SkyWing palace

The SkyWing palace, also known as the Mountain Dragon Palace by humans, is located in the northern part of the Sky Kingdom. The palace formerly housed Ex-Queen Scarlet and Peril, and currently houses Queen Ruby, Prince Cliff, Prince Vermilion, and countless other SkyWing subjects.

Description

The SkyWing palace consists of stone towers, turrets, and spires jutting through the fog and clouds around the mountain peaks like long spindly claws. The towers appear to grow out of gray-black rocks, and every ledge was an entrance to caves and holes carved out of the mountainside. The tallest spire is the chimney of the crematorium, which carried the smoke of burning bodies. The second tallest spire is a lookout area for the guards near the outer wall of the palace. At the top of the tower was a small pavilion with room for five or six dragons to fit comfortably. A shallow hole in the floor was intended as a fire pit, for heating the tower when it was cold or for cooking prey. The walls were open on all sides, but the position of the tower was directed west, to watch for attacks from IceWings or SandWings. A trash chute led from the palace to the ground below the mountains. The palace is usually very busy, with dragons flying from tower to tower, coming in with reports, or sailing out with messages. The palace flutters with activity, and wingbeats fill the air.

The interior consists of the Great Hall in the center and several levels of railless balconies all around it, a huge hole in the roof above, and windows open to the sky everywhere. Fires burned in many of the rooms off the balconies, giving the whole place a glow and a charred smell. The SkyWing arena and prison once rested within sight of the palace, along with fallen towers, scorched land, and ravines full of burned up dragon corpses and bones as products of the War of SandWing Succession. Gold traces, talon prints, and outlines of flames and clouds are carved in the stone of the floor, and Ex-Queen Scarlet's throne room was said to contain massive amounts of gold in it, giving it the oppressive heat of a funeral pyre. Most of the gold was pried out of the walls during Queen Ruby's reign to fund the hospital.

The central hall leads to the kitchens. A trapdoor beneath the kitchen leads to the prey center, where SkyWings keep prey that they use for feasts. An unnamed SkyWing is the owner of the kitchens.

The palace has many winding tunnels and arches, one leading to the arena (now a hospital). The SkyWings constantly added extensions and repairs to the palace.

Notable features

Dragonet wingery

The dragonet wingery's opening is located high in one of the towers. Murmurs of small voices drift through the windows, and the interior consists of an enormous space full of SkyWing dragonets. The youngest dragons play-fight on the floor, far below the entrance, where padded black and gold rugs overlap. Toy weapons are scattered around them, including blunt spears and dented shields leaning haphazardly against balls, attack dummies, and toy cooking supplies stacked with half-chewed goat bones and other snacks. Slightly older dragonets swarm the walls and climbing structures above the rugs, busily clambering along fake rocky outcroppings and gradually higher and higher platforms. The highest levels are closer to the ceiling, and are used for flying practice, with longer spaces to cross with each leap, ropes to catch on midflight, and obstacles to practice swerving around.

The walls within the wingery are not as embellished with gold and jewels as the rest of the SkyWing palace. Instead, the room is full of light and air from windows and skylights, most of which were barred, especially on the lower levels. The only decoration is a portrait of Scarlet five times the size of the real queen, which covers a huge swathe of wall. There is also a perch at the peak of the tower, on a winding branch carved from wood. It twists across the roof as though it is a finish line for dragonets trying to reach the top.

Great Hall

The Great Hall is the main chamber of the SkyWing palace, with multiple levels of it leading to many different halls, rooms, and balconies. There is an open roof or hole within the roof of the keep. The roof let out onto a rocky mountaintop with dizzying views of peaks all around them; small little scrub bushes clung to the dirt here and there, but mostly it was all rocks — long overlapping shelves of gray rock and lumps of boulders like giant stone eggs, including a boulder that was taller than most. The Great Hall is often busy with dragons hopping across the great space, exchanging small message scrolls in midair, carrying buckets of water, clean animal skins, or platters of food, and dodging wings and tails as they went.

The top level of the Great Hall used to reverberate with the shrieks of burning dragons and roars of the arena, but has changed to become a place for SkyWings to dance, sing, celebrate, and party in Ruby's reign. There is a prison at the bottom of the Hall, which was commonly thought of as the lowliest prison in the SkyWing palace. It consists of a grate of thick metal bars and chains to hold prisoners in place. Peril burned a hole through the prison cell as of The Dragonet Prophecy in attempt to rescue Kestrel.

Library

The library is quiet and private. It is lined with small inkpots, scroll jars, desks, and wooden sculptures of trees.

Prisoner towers

Around one hundred prisoner towers encircled the SkyWing arena. According to Scarlet, they took ages to build, but were removed by Ruby after she became queen.

SkyWing arena

The SkyWing arena is directly outside of the palace, in the northern Sky Kingdom. It was a bowl of rock with sand at the bottom and sheer walls. Prisoners of war were forced to fight to the death here for Scarlet's entertainment. Scarlet kept various competitors, including scavengers, dragons, and other creatures. The dragon prisoners mainly consisted of IceWings, SeaWings, and SandWings who were loyal to those other than Queen Scarlet or Burn. The prisoners were locked up on towers in the sky, locked up with metal that was impervious to fire and frost breath. The winner was free to go if he or she won enough fights and defeated Peril. However, because of Peril's deadly firescales, no one ever succeeded in defeating her.

The arena had a tradition called the "Champion's Shield", wherein the current arena champion may fight for any condemned prisoner's life. The queen chooses their opponent, and if the current Arena Champion wins, the queen must spare the condemned prisoner's life. If the champion loses, the queen can execute the prisoner.

Ruby later turned the arena into a hospital, making space for healing supplies and wounded soldiers.

During the reign of Queen Firestorm, the arena was used to host parades, art shows, dance performances, and beauty contests. Dragons from all over Pyrrhia were invited to compete.

Spectators

Spectators mostly include SkyWings; however, during the War of SandWing Succession, MudWings have been known to watch, as well as a few "honored SandWing guests". They watched from rows of benches, balconies, and caves above the arena walls. Other prisoners also watched battles from the spires they had been chained to.

The spectators typically shout for death, but do keep justice and honor in mind.

Spectators can throw treasure at combatants, the way small jewels were thrown at Tsunami when she won.

Arena combatants

This is a list of all the known character (dragons and humans) who fought to the death in gladiatorial arena matches in the SkyWing Arena for Queen Scarlet's amusement.

• Arbutus: A male human captured from a human settlement and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. He was one of the two humans to die in the battle, along with Cardinal.
• Cardinal: A male human captured from a human settlement and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. He was one of the two humans to die in the battle, along with Arbutus.
• Clay: A male MudWing dragonet, who was pitted against Fjord, and later, Peril. Scarlet deliberately arranged this, as she was aware that Clay was immune to fire due to him hatching from a red egg.
• Canyon: Scarlet's husband who was sent into the arena because she was bored with him. He was killed by a SkyWing general here.
• Cranberry: A female human captured from a human settlement and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. She was one of the two humans to survive the battle, along with Rowan.
• Fjord: A male IceWing pitted against Clay in the arena. He had the MudWing pinned down when Glory's venom killed him after Tsunami caused a diversion by throwing herself off the spire she was on, nearly choking herself and the other prisoners next to her in the process.
• Gill: A male SeaWing who was Tsunami's father (unknown to her at the time). Tsunami killed him in the arena. Before this, he was tortured and driven mad when Queen Scarlet took away all his water for months as punishment for trying to start a prisoner rebellion. Tsunami first pleaded with Scarlet to let him live, but when the SkyWing queen refused and taunted the dragonet, she snapped Gill's neck, imagining he was Scarlet.
• Horizon: A male SandWing who won four matches before being pitted against Peril. He committed suicide in the match against her by burning himself to death after realizing that he could not defeat her. Peril later told Clay that Horizon's actions were "poor form" and that she preferred to kill dragons herself.
• Human, Unknown: In The Dragonet Prophecy, Clay heard a short fight between a human, who was found in the woods, and a SeaWing. The SeaWing won and then ate the human.
• IceWings, Several Unknown: The IceWings were killed by Morrowseer's soldiers when the NightWing came to rescue Starflight. One, a silvery female, was chained next to Clay for most of his stay on the rock spires.
• Peril: A female SkyWing and the Scarlet's Champion. She was hatched with too much fire and burned anything she touched. Any dragon who won more than four matches and was in danger of gaining freedom was assigned to fight her, thus assuring that no one could escape from the arena. She was undefeated until being forced to fight Clay, who was immune to her firescales.
• Rowan: A female human captured from a human settlement and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. She was one of the two humans to survive the battle, along with Cranberry.
• SeaWing, Unknown: In The Dragonet Prophecy, Clay heard a short, gruesome fight between a SeaWing and a human that the Queen found in the woods. The scavenger was killed quickly by the SeaWing, who then ate the human.
• Starflight: A male NightWing in the prophecy. After Starflight was forced to fight Tsunami and refused, several humans were released, and he and Tsunami fought them together. Starflight was then also almost pitted against IceWings, who hates his tribe with a passion until Morrowseer and a group of NightWings came, killed the IceWings, and rescued him.
• Tsunami: A female SeaWing in the prophecy, forced to kill Gill (her father) by breaking his neck before she was pitted against Starflight, whom she refused to fight. Several humans were later released into the arena, and she and Starflight fought them together.

Throne room

In Scarlet's era, the throne room's floors were made of grooved rock, and its walls were inlaid with gold. Ruby thought that entering it was similar to walking into a funeral pyre; oppressive heat and the smell of dragon fire. It used to have so much gold inlaid that walking into it on a bright day might induce a headache, but Ruby removed at least half the gold after becoming queen, leaving only wisps of cloud shapes here and there. It includes a lower visitor's throne, while the SkyWing queen's throne is consisted of a tall column carved in the shape of clouds. The wall opposite the throne is open, so the queen can see a sweeping view of the kingdom. It was often filled with dragons, and had dragons standing guard outside.

Tourmaline's bedroom

Tourmaline's room was described to contain piles of blankets, scrolls carelessly tossed aside, and gold-tasseled yellow curtains flapping at the window.

History

The Dragonet Prophecy

The Dragonet Prophecy

Scarlet captured and brought the dragonets of destiny back to her palace. Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight were placed as gladiators, while Glory became an artwork and Sunny was planned to be gifted to Burn. The dragonets soon escaped alongside Peril and Kestrel.

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The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Escaping Peril

Queen Scarlet barged in the palace and tried to take the throne, but was killed by Ruby, who transformed into Tourmaline and snapped Scarlet's neck.

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Legends

Dragonslayer

Leaf was imprisoned in the palace and then rescued by Clay.

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Field Guides

A Guide to the Dragon World

Tailwind's This is Why We Don't Marry Psychopaths took place in the palace and depicted how living in the palace was like during the reign of Queen Firestorm.

Trivia

• When designing the prison, Tui wanted it to be the opposite of the standard dungeon that most people would be familiar with.

Gallery

• 
  The SkyWing palace on the cover of Escaping Peril, by Joy Ang
• 
  Ex-Queen Scarlet's portrait hanging in the SkyWing wingery from A Guide to the Dragon World, by Joy Ang
• 
  The SkyWing palace from The Dragonet Prophecy (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes
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  The SkyWing palace on the map of Pyrrhia, by Mike Schley
• 
  The SkyWing palace on the map of Pyrrhia in Darkstalker, by Mike Schley
• 
  The SkyWing palace on the Sky Kingdom map from A Guide to the Dragon World, by Mike Schley

• Art by Mike Holmes, from the Wings of Fire Graphic Novels
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References

fr:Palais du Ciel pl:Podniebny Pałac ru:Небесный дворец