Napaysha's Manse
Napaysha, one of the village elders of Norn, took over the responsibility of this manse and its office when the island sank for the first time.
Pillars tower above you as follow the river inside, the light of day growing dimmer under the shelter of the massive pavillion. Jagged boulders jut out from the surface of the water, forcing you to focus on navigating around them. Then you begin to discern the facade of a manse. The most notable feature is a set of stone doors twenty feet high. Wide stairs lead down into the water from the stoop. The river widens slightly as it reaches the manse, bubbling up against the wall, swirling around the stone landing, and then seemingly vanishing into the ground.
Upon entry, you find yourself standing at a balcony overlooking a cavernous room. The only light comes from across the room, a huge archway in the wall. The river flows from beneath this landing, cascading down into a pool and spraying a light mist. A staircase curves along the wall to your right, leading up to a second level. Another follows the wall to your left, leading down to the ground level. You can just make out large shadowy forms in the room, but because the daylight coming in from across the room is weak, you can't make out much more.
As you feel your way down the staircase, the manse seems to sense your presence, for the sconces on the walls fire, lighting the entire floor. The floor here is made from carved limestone as in Three Islands Village and the Children's Temple, but here it is unstained, a perfect pale yellow. The water flows from the pool down a canal that leads out the archway across the room. Two footbridges span the canal for crossing the water. What were once only shadowy forms you can now easily identify as six skiffs, three on each side of the canal, albeit ones equipped with a markedly strange style of sail. They are each secured to a set of posts.
You catch sight of something glinting inside the pool under the waterfall. Through the shifting of the water, you see something lying inert on the floor of the pool.
Purpose / Function
Not only to preserve the histories of the people of Norn, the secrets of the island's design, and the studies of the mysterious kandra, but to preserve these things themselves. Inside the manse are not only the silver-gilt bones of a real kandra and a library containing a trove of knowledge, but the controls to raise the island out of the ocean and to sink it down again.
The manse also contains a bay for six solar skiffs specifically for spreading the oxygen traps over the canopy.
Architecture
Carved limestone blocks form the floor and walls. Aquamarine tapestries decorated with aquamarine beads and gold tapestries decorated with amber beads cover the walls, absorbing some of the rushing sounds of the river. The railings are gilt with gold a
Tourism
Schoolchildren are taken to the manse to see the kandra remains in the pool. Young Nornian scholars spent long days in the library poring over the historical records, while the island engineers needed the library materials to be trained to maintain the island mechanics.
