Plum Blossom Retreat
The Plum Blossom Retreat is the first manse constructed by Rivers Between Us in his present incarnation. Situated in a hidden valley deep within the mountains of the The Marukan Alliance, the dark woods are characterized by thick mists that never fully dissipate, even in the noonday sun. Trees in this area, primarily hardwoods, grow to unnaturally large proportions. Two such oaks grow on either side of the manse's great hall, each one over a hundred meters tall. Ten grown men can only barely encircle the trunks of these giants. The valley is also filled with the sound of flowing water. The steep faces of the horseshoe valley are veined with narrow, craggy waterfalls issuing from springs high above.
The manse's name is twofold. Rivers plans on building many such geomantic structures in this lifetime as he rebuilds the scavenger lands, but this one is unique in that it is his first. As the plum tree is the first to blossom each year, so this manse is also the first fruit of his labor. Secondly, the paths of the manse are lined with many different varieties of plum trees, each collected from a different region of the alliance by friendly stick people. The petals from these many trees carpet the paths with fragrant blossoms when the weather turns warm.
The retreat itself is built in a series of terraced gardens, each one walled and gated. At the apex is the great hall of the manse, with an open air hearthstone room in its center. The hall is formed in the shape of a pagoda, with spacious rooms for a future library, chambers of meditation, and rooms for River's family and his circle. This building alone of the manse is constructed entirely from wood and jade, the wood coming from locally harvested deadfalls and the jade from local veins. Behind this building is a sheer cliff, but tunnels from the great hall extend into the rock walls. It is in those tunnels that Rivers performs his summoning and has the great forge of the manse, as well as passageways for lookouts high on the cliff face.
The second level of the terrace contains the housing and store rooms for the manse, its gardens and its workshops. This level includes the kitchens and an housing for up to a thousand inhabitants at a given time. There is room for up to fifty guests in individual rooms, typically built into cottages nestled in the eaves of great hardwoods. There is no wall between the first terrace and the second terrace, save the twenty feet of elevation that separates them. Pools from the first terrace issue streams that fall in gentle falls down the sides of this steep slope.
The third level contains the civil and martial school of the manse; the civil school on the west side of the central promenade and the martial school on the east side. Each school consists of three buildings, with classrooms for up to 400 students in each school. Space is provided for the practice of crafts and for military drills. The civil school has a test farm in this area, and the martial school has samples of various terrain built into the landscape as preparation for soldiers abroad. The second and third levels are separated by a hedge of thorns with decorative arches built into its construction.
The fourth level is the largest, and has thus far been left wild. There are many strange and twisting paths through this wild, designed to foil any adversary intent on approaching the manse undetected. Rivers plans to use these wilds for future expansion, particularly if it is necessary to house refugees in the future. The wall between the third and the fourth levels is thirty feet high and made of basalt mined from the mountain. It is seamless in appearance, but Rivers claims that there are ways within it that may not be readily apparent. It has room for two men to walk abreast across its top, with peculiarly flowing crenelations, like the crests of waves billowing past.
The outer wall of the manse is fifty feet high, with room for four men to walk abreast at its top. Its crenelations are similar to those at the peak of the previous wall, and there are also passage ways within the wall for archers to mount attacks from. This fortication flows up from the ground as though the land itself had given birth to it, and it is comprised of solid basalt. A deep stream flows around its circumference, bridged only at the main gate. The gate for this wall is oak, but the wood is stronger than steel. It is carved with a painstaking copy of the clockwork mandala from Rivers' anima (as it was when this manse was completed).
The Plum Blossom Retreat is currently occupied solely by Rivers and his household.
