'SkyWing palace', also known as the 'Mountain Dragon Palace' by humans,
is located in the northern part of the Sky Kingdom. The palace once
housed Ex-Queen Scarlet and Peril, and currently houses Queen Ruby,
Cliff|Prince Cliff, Vermilion|Prince Vermilion, and countless other
SkyWing subjects.

## Description

The SkyWing palace consists of stone towers, turrets, and spires jutting
through the fog and clouds around the mountain peaks like long spindly
claws. The towers appear to grow out of gray-black rocks, and every
ledge was an entrance to caves and holes carved out of the mountainside.
The tallest spire is the chimney of the crematorium, which carried the
smoke of burning bodies. The second tallest spire is a lookout area for
the guards near the outer wall of the palace. At the top of the tower
was a small pavilion with room for five or six dragons to fit
comfortably. A shallow hole in the floor was intended as a fire pit, for
heating the tower when it was cold or for cooking prey. The walls were
open on all sides, but the position of the tower was directed west, to
watch for attacks from IceWings or SandWings. A trash chute led from the
palace to the ground below the mountains. The palace is usually very
busy, with dragons flying from tower to tower, coming in with reports,
or sailing out with messages. The palace flutters with activity, and
wingbeats fill the air.

The interior consists of the Great Hall in the center and several levels
of railless balconies all around it, a huge hole in the roof above, and
windows open to the sky everywhere. Fires burned in many of the rooms
off the balconies, giving the whole place a glow and a charred smell.
The SkyWing arena and prison once rested within sight of the palace,
along with fallen towers, scorched land, and ravines full of burned up
dragon corpses and bones as products of the War of SandWing Succession.
Gold traces, talon prints, and outlines of flames and clouds are carved
in the stone of the floor, and Ex-Queen Scarlet's throne room was said
to contain massive amounts of gold in it, giving it the oppressive heat
of a funeral pyre. Most of the gold was pried out of the walls during
Queen Ruby's reign to fund the hospital.

The central hall leads to the kitchens. A trapdoor beneath the kitchen
leads to the prey center, where SkyWings keep prey that they use for
feasts. An Unnamed characters#SkyWings|unnamed SkyWing is the owner of
the kitchens.

The palace has many winding tunnels and arches, one leading to the arena
(now a hospital). The SkyWings constantly added extensions and repairs
to the palace.

## Notable features

### Dragonet wingery

The dragonet wingery's opening is located high in one of the towers.
Murmurs of small voices drift through the windows, and the interior
consists of an enormous space full of SkyWing dragonets. The youngest
dragons play-fight on the floor, far below the entrance, where padded
black and gold rugs overlap. Toy weapons are scattered around them,
including blunt spears and dented shields leaning haphazardly against
balls, attack dummies, and toy cooking supplies stacked with half-chewed
goat bones and other snacks. Slightly older dragonets swarm the walls
and climbing structures above the rugs, busily clambering along fake
rocky outcroppings and gradually higher and higher platforms. The
highest levels are closer to the ceiling, and are used for flying
practice, with longer spaces to cross with each leap, ropes to catch on
midflight, and obstacles to practice swerving around.

The walls within the wingery are not as embellished with gold and jewels
as the rest of the SkyWing palace. Instead, the room is full of light
and air from windows and skylights, most of which were barred,
especially on the lower levels. The only decoration is a portrait of
Scarlet five times the size of the real queen, which covers a huge
swathe of wall. There is also a perch at the peak of the tower, on a
winding branch carved from wood. It twists across the roof as though it
is a finish line for dragonets trying to reach the top.

### Great Hall

The Great Hall is the main chamber of the SkyWing palace, with multiple
levels of it leading to many different halls, rooms, and balconies.
There is an open roof or hole within the roof of the keep. The roof let
out onto a rocky mountaintop with dizzying views of peaks all around
them; small little scrub bushes clung to the dirt here and there, but
mostly it was all rocks — long overlapping shelves of gray rock and
lumps of boulders like giant stone eggs, including a boulder that was
taller than most. The Great Hall is often busy with dragons hopping
across the great space, exchanging small message scrolls in midair,
carrying buckets of water, clean animal skins, or platters of food, and
dodging wings and tails as they went.

The top level of the Great Hall used to reverberate with the shrieks of
burning dragons and roars of the arena, but has changed to become a
place for SkyWings to dance, sing, celebrate, and party in Ruby's reign.
There is a prison at the bottom of the Hall, which was commonly thought
of as the lowliest prison in the SkyWing palace. It consists of a grate
of thick metal bars and chains to hold prisoners in place. Peril burned a hole through the prison cell as of The Dragonet Prophecy (book)|The
Dragonet Prophecy in attempt to rescue Kestrel.

### Library

The library is quiet and private. It is lined with small inkpots, scroll
jars, desks, and wooden sculptures of trees.

### Prisoner towers

Around one hundred prisoner towers encircled the SkyWing arena.
According to Scarlet, they took ages to build, but were removed by Ruby
after she became queen.

### SkyWing Arena

The SkyWing arena is directly outside of the palace, in the northern Sky
Kingdom. It was a bowl of rock with sand at the bottom and sheer walls.
Prisoners of war were forced to fight to the death here for Scarlet's
entertainment. Scarlet kept various competitors, including scavengers,
dragons, and other creatures. The dragon prisoners mainly consisted of
IceWings, SeaWings, and SandWings who were loyal to those other than
Queen Scarlet or Burn. The prisoners were locked up on towers in the
sky, locked up with metal that was impervious to fire and frost breath.
The winner was free to go if he or she won enough fights and defeated
Peril. However, because of Peril's deadly firescales, no one ever
succeeded in defeating her.

The arena had a tradition called the "Champion's Shield", wherein the
current arena champion may fight for any condemned prisoner's life. The
queen chooses their opponent, and if the current Arena Champion wins,
the queen must spare the condemned prisoner's life. If the champion
loses, the queen can execute the prisoner.

Ruby later turned the arena into a hospital, making space for healing
supplies and wounded soldiers.

During the reign of Queen Firestorm, the arena was used to host parades,
art shows, dance performances, and beauty contests. Dragons from all
over Pyrrhia were invited to compete.

### Spectators

Spectators mostly include SkyWings; however, during the War of SandWing
Sucession, MudWings have been known to watch, as well as a few "honored
SandWing guests". They watched from rows of benches, balconies, and
caves above the arena walls. Other prisoners also watched battles from
the spires they had been chained to.

The spectators typically shout for death, but do keep justice and honor
in mind.

Spectators can throw treasure at combatants, the way small jewels were
thrown at Tsunami when she won.

### Arena Combatants

This is a list of all the known character (dragons and humans) who
fought to the death in gladiatorial arena matches in the SkyWing Arena
for Queen Scarlet's amusement.

  - 'Arbutus:' A male human captured from a Human settlements|human
    settlement and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to
    fight. He was one of the two humans to die in the battle, along with
    Cardinal.   - 'Cardinal:' A male human captured from a human
    settlement and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to
    fight. He was one of the two humans to die in the battle, along with
    Arbutus.
  - 'Clay:' A male MudWing dragonet, who was pitted against Fjord, and
    later, Peril. Scarlet deliberately arranged this, as she was aware
    that Clay was immune to fire due to him hatching from a red egg.
  - 'Canyon:' Scarlet's husband who was sent into the arena because she
    was bored with him. He was killed by a SkyWing general here.
  - 'Cranberry:' A female human captured from a human settlement and
    released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. She was
    one of the two humans to survive the battle, along with Rowan.
  - 'Fjord:' A male IceWing pitted against Clay in the arena. He had the
    MudWing pinned down when Glory's venom killed him after Tsunami
    caused a diversion by throwing herself off the spire she was on,
    nearly choking herself and the other prisoners next to her in the
    process.
  - 'Gill:' A male SeaWing who was Tsunami's father (unknown to her at
    the time). Tsunami killed him in the arena. Before this, he was
    tortured and driven mad when Queen Scarlet took away all his water
    for months as punishment for trying to start a prisoner rebellion.
    Tsunami first pleaded with Scarlet to let him live, but when the
    SkyWing queen refused and taunted the dragonet, she snapped Gill's
    neck, imagining he was Scarlet.
  - 'Horizon:' A male SandWing who won four matches before being pitted
    against Peril. He committed suicide in the match against her by
    burning himself to death after realizing that he could not defeat
    her. Peril later told Clay that Horizon's actions were "poor form"
    and that she preferred to kill dragons herself.
  - 'Human, Unknown:' In The Dragonet Prophecy, Clay heard a short fight
    between a human, who was found in the woods, and a SeaWing. The
    SeaWing won and then ate the human.
  - 'IceWings, Several Unknown:' The IceWings were killed by
    Morrowseer's soldiers when the NightWing came to rescue Starflight.
    One, a silvery female, was chained next to Clay for most of his stay
    on the rock spires.
  - 'Peril:' A female SkyWing and the Scarlet's Champion. She was
    hatched with too much fire and burned anything she touched. Any
    dragon who won more than four matches and was in danger of gaining
    freedom was assigned to fight her, thus assuring that no one could
    escape from the arena. She was undefeated until being forced to
    fight Clay, who was immune to her firescales.   - 'Rowan:' A female human captured from a human settlement
    and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to fight. She
    was one of the two humans to survive the battle, along with
    Cranberry.
  - 'SeaWing, Unknown:' In The Dragonet Prophecy, Clay heard a short,
    gruesome fight between a SeaWing and a human that the Queen found in
    the woods. The scavenger was killed quickly by the SeaWing, who then
    ate the human.
  - 'Starflight:' A male NightWing in the prophecy. After Starflight was
    forced to fight Tsunami and refused, several humans were released,
    and he and Tsunami fought them together. Starflight was then also
    almost pitted against IceWings, who hates his tribe with a passion
    until Morrowseer and a group of NightWings came, killed the
    IceWings, and rescued him.
  - 'Tsunami:' A female SeaWing in the prophecy, forced to kill Gill
    (her father) by breaking his neck before she was pitted against
    Starflight, whom she refused to fight. Several humans were later
    released into the arena, and she and Starflight fought them
    together.

### Throne room

In Scarlet's era, the throne room's floors were made of grooved rock,
and its walls were inlaid with gold. Ruby thought that entering it was
similar to walking into a funeral pyre; oppressive heat and the smell of
dragon fire. It used to have so much gold inlaid that walking into it on
a bright day might induce a headache, but Ruby removed at least half the
gold after becoming queen, leaving only wisps of cloud shapes here and
there. It includes a lower visitor's throne, while the SkyWing queen's
throne is consisted of a tall column carved in the shape of clouds. The
wall opposite the throne is open, so the queen can see a sweeping view
of the kingdom. It was often filled with dragons, and had dragons
standing guard outside.

### Tourmaline's bedroom

Tourmaline's room was described to contain piles of blankets, scrolls
carelessly tossed aside, and gold-tasseled yellow curtains flapping at
the window.

## History

### The Dragonet Prophecy

#### The Dragonet Prophecy

Scarlet captured and brought the dragonets of destiny back to her
palace. Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight were placed as gladiators, while
Glory became an artwork and Sunny was planned to be gifted to Burn. The
dragonets soon escaped alongside Peril and Kestrel.

-----

### The Jade Mountain Prophecy

#### Escaping Peril

Queen Scarlet barged in the palace and tried to take the throne, but was
killed by Ruby, who transformed into Tourmaline and snapped Scarlet's
neck.

-----

### Legends

#### Dragonslayer

Leaf was imprisoned in the palace and then rescued by Clay.

-----

### Field Guides

#### A Guide to the Dragon World

Tailwind's literature#Named scrolls|This is Why We Don't Marry
Psychopaths took place in the palace and depicted how living in the
palace was like during the reign of Queen Firestorm.

## Trivia

  - When designing the prison, Tui wanted it to be the opposite of the
    standard dungeon that most people would be familiar with.