temper room

No clan compound on Eihlari is complete without at least one temper room. This small outbuilding, detached from any other structure, serves as a mental storm shelter. Anyone experiencing sensory or emotional overload may go into the room to rest or to rage, whatever it is she needs to do to bring herself back to equilibrium.

Purpose / Function

The temper room is a space meant to provide a calming, quiet environment for someone in an overly agitated state. Some use it to separate themselves from external aggravations, while others take the opportunity to work through their rage without disturbing others.
A temper room can also be used as a refuge from distraction. If a person is trying to complete a task but is continually drawn away by outside influences, she may bring her work into the temper room in order to give it undiluted attention.

Sensory & Appearance

The room is sealed off from outside light and sound. The walls are lined with soft sound-absorbing material to prevent echoes, and the floor has enough give to muffle footfalls. Behind the ceiling panels are lights and a noise machine that the occupant can activate if she wishes, to provide exactly the amount of stimulation she is comfortable with.

Contents & Furnishings

A temper room has no furniture or loose objects because of the risk someone might hurt herself. The only moving part is the slamhandle, a device intended to relieve frustration through physical effort. A padded two-handed handle is attached to a piston that lifts a weight inside a shaft. Raising the handle and slamming it down generates a shock wave that travels up the arms and through the body. In this way a person who achieves equilibrium through applying force can do so without harming people or property.

History

Temper rooms were introduced by the Water Seekers who occupied Eihlari during the Intervention. When hearing disputes, it was common for one or both parties to quckly escalate to the point of violence. (That tendency is a great part of why the pre-Intervention feuds were so bitter and long-lasting.) The Seekers would escort them to separate rooms and wait before resuming the meeting. After observing the buildup and decay of many explosive tempers, the Seekers designed the temper room with its controllable environment as the most effective means of settling such outbursts.

I can't help noting similarities between a temper room and the Dancinglight's Dome. Both are structures designed to separate calm from chaos, but in opposite ways. The Dome keeps the chaos of visitors' auras inside, and the temper room keeps the chaos of the world outside.
I suspect, but will never be able to prove, that it was their experiences with the Dancinglight's Dome that inspired the Water Seekers to create temper rooms.

--Elan

A Key Point

The temper room is not punishment. No one is ever forced into it. Someone who witnesses a person becoming upset can suggest that she go into the room, and more often than not this idea is readily accepted. (It's not always easy for a person losing her sand to remember the options available to her.)
If she refuses to go and shortwires completely, then others retreat to give her space to reset, understanding that she didn't choose to throw a fit in public, but was too worked up to be able to choose.