GoI: The HighCastle Artisans

This document is incomplete, as it references elements of Samsara canon that either do not tangibly exist yet, or do exist but aren’t sufficiently detailed. In particular, names of nearly everything in this document are subject to change.

One of the Switchboard’s many groups of interest, the HighCastle Artisans were formed initially to compete with the simultaneously emerging rival economic entity Lancaster Innovations, in a battle for dominance over the economies of the post-Refrain Dancirah. Though the Danseers - and the now Sil’khan - are terribly capable in travel and warfare, they proved lacking compared to their Lancaster cousins in the affairs of commerce, and Lancaster Innovations achieved considerable dominance over the Dancirah, almost coming to rival the Spyndl Academy in relevance.

Not to be completely outdone however, the HighCastle swiftly adapted, choosing to tackle a sphere that Lancaster Innovations had neglected; the realm of luxury and esoteric tastes. Starting off with the brewing and distilling of alcohol, the HighCastle soon became a household name for the emerging nouveaux riche, who were steadily accumulating robust fortunes with very little outlets to spend it. The HighCastle was there to meet this demand, and from alcohol they branched out to more and more goods and services, ranging from bespoke clothing to access to premium transport and logistics. In particular - and what earned them their name - they came to be known for their fine craftsmanship, made possible via aggressive poaching of various talent in the Switchboard. If one sought it, the HighCastle could make it, so long as one had sufficient resources to employ their expensive services.

Prosperity naturally fueled greater prosperity, and the reach of the HighCastle widened further. In time, there was very little the HighCastle was not involved in, and inevitably this included less-than-savory endeavors. Being a Sil’khan institution, they came to be a close-knit partner of the Spyndl Academy, supplying them with various goods, services and privileges in exchange for the various utilities the Spyndl offered. They became and still are a formidable Switchboard presence, bearing a name associated with pride, luxury, the old Switchboard and all that it represented, and the new Switchboard and all that it offered.

1. Name & Identity

The HighCastle Artisanry House, or the HighCastle Artisans - or simply the HighCastle - is a name synonymous with class, taste and exclusivity. Lancaster Innovations prides itself on having supplied much of the Switchboard’s entire manufacturing output for ages, but the HighCastle wrinkles their nose at it all the same. The Lancasters simply provide what is adequate, replacing the gaping maws of context-adjusted voids with just above the minimum needed. The HighCastle, however, believes in doing more than merely that. The Lancasters fill the belly yes, but it is the HighCastle that pleases the tongue.

Where the name ‘HighCastle’ was derived from has unfortunately been lost to time. Many theorize it is in reference to literature mined form the remains of the Vermeil civilization. Prior to their more advanced ages, they too lived in stone fortifications atop elevated terrain, and such became synonymous with all the HighCastle was come to stand for; strength that endures, beauty that is evident, quality that satisfies, discernment that ensures only the best is ever brought forth. The Danseers and the Sil’khan took to the name rather easily.

As such, the members of the HighCastle both are and present themselves in appropriate manners. The HighCastle alone formalized the idea of the Switchboard aristocrat; one highly-born into an old name that had made enough right decisions at just the right time to solidify themselves and their nectarlin as a fixture in the modern era. They owned continents or entire planets, the fleets to supply and defend them, the men to staff them, and the output to facilitate the smooth operation of all things prior. Flush with wealth, they sought the finer things the stars the stars could yield, and the HighCastle was more than ready to meet these demands wherever they’re met.

Interestingly however, the above aren’t nearly the HighCastle’s most frequent clientele - not merely out of the fact that so few persons own planets and fleets - but because the above are viewed as a fundamentally Lancaster interpretation of the Switchboard’s wealthy and powerful. It is worth remembering that the HighCastle is fundamentally a Sil’khan institution with Sil’khan values, and thus they value a much different kind of ‘aristocrat’; the nomad that has tested themselves against the angle grinder of the cosmos, and emerged sharper for it. They serve the Strider, the one who journeys to the far-reaches of the Wedge on one-forgotten road lain by their fathers, and returns more exalted as a product. They’ll need somewhere to drink when they do, and the HighCastle exists to serve them in this fashion.

For this reason, it helps to view the HighCastle as an elaborate country club of sorts, one that uses it’s much larger business ventures to fund its more culturally-appropriate aims; a better standard of living for Sil’khan who earn their place in their ranks. Of course, they do not necessarily present themselves in this way to avoid alienating others, though this is hardly a concern as not only is everyone mostly in on the game, they don’t exactly have robust competition in their field that those who take issue with their nature can simply fall back on. The HighCastle exists to serve its interests, and these interests are mostly Sil’khan interests. All else is merely a means to this end.

In a way there are two HighCastles; the true aristocratic sphere dominated by the Switchboard’s most powerful and wealthy, who use the HighCastle for a number of purposes related to both growing and enjoying their wealth and placement, and the traditional HighCastle that points out it is Danseers who lay the foundation and Sil’khan who built the house. The HighCastle still rigorously vets all who come to join their ranks, but they are an institution that exists towards the service of their kin, be it with a cold drink, a fine weapon, safe passage through hostile territory, or last rites for an honored one.

1.1. Symbols

To be elaborated upon at a later date.

2. Mission & Principles

The guiding philosophy of the HighCastle is that the kin have both the capacity to appreciate finer things and the appetite for them, and thus there is a good inherent to satisfying the latter. This is what the HighCastle promises in every facet of their dealings; that you will leave more than satisfied. While the founding idea of the HighCastle was merely to defeat Lancaster Innovations for economic dominance of the Switchboard, the modern HighCastle has a much more exact mission and purpose for why they exist.

Downstream of their mission, the HighCastle prides themselves on organizing as something of a family, where the interests of all are maximally served to the best of the collective’s ability. They abide by strict codes of conduct that stress the importance of order and hierarchy as well as mutual respect, trust between members and the preservation of honor and dignity in dealings. There is immense value placed on merit and self-sacrifice - and though the latter is hardly a Sil’khan virtue by some metrics, they have had some success with harnessing the Silk’s near-suicidal idealization of grand, meaningful deaths towards more useful ends.

Above all, however, is the virtue of service. The HighCastle exists fundamentally to meet needs. This it achieves by instilling a mindset of service across-board, where all view affairs through an obligation to serve the institution of the HighCastle and its members by proxy. Before one can take, someone else must’ve given something, and the working of the HighCastle is conditional upon all giving what they can, so they can obtain what they want in turn. It is a considerable point of pride for one to serve the HighCastle extensively, as beyond it merely transforming to tangible material and social benefits, it is believed that greater is he that gives than receives.

Infractions against the HighCastle are naturally handled entirely. When one becomes a member of the HighCastle, their swear oaths where they surrender themselves to responsibilities and rules, this including forfeiting allegiances - to an extant - to prior legal systems. Of course, this is something subject to the difficulties of enforcing any law in the Switchboard, that being that interstellar travel can be done in a bathrobe, but it both stands and is understood that infractions against either the HighCastle or a member of it are to be handled internally by the HighCastle’s own judicial systems. They pride themselves on fairness and adherence to code, though how true this really is depends on who you ask. There is an understanding that the HighCastle will protect its interests, and that includes protecting itself.

But the HighCastle will absolutely rally to defend its own, and they have very few scruples about doing so. A slight against anyone welcomed to drink under the old wooden rafters of the HighCastle’s taverns is a slight against the HighCastle itself, and even if the HighCastle isn’t in the business of mobilizing armies to settle feuds in much the way the Vahnkin nobility of Isalveh are, they are more than willing to furnish one with the methods, and many will lend their arm towards your aid. They make a point of letting others know they are not to be trifled with, and they are not one wants as an enemy.

As a final note, it has been theorized that the HighCastle exists as something of a tempering force to counteract the rougher bits of the nature that the Sil’khan inherited from their Danseer predecessors, perhaps out of concern that the Silk’s conqueror nature would find primarily negative outlets in the absence of a pan-Danciran conflict in the same vein as the Praxis Conflicts. The HighCastle was something to strive towards in a sense, where they’d have to tame their excesses to attain first a place, and then a name. They would have to become essentially the best versions of themselves, channeling the Silk’s god-kin nature towards higher ends than mere hedonistic self-satisfaction, be it from eyes peering up at them in fear, or the sound of ash crunched under a boot. HighCastle Silks and those undeserving of the privilege are tangibly different in that way; the latter living merely to satisfy their own desire for stimulus, and the former striving for something more.

3. History

The HighCastle was formed by a coalition of Danseer nomad clans - as they hadn’t yet fallen to the Refrain by this time - who fancied themselves more entrepreneurially-minded than their peers, and sought to realize this - coincidentally - as the Lancasters thought the same. While it would be incorrect to say that trade and commerce didn’t exist prior to Lancaster Innovations and the HighCastle, the manner in which it is done now was certainly novel, and both were entering essentially uncharted territory.

The Danseers had a number of tangible advantages; proficiency with Stride and Weave meant that manufacturing and logistics came rather easily to them, and in any other circumstance it would’ve been settled there. Alas, it wasn’t so simple. For one, the Danseers were conquerors rather than builders, and their lofty strength and emergent tendencies thereof alienated them from the needs of the common man. The Danseers couldn’t understand what it was that the denizens of the post-Refrain wanted, as the Danseers themselves did not truly ‘want’. All that they desired was attained through conquest, both a sense of purpose and a full belly. It made them somewhat aimless when they began - a problem the Lancasters, lowly in comparison, didn’t suffer from in the slightest. Their problems compounded when it came to the differences between the Danseers’ and the Lancasters’ attitudes to the entire ordeal as well; sitting still and laboring at repetitive, monotonous tasks didn’t come easily to the Danseers, nor they care for it even when it did. Many considered themselves above such work, but just as many simply didn’t have it in their nature to stay cooped up at worktables while all the cosmos lay outside. Lancasters took this reality in stride, having been subject to it for as long as they’ve been a people.

And above all else, the Danseers were dying. It put things into stark focus, where many of the Danseers were disinclined towards building an edifice they didn’t know they’d even finish, or if anything would maintain it if they were gone. For most of the Danseers, their disposition was a simple one; their work was completed when the Minds fell. All they had been tasked to do was to prepare the fields, and it would be their cousins who would sow the seed. Nonetheless, there were those among them who tasked themselves all the same, even after defeat at the hands of Lancaster Innovations, to leave at least the beginnings of something for someone to inherit.

Unsurprisingly, the ‘someone’ would be the Sil’khan. The Danseers tasked the Fel-Arcad with ensuring quite a bit would come to be inherited by their descendants, and in this manner was the foundation of the HighCastle passed on to the direct Sil’khan descendants of the Danseer clan that formed the original HighCastle. This they took in stride, and on advice of the Fel, began building what would be the modern HighCastle Artisans.

It was slow going, as is the making of all great things, but the Sil’khan were possessed of immense potential, a far more constructive spirit, and the guarantee that they didn’t face imminent death at the hands of transcendental law. Their choice to focus on the manufacture of alcohol, fine craftsmanship and later on luxury goods in general seemed to be a product of their nature; they had always been the strongest by measure of backbone, and thus they would naturally desire the best the world had to offer. While few Sil’khan were craftsmen and artisans themselves, they were swiftly able to recruit those who were, as their existence was much like a gravity well, drawing others towards them. The newly-emerging Sil’khan people needed to put together the workings of a civilization, and the HighCastle was the means to do so. An uncommon grit was awoken within them when it became clear that the means of conquest in the new Switchboard was far, far different than before. It wasn’t enough to simply krash a Vault, purge the Mind and grind it’s chromelings to dust; no, conquest meant going, taking, occupying and thriving. That meant becoming self-sufficient. That meant learning to make.

While the Lancasters did lend aid in their own way, most weren’t too thrilled shadows of the old era reborn in the new. It fell to the Spyndl and the Fel-Arcad to build up the HighCastle to the point where it could stand on its own feet, and once it could it became a formidable entity in its own right. The Sil’khan are blessed. perhaps, in that way.

In time, ‘Lord Drinker’ became just as lauded a title as ‘Wheelmaster’. The HighCastle swept through the economic upper echelons of the Dancirah, satisfying the costlier cravings of its rapidly-growing clientele, and ushering in a novel dimension of living in the Switchboard. If one had the coin and repute, they too could seek the finest things from the finest persons, earning the privilege to own something that possesses - perhaps - a figment of old power mixed with new manners.

3.1. Heritage

It’s worth recalling that the HighCastle at the very beginning were winemakers. The demand was rather present after all. While the Lancasters don’t exactly despise alcohol, they did somewhat view it as a vice they could not afford to fall victim to as the Switchboard’s most lowly placed. Thus, early Lancaster Innovations did not work towards satisfying this end, and while the Fel-Arcad did have a rather through understanding of the works, the Danseers of old found their spirits too mild, and lacking the ‘spark’ they felt was inherent to the products of hands that made war first and foremost. Thus, the first HighCastle made alcohol and spirits of all kinds, and this came to influence quite a lot about them, from their nomenclature to their various ritual and ceremonial practices.

Nomenclature is perhaps the most immediately obvious, as the HighCastle employs a number of terms alluding to the production of alcohol when naming the various positions in its organizational hierarchy. The Lord Drinker and the Castle Drinkers, for example, serve as the topmost administration for the HighCastle, with other roles such as the Vintner in charge of choosing successors, the Sommelier oversees internal affairs, the Brewmaster heads operations, the Distiller managing research and development efforts, and so on and forth. Similarly, the HighCastle differentiates its operations according to their relative legality, appropriately demarcated as the ‘head’, ‘mead’ and ‘dregs’, as one would see of a glass of beer.

4. Structure

A vast organization with numerous interests and pursuits, the HighCastle needs proportionate apparatus to ensure it functions optimally in all that it does.

4.1. Leadership

Head of the HighCastle is the Lord Drinker, a figure typically chosen from one of the founding Sil’khan families that descend from the Danseers who first founded the HighCastle. To prevent any one family holding power for too long, in very un-Silk fashion they elect to have Lord Drinkers serve for tenures, and the post be rotated from family to family. The Lord Drinker themselves, however, are chosen by the Vintners, a coalition formed from members of all three families that essentially groom subjects towards this purpose. Those that do not become the Lord Drinker are eligible to become the Castle Drinkers, who sit under the Lord and serve various administrative, ceremonial and cultural functions. Much interaction between the HighCastle’s body and its head is done through the Castle Drinkers, who are very directly involved in the affairs of the HighCastle. The Castle Drinkers are typically led by a Flute, who serves as a speaker of sorts for the HighCastle as a whole.

The leadership hierarchy is arranged as a descending series of metaphorical tables; the Lord’s table is the highest, where the Lord Drinker and the Lord Vintner sit, followed by the Castle Table, where the Castle Drinkers sit. below them is the Fyn Table, which hosts the heads of the various affairs the HighCastle deals in. The Castle Drinkers appoint the Fyns to their positions, based on a number of deliberately-concealed factors.

The Fyn Table is staffed by the Brewmaster, the Distiller, the Caskeep, the Leveur, the Sommelier and the Lees. Typically, they are referred to with ‘Fyn’ preceding a contraction, producing the Fyn Brew, Fyn Still, Fyn Keep, Fyn Somme, and the Lees remains unchanged, not adhering to this rule.

The Fyns Brew, Still and Keep are generally treated as a single cohesive unit, as while they attend to the affairs of operations, research and development, and logistics and resource acquisition respectively, their functions are so intermingled such that anything that concerns one unavoidably winds up the business of the others. Where they differ then, is who gets the final say on a matter depending on its jurisdirection. The Brew tables what alcohols are made, the Still makes all calls on what ritual schema they’re free to use, and the Keep decides what asteroids are worth blasting apart for mineral gain.

The Leveur is an interesting position usually appointed directly by the overseeing Sil’khan families rather than by the Vintner, Lord Drinker or Castle Drinkers. The Fyn Leve’s function is overseeing the HighCastle’s more refined, perhaps even altruistic interests, such as the retrieval, restoration, preservation and exhibition of works of art and artifacts, conservation of wildlife, services in Sembleworking, outreach and educational initiatives, and the like. This role is usually filled by an elder in the families, and they are mostly removed from the HighCastle’s other more business-minded functions. That being said, they are generally considered to hold the most sway among all the Fyn, and in some ways are viewed as a miniature of the Lord Drinker’s own post.

The Sommeliers are the HighCastle’s internal affairs, working to ensure all operations are conducted both up to standard and within code. For this reason, it is often the case that the Sommeliers need to take action against their own members to preserve the good name of the HighCastle, and it is a common point of terror for one to find themselves being brought before them for a ‘tasting’. Under the Sommeliers is the HighCastle’s own private military ensemble, the Vendage, a stratified force meant for handling both internal and external affairs, protecting the HighCastle’s interests. While mostly unable to wage grand conflicts, they aren’t meant to, and instead exist to project immensely powerful muscle in laser-specific contexts. The Sommeliers’ Tappers are their intelligence gatherers, trained to insert themselves into contexts and retrieve valuable intel to aid in informing the HighCastle’s various movements. The Rackers are the Fyn Somme’s more presentable face, with many understanding them as essentially the HighCastle’s handlers of documentation and legal affairs.

The Lees are different from the rest, as rather than being a single person, they are an unknown number of entities all chosen directly by the Lord Drinker and the Vintners, and reporting to them as well. Considering the scope of their operations, it’s no surprise.

Beneath the Fyn Table is the last table in this metaphor, the humorously-called ‘Bar Table’. Staffing this table are a multitude of Tenders, who serve as an interactive layer between lay members of the HighCastle and the upper administration. Quite a lot is demanded of them; the prepare, serve and drink alcohol to an ‘exemplary degree’, being a solid conversationalist - to flatter, condemn or coerce when necessary, being hospitable, exhibit emotional intelligence, deescalate conflict, provide advice, serve as a confidant and maintain confidentiality, posses solid memory for the quirks of various HighCastle members, fight with both weapons and weave, operate technologies and quite a bit more. The HighCastle’s Tenders are veritable masters in all manners of craft, and exist to establish what one should expect of the HighCastle.

4.2. Membership

Membership to the HighCastle is an interesting topic.

For one, you need not be a ‘member’ of the HighCastle to enjoy its various services and especially its goods. While they do apply quite a bit more pressure than others to ensure the quality of their product is preserved at the last step before reaching the hands of consumers, one can still buy fine HighCastle products from various non-HighCastle sources. Similarly, HighCastle services are available to those willing to pay the premium for efficiency and peace of mind. Such persons, under the HighCastle’s hierarchy, are called ‘Yeos’; those who engage in simple business with the outfit and little else.

One becomes a Fellow - a proper member - of the HighCastle in varying ways. Generally, they are sorted into monies and merit. With sufficient assets, one can mostly ‘buy’ their way in, though this is a rather reductive way of referring to what is actually a protracted process of vetting performed across various transactions between the interested party and the HighCastle, in that even after one has both proven possession of considerable assets and done business with the HighCastle, they can still never rise above the rank of Yeo. The second means - by merit - is the far more common one. Through service to the HighCastle, one can earn a place within their ranks. In both cases, they are awarded the rank of Fellow.

Fellows of the HighCastle enjoy mostly the full breadth of the HighCastle’s services, ranging from subsidies on goods and services to access to the various fringe services the HighCastle offers. By design, the rank of Fellow is terribly all-encompassing, with new Fellows and Fellows of ten years being - on paper - functionally equivalent in standing. In truth, the HighCastle maintains extensive records on the actions of every individual member, and an impenetrable dark calculus is used when computing the relative value of one member over another. Generally, merit is valued over mere possession of assets, those who give over those who take, Striders above Grounded, and Sil’khan above all. Despite being a Fellow, it is still entirely possible that one may be denied access to certain services, especially those that benefit from minimal sunlight upon them, and it is generally understood that the HighCastle’s calculus simply doesn’t consider the subject in question as having proven themselves sufficiently to the outfit. Recourse is obvious in this regard; find a means to polish the various glasses of the Drinkers.

Members of the Spyndl Academy generally receive their HighCastle membership as an additional perk atop various other compensations for diligent service, and various Sil’khan cultural and religious figures - such as the Sabai - are treated as Fellows irrespective of actual standing within the organization or whether having down any previous dealings with them at all. it is also worth noting that Fellows - especially those who became so via monetary power - are expected to pay a periodic fee to maintain their good standing, though this fee is gradually reduced and eventually ceases altogether as one provides value to the HighCastle in other capacities.

Indication of HighCastle Fellow-ship takes various forms. While more modern figures prefer cards or similar, those who care more for old custom use jewelry, stamps and similar minute elements. Rings and earrings are a favorite, inscrit a particularly popular option, but a noteworthy point of pride is not needing one at all, in that one’s reputation within the HighCastle precedes, such that merely their face is enough.

5. Operations & Resources

To say that the HighCastle does a lot would be a gross understatement. The scope of what the HighCastle does is expansive. While they don’t offer nearly as much by way of goods or services compared to Lancaster Innovations, what they do offer is catered to the laser-specific needs of their aristocrat and Strider clientele; services that are usually wholly unoffered by any other outlet, or not nearly to the degree of quality that interested parties are willing to pay for.

In keeping with their alcohol-themed nomenclatural paradigm, the affairs of the HighCastle can be roughly divided into the ‘head’ - wholly legal and above-board operations - the ‘mead’ - the vast expanse of services that occupy various points on moral spectra, grey areas that lighten or darken when adjusted for a million quirks of circumstance - and the ‘dregs’ at the metaphorical and actual bottom - where we find all things cloaked and cutthroat.

Access to the lower levels of HighCastle services comes with greater trust earned by the organization, these affairs being overseen by the faceless element known as the Lees.

The Head

• Bespoke manufacturing of a wide variety of heavy and lighter goods; all things from spirits to schema to swords to starships.
• Luxury goods retail, such as alcohol, outfits, jewelry and the like.
• Appraisal services for a virtually unlimited number of things.
• Transportation, logistics and storage.
• Alcohol production.
• Art and artifact inquiry, retrieval, restoration, preservation and exhibition.
• Wildlife conservation.
• Real estate, including construction, renting, sale and purchase of property.
• Cataloguing and development of calcic ritual schema, teks and more.
• Private recreational facility access, ranging from sports to clubs.
• Consultancy, diplomacy, representation services (‘power of attorney’, will executors, etc.) and conflict resolution.

The Mead

• Private security, escort, search and rescue and other military-adjacent services.
• Development and deployment of experimental medicines, technologies and weftcraft.
• Intelligence gathering and private investigation.
• Retrieval of objects of varying value.

The Dregs

• Smuggling and trade of contraband goods.
• Assassinations and kidnapping.
• Industrial espionage and surveillance.
• Blackmail.
• Extrajudicial conflict resolution.
• Management and sale in affairs related to gambling, recreational substances and sex trade.

It’s worth mentioning that perhaps the sole domain where the HighCastle finds itself lacking is in affairs related to computers, computation and the DevitNet. There is an amount of deliberate archaism that lends them their deliberately cultivated airs, and it has been judged by Lord Drinkers past that keen interest in all things slatical would run counter to this.

6. Influence

Perhaps the foremost example of the HighCastle’s influence is that the Switchboard’s elite prefer to deal with very few else. From their drinks to their starships, few have found any more reliable than the HighCastle Artisans, who have worked and fought to establish and maintain the floors and ceilings for high class in the Switchboard. In this, they have more than succeeded.

Where some don’t imagine their influence extends, however, is in various forms of altruism and interest in the arts handled by the Fyn Leve. The most public-facing members of the HighCastle are the Flute and the Fyn Leve, the former serving as a public relations entity, with the latter being a sort of administrator of culture. The HighCastle prides itself on beauty for beauty’s sake, which they exhibit through extensive efforts in creating, retrieving, restoring and exhibiting artifacts of artistic value, conserving wildlife and various natural reserves, and sponsoring pursuits that share these motifs. They have quite a bit of overlap with the Fel in this regard, as the HighCastle is rather fond of funding Fel artistic pursuits such as theatre, cinema and more, with the request that HighCastle peerage be allowed to attend and given various privileges not enjoyed by others.

It is this that sums them up rather nicely; they are willing and able to push for a better Switchboard by their own understanding, be it through fine alcohols, peerless art galleries, peace of mind for their peerage. All who deal with the HighCastle in some regard have come to understand them as what a little appealing to higher, finer things can do, and even if one finds themselves poised against them in one way or another, they are - time and time again - forced to concede that they are some ‘damn fine bastards’.

6.1. Allies

To be elaborated upon at a later date.

6.2. Opposition

To be elaborated upon at a later date.

7. Location & Infrastructure

The HighCastle aims to make accessing its services as easy as using its services is worthwhile, and thus they maintain a colossal net of distributed outposts and outlets for access to them HighCastle. This is achieved through a somewhat stratified approach, where the HighCastle situates a singular installment of power, followed by smaller installments encircling it, yet smaller installments descendant from those, continuing downwards. As one goes up the hierarchy, they gain access to more and greater HighCastle services, but naturally access to the upper echelons is the privilege of those who’ve earned favor with the Drinkers.

Starting at the bottom, HighCastle Taverns and Citadels are outlets providing access to the more general of HighCastle services; a safe, clean place to have a drink, commune and relax, as well as access to services such as banking, storage and logistics. Laypersons are free to use these, should they have the coin, and they are generally immensely valued in the Switchboard as bastions of order, especially when situated in the Starwylds. Notably, they forbid violence on their grounds, which has led to various instances of fugitives from other powers sheltering in HighCastle establishments, though unsurprisingly they have protocols for dealing with such. HighCastle Citadels usually have a core function, typically that of exhibition of various objects of interest the HighCastle deems suitable to make accessible to the public.

Roughly in the middle of this hierarchy are HighCastle Forts. Only Fellows or guests of a Fellow are permitted access, and these provide far greater access to HighCastle functions. In particular, they provide lodging, allowing Fellows to skip out on the relative dangers of subjecting oneself to long periods of unconsciousness - vulnerability - out in the Switchboard. Asides from this, one can seek access to lower echelon HighCastle Artisans, enjoy various recreational pursuits in sport and art, seek out consultants and generally knowledgeable and skilled personnel, network with other higher-brow denizens of the Dancirah, and generally enjoy some respite from the uncaring chill of the cosmos - earned of course, through weathering that very chill and proving oneself as worthy of the HighCastle’s trust. It is also here that one can seek out the Lees, and gain access to more unpalatable services.

HighCastle Keeps, expectedly, are upscaled Forts. They’re few, typically assigned to a specific function, and perhaps it is more accurate to say that a Keep is a Fort with a specific industry attached. It is more useful to think of Keeps as industrial complexes, where the HighCastle does many of the unseen manufactory and logistical tasks that maintain its industry. A Keep can oversee an artificial biosphere where crop is grown for alcohol production, or be stationed in deep space and serve as the headquarters for asteroid mining, or be mounted on a moon and be the site for starship assembly, maintenance and docking, or be deep underground slatical information storage. Each HighCastle Keep is an organ of a colossal body that it couldn’t do without, and thus they all serve tertiary military functions as well, being heavily defended from all flavors of threats.

Above all are the HighCastle… Castles. Massively fortified habitation complexes, the various figures that run and represent the HighCastle call these their homes. Most are better viewed as sprawling estates, where a figure such as a Fyn sits along with their family, aides and various other personnel. The Lord Drinker themselves dwells in one such habitation, and it is noteworthy that the locations of these Castles are heavily guarded secrets.

Unsurprisingly, the distributed nature of HighCastle power means that the flow of both communication and solid matter is paramount, thus, the Drinker Fleet and isolNet were built and are maintained by the HighCastle. For similar reasons, they also maintain their own covert striding pathways for HighCastle affiliated Striders to move swiftly and discretely between locations.

8. Legacy

It is important to stress one particular aspect of the HighCastle, and that is the ‘Artisan’ in their name.

Serving under the Fyn Brew is perhaps what will endure the longest when all the kin have built is ground to dust either by time or their own hands. The Danseers had a fundamental understanding of the need for pinnacle weapons of warfare, and the Sil’khan inherited that charge from them. The HighCastle’s artisans refers to the veritable armies that all work together to produce the many luxurious delights they’re known for, but it is the Artisans who have tasked themselves to the old Danseer practice of bespoke weapons of war.

This particular trade - second only to the making of alcohol - is the HighCastle’s greatest point of pride. Weapons abound plenty in the Switchboard, but those who are privileged to wield one made-to-order by the HighCastle’s finest makers distinguish themselves in much the same manner as the HighCastle itself distinguishes itself from the rest of the Switchboard. Immediately obvious to all is that bespoke weaponry from the HighCastle forges are without equal, and it is a major point of pride - particularly among those affiliated with the Spyndl - to wield such a weapon as they go about their affairs.

Understanding this, the HighCastle protects their Artisans and their talent to a degree that would seem grossly excessive to all but those intimate to the reality that is access to weaponry that easily exceed even Vault Relics in power. That the HighCastle continues to exist is believed in part to be downstream of the fact they can easily bring implements of catastrophe to bear.