Nyad palace

Beautiful if you don't think about it too hard.

I would like to thank yours truly. I couldn't have done this without you.

The palace of Nyad is the largest building in Androg, and one of the most ancient. It was built sometime during the Ember Era and hasn't had much about it modified since. The palace is built on a river, acting as a fortification, a port, a dam, and a castle all at the same time. It blocks water access to Lake Nyad with this wall, which forms a semi circle around the castle. Little is known about the origins of the castle, but a document from that time written by an unknown dragon talks briefly about it.

"I watched the palace built, made from the results of the war that had torn these people apart. I couldn't watch without feeling immense sympathy for the builders, who would never get to do anything with their lives but work on a palace that wouldn't be finished until well after they were dead. A profitless endeavor, I thought. The underground section of the castle caved in very early on, which earned me more sympathy for the punished prisoners. I eventually had to find a polite excuse to leave, and I vowed to never again return to the palace of tears."

Judging from the dragon's perspective, the palace was built by prisoners of war, right after the first Phoenix-Nyad war. While there are no surviving documents that tell us who was ruling at the time, it is known that King Kelpie of Nyad was the first to move into the palace.
The palace was meant to be a center of trade and commerce when it was first built, but King Seaweed of Nyad, Kelpie's brother, immediately closed the palace off to all trade and isolated Nyad, saying that the enemy was everywhere and they were all out to get him. Popular belief now is that he was a bit paranoid. The palace was finally opened up again almost a hundred years later, when Seaweed's granddaughter, Current, took the throne and apologized for the actions of her family.
Under Queen Current's rule, Nyad palace became a popular tourist spot, attracting thousands of people every year. Nyad flourished and the palace was renovated. The palace remained this way for another thousand years, until the legendary Queen Leviathan attempted to burn it to the ground. The resulting outcry from the people of Androg stopped her from destroying it, but she still closed it down to the public. A myth arose that she locked her two sons inside the palace with a dozen of her least favorite servants and never let them out again. 
When Queen Shellfish took over, she too tried to destroy the palace because she didn't like the color of its walls. Her cousin Jellyfish convinced her to repaint the walls and open the palace once again to the public, where it has been an annoying color of yellow ever since.

Several stories and poems have risen up about the Nyad palace, including a popular nursery rhyme that most children grew up with. Like most nursery rhymes, it's fine as long as you don't think about it.

The palace on the water The palace made of stone The palace will protect us  Until we are alone For when the darkness rises And tries to eat us all The palace will eat you instead  And spare you all the toil.

Experts believe this has something to do with the myth that people have disappeared in that palace for years, only to come back to the daylight speaking of great peace and quiet.
Another poem, written by a dragon, is much less happy about the palace.

Burn the palace Built on the back Of the fire And choking the life From the sea Stealing the breath from the sky And taking the love from the earth Burn the palace Drown it in blood Avenge the elements This is our cry.

A sketch of the Nyad palace. Artist: Grashopper of Ent

Dragons really hated the palace for various reasons. Most dragons avoided it because it was suspected to have been built by Phoenixan prisoners, and the dragons were very supportive of Phoenix as a whole. Others were insulted that it had been built for humans but without dragons in mind, making it difficult and even impossible for many of them to get into the palace. Still others had their own personal reasons for steering clear of the palace. Vhatim, a particularily outspoken dragon who wrote hundreds of journals expressing her opinions, had a very peculiar reason.

"I didn't like the smell of the place. It always smelled like lemons and dogs, and I don't like dogs and I'm allergic to lemons. I tried visiting the palace many times, attempting to ignore the smell, but I just couldn't. And the Nyad humans refused to give me anything to help. Even some flowers to stick my nose in would have made my visits so much better! But they just kept saying I was disrespecting their traditions, at which point I got fed up and told them traditions are only worth keeping if they don't suck. I might be banned from the palace now. I haven't gone back to check."

Type

Palace

King Kelpie of Nyad came to the throne in 654 AD and ruled for thirty-seven years before his death in 691 AD. While he didn't order the palace built, he was the first king to actually live in it. Several Nyad documents describe him as a good and just king, but almost every outsider's opinion says otherwise, suggesting that Kelpie had an alarming amount of control over what his people were allowed to say, even though Nyad was supposed to be a country where people were free to say whatever they wished. King Kelpie was killed in a duel by his younger brother in 691 AD.