The Skybound Citadels are a collection of five colossal floating fortresses, each connected to one another through a network of magical portals. These awe-inspiring citadels hover high above the land, each embodying a unique aesthetic and magical trait based on their names. Designed to serve as impregnable strongholds, the citadels are equipped with formidable defenses, magical armaments, and a portal network linking one to the other, ensuring the Empire's continued dominance. They are overseen by the High Generals of the Ministry of Defence and their armies, with other ministries playing vital roles in their maintenance and operation. The inter-ministry rivalries over control and responsibilities associated with the citadels only serve to underscore their strategic importance and cultural significance.
History
The Skybound Citadels were constructed during the early years of the Empire, as the Emperor sought to establish an unassailable defense network against both external threats and internal uprisings. Utilizing advanced magical and architectural knowledge, the citadels were designed to be virtually impervious to attack and serve as symbols of the Empire's might. This was only possible due to the Emperor's discovery of magicite, the origins of which have remained a closely guarded secret.
Two hundred years ago, the High General in command of Moonreef Citadel rebelled against the Empire, bringing his Citadel to bear against the capital of Theria itself. He was defeated, and his fortress crashed as he fled over Solace. The resulting magical explosion tore the land asunder, creating Shattered Solace as it exists today.
Portal Network and Inter-Ministerial Rivalry
The Skybound Citadels are connected through a portal network that allows for instantaneous troop transport between the fortresses. While the Ministry of Defence is responsible for manning and overseeing the citadels, the Ministry of Commerce and Infrastructure has jurisdiction on passage through the network in peace, with the Ministry of the Arcane conducting regular check-ups to ensure their proper functioning.
The Ministry of Inquisition has unfettered access to the portal network, utilizing it for swift and effective enforcement of the Empire's will. The Ministry of Culture and Integration also plays a significant role in propagandizing the citadels, ensuring their symbolic importance remains at the forefront of the Empire's collective consciousness.
The fierce rivalry between the ministries is epitomized by the ongoing tensions over control of the Skybound Citadels. Each ministry is constantly vying for greater influence and authority over these mighty constructions, seeking to wrest control from their counterparts in a never-ending struggle for power and prestige.
The Citadels
Heartbloom Citadel
A stunning red and orange fortress with a structure that resembles a rose in bloom, its ruby petals blended together with a shape like flickering flames. It spreads a warm glow that propagates far further than it should, turning the depth of night to perpetual twilight for any region within which it resides, and turning the temperature up a few degrees. In battle, the spirits of any soldiers who deploy from the fortress are enflamed, while their enemies must contend with devastating barrages of arcane fire.
Heartbloom Citadel is usually stationed in the northern third of the Empire, where its presence softens winter and extends the growing season.
Moonreef Citadel
A breathtaking fortress of shimmering blues and greens, formed entirely out of strengthened coral reefs, and with cascading waterfalls and flowing streams decorating it inside and out. Moonreef Citadel was capable of controlling the currents, and guarded and facilited trade across the ocean routes. In battle, it could bring forth great banks of mist to confound and confuse enemy forces, cause floods, and project beams of silver light that drove enemies to madness.
Unfortunately, Moonreef Citadel was the fortress involved in the rebellion against the Empire's rule, crashing and detonating within Shattered Solace over 200 years ago. It is thought that remnants of the Citadel yet remain at the core of that cursed land, and as magicite supplies continue to plummet, enterprising individuals set their sight on reclamation efforts, to reclaim the enormous bounty of magicite locked within the Citadel's walls.
Sporebloom Citadel
An ethereal floating fortress of soft whites, grays, pastels, and mushrooms in every colour, with clouds of spores following in its wake. Mushrooms bloom in the fortress's wake, many edible and very nutritious, but potentially choking out local crops. Great care is taking with its pathing as a result. In battle, clouds of spores choke out and enervate attackers, often ending battles in sleep and paralysis before a single blow has been struck.
Its primary posting is within the south-western third of the Empire, where it skirts the edged of the centraly located Great Narwhui Desert. After decades of this posting, the border between the desert and the surrounding lands has been transformed in a hot and humid mushroom forest. Only time will tell whether a few more decades will see the entire desert transformed.
Stonevine Citadel
Stonevine Citadel is a formidable fortress of earth and stone, with walls adorned with intricate carvings of vines and foliage. Looking upon it, one could almost imagine it to have grown from earth and rock by itself. It is the most solid and no-nonsense of the lot. In battle, vines of stone shoot out of its walls to devastate forces below, and spires of earth rise to churn up the ground beneath its enemies' feet. It is the largest of the fortresses, and a permanent team of miners and artisans is stationed aboard, cutting away the excess stone that threatens to overgrow the fortress entire. "Vinestone", as it is called, is at once light and incredibly strong, and highly prized as a building material throughout the empire entire.
It is stationed within the heartland of the Empire, and seldom moves.
Blackbriar Citadel
A foreboding, dark fortress with an exterior that made of twisted black vines and thorns. It casts an ominous shadow, even in the brightest daylight. Blackbriar's defenses harness the power of negative energy, draining the life force and vitality of its enemies. It can unleash tendrils of darkness that sap the strength of its foes, and raises attacker and defender alike as undead in its service. Curiously, its presence in a region is marked by a remarkable drop in instances of disease and rot, as if the fortress draws such influences towards itself and consumes them.
It patrols the provinces within the south-eastern third of the Empire.
