The Castle's Role (TCG)

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A castle is much more than a building surrounded by stone walls or wooden palisades. It is more than a headquarters for knights and their armies during battle or a storehouse for goods in the wilderness. A castle is built for a lord and his family, as a cultural centerpiece to the countryside, and as a bastion of defense for the local peasantry and farmers in case of war or invasion; it is the heart and mind of the surrounding civilized lands.
A castle is also more than the stone towers and walls that arise from a picturesque hill or outcropping of rock. To provide for the lord of the castle, his many retinue, and for the skilled artisans employed by him, a castle must also be thought to include the land that is farmed by the local peasants and the large tracts of forests where deer, wild boar, elk, and other animals can breed and then be hunted.
Aside from having fields ripe with crops and copses of trees and shrub, a castle serves as a gathering place for skilled craftsmen such as blacksmiths, bakers, and carpenters. As the castle grows and takes on new dimensions, a village, town or, city may appear around it, bringing in more professional artisans such as alchemists, bankers, and cartographers.
A castle serves as the seat of the local government and a base for judicial administration. A castle, more than likely, will also have a prison or jail, a stockade for lesser offenders, and the guillotine or block for murderers, highwaymen, or serious offenders of the law.
The castle will have at least one chapel which small hamlets or towns without a monastery or temple may use for religious ceremonies, holidays, and festivals. A castle may also act as a school for the local gentry, enabling their children to learn to read and write. Others, the select few, will come here in hopes of learning the vows and codes which will lead to their becoming a knight.
The castle, in short, is the nexus for all activity and commerce within the lands controlled by the lord or king.