Ontine
The Eldritch imperial palace, in the capital. Pronounced /ohn TEEN/.
History
Appearance and Layout
Facade
Above Ground Floors
Chancellor's Suites
The heir's old apartments are on the ground floor, and the sitting area outside it is known as the Petite Court: it has a painted ceiling and mirrors between the silver and white pilasters on the walls. The Chancellor now keeps his suites here. His office looks like a receiving room, with only a handful of books on a single desk, and several chairs arranged around it. There were cushioned chairs around a fireplace. No windows, so has a chandelier. Walls are painted, and there are carpets, and the colors are ivory, celadon green, delicate yellow. There's a relief running the length of the wall where it meets the ceiling, of a hunt chasing a single basilisk. It smells of sweet beeswax and ink. [1]
Blue Room
This is the small audience chamber. An interior room on the first floor, windowless and without skylights. Stone walls and floors, no tapestries, and only two benches pushed against the walls. Raised chair for the Empress at the end.
The Office of Muniments
Where legal documents are maintained and filed. Presumably this is one of the places overseen by the little mentioned Senior Registrar of the Home Office.
The Swords Salle and Barracks
The salle is a round room floored in wood with clerestory windows. The changing rooms and armory are next to one another at one end of the salle, and a corridor leading to the palace on the other. The barracks is off that corridor, as well as the mess.
Library
Tall ceilings with lancet windows, clear-paned. Shelves are dark, fragrant wood with leather-bound tomes, some as old as Settlement. Here and there, narrow wooden tables for setting out larger books. A dais (a short step up to it) under a half-cupola, lined in more lancet windows topped with cinquefoils.
Palace Chapel
There is one? [2]
Catacombs
Presumably, the Vaults where the Families keep their jewels and the various other treasures, like swords, are located below ground in the catacombs?
Grounds
There's a big lake. There are cliffs. Beyond the lake there are woods with copses and things.