IceWing palace

Template:Infobox Location The IceWing palace is located on the far northern edge of the Ice Kingdom. The palace is occupied by the IceWing queen and aristocratic IceWings who are ranked in the Third Circle or above.

Description

Also known as the gift of splendor, the IceWing palace was designed, built, and enchanted centuries ago by a pair of animus twins, with magic that ensured its wall of ice would never melt, crack, or be harmed by an outside attack. It soars miles into the air, with towers and balconies and spires that pierce the clouds. It contains a great number of rooms on many various levels.

It is composed of a thousand different glittering blue shades, with its interior walls being cool and smooth. The lights of the palace shimmer blue-green-silver, like captured starlight. The dark ocean surrounding it serves as a mirror, sending the same lights dancing in blurred mimicry around the palace's base. A galaxy of smaller lights spirals out in five curved arms from the palace, illuminating lower aristocrats' homes, the training schools that are open all night, and the shimmering ice sculpture gardens.

There is a grand entrance to the palace: a set of crystal-studded gates about halfway up the central keep. They are carved in the shapes of giant dragon wings, matching the small ice sculptures of dragons, wings, and talons that top all of the columns and finials. It is possible to fly over the palace walls into the interior courtyards, but that is considered gauche and career suicide. According to IceWing protocol, visitors wait at the gates to be admitted.

There is a vast entrance hall that leads to three arched openings leading to the central courtyard. The gift of elegance provides pale blue stars that seem to drift through the palace's otherwise bare, translucent walls. Up close, small, phosphorescent glass snowflakes are seen encased in the ice, glowing silvery blue as they fell, mimicking the weather outside.

The pristine central courtyard is covered in snow, a vast space dominated by the two most important gifts in IceWing history: the gifts of light and order. The Tree of Light's frost-kissed twigs, leaves, and branches are identical to that of a normal tree. It has eternal life, and its moon globes grow year-round, with a new bud growing on the tree immediately after a moon globe has been taken. Under the Tree of Light, there is a long path to the wall of Circle rankings. There are many windows in the palace that overlook the courtyard.

There is a palace library containing a few old scrolls about the Diamond Trial.

Winter's room was described to have one window overlooking the central courtyard, with a shelf of ice serving as a bed and two warm, white polar bear rugs on the floor. Narwhal was also mentioned to have personal chambers somewhere in the palace.

Winter mentioned that the palace has a flight training tower.

Notable Features

The Forbidden Treasury

The Forbidden Treasury's existence is usually only known for sure by the current queen and their living heirs (although currently Lynx is aware of its existence as well). Its entrance is located below the queen's bed, and it contains a number of animus gifts that have likely been placed there to be kept away from non-queen dragons. Known gifts located in the Forbidden Treasury are the gift of compromise, the gift of vision, the gift of strength, and the gift of stealth. In Queen Snowfall's final vision, the gift of vision was revealed by Opal's spirit to present itself to queens who are not yet ready for their role; while it presented itself in the Forbidden Treasury for Snowfall, it's unconfirmed whether it can appear in other places as well.

The Gift of Order

The gift of order is an animus-touched wall located in a central courtyard of the IceWing palace. There are seven circles of dragonet and adult rankings, and each day the queen is expected to re-order all of the dragons based on their performance in school, day-to-day life, and other considerations. After returning from Sanctuary, Queen Snowfall destroys the wall using the gift of strength, much to the shock of Tundra and other IceWing traditionalists.

History

The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Winter Turning

After Hailstorm and Winter return to the Ice Kingdom, they are admitted at the palace gates. Once let through, they obtain one moon globe each from the Tree of Light. In the central courtyard, they are assessed by Narwhal. Winter then went to sleep in his room and then attends a rankings ceremony the next morning, in which Hailstorm and Winter are given their new rankings.

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The Lost Continent Prophecy

The Dangerous Gift

Snowfall visited the Forbidden Treasury when she decided that she had no choice without any other source of animus magic. She retrieved multiple powerful objects from the Treasury, including Opal's ring of vision, and gleefully thought about how she could drive the Pantalan refugees out of the kingdom with those dangerous items.

Gallery

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  The IceWing palace from the cover of Winter Turning, by Joy Ang
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  The IceWing Palace from the map of Pyrrhia, by Mike Schley
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  The IceWing Palace from the era of Darkstalker, by Mike Schley

References

pl:Pałac królowej Lodowiec ru:Ледяной дворец