Alanjeh Castle (Location)

Alanjeh Castle is a location in the Alanjeh region from both Lost Kingdoms and Lost Kingdoms II. In the first game, Alanjeh Castle is the intro stage.

In Lost Kingdoms II, Alanjeh Castle is location composed of four separate levels. The map icon for the castle is labeled as "Alanjeh" despite the name being the same as the Alanjeh region, and its appearance will change after a certain point in the story. One of the levels there is also named Alanjeh Castle, but the stage only takes place on the castle grounds.

In Lost Kingdoms

Alanjeh Castle as a Stage

Alanjeh Castle in Lost Kingdoms is a single level.  As the first stage, not much of its interior is seen.  However, what can be seen of its interior is the throne room, a room containing a map of Argwyll, and the Royal Treasury, which has two tablets about the Ancient Covenant and a chest that holds the Alanjian Runestone.  The exterior of the castle is not an area that can be visited at all.

The Alanjeh Castle level starts with an Alanjian Warrior running to the throne room to warn Princess Katia of the Black Fog. She rushes to the Royal Treasury and obtains the Alanjian Runestone, but then two enemy Skeletons appear. A mysterious voice speaks to her, then a Birdman card appears floating in the air before her. She takes the card and uses it, defeating one of the monsters instantly. After she defeats the other monster, she will leave the treasury and meet an old woman named Gurd.

In Lost Kingdoms II

Alanjeh Castle as a Set of Stages

Alanjeh Castle in Lost Kingdoms II has four separate locations that can be visited.  In this game, the grounds leading to Alanjeh Castle and one of the castle's towers, the West Tower, can be explored.  The West Tower itself is split into three separate stages: Royal Tower, Lower, Royal Tower, Middle, and Royal Tower, Upper.

Alanjeh Castle as a Stage

Alanjeh Castle as a stage in Lost Kingdoms II is the grounds leading to the castle itself. It is an area surrounded by a massive fence and is composed of narrow passages between rocky hills. The end of the level is the main gate to the castle found just past the bridge across the stream. During the story of the game, Sol will accompany Tara here.

The entrance of the level is blocked off by a closed gate, but it has a switch nearby that will open it. When Tara pulls it, she will find and read a note left by the Kendarie about when they will begin to attack the castle. When Tara finishes reading the note, the only timed escort mission in the game will start. The goal is to keep Sol from dying and get him to reach the castle gates with Tara before the time limit expires.

Two small gates, one with a blue crest, and another with a red crest, block parts of the level. These gates can be opened by placing stationary Helper type cards on the magic circles that are the same color. The first of these, the one with the blue crest, can be skipped by using a Jumper Transform type card with a high jump to go over the ledge nearby it. The red one in the middle can be walked around, but since the magic circle that opens it is so close, it can easily be entered without using cards. Both of these gates aren't necessary to open for completing the level, but the red one can be used as a shortcut.

The level mostly has Mech monsters, but most of these will be dormant until approached. Two monsters that can be encountered in this level, the Barometz and Chariobot, will only appear here during the mission. In the US and PAL versions, both have cards that can be missed permanently, so using Capture Cards on them before the mission ends is recommended. In RUNE II, the Japanese version, only the Barometz can be missed since the chest near the stream has a Chariobot card in it instead of the Boom Monkey card from the US and PAL versions.

Completing the mission of this level will prevent Tara from entering any location but the next one.

Royal Tower, Lower

The Royal Tower, Lower stage is the first level taking place in the West Tower at Alanjeh Castle, and it has two separate missions. One is to explore the tower with Sol to find an exit, and the other is to reach the end of the stage.

This part of the castle has a lobby where a memorial and a portrait of Queen Katia can be found, several elevators, a staircase, a library, the former queen's bedroom, and a water reservoir.

First Mission

In the first mission of this area, Tara and Sol are trapped inside the stage as Rashiannu prepares to fight off the Kendarie forces. Since Tara's Runestone was taken by the Queen, she has to rely on Sol to fight for her once the attack on Alanjeh Castle begins. Tara also recovers some of her memories in this mission, but she gets separated from Sol at the end.

The library found only in this mission has several bookshelves and a painting hanging over a fireplace. The small bookshelves in the US and PAL versions are the only ones that can be interacted with and contain books with lore. In RUNE II, only the the larger bookshelves have readable books. While most of the larger bookshelves in the Japanese version contain the lore, a few of them have reports and hidden cards that don't exist in the Western releases.

The painting above the fireplace depicts Tara and her sister as children with their mother. It can be interacted with to trigger a short optional cutscene with Sol.

Parts of the level become inaccessible at two points. The first is after the cutscene in the former Queen's bedroom, and the second is after the first mission ends. If any of the Red Fairies or contents of chests found before the bedroom in the first half of the mission and the last interactable elevator in the second half haven't been obtained before then, they will become impossible to collect. The first half of this mission is also the only time that the library of Alanjeh Castle and the former Queen's bedroom can be visited, although the latter is seen in both versions of the ending cutscene.

After the Body of the God starts climbing the castle, the map icon for Alanjeh Castle will change. Once the mission is cleared, other locations can be visited again.

Second Mission

In the second mission, the doors leading to the castle are blocked off by four orbs generating a forcefield.  The doors must be opened by weakening each of the orbs to 1HP at the same time.  Although the intended method for doing this was for the player to use the God of Destruction card, the orbs can be taken out other ways with many other cards.

Royal Tower, Middle

The Royal Tower, Middle stage is the second level that takes place in the West Tower. The goal of the mission here is to defeat Duke Leod VIII and reach the exit.

The raised platform in the center of this level is where Leod VIII is fought.  There is also a Kendarie device in this level that generates forcefields. Three of the forcefields form a protective barrier around the ruler of Kendaria, and two are placed in front of chests. The forcefields surrounding Leod VIII must be deactivated so Tara can defeat him and clear the level. 

Every small room in this level has a switch that can deactivate a forcefield, but each switch is guarded by a rare and powerful monster. These monsters do not return after the switches they guard are flipped or when the mission ends. If an optional switch is not flipped during the mission, it will be disabled, so its forcefield will become impossible to deactivate.

Royal Tower, Upper

The Royal Tower, Upper stage is the final level in both the West Tower and the main story of Lost Kingdoms II. 

Trivia

• In Lost Kingdoms, Alanjeh Castle's towers are shown with red roofs on the map icon, but it has white roofs in the ending art.
• In Lost Kingdoms II, both versions of the castle's map icons show its towers with white roofs, but they have green roofs in both the Plains of Rowahl and the Royal Tower, Lower stages.
• The throne from the throne room in the Alanjeh Castle level from Lost Kingdoms can be seen in the Lost Kingdoms II loading screen that features Rashiannu.

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