Splendor (Rachenast) is a leisure palace in Red London.
Overview[]
Splendor is a luxurious place reserved for the ostra, the city's elite. They frequent the leisure palace particularly during the winter months to forget the coldness outside, and are provided with a first-class banquet consisting of summery items and numerous servants tend to their needs.[1]
Structure[]
Large silver-plated doors lead to Splendor. To ensure that its clientele can forget the wintry cold, the leisure palace's interior mimicks an arbor on a bright summer day: A carpet of grass covers the ground from which enchanted trees rise. Wind chimes fill the air with its sounds, a blue stone platform stands in for a pond, and fire lanterns illuminate the entire area.
Beyond the main chamber, an artificial dark forest fills the hallways. Because the trees are denser there and only dim star-lights in the branches lit everything, many couples retreat to the hallways to be alone.[1]
History[]
In early 1820, Rhy Maresh takes a reluctant Kell to Splendor, fully knowing that his brother would dislike the place. Rhy actually intended to bring him to a different place, but knew Kell would protest going there; by heading to Splendor first, Kell would see the other place as the "lesser evil" and agree to go there.
After Kell realizes this, he tells Rhy that he will not cave, even though he is indeed miserable and uncomfortable. Rhy then mingles with the crowd, and Kell loses sight of him when he overhears a few people discussing the upcoming Essen Tasch and one of its apparent competitors, Alucard Emery. When Kell feels an echo of Rhy's pain, he searches for his brother and finds him with a waitress in the forest area of the leisure palace. Kell angrily drags him out, and they head to the Blessed Waters.[2]