Aegura Investigations: Hall of Kings

ventris · **Posted:** Sat Jun 15, 2013 4:22 am

Another building in Ae'gura which presents interesting avenues of investigation is the Hall of Kings. I believe there are at least two previous configurations of the Hall discernible in the present structure. The following are some preliminary thoughts which I hope others can help me expand.

What caught my attention first was the fact that the Hall of Kings had to have taken on it's current interior design during the time of the Guilds as there are exactly enough pedestals for the kings. Therefore it must have been different in the time of the kings, if it even existed then.

In casting about for clues I noted that the two doorways seem relatively crudely cut and pass through the wall at odd angles and with less decorative touches than one would expect from the interior. In fact the door to the West (toward the Library) seems to open into the remains of an already existing squared off room resulting in an even more awkward turn. This suggests a couple of things to my mind. Firstly that the doorways are later additions. Secondly that they were added to accommodate the road.

Now the latter could either mean the road did not exist when the tower was built or that it took a different route. I am still looking about for any possible alternative routes. Since we are talking about thousands of years of change we may not be able to find anything. I keep trying to determine if the rock spurs curving around from the Museum and the stairs could be eroded ancient bridges.

The tower, of which the Hall of Kings forms the ground level, presents three interesting aspects in itself. One, it's style is very different from the adjacent palace. Two, it is not completely circular due to incorporating the rock spire on which it was built. Three, it forms the access way to the broken bridge which seems to be the main route to another section of the island.

This last aspect intrigues me, as one might expect to find the route to the bridge to start at ground level but here we find the Hall of Kings. Could the Hall have once had ramps or stairs as in the Library, but leading upward? Was there a previous tower whose only remains are the walls of the squared off room to the west? Or did the route somehow pass through the courtyard of the "palace"? Was the "palace" built later in front of the tower, covering the previous road and entryway? Another possibility is that the bridge broke during the time of the Guilds and was abandoned allowing the tower to be used for new purposes. I don't know if it is possible to find evidence to answer any of these questions but our success on the Concert Hall puzzle gives me hope.

DaVinci · **Posted:** Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:29 am

I have been studying the Hall of Kings and I have to agree with ventris. This area seems awkward for foot traffic in this area. Presuming there were 2 million d,ni in the cavern at the time of the fall,(I have no fact on this,just some thing I think I heard or read some where) and let's say 25% lived in or visited the city. I think it would be difficult to have a good flow of foot traffic passing through the HOK. I had never thought of this because there has not been that much foot traffic before.
The passage narrows to only 2 people wide(the entry doors)and only 2 doors which really constricts traffic. I believe this area was at one time a circular rotund plaza like we see off of the map area plaza and like the one past HOK leading to the Library and like the one that fell at the Library. So in honor of the Kings the HOK was built after the ending of the Kings on one of these rotund plazas.
I studied the city map and noticed also that there is a pentagon in the HOK,with what appears to be passages around the HOK area. There is one point of interest to me pointing back towards the Great Zero.
Here are some views of what I think this area may have or could have looked like with a passage around the HOK. Most of this passage would have been a d'ni made tunnel.

This is one over all perspective view

http://postimg.org/image/wd7drch55/

This next is viewing from the Palace nexus alcove area
http://postimg.org/image/plgyohs5l/

This one coming from the Library and viewing to the HOK

http://postimg.org/image/6666vdyvd/

If anyone has any different ideas or has anymore information on the HOK I would like to hear it, I have not been able to find much information on this.

belford · **Joined:** Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:01 pm **Posts:** 1890

There's no way that the civic architecture we see in Aegura can support hundreds of thousands of visitors at a time. It must have been a very exclusive area, either by law or by custom.

Actually, let me think... a good comparison is the Tower of London. It's vaguely comparable in size to the explorable area of Aegura, right? Several buildings, several outdoor yards and plazas.

Random googling indicates that the Tower gets over 2 million visitors per year, but probably only a few hours each -- on the rough order of 5000 visitors per day. That's not unreasonably crowded, although you'd expect queues to get into the Museum.

However, that assumes that the area was completely tourist-ified. If the place was the domain of the great-and-good, who didn't want their promenades overrun with riff-raff, then it wouldn't be crowded at all. But ticket prices for the Aegura Tour would be *ferocious*.

Or, on the third hand, maybe mixed use? I could imagine the spacious Library plaza open to the public, with access to the Library and the plaza nice view of the Arch. Then the walkway towards central Aegura blocked off by discreet ribbons and a sign saying "No access unless you are one of the Right People."

DLordofTime · **Posted:** Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:51 am

I believe Ae'gura was the home of the very elite. As with any aristocracy, there can't have been too many of them, so if the Island was only for them, I can't see it being too crowded.

DaVinci · **Posted:** Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:51 am

oookay Well let me look at Manhattan Island. /me runs googler
Manhattan is 13.4 miles long by 2.3 miles wide or 21.6 km by 3.7 km which is (according to the internet ) 22.7 use able area.
Doing the math here it is 30.8 square miles or 79.9 square km. Now this place holds the Wall Street and World Trade Center and a small population of 1.6 million people living there, I do believe it has quite an elite society there, also along with the rif-raff.
Now I was figuring just 500,000 in city of Ae'gura but will drop it to 5% and go with 100,000. If you have a figure I would be glad to use it

I am searching for the population count when I find it I will post it in this post

ventris · **Posted:** Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:06 pm

In the interest of easily digestible threads, lets start one (another one?) on the nature of Ae'gura.

DaVinci · **Posted:** Sat Jun 22, 2013 1:47 am

Well I went rock climbing and poking around the Hall of Kings. I was checking out the bridge?? from the HOK to see what it was.

This is the climbing route that was taken.

http://postimg.org/image/r7k63avnt/

This is the first ledge and pics of the windows. I didn't know this had windows .

http://postimg.org/image/ve50imv9l/
http://postimg.org/image/k0ih7fkqx/

This is looking in the window. I could see the floor through the window.

http://postimg.org/image/8kgnn4vyh/

Next part was a little harder to get up on. :lol:

This was different,this ledge had windows too and looking through the window was different from what I expected. I could still see the floor. :lol:

http://postimg.org/image/7klrdorex/

Now on to the bridge??

http://postimg.org/image/vs6ci8fd5/
http://postimg.org/image/9wtrba409/

Now I zoomed on this pic to get a better idea of what it looked like .

http://postimg.org/image/rbikxaqix/

Now just for grins I climbed a stalagmite west of the HOK and snapped a pic .

http://postimg.org/image/vhytyw0qx/

Well this is all I have on the bridge.?? from the HOK

ventris · **Posted:** Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 pm

I am having trouble getting the pictures to load. For a long time they wouldn't, then they did, then they didn't again.

The supposed bridge certainly does not match AT ALL what is in the clay model. I know I also saw discussion of the bridge as leading to another section of the city but I see no way for that in what you've found.

Now the tower is more mysterious as it appears to be only connected to the palace at it's lowest visible level and that is the Hall of Kings. I suppose underground tunnels could run up the rock outcropping from which the tower extends. If there is a tunnel into the rock from what Larryf referred to as the "guard walk" above the stairs from the main plaza then that may connect around to the tower.

At the Colab architects site I found a couple of drawings that show the tower of the Hall of Kings integrated differently into the Palace. The bridge is also different from what we see.

Are the windows in the tower patterned stained glass? I thought I saw that but it was hard to tell and the pictures are in their not loading mode.

ventris · **Posted:** Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:54 pm

The pictures are in a loading mood and I have to ask...WHAT IS THAT SYMBOL! In the fourth picture what is that symbol on the wall?! A spiral type of thing with maybe a mountain shape? Can you get an enlarged picture?

DaVinci · **Posted:** Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:20 pm

ventris, that spiral looking thing is the floor of the Hall of Kings where the books are, you can see some of the book stands/holders if you look close. Sorry the windows are really dirty and I didn't take any cleaner with me

Now to enlarge the pictures you should be able to save them to your computer and use a program to view and enlarge them. I use InfraView program myself for this, as I a matter of fact I use this program to enhance the KI images after I take the pics. Most of the time the KI images are to dark and I have to light adjust them for viewing clarity.

I am inclined to think the "guardwalk" bridge,that LarryF mentioned,is the pathway to investigate for going to the east and into the rock through tunnels and rooms. I am thinking this would lead to the Jaren and J'taeri districts.

Artic_Wagon · **Joined:** Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:00 pm **Posts:** 4095

Free IrfanView and its plugin (2 downloads) can be found at the link...
http://www.irfanview.com/

Btw, in the image tab menu you will find many options like resize/resample, auto adjust colors and sharpen images.

In the options tab, you will find the properties settings (many pages).

Edit:

In that thread at the Guild of Messengers you will find many of my enhanced images ( as examples :wink:

)
http://www.guildofmessengers.com/en/for ... es-gallery

ventris · **Posted:** Wed Jul 24, 2013 2:27 am

One tidbit of information in the interview with Rand today was that the Hall of kings was installed long after the time of the kings. Not meaning the tower necessarily just the Hall.

Charura · **Joined:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:14 pm **Posts:** 1773

My question...(s) It seems that 1,2,3 pedestals are empty..also 14,25,28,31,and 34..Just wondering..this is all standing inside looking towards the plaza and assuming I go to my right to start and move clock-wise..Where are these missing books?

HarveyMidnight · **Joined:** Sat Apr 14, 2012 2:59 pm **Posts:** 432

Charura wrote:

My question...(s) It seems that 1,2,3 pedestals are empty..also 14,25,28,31,and 34..Just wondering..this is all standing inside looking towards the plaza and assuming I go to my right to start and move clock-wise..Where are these missing books?

[Reveal] Spoiler:

I know where 3 of them are... One of them is in Eder Kemo, one of them is in Gahreesen, one of them is on a rooftop in Tokotah.

ventris · **Posted:** Wed Jul 24, 2013 5:46 am

The Myst Ages site says that all the missing books were on Tokotah in Ages Beyond Myst and Complete Chronicles. Those would be, I think, Ri'neref, Ailesh, Shomat, Naygen, Demath, Me'emen and Asemlef. But where the unaccounted for ones are for us I'm not sure.

Aegura Investigations: Hall of Kings

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