Lost in the scribbles of history,
Is a legendary tale of a castle.
The castle was known by many names in many tongues,
But was most commonly referred to as,
Kastel Bys.
Bys was a stronghold,
A stone fortress sat upon a grassy hill,
With a ten foot deep trench,
Carved out of the land,
All the way around.
What made it stand out though,
Above all other castles of its type,
Was the fact it was completely self-sufficient.
Built down from a river source,
Running directly underneath it,
Gave all who lived inside clean water,
And with some clever engineering,
Allowed them to grow food upon the roof.
Soil had been laid,
Drainage built in,
And crops grew perfectly.
The other most impressive thing,
Of Kastel Bys,
Was that up,
Through the castle,
And sprouting through a built in hole,
Towered a mighty tree.
It was a great oak.
The largest of all the oaks,
And it provided shade and shelter.
Life at Bys was bliss.
Fresh flowing water,
Ensured that all who lived there,
Spent their days happy.
Most nobles in the land would scoff at the very notion,
They doubted Bys existed,
And would often pretend it was impossible,
Yet,
There she stood,
Magnificent,
Independent,
And long lasting.
Whilst the nobles that scoffed,
Whittled away what precious resources they had,
Trying to get even more resources,
Bys continued to prosper.
It was an adored kingdom in its own right,
For it had no need to wage war with neighbours,
No need to steal their food or materials.
Had Bys been allowed to,
It would have been still standing today,
Possibly credited as a wonder of the world.
However,
Jealousy set in.
Jealousy and greed.
All the nobles banded together,
Brought their armies to Bys,
Laid siege at its walls,
And once they broke through,
Burnt it to the ground.
They stole the stone for their own castles.
They took the food for their own bellies.
They drained the river dry,
And finally, chopped the great oak down.
Bys was no more.
A peaceful paradise,
Self-supporting,
Never realising it’s true potential,
For the nobles and their monopoly,
For the nobles and their thirst…
Had killed the dream.
It left the land ruined.
Nothing could grow,
No stone could be set,
And so not only was Bys erased,
But so too was its legacy,
As one by one its citizens died,
Starved under the nobles,
Famished and left wanting,
Until they drew their last breaths,
And passed on to the next world.
The nobles thought they had won,
But what they did not know,
Was that although they had ended Bys,
Their way was most certainly doomed,
And some day,
Soon...
They too would be left wanting,
In a world that could no longer support them.
And on that day,
How they will long for the idea of Kastel Bys.