Throneworld Court Palace

The palace of the Chatcaavan Emperor on the Chatcaavan throneworld.

Layout and Environs

Those approaching the palace by ship or shuttle set down on a landing pad at the base of the cliffs, near the ocean. Those capable of flight then fly to the palace; those not capable walk up a long set of stairs cut into the cliff, without handrails; the rock hemming the stairs in is rough and unpolished. The palace is a day's flight from the nearest city, or two days on foot. The cliffs themselves are covered in multicolored mosses and lichens: dark purple, frosty green, straw yellow.

Atop the cliffs is the palace proper:

None of it compared to the towers. They rose in splendid isolation from a plateau above the port, so tall they were lost to the haze of the dusk and Lisinthir's uncertain eyesight. Slim and unexpectedly graceful, the pale cylinders had been inset with panels of color that shone like faceted gems, and these panels gave rise to glittering buttresses that supported elongated onion domes.

Unlike a typical castle, the towers do not emerge from a main fortress. Buildings surround the towers in tiered arcades, with a significant amount of space open to the air. The columns and arcades are decorated with climbing vines and flowers.

Receiving Room

The receiving room is mostly open to the sky, surrounded by columns and palisades; these are sometimes decorated with decorative rope and bells, and have lesser harem members and pretty servants painted and bound to them as statues. At night, the area is lit with crystal lanterns hanging from those columns. The courtiers congregate on the ground level and mingle until court begins.

The Emperor's side of the area consists of an elaborate series of balconies, ramps, and columned palisades. He himself stands on a balcony-like structure at the highest level, with the Slave Queen's place midway between his level and the ground. Her nest is shaded by the palisades, and sometimes shared with her by other chosen members of the harem; ordinarily it is softened with a simple pad, but when decorated it is a mount of silk and crystal-embroidered pillows and strewn with flowers and gems.

(Unclear whether this is a permanent fixture or something put in just for the occasion...) For the planned rape of his Eldritch slave, there was a dais with an enormous mirror stretching to the dias's edges, surrounded by knives and pierced by a stone spike, to which the slave could be bound.

Fields

The field where the court takes its evening meal are behind the tower which contains the Ambassador's quarters, part of an area of softly rumpled hills studded with tumbled columns and other ruins.

The court eats outdoors, at tables set in a horseshoe shape with the Emperor at the top of the horseshoe and the least favored (traditionally including the Alliance Ambassador) at the ends. The tables are low, and diners sit at them on pillows. The Emperor reclines on a long pillow, attended by a favorite (usually Second). They overlook a central pit/field; this central field is used for entertainments, particularly duels. There's a pillow for foreigners on the corner that I've forgotten the name of but it's in Wingless. The Emperor's pillow is black, apparently. Chatcaava do not dress their tables with tablecloths, and they're low.

The tables are brought out in the morning and returned inside after the final meal, but the pillows are set out for each meal, and returned to the palace after each meal, by castrates who clean them and keep them free of mildew and damage. There is a single castrate (title-less but known for the job duty) whose sole job is to track all those pillows, see to their mending and replacement, and oversee their distribution daily.

After the Emperor's restoration, a new mound was sculpted in front of his hillock for his favored courtiers. The tables on this new mound are set at angles so that the people at them can look both at the field and at the Emperor.

The meals are mostly several courses of meat dishes (charred or raw), with flavored ices for palate cleansers. Wine and water are served.

Emperor's Tower

The Emperor's is the tallest tower at the Throneworld Court, with many, many stairs arranged in a nautilus pattern.

Harem Tower

To approach the harem tower on foot from the Emperor's tower, one must descend the stairs, cross an arcade over a large room, and pass through several hallways before entering the tower proper.

There is a broad central stairway through the core of this tower lined with jeweled mosaics of fighting drakes with glinting white teeth, and guards stand outside the doors leading into the various chambers at each level. There is surveillance throughout this tower, except in the Queen's suite. "You belong to the Emperor, my Queen. For anyone else to spy on you would have been an insult to him. Only he should have access to you."

The Queen and the inhabitants of the harem have relative freedom of the tower, if perhaps unofficially; the Queen could traverse it to the catacombs as could Laniis, and the Mother was able to visit the nursery despite the irregularity of it.

Catacombs

The catacombs are a damp, cold chamber in the basement of the Harem Tower, cutting down into the cliff. Alien slaves were held there before being brought to the harems. The secret tunnel within it, designed to evacuate females in the case of attack, was later used for escape. The tunnel debouches near the palace landing pad. Had not been used for over a hundred revolutions when the Knife described it to the Queen Ransomed.

Imperial Nursery

Installed near the base of the tower. Guarded by males, overseen by tongueless female caretakers/slaves who were taken from rivals but not beautiful, significant or young enough to be remanded to the harem. Separated into at least two rooms; the room nearest the interior of the tower is reserved for female children, and the one with the window for male children.

Gift Harem

The Gift Harem is at the midpoint of the tower, and houses the females that the Emperor lends to guests and favored members of the court.

Use Closet

Halfway between the Imperial Harem and the Queen's Suite, the use closet is reached from a door at a landing, and occupies the space beneath the final flight of stairs. The space has no built-in lighting, but is illuminated with a hand-held lantern. It holds implements of pain and pleasure, hanging on the walls and on tables: whips, plugs, straps, racks, and torture implements. In addition to objects meant for use on harem females, the use closet holds racks intended for use on males, with specific restraints for binding wings.

Imperial Harem

The Emperor's personal harem is a large space of cream stone with a central column, and tall arches separating the wings. It has the nest-like wells in the floor believed to be soothing to females in its central space, and both they and the floor are set with red, blue, and gold pillows for sitting or lounging on; there are also benches cut into the walls to provide further places for seating. Around the borders of the central chamber are trysting alcoves that can be closed with a curtain for some privacy. Perfumed incense burns in the room. A thick ribbon of mosaic in carmine, cobalt, and white line the arches and the tall, pointed windows.

Queen's Suite

Queen's tower, top suite

The wide corridors present in the rest of the tower narrow on the last stretch to the Queen's suite; it is only when reaching the next set of rooms that there is enough room for two guards to stand. The suite consists of several chambers. The central chamber featured a well- or bowl-like depression in the floor, set with pillows for sitting or sleeping; it was a general belief that these "nests" would comfort flighty females, but the Slave Queen hated them. The room also featured a bureau near the stairs, and pillows on the floor for sitting. (Is there a bench or similar for the visiting males, or just the pillows?) The chamber also features several large windows, either without panes or shutters or with retractable panes and shutters; the Queen frequently sat in them looking at the sky, at genuine risk of falling.

To one side of the central chamber is a closet large enough that four aliens could sleep on its floor. The closet contains spare pillows in piles, brushes, jars of sand, and hand towels, among other things.

The bathing chamber is a series of baths set on tiers. The hottest water flows into the top bath, from there into the medium-temperature middle tier, and from there into the tepid bottom tier. The Queen prefers to wash in the tepid pool, but soak in the hottest; Laniis, however, found all but the bottom pool too hot.

Clinic

The clinic is on the ground floor of a tower adjacent to the Emperor's tower. Its door is surrounded by mosaics depicting acts of "astonishing violence:" blood spurting from the injured and dying, corpses contorted grotesquely in rigor mortis, spilling entrails, depicted in metallic green, umber, and alizarin crimson.

The tall, arched waiting area is similarly gruesome, some of the depictions "almost comical in their exaggeration" according to Lisinthir. A small window allows one to talk to Triage to begin the process of receiving care. The medical technology is hidden away until it is needed.

The clinic is never closed. Females and menials are never treated there, only ranking males. Has a reception area, where Triage sits. Then a corridor leading back to various rooms, a room for gel-tanks, some surgery theaters, and the Surgeon's office.

Servant's Quarters

Sleeping chambers, kept fastidiously clean, with few belongings, and their pallets are meager and lack privacy. The end of their chambers is an external door, leading outside where they do other chores.