Caseán

The **Caseán** was a type of fortified structure unique to the Kingdom of Farraneán, which were initially built for the sake of protecting the realm from the White Pestilence. Later, they served the same function in halting the arrows of Ibevari archers, as well as defending their populations from the onset of The Greentide. These structures were fortified towns and cities served as a hub of defence for nearby villages. These villages aided the Caseáns in creating and maintaining the reserves of supplies they would employ in sieges. The Caseán were primarily built near important trade routes or roads towards major settlements, with some of the Kingdom's more important cities having several in close proximity.

## Layout

The Caseán employed a flower-like arrangement, a tactic refined and more widely adopted in the later Star Forts that became the standard in the centuries after the Kingdom's destruction.

### Walls

Their structures were designed with elven styled domes. The roof above the walls and towers were in a similar style, often constructed from hardy Cursewood lumber, to protect from arrows and other projectiles. The walls had menacing protrusions of varying nature to prevent scaling, along with murder holes, through which arrows and spears could be thrust. They were often constructed primary outer wall, with another inside, and a central keep, allowing for multiple layers for the defenders to take positions in. These were sometimes divided by retractable drawbridges. In these instances, there was ditch and moat between each wall, and another for the keep in the middle, leaving the keep essentially an "island" in the middle of the fortress.

## Structures

At the centre of the Caseán the keep served to house refugees from nearby villages. The inner sections had small gardens and storehouses for supplies. While the gardens only approached sustenance level in their production in peacetime, they did provide enough to extend sieges by a notable margin, supplementing established peacetime reserves and those supplies that refugees from outside the walls would provide. The keep would often extend underground in larger examples, to shelter more inhabitants. As a last ditch measure, many had tunnels to evacuate outside and escape to well-concealed entrances that often appeared as natural mounds or caves. The middle of the Keep held a circular table around a tree, in the pattern of the Scogtrín, which served as a base for the commanders of the fortress to discuss and plan during a siege and acted as a grand dining area for visitors during peace.

## Regional Differences

There was some regional variation of note in the Caseán. Those closer to the former Arbarani and Adenner borders had deep ditches and spiked barricades around them to deal with cavalry, while those in regions more influenced by the Aldresians or other organizations of mages were often equipped with some bearing wards to negate or dampen the spells of hostile mages. Some more vital Casean's were rumoured to have spells in place that would permit their commanders to destroy the fortress if it were to fall, which would serve the double measure of preventing the laborious task of reclamation, and destroying any remaining enemies within the fortress.