The 'IceWing palace' is located on the far northern edge of the Ice
Kingdom. The palace is occupied by the IceWing queen and the
aristocratic IceWings who were ranked in IceWings#Circle
rankings|Second Circle or above before the IceWing gifts|ranking wall
was destroyed.

## Description

Also known as the gift of splendor, the IceWing palace was designed,
built, and enchanted centuries ago by a pair of animus twins, with magic
that ensured its wall of ice would never melt, crack, or be harmed by an
outside attack. It soars miles into the air, with towers and balconies
and spires that pierce the clouds. It contains a great number of rooms
on many various levels. It is well-fortified.

The palace's interior has translucent walls and icy floors, and is
marginally warmer than its exterior. The treasury is a guarded vault
that is located near the center of the palace. Some of the floors are
covered in shards of ice.

It is composed of a thousand different glittering shades of blue, with
its interior walls being cool and smooth. The lights of the palace
shimmer blue-green-silver, like captured starlight. The dark ocean
surrounding it serves as a mirror, sending the same lights dancing in
blurred mimicry around the palace's base. A galaxy of smaller lights
spirals out in five curved arms from the palace, illuminating lower
aristocrats' homes, the training schools that are open all night, and
the shimmering ice sculpture gardens.

### Courtyard

The pristine central courtyard is covered in snow, a vast space
dominated by the two most important gifts in IceWing history: the gifts
of light and order. The Tree of Light's frost-kissed twigs, leaves, and
branches are identical to that of a normal tree. It has eternal life,
and its moon globes grow year-round, with a new bud growing on the tree
immediately after a moon globe has been taken. Under the Tree of Light,
there is a long path to where the wall of Circle rankings was. There are
many windows in the palace that overlook the courtyard. It is often
silver, empty, cold, and wet, speckled with strange shadows from the
gift of light.

### Entrance

There is a grand entrance to the palace: a set of crystal-studded gates
about halfway up the central keep. They are carved in the shapes of
giant Dragons|dragon wings, matching the small ice sculptures of
dragons, wings, and talons that top all of the columns and finials. It
is possible to fly over the palace walls into the interior courtyards,
but that is considered gauche and career suicide. According to IceWing
protocol, visitors wait at the gates to be admitted.

The palace also includes a vast entrance hall that leads to three arched
openings leading to the central courtyard. The gift of elegance provides
pale blue stars that seem to drift through the palace's otherwise bare,
translucent walls. Up close, small, phosphorescent glass snowflakes are
seen encased in the ice, glowing silvery blue as they fell, mimicking
the weather outside.

### Miscellaneous

There is a palace library containing a few old scrolls about the Diamond
Trial.

Winter's room was described to have one window overlooking the central
courtyard, with a shelf of ice serving as a bed, a desk, and two warm,
white polar bear rugs covering the floor. Narwhal was also mentioned to
have personal chambers somewhere in the palace.

Winter mentioned that the palace has a flight training tower.

The throne room is grand, with several windows and a throne in its
center.

The palace has its own school that invites a few bright dragonets from
the outer villages every year to compete for a chance to be admitted. If
they work hard and do well, they can enter the circles.

## Notable features

### Queen's chambers

The queen's chambers are cluttered with miniature, unidentifiable ice
sculptures, crafted by Mink. In the main chamber, a bed dominates the
center of the room, a block of ice carved into whorls and drifts where a
dragon body can fit perfectly. The space is also shared by a jewel
cabinet, a polar bear rug by the window, and an icy bathtub in a
separate room.

### The Forbidden Treasury

The Forbidden Treasury is known to few, and is only spoken of in
whispers. It is buried in an ice cave deep beneath the palace, and the
sole way to access it is through a secret passageway from the queen's
royal chambers. Only queens and princesses are sure of its existence and
are allowed to enter. To access it, a space at the foot of the bed must
be pressed, and the queen's bed will shift aside soundlessly, revealing
a hole underneath that plunges into endless darkness. The walls glitter,
and after flying down a long, dark tunnel, the floor of the cave emerges
as a smooth, glassy surface. A corridor stretches toward the treasury,
and the walls are composed of the blackest ice, glittering with silvery
filaments and bubbles when light hits them. The passage spirals in on
itself and becomes smaller like a snail shell, with alcoves cut into the
ice at eye level every few steps. The first two alcoves in the chamber
are empty, but the third contains the gift of strength, with words
carved into the ice beneath it that read 'THE GIFT OF STRENGTH. USE
CAUTIOUSLY.' The fourth alcove holds a scepter, carved from dark blue
rock and embedded with small diamonds, with an inscription reading 'THE
GIFT OF COMPROMISE' and other unknown text that covers half of the wall
under the alcove. The fifth alcove holds the gift of vision, and the
sixth is empty, with its inscription violently scratched out. The
seventh alcove is an oddity; it is not spaced evenly like the others,
and looks hacked out of the ice instead of beautifully carved. The item
inside is an unwearable piece of mystery silver, with its
scribble-scratch writing underneath reading 'PART OF THE GIFT OF
UNDERSTANDING.' The eighth alcove holds the gift of stealth.

### The gift of order

The gift of order was an animus-touched wall located in a central
courtyard of the IceWing palace. There were seven circles of dragonet
and adult rankings, and each day the queen was expected to re-order all
of the dragons based on their performance in school, day-to-day life,
and other considerations. After returning from Sanctuary, Queen Snowfall
destroyed the wall using the gift of strength, much to the shock of
Tundra and other IceWing traditionalists, after realizing that being
sorted made dragons focus so much on their negative aspects that they
couldn't see their positive aspects.

## History

### The Jade Mountain Prophecy

#### Winter Turning

After Hailstorm and Winter returned to the Ice Kingdom, they were
admitted at the palace gates. Once let through, they obtained one moon
globe each from the Tree of Light. In the central courtyard, they were
assessed by Narwhal. Winter then went to sleep in his room and then
attended a rankings ceremony the next morning, in which Hailstorm and
Winter were given their new rankings.

-----

### The Lost Continent Prophecy

#### The Dangerous Gift

Queen Snowfall visited the Forbidden Treasury when she decided that she
had no choice without any other source of animus magic. She retrieved
multiple powerful objects from the Treasury, including Opal's ring of
vision, and gleefully thought about how she could drive the Pantalan
refugees out of the kingdom with those dangerous items.

-----

### Field Guides

#### A Guide to the Dragon World

The IceWing palace was featured in literature#Named scrolls|The Animus
Gifts of the IceWings and was later mentioned in Caribou's In the Village-of-the-Plentiful-Seals.