Thewisy Palace Complex

Historical Overview

Thewisy Palaces

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The Modern Thewisy Palace, in the East Northeast corner of Azuretop

Ancient Hillfort

The first Thewisy castles date back to the foggy Era of Legends. As one of the original houses, their founding myths are set during Galindaan The Wise's construction of Somae. These myths held that Galindaan was the middle of three brothers, the eldest being Oliver the Sailor. Myths relating to the third brother were largely lost in the transition from oral to written history, but some surviving tales hold that he left to explore the Southern Sea. However, there is evidence that each of the three brothers had a castle on Azuretop.
The hillfort attributed to Oliver Caersea eventually fell to ruin. Its tumbledown stones survived well into recorded history and were given to the Academy Somae, later being part of the site where the current Library of Somae was constructed. The other two hillforts - it being unknown which was originally that of the Thewisys or the third brother - eventually fell to ruin as well. They became the sites of the Firmament and Empyrean Halls.

Threshing-Era Castle

The successor to the ancient hillfort reached its maximum size during the Threshing, and takes its name from that conflict. It was given over to the Crimson Quills for the construction of the modern library, which took over its site and part of the previous ancient hillfort. This castle was one of the first buildings in the city constructed of Salis sandstone, but predating Galaan architecture.
The castle was built during a time when Azuretop was still largely a forested reserve, not yet dominated by the Golden Age deforestation and sprawling Academy. It cleared out a substantially larger portion than the previous hillfort did, expanding its area of effect with an extensive outer barbican of earthworks and stone walls. These provided a dominant view over the winding approach up the western side of the hill.

"The outer walls had fallen upon hard times from the absence of threats. Now we, to the last child old enough to grasp, rushed to shore them up with whatever we could find." - Chronicle of the War of the Chariot-Men

The outer walls' gatehouse was on the southwest corner, with the bulk of the castle in the northeast corner of the hill - this oriented the gatehouse roughly in the center of the hill itself, looking down the western road. This site is now perpendicular to the southern face of the modern Sage Arch. Beyond that gatehouse was a second, later one, halfway between the outer walls and the bulk of the castle. The area between the two was used for tournaments and jousts.
The bulk of the castle was in two buildings: the Great Hall, and the Great Tower. These buildings were joined by a ring of walls, forming the third, final, and smallest set of walls. This castle became the backdrop of many Thewisy legends and histories. Reaching its peak during the height of the Romance of Nobility genre, its kitchens and dining hall were the grandest of the time, providing a backdrop for jousts, intrigues, and romances.

Golden Age of Somae

The Golden Age of Somae began in 155 AM, leaving an almost 300-year gap between that and the end of the Threshing War. The immediate aftermath saw the Thewisy's wealth focused elsewhere, with repairing the damage to the castle as a lower priority. That castle largely sufficed, seeing some continual improvements, most famously in the realm of gardens, until the Caerseat surrender of 11 AM gave House Thewisy control of the entire Eastmarches. Now, vassals ruled more than a simple day's travel away from court, and a much grander palace was needed.
Various distractions, from the embankment of Nyara River, to the First Climbing War, to the entire Era of Upheval itself postponed improvements. Eventually, Edmyr III began the final deforestation of Azuretop, turning it from a royal reserve into a bustling hill. The old castle was torn down, much of its sandstone being reused for the Library, and the new palace was constructed south of the original site, on the easternmost edge of the hill.
Construction stretched well into the reign of Edmyr's son, Galaad II. In Coethlac, some families claim three generations worked in the quarries to construct just this palace. Despite the high costs, the project was well received once Galaad began improvements in the rest of the city, and the Stonewebs houses saw the increased administrative capacity - and plush quarters - it brought.

Architectural Overview

Geography

The current Thewisy Palace complex spans the northeast fourth of the Azuretop - the hill dominating eastern Somae. In the Age of Rule, and even until the Golden Age of Somae, a vast but continuously decreasing amount of the hilltop was a royal reserve. Forested and full of animals, the hill hosted the castles of House Thewisy and their allies.
The hill's northern and eastern slopes are rough and difficult to scale, lending it well to defense. The western slope is gradual and has played host to Somae's neighborhoods for so long that its land is surely unrecognizable from the virgin wilderness Galindaan the Wise found. The southern slope was terraformed from a rougher face to one with retaining walls and switchback streets hosting the inventors of the Andiron and Artificer Alley.
The last prominent feature of the Azuretop is the twisting warren of caves and caverns beneath the hill - some natural, some constructed. These have led to tales of great escapes, survived sieges, and sordid affairs.

Rebray Gardens

The gardens on the eastern edge of the hill, abutting the sheer drop, are known as the Rebray Gardens. An Old Anharan portmanteau meaning hillside stream, it alludes to the underground aquifers that both keep the garden well-maintained and historically supplied a strategic advantage to the old hillfort. These gardens today are a paved terraced, with built-up earthen garden beds, creating steps down towards the abrupt drop of the eastern hillside.

Guest Apartments

One of the most prominent wings of the palace is the Guest Apartments - four buildings on the western side of the complex, separated from the rest by a main square. Each building is designed around, and intended for, the houses of the four regions of the Eastmarches: the North Stonewebs, the South Stonewebs, the Ashfields, and the less-populated Wildheath and Havendale.
These buildings allow vassals coming to court to stay in their own apartments, on floors with their fellow vassals of the same area. Each has a communal ground floor, with lounges and dining serving local foods and designed in the local aesthetic. The northwest edge of the buildings has a private Vestrie tower for worship. In the yard outside of that tower is an open field with some barracks, intended for the household guard of whatever houses are staying there at the time.

Reception Halls

The entrance to the Palace proper is through the reception halls. The Greater Reception Hall hosts the main doors, facing west and accessed from the square between the palace and the Guest Apartments. Like in homes across Anhara, noble or otherwise, the imagary is just inside the doors. This spherical, domed chamber is lined with busts of Thewisy lords, with the oldest generally highest up in the room. This is the traditional Anharan way of honoring relatives, and most importantly displaying their most accomplished ancestors. Many Anharan families display the most famous busts at eye level.

"The carefully polished busts of many a distinguished noble spiral upwards, a dizzying sight. The statues nearest eye level are adorned with sashes of various colors, the coveted light blue on those elected Rhetorlord" - Description of a Noble House's imagary

Just beyond the imagary is another set of double doors, always open, leading into the Greater Reception Hall itself. There, guests enter from the exterior courtyard and funnel through a hall lined with tapestries, draping from up towards a high ceiling down to just above the heads of guests - forcing them to crane their necks to see depictions of the Thewisys' long history.
A small room, the Four-Doored Chamber separates the Greater Hall from the Lesser, with a northern door leading to the Throne Rooms and a southern door leading to the rest of the Palace. The Lesser Reception Hall is the same size, but the space is broken up far more than the long, empty hall of the Greater. Here, the room is full of comfortably arranged seats, cozy fireplaces, and rich colors - with plenty of room for mingling.

Throne Rooms

The two southernmost rooms are the Greater and Lesser Throne Rooms, on the same side as their respective Reception Halls. The Four-Doored Chamber's southern door leads down a brief hallway with two additional doors, one on either side, the eastern to the Lesser Throne and the western to the Greater Throne.
The Greater Throne Room is well-lit, by high windows along the western and southern walls. By the rear door are stairs leading up to a gallery from which crowds may watch, the bottom of which is supported by a collonade running along the northern and eastern walls. A crimson runner leads down the center of the room to a throne, on an elevated dais a few steps above the floor.
The Lesser Throne Room is used for meetings of the Lord Thewisy's various councils: the Rostrele of Somae and the Lord's Council - and any other groups summoned. The throne there is still elevated, but less ornate. The room is kept empty generally, with different tables brought in depending on the group and the intent of the meeting. The northern and western walls are lined with reference bookshelves, and desks for scribes who record and issue writs.

Reflectory

Accessed by a discrete side door at the rear of both throne rooms, the Reflectory is a private room for the Lord Thewisy. This is an ornate room, decorated with wood inlaying and shelves of books, scrolls, and musical instruments. At the top of a small tower, it provides a view over the entire city and on a clear day, the swamp to the west of the city, where the Nyara River emerges from the trees of Murkmantle.

Old Wing

The Old Wing consists of four major halls: the Greater and Lesser Dining Halls, the Private Library, and the Anharan Baths. The Anharan Baths are on the southeastern fourth of the Old Wing, with an exit into the gardens. Bathhouses are common in Anhara, especially in the Coquet Heights and older cities. They are crucial locations not only for politics and discrete conversations but also recreation and religiously-mandated ablution.
In the northeast and southwestern corners are the Greater and Lesser Dining Halls respectively. These serve obvious purposes, similar to their throne room and reception hall counterparts, allowing the Thewisys to host the appropriate amount of guests in the appropriately sized room. This is most important for the Greater Dining Hall, which has been constructed to seat representatives from each Thewisy vassal house when the full Rostrele gathers. The private library in the northwest corner holds books on loan from the Library of Somae, and personal manuscripts of the family.
The exterior of the Old Wing and the Thewisy Apartments are ringed with loggia on the western side, facing the paved exterior courtyard and the road leading towards the Library of Somae.

Thewisy Apartments

The Thewisy apartments are connected by a bridge to the central palace. These private quarters are for the varyingly sized family. Over their long history, some wings have belonged to cadet branches at one point or have been entirely shuttered at another. In the northeast wing is a dedicated servants' building, and in the north wing, a private Vestrie and bellows

Type

Palace

"'Twas that a band o' farmers I saw,

late to the market in Somae?'

'Nae, too noble their guise by far,

'twas none but our lord and lady.'

'Where hurry they all battered and sore,

carrying no banner as sign?'

'South to the crimson halls, I suspect

over the Timber and Twine.'"

-A few lines from "Raymon's Rush," a Braelea Loyalist song about the flight of the noble family to the Threshing-era Thewisy castle.

Many a dying house would find refuge there.