SkyWing palace

Template:Infobox Location The SkyWing palace, also known as the Mountain Dragon Palace by humans, is located in the northern part of the Sky Kingdom. The palace once housed Queen Scarlet and Peril, and currently houses Queen Ruby, Cliff, Vermilion, and countless other SkyWing subjects.

Description

The palace consists of towers that seemed to grow out of gray-black rocks, and every ledge was an entrance to caves and holes carved out of the mountainside. 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, all products of the War of SandWing Succession.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} Most of the gold was pried out of the walls during Queen Ruby's reign to fund the hospital.^{[citation needed]}

The palace has many tunnels and arches, one leading to the arena (now a hospital). The SkyWings constantly add extensions and repairs to the palace using rock and other minerals.^{[citation needed]}

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

Notable Features

SkyWing Arena

SkyWing prisoner towers from The Dragonet Prophecy (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes

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 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.

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.

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 typically 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 hatching from a red egg.
• 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 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 group 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 heard a short, gruesome fight between a SeaWing and a scavenger that the Queen found in the woods. The scavenger was killed quickly by the SeaWing, who then ate the scavenger.
• Several unknown IceWings: 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.
• 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's throne room, by Mike Holmes

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 tower's bottom 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. The only decoration is a portrait of Scarlet five times the actual size of her. It covered a huge swathe of wall, forcing dragonets to climb up or flap around it. Scarlet's perfect orange scales, bright yellow eyes, and cascades of jewelry towered over the wingery, as if she were approving of their play but also imprinting their young minds with the constant reminder that she was the queen and always would be.

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.

Trivia

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

References

pl:Podniebny Pałac ru:Небесный дворец