SkyWing palace

Template:SpoilerDragonslayer Template:Infobox Location The SkyWing Palace, known as Queen Scarlet's Palace, Queen Ruby's Palace, or just the Sky Palace, and also known by scavengers as the Mountain Dragon Palace, was inlaid with talon prints made of gold (that no dragon would dare steal out of fear of Ex-Queen Scarlet's wrath), has a cloud-shaped throne carved of stone, and is partially open to the sky and partially inside a mountain. Located in the northern part of the Sky Kingdom, the palace once housed Queen Scarlet and Peril, and currently houses Queen Ruby, Prince Cliff, Vermilion, and countless other SkyWing subjects.

The SkyWing arena and prison once rested within sight of the palace, along with fallen towers, scorched land, and ravines full of burned up dragons corpses and bones, all 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 palace has many tunnels and arches, one of which leads to the arena (now a hospital). The SkyWings add extensions to the palace constantly using rock and other minerals.

In The Dragonet Prophecy, Kestrel and the dragonets of destiny were taken as prisoners to the palace and arena. Kestrel was caged in the palace, Sunny was put in a birdcage and hung over the main hall, Glory was draped around a marble tree as Scarlet's art piece behind her balcony, and Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight were placed on the prisoner towers, preparing for a battle in the arena.

There is also a second prison in the palace, possibly for the more dangerous prisoners on trial.

SkyWing Arena

The SkyWing arena is directly outside of the palace, in the northern Sky Kingdom. Prisoners of war were forced to fight to the death here for Scarlet's entertainment. Scarlet kept a variety of competitors, including scavengers, dragons, and other creatures. T

File:Skywings-towers.png

SkyWing prisoner towers

he 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 fire scales, 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 the life of any condemned prisoner. 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.

Queen Ruby later transformed the arena into a hospital for wounded soldiers after her ascension to the throne. Ex-Queen Scarlet wanted to duel Queen Ruby in the arena, and Queen Ruby admitted that it had been turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers. 

History

The practice of dragons being pitted against each other had existed in the Sky Kingdom for long periods and was possibly introduced during Queen Scarlet's reign. The idea was for prisoners to fight to the death and to gain freedom if a certain number of matches would be won. However, that never happened since Peril, with fire scales, became champion. The arena is also known to house SkyWing trials, and Kestrel's trial is a known example. This is where Peril was taught by Queen Scarlet

Clay attacking Fjord in the arena

to fight other dragons. Peril always won though, because she was hatched with fire scales. Peril was able to kill any dragon just by touching them. The dragons Peril fought always died of severe burns, except for Clay, who was hatched in a blood-red egg, making him fireproof.

However, this practice of arena fights has ended due to Ruby's ascension to the throne, and the arena space was transformed into a hospital, used to heal war veterans and former prisoners of the Sky Kingdom, and help them get back into their normal lives by finding them homes and giving them jobs if they are needed.

Spectators

Spectators mostly include SkyWings, however, MudWings have been known to watch, as well as a few "honored SandWing guests." Other prisoners also watched battles from the spires they had been chained to.

The spectators normally shout for death but 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 dragons who fought to the death in gladiatorial arena matches in the SkyWing Arena for Queen Scarlet's amusement.

• 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 being hatched from a red egg.
• Fjord: A male IceWing who was pitted against Clay in the arena. He had the MudWing pinned down when he was killed by Glory's venom, 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). He was killed by Tsunami 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 couldn't defeat her. Peril later told Clay that Horizon's actions were 'poor form' and that she preferred to kill dragons herself.
• Peril: A female SkyWing and the Queen'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 red-hot touch.
• Starflight: A male NightWing in the prophecy. After Starflight was forced to fight Tsunami and refused, several scavengers 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 force of NightWings came 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 scavengers were later released into the arena and she and Starflight fought them together.
• An unknown SeaWing - In The Dragonet Prophecy, Clay hears a short, gruesome fight between a SeaWing and a scavenger that the Queen found in the woods. The scavenger is killed quickly by the SeaWing, who ate the scavenger.
• Several unknown IceWings: Killed by Morrowseer's soldiers when Morrowseer came to rescue Starflight. One, a silvery female, was chained next to Clay for most of his stay on the rock spires.
• Arbutus: A male scavenger captured from a scavenger den and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. He was one of the two scavengers to die in the battle, along with Cardinal.
• Cardinal: A male scavenger captured from a scavenger den and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. He was one of the two scavengers to die in the battle, along with Arbutus.
• Rowan: A female scavenger captured from a scavenger den and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. She was one of the two scavengers to survive the battle, along with Cranberry.
• Cranberry: A female scavenger captured from a scavenger den and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. She was one of the two scavengers to survive the battle, along with Rowan.

Throne Room

The throne room is where Kestrel was held prisoner after being captured with the dragonets of destiny.

File:Skywings-throneroom.png

Queen Scarlet-era throne room, inlaid with gold

The floor and walls were inlaid with gold so that the room, on a sunny day, was so bright it could instantly give a dragon a headache. This gold was removed after Ruby became queen. It has two thrones: one for the queen, a carved column shaped like clouds, and a guest throne, which is smaller than the queen's throne. It was often occupied by Burn during the war.

Wingery

This tower is where SkyWing dragonets live until they can fly competently. The bottom of the tower is covered in rugs and toy weapons, like spears and shields, for the youngest dragonets to play with. The middle section has many perches to sit on and navigate, and the topmost area is full of obstacle courses for the older dragonets to practice flying and turning sharp corners in mid-air.

Trivia

• Blister wanted Anemone to enchant the palace to cave in on all the SkyWings.
• It is unknown if ex-Queen Scarlet started the arena fights, or if it was a previous queen's doing.
• It is unknown how many rock spires had prisoners on them, or how many died in the arena.
• When designing the prison, Tui wanted it to be the opposite of the standard dungeon that most people would be familiar with.
• The arena is likely around twenty years old, due to the War of the SandWing succession raging on for twenty years, and Scarlet imprisoning soldiers, spies, and scavenging dragons.
  • Though, Scarlet's nature could suggest that the arena could have been around ever since she became queen in the first place.

References

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pl: Podniebny Pałac RU: Небесный дворец