Titania
"Light sparkles through the jewelled petals onto the marble-white paths. Wherever you explore, poets and singers perform their latest work, while artists peer behind canvases to try to capture the beauty in oil and chalk. In the horrors of the High Wilderness, this is a place of safety and wonder where nothing could possibly disturb the peace. Hmm. But what is that buzzing in the distance?"[1]
Titania is a commune built atop a giant orchid in the Reach.
Hope You Like Pollen[edit | edit source]
"Titania is cupped in the petals of a colossal orchid. Heady with scent, lurid with colour."[2]
The orchid upon which Titania is built lends the place a perfumed atmosphere,[3][4] and pollen saturates the wind.[5] The city is a refuge for bohemians who seek inspiration from the beauty of the High Wilderness,[6] using unique materials like pigments from the Reach's flora or stories from visiting skyfarers.[7][8] It is governed by a council consisting of the Rhapsodic Mayor, the Melancholy Poet, and the Stone-Faced Sculptor, who organize exhibitions for their students, but often bicker when discussing art and the commune's direction.[9][10]
Titania may seem idyllic, but a threat looms over all who live here:[11] a nearby hive of Chorister Bees regularly swarms the port to harvest the orchid's nectar,[12][13] damaging Titania's structures and injuring its citizens.[14] The city's crystal spires and domes were not built by its current settlers, implying they were left deserted, and the Rhapsodic Mayor was unfortunately unaware of this problem when she founded the community.[15]
Long ago, the flower of Titania was apparently originally supposed to grow "large and perfect," but it "debased itself on stolen nectar" to lure Chorister Bees in the hopes of becoming a hive. This angered the Silent Saint, an Aeginae who considered the flower's actions amalgamy and a violation of the High Wilderness' laws. The Saint tried to destroy the flower,[16] but its crusade seems to have failed, and it is now a frozen corpse in the Reach.[17]
The Midnight Rose[edit | edit source]
"A precarious descent of ladders leads down to the hideout of the Midnight Rose: a spiral of rickety platforms clinging to the great orchid's stalk. There, the Rose have constructed an edifice of glass, something between an orangery and a cowshed. It hums with bees, and shivers with sobbing."[18]
"We are democratising art. Thanks to our cage-garden, a writer need not speculate about the sorrow of a lover as their beloved dies; they can taste our honey and know it themselves. We are no longer subject to the tyranny of experience."[19]
Hidden under the petals of Titania is the Midnight Rose, a greenhouse[20] that produces and exports gaoler's honey.[21][22] Unlike typical cage-gardens, the prisoners here possess keys and are free to leave anytime;[23] according to their handler, the Ethereal Apiarist,[24] this is because the prisoners are artists who believe they must suffer for their art.[23] The Apiarist believes that this treatment may inspire the artists to further pursue their skills, and that by distributing red honey, she is freeing its imbibers from the "tyranny of experience."[25]
Historical and Cultural Inspirations[edit | edit source]
Titania is the Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a powerful nature spirit. Shakespeare likely borrowed the name from Greek mythology.
References[edit | edit source]
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