Palace of the Purple Emperor

The Palace of the Purple Emperor was the residence of the Lord Artificer of Imaskar as of. In 1374 DR, a wizard from Deep Imaskar, Ususi Manaallin, began exploring the palace, and later founded Skyclave around it.

Location
While it was initially built in Inupras, the palace could also move between Inupras and the Celestial Nadir apparently on its own. Its reappearance in Inupras was an event that would be accompanied by a thundering sound of singular violence, which gave it the nickname of the Storm Spike amongst the elves of Al Qahara.

By 1372 DR, the palace was known to remain in the Raurin desert all the time, but not to vanish. Empress Ususi Manaallin moved it to the empty plains of Mulhorand to found Skyclave.

Defenses
The palace was not normally accessible from outside, and in fact spent most of its time secreted away in the Celestial Nadir.

Its lowest balcony was two or three hundred feet into the air; openings on its surface could open and close of their own accord. The palace contained traps such as pits with crushing stone walls. In order to bypass those traps, a riddle had to be solved and answered in Roushoum by one of Imaskari blood. The blood of Deep Imaskari might not have been sufficient to bypass the trap.

When a trio of elven gatherers from Al Qahara found an entrance into the Palace, two of them went in and remained inside for hours. Finally, the one who remained behind attempted to enter the palace with magic and found all her efforts thwarted. When she finally returned to Al Qahara, she died mysteriously in her sleep. A curse was suspected. The two elves would later be found to have been enslaved by Pandorym. The Palace also contained many bound and imprisoned monsters, including an evil water elemental.

The Imperial Weapons Cache contained innumerable imprisoned monsters, including a storm giant, a mountain troll, and several mantis warriors, probably thri-kreen. Extinct species such as shadow efts were also included in it.

Interior
The Palace was the best known example of Imaskari architecture. Its extra-dimensional spaces made it ten times bigger on the inside than on the outside, with many of them being used as vaults or arcane chambers.

The mind of Pandorym, an elder evil, was held within the Imperial Weapons Cache.

By, Ususi had moved the entire palace away from its original position, but its groundwork had remained behind. Thus, the original foundations and sublevels stayed now under the sand.

History
According to Monolith, a Prince of Elemental Earth, the stonework of the Palace of the Purple Emperor was about five thousand years old in the 14 century DR. This would place its stonework around the −35 century DR, centuries after the reunification of Imaskar.

In the year −2488 DR, the Palace of the Purple Emperor was the only building to survive the fighting between Lord Artificer Yuvaraj and the avatars of the Mulan gods. The subsequent destruction created the Raurin desert, which would afterwards cover the palace with purple sand. By 1372 DR, the palace would be entirely buried under the sand, except for a single spire.

A wizard from Deep Imaskar, Ususi Manaallin, began exploring the palace in 1374 DR after sealing Pandorym in the Imperial Weapons Cache. Using magic, she moved the palace to the empty plains of Mulhorand and founded Skyclave around it.

Inhabitants

 * Lord Omanond
 * Lord Yuvaraj
 * Empress Ususi Manaallin
 * Zonaggati

Trivia
There was a picture of the Palace of the Purple Emperor in the Office of the Lord Apprehender of Deep Imaskar as of 1374 DR, which the Imaskari vengeance taker Iahn Qoyllor noticed before setting off in pursuit of Ususi Manaallin that year.

Appearances

 * Darkvision