Castle Wyvern

Castle Wyvern

Castle Wyvern - The ancestral home of Goliath and his clan.

History

Originally, it stood on Wyvern Hill, on the western coast of Scotland, but has since been moved by David Xanatos to New York City.

There is evidence for a previous human occupation of Wyvern Hill before the building of the present castle, but Castle Wyvern itself was originally built in 971, after Prince Malcolm and Hudson formed their alliance. Partly thanks to the ruins and still-intact foundation of the earlier stronghold, partly through the help of the gargoyles and the Archmage, the castle was completed by 975, when Prince Malcolm and Princess Elena were married.

Castle Wyvern atop the Eyrie Building

Castle Wyvern, thanks both to the natural defenses of its site and the help of the gargoyles, was close to impregnable. It stood on a rocky cliff atop the rookery of the local gargoyle clan, reachable only by a narrow causeway. By day, the human archers of Prince Malcolm and Princess Katharine defended it; by night, the gargoyles reinforced the garrison. For twenty-three years, the castle defied capture.

The Great Hall in 994

In 994, however, the Captain of the Guard and Demona, angered at the increasingly poor treatment and lack of gratitude that Princess Katharine and her court had shown the gargoyles, betrayed the castle to Hakon and his band of Vikings, who took the human residents prisoner and destroyed nearly all of the gargoyle clan. After the Magus turned the surviving gargoyles (except for Demona) to stone, Princess Katharine felt that it was no longer safe to remain at the castle, and left for her uncle Kenneth II’s court, taking her people with her. Castle Wyvern was left deserted for the next thousand years, its only inhabitants being Goliath and his fellow gargoyles, frozen in stone sleep atop the battlements.

The Great Hall in 1994

Perhaps thanks to the hauntings by the Captain of the Guard and Hakon’s ghosts, the castle was left deserted until Xanatos came there in 1994, purchased it, and transported it to New York, where he rebuilt it atop the Eyrie Building, making it into his personal headquarters. Because the castle now rose above the clouds in its new location, the Magus’s curse upon the gargoyles was broken, awakening them from their stone sleep (the reason for Xanatos’s moving the castle). For a while, the gargoyles lived in Castle Wyvern, but after it became clear that it was too dangerous for them to share the same home with Xanatos, they moved to the clock tower.

Characteristics

Xanatos's office

Castle Wyvern is still recognizable as a medieval castle, if furnished with modern-day comforts (including electricity) and various art treasures of Xanatos’s, such as a 12th century tapestry (which, unknown to him, hung over a secret entrance to the great hall known only to Demona). It still remains Xanatos’s home, and, after the destruction of the clock tower, has become the home of Goliath and his clan once again.

The Court Yard

While Castle Wyvern is, of course, fictional, it is modeled after a real castle: Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, the legendary site of King Arthur’s conception, and, in modern versions of the Arthurian legend, birth.