- In any case I think there’s plenty of room for creative interpretation on the size of the town, given that the books suggest that people always gravitate to wherever the royal court sits.
- E.g. King’s Landing was an empty hill when Aegon arrived, but within 10 years of him building the Aegonfort, it was already a “true city” and within 25 years it was the third biggest in Westeros.
- We know that various princes lived there full time, and Kings as well for sometimes more than a year at a time, so I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable that the town would grow to take advantage of those coming to the royal court for one reason or another and providing them the necessary services (which would be hard to find elsewhere since the Stormlands doesn’t have any major trading towns).
- The town of Windsor is almost certainly a reasonable example to draw on (though since Windsor was the monarchs full time residence I wouldn’t go as far as to make it a 1:1 comparison).
- Plus I want the town to include all the other utilities needed to service the castle, as well as residences for servants and other officials.
- The professions I planned to plot (largely immaterial since the buildings are going to be ruins anyway) are: Baker, Butcher, Carpenter, Cake, Wine merchant, Mens/Womens Tailors, Jeweller, 3 x Inns, Cooper, Fabric importer, Blacksmith, Chandler, Scribe, Silver smith, Inn, Grocer, Alchemist, Doctor, Cartwright, Glass seller, Wood crafter, Armoror, Bookbinder, Mason, Saddler and Money Lender.
- The current number of professionals/residences is about 49, which compared to other castletowns, e.g. the 40 at starfall, 60+ at hawthornetown ~30 at Silverhill, ~40 at Bushytown, ~48 at Tarbeck Hall, ~30 at Banetown and ~40 at Appleton isn’t really that extreme given that it's attached to a royal castle.
Arguably the Targaryens visited and resided at Summerhall to escape from the busy city that is Kingslanding, and to enjoy activities such as hunting and whatnot. Surely the Targaryens would limit the growth of the castle town to ensure they do not end up with yet another castle situated in the middle of a city. The Stormlands does have at least one thriving town, Weeping Town, and probably has numerous smaller towns throughout the region.
Kingslanding is noted to have been build by Aegon, rather than magically appearing below his castle walls. This means some proper effort has been put in for the city to develop, although it is noted that the small fishing village that would one day grow to become Kingslanding developed into a town by the time Aegon finished his conquest. Why would Summerhall be one of the few places in the Stormlands to develop into a large town (given the professions), rather than places like Storm's End (which was a royal seat for centuries), Bronzegate, Blackhaven, Parchments, Amberly, Stonehelm, Gallowsgrey etc..
Would a royal court purchase locally crafted jewelry, candles, books, silver, potions, carts, glass, carved wood, armor or saddles? I think they would purchase those from all over the kingdom, in order to get the best quality. What need would the town have for a money lender? Why are there so many inns? Would the town be large enough in order to have highly specialized professions such as wood carver or fabric importer? What prevents the tailor, or any craftsman, to import his own materials or to provide multiple services? Can a simple wood worker not repair a cart? Wouldn't castle specific professionals reside at the castle itself?
- I think the water is cool and dynamic and it shouldn’t be hard to add whatever terraforming features necessary to make it reasonably plausible.
- My thinking is that the palace designers diverted an existing stream to create an artificial decorative lake and gravity fed fountain for the town, but when the palace was abandoned the lake started to move and eventually started overflowing and the fountain crumbled leading to the town getting slightly flooded.
- We’re trying to make a map that could be used for an RPG one day, I think things like this fit the themes of Targaryen strength and beauty slowly crumbling and their decisions for short term benefit and hubris coming back to haunt them.
- It'll add to the spookiness.
As far as I know, the castle burned down due to an unknown accident. The town would have a major economic hit as a result, but would otherwise be perfectly able to maintain the surroundings, including the watercourse. I think it would be more fitting to show that the people can manage perfectly well without the Targaryens rather than showing the people become hopelessly lost without them.
Why would the town need to be spooky? Isn't an abandoned burned castle spooky enough?