#even if they were separate labels one would be entirely pointless like labels exist mostly to explain what you are and convey a thing abt

[transmeds]

A little explanation of what the split attraction model is like, at least for me because I can't talk on anyone else's experiences

So I am strictly asexual. I've never felt sexually attracted to anyone or found certain bodies or body parts sexually attractive, and always found the idea of that being attractive in that way rather confusing. It's simply not an experience I have.

However I am very much not aromatic. I am in a romantic polyamorous relationship and love my partners to bits. I regularly fantasize about spending time together, finding myself thinking about how much I love traits they have, dreaming about getting married together and spending my life with them. I love them so much.

But I still don't experience sexual attraction. I've been with all of them for over half a year, and one I've known since we where both young teens. I've never found any of them sexually attractive or thought 'hm I really want to do sexual things with this person!' About them or anything like that.

That is an example of why the split attraction model is useful. It's not to confuse people. It is so people like me have words to describe what our experiences and orientation are because we didn't have anything that fit before.

except that thats not really something that needs to exlained and it really isnt important. i am also "asexual" never felt sexual attraction to anyone, but im sure as hell romantically into men. i am gay. thts all. if theres some other deeper issue between why we dnt feel sexual attraction doesn't matter, what matters is that there is absolutely no point to the label for someone who is romantically attracted to people. like!! no one except ur partner cares or gives a shit or needs to know n even then "allosexual" ppl can also abstain from sex.

the idea that you separate your sexuality based on desire to have sex is so fucking weird! no one cares or needs to know + for all of history any "/sexual" like bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual, has never been a strictly about sexual attraction word. homosexuals have pure love for their partners and to say that homosexual is abour sexual attraction is no different from any homophobic who thinks homosexual love is dirty. asexuals started the "-sexual" being strictly sexual asexuals started the!"-romantic" its so reductive and ignores that love is more complex and private than people try to make it. it just hurts lgbt people and takes away from our words and experiences. romantic and sexual love are often so tightly intertwined that i dont even know if you can truly separate them in the first place.

anyways anything that supports "homosexual biromantic" or whatever isn't useful and is made to confuse people. it doesn't change because its abt asexual vs bisexual like it is still harmful to say someone is less bisexual because they dont wanna fuck women. ur not asexual if ur romantically attracted to ppl, asexual has never been about strictly sexual attraction.

[the-grey-hunt]

I PRESENT...CASTLE WHITESTONE! Open these in a new tab for the full effect - the files are real big and you can zoom in and read everything. There are also captions clarifying which floor is which.

Based/somewhat traced from the picture of the castle in the Tal’Dorei campaign guide, I have created a vague idea of what the inside of the castle might look like (post-Briarwoods), because I am like this. If you like this and wanna ask me about any other details, shoot me an ask! I’d love to talk about this more. This is also free for anyone to borrow as a reference for a story or whatever, should the need arise.

More details below the cut, because a lot of thought went into this!

So, this is mostly going to be me explaining various details that were too long to write in as notes on the actual map. There’s a lot, including details taken from various actual medieval castles that I wouldn’t expect people to know, so let the explainin’ commence!

first things first: the first floor! The gardens/lawn contained within the lesser wall (as in, the wall not surrounding the castle itself) were traced from the picture that was in the campaign guide, so idk really what’s going on out there. I did, however, identify a specific portion as the family graveyard, because there probably is one and it seemed like a suspiciously enclosed section.

The gardens exist as partly ornamental and partly functional; I’ve also added a greenhouse on the northeast wall, because it seems reasonable that one might have been built at some point (possibly with Keyleth’s help). The guard tower directly above is where the guards that watch the castle/Cassandra stay, bc there’s a lot of them. As all the towers along both the main and lesser walls are manned at all times, I figure there’s a lot of guards working at the castle. Coupled with domestic staff, Percy and Cassandra probably employ a decent chunk of Whitestone’s population.

As for the guards: the rooms aren’t super big on either floor, but the guards probably do share; each room houses one day shift and one night shift guard, so neither of them are there at the same time, allowing this to work out better. The guards in the tower generally are the wall-watchers; any that guard Cassandra or the other inhabitants would live in the Keep (the bigass tower within the castle itself, helpfully labeled). I say Cassandra specifically, because figures like Percy of Vex who are important enough to be guarded probably don’t need guards to defend them.

All the towers are equipped for defense, so any non-residential rooms and the west/south towers probably mostly have some ammo (arrows, crossbow bolts) lying around, as well as other necessities for defense. Noted in the key: ALL the staircases go counterclockwise, because assuming right-handedness in most guards, that makes it easier for a defending force to swing a sword, and harder for the invaders who are presumably trying to go up.

If you’re wondering why the interior of the towers are shaped Like That: I looked up medieval castle layouts and saw a map with towers shaped like that. it makes sense to have SUPER thick walls and tiny window openings when you’re trying to shoot at other people from a place where you don’t want them to be able to get in. You can probably Google it yourself and see where I took my inspiration from.

Speaking of the walls: the lesser wall around the garden is only one story tall, as are the towers (but all towers are a little higher than the level of the walkway along the top of the walls, by about six or seven feet). The walls have crenellated battlements (u know, when the edge looks all blocky like Minecraft), and the towers have the same. Both the Keep and the guard tower are big enough that there are roofed rooms on the top of each, circled by a larger walkway. I’ve made a note that each has a flag flying, though the Keep’s roof flies the primary flag with the de Rolo crest.

The Keep has a lot of unlabeled rooms, mostly because a LOT of those rooms are just standing ready should they need to be occupied. The Keep is the last bastion of defense should the castle be invaded, and so there needs to be space for EVERYONE in the castle to retreat and live there for however long a siege may last. There’s just the one door, and as few windows as possible. The disarming room on the first floor is where everyone would remove their weapons when entering. This is also why Cassandra’s room, as well as the old master bedroom and Julius de Rolo’s room are in there: it’s the best-guarded place in the entire castle.

(Percy’s master bedroom is not in there because he can’t bring himself to take his parent’s room; also, the Briarwoods took it over, and he doesn’t want to sleep in their bed either).

Percy and Vex’s master bedroom also can only be accessed through a solar, which is like a little room to chill in. It’s essentially where they might entertain guests in a casual setting without inviting them into their bedroom.

There are a lot of disused rooms (the other de Rolo bedrooms on the second and third floors are purposefully undisturbed), mostly because nobody’s had a reason to use them yet. I tried to label most things, but on the first and third floors especially there’s just some pointless rich people rooms that nobody’s bothered to clean up for use.

Also, there are servant’s quarters within the actual castle itself! The Victorian ideal was to have servants completely separate from the actual house, but this castle is super compact and they’ve got to live somewhere. It’s more convenient this way, making them closer to the people they’re meant to be helping. Additionally, the kitchen area just off the great hall connects to a bunch of fun areas like a pantry and larder: essentials for any castle. They actually do need to be separate, because they serve different functions. Just below in the basement there’s also an icebox, which was a Ye Olde refrigerator. It would be packed with ice and snow in the winter so thickly that it wouldn’t melt until the next winter, at which point it would be refreshed. The cellar area is mostly for storage, but it also leads to Percy’s workshop, safe behind a VERY thick door. It’s under the kitchen because who’s going to notice a weird bit of extra heat wafting up in a room with like three different huge cooking hearths?

The interior courtyard is my attempt to make the castle a little more realistic. Actual castles were mostly just wide walled-in courtyards with a keep and some buildings running through them; Whitestone is, as I said, super compact and unusual for a castle. The cliffs surrounding it make a moat superfluous, but I had to add in a gatehouse at the main gate as well. As far as realism goes, there’s no skylight or anything in the courtyard or great hall, and not a ton of windows (ESPECIALLY not on the first floor, and not at all on any of the towers’ first floors). Anywhere in castle Whitestone is going to be relatively dimly lit, usually with torches or candles. The space in between windows is covered with whatever paintings or tapestries weren’t destroyed by the Briarwoods/were recovered from wherever they were shoved into storage.

Three floors is probably an unrealistic height for a great hall, but if matt mercer can say the west tower is EIGHTY FEET TALLER THAN THE ROOF (making it, roughly, ten stories tall, a height i have reduced by half for my own purposes and also to make it less COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS) then I can make a super rad soaring ceiling for the great hall.

The great hall is one of two rooms that is actually SUPER well lit, the other being Pelor’s chapel (because sun god, duh). Both of them have very tall, probably stained-glass windows just to be Fancy as Fuck™. If you can’t be extra with the architecture of your own castle, then what’s the point? I did put a balcony in the great hall on the third floor just to make it more interesting, tho.

You may be wondering why some of the rooms are only accessible if you go through other rooms. Sometimes That’s Just The Way Things Are. It was very common in older buildings, especially going back hundreds or even thousands of years in human history. A building briefly suspected to be the Labyrinth of Crete (where the Minotaur was supposedly held) is actually just a castle with like, one or two hallways total.

Also, fun fact: the long row of guest rooms near the west tower on the second floor is where the gang was staying when Hotis ambushed Vax! I have no recollection of the precise layout of the battlemap for that, and some of the layout was wonky (EIGHTY FEET DOWN TO THE ROOF, MATT? EIGHTY FEET?), but I’ve done my best to make it reasonable. Similarly, I drew the dungeon as accurately as I could remember it without tracking down the exact episode where they’re given a map.