Regents' House

Regents' Hill House is a stately home and the official residence of the Prince of Wolftè. It is generally considered the epitome of Wooflandic Neo-Palladian architecture. It lies on the River Mitesè, six kilometres upstream of the town of Mitesè. The house, which is listed L++, sits in hundreds of square kilometres of L+ land, and ECO# protected forest.

In the hill, underneath the modern house, contains the ruins of a medieval castle, listed L#, the highest possible recognition of a site's importance to Wooflandic history. It's history is almost completely unknown.

The modern house was designed by Töxte Reje (Litne Reje at the time); it was based upon British Neo-Palladian masterpieces. However, she objected to the use of porticoes because of their religious connotations in Ancient Greece.

## History

### Ancient History

The first record of the Mitesè river is from the ancient Legend of the Wayward River, in which the river supposedly split into two to prevent two armies from reaching each other, in protest of their battles' damage to the land. The Mitesè is the most likely river for this legend to have been about, because of the fine details such as its shape, depth and flow speed/direction.

In tribal times, the river would have been the border between multiple factions, and the surrounding swampland would've insured that they couldn't invade one another (for they would be unable to get to the river in the first place).

### Regents' Hill Castle

Regents' Hill Castle, also known as "The Castle in the Hill", is the name commonly given to the medieval fortress once on the hill. Due to the suction cycle, it was pulled into the hill over time, and was about 20 metres down by the late 1700's. It would've been used as stronghold and lookout over the river. The swamp-like terrain would've made it almost impossible to reach the top of the hill from the river, making it the perfect location strategically: anyone on the river would be target practice for archers in the castle.

The castle was built with stone walls, but with wooden huts inside. It was constructed some time in the 11th Century, and would have been completely submerged by the 16th Century. Archaeologists have inferred from its condition that it was abandoned and allowed to collapse long before it was completely submerged.

Sadly, due to poor record keeping, and the frequent tampering and destruction of records, its history, owners, and key events are all unknown. Historians are also unsure of the castle's original name, so any records about fortresses on the Mitesè - of which there were many, may or may not be about the castle.

The remains of the castle are now suspended deep underneath the modern manor. It isn't open to the public, both because of the estate's private ownership, and worries of vandalism and decay under constant changes in light levels etc. It is, however, frequently studied by specialists, who are allowed on the site usually under contracts with their universities.

### Temporary Structures on the Hill

The later Dark Monarchs were known to use the site as an outpost to monitor those using the river. This included preparations in case of war, but no fights of any kind were recorded. The occupiers certainly knew of the Castle in the Hill, but never attempted to dig down to it because of the risk of landslides and the hill collapsing. They were also unsure of its depth and condition. Many were convinced it had simply crumbled into nothing over the centuries. This is shown in a letter from the Vice-Commander of the outpost to the monarch's leading military aide:

> However much Commander Rijä tries to convince us, the presence of the Castle beneath us is incredibly likely. But I must admit: I don't want to be the one digging down to it. Firstly, I will not carry out work I am not being paid to do. But secondly, and more importantly, the last thing I could tolerate is the collapse of the hill. Who knows how deep the thing is anyway. It was said to be buried a hundred years after it was made - by now it could be deeper than anyone has dug before. And I have no interest in finding anything else lurking in the deeps, never mind a medieval castle.
>
> Vice-Commander Éjo, in a letter to the monarch, National Library of Woofland

### Regents' Hill House

After the renaissance and the Fall of the Dark Dynasties, the land came into ownership of the House of Tré. Töxtes Tré never claimed the land, as he didn't want conflict over the Mitesè. His son Otto, however, was taken aback by the location, and quickly claimed it. At first, the 3rd Baron Etsè, Baron Etsè at the time, objected to it. He withdraw his objection, however, when Otto removed that part of the Mitesè from his claim.

Otto's dream was to build a new estate there, but the weather was too volatile to ensure the safety of a building in the hill. He had to start by hiring landscapers to stabilise the land, dry the swamp, extend the size of the hill, and stop the suction cycle, which they did by building up the banks of the river to stop it flooding. They also salinated the bottom of the hill to dry it quicker. Once that was finished, and the integrity of the building guaranteed, work got underway. They were digging out the space for the cellar when they ran into the remains of the old castle. It was in almost perfect condition, because of the pressure the suction cycle put on the walls, which held them together. Otto ordered it to be enclosed by wooden panels and then dug around, before being suspended in the air. He then carefully had the panels removed and the remaining mud dug out, so all that was left was the remains of the castle, suspended in place as they were found (but without the surrounding earth). Worried exposure to light and humidity would damage it, he enclosed it for the remainder of the house's construction.

The house itself was different from the one on the site today: it was smaller, and not as grand. It was purely for functionality, something that Otto preferred over lavish and grand buildings.

When the house was complete, he gifted it to Töxte S'jam (Litne S'jam at the time), his regent (heir), who lived in the house but never touched the castle. He did, however, finish drying out the surrounding land and built grand gardens. When Otto died, he gifted the estate to his daughters. His younger daughter, Reje, redesigned and rebuilt the house with money provided by her father, S'jam, who was now Töxte.

Tragically, Silja, S'jam's elder daughter, died before him, and thus the estate came solely into Reje's possession. She built a memorial garden for her sister, and was going to call the house Silja after her, but her father advised otherwise, as he thought it'd make the wrong impression to their peers. Instead, they named the house Regents' House, as it had by this point become tradition for the monarch to pass the estate onto their regent upon their coronation. Reje did the same, passing it to her daughter Estellè upon her coronation, after S'jam's death.

## Design

### Castle

Historians have made this approximation of the castle's design. The thin section is stone wall; the rectangles are towers. They would've been approximately 6m tall at any given time, but as the castle started sinking, they built more on top, so the true height of the towers is now about 17m. This height helps to give us a lot more accurate dates: we know the rough speed of the suction cycle for structures like this, and we know when it was built. Therefore, we can work out the dates for the different