Bastille of Thirty Faces
Aspect: Earth Rating: ••••• Hearthstone: ? Bearer: ? Attuned: Sesus Ophezzer, Sesus Indira, Sesus Hsung, ?
The Bastille of Thirty Faces is a massive fortress-manse located within the Scarlet Prefecture, along the Earth Dragon Road between the Imperial City and Juche.
The fortress is blocky and stout, six bastions of roughly pentagonal shape, linked by walls and enclosing a large interior courtyard. The walls, made of granite blocks polished on their outer faces, rise 30 to 40 feet and are 60 feet deep. Though such massive walls are firm against attack, the geomancy of the place allows no cover on the walls and limits buildings within, exposing defenders to bombardment.
The Bastille is best known for its massive dungeons, capable of holding thousands of prisoners in dank conditions with numerous torture chambers and oubliettes. Realm law has little use for a prison, and so the Bastille has been used to temporarily house dangerous criminals awaiting the personal judgement of the Scarlet Empress, or those with valuable information that needed retrieval before they were put to death. The Bastille was thus fequent host to elements of the All-Seeing Eye and the Imperial Magistracy. It has also served as headquarters for the 3rd Imperial Legion for most of the time the Empress has held her Throne, securing the Imperial City from armies approaching from within the Blessed Isle, though that has not been a major concern since the early centuries of the Scarlet Empire.
The courtyard of the Bastille contains only two buildings. The first is the Temple of Truth-twined Dragons, an Immaculate temple known for its tall bell tower, topped with statues of dragons in coloured marble. The temple bell is large and mighty, sounding out the time and prayer schedule for miles around.
The second is a building of metal walls and pipes, dotted with vents and smokestacks: officers of the Legions working in magitech units know it as the 3rd's Mobile Repair and Fabrication Platform, though its mobility was lost long ago. The open courtyard beside the platform can be covered over with massive canvas tents and used as a landing space for skyships.
The remainder of the Bastille's chambers and corridors are underground. In addition to the dungeons there are barracks and mess halls, armouries and Dynastic quarters. Over the centuries, the cold rough stone and packed earth floors have been rendered more liveable by hanging tapestries and rugs, and larger chambers have even been used to host spectacular galas in proper Dynastic style (though many aspects of Air find the environment rather claustrophobic). Deep within the Bastille is also located a vault of the Imperial Treasury, housing a portion of the Realm's jade reserves. Defense of this vault is in the hands of a Jade Legion detachment.
In the shadow of the fortress, outside one of its four massive gates, sits Metaia village, home to a small stable for horse-breeders and traders (mostly middling stock), as well as cattle farmers sending meat and dairy goods to the City. Taverns and brothels have also risen to serve the needs of the soldiers living nearby. Unlike the rest of the Bastille, the Metaia gate is garrisoned by the larger-than-average contingent of Black Helms assigned to the village.
