Editing Magipunk:Setting:Atathorn (section)

=== The Dragon Gate ===

The paradigmatic example of the unbelievable power of the modern age is the Dragon Gate, a one-of-a-kind wonder of the Royal Palace. It was erected a mere decade ago, and it took three years to make. 

The Dragon Gate is the main (north) entrance to the curtain wall surrounding the Royal Palace. It looks out onto the parade-ground where formal-but-public ceremonies take place. At first glance, the Dragon Gate appears to be a tall, reinforced-wooden gate that's straddled and towered over by an immobile dragon, shaded by its wings. 

And that's exactly what it is. 

The dragon was captured alive through the use of titanic magics, and through even more extravagant use of magic, is kept alive but paralyzed to this day. Then the curtain wall was torn down and built back up around the dragon, encasing its lower body in stone. A small fortune in power tokens are used daily to keep the dragon alive, vital, but immobile; teams of specially trained sorcerors work in shifts to maintain the spells. It is an incredible symbol of the wealth and power of the Royal family, even in these days of rising Alliance power. 

The Dragon Gate is sometimes caused to move, usually just thrusting its wings forward to provide an umbrella over the Parade Square when it's raining on a ceremony, but in an occaisional demonstration of Kingly Might, the dragon is caused to bow its long serpentine neck to the ground, and the king steps onto its enormous face, and is lifted into the air to give his speech. And, once a year, on the anniversary-night of the Royal Coronation, the dragon lifts its head to the sky and exhales a great stream of fire that lights the city like day for five minutes. This is both a spectacle that must be seen to be believed, and an implicit warning to enemies of the Throne that, should it ever become necessary, that fire might be directed elsewhere...