Kingscourt

The Kingscourt is the courthouse that houses the highest court in Chelestra. Located in Galade, the capital city, it is designed to offer both the security and grandeur suitable for a monarch holding hearings to determine the fate of potentially dangerous criminals in public. When Chelestra is ruled by a Queen or a nonbinary monarch, it is known instead as the Queenscourt or the Highcourt, respectively.

Purpose / Function

The Kingscourt is designed to be a public venue for a monarch to hear evidence for and against the cause of an alleged criminal and be seen dispensing justice. In Chelestran law, most cases are heard by regional magistrates, though some cases that present difficulty are referred to the crown and heard in the Kingscourt. The monarch also hears all cases where the accused is a member of the Chelestran nobility, as well as cases the monarch deems important enough to require a direct ruling.
To perform this function, the designers had to meet a number of requirements, some of which were somewhat contradictory. For example, the monarch and the defendant, as well as advocates for the defendant and the accused had to be publicly visible from all viewing areas; but the monarch must also be protected from any assassins who might use the trial to get close enough to make an attempt on their life.

Architecture

The Kingscourt is a lavishly decorated building that dominates one side of the central square in Galade. Its novaculite facade sports an intricate network of brightly coloured geometric designs that emphasize its many arched recesses, while support columns are left in carved stone. Surrounding the building just below the roof, a series of panels contains invoke Nahuntte, God of Truth and Justice, praying for guidance. Each of its doors is made of richly stained poplar, and features a large window panel where the wood of the door has been carved into an intricate geometric web and the gaps filled with glass.
The courthouse has 3 entrances along the main square, and a fourth in the back. The central doorway is primarily used by nobles attending court, but it is also often used to publicly present a defendant on their way into the court when there is cause to make a spectacle, and is also where the monarch can be seen when they opt to make a public proclamation after the conclusion of a trial. The side doorways are open for use by the common folk, except during cases that are deemed to have the potential to unduly embarass the monarch or the nobility, in which case they are also used by nobles wishing to attend. This serves both the need to preserve public appearances to the commoners and provides extra seating to the nobility who tend to be more interested in attending these trials than others. The back entrance is used by soldiers operating security and the court staff, and is also the route defendants usually take into the building.
The noble's entrance files directly into the central aisle of the main courtroom. Twenty feet high and twice that in width and length, the courtroom is divided in half by a waist high fence of intricately carved marble, separating a 60 seat viewing area from the court itself. The court is arranged to draw the eyes toward the action: an imposing, delicately carved desk and throne for the monarch, facing a simple stone cylinder where the accused is required to sit. Both the monarch and the defendant are contained within a magical wall of force during trials, preventing any physical object or magical projectile from reaching either individual, though the King can freely reach the door to his private chambers behind the throne, where trusted advisors and scholars of law are available to provide valuable input if needed. To the left of the king and to either side of the defendant are 3 desks. The desk to the left of the king seats the court scribe, who records the court proceedings to assist with the development of the official (occasionally dramatized) account of the trial, while those to the left and right of the defendant seat advocates for both accuser and accused. To the right of the king, a witness stand that features similar magical protections to those provided for the king and the defendant is available for either advocate to call upon witnesses to support their case if required. The sides of the court are lined with soldiers from the monarch's most trusted unit, currently the White Hawks, in full dress uniform, ready to intercede should anyone make an attempt to disrupt the trial. Court illustrators take up various unobtrusive positions on the floor wearing uniforms that match the white marble flooring, sketching up poses of various key figures of the trials, though it is extremely rare and bad form to openly acknowledge their presence.
On both sides of the courtroom, about 8 feet up are a pair of viewing galleries accessed through the commoner's doors, worked into the intricately carved geometric design carved into the wooden panels of the walls. Opposite the commoner's entrance is a set of secret doors that open into a storage area, allowing servants to switch out the simple grandstands provided for the common folk for the comfortable upholstered seating demanded by the nobility. Opposite the court room, a complex artistic panel conceals a darkened chamber where more trusted bodyguards secretly watch over the audience. If any of them observes suspicious behaviour, they will call out an alarm and the soldier closest to the entrance of the hidden chamber throws a lever. This releases a portcullis sealing off each entrance to both the viewing gallery and the hidden chamber behind it as well as causing the panel separating the chambers to drop into the floor and the wooden paneling above the viewing gallery to drop down, cutting the audience off from the courtroom entirely and allowing the soldiers to swiftly move in and apprehend the suspected assassin. This entire sequence of events takes about 3 seconds to complete (though it takes considerably longer to lift the various heavy components back to their original positions), ensuring even the fastest of people has little hope of escaping the chamber. While the system is tested twice a year, in the centuries since the Kingscourt was constructed it has only been used in need on two occasions.
The Kingscourt also has holding cells to hold the defendants of the day, a small barracks for those who guard those cells, and the official legal library of Chelestra, wherein original and official transcripts of every court hearing and royal edict are housed as far back as is possible - the records are consistent as far back as 1387, the date that the previous legal library burned to the ground. Records dating further back are still being collected as they are found, though the chief archivist is beginning to lose hope of finding what is left of the old records.
The observant note that no monarch of Chelestra has ever been seen en route between the Royal Palace and the Kingscourt, leading some to speculate about a teleportation circle. The reality is much more mundane - the Kingscourt was constructed on one of several old escape tunneles leading from the palace out of the city; there is simply a stair leading from the KIng's chamber behind the courtroom down into this tunnel. It has, naturally, been considerably upgraded since the construction of the Kingscourt, making it possible for the monarch and their advisors to comfortably walk from the palace to the court without exposure to the public eye.

Founding Date

1465

Parent Location

Galade