The Grand Regent's Palace | Notes About the Setting

 Every day from dawn until dusk, the Grand Regent's palace in the old town of Breta is abuzz with activity. Delegates bearing gifts and diplomats bearing terms; guards from the locale and knights from the garrison; lords who owe their fealty to the ruler of the Northern Kingdoms and outlanders yet to swear it. All of these individuals head through the gates to the main building, which is reserved for matters of diplomacy, governance and security.

For much of the day, the Grand Regent sits immobile, upon a throne raised high above the audience chamber, only speaking to pronounce a judgement and only moving when discussing matters too private or too serious for the main hall. Down below, visitors and invited guests state their cases to the regent or discuss matters with each other around the large, central table crafted from rich, dark wood and built to sit up to a hundred people (as has been required in the rarest of circumstances). In the gallery that encircles the room above, a number of figures poised at equidistant points around can be made out. So steady are they, that an unknowing individual might assume these figures are decoration, but these are the foremost elite of all the knights: the honour guard of the Drakeslayers watching over their order's lord. To be appointed to the position is the greatest honour a veteran of this order can receive, but not to be taken lightly. As such there have been those among the chosen who have declined the role - an act of cowardice by the doctrines of the Drakeslayers certainly, but not a failing that would earn contempt from their peers.

At the other end of the corridors and stairwells leading to the audience hall are a dozen separate waiting rooms for those outside of the fortunate few who have received scheduled times for their appointments. The occupants of each room are carefully orchestrated by the palace staff to encourage the fostering of new connections at the Grand Regent's recommendation, and to separate those who would pose a risk of starting disputes and creating an unseemly display.