Cirrus On High
Nestled in the cloudy valley of floating island motes, hovering miles above the sandy purple Undermote and backlit by hundreds of magical illusionary fireworks and light shows, the Cirrus Casino awaits the most famous and influential figures in all of Crudilex. The casino is known for its eccentric clientele and glamorous architecture. Its tyrannical master chef, Grelofishal, prepares food sought after world wide. Its master Homunculomancer, Jakacoru Peel, creates prized familiars for preeminent mages. but at the top is the casino's mysterious owner and hostess, the Gorgon Enchanté Cirrus.
The Casino was commissioned by Enchanté who serves as hostess and proprietor of all future events including the Monoskiff classic airship race, Skyliner show, and the Premier Auction where all the greatest and most valuable artifacts of Crudilex are collected and sold to the affluent and hand-selected clientele of the world's most notable figures.
Battlemaps set in this location
The Soul Gate
Around the whole of the world of Crudilex is a white, shifting bubble of Divine energy, holding the chaos of the realms beyond at bay. The same, according to the casino's founder, is true for the Cirrus on high and its own soulgate—keeping the riffraff of the world out of the play place of the upper crust of the world.
The Cirrius soulgate is a huge purple bubble that surrounds the casino completely, opening only when approached by the sky yacht Fond Departures or a Bluecoats police skiff. In all other cases, the casino is impossible to reach or leave. This greatest defense has protected both it and the world for decades, and no method of breaching either has been discovered. How exactly Enchanté Cirrius managed to replicate the soulgate has been a great mystery, and many believe it is key to unlocking whatever secret is behind her seemingly unending wealth.
The Casino
The casino itself is a massive building with many hundreds of floors. However, only the first level and two sub-levels are available to guests, and only during events. What happens inside the casino is generally a mystery, as is what the island is used for outside of its frequent parties, celebrations, and races. No one truly knows what business is conducted inside.
Wild speculations go from the likely—that the six syndicates of Grand Nostridan use it as neutral territory where they can easily and secretly communicate and coordinate their criminal empires without encroaching on each other, while still keeping each other in check. To more absurd beliefs—that there is some kind of imprisoned god who is bending reality to the hostess’s will, resculpting the world to make her have the perfect life. Whatever the case may be, the great tower casino remains a tantalizing but unreachable mark upon the skyline of the island.
Enchanté's Eye
The largest of its kind in the world, Enchanté’s Eye is a giant magnificently designed farris wheel contraption gifted to the hostess of the island by the golden clockmaker of The Factory, Duke Meastreo. The gilded construct is the leading artist in the world when it comes to developing complex and delicate machines of unrivaled beauty. His contraptions may be fragile, but there isn’t a pair of eyes in the world that could look upon them and find a single flaw. The Ferris wheel is used only on very rare occasions, as it is more a work of art—but just because something is precious has never stopped Enchanté Cirrus from toying with it.
Skiff Racer Hanger
Out of sight of guests is a large hangar and staging area for the racers participating in the Miniskiff Classic. For many, it is actually something of a home—the performance races often require “disposables” or “scrappers,” as fans call them, Pilots who are sure to be in a large, fairly dramatic crash to make room for the hero racer and keep the action and energy of the race constantly high and exciting.
Because the sport would die out instantly if it were half as violent as it pretends to be, many of these scrappers are closer to stuntmen, switching out for new personas to explode on the track. If one were to climb over a few bushes into staff zones on the right day, they may even see some skiffs practicing their “dramatic deaths” in the low skies under the hangar.
Royal Estate Château
Reserved exclusively for the leaders of the major countries in Crudilex, the Royal Estate Château resembles a castle and features the best security available. The entire interior is a pocket dimension specially tailored by pith conjurers specifically for its occupants. The benefit of this is that the Royal Château can be as lavish and over the top as is possible and house multiple dignitaries in the same space all of whom will believe they are getting some extraordinary special top of the line treatment.
The Cardfloor
One of the main attractions in the casino, the Card Floor is where the majority of the action happens. Situated on the open balcony garden nearest the entrance for the central casino tower, it serves as a hub for the high stakes gambling and offers views of the skiff races and nightly fireworks shows. Its central location allows it to neatly funnel all the guests through and back to the card floor keeping the social hub of the island in one place to facilitate the politicking and side dealing that is a very large portion of the business of Cirrus’s events and functions.
Guests' Châteaus
Located just down the wide stairs from the central promenade, the apartments are lavishly decorated with vibrant colors and floor-to-ceiling windows offering views unlike anything else in the world. Each apartment is equipped with magical enchantments to prevent disorganization, filth, and temperature discomfort, and its doors are locked such that they can only be opened by the touch of the Hymunculi paired to the guest as their personal butler for the duration of their stay on the island.
Each château features a fully stocked bar, a large circular bed, and a relaxing garden on the balcony with a small pool. Other homunculi staff remain on hand in the halls outside the apartments, ready to pass messages, fetch items, deliver food, or arrange meetings as needed. The needs of the guests of the Cirrus are seen to absolutely constantly, so that they never—even for a moment—feel anything less than completely taken care of.
The Greenhouse
Between the Emerald Lake and the fairgrounds is a seldom-seen stretch of island where few guests tend to wander—though it is part of the accessible area during events. Serving as something of a quieter corner, it includes a garden, hedge maze, and the greenhouse.
Two enormous glass-roofed buildings are filled with water features and plants. The first of the two buildings is a domed aviary, containing some of the world’s most rare and exotic birds flying free, some even trained to fly down and land on guests holding food.
The second building is a series of ecological gardens in glass chambers that mimic various unique environments from all over Crudilex, showcasing the unique flora that grows only there. The collection in this seldom-visited greenhouse is worth a small kingdom’s expense, but it is visited almost exclusively by people who will never appreciate it.
Theater Garden
At the western end of the casino, bathed in the ambient lights of the city of Grand Nostridan silhouetted behind the clouds below, stands the world-famous Cirrus Theater Garden—an outdoor amphitheater surrounded by a field of vibrant, beautiful tulips. All of the greatest performers have tread the boards of this theater at the height of their careers, putting on exclusive shows for the casino, seen by many as the true marker of having “made it.”
Performance is regarded as the highest art in the great city, and all over the world of Crudilex are stages and arenas, concert halls and theaters endlessly seeking talent. This is not the case for the Theater Garden in Cirrus-on-High. The shows performed here happen only once, for a single audience, and are then destroyed, never to be performed again.
The actors and thespians hired are given three years and limitless funds to develop their perfect three-act play. The show is produced, practiced, and mastered, then performed before any guests who wish to attend while visiting the island during one of its many events. Some directors have retired after putting on a show for an audience of two who left during the intermission, their debts covered and their families taken care of for what ultimately amounted to a sideshow attraction at the flying casino. The performers are sworn to secrecy and sent back to Grand Nostridan, their pockets full but their outlook on the high arts forever soured.
Skiff Raceway: Central Promenade
At the heart of Cirrus, in the central promenade, stands a world-famous fountain featuring six statues, each lifting a glass toward a seventh figure in the center—the casino’s mysterious owner, the gorgon Enchanté Cirrus. It’s one of the most iconic landmarks on the island, but Cirrus-on-High is most renowned for hosting the legendary Monoskiff Classic. The Classic is a no-holds-barred mono-skiff race around a closed, high-speed inner track. It has been hosted on the island four times now, growing more extravagant and widely celebrated with each event.
The central promenade itself is a vast yellow sandstone raceway, curved inward with sharp halfpipe waves bending toward the middle, and an X of bridges crisscrossing above the track. Private booths line the outer ring, each worth a small fortune. Spectators flock from every corner of Crudilex to witness the spectacle—and the elite racers who fought their way through ruthless qualifiers to compete in the grand final here.
Winning this race makes legends. From the most despised villains to beloved people's champions, the pilot-aeronauts who take to the skies in the Monoskiff Classic are celebrated as daredevils—so long as they put on a good enough show.
Central Promenade
The central promenade’s fountain features six statues, each lifting an item toward a seventh figure in the center. The highest levels of the casino are the least interesting—cheap apartments, airship docking, and supply storage occupy the peak of the tower. The skies during the day are typically cloudy and calm, except when filled with the whirring of racing skiffs, trailing silvery flags and piloted by showy aeronauts.
Elegant, magically conjured giant hummingbirds carry small baskets with cargo and passengers around the mote. Thin, sparkling ponds line nearly every path, filled with lily pads and pond flowers. Beneath the surface, they serve as passageways for the many homunculi, who swim to and from their daily duties.
Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake is a crystal-clear body of water teeming with rare fish. One can easily see to the bottom along its entire length. On the farthest eastern end of the island, near the edge where waterfalls cascade off the mote, sits a small island with a large, ancient oak tree. Its canopy completely shades the land below, reaching well past the shoreline. The tree’s leaves are a bright, vibrant red—almost orange—a color that appears completely unnatural, though there are no signs of it being magical in any other way.
The tree provides shade for a small shrine where a single person could sit among its roots. Quiet and serene, it stands in sharp contrast to the rest of Cirrus, almost making the island’s grandeur feel gaudy by comparison.
Off Limits Constrution Area
Hidden behind tall temporary planters with high bushes obscuring a fence is the off-limits construction area. Rendkrask-class ironclads flying up from below offload huge amounts of construction materials as arcanotecs conjure new structures and delights for the visitors of the coming season. But for now, the areas between the Theatre Garden’s tulip fields and the “high-end” market are off limits. Those spotted in the area are likely to attract attention if they act as if they don’t belong there or are out of uniform.
Mazwyn's Luxury Haberdashery
Adjacent to the Central Promenade is the “High End” market—its actual name. High End is a lavish collection of shops mostly centered around fashion, each operating only during the casino’s events and by invitation only. At the center stands a grand, five-story marble building with enormous stained glass windows depicting the dead god of trade and riches, Goldglitter, and a large sign with a hat on it: Mazwyn’s Luxury Haberdashery.
Entry into this illustrious establishment requires a written request and a minimum 10,000-dollar donation six months in advance. The clientele consists almost exclusively of royalty. The gentlemen’s hats, suits, and shoes on sale are of absolutely legendary quality, but the bragging rights among other obscenely rich people are what they are really paying for.
Homunculi Nursery
The first area of the casino anyone is likely to see sits just off the docks where Fond Departures, the island’s transport Skyliner docks. The first structure one looks up to when stepping off the gangplank is a towering blue building on a mote of its own, connected by a bridge beyond a walled courtyard that leads to the central promenade skiffway of the main island. The skies during the day are typically cloudy and calm—except when filled with the whirring of racing mono-skiffs, trailing silvery flags and piloted by showy aeronauts. Elegant, magically conjured giant hummingbirds carry small baskets with cargo and passengers around the mote.
Guests are greeted by the island’s Homunculomancer, Jakacoru Peel, and assigned their own personal homunculus butler, who acts as both their personal servant and their security clearance indicator for the duration of their stay. Afterward, they are led past thin, sparkling ponds that line nearly every path, filled with lily pads and pond flowers. Beneath the surface, the homunculi swim extremely fast between courtyards and chambers along the hidden canals, carrying out unseen tasks essential to the island's constant luxury and order.
Fond Departures, Skyliner
Skyliner Class, Civilian Transport Ironclad
The massive, refitted military ironclad was built for war—a titan of the sky capable of transporting a small army and deploying it directly onto its target while withstanding horrendous amounts of flak. Today, it has been redesigned, painted stark white, lined with intricate silver filigree, and capped at the nose with a huge domed window. Fond Departures is the largest still-operational skyliner of its kind. Though it now only ferries celebrities and politicians from Grand Nostridan up to the Cirrus-on-High Casino, it remains a luxury experience above and beyond any other.
Out of season for Cirrus’s events, Fond Departures occasionally makes appearances at Nostridinian celebrations, its titanic bulk used as a symbol of national power and progress. Such propaganda is highly effective—especially when the skyliner is displayed beside more modest airships—but the fact remains: Fond Departures belongs to Enchanté Cirrus, and it’s likely that none of the people it’s meant to inspire will ever step foot aboard.
Additonal Locations
The Boathouse
The name of this place might evoke a small structure with a few paddle boats; however, nothing could be further from the truth on Cirrus. The Boathouse is, in fact, a three-story manor designed in a cozy, lodge-like style reminiscent of the Northlands.
The Portal Gate
A single teleportation circle is located just outside the main gate on the docks, within the walls of the Homunculi Nursery. It is reinforced with a two-foot-thick door made of black iron and secured from the outside with active Iari Clast locks. The portal is only ever active briefly, shortly before large events at the casino, and is used exclusively to teleport in materials. Guests—including the most important royals who demand teleportation—must still first travel to Grand Nostridan and ferry up aboard the Fond Departures skyliner.