Roan

The Reticulated Ramparts of Roan had none of the alliterative feel that its name suggests. The poetic title was thought of by the seventeenth century mystic Al-Bahr as a part of an exchange programme with the British of the time. Despite the lack of the mysticism behind the frivolous-sounding name, the Reticulated Ramparts of Roan played a much more important role by its existence than it would seem to be indicated.

Roan was an old city from back in the day. Founded by the leader of a troupe of renegade knights who left their respective feudal lords, they cam across a small village and staked a claim, renaming it to Roan, and managed to expand its population and amenities to the point that it became a small-sized city on its own.

At first, there were no ramparts of any sort, reticulated or otherwise, but as time went by, Roan became a victim of its own success. Simply put, as Roan prospered, it started to draw hostile attention from the feudal lords, princes, and kings. They saw Roan as a threat from three perspectives. As a rising city, Roan threatened to siphon off trade that was traditionally held in a few more prominent towns. As Roan was founded by rogue knights, there was fear of the martial abilities of the city should it get to that point. And finally, Roan was starting to be the magnet of all knights who were fed-up of serving their feudal lords and wanted something a little more democratic. These fears accumulated into various attempts at taking the city by force.

Initially, the knights of Roan shrugged it off as they fended off the attackers easily. But they got weary once they realised that each day would provide a new feudal lord trying his luck. Defending the city meant that all the knights had to be involved -- there were city limits but the physical barriers were few and weak, which meant needing more manpower. So after deliberation, they built ramparts around Roan.

But these ramparts weren't just massive earth works. They were reticulated, made of many smaller modules that can be easily pre-fabricated and then assembled with mortar. This made it very easy to adjust and vary the defense perimeter, and more importantly, reduce the manpower needed to repel all attacks.

It took the feudal lords a little while to figure out what had been done, and once they did, realised the futility of taking the city by force, and learnt to work with it instead.