing compared to their predecessors’ long eight thousand year history that dates back to the Age of Heroes and the First Men. Duskendale is a major location for Westeroscraft and ought to be built and represented accordingly.

I would really appreciate if you guys took a second to look at it. I put my heart and soul into it. This is something that has been in the making for several years by now and I believe the end result could prove to be an inspiration for the future Duskendale build.

Cheers!

 

[DutchGuard]

This is great, if you put even half the effort into becoming a fully-fledged builder you could apply to do the project yourself!

 

[Rakdar]

This is great, if you put even half the effort into becoming a fully-fledged builder you could apply to do the project yourself!

Thank you for the encouragement, but sadly I really don't have the time or the skill. I'm always willing to help as a lore consultant on anything, though!

As for Fire and Blood, there is no new information relevant enough to a Duskendale build, only a confirmation that Duskendale (obviously) has tourney grounds and boatyards. My theory that the Dun Fort held out in the Dance of Dragons is incorrect: Lady Darklyn surrendered following the Sack, either to spare her husband's life or after his execution to avoid following his fate.

 

[CashBanks]

Hey Rakdar,
This is awesome work and we gladly encourage any fans of the world of ASOIAF to contribute to the server. It's certainly a shame you don't have the time to become a builder at the moment, (enthusiasm is the only skill we require) but you should certainly consider it if your schedule lightens up.

Duskendale is being considered as one of the next server builds after White Harbor and Highgarden. I know @lemonbear has an interest in planning it too, so I'm sure your research will come in handy when we start to figure out plans for tackling it.

 

[Rakdar]

Hey Rakdar,
This is awesome work and we gladly encourage any fans of the world of ASOIAF to contribute to the server. It's certainly a shame you don't have the time to become a builder at the moment, (enthusiasm is the only skill we require) but you should certainly consider it if your schedule lightens up.

Duskendale is being considered as one of the next server builds after White Harbor and Highgarden. I know @lemonbear has an interest in planning it too, so I'm sure your research will come in handy when we start to figure out plans for tackling it.

Thank you, that's all I ask.

I did peek around in /warp duskendaletest a bit and I liked what I saw there, especially the houses. If it were up to me I'd make the Dun Fort itself larger (comparing it to one of the Highgarden towers next to the test area, it looks small-ish), wider in order to make it look squatter and darker because of its age (with Winterfell granite rather than dun bricks, which could be used for the rest of the Dun Fort though), also with fewer big windows. Other than that, I like the general feeling of it very much.

 

[Rakdar]

Potential inspiration for the entrance to the crypts in the godswood:

 

[Rakdar]

I have come across an artwork which pretty much nails how I imagine the Dun Fort looking in the Duskendale skyline (please ignore the thatch roofs and the dirt streets):

It looks very imposing and martial-like. The defining features are the big drum towers and the large square keep, and it sits on a hill, like in canon (although the Dun Fort is in the middle of Duskendale, by the harbor, not by the town walls). Of course, only the color is off, as it is white instead of grey, but other than that it is a very insightful illustration.

By the way, I've been exploring the Duskendale test area and I've seen the first draft layout of the city. I should note that Brienne never mentions a river in Duskendale, so it's unlikely there is one, although I quite like the idea behind an old vs. new city. The positioning of the Dun Fort seems to have been influenced by non-canon illustrations though (e.g. this one and this one), which is understandable but makes it non lore accurate. The Dun Fort probably sits on a hill by the harbor and is not close to the city walls, as Barristan had to actually walk the city streets disguised as a beggar in order to get to the castle. It also looks dreadfully small (the castle proper, not the keep), although that might be the scale speaking, and it is lacking a godswood, which I'm completely sure the Darklyns would have had. Aside from that, I would make different stylistic choices, e.g. making the Sept a lot darker, but that is ultimately up to you guys.

 

[SeapunkPeaches]

Love it!

 

[Rakdar]

Love it!

Thanks

 

[Rakdar]

Some more castle inspiration for the Dun Fort (as a reminder, the Dun Fort used to be the royal seat of a large state encompassing the entire Northern Crownlands for centuries, while Duskendale itself was the largest and most important Westerosi port on the Narrow Sea until the foundation of King's Landing: the Dun Fort isn't an ordinary castle and should not look like it. It's large and majestic):

From the Witcher 3's Vizima:

Potential inspiration for the Court's facade (from the Cologne Cathedral):

Potential sketch of the Court:

Riverside (if there is going to be a river):

City wall inspiration (Duskendale is mentioned to have strong defenses and pale walls. I would still add machicolations):

 

[Enah]

The only thing I agree on inspiration wise is the walls. The rest is too ornate and far too modern for an ancient castle.

 

[Rakdar]

The only thing I agree on inspiration wise is the walls. The rest is too ornate and far too modern for an ancient castle.

Eh, thanks for the reply, but consider that the Dun Fort grew as Duskendale grew with it. It wasn't born that way. There is the really old part of the castle next to the square keep and then there is the new part built up by the Darklyns when they were the Hightowers of the Narrow Sea. It doesn't make sense lore-wise to make all of the castle (which is canonically big) of the same age, as if there wasn't evolution. Even Winterfell doesn't have an original stone to it, the oldest part (First Keep) dates to after Andal technology was introduced in the North.

 

[Enah]

But there’s no canon information of it being expanded. It’s a square keep with four drum towers. And a curtain wall, and it sits on a hill overlooking the Harbour. The extra fancy is just something unflattering to a crownlands build. Also, my winter fell canon is fuzzy, where is that tidbit at in the books?

 

[Rakdar]

But there’s no canon information of it being expanded. It’s a square keep with four drum towers. And a curtain wall, and it sits on a hill overlooking the Harbour. The extra fancy is just something unflattering to a crownlands build. Also, my winter fell canon is fuzzy, where is that tidbit at in the books?

The Winterfell bit is in AWOIAF.

It is also canon that Duskendale was the largest and most prosperous Westerosi port city on the Narrow Sea before the establishment of King’s Landing, surpassing the usual suspects like Gulltown and White Harbor, and that the city was the capital of a kingdom that once encompassed pretty much all of the Northern Crownlands. And it still is a very prominent trade center by the time of the books (see my research in the main Docs). The Wiki also describes the castle as big. A square keep with four towers and a curtain wall doesn’t cut it IMO (also, the number of towers is never mentioned). The Dun Fort should be at the very least the size of New Castle at White Harbor, but bigger because Duskendale was larger than White Harbor and the Darklyns formerly ruled over a larger and much more populated and prosperous kingdom than the Manderlys in the North. The defining features of the Dun Fort cited in the book are the large square keep and the drum towers along the curtain wall. Those need to be the defining features in the build, but they needn’t exclude further speculation based on more canon evidence, especially evidence that is more recent than 2005’s AFFC. Assuming that the Dun Fort lacks a proper Great Hall is contradictory with all the rest of the canon on House Darklyn.

 

[an_escaped_duck]

a big castle is fine, but it would be out of place to have an ornate gothic palace in a poor, low populated area of westeros. Obviously kings landing is large but the crownlands as a whole are not big like the reach or riverlands in terms of population

 

[Rakdar]

a big castle is fine, but it would be out of place to have an ornate gothic palace in a poor, low populated area of westeros. Obviously kings landing is large but the crownlands as a whole are not big like the reach or riverlands in terms of population

Perhaps, the Great Hall could take many forms, yes, though it’s a misconception that Duskendale is poor or low populated. This is the direct quote from AWOIAF:

“At that time Duskendale was the principal Westerosi port on the narrow sea and had grown fat and wealthy from the trade that passed through its harbor. ”

At the time refers to the Conquest. This specific history unique to Duskendale in the Conquest sets its apart from the other “big square keep” buildings in the region, e.g. Rosby and Stokeworth, which are excellent for their scope but do not capture the Dun Fort, which is at another level entirely. The build does not portray the Duskendale from the Defiance, but the Duskendale that has been built up steadily for eight thousand years, being at its peak around the Conquest.

 

[an_escaped_duck]

Yeah i know duskendale is big, just that the crownlands overall are smaller and poorer than many regions

 

[SeapunkPeaches]

The Crownlands always seemed very populated to me At least the way we depicted the region.

 

[Rakdar]

In the books the Crownlands look to be low populated because Joffrey/Tyriom barely recruits any Crownlander lords to defend King’s Landing. Lack of manpower is an explanation, but it is not an ideal one IMO. After all, if I remember right, most of Rhaegar’s host of 45,000 men on the Trident hailed from the Crownlands (10,000 Dornishmen and we know the Reach held back, so anything between 25k-30k Crownlanders seem plausible), and that’s already accounting for the losses of the Battle of the Bells, which was fought by a Crownlander army. The fact is that those Crownlander lords were Targaryen loyalists and do not feel personal loyalty to the Baratheon dynasty, especially as Robert stuffs his court with Lannisters and Valemen (Jon Arryn and Littlefinger) rather than Crownlanders, as was the norm. You have the two more dependent houses Rosby and Stokeworth, but not much else.

 

[EStoop]

Perhaps, the Great Hall could take many forms, yes, though it’s a misconception that Duskendale is poor or low populated. This is the direct quote from AWOIAF:

“At that time Duskendale was the principal Westerosi port on the narrow sea and had grown fat and wealthy from the trade that passed through its harbor. ”

At the time refers to the Conquest. This specific history unique to Duskendale in the Conquest sets its apart from the other “big square keep” buildings in the region, e.g. Rosby and Stokeworth, which are excellent for their scope but do not capture the Dun Fort, which is at another level entirely. The build does not portray the Duskendale from the Defiance, but the Duskendale that has been built up steadily for eight thousand years, being at its peak around the Conquest.

Assuming Duskendale has been steadily growing for eight thousand years is incorrect. It's mentioned that the town started to decline as Kingslanding grew, eventually resulting in the defiance of Duskendale.

Spoiler: The World of Ice and Fire - The Targaryen Kings: Aegon I

Where once only fishing boats were seen, now cogs and galleys from Oldtown, Lannisport, the Free Cities, and even the Summer Isles began to appear as the flow of trade shifted from Duskendale and Maidenpool to King's Landing.

Spoiler: The World of Ice and Fire - The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II

The ancient harbor town of Duskendale had been a seat of kings of old, in the days of the Hundred Kingdoms. Once the most important port on Blackwater Bay, the town had seen its trade dwindle and its wealth shrink as King's Landing grew and burgeoned, a decline that its young lord, Denys Darklyn, wished to halt.

However, this doesn't mean the town should be small. Structures such as the Dun Fort, the walls and other buildings in the town would indicate that it once was a wealthy town.

Spoiler: The World of Ice and Fire - The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II

But Duskendale was surrounded by strong walls, and the Dun Fort, the ancient seat of House Darklyn, which overlooked the harbor, was even more formidable. Taking it by storm would be no easy task.

The defences of the town would probably be a little run down, as the income of the town will most likely be insufficient to maintain it. It's most likely the number of residents is currently lower than during its golden age, leaving parts of the town empty or abandoned.