Castle Gateway
Names: Castle Gatewaythe castleRoniahRoniah FairGateway
First appears in Book 1: The Many-Colored Land, chapter 21 (1)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Many-Colored Land
- Ch 21Castle Gateway is a whitewashed stone fortress with a barbican, corner towers and no central keep, guarding the time-portal and resembling English castles like Bodiam.
- Ch 21Its design suits defense against human aggression; the outer ward can be opened to the amphicyons to secure the fortress.
- Ch 22Castle Gateway is a fortress beside the time-gate with a barbican, a large inner courtyard with a fountain, and a corral of unfamiliar animals.
- Ch 22No women live permanently at the castle; staff are homophile or autoerotic or served by travelling entertainers from Roniah or Burask.
- Ch 23Castle Gateway is where new arrivals are taken and interviewed after passing through the portal.
- Ch 27Roniah is a place where the party will stop that night; it has a tavern keeper Billy fancies.
- Ch 28City in the Rhône bottomlands where the party will rest for the night before taking boats.
- Ch 29Tanu cities take turns collecting a week's batch of time-travelers here; special individuals are sent to the capital and escapees are killed.
- Ch 30Riverside Tanu-ruled city on the west bank near the Saône–Rhône confluence, ringed by a rampart and wall, and lit at night by thousands of oil lamps.
- Ch 30Its human quarter holds small houses; the Tanu quarter near the river has white marble buildings lit by blue, green and amber glass lanterns.
- Ch 32Roniah is a walled riverside town with craft workshops, schools, docks, and ramas doing manual labor, home to Lord Bormol's mansion.
- Ch 41The Tanu built Castle Gateway to seize all time-travelers on arrival at the portal.
Book 2: The Golden Torc
- Ch 16Castle Gateway is the receiving area for time-travelers and refugees; its outer ward was walled into a temporary stockade and bear-dogs moved to exterior pens.
- Ch 18Castle Gateway is the Coercer Headquarters in Muriah and has a dungeon where Claude and Basil were held.
- Ch 20Roniah is a river city on the Rhône where the annual Roniah Fair is held, and Tanu and Firvulag mingle to trade before the Grand Combat.
Book 3: The Nonborn King
Book 4: The Adversary
- Ch 4Roniah is next on the Firvulag hit-list; its late lord Bormol left an illicit Milieu arms cache ten times Osgeyr's, which Aiken may destroy to keep it from them.
- Ch 15Abandoned since the Flood and damaged by a Firvulag raid; being refitted as a hostel for tournament travelers.
- Ch 23Roniah is a splendid Tanu city on the Rhone, little touched by turmoil, now ruled by Condateyr Fulminator after Bormol died in the Great Flood.
- Ch 32Castle Gateway is shrouded by a force-field hemisphere, located just up the slope south of the gully where Marc hides.
- Ch 37Abaddon needs the co-monarchs' minds to help him break into Castle Gateway.
Connections
- inMany-Colored Land
- inRiver Rhônein the river's bottomlands
- part ofMany-Colored Land
- led byPitkinCastellan
- inMuriah
- related toCoercer Guild strongholdunrelated places
- led byCondateyr
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 21Arrival at Castle Gateway
Bryan emerges from the time-portal disoriented, is guided by a guardian to Castle Gateway past the amphicyons, and is placed in a reception room.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Interview with Tully
Tully interviews Bryan about his background and equipment. Bryan asks about population and disease and about Mercedes Lamballe; Tully says she went to the capital, then leaves and locks Bryan in.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Richard meets Epone
Richard escapes his guide into the castle and enters Epone's chamber, where she seduces and then mentally crushes him.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Metafunction testing
Strapped into a chair with a coronet, Richard is tested by Epone for farspeak, coercion, psychokinesis, creativity and redaction, and fails. She orders him sent north to Finiah with others.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Elizabeth meets Creyn
Dazed after the portal passage, Elizabeth is taken to Castle Gateway, where Creyn treats her. They converse mentally, and she probes him, which fails. He declines to answer some questions and announces she will go to Muriah.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Tully brings news of her companions
Tully tells Elizabeth her companions are safe, some going south and others north by caravan that evening. She asks to say goodbye to those going north and notices his dark necklet.
- Book 1 · Ch 29Rest stop and escape plan
At a fort, Felice, Amerie and Claude ask Richard to find the Pliocene polestar to support their escape plan. Richard grudgingly agrees.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Arrival at Roniah
Creyn's caravan with the captive time-travelers reaches the illuminated city past midnight, enters through the gate, and is greeted by Tanu nobles in the marble quarter.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Bryan refuses the torc
Bormol welcomes Bryan and offers mental refreshment; Bryan refuses, rejecting the torc, and retires to bed while the others join the party.
- Book 1 · Ch 30The Hunt returns
At dawn Bryan watches the Tanu Hunt return, carrying heads of monsters and two ordinary humans on lances.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Dockside antics at Roniah
Aiken and Raimo sneak out, fly as butterflies over Roniah, then perform telekinetic stunts at the docks, destroying a bollard, until Creyn stops them and imposes mental restraints.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Thagdal explains Tanu history of torcs
Thagdal tells the human guests how Gomnol discovered human latency and invented the assay device, silver and gray torcs, which let the Tanu dominate the Firvulag.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Arrival of new time-travelers
At dawn, Pitkin receives several batches of costumed time-travelers and cargo at the time-portal under the watch of the Tanu leaders; guardians frisk them for iron and sort them.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Dispute over the fate of Finiah
The leaders debate rebuilding Finiah. Nodonn wants a fortified mining outpost and blames the time-gate; Thagdal and Gomnol offer a new city; Velteyn accepts and vows revenge at the Grand Combat.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Disguised party arrives at the Roniah Fair
The Lowlife conspirators, disguised as Finiah refugees, sign into a campground at Roniah. Felice briefly reveals her coercive power as Lady Phyllis-Morigel. They get a secluded site on high ground.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Council of war at the campfire
The party plans to send the torc-factory strike-force to Muriah by riverboat. Claude's alternative plan changes the time-gate action. They agree to try contacting Aiken Drum by farspeech through Elizabeth.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Plans for the river escape settled
The expedition agrees that Felice leaves at dawn with an escort and a noon broadcast is set, while the others scout a boat at the Roniah wharf.
- Book 2 · Ch 29Claude and Angélique close the time-gate
Under invisibility, the two run to the gate and jump into the tau-field, linked by hands. The field reverses and they vanish, closing the gate while Aiken flies back too late.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Operants storm Castle Gateway and flee
Operant humans came through the time-gate at an unusual hour, killed Lord Moranet, Lady Senevar and many staff, drained prisoners' minds, and fled west with the Roniah Hunt in pursuit.
- Book 4 · Ch 19Tony escapes the recruiters
At Hilltop House, Tony is pressed to accept a gray tore; he blasts the five soldiers with pleasure-induction through his golden tore, flees with a teamster's ride to Roniah, and takes the tore.
- Book 4 · Ch 23Tony agrees to build the time-gate wire
Tony advises Aiken on niobium and dysprosium and, after assurances, gives his word to cooperate. Kuhal escorts him to the Roniah docks to join Neyal's convoy bound for Sasaran.
- Book 4 · Ch 23Tony speaks with Burke
From a passing rivercraft, Burke telepathically reveals his deal for Tony and his destination of Nionel; Tony asks him to tell Rowane he will return.
- Book 4 · Ch 23Firvulag raid the convoy
Disguised Firvulag raiders board Tony's boat, kill the lone Tanu guard, find crates of Milieu weapons and capture Tony, planning to trade him for their sacred Sword.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Aiken shields the Guderian Project
Aiken moves the Guderian Project to Castle Gateway under a 900-power sigma-field, takes Cloud and Hagen under his protection, and offers Marc a truce invitation to the Grand Tourney.
- Book 4 · Ch 30King's air show over Roniah
Twenty-seven rhocraft led by the King's emblazoned ship dropped candy balloons over the Roniah Fair and shot them down as a show of strength before vanishing.
- Book 4 · Ch 31High Table completed
Aiken commemorates the dead and traitors, receives oaths from sitting and newly nominated Great Ones, and secretly seats Katlinel and Sugoll as allies who repudiate the Firvulag throne.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Aiken warns of Sharn's Nightfall plot
Aiken tells the Table that Sharn plans to touch off Nightfall at the Tourney. Katlinel and Sugoll offer mediation; the Table prepares for war under Aiken.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Tony ordered to Fennoscandia
Contaminated dysprosium threatens the time-gate wire; Aiken sends Tony Wayland to Fennoscandia to ensure proper refining despite Yotunag danger.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Marc escapes Kyllikki
Patricia, Jeff and Cordelia overload themselves to restore power; Patricia dies. Marc teleports his equipment to a camouflaged gully near Castle Gateway.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Rebels bid farewell to the Children of Rebellion
Aiken brings the mutinous metapsychic Rebels through the force-field to Castle Gateway, where Walter parts from Veikko and Irena as the Guderian device nears completion.
- Book 4 · Ch 36First power-up of the tau-generator
The Guderian device is tested with a potassium wafer on a stool; the stool is sliced and the potassium returns dated ~11.78 million years old, proving the gate works but is only a handspan wide.
- Book 4 · Ch 37The co-monarchs yield to Abaddon
Abaddon offers Sharn and Ayfa freedom and his metaconcert program in exchange for their minds' help breaking into Castle Gateway. Despite their fears of enslavement, they open themselves to his mind and join with him.
- Book 4 · Ch 38The Adversary breaches Castle Gateway
Marc, empowered in the CE rig, shatters the dome and shields, captures his paralyzed children, takes Elizabeth's surrender and sends four people through the time-gate to the Milieu.
- Book 4 · Ch 38Time-gate closes; humans stay
After the last of 11,332 returnees passes, Basil, Burke and Phronsie choose to stay, and Phronsie shuts down the Guderian device.