The Castle Settlement was established by Mike Snow, a former Sergeant in the True Sons, after he became disgruntled with Ridgeway's leadership and disavowed the atrocities being committed against civilians. Snow opened the doors of the Castle to anyone affected by the crisis, which led to the spread of Green Poison from within the walls. Due to repeated attacks from the True Sons, the Castle eventually collapsed.
After the initial smallpox outbreak in December, CERA established one of its very first refugee camps in the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. This camp housed out-of-towners stranded in southern Washington, D.C. after the early evacuations. Over time, the Castle transformed into the first so-called "settlement" with communal resources, medical services, and an organized defense aided by the building's formidable structure. Despite heavy rioting and looting just to the north along Pennsylvania Avenue, the Castle remained a safe haven for refugees and local citizens looking to escape the mayhem of the streets.
But as winter turned to spring, the intensity of attacks grew as a powerful new faction, the True Sons, expanded westward down the Mall from their base in the United States Capitol Building. By April the Castle was essentially surrounded by True Sons territory and the Tidal Basin flooding to the south and cut off from the JTF Base of Operations in The White House to the north.
In early June, a True Sons assault finally managed to breach the Castle walls. After two days of fierce, desperate, and often heroic fighting, the settlers were wiped out and the settlement was contaminated with DC-62 missiles. By then, The True Sons took control the entire south-eastern part of the city.
By Year 5 Season 2: Puppeteers, however, the Division successfully rebuilt the Castle as a functioning settlement while pursuing The Recruiter.
The Assault[]
The Castle Settlement was regularly assaulted and tormented by the True Sons, who demanded more tribute from the Castle Settlement as payment for being in operation.
Sergeant Mike Snow even tried to broker a mutually beneficial truce with the True Sons, promising to not be any threat to the True Sons in exchange for being left alone by the True Sons, which the True Sons noted that General Ridgeway would not adhere to.
The True Sons kept launching various assaults on the Castle Settlement, but these assaults were always a failure due to the civilian's perseverance. Finally engaged and annoyed by their lack of progress, Captain Wilson, a True Son in-charge of administrating the affairs of the True Sons in Jefferson Plaza proposed to utilize their newly developed chemical weapons, which were made from harvesting DC-62 from within the Jefferson Plaza, against the Castle Settlement.
By the time Agent Kelso arrived at the Castle Settlement, the True Sons of the Jefferson Plaza had already fired a mortar made from the DC-62 onto the Castle Settlement, decimating all of their progress, materials and most of their members, with only seven confirmed survivors. An enraged Kelso demanded that the Division agent should assault the True Sons inside Jefferson Plaza and kill every last one of them as an act of vengeance for the destruction they have caused to the Castle Settlement.
Indeed, the agent would go to Jefferson Plaza to shut down the DC-62 stored there and kill Captain Wilson and his unit for their role in the destruction of the settlement.
Reconstruction of the Castle[]
In the months since the death of Captain Wilson and destruction of his DC-62 facility, de-contamination efforts were made to make the settlement habitable again. After it became habitable, a number of civilians and True Sons defectors joined to help reconstruct the Castle. This included people like Mari Singh, Candice Wallace, John Yazzie, Eva Garcia, and more. Each of them having their role and doing their part in making the settlement sustainable and able to thrive.
However, reconstruction efforts were on hold when Black Tusk kidnapped several civilians during their attack on the White House.
As Division agents rescued the civilians from their captivity, the Castle grew further, building up defenses, infrastructure, and communications. And with Vikram Malik and his sister Birdie rescued as well, this ensured to keep the settlement's power grid stable.
Layout[]
WIP