| The Setting; The detailed description of the setting | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 8 2010, 11:43 PM (293 Views) | |
| Birvan | Jul 8 2010, 11:43 PM Post #1 |
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City
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The Mansion Basement A large room located deep below the ground, this is England's secret laboratory, where he practices his dark arts Formerly an unused burial mound, it was later adapted and rebuilt to serve as a secret hideout, before he buil the mansion on top to completely hide it The laboratory is a round room made out of stone, with a spiraling staircase that leads to a secret entrance located behind the wine cellar (which is in turn connected to the kitchen) and a long, damp, winding tunnel that leads to a secret entrance in the woods (this one hidden behind one of the many shelves, half forgotten). It also possesses a large fireplace (whose chimney is connected to the kitchen's one), which provides most of the room's light and a large desk covered with an array of flasks, copper and brass equipment and any other alchemical devices and instruments. And the walls are covered with rows upon rows of shelves, filled with magic books, tomes, parchments, scrolls, candles, mirrors, knives, cauldrons, wands, flasks, potions, poisons, herbs, roots, skulls, dead animal parts and any other kind of items related to the occult The only place free of clutter, spiderwebs and dust is the center of the room, where a large magic circle has been sketched onto the stone ground, right next to a small altar where a stone pedestal was erected to hold the summoning book and the several ingredients necessary to use during the incantation. In the middle of the circle there's a large black cauldron, where England's latest potion was being prepared This is how it looked like prior the incident. The explosion caused a great deal of damage, completely cracking the cauldron in 2 with the sheer pressure of the blast, turning the pedestal into rubble, severely damaging many of the shelves and instruments, shattering all the flasks, bottles, vials and jars and completely blasting away the door in the wine cellar But the real destruction was in the large collection of items and ingredients. Those who weren't completely destroyed were rendered useless by the magic of the blast. England only survived because the pedestal shielded him from most of the impact (though he was knocked unconscious in the process) |
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| Birvan | Jul 9 2010, 01:45 AM Post #2 |
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City
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The Mansion Ground Floor Built secretly over an abandoned burial mound, which England had already remodeled for his own purposes centuries before, the mansion is a large 3 floored building that stands importantly over the surrounding landscape. Though it's smaller than other English Country Houses, since it was never meant to house an entire family Its architecture is from the Georgian/Elizabethan period, a reminder of the power and splendor found during the British Empire (very much like this one). The inside however is more modest and modern, having suffered some remodeling every now and then to keep up with the times As for the Ground Floor in particular, it's mainly used by the servants and staff, since the upper levels are reserved for England and his guests It's compromised of 10 rooms: - The Main Corridor, which leads to most of the other rooms and the floor above - The Grand Hall, which is used mainly either as the servants' dining room or to receive less important guests - The Servant's Hall, which was originally the servant's dining room but was later converted into rooms for the upper staff - The Service Rooms, which are the sleeping quarters of the lower staff (England never needed to have an outside building to provide extra accommodations) - The Kitchen, which is put together with the Pantry, the Wine and Beer Cellars and the previous Buttery (it was converted in a private dining room) - The Parlor, which was previously used by England to have dinner with the upper staff, when he didn't feel like using the Grand Chamber in the floor above, but it became an unused drawing room These rooms are mainly connected by one another, since during the time the mansion was built there wasn't the concept of using corridors to connect all the rooms. But over time some were added to the original structure, out of convenience and privacy sake |
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| Birvan | Jul 9 2010, 02:32 AM Post #3 |
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City
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The Mansion First Floor The First Floor is used to receive guests and where England spends his leisure time while indoors or not socializing with his staff. Because of this the decoration is richer and more elaborate, even if with a different type of splendor from the mansion's original design It's composed by 5 rooms: - The Grand Chamber, the largest and most splendorous room in the house, designed to welcome important guests and to show England's power and prestige. Originally it housed grand formal dinners, music, dances and other sources of entertainment, but over time it lost some of its importance and is now decorated in a more modest manner - The Antechamber, located next to the Grand Chamber, provided some privacy to those who needed to prepare before making an entrance - The Hall Chamber, which served as a bedchamber for the most important guests, is now used as England's bedroom - The Garden Chamber, another important guest bedroom with a view to the garden - The Library, which was formerly 3 smaller rooms Originally this floor used to have more small bedrooms to house important guests and provide more private spaces for those who wished to take a break from the events in the Grand Chamber. But as they started to lose their purpose they suffered a great deal of remodeling, usually being added to other rooms or converted into corridors |
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| Birvan | Jul 9 2010, 02:44 AM Post #4 |
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City
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The Mansion Second Floor Originally the Second Floor was reserved for England's private chambers and spaces of entertainment when the weather was bad, and so decorated in a more cozy manner. But as many of the rooms started to lose their importance and he had less people to stay for a visit, he moved his room downstairs and used this floor mainly as a storage area It's composed by 6 rooms: - The Long Gallery, a huge corridor that goes from one side of the mansion to the other and allowed to hold several forms of entertainment when the weather outside wouldn't allow it (including riding horses) - 4 Bedchambers, though only one was used as such. The others served as art galleries and such - The Attic, which served as secondary living space for the senior servants |
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| Birvan | Jul 11 2010, 04:13 AM Post #5 |
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City
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The Gardens Unlike other country homes, where the human influence on the surrounding landscape is clearly visible (example), England kept this to a bare minimum This is mostly because the mansion sits in an area where the magical influence is strong, making it a particularly good meeting spot for him and his fairy friends. So not only to provide them with their natural environment to feel more at home, keeping the mansion surrounded by a large section of untouched forest provides them with the seclusion necessary to carry those meetings more comfortably The gardens he does possess cover a few hundred yards around the house, mostly well kept lawns with lanes made of short bushes, several flowerbeds enclosed by shrubbery, a large fountain in front of the mansion's entrance and a river that cuts through the landscape and passes behind the building There are also some other decorations, reminders of fashions and styles from the several changes the gardens went through over time. In particular a Victorian greenhouse, filled with exotic plants he brought from his travels, and statues Because of the mansion not being located near a village or town, there's a section of the estate dedicated to raise crops and cattle, located on the other side of the river. It's hidden from view from the mansion by a row of trees planted alongside the riverbank. Only the stone bridge can be seen As for other buildings there are the stables, which are built close to the mansion. They're used to be able to house several horses and even carriages, but part of it was remodeled after a fire occurred and is now used to accommodate cars. |
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| JustAPanda | Mar 26 2011, 05:15 AM Post #6 |
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Village
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Okay, I'm starting to prepare some floor plan possibilities, but I'm curious about one thing: You mention that there are ten rooms on the Ground Floor, but just for clarification, I need to know what constitutes the multiple rooms. Are there 5 service rooms and the kitchen/pantry/beer/wine cellars/buttery are all counted as one room? Or vice versa? Because I'm presuming that the Main Corridor, Grand Hall, Servant's Hall and Parlor all count as one room each. And on the topic of the basement, I know its round, and large, but in comparison to the average square footage of the mansion built above, how much space would you say the Basement would "take up"? Like, if you were looking down from directly above the mansion, how much would the circular basement fill in the rectangular perimeter of the mansion? This would help to visualize scale and also where I'll try to put the wine cellar and basement so that they can easily connect. I'm not good at thinking in 3 dimensions, but I'm going to try. ^^; Edited by JustAPanda, Mar 26 2011, 05:40 AM.
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8:13 PM Jul 11