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Old 01-14-2021, 06:44 PM   #674
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: 'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

The Grand Mosaic of Deneb:

This is a partially completed floor in a room in the latest expansion of Archduke Norris' Palace. Constructed by Dame Anastasia Truehaven a noted international artist, it uses as a base her Home People's tradition in decorative datacrystals and highly crafted artificial gemstones.

Each stone is luminescent and capable of a full spectrum of colors. The "home" scene will be a display of wilderness scenery from Mora though more than that has not been revealed. It will be displayed on the month when the floor is declared complete. In every month it will show a scene typical of one of the planets in the Domain.

As a bonus each stone is to be a dataholder and contain at least one item of information reflecting the culture of a given world in the Domain of Deneb. As obviously there are more stones than worlds and every one is planed to contain several thousand gigabytes to a terabyte or moreworth of information according to the palace seneschal there is considerably more than that minimum.

The ceiling and walls are intended to be a fairly normal virtual picture that reflects a geometric display, not unlike ancient Persian styles of architecture. At celebratory times, however it will be changed to reflect an appropriate image. The whole system is powered by an outside generator.

The rim of the system will be a solid color designed to be reasonably attractive. This part will be regularly open to the public as long as order is kept and a series of computers will be available to access the information hidden in the floor making it also a working library and museum. The only parts hidden will be such items as are considered sacred to their respective cultures and traditionally limited in access. Attempts to hack those will receive a severe fine if caught.

The mosaic itself is off limits as it is intended to be a working dance floor during Imperial festivities. As such it is to be properly maintained and cleaned by trained servants. Attendance at such galas will be by invitation only.
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