Shortly After the Purchase of 55 Acres outside Eastern Jaedaxia
Candlemark 1200 – High Noon
He arrived almost immediately.
Land deed tucked into his pocket, it did not take the Archmage Elementalist long to survey the traces of his domain. This plot of land was much, much larger than the fifteen or so acres he’d purchased in the Primus Countryside, and doubly so; Eren meant to settle here. Live here. A permanent home. A base of operations, so to speak, meant to govern the rest of his life. Perhaps even start a family…here.
Much of the sprawling acreage circumvented along the coastline itself, a pestilence to most buyers because of the rocky cliffs and crags that jutted out into the sea. Not so for the Elementalist. Although roughly half the portion of land rounded its way inland and through the spruce forests back towards the city, it was along the coastline that he’d be performing much of his construction. He found a suitable place not too long after arriving, a bird’s eye view from the air being sufficient to help, and immediately went to work. The cliffs here rose, swelling to a pinnacle along the ocean walls, before dropping off in an immediate precipice. Here, the stone was a dusky orange glow reminiscent of the horizon’s sunset, with the waves crushing against it far, far below. It was the perfect place for his new Chateau, possessing all the scenery one could ask for. He already envisioned a small winding road cutting up the hillside and along multiple terraces, a perfect coup de sac in front of the front doors. Oh yes, he was quite the visionary.
Except unlike most visionaries, he possessed the tools to accomplish his dreams.
An Archmage Elementalist of evolved proportions, he was at the tip of his power – the point of his spear of success, so to speak, the top of his game. There would be no better than this – there were few better than
him, and the fact they’d walked this planet roughly ten times as long as he’d been alive was not lost upon him. He didn’t let the power get to his head, thank Ioannes, but was well aware of his capabilities. Which meant he wasn’t afraid to try. After all, Heronythys’ entire castle had been constructed out of
ice and tied
to him, such a magnificent weave and demonstration of an Archmage’s power it was. This was going to be much grander, yet…much simpler, all at the same while.
For instance, Eren began with a simple arcalysis with a good third of his own Vis reservoirs – and an archmage’s Vis was not something to be taken lightly. Crafting the spell meticulously, he was well aware this would take some time. Perhaps the rest of the brightening, if he knew anything about Arcana. Which he did. Here, he began to conjure the essence of earths in various patterns and forms, molding his own essences like a painter at the palette, coughing only slightly at the sudden increase of mental concentration he’d have to perform.
Mind you, he was sitting down. A small distance away. Knees folded in, hands on his thighs, perpetual Circle of Arcana surrounding him so his concentration was bent securely upon the task at hand. And thus it began…
He picked his hues selectively, his goal to depict a masterpiece. He started first with the stone within the cliff itself, solidifying it, alloying it, morphing it with his own that he summoned. A blend of limestone and cemented concrete would make up the bottom layers of this Chateau, serving as both the hangar and the wine cellar. The two rooms would be subterranean, that is to say, beneath the earth, and neither would have a door adjoining one to the other, surprisingly enough, although they would be adjacent. Despite his tastes for wine, Eren kept the cellar conservative – allowing it to sprawl out the length of the Main Hall he had in mind. It was a good sized cellar, enough for the average winery, he’d admit, although how he meant to fill it all was beyond him. Especially once he began constructing it afterwards. He supposed that was a task for his Elementals, but frowned at the thought of manual labor. Alas, complexities. Still, the size was set, and the walls quickly formed within the cliff itself, as he monitored the strains upon the earth and removed excess rock and stone that would force an erosion. He had essentially opened a two-way tether to the essence plane of earth, for the time being, and borrowed freely as if he were a native there. It was one of the perks of reaching such great heights in Elementalism, and one he needed to construct the hangar. Ah, the hangar. He wanted it capable of housing a fleet of airships, but conservatism whispered in his ear and he decided to downsize such notions to three. The hangar would be large, encompassing a good deal of the basement and roughly the same square footage as the house itself; airships were not small, after all, nor something to be trifled with when it came to landing and space. Here, he allowed the hangar to furl outwards, limestone and cement pushing the rock out and back, constructing its own prism-like cube within the earth. He immediately set about demolishing part of the cliff wall, using the spell to hold that above it in place, as he constructed pillars for support much like he had in Syl’rosya when he’d made Kard en’ Tel’ Arrna. His castle fortress was something of a lost asset to him, considering the state of the Light Elves, but here, here he could still get back to work. His goal in the construction of the hangar was to create a similar environment not unalike Z’kron’s own when they’d made the first one; granted…Eren had constructed a coliseum then, now he merely meant for a subterranean vault. Enchantments and the like would have to be installed at a later date, yes, but for now he was happy with the humongous expanse of space dug into the earth, its gaping maw jutting out over the Great Sea like a gigantic black hole filled with shadow.
Lighting, he supposed, would be a problem to tackle at a later date.
With the subterranean expanse of his Chateau set, the next thing on Eren’s agenda while he wove this spell was an alteration of the land above it – that is to say, get rid of the buyers’ thorns and make the flat cliff-side surface smooth as silk. He immediately set about bulldozing and deconstructing the crags and rocky outcroppings that littered the top of the precipice, smoothing them out evenly and churning the soil there for depth and solidity. The limestone cemented ceilings of the hangar and the wine cellar peeked out of the earth just barely, grazing alongside the flat expanse of rolling soil as he began to sink it and make room for his own cemented foundation. The House would be belt on rock, tied to rock, and he’d be sure that no manner of erosion or soil changes short of a catastrophic earthquake would wreck the birthplace of his future children. Should he ever have any, and Ioannes forbid he did…
Now, of course, came the tricky part.
He’d have to construct the first floor of his home, and in doing so, set the standard for the rest of his house. He already had an architectural choice of design in mind, mirrored of Heronythys’ castle, but putting it into practice would be the crafty bit. After all, he was roughly a fourth of the way through with his spell, and already a few candlemarks had come to pass. Elementalism was tricky stuff, especially when one was utilizing an Archmage spell more complex than any he’d ever seen (beyond the Golden Dragon’s castle of ice, which had been damn tricky to dispel).
He started with a change of pace, slowing, making it less forced and more casual as he began molding with difference essences of earth. He’d change his color palette once more, fixing his original choice and exchanging it for one of white marble. A homeowner’s dream, he would use this denser material for the actual construction of the house itself, and what would otherwise take a team of highly trained dwarven masons perhaps a full era of construction should they work every brightening would instead take him only a matter of the rest of the day and perhaps a bit into night. He steadied himself as he took a sip from his flask, looking over his new cemented domain with determination. Imagine it…dream it….envision it….
He began at once, beginning with the outside of the house itself. Simultaneously constructing the smooth, curved walls of the front supports, likewise did he make the steps leading up to the house and the twisting spiraling marble pillars that would greet his guests. He’d live in the impression of lavish luxury, and emit as much too. The doors were a bit trickier, he’d have to leave frames for the wood that would later be installed there, and of course go about molding the hinges on at a later date as well. The initial construction of the Chateau’s outer walls was made of white marble, curved slightly in a more modern style of his own genius, with large overhanging marble ceilings and round walls. Not a straight angle in sight, to begin with. Likewise, he also began the construction of the foyer area to the house, a large opening expanse that gave way into the Main Hall. Two semi-circle staircases would curve out from either side of the center; the entire architectural design was in that of a shell, you see, and so everything had the smooth reminiscent current of the ocean’s waves to it. These expansive stairwells were the epitome of grandeur and majesty, they were large, powerful, and sanded down to such smooth polish that one would believe he’d hired an entire slave market to go to work creating such glossy appreciation.
An opening between the two staircases as they adjoined upwards meant for the construction of the kitchen and dining rooms; and it was here that he changed palette again, switching from white marble to black, and began molding these two rooms. The necessary considerations were taken into place, support, balance, and with the kitchen situated on the right and the dining hall on the left, he continued to plow backwards and through the center of his shell-like chateau. Leading from the small hallway that split between both dining room and kitchen and opposite of the opening to the Main Hall, he would construct his servant quarters – that is to say, the Elementals’ rooms, for he’d allowed them personal possessions upon the Material Plane, not that they needed them. These, he only did basic construction work for; they would detail them as they saw fit, he was sure, and make them more accommodating to their own tastes.
Retreating back to the foyer of his spell and the Main Hall, he placed openings that would serve as doors upon either side of each staircase, thus neatly jutting off both left and right. To the left, an impressive Ball Room that towered two stories in height, again with the white marble considering he was at the forefront of his house, and here he made exquisite rose-like patterns into the stone all the way up to the dome he placed at the top. Holes littered this room, for he’d be adding windows since it was along the outside of the House. There was only one entryway, and that was to the Main Hall, though he left room upon a second-story balcony to oversee the soon-to-be dancing down below, and would connect to the upper levels.
Likewise, to the right of the Main Hall, was what would serve as his library. How he was going to manage filling it with tomes was beyond him, but he constructed this, too, of marble, and let the shelves line the walls. Windows were less prolific here, though he did leave large openings on the second floor where glass could be put, opposite of the curved miniature stone staircase that ran up from the length of the first floor to the second. It was no less equally as impressive as the ballroom, and he was eager to fill it at some point…perhaps buy out a local library branch, or something to that effect. He could always import all the books he had from his other homes into it, but even that might not fill it, and then what good would it do him if he visited them and had nothing to read? A small smile crept over his face.
Two doors were accordingly placed
inside each staircase, as he molded a passageway that would lead through each – another corridor, so to speak, that ran horizontal from the center of his shell-like architecture. To the right, adjoining the library, would be a small black marble room serving as his own private study. It would be situated branching off of the corridor just as the hallway turned and took a sharp left to the further recesses of the House, and would be sealed from public view. It lacked an outside wall, however.
Likewise, on the left side, adjoining the Ball Room would be the drawing room, where guests would be walked down the corridor underneath the staircases and given a chance to wait or entertain in Erenthril’s presence. It was a nice room, but much like the study before it, had no outer wall. That would be filled with glass, which was what would truly make Erenthril’s chateau unique, for to have unbreakable glass as a wall was something to be admired in and of itself.
In accordance with both corridors that led under the stairs, both turned sharply backwards and steered off in the direction towards the back of the house. They were geometrically patterned to be symmetrical, seeing as how both ran around the kitchen and the dining hall, as well as the servant quarters, and inevitably curved back in a rounded arc to meet at the wine cellar’s entrance. Here, a marble opening was left marked for the stairwell Eren hastily constructed leading down to his creation. He would later enchant it to be cooler than normal, and thus he would neatly have a wine cellar tucked at the far back recesses of the first floor of his Chateau – symmetrically opposite of the foyer in its alignment. Opposite of the wine cellar entrance, he made a small space for a wooden door that would lead into the servant quarters, thus neatly adjoining the very heart of the household to the outer corridor that surrounded it and making for easy access to and from each room in the house. Now, came the tricky part. He would balance five bedrooms along the corridor, two on the left considering the drawing room was twice the size of his private study, and three on the right, each for the most part equal in size and shape as the others. Symmetry was a beautiful thing, here, and was the core of the geometrics behind his Chateau’s design. No outer walls were given here, either, seeing as they would later be replaced with glass for a more pleasant view of the outside.
He would wait to make the glass for the first level describing the outside walls of his home (at least, the Northern and Southern perimeters, seeing as how the wine cellar marked the far Western and ended a sloping marble descent, gracefully might it be suggested, and seeing how the grand marble foyer and opening steps made up the Eastern entrance into the Chateau…well….) after he had completed the second levels – for it would allow him to mold the essences of fire and earth all in one go.
So…effectively speaking, he had a layer of marble in between the first and second floors; with small shafts for ventilation here and there to keep cool during the summer months. After all, glass houses got rather hot…no?
The second floor was roughly only two thirds the size of the first, and with half as much rooms. Read: the first floor boasted an incredible fifteen rooms, and the second would only house seven.
As the two marble staircases of the Main hall adjoined upwards and onto a large spanning corridor/balcony type thing, with the Ball Room to the Left (where a marble opening did
indeed lead to a balcony) and the ever impressive Library to the right (where the smaller staircase housed therein led up to the marble opening that, neatly, returned back to the top corridor) the only real place for development pushed backwards. And so, as each marble opening met some ten meters apart from one another up on the top marble landing, another door piece would be centered between the pair and pushed backwards into the recesses of the House, heading westward (if you’re still bothering to keep up with directions while you read this, God bless your soul). Here, another marble corridor of black marble – he was changing palettes the further he moved into the House, with white marble decorating the forefront and edges, and black for the center of the Chateau itself…in case one did not notice – branched straight back. At the far end of the hall sat another staircase, much smaller compared to the two monolithic giants that led up to the second floor, and it led to the observatory up above. The rest of it was aligned with doors on either side, seven, to be specific. Three on the left, and four to the right.
The first door on the left was the second drawing room, mirroring much the same as the one directly beneath it, although roughly half the size of its predecessor described above. This drawing room would be used to entertain private guests or discuss meetings of great importance, and likewise, was much more smaller – perhaps cozier would be the best word to describe it. Its outer Northern wall was left blank, to be filled with glass. The second door to the left, and in the middle of the three of them, was another study. This one was a bit more open, less clustered, to be shared by those situated on the opposite hallway. Its description was illustrated by a smaller version of the library, but with a different intent or purpose. It would be filled with maps at one point, Erenthril decided.
The third door on the left was the Master Bedroom (and thus deserving of its own paragraph). It was a humongous spacious room, that actually curved to the right and occupied the space behind the smaller stairwell that led up to the observatory. In theory, it was shaped like an “L”, and thus a good deal of it would be adorned with glass walls that would overlook the Great Sea and take part in the breathtaking sunsets the west coast had to offer. Here, Eren would later backtrack a bit and make impressive marble designs into the walls themselves, small shelf spaces, the usual sort of luxuries he afforded to the bedrooms within his abode.
Upon the opposite wall, the four doors on the right led to large, yet cellular structures that would be the rooms of guests staying there. These would be the personal guests, situated across the hall from the Master of the House himself, and as such they were rather large rooms with openings built into the walls for simple furniture: desks, shelves, wardrobes, bookcases, and the like. Their far southern walls (that is to say, the wall opposite of the door) would afford them view of the southern terraces of the estate as well as the spruce forests that lurked to the south. All in all, a breathtaking vista.
Naturally, he was ending the end of his spell, and as such it had already become darkening. A pity, he thought, he’d not be able to see the spell manifest in full light once he was finished. He’d completed all but one room of the Chateau, and that happened to be on the fourth floor. By now he had been supporting and buttressing the marble much like he had his Castle in the Blackbarch, and thus was more than prepared to allow the small black marble staircase at the very end of the hallway slant directly upwards and then whiplash around to the observatory at the very top of the house. As he finished painting the marble ceiling atop the rest of his spell, he left this room rather open – with white marble dome-like walls circling around, but refusing to add a dome to the very top. He’d have to get the technology in there
somehow, and bulldozing his own work onto the rest of his house was not the answer. He’d drop it in, he thought, and be all the more clever for doing so. Thus, the observatory was without a roof – and rightly so, for how was one to look at the heavens above with a roof in the way?
Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, through 76 were finished, so to speak. Feth, he might as well construct an owner’s manual on the spell itself.
The last part was the glass, and the fusing of it to the marble. He’d been sure to leave small rivets here and there to attach it, to literally
slide it in as he made it. The rooms that needed glass outlined the shell-like shape of the two-story abode, all the bedrooms, studies, and drawing rooms on the first floor, and every room on the second floor excluding the main hall.
Thus, as it was, things were about to get rather
hot. The obligatory arcalysis was required for the combination of both sand and fire, and much like he’d learned in the arakmatian desert when he’d created his first lightning bolt, the glass work here would be much more pure, much more clearer quality than the likes of which was blown. Thus, he began creating huge sheets of glass – thick, broad, and hefty – to be placed as the outside walls of his chateau. He slid them into place, hopefully without a hitch, and would let perhaps as much as a candlemark’s worth of work be performed through the dull process of repeated techniques, conjuration, alteration. He even made smaller glass copies for the windows within the ball room and library, setting the glass opaque, and eager to see how the sun’s light might filter in once daybreak appeared.
Needless to say he was getting rather tired, and although he’d been sipping on his flask throughout the majority of his spell, not even Erenthril had the patience to sit still for an entire twelve candlemarks and create Telath all over again. He stood up, stretched his legs, and studied what he’d designed carefully. On some level, he felt like Ioannes, for as the spell had been manifesting, he’d been mirroring the creation of it to that of Heronythys’ Castle. Except unlike the Golden Dragon, his materials were permanent, and not capable of melting. There was no need for a perpetual weave, no need for enchantment.
And so, rolling up the sleeves of his jacket, Eren finished the last loops of his spells and let them fly, waiting for the glass to be accordingly placed before he
deactivated the Circle of Magic around him.
A small smirk floated around his lips as he brushed off his knees and glanced down upon the shadowy monolith he’d created atop the hill, sad that he’d have to wait a good seven or eight candlemarks before he could view it in full. But he was glad with what he’d done. Exceedingly so, in fact. Glad, and tired.
As his eyes began to droop, the rolling horizon behind him began to lighten its shades upon his back, and as the Elementalist fell asleep, the first rays of light peeked overhead.
Linear Mode
