posted 10-02-2002 10:20 PM            

This tower is, at the moment, serving for a sorcerer's observation deck, and the room of which I would need size and placement in the tower would need to house an eight-foot table at least, numerous shelves (if possible, shelves that fit the curves of the walls), torches along the walls where shelves are not placed, and room not only to work, but also to place a kettle for mixing potions, and a stand to hold the sorcerer's spellbook. If you can help me with this, I'd be grateful, because I don't believe that a story can be good if the facts are distorted, and I wish to be able to keep in line with the buildings of the time. The tower will most likely be off to the side of the castle wall, though not attached, and will need to be the highest vantage point for miles. Thanks for the help, and I'm glad to find this board. I wasn't sure where to look for any of this stuff, or I would have done so.

posted 10-11-2002 05:50 AM            

OK, I'll stop picking on you now.

What date are you aiming for?

Castles have towers of a very wide range of heights and widths, so you could fit that into a tower quite well. Most towers were small and formed part of the wall defence, but some are 80 feet tall and 20-40 feet wide.

The largest and strongest tower, and almost always the one placed at the highest point, was used as the keep.
Some of the smaller castles were nothing more than a tower and small enclosure, with maybe a small building within it. Such a tower would be 15m(37feet) tall and only 4-5m(10-13feet) across, including the wall thickness.

A couple of points though. During the middle ages documents were often stored in trunks along with lots of other things. In some cases a special room was used, just behind the main fireplace, with a set of hanging shelves. This kept the humidity low and the mice, rats and moisture off the precious documents.

posted 10-11-2002 05:49 PM            

My sorcerer would be the "bad guy", who wants a clear view of the land from a high point. As to time-frame, the castle would be located in a "world" parallel to ours. (Don't laugh, if it wasn't for us people with imaginations, the world would be a dull, boring play without anything to aspire to)

I suppose the castle would look similar to the castle here, though I'm unsure of the timeframe of which it would have been built. This is a Bavarian Castle. http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/NV--1_1824_1962_7102/PD--10054832 /SZ--3/posters.htm?XRFID=197756&TKID=5798233

This would be the Palace and Fort at Agra, which I also found... and may very well think to use something like this, seeing as how it's more to my fancy.
http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/NV--1_1824_1962_7102/PD--10032209/SZ--3/posters.htm?XRFID=197756&TKID=5798233

[This message has been edited by Faetigree_Caiseal (edited 10-11-2002).]

posted 10-12-2002 07:30 AM            

The second one you link to I don't know, but it looks and sounds very Arabic.
If you like that style, then here is a link to pictures of a famous arabic palace in spain; http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/The_Alhambra.html

Someone posted a great photo of a large model of a tower keep in a French castle, but I don't seem to have the link.
Here are a couple of others.

Here is one with a cross section of it's tower; http://www.casteland.com/pfr/chateau/aquitaine/gironde/roquetaillade/roquetaillade_histoire3.htm

One with large towers; http://www.eatandstay.com/pierrefonds.htm

This model shows the tower well; http://www.hessennet.de/seeheim-jugenheim/freizeit/Sehenswuerdigkeiten/Burgruine_Tannenberg.htm

Maybe this one; http://perso.wanadoo.fr/perso.apm/gaillard/cgaillard.html

posted 10-12-2002 10:05 PM            

There are plenty with large towers such as; http://www.burgenwelt.de/muenzen/bitre.htm http://www.burgenwelt.de/eppstein/biepp.htm
The next two two have a thinner tower at the top, might be just what you are after; http://www.burgenwelt.de/friedberg/bifels.htm http://www.burgenwelt.de/idstein/biidstein.htm
The second one gives dimentions for the tower's ground floor room of 4.35-4.6m internal diameter and 11.3m external diameter.

As you can see, these towers are all very tall. Howerver it is not the height alone that makes them a great fortification.
You ask about hitting the top of the observation deck. Well, defence of a castle or tower involves both strength in the fortification, but more importantly, active defence.
One person alone would have great difficulty in defending a tower. If the enemy can get as close as they like, then hitting the top of the tower with seige engines or arrows would not be difficult. Also, if you can't keep them away from near your tower base, they can undermine it and it will fall in a heap.
This is how many castles were breached. It takes active defence to keep the enemy away from the walls, rebuilding what they knock down, raiding their positions or countermining their mines, killing them or flooding the shafts.

If your tower is on a steep, rocky outcrop, then you will avoid may of those problems. But they can still undercut or dismantle the base of the tower if you have no way of stopping or counterating that.