Castel

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Castel (卡斯特尔)
Alias(es)	Castel Island; “fire and light amid the storm” (meaning of its name) 3 73
Type	Island territory, industrial stronghold, and the core of Theus's domain
Location	Storm Ocean 3
Ruler	Count Theus Corsica Simmons Stuart, lawful lord of Castel 783
Government	Merit-based civil service system; examinations and practical experience determine appointment, without noble influence 387
Population	Initially only a few thousand islanders, later supplemented by refugees and migrants 225 487
Status	Active
First Appearance	Chapter 3

Geography and Layout

• Castel is an island in the Storm Ocean, named for the fire and light represented by its volcano amid the surrounding storms 3 73.
• Its southern volcano is active; the island contains mineral veins and has a warm, humid climate despite year-round snow on the mountain peak 23.
• The island rises toward its center and southern volcano, while the northern dock district is its lowest area 240.
• A deep-water pier lies at the northern tip. It initially accommodated only fishing boats but could be renovated for large cargo ships 23.
• The northern plain holds the densest population and early workshops; Theus's manor stood on its eastern side 23.
• Castel's western side consists largely of steep cliffs, limiting early development but offering possible artillery positions 177.

Governance and Society

System	Details
Education	Theus established schools, literacy classes, advanced classes, and graduation examinations. By the Deep Sea War, literacy had reached nearly 100 percent due to compulsory factory and Faithguard Army classes 25 271.
Administration	Castel uses a merit-based civil service system designed to prevent noble interference in government appointments 387.
Public order	Residents describe Castel as possessing a distinctive “sense of order,” supported by paid labor, meals for workers, literacy classes, and predictable administration 130.
Identity	Islanders, refugees, migrants, and Banshees increasingly identify as Castelians; the Deep Sea War accelerated this shared belonging 225.
Political principle	Theus evaluates allies by their usefulness to Castel's development rather than their background, origin, or identity 502.

Infrastructure and Industry

Structure / System	Function and significance
Factories and schools	Castel's first major construction campaign replaced scattered workshops with factories and established schools alongside them 25.
Castel Cathedral	A central reinforced-concrete fortress, shelter, armory complex, and industrial power hub. It contains more than ten levels above and below ground and can house the population during a siege 196 198.
Cathedral fortifications	The cathedral's outer walls exceed three meters in places, while core sections exceed seven meters. It is built to withstand sustained artillery fire and is armed with machine-gun positions 198 389 702.
Webway Plan	Underground passages link surface fortifications, allowing personnel and supplies to move through a fortified island-wide defense network 169.
Stellar Furnace	An immense furnace beneath the cathedral that supplies power and smelts Pollution; evil-god flesh and blood are used as fuel 341 475.
Centralized power network	Steam from the central furnace can be distributed by pipe to factories, reducing dependence on individual steam engines and preparing Castel for future electrical generation 269.
Shipbuilding	After losing every vessel during the Deep Sea War, Castel prioritized building a shipyard and later developed steel ships and naval production 279 479.
Airship infrastructure	The Skyveil Behemoth serves as a strategic airship and cargo carrier, including supply transport to the Masha Archipelago 388.
Machine Souls	Steam engines, steel machinery, and the Stellar Furnace possess Machine Souls loyal to Castel; the later-born Soul of Myriad Machines is regarded as a continuation of Castel's collective will 500 601.

Defense

• Faithguard Army — Castel's regular military force, equipped through its factories and supported by literacy education and industrial logistics 271 797.
• Banshees — Powerful Transcendent combatants fully integrated into Castel's society after the Deep Sea War. Their distance from Theus is limited because they lose vitality when separated from him for too long 225 512.
• Permanent fortifications — Castel favors reinforced-concrete fortresses, underground passages, machine-gun positions, and layered defenses rather than conventional city walls 169 389.
• Industrial armories — Cathedral-based armories and factory assembly lines produce firearms, explosives, artillery, and other weapons at scale 198 373 797.
• Emergency protocol — Cathedral and clock-tower bells trigger island-wide mobilization; residents outside the fortress return through the underground network and report to assigned posts 593.
• Final shelter — The cathedral is designed as Castel's last defensive line, with power, protective inscriptions, food, industrial lines, and space for the island's population 196.

History

Frontier Island

Castel began as a remote frontier territory nominally held by an Imperial border count. Much of its claimed territory existed only on maps, while pirates controlled areas beyond the main island. Its economy relied on fishing, fruit wine, olive trees, and small workshops, with few merchants willing to visit 3 23.

Under Theus, Castel shifted from a neglected noble domain toward industrialization. Treasury funds were directed into factories, schools, and construction projects, while knowledge was publicly shared rather than confined to the Royal Library or Church shelves 5 25.

Deep Sea War and Disappearance

As sea monsters advanced on the island, Theus initiated the Webway Plan and transformed Castel into a fortress network supported by Banshees, factories, concrete defenses, and the newly built cathedral 169 196 198.

During the crisis, Castel vanished from the known sea; searchers found only open water where the island should have been 195. Within the altered space, rising seawater steadily consumed its territory and threatened to sink the island entirely 240. Castel eventually returned to reality after its barrier fractured, restoring the sea around it and ending months of isolation and war 277.

Reconstruction and External Expansion

After returning, Castel had no surviving ships, making shipbuilding and external routes immediate priorities 279. It opened routes toward Tis and the Northern Territory, offered to cover travel costs for relatives of settlers, and began using Blood Port as a mainland bridgehead 297 395.

Castel's influence expanded beyond its original island through industrial investment, the Masha Archipelago, Blood Port, and the Northern Territory. Theus retained centralized authority rather than distributing conquered lands through feudal enfeoffment 388 401.

A Model Beyond the Island

Castel's Expeditionary Force used rapid concrete fortification, industrial production, and railways to project power into the Northern Territory 478 511. Its broader system developed into a division of roles: Castel focused on advanced research, Blood Port became a production and transit center, and the Northern Territory supplied labor and resources 732.

Theus's stated objective evolved beyond defending a single island: to establish schools, factories, ships, and industrial capacity across new territories until “every place” could become another Castel 557.

External Relations

• The Empire — Castel began as an Imperial frontier territory, but later supplied Tis during its war against the Empire. The conflict was eventually paused amid the growing threat of resurrected gods 238 797 915.
• Duchy of Tis and Blood Port — Castel formed an alliance with Tis, using Blood Port as its mainland industrial bridgehead and a major component of its wider domain 307 395 789.
• Masha Archipelago — Castel established factories in the archipelago, supplied in part by the Skyveil Behemoth 388.
• Northern Territory and the Resistance Army — Castel sheltered Northern refugees, launched an expedition against hostile lords, and treated the region as a future center for industrial development 418 511 557.
• Silent Temple — Theus permitted Silent Temple priests to explore Castel and preach within its territory, an unusually open policy toward another Church 606.
• Banshees — Once outsiders and Castel's principal sea-combat force, the Banshees became recognized as part of the island's population 225.

Notable Quotes

“Fire and light amid the storm.” 73

“Castel has only friends, no enemies.” 307

“Mortal steel tore through the flesh of monsters. Mortal furnaces tempered the bodies of gods. Castel had always been a realm of mortals.” 597

Trivia

• Visitors can suffer Castel Syndrome, a breakdown caused by the gap between their expectations and Castel's industrial reality 490 703.
• Long-term visitors require approval, hospitalization arrangements, and reserved beds because managing Castel Syndrome strains the island's limited staff 567.
• Castel's people informally embrace the aesthetic principle that “big is good, more is beautiful,” particularly when confronted with immense steel structures such as the Steel Ark 701.
• The island's cathedral inspired rumors that it was a gigantic stone war-machine that would rise and crush Castel's enemies; Theus attempted to suppress the story 198.