ManseRelay/GemOfDaysLight
Gem of Day's Light
This Stone is a Level 5 Solar stone appearing on page 69 of Savant and Sorcerer. By concentrating, the character can make the stone emit light as bright as the sun's out to any distance up to a mile.
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The Orichalcum Forge (FourWillowsWeeping)
- South
This Manse is cut into the walls of a volcano; rings of palatial rooms surround a pillar of magma, sorcerously suspended in the air. Fire sprites can be seen capering on its surface, executing their complex geometric dances using the magma as a floor. Each riim - there are five-and-twenty - holds a different mirror, each marked with an icon of the Unconquered Sun. They concentrate a pool of light onto a point where there is a gap in the magma pillar; this is where orichalcum is made. The Hearthstone of this Manse orbits the upper part of the pillar, providing true sunlight even at night and in the perfect darkness of Calibration.
Heavenly Ice Mirror (Quendalon)
- North
A glacial wall of polished ice rises in the frozen North, its smooth curves facing the distant warmth of the southern lands. Transparent towers rise from its rim. When the sun is in the sky, the ice catches its light and sends it back in a shower of golden fire and rainbows. So pure and clear is the ice that it holds the sunlight deep within, and even at night the wall and its towers glow golden. Ancient spirits of cold light dwell in this place, inhabiting tunnels that wind through the glacier; they tend to the ice, carving it away where it grows thick, shoring it up when it melts, and always tending to the chambers and possessions of the Solar Exalt who once ruled there centuries ago. At the heart of the most central of the towers, the one that stretches highest and closest to the sun, the Gem of Day’s Light grows upon an orichalcum disk set into an ever-shining pedestal of ice.
The Radiance Lighthouses (LeumasWhite)
- West
Surrounding a half-forgotten island in the far West lie the Radiance Lighthouses, themselves protected by a miles-deep graveyard of ships, some from as far back as the Usurpation. At a distance, the Manse is visible as nothing more than five faintly glowing lights, slowly circling the island from beneath the waves. As a ship draws near the edge of the broken vessels, the lights rise silently to their full height, revealed as massive towers of pure gold capped with a perfectly spherical glass orb and a set of three slightly slanted, inward-facing mirrors. The towers’ circling picks up the closer the ship gets, until the ocean around them is a furious vortex, and then, the orbs light, filling with burning Solar fire. The mirrors atop each tower, also now spinning at a fair pace, catch this light and reflect it into the surrounding area, almost certainly blinding anyone who can see them. The Hearthstone sits on a modest pedestal in the center of the island itself. Attunement to the Manse provides immunity to the blinding light of the towers.
Glory Tree (nikink)
- East
"They say in the East there's a tree as large as the world! Every leaf shine's like the sun at noon, and within this tree there is no death, for death cannot abide the living light!" - White Dew, Journeyman Talespinner.
"What they say is correct, albeit exaggerated. There is a tree, but it's not quite as big as the tales, 'merely' five miles or so across it's branches. It's leaves are five-fingered stars of alternating gold and crystal that constantly collect and refract light. During the day it glows like the Sun come to kiss the ground. At night, it shines brighter for the contrast. Beneath the branches though... that's a dangerous place. The trunk of the tree is made of thousands upon thousands of smaller, twisted branches, like columns supporting a ceiling. And it is always dark and shadowy, for very little of the glory above breaks through. WIthin the canopy of light and gold, life abounds. Other plants, even other trees, flourish here. And animal life too, though I noticed several animals appeared to have adapted to the light by growing darkened coverings over their eyes. In the space below, nocturnal animals hide from the light and prey on the refuse, and unlucky, that fall through. Plants that shun the light thrive here also. Both above and below are living mazes that can trap the unwary or unprepared. I found in the centre of the day-side, a great bush of the gold and crystal leaves, within it I discovered this Hearthstone. It was a dangerous journey, make no mistake. Not easy at all. But worth it. However I was not foolish enough to think that I could survive a journey to the underside to see what formed there. Some things are best left untouched." - Shaerrad Mui, Scavenger Lord.
The Imperial Retreat (Bira)
- Center
On the slopes of the Imperial Mountain, much farther up than the Imperial Manse, there is a structure made up mostly of elaborate marble balconies, all positioned so that the light of the Unconquered Sun strikes them at all times of the day. These balconies are filled with pleasant pools, beautiful gardens and open-air libraries. It never rains here, nor does the inclement cold of the heights enter the Manse. It is a place of rest and peace, meant for someone who wants to get away from the world for a while, without shutting him or herself inside the walls of a fortress. It's security comes entirely from its position, and from the fact that it can only be easily entered through the Imperial Manse itself.
The Hearthstone sits in the only enclosed structure in the entire complex, a lighthouse in the highest level, inside which its light can be channeled through a series of sorcerous lenses to project an image of the owner across Creation. This is the device used by the Empress to announce her new reign to the rest of the world. The Imperial Retreat has remained basically unchanged from its First Age days because the balance of Essence in it is too delicate to be altered safely.
Comments
Bira, are you going to put a new theme up on the ManseRelay page? -- Charlequin
I will now :). -- Bira
- Canonically, the Imperial Manse is in the Imperial City, which is at least a thousand miles away from the Imperial Mountain. Confusing, I know, but what can you do? :) Very nice, though! - Quendalon
