Ocean Palace

From ShireWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Built by the Jasonians at the height of their power, a place of refuge for their most treasured of posessions, and a base of operations should they turn against Shireroth, the Ocean Palace lies about 23 miles out from the Port of Halluci in Lake Christoph. After originally being built, a series of events, including the death of the President, and the cold war with Shireroth, led to it being abandoned and only it's most basic electronic defences manned - though 'basic defences' included two dozen Typhoon Class submarines of impeccable Jasonian design. It fell largely into disrepair - whole outer sections collapsed to the pressure of the water, and manner of the remaining sections were not far behind. When it was rediscovered by a band of daring archaeologists led by then Baron of Atterock, Andreas the Wise, it was lucky indeed that the major battle occurred just outside the Eternity Chamber, the most defended and fortified region of the whole structure - otherwise none of them may have been left to tell the tale.

Structure

The Ocean Palace was constructed out of a series of underwater domes; connected by tunnels with multiple airlocks. Four large domes spread around the structure made up the bulk of its living space, but countless smaller domes connected and expanded beyond these. From generators to hydroponics; water reclamation to research lab (for deep pressure analysis) the restored and upgraded Ocean Palace became the pinnacle of Kildarian defence. While minor reconstruction work was completed under Andreas the Wise, the Ocean Palace was not properly restored until Magroth Industries took it over. Through their work 95% of the Palace was restored and 98% of the Palace was rendered usable - only a few outlying domes were left, deemed too far gone to restore were left alone, covered in millenia of algae and permanently sealed off from the rest of the base.

Any one dome could be closed off from all the others at any given time - a much needed defences against flooding. The palace had come equipped with it's own generators - several plants were located around the structure, as well as a backup generator in every dome. Some had failed, in the millennia that it had gone untended; and had been replaced with nuclear generators by the Magroth Industries upgrade. Others had only needed a small amount of maintenance to remain fully operational. Between them, they powered all the airlocks, lights, life support systems, oxygen reclamation (taken from the surrounding lakewater) and hydrogen reclamation (used to power the Jasonian generators). Once, they had been managed by robots, who had tended the base during the millennia. Now, they were tended by an array of technicians who remained committed to the preservation of the Ocean Palace no matter who held the keys.

The centre dome in the structure was the largest by far. It contained within it a vast central chamber, almost a kilometre wide and several hundred metres long. Originally, it had been built to house an Omen; but though there was room to construct one there, underwater, none had ever graced the Ocean Palace with their presence. The Islands had fallen before that could occur. But the room was not without it's uses. The final battle between GLAM and the forces of Gralus took place within it.

History within Shireroth

While Baron, Andreas the Wise held the keys to the Ocean Palace, as its principle re-discoverer. After his departure the keys passed to the Dutch of Kildare; who later entrusted them to Al'Magroth when he was granted the defence contract of Kildare by the Saenad. Magroth Industries expertly restored and upgraded the Ocean Palace, returning it to its former glory before Al'Magroth chose it as the base of his terrible but brief reign over Shireroth and Gralus. After the defeat of Al'Magroth, the keys to the Ocean Palace were returned to the new Baron of Atterock, the melangian Cla'Udi, with the intention that they would remain in the keeping of the Barons thereafter. With the decline of the Barony of Atterock (though then it was a Thanedom, not Barony), the keys remained with the melangian Cla'Udi, to be kept by the Counts of Melangia for as long as they desired that historical privilege.

Rediscovery

The full story of it's rediscovery is kept in the Great Library of MANA, Novatainia, Gralus.

Time Locked Version

A time-locked version of the original is located here.