First Palace of Exiles

Palace and prison to the Imperial Family

"To some in the Imperial Family, a sentence to spend your days at the First Palace of Exiles is a sentence to death. The thought of spending your days waiting for Jidè's cold embrace stuck in that underground tower with all its secrets and wandering in the void of darkness and rock" said Tunde with a sigh. "Its enough to scare most men on a straight path."

The First Palace of Exiles is a rock-hewn monolithic structure located inside an ancient mountain in the Lands of the Eastern Pillar, currently being used by the Empire of Exum as a Cold Palace, interning members of the imperial family. Unlike most cold palace that serves as a garrison for the Imperial Ten Thousand, the garrison sits around the entrance to the palace, at the top of the flat top mountain.

Purpose / Function

The top of the mountain the palace sits on serves as a garrison, imperial orphanage, and training hubs of the Imperial Ten Thousand but the palace serves as a prison for members of the Imperial Family in exile to ensure that those members didn't try to steal the Emperor's power away. The members who were imprisoned at the palace were seen as having all of their riches stripped away from them, even if the palace held all the creature comforts that those members needed, but as a member of the Enegua-Eya Tribe, the imprisoned imperials thought it shameful to not be able to practice the pastoral ways of their ancestors.

Architecture

Hewn from the mountain that it sits in, this is the only Cold Palace that sits underground. Its entrance is at the top and it’s accessed by a small walkway, high over the moat-like trench. The exposed cruciform structure measures at an estimated 40m by 30m and is more than 40m high.
The hight of the 5m stone doors and large steps give away its origin to the Sphinxes. Which was confirmed by the oral history of the people of the neighboring city, Soyesi. With magic, or so it's speculated, they constructed the tower possibly after the Wars of Unification. Unlike most Sphinxian structures, the tower doesn't have a quadrilateral shape. Its corners are convex giving it an cruciform shape when looking at it from above.

The only structures that are similar are the Black Pyramids of the Faeroahs But, even the surrounding town of Soyesi doesn't have any signs of having similar architecture. Such as the fact that Soyesi is built on the face of the mountain, the Palace is built into the mountain and only seems accessible from the top. Although it's suspected that the secretive townsfolk have possibly had some way to access the inner-tower through some tunnels, which would explain the rumors of the ghost by the imperial soldiers. Although none of these tunnels have been found by those that guard the palace. With Soyesi being base of the Cult of Jidè, the Orisha of death, it is not uncommon to see sculptures of Jidè which has caused problems in the past for the soldiers that are garrisoned her.

History

While it's not in the Songs why this structure was made, it's highly speculated and deeply debated that the Sphinxes made this structure as a place to hide from humans after the disappearance of the Faeroahs, as they were being hunted because their use of magic and the magical properties their tongues and fingers had as wards against magic.
The Songs only speak of when the palace was discovered, shortly after the establishment of the empire by the then Lion-General Fela Faso-Eya, while attempting to establish the empire's foothold in the area. When questioning the locals about the structure, they told him of Sphinxes long ago and that they believed they had already been taking from this world by Jidè, the Orisha of death, which caused soldiers to spread rumors that the place was haunted.

"Jidè's get haunts this place! You can have it and all of his curses! There's no telling how many spirits walk these hall waiting for him to take their tortured souls to the outerlife! I can't stay here! Jidè may take me too!"

— Scared Sentry

Current Use

Faso-Eya believed the structure to be the last hold of the sphinxes. He laid siege to the structure and would often send a contingent of soldiers into the structure to check for any signs of sphinxes. The soldiers often came back with wild stories of wandering blackness which they suspected was more sphinxian magic. Suspecting that he was wasting his time, Faso-Eya left a contingent of soldiers that soon became a permanent imperial garrison around the entrance to the structure. A generation later, the Lion-General opened one of the many imperial orphanages where they would train their child soldiers.
After a failed coupe of an imperial prince, the emperor sentenced him to exile to the structure, after hearing about the strange stories of the soldiers. The prince refused to enter the structure initially but soon disappeared for a week inside of the structure only returning to the entrance asking for supplies.

"The prince speaks of ghosts. He makes strange requests for supplies. The garrison Lion refused his request at first, thinking he was would build some contraption to escape, but it seemed he only wanted to build a garden in his courtyard with seeds he saved from the food we gave him. He drew an audience talking to himself as he built his garden. Soldiers and orphans would gather and watch him argue with himself as he picked his fruits and vegetables and carry them back into the structure."

Since that time six princes have been interned in the tower all driven to death by their madness.

Type

Prison

Parent Location

Soyesi

Owning Organization

Imperial Family