Throneworld Court Palace
The palace of the Chatcaavan Emperor on the Chatcaavan throneworld.
For information about the members of the court and its customs, see Throneworld Court Society.
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.[1]
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.[1]
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. Mosaics are ubiquitous, decorating most rooms and corridors.[1][2]
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. The nest is positioned such that the Queen can hear the Emperor, but cannot see him.
(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 dais's edges, surrounded by knives and pierced by a stone spike, to which the slave could be bound.[1]
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.[1]
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 atop mounds that indicate their status[3]. The Emperor reclines on a long, plush, black pillow, attended by a favorite (usually Second), whose pillow is decorated with crystal beads and silver tassels.[1][2][4] The pillows overlook a central field; this central field is used for entertainments, particularly duels. Duels happen close enough to the Emperor's table that someone sitting there can feel the rush from the combatants' wings.[2] Foreigners and those in some form of disgrace eat at a table at the far end of the horseshoe.[1][2][4] Chatcaava do not dress their tables with tablecloths, and they're low such that diners sit at them on pillows on the ground.[1][3]
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.[3]
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.[3]
The meals are mostly several courses of meat dishes (charred or raw), with some vegetables, and flavored ices for palate cleansers. Wine and water are served.[3][1]
Personal Chambers and Offices
Most rooms are meant to be approached from the air, and thus have balconies with landing perches for their 'front doors.' A flag is raised if one is open to visitors. As such, the doors that open into to the tower interior (used by slaves and females) are undecorated, save in the harems, in which approach from the inside is more common. The door from the inside thus opens onto private rather than public space, with offices and other rooms for hosting visitors opening onto the balcony.[1]
Ambassador's Chambers
Lisinthir's opulent room in the guest quarters is designed like any other: the door through which he enters, from the hallway, opens into the bedroom, with an enormous bed piled with dozens of brocaded silk comforters. There is a table along one side that doubles as a desk and dressing table, and a bureau.[1][2] The ceiling features a mosaic of polished tiles and gems depicting one male Chatcaava raping another. The study, which opens onto the balcony, leads off in one direction, and the bathing room in the other. The chambers and all of the rooms within them can be entered by any servant, and can often do so without waking him.[1]
The study contains a desk (and other furniture, enough that Lisinthir could pile it up to reach the flag).[1]
The bathing chamber includes a sanitary closet, a shower-like arrangement in one corner where water drizzles from an entire square of the ceiling, and a bathing pool, with ample hot water. The long, tall windows can all be opened with a single lever. It appears to have an entrance from both the office and the bedroom(?).[1]
The balcony has a perch for landing and a flag for signaling availability like any other, though Lisinthir never lowered his flag, using a red scar tied to the landing rail instead.[1]
Second's Office
A guard is posted outside Second's office, and serves the purpose of turning away visitors who do not have an appointment or who Second doesn't want to see. The office has large windows and a balcony, and is lined with bookshelves. The one free wall has an enormous viewscreen. Second-Who-Was decorated it with stone and crystal objects. He also kept a very messy desk.[2]
Emperor's Tower
The Emperor's is the tallest tower at the Throneworld Court, with many, many stairs arranged in a nautilus pattern. His personal suite is at the top.[1]
Directly off the stairs is a "sumptuous but intimate" room with a table and two chairs, which can be used for dining and after-dinner drinks. It has an impressive view from the balcony.[1] It is connected to a smaller sitting room, where the Emperor "tests" dangerous males. A round couch as large as a bed dominates the room, covered in a comforter and burgundy pillows edged in gold swirls. Drinks are served from a sideboard.[2]
The Emperor's private rooms are many and spacious. He has studies, libraries, and bathing chambers, all opulent, decorated with mosaics of planets, space, maps and ships, and males exerting dominion over foes. One of the studies is absent a balcony, but has many books and tablet and viewscreens, and a desk.[2]
The Emperor's bedroom includes a bed twice the normal size, and a sideboard with bottles of very expensive alcohol. Its windows are large and open fully.[2]
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;[1] it is quite a long walk, though flying from the Emperor's tower to the Harem tower is a very short trip.[2]
There is a broad central stairway through the core of this tower lined with jeweled mosaics of fighting drakes with glinting white teeth[1], and guards stand outside the doors leading into the various chambers at each level.[1][5] 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." [6]
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[1], and the Mother was able to visit the nursery despite the irregularity of it.[7] They may not leave it unless escorted.[2]
By tradition, males may enter by flying through the large windows of the harems, but must then walk the stairs to the Queen's suite. Exceptions can be made in case of emergencies, such as those that require immediate medical attention. This tradition dates back to the time of the Queens Ransomed, who was a highly respected person.[2]
The tower is too tall for frequent rain.[2]
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.[1] 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. [5]
Menders
The mender will give females advice on conceiving.[8]
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. [7]
Preparation Room
In the preparation room, halfway down the tower, males of great skill and artistry create collars and other jewelry for the harem. When new slaves arrive, the Queen escorts them to this room to be stripped, fitted with collars, and decorated with both jewelry and cosmetics. The room has scattered workbenches, narrow windows, and hooks on the wall and ceiling for restraining slaves. It is overseen by a male with the title Master of the Preparation Room. Males of the preparation room were Outside.[2]
The concept of the room dates back to the time of the Queens Ransomed, when harem members were not slaves.[2]
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.[1]
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.[9] 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.[1]
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 and there are fresh flowers in vases. A thick ribbon of mosaic in carmine, cobalt, and white line the arches and the tall, pointed windows. There is a seldom-used comm unit on one of the walls. Conversations in the harem cannot generally be heard in the Queen's suite, but loud enough noises (like screaming) can.[1][2]
In the core of the suite is the retiring room, the only room in the harem with a door, and the only room in which males do not enter. Pregnant members of the harem sequester themselves there when labor begins. There are padded benches along the walls, but no other furniture. Rumor says that going to the retiring room before it's necessary, to gain sympathy or to enjoy the privacy, brings bad luck.[2]
While the gift harem may be bypassed, the only way to reach the Queen's suite is to pass through the Imperial harem.[1]
Queen's 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. By tradition, everyone, including the Emperor, must walk this stretch to reach the suite, though they may fly in the windows of the lower harems. Exceptions may be made for emergencies.[2] The suite consists of several chambers. The central chamber features 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.[1] There is an intricate mosaic on the ceiling, and hooks in the walls and ceiling for restraining the Queen. The room is large enough to (barely) accommodate the Queen plus sixteen aliens.[2]
The room also features a bureau near the stairs containing the Queen's toiletries, a chest near the landing in which the Emperor stored various items for use on the Queen (such as ribbons used for binding her as a living statue), and side tables. Seating consists of pillows on the floor for sitting or reclining (in orange, mauve, and midnight blue), at least one couch, and several benches. Several large windows line one side of the room, and can be fully opened; the Queen frequently sat in them looking at the sky, at genuine risk of falling. There is a comm unit on one wall, though it is seldom used as protocol requires the use of messengers except in emergencies. Some furniture could be stored away and brought out as needed: a small floor-table suitable for dining, a low table large enough to be used when giving massages, and stone stools. The room is decorated with fresh flowers, which the Queen arranges.[1][2]
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.[1]
The bathing chamber is a series of baths set on tiers, bordered by coral and lapis tiles. It takes up a third of the suite. 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. Benches line the sides of the pools. Its windows extend to the domed ceiling, so that bathers can see the sky. A chest to one side contains males' clothing.[1][2]
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.[1] Multiple males hold the title of Triage; there is a day shift and night shift holder of the title, and they are separate people. [10]
The clinic is never closed. [5] Females and menials are never treated there, only ranking males. A corridor leading back to various rooms, a room for gel-tanks, some surgery theaters, and the Surgeon's office. The Surgeon's office is a round room with one door and no windows, a desk, a few chairs, and a lamp; it has no other furniture or belongings. Like the rest of the clinic, it is decorated with mosaics of dead and grievously wounded Chatcaava. It is designed such that it could serve as a fortress during times of upheaval.[2]
As the establishment of an Outside male, the clinic itself is considered Outside.[2]
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. [10]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 Even the Wingless, Part One
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 Even the Wingless, Part Two
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Major Pieces, "Deserving," Chapter 3
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Amulet Rampant, Chapter 18
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Amulet Rampant, Chapter 8
- ↑ quote from The Knife, Amulet Rampant, Chapter 13
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Amulet Rampant, Chapter 2
- ↑ Major Pieces, "Opening Maneuvers"
- ↑ Amulet Rampant, Chapter 14
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 From Ruins, Prologue