The Red Keep is a castle and the home of the kings of the Seven Kingdoms. It located in King's Landing, the capital of Westeros, where it sits on Aegon's High Hill. It is made of pale red stone. It has seven massive drum-towers crowned with iron ramparts. Massive curtain walls surround the keep, with nests and crenelations for archers.
Featured In[]
Justice, Richly Deserved
The Smoke Clears
The Faith Militant
Landmarks[]
| The Iron Throne
|
the seat of kings in the Seven Kingdoms. The king often holds audiences and dispenses justice from atop it. Only the Hand of the King may sit on the throne in the king's absence.
The Iron Throne is a monstrosity of spikes and jagged edges and twisted metal. It is uncomfortable, and the back is fanged with steel which makes leaning back impossible. Aegon I had it made this way deliberately, saying that a king should never sit easy. |
| Maegor's Holdfast
|
a massive square fortress inside the heart of the Red Keep behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes. It is a castle-within-a-castle. The royal apartments are in Maegor's Holdfast. The king's bedchamber has twin hearths. |
| Maidenvault
|
a long, slate-roofed building located behind the royal sept. Its entry has two tall carved doors. |
| The Queen's Ballroom
|
a hall only half as big as the hall in the Tower of the Hand. The Ballroom seats one hundred and has beaten silver mirrors behind the wall sconces which makes the torch's light seem twice as bright. Its walls are paneled with richly carved wood and it has a gallery above the main floor. High arched windows sit along the south wall. |
| Red Keep Dungeon
|
dungeon of the Red Keep and has four levels. On the upper level are cells with high narrow windows where common criminals are confined together. The second level has smaller, personal cells without windows for highborn captives. Torches in the halls cast light through the bars. The third level cells, the "black cells", are smaller still, and have doors of wood so that no light enters them. These are reserved for the most vile and dangerous prisoners. The lowest level is used for torture. |
| The Traitor's Walk Tower
|
the squat, half-round tower that contains the entrance to the dungeons. The top floor holds the cells for the prisoners who were to be kept in a degree of comfort. The entrance to the dungeons sits on the ground floor of the tower, with the dungeons beneath the tower. |
| The Tower of the Hand
|
the chambers of the Hand of the King. Its small hall is a long room with a high-vaulted ceiling and bench space for two hundred. The private audience chamber is not as large as the king's, but has Myrish rugs, wall hangings, and a golden-tinted round window that give it a sense of intimacy. |
| White Sword Tower
|
the chambers of the Kingsguard. It is a slender structure of four stories built into an angle of the castle wall overlooking the bay. A circular white room, has whitewashed stone walls hung with white woolen tapestries, and forms the first floor. A large white table with seven chairs provides a meeting space for the order. The undercroft holds arms and armor, the second and third floors the small spare sleeping cells of the six brothers of the Kingsguard, and the topmost floor is given over to the Lord Commander's apartments. His rooms are spare as well, but spacious, and they stand above the outer walls |