Thursday, June 12, 2014

Page 727

The underground reconstruction, however, had barely started. The surveyors had only just completed their work, but at least now, Hector had a rough map of the grounds and quick sketches of all the floor plans. He’d learned that the eight underground towers all boasted twenty-four floors, with the exception of two--those being the Star Tower, which only had its top nine and a half floors, and the Entry Tower, which required thirty-two in order to reach the surface.

Expectedly, the Tower of Night was shown to be the largest with an average of twelve rooms per floor compared to the others’ averages between seven and ten. In total, the castle had seventy-one lavatories, twenty-five hearths, six gathering halls, four kitchens, four adjacent bathhouses, one multilevel library, eight rainbow shrines, and then about six hundred empty rooms of undesignated function. This was not counting any of the buildings above ground or in the lake below Warrenhold.

The numbers left Hector a bit overwhelmed, to say the least. This wasn’t a house. It was a town. He couldn’t imagine ever needing this much space for anything. When he asked Voreese why Stasya had made it so gigantic, the reaper said that it was because she’d hoped Warrenhold would one day become a center of commerce between the surface world and the Undercrust.

And she specifically wanted it to be a fortress so that it could protect itself from all manner of exploitation by external forces,’ Voreese had said. ‘When she was building it, Stasya considered Warrenhold to be an investment in humanity itself. She wanted this place to change the world.

Hector could see why Voreese seemed to remember the woman so fondly.

And yet, he only had to look at Warrenhold now in order to understand what had become of Stasya’s dream. It was a sobering realization, that. Hector would have liked to know the full story of how Stasya had died, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask. He didn’t see how it could be anything other than sad. Voreese never brought it up, either, but that might have only been because she hadn’t stuck around very long. She and Roman had their own matters to attend to, of course.

15 comments:

  1. For the curious, yes, I am working on that map of Warrenhold. Don't expect anything too fancy, though.

    ARE YOU EXPECTING SOMETHING FANCY? YOU SEEM LIKE YOU'RE EXPECTING SOMETHING FANCY EVEN THOUGH I JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO. GEEZ.

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  2. I expect a highly detailed 3d rendering with the option to walk through the entire castle and see all the rooms from an eye-level perspective.

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  3. PC game anyone?

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  4. Should it be "Voreese never brought it up, either,...."
    Instead of "Voreese never brought it, either,...." ?

    Quick question: How long will this story end up being? Will it go on long enough that we actually get to see the Undercrust and have large plots occur there, or possibly a time skip?
    I hope the story continues for a long time. Your general plot with the two factions (technically three if you count the neutral faction) has the potential to last for a long time if you so choose. Since the servants are almost immortal, you could even start a new story later on with Hector once you finish your main plot. (I personally prefer it when an author uses the same character, instead of having a brand new character with the old main character as either a minor reference or side character. Some of my favourite book series had continuations which had the main character moved to a side role..... I just couldn't get myself to read it anymore.... I missed them too much..... :( )

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  5. Awesome!!! I cant wait to see it!!

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  6. Don't forget Hector as an avatar to use, with all his powers. Not to mention a destructible environment.
    Oh, and line the halls with 300dpi print quality art that's completely original and fancy. Did I mention fancy?

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  7. Yep. Fixed now, thanks for the catch.

    Oh yeah, we'll definitely get to the Undercrust eventually. Though, it might not be Hector we first venture down there with.

    My vision for the story is a very long one. I'll be writing it for many years, unless something in the real world gets in my way.

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  8. I will prayer to any higher existence for you health and for your life to be relatively problem free.

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  9. only cake for shame at least sacrifce ice cream toss

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  10. ah but i hold cake in higher esteem the more the objects being sacrificed means to you the greater the result. I love cake.

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  11. Build it in Minecraft!

    Might even be feasible, if you get a big group like FyreUK to help.

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  12. Oooooh I wish we could meet Stasya!

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  13. Was just reading up on castles, and the number of hearths in Warrenhold caught my eye. I was comparing it to the Chateau de Chambord( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chambord ), which has around 440 rooms, and 282 fireplaces.

    Compare that to Warrenhold, which has 600 rooms with indeterminate function alone. Given additional bedrooms, bathrooms, banquet halls, other function-specific rooms, etc, we can probably easily call Warrenhold twice the size of Chambord, yet it has less than a tenth as many fireplaces.

    Now obviously Warrenhold is meant to be a fortress, while Chambord was never meant to withstand any sort of siege, or any attack at all, for that matter, but even so, being underground that castle would have to get a bit drafty in the winter.

    Anyways, it's probably a completely irrelevant detail that doesn't matter in the least, but hey, it got me looking at french Chateaus, so it can't have been all bad, right?

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