ManseRelay/GemOfFalseDeath
= Gem of False Death (Bo3C)
This pale amber stone has a single crack down the center. The bearer can put herself in a trance that mimics death. It is a level 2 Sidereal Stone.
The White Repose - FlowsLikeBits
Center
The inside of this manse is a pure, blinding white. It consists primarily of a small amphitheater, with a raised stone table or bed in the center and several smaller tables and shelves off to the sides. Several small supporting rooms are linked to the central area. The entire interior is done in brillant white marble, with the only spot of color being the stone itself, which forms under the bed in the central area(even then ,one most open a cabinet to see it). The entire building has perfect, constant illumination, there are no shadows. The central amphitheater has very bright, constant illumination, while the rest of the building is much dimmer. Age, and minor accumulated damage causes the lighting in the outer portions to flicker occasonally. The entire building is kept incredibly clean, the Storyteller may allow this to aid Medicine rolls, due to the antiseptic conditions.
The Hall Of Stars - Falcon
West
This manse occupies most of an island in the West, with the remains of a small town nearby. It consists of a main circular hall that contains a complex orrery to track the movements of the major Celestial gods, and a surrounding double-ring of rooms for other purposes. While the outer rooms are noisy places, full of the constant ticking and humming of the essence-machinery that drives the orrery, the central room is quiet and serene, filled only with the slow, majestic movements of the actual orrery itself. In the top of each orb that represents one of the five maidens is a recession where a hearthstone may form, although in its current configuration the manse produces only a single Gem of False Death in the purple globe that represents Saturn.
Much of this manse's power is directed outwards to maintain it and its surroundings in the face of the Sea, and the essence connections to the outside world that allow the orrery to remain accurate blaze stable (if narrow) pathways from the Hall of Stars to better-known waters. Perhaps a master occultist could redirect the energies to produce a more powerful hearthstone, but since the price would be the total dissolution of island and manse both, no one has ever tried.
The Bridge of Returned Echoes ~ Shataina
South
Near the Yellow Wyrm's lair is a plain of glassy, fused sand; this fades inward to a vast expanse of pure amber, cracked across by a chasm whose depths flow with brilliant white-hot magma. Across the miles-wide centre of the chasm hangs a delicate, jewellery-like bridge of starmetal and orichalcum; it is hung with candle-holders of obsidian and amber. Each is lit with a single blue flame that remains motionless till someone walks upon the bridge, then bows and flickers towards her.
As one traverses the bridge, one's footsteps echo down the chasm, and return ever-more loudly as one comes closer to the middle -- but strangely so. At first the echoes seem merely distorted; then, as they bounce back and forth across the deep golden walls, they take on the shape and character of dying voices -- specifically, the traveller's own. Each footstep comes back as a different set of last words, reflecting the traveller's many possible deaths.
The Hearthstone is suspended in its own obsidian sconce in the very middle of the bridge, but most of those who seek this Manse do not come for it. It is known from the oldest tales that each blue flame is an echo, and that if one extinguishes the flames as one walks upon the bridge, the echoes will be fewer and fewer -- till, with one flame left, the last words the seeker hears will be those of her true, fated death. It is further rumoured that if the last flame is, too, extinguished, then the fate that governs the traveller's death will be unwoven and replaced with a different one. However, doing this will cause the intricate chains of the bridge to come apart into their component links, falling (along, hypothetically, with the traveller) into the molten rock below -- and destroying the Manse forever.
If more than one person seeks to traverse the bridge, then they may do so; but there are no echoes, the flames do not move, and the Hearthstone is impossible to pick up -- fused in place.
The Bright Web in Darkness ~ Shataina
East
Hundreds of feet up, and so far East that the forest's canopy is impenetrable to sunlight, the slender branches of the trees come together in a strange pattern resembling a spider's web. If the structure were on the forest's floor, it would be in an octagonal glade; but the Manse has somehow been constructed in such a way, and so far up, that its Essence flows cannot even be felt from the ground, and all that can be seen there is confused forest just like the rest of the untamed area.
The web is always shadowed; the only illumination comes from faintly-glowing ghost flowers that have managed to take root in the moss and dirt caught in cracks and niches in the trees themselves. These spread, whitely shining, along the branches that form the web, growing thicker along the edges and thinner as they come to the centre. The whole thing would seem -- as is common with Eastern Manses -- to have grown rather than been built, save for the middle, in which a bowl woven loosely of wooden withes holds the Hearthstone. He who claims the stone must have the agility of a very monkey and be light on his feet as a moth, for once the branches reach the centre of the web, they're so thin and fragile as to be unable to support any but the merest weight.
The ghost-flowers may be harvested without harming the Manse, but there must always be enough for an ordinary mortal's eyes to make out the vague shape of the web; otherwise, the Manse's energies are disrupted. It is also worth noting that the ghost-flowers that grow in the Bright Web secrete a sticky, saplike substance on their stems, and are exceptionally tough and hard to uproot; the end result is that many who walk among and try to pick them end up stuck fast, and often starve to death. (Those attuned to the Manse find that the sap does little but persistently coat their skin and garments, losing its sticky effect entirely.)
Strange amber-and-white spider-moths also make their home near the centre of the Bright Web; these are about as large as a human's head, but harmless. They have only rarely been seen elsewhere, and at least one of the records in Yu-Shan state that they are sacred to the Manse's unnamed architect. One tome in the Imperial Library claims said architect to be a demon, but considering the willingness of Realm historians to call basically anything a "demon", the literal accuracy of this statement is questionable.
The House of Ice and Amber - Quendalon
North
On the western slope of a mountain one hundred and ten miles south of Gethamane, a palace of ice nestles in the snow. Five triangular spires rise up to catch the evening light and glimmer beneath the stars of dawn. Within, glassy walls form irregular partitions marking off catafalques of living ice. Those who rest within the House are sealed, still living, within the ice. Scores of ancients remain so enclosed, awaiting the proper time to return to Creation.
At the center of the House, between the roots of the towers, rest the bones of some ancient demigod, a four-armed giant now lying in repose beneath a blanket of frost. The Hearthstone grows between the skeleton’s ribs, in the place of the heart.
Comments
Okay, here's the deal. At the beginning of each theme, someone picks a stone, either from the Wiki or a book. Each person then picks one of the five directions and designs a manse which could appear within that direction of Creation and produce the stone in question. Once all five directions have been done, someone picks a new Stone and it begins anew. This was Willows' idea, btw. -- Charlequin
Hope I'm not interrupting. But this seemed sort of stalled. - Scrollreader
Sorry for doing two in a row, but it doesn't seem like anyone else is, and I didn't want to let this idea fade from my head. And let me know if I messed up any of the canon for ghost-flower (if that's even what it's called) -- I don't have any of the books here. (Does it only grow in shadowlands? I figure I could alter this to be Abyssal-aspected fairly easily -- the stone would work Abyssal too, I think -- but I'd rather not if it's unnecessary.)
~ Shataina
Looks good to me. In fact, all of them do. I picked a bit of an odd stone for this one, but it came through just fine. Now Quendalon gets to pick a new category, and we can roll on out. - Scrollreader
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