This article is about the mobile capitol of House Wulfenbach. For other uses, see Wulfenbach (disambiguation).
"Hide the women! Hide the beer!
The Baron's great big thing is here!
It's huge and fat and long and round
And you can see it from the ground.
It flies way high up in the air
He rides it here, he rides it there.
And every mad boy lives in fear
That Klaus will stick it in his ear."
- Popular tavern song[1]
The current Castle Wulfenbach is no more a castle than a Boeing 747 is the Taj Mahal. In fact, the Castle Wulfenbach is the great-grandpappy ✣ of all airships. The Baron himself designed it following the Other War and uses it to cruise around Europa enforcing his despotic will. Captain Patel is the master ✣ of the operational side of the Castle-as-ship, subordinate only to the Baron and his heir. The airship's crew functions separately from the bureaucratic and scientific staffs of Castle-as-capital, which are managed by Boris Dolokhov.
Castle Wulfenbach in full frontal tyranny, surrounded by her flotilla, with Gil's flyer in foreground.
"Huge" doesn't remotely begin to do Castle Wulfenbach justice. The Castle's support vessels are "huge"; The Castle itself is at the very least twenty times ✣ longer[2]; so incredibly far beyond ✣ "huge" that the word does not even provide an approximation of its size. It is "almost a full kilometer in length."[3] Castle Wulfenbach is quite slow, even slower than a typical airship. The Castle never lands; it floats perpetually and balefully above Europa, depending on its flotilla of support vessels to ferry people and things back and forth to the ground; the support ships are also used to "quickly" deploy troops (Gil's flyer is faster still). Though ponderous, the Castle has gun turrets ✣ that are as large as some whole airships. Rebels do not want to mess with Castle Wulfenbach. Incidentally, the face ✣ of Castle Wulfenbach (seen on the nose ✣ of the airship) is rather more stern, though less mad, than the face ✣ of Castle Heterodyne.
The Ancestral Castle[]
The original Castle Wulfenbach was a more standard terrestrial fortress, which the Baron found in ruins ✣ 18 or so years ago when he returned from a "sabbatical" enforced by Lucrezia Mongfish. Whether this ancestral castle was destroyed before or after the Other ceased operations is unclear ✣ . For additional non-canon information about the ancestral Wulfenbach seat, see House Wulfenbach/Mad.
The Airship Castle[]
The Castle Wulfenbach is, like most capitols, in a constant and ongoing state of construction. However, she was in a recognizable form about six years after construction was initiated.[4] With construction complete enough to be launched 16 years before the start of the main story according to Agatha H and the Airship City.
Locations Within[]
Visible from without ✣ are several building-sized structures, including one with stained glass windows, and a grove of pine trees. On the inside, Castle Wulfenbach features such facilities as a nursery, a dormitory and school, a prison ✣ or two, the Jägergenerals' quarters, and of course, any number of laboratories ✣ .
Klaus is, after all, a world-class Spark. One of his labs is used to investigate ✣ the Spark itself. Some labs are devoted to particular subjects, such as the Large Dangerous Mechanical Lab ✣ .
Though Gilgamesh lived incognito in the dormitory until his sojourn in Paris, he now has significant lab space of his own on board the Castle. Gil has at least a Personal Lab ✣ , a Flight Lab ✣ , and a temporary lab ✣ for the preparation of odorous fuel additives. Gil also devotes ✣ some space to clandestine work on a pair of constructs, though it is not clear where.
There are multiple flight bays to handle a large range of equipment and vehicles, including in some ✣ cases entire airships ✣ . Bay 200 ✣ for example holds the Barons personal drop amour which he orders prepped to deploy to a resurgent Mechanicsburg.
In Our Last Episode[]
Following the death of Tarsus Beetle in Beetleburg, Agatha is brought aboard the Castle, along with a full-blown hive engine. Agatha and Gil destroy the engine, but the resulting brouhaha brings chaos to seemingly every part of the Castle. Othar Tryggvassen increases the confusion by setting loose or turning on as many of the lab experiments as he can during his own escape. Shortly after learning that she is a spark, Agatha flees the Castle. Some time thereafter, the other students depart ✣ as well.
The Baron and Dupree use ✣ , smaller airships rather than the Castle, for their assault on Sturmhalten. Castle Wulfenbach descends on Mechanicsburg not long after, the first named location it is known to have visited.
Castle Heterodyne turns loose the Torchmen to harass the massive ship, although their attack is mitigated ✣ by Agatha's commands. It stays in the area throughout the Siege of Mechanicsburg where it fends off attacks by various sparks, and a full assault by the forces of a resurgent Castle Heterodyne including such legendary forces as the fog merchants.
While she seems to have survived the Timeskip under Gilgamesh's command mostly intact, thanks to the Baron's time bubble freezing Mechanicsburg, her current condition other than aloft is otherwise unknown. Though she still suffers attacks from outside forces, like Agatha's clank, she seems stable. The exterior ✣ took a while to been seen.
Eventually, as Agatha and her coterie approach the center of Mechanicsburg in their attempt to break the time-freeze, an off-screen Captain Patel begin acting oddly, cutting off communications and culminating in an order to evacuate the ship. This leads to the assembling of an expedition to get on board and find out what's going on. Among the members of said exploring party are Othar, Boris, Trelawney, Tweedle, some Jagers, and some members of the re-surfaced Vespiary Squad.
Residents[]
See Characters from Castle Wulfenbach for a complete list.
Klaus and Gilgamesh Wulfenbach call the castle home, but so do thousands of others. Formerly ✣ , dozens of children of noble houses were resident at the Castle's school. Until the recent development ✣ of Wasp eaters, 170 covert revenants lived undetected aboard the Castle as well.
Many Wulfenbach military units and minions are based at the Castle, including the Jägermonsters and their Jägergenerals, the Lackya, and the Dreen. Captain Patel commands ✣ the Castle's airship crew. Boris Dolokhov administers the Castle's extensive scientific and bureaucratic staffs. Bangladesh DuPree administers ✣ —well, let's call them motivational ✣ speeches ✣ .
The Novels[]
In various footnotes in the Girl Genius printed novels, it has been fairly broadly hinted that at some point in the future, Castle Wulfenbach will be destroyed, or at least end its journey and return to earth.
See also[]
Secret Blueprints: The Castle Wulfenbach Airship
References
- ↑ Agatha H. and the Airship City, Page 80
- ↑ 20 times the length is a conservative estimate. The length could be up to 24 times that of her subcraft. Bear in mind that multiplying the length by 20 and maintaining the proportions means you multiply the volume by eight thousands, and a length of x24 means a volume of thirteen thousands, eight hundred and twenty four times the mass of a "regular" airship.
- ↑ Agatha H. and the Airship City, Page 98
- ↑ Reddit Ask-Me-Anything, 30 May 2013: 'Phil: It's an ongoing process of construction. They are still building it! But recognizably? It was about 6 years in.'