Archive Home > Archives > 2016 Archives > The Starlit Manor > The Starlit Manor Description
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Character Info
Name: Natsumi
Age: Appears early 20s
Alignment: CN
Race: Homunculus
Gender: Female
Class: Combat Medic
Silver: 10907
The Starlit Manor
 
While there are more recognizable ports of call for the sailors of Revaliir, The Starlit Manor still boasts one of the largest piers in the world. A manmade island situated in the middle of the Nyella Ocean, the extravagant complex rises up like a spire from the depths. What is visible above the surf is a gigantic structure rivaling the castle of Adeluna herself. It is decorated in faerie lights that illuminate it in the dark and serve as a warning to passing ships so they do not dash themselves against the stony perimeter. These lights give the manor its name, for they appear like stars upon the open sea.
 
Transportation
 
Navigating to the The Starlit Manor is simple enough if you have a ship or other means of transportation across the ocean. Most ports have directions to it somewhere in their midst, especially since the manor itself doubles as a religious destination for those who worship Lady Luck Who Commands the Depths. For anyone lacking in that form of transportation, however, there are also ferries that regularly visit the major ports of the world and can provide free passage to anyone wishing to visit The Starlit Manor.
 
Outside
 
Surrounded by walls on all sides, the visible portions of the manor are secured against rough seas. Gates guard the cardinal directions, allowing entry to ships that visit the docks within. There is even an airship docking tower that climbs into the heavens: the tallest structure in the entire settlement.
 
The architecture of this place is remarkably similar to Adeluna. The stone and woodwork come directly from Canelux, as do some of the more ostentatious additions such as archways and ornate, stained glass windows. Everything is enchanted with a spell to automatically repair itself, so Starlit Manor never appears worn or mossy despite its proximity to seawater. The numerous Faerie Lights that hang along the outer perimeter make that fact inherently obvious even in the dead of night.
 
Docks
 
Inside the outer walls, the manor's docks are pristine and large. Most that come to visit arrive in all manner of seafaring vessels, and there is plenty of docking personal to repair and receive as needed: if you have the coin. Docking itself is free to worshippers or those who seek an audience with the owner, but everyone else has to pay a small, docking fee in addition to an entrance fee. Payment of the latter allows the payee full access to most of the public areas in the manor rather than being restricted to the docks, and it functions much like an entry price to an amusement park. Don't get cocky and think you can avoid this payment, either, because everyone is marked upon entry by the magic of the goddess's domain. The staff, which are of a race of cat anthromorphs, will be able to smell that mark wherever you are, and they don't take kindly to trespassers.
 
The docks also serve as a restocking area for people that are just passing through. Gift shops, warehouses, and more line the inner recesses of the pier, each more than willing to pine their wares to those who have coin. Because of this, everyone is well familiar with the cat people's most famous saying:
"We have wares if you have coin."
 
Rapture of Lights
 
Everything that resides above the surf and within the perimeter of docks in The Starlit Manor is collectively known as the Rapture of Lights. The place is comparative to a giant festival ground, except one housed in a large mansion closed off from the outside. Glass windows line many of the buildings that constitute this massive collection of businesses, and the many attractions within are spaced out across different floors. The area gets its name because of the use of faerie lights in place of every light fixture, enough to where guests have nicknamed the two districts after the color of lights they contain.
 
The grounds are equally split between adult and child entertainment, you see, with inns in the middle of the two. In the children area, otherwise known as the green light district, junior competitions take place ranging from small minigames to full on jousting competitions between young adults. There are also gambling areas without requirements for money, aquariums, daycares and more. Parents are more than welcome to leave their younglings in this area, and the staff will happily take care of them while ensuring they don't cause trouble.
 
On the adult side, or the red light district, things obviously get dicier. The gambling areas there require real money to play, and the competitions turn into shooting galleries with real arrows rather than boys with wooden weapons. There are bars in this location that serve the highest quality liquor on the high seas, and all of them are situated right next to "one night stand" rooms that strangers can quietly reserve for a nominal fee. There are even steamy, strip clubs, and, in some cases, prostitutes that line the seedier regions of the red light district – though there are rarely any female prostitutes to be had. Occasionally, one will show up, but they don't stick around for long before Skadi "recruits" them into her harem and she is not known for sharing.
 
Regardless, all of the more risqué activities in the red light district are strictly forbidden from being in sight of the inns at the center of the Rapture of Lights. The owner has no problem with those business practices per se, but she also doesn't want one type of business to scare off the other type. There are various fees for services scattered throughout the children and adult areas, and Lady Luck prefers to keep her money flowing.
 
Rystal's Spire
 
Beneath the paradise of pleasure and luck that is the Rapture of Lights lies an entirely different world. The Starlit Manor represents both luck and water, after all, so everything below the brine is in reverence to life's most precious element: so much so that it is named after a legendary underwater city in Revaliir lost to the ages.
 
Rystal's Spire is composed of strong, alabaster stone and clear glass. Several observation decks line the massive structure as it stretches down into the depths. It is flanked on one side by a coral reef that visitors are allowed to swim in, and on the other side by one of the deepest trenches in Revaliir: Ki's Scar. Legends say this trench leads to the lairs of monsters of old as well as civilizations lost with the fall of the first Goddess of the Sea, but the lack of light makes it incredibly treacherous to explorers who want to test those theories.
 
Visitors are allowed to go into Rystal's Spire and use its many meditation areas, moonpools, libraries and other amenities; but they will be prevented from descending past a certain point. The spire itself actually goes into Ki's Scar, presumably all the way to the bottom. The last stop anyone who is not a special guest of Skadi's can make is her audience chambers near to the base of the coral reef.
 
Skadi's Harem and the Audience Chamber

Lady Luck who Commands the Depths keeps her quarters next to the coral reefs. The spire expands into a large dome here, allowing space for many living quarters and, in general, all the components necessary for a large house. It is here that Skadi keeps her harem of women who often roam around as maids when she is not present. They can occasionally be found in the Audience Chamber, which is the only place in the house that common visitors are allowed; but they are notorious for not engaging with any strangers who proposition them. These fair maidens, who often wear erotic costumes, are Skadi's attendants in practice and letter, bearing the name Luck's Maidens. The temple's magic keeps them forever young, and Skadi's wealth gives them a far better life than any of them ever had beforehand. In return, they grant Skadi their eternal loyalty, and help her in many tasks.
 
The Audience Chamber that Luck's Maidens staff is designed to be comfortable for them to work in. It is kept at a constant temperature with magical fireplaces that do not produce smoke, and has a plethora of couches decorated with oceanic patterns. There is no obvious throne in this area, and it almost looks more like a lounge than a place for a God to meet with mortals; especially given the board games that are scattered about and the nearby, large, continuous, glass window that provides a clear view of the coral reef outside. The only thing actually suspicious is the giant, wooden door at the end of the chamber that leads further into the complex. Occasionally, visitors can hear lewd sounds coming from beyond that boundary if they press their ear to the planks, but those visitors brave enough to do so are shortly dragged away by the cat bodyguards who patrol just outside the Audience Chamber. This door is warded, and will not allow anyone who does not have Skadi's permission to pass.


Last profile edit: 1/2/2022
Dialogue: "speech" ~telepathy~ 'mental/silent/unintelligible'

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