The Palace of Happiness was a fortress on Vjun, built on the orders of the Gossam Sith Lord Kai Latra. It served as a laboratory for the Sith Lord's alchemical experiments, a prison for his enemies, and a torture chamber for those sent to him for physical or spiritual destruction.
Design[]
Exterior[]
The Palace of Happiness was built on a cliff overlooking the city of Bitter End some kilometers away and below; the fortress sat on one of two cliffs that bordered a gorge through which a river ran. A sprawling affair, the castle was built of black stone which seemed to drink the light; even on one of Vjun's rare sunny days, most beings who viewed the castle had difficulty distinguishing its features, usually seeing only a smear of black. It had several towers, the tallest of which was a bell tower, and was built even deeper underground than it was above ground.
The castle had a small hangar bay, through which shuttles and freighters could pass to deliver cargo or slaves. There was also a small, secret hangar bay for emergency departures. Apart from these, the only entrance was through thick, durasteel-reinforced gates. The gates were seldom opened except when Kai Latra summoned Nouli Malreaux, his planetary Lord Administrator, to the castle.
Interior[]
The castle was a maze of corridors leading in strange directions, staircases so narrow Aldayr and Narasi had to walk single file that opened onto halls as breathtaking in their grandeur as they were obscene in their decorative scheme, comfortably furnished rooms accessible off stone corridors that featured blood- and brain-stained torture devices one door down. Between that and its insistence on never using the same construction material for more than one room in a row, Aldayr privately thought the architect was either a madman or high out of his mind on spice so pure that Aldayr could have sold a gram of it and lived like a king until the end of his days.
—Aldayr Nikodon's thoughts on the Palace of Happiness
While the exterior of the castle was, if not orderly, at least comprehensible, the interior was a maze of tunnels, corridors, side passages, and rooms, including several routes which dead-ended and some which simply went in circles. It was also riddled with secret passages and concealed chambers. Most beings, even those who lived and worked in the castle for years, believed no one but Kai Latra truly knew all of its secrets.
The castle made use of many different construction materials—both from room to room and even in the same room—but the most common were duracrete, stone, and durasteel. Its decorative scheme also varied wildly, from nothing to elaborate tapestries and statuary.
Hangar and Slave Reception[]
The castle's hangar bay was large enough to fit a Zygerrian drop ship with room to spare for freighters. It led directly to an equally large chamber used for processing newly acquired sentients or creatures, which was taken up by a large floor but ringed by a dozen pens.
Prison[]
Slaves who had been processed but had yet to be experimented on, as well as political or other prisoners sent to Kai Latra for torment, were kept in a prison accessible from slave reception. The ten-level prison was shaped like an upside-down beehive; each circular floor of cells was smaller than the one above, so that a being standing on the top floor could look down and see all of every floor below. The prison was controlled from a control podium in the center, which could extend a ramp to any floor. To prevent mass escape, no ladders or lifts connected the floors.
The lowest level of the prison was a machine shop and mechanical room, and also housed various restraint and torture devices.
Experiment Cells[]
Various Sithspawn and experiments were kept in cells throughout the dungeons of the castle—sometimes to ensure no one was merciful enough to liberate them, and other times to ensure no one was sadistic enough to liberate them and unleash them upon others. Kai Latra kept some experiments in the dungeons when he decided they were not ready for deployment in the field.
Captured Jedi (and other Force-sensitive prisoners) were also incarcerated in the dungeons to prevent their escape.
Ugnaught Workspaces and Engineering[]
Kai Latra's Ugnaught minions ran the engineering and mechanical aspects of the fortress, which was powered by a series of generator and turbine rooms. The castle was honeycombed with maintenance tunnels at Gossam height, tall enough for Ugnaughts but inconvenient for anyone else; the Ugnaughts used them to quickly move from area to area.
Laboratory and Warehouse[]
Kai Latra's primary laboratory was located through a corridor off the slave reception chamber, overlooking a warehouse. The warehouse was used to store Sithspawn which were ready for deployment in the field; most were kept in crates with bars, although the most dangerous were housed in opaque storage containers. The room was usually kept in semi-darkness to avoid unduly agitating those creatures designed to react to light.
The laboratory was brightly lit and filled with state-of-the-art chemical and biological scientific equipment, but also had storage tanks, restraint chairs, Sith glyphs and symbols, and an altar for alchemical sacrifices and work. Darkened transparisteel windows provided a view down on the warehouse.
The Bell Tower[]
The castle's highest tower was crowned with a bell, which could be pulled from the base of the tower. Other rooms in the tower were used to store treasures of mundane or Forceful nature and as specialized torture chambers.
The Depths[]
The lowest recesses of the castle were reserved for Kai Latra and those few he took down with him. The sanctum was guarded by Cuddles, a Sithspawn acklay. A wide staircase led down to Cuddles's arena, which was a sand-covered pit strewn with the bones of the acklay's past meals. An underground lake was connected to the arena to allow Cuddles swimming time.
Stairs on the opposite side of the arena led down to a chamber used for the darkest and most dangerous of Sith rites. A private turbolift allowed Kai Latra to access the depths while bypassing Cuddles.
The Nalargonarium[]
The deepest level of the castle was a cathedral-sized chamber with symmetrical arcades; the walls were blind arcades. The entire room was nuummite, which gave it the appearance of a meteor shower in a moonless night. Candles were set in sconces shaped like grotesques. The ceiling was decorated with mosaics.
At the apse of the room was a colossal nalargon with two rows of key pads. It had close to a hundred pipes decorated with carvings of various Sithspawn and monsters. Several of the pipes were routed through the castle so that, when Kai Latra played, the music would spread everywhere.
Panic Room[]
Pressing the correct (dischordant) combination of keys on the nalagaron opened a secret door disguised as one of the blind arcade columns. A staircase inside led down to a small docking bay with a one-seater spacecraft which Kai Latra intended for a fast getaway if he ever needed one.
History[]
Kai Latra had the Palace of Happiness built (and named it that) with the patronage of the Sith Overlord Darth Saleej, with tacit funding from the Council of Five. He often lived in the castle for months at a time, attending meetings of Saleej's council in person only as needed, though he also sometimes left the castle for long stretches when suffering "writer's block", leaving it in the charge of his Sith Acolytes and his Ugnaught minions.
Jedi and enemy dark siders captured by Darth Saleej's forces were sent to the Palace of Happiness for torture or, when possible, for alchemical mutation into Saleej's bodyguards. On occasion the Council of Five directly requested some creation from Kai Latra, sending representatives to relay commands, though they never visited in person.
In 1,386 BBY, Jedi Padawans Aldayr Nikodon and Narasi Rican were captured and sent to the Palace of Happiness. They broke out of captivity while, unbeknownst to them, Tirien Kal-Di and Darth Alecto simultaneously invaded the fortress, followed by Alecto's Brotherhood of Darkness agents. The three factions turned the castle into chaos; the Jedi liberated and rescued Kai Latra's prisoners and slaves, while the Anzati came to Alecto's side to prevent any duplicity by Kai Latra. Alecto's brethren killed the surviving Sith Acolytes but, at Latra's request, spared Cuddles.
Behind the Scenes[]
Numerous pieces of art and photography inspired the Palace of Happiness, including this one (the alchemy room in the depths), this one (Kai Latra's nalargon), this one (a corridor), this one (the corridor in which Olik Gryfe ambushes the Padawans), and this one (the prison).