Rin's Castle

Rin's Castle was the personal retreat of Rin Sakaros on her private world, Queen's Garden.

History
Queen's Garden, like the rest of the Kartok system, was discovered by the Golden Empire in 98 ABY, then relegated to future consideration as the Empire became embroiled in war with the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob. When Rin gave Kavez Massass to her Massassi warriors as a gift, her brother Tariun suggested she make the system's other inhabitable planet her own private retreat world. Though Rin objected, Tariun's persistent wheedling and that of her other closest advisors finally led Rin to give in and take the world, which she gave the name Queen's Garden, in 119 ABY.

The Massassi from Kavez Massass immediately desired to build Rin a suitable fortress. Their initial plan was a massive fortification, ominous and imposing, but they were persuaded by Tariun, Tarzg Sav'lir, and some of Rin's other counselors to modify their plans. Tariun himself became intimately involved with the design, opting to forego physical hardiness in favor of sophisticated technological defenses, reasoning that since Queen's Garden had no native sentients, any attack was likely to be from or begin in space, and thus come from enemies with high technology, not angry primitives. Outside architects were brought into the project as consultants, though they were not allowed to visit Queen's Garden and Rin wiped their memories at the end of the design. Among them were Ky`Knomi artisans from Tyras, Iscali miners from Iscandar, Kasci mountaineers from Iomis, Vorsyt architects from Uyiq-Mest, and Mezzel engineers from Mezlagob. Rin herself selected the site for her castle.

With designs completed in late 119 ABY apart from occasional revisions, Massassi laborers and labored on the project for nearly two years. Rin's Castle was completed in 121 ABY, and Rin was persuaded to take her first vacation that very year. She would continue to visit the world sporadically throughout her reign, usually whenever Tariun succeeded into coaxing her to take a vacation.

In 142 ABY, Rin's cousin, Princess Andromeda Keane, was approaching the final months of her long life. Rin allowed Andromeda to retire to Queen's Garden and even arranged for her cousin (and Andromeda's grandson), Jarek Solios, to visit the world so Andromeda would not be alone (Rin and Tariun being enmeshed in The Tribulation). When Andromeda died, Jarek, Kelto Nembask, Moira Nascall, and the Castle's Massassi guards constructed a tomb for her there, overlooking the sea.

During the Nightmare War, the Reawakened succeeded in weaponizing the Sickness. After Rayne Turgachia and Te`net Organi became infected, Rin had her sister Jasmine Auroras and Jasmine's family evacuated to her castle on Queen's Garden as a precaution until the war's conclusion.

Exterior
Rin chose a site for her castle which gave her access to several of Queen's Garden's various climes with little travel. The castle was built into one of the world's spire mountains, in a range that bordered a sea. Most of the edifice was in the foothills around the base of the mountain, though portion of the mountain were hollowed out and reinforced to provide both a defensible retreat and access to a which reached an observation gallery built close to the mountain's peak.

The castle had no main gate, but was only accessible by hovercraft or -capable vehicles (or ) except for a single staircase which led through several security walls down to the sea. Much of the architecture was patterned after designs from and, with a distinct Tyrasi flair. The castle's walls were smooth, polished stone, layered over frames, with ornately decorated battlements so Rin could walk along the walls and look down at the valleys of the mountains. Several walls were built between neighboring mountains, boxing in a lush valley and lake within walking distance of the castle, where Rin occasionally went to swim or simply enjoy nature.

The castle itself was concentric, with the outer wall placed a dozen meters lower than the inner. The inner citadel was built directly into the mountain, and the interior continued inside where the construction teams had hollowed the spire. The space between the outer and inner walls was decorated sparsely, although it had some plants and a mosaic along the inner wall. Floored primarily with large, smooth flagstones, Rin used the space to practice, Var Shek, and. The barracks for the castle's contingent of Massassi guards was built in the outer courtyard.

The inner courtyard of the castle was much more luxuriant, the courtyard itself much closer to the tops of the walls (and thus elevated above the outer courtyard). It had generous spaces of grass lined with trees and various sculptures. With great difficulty, Tariun Sakaros managed to import a handful of fruit trees from  for the courtyard. A gazebo stood in the very center of the inner courtyard, with a long reflecting pool stretching from the gazebo to the citadel's gate.

In 142 ABY, one of the gardens in the inner courtyard was turned into an outdoor tomb for Andromeda Keane.

Interior
The interior of the castle had many wide-open spaces with ample window lighting whenever it was available. Terraces overlooked the castle's courtyards and the surrounding environment from several different angles. Each of these terraces was covered with terracotta domes or half-domes in the Nabooan style, though coming to a point with thin spires to show their Tyrasi influence.

Though the castle was built with a great hall with an elaborately colored marble floor, Rin did not use it as a throne room or even have a throne for herself inside the castle, as she felt such a device was only important when actively governing or addressing subjects, and she considered herself "off duty" on Queen's Garden and never received visitors there. Most of the other rooms were also open and spacious. Marble staircases on either side of the main hall led to each of the upper floors in turn.

The main floor had, among other things, a kitchen and dining area (where Rin surprised and often horrified her Royal Guards by cooking for herself from time to time) and a library. The second floor featured an art gallery with different pieces than the Royal Gallery aboard the Sith Star, though Rin had a few of her very favorite works holographically copied. The second floor also had access to a pair of terraces, one with a wrought-iron lattice outer wall and one exposed to the air. The third floor had luxurious bedroom suites for Rin and numerous guests, as well as an open-air balcony. It also had a communications suite which could contact other points in the Empire if needed. Accessible from the main floor was a small but amply stocked wine cellar with vintages from all over the Empire, as well as some imports from the known galaxy.

The parts of the castle inside the mountain housed the generators which powered the castle and its various defenses. The mountain was also home to a heavily fortified military retreat, into which Rin could flee if the castle was attacked and overrun. The entrance to the sanctum was protected by a long corridor only conveniently traversable by ; once activated from inside, a network of blaster cannons would fire upon anything moving down the corridor. The retreat was designed to be very spare and military in nature, with only scant accommodations and a self-contained generator which would power only the retreat and its defenses. A second secure communications system allowed contact with the outside world. A hangar was built into the mountain, accessible to the rest of the interior stronghold, for offworld ships to land.

A turbolift reached up high into the mountain, close to its summit, where another level of the castle had been built. Here Rin had a third bedroom, as well as suites for her Guards or guests and an observatory. An open-air balcony looked out over the entire complex and much of the surrounding territory, and also had a heated swimming pool; Rin found the crisp mountain air refreshing. In the winter months, snow would sometimes accumulate on the top level even when the castle proper was still only cool.

Environs
A staircase accessible from the inner courtyard led down several hundred meters to the sea which bordered the castle's mountain range. Rin had a set of watercraft kept there, and sometimes took her Guards out onto the sea. A turbolift also connected the docks to the outer courtyard, but Rin resolved to only use it in emergencies, enjoying the exercise of the hike up and down.

The castle was built beside a valley formed in the middle of several spire mountains, richly forested except for a large, blue lake in its center. A river flowed from the waterfalls of a nearby mountain into the lake, then out the other side into another waterfall which fell to the sea. Rin enjoyed hiking in the forest and visiting the waterfalls, as well as swimming in the lake. She had pathways built into some of the forest closest to the castle, transforming them into a natural garden, but left the majority of the forest untouched.

Defenses
Tariun Sakaros personally designed the defensive fortifications protecting his sister's castle to ensure that they were the best the Empire could create. Each mountain around Rin's had a built into it, and Rin's had two; if activated simultaneously, all would provide a multiple-overlap protective shield for a several-kilometer radius. Tariun boasted that nothing short of the could punch a hole in the shield configuration. Most were s, although one on Rin's mountain and one other were s, to defend against physical attack. Power to the auxiliary shield generators was supplied by deeply-buried conduits linked to the castle's generators. The castle also had four s placed around the mountain, controlled by the castle's security system, as well as four others on neighboring mountains.

The castle itself had a number of defensive measures which could be controlled from strategic points inside. Control panels could open or seal any door in the castle, and all such doors (whether they had material doors or were simply open holes in walls) had durasteel security curtains which could be dropped into place. In addition, every window had either a retractable durasteel screen or (in the case of wide-open spaces) individual ray shields. Aside from the guard barracks, the castle had a small armory, including projectile weapons, explosives, and a small cache of lightsabers.

Several rooms inside the castle could generate stun fields on command, and after visiting Ara Merquise's Fortress on, Tariun added controls which could vent knockout or poison gas into the castle. Each room with a security control panel could lock down and had a ventilation system linked to the inside of the mountain, thus allowing access to clean, untainted air.

The inside of the mountain was a fallback fortress, built with several layers of durasteel and, as previously noted, an access tunnel filled with motion-sensitive blasters which could be activated from inside. The fortress had provisions to feed ten people for five years and a well bored kilometers down to access clean, purified drinking water. Ventilation tubes also linked to the caverns around the well, allowing the fortress to draw in and purify clean air. The fortress itself could be completely sealed off from the rest of the castle, and was accessible from either the castle proper or the upper portions.

Rin's Castle had a small, dedicated protective force of Massassi guards who protected the castle at all times. Neighboring Kavez Massass was available for reinforcements in hours if the need arose. Even the existence of Queen's Garden, let alone Rin's Castle, was privileged information, known by a few thousand beings (other than Massassi) in an Empire of hundreds of billions. After Rin erased the designs from the minds of the castle's designers, only she and Tariun knew exactly how it was built and everything about it. The castle had levels of security codes; Massassi could activate some defenses, Centurions others, and still others were reserved only to Rin and Tariun's knowledge.

Visitors
Very, very few people were allowed to visit Queen's Garden, most of them Rin's Royal Guards who accompanied her everywhere. Among those known to have visited the castle are:
 * Rin Sakaros, master of the castle
 * Tariun Sakaros, Rin's brother, and later his wife Breek Zagrev
 * Tarzg Sav'lir, Chief of the Royal Guard
 * Andromeda Keane, Princess of the Empire and Rin's cousin
 * Kelto Nembask and Moira Nascall, Andromeda's Royal Guards
 * Jarek Solios, the first person outside the Empire to visit Queen's Garden, who shared the last months of his grandmother Andromeda's life
 * Zogryth, first Massassi Consul of Kavez Massass
 * Jira and Wyro Zaffrod, on their honeymoon
 * Axelia Solios, who visited her grandmother's tomb in 147 ABY
 * Jasmine Auroras and Katie, Sovi, and Taia Turgachia, during the Nightmare War