The Vineyards
The Vineyards Estate is a massive estate that is the primary estate of House V'neef. It was given to V'neef on her wedding day to Cynis Chosul by the Scarlet Empress, and includes two villages, several Manses, thousands of acres worth of both game-heavy woodland and productive vineyards, plus a main estate house and a handful of hunting lodges and other noteworthy structures. It also features several miles of shoreline along the northern edge of the Blessed Isle.
Inhabitants: The following members of House V'neef reside at the Vineyards: V'neef Chosul and his son, V'neef Imiros.
Contents
The Vineyards Estate of House V'neef
Wood Aspected Manse ••••
The Vineyards Estate - officially on the Imperial records as the Ebony Hall of Verdance Resplendent - is a massive manse. Its walls are constructed of green-jade-inset ebony that retains a highly lustrous sheen, with swathes of ivy growing up its grand walls. It is vast and palatial, with a central house and four separate towered wings that branch off of it.
The Ebony Hall was one of the Empress' favored country estates in the early days of the Scarlet Empire, and she retained personal control of it for most of her time on the throne. She retired here to give birth to V'neef, and sequestered herself in these halls for the first five years of V'neef's life, formally moving her court here - withdrawing invitations to the Great Houses to her court while doing so, in fact, a slap in the face most of them have not forgotten.
The Vineyards Estate is much quieter these days. Only Chosul, V'neef's husband and their youngest son, Imiros live here permanently. The rest of the House has a standing invitation to visit, of course, and all of V'neef's direct children have rooms here - it is where they were all raised, for the most part. The estate house itself has twenty or so suites throughout its length, not including the massive Lord's Wing and Lady's Wing, the portions of the manse set aside for Chosul and V'neef respectively.
Chosul himself bears the Song of Life Stone, the Hearthstone generated in the estate's Great Hall (its placement an Imperial seal of green jade mounted above the hearth, just behind the paired seats of V'neef and Chosul). He uses its powers to great effect, wandering through the portions of the vineyards that are not currently being worked by slaves, his mandolin in hand, singing. Through these efforts, the vineyards of the estate are kept in a constant state of harvest, year-round (although he does not go on his walks during winter). As a result, each of the vineyards boasts as many as a dozen full harvests every year.
The Villages
- Coastal village
- Grape Country village
The Manses
- 9 Wood Aspected (5 vineyards, 3 forest, 1 agricultural)
- 4 Water Aspected (1 lake island, 1 riverside, 2 shoreline)
- 3 Earth Aspected (1 mountaintop, 1 vineyard, 1 agricultural)
- 2 Air Aspected (1 mountaintop, 1 shoreline - lighthouse)
Other Notable Features
- The Farnal Woodlands: X
- The Veiled Bride & Bride's Lake: Lake formed at base of waterfall, carved into the shape of a woman (V'neef), with a veil of water pouring down her.
- The Boughflow River: River that flows into Bride's Lake, from the forest.