Canaan House

Gideon Nav in Canaan House illustrated by iephos

A once resplendent fortress now fallen into disrepair, Canaan House was intended to be the Emperor's palace on the First House, where he could live, work, and watch over the other Houses.

It is from within Canaan House that Necromancers and their Cavaliers study the path to Lyctorhood. The original disciples of the Emperor, who would become his Lyctors, stayed in Canaan House for several hundred years before they fled to The Mithraeum.

History

"We first built upward, to get away from the sea; then we built outward, to strive toward beauty..."

The base of Canaan House predates The Resurrection. The rest of it was built afterwards, The Facility being referred to as "the original body of the building."

Within the first hundred years after the Resurrection, the disciples realized that they needed to undertake a great deal of research into how they could serve the Emperor without needing him to keep them alive. This took place in the Facility and their individual research labs.

Half of the original disciples took up swords and became the first cavaliers, providing a blueprint for later necromancer-cavalier pairs.

Some nine-thousand odd years later, the scions of the Houses along with their cavaliers were invited back to Canaan House to discover the secret to Lyctorhood.

Appearance

When she first arrives, Gideon imagines it in its glory:

"Rearing up before them was a palace, a fortress, of white and shining stone. It spread out on the surface of the water like an island. You couldn't see over it and you could hardly see around it. It lapped back in terraces of what must have once been fabulous gardens. It rose up in gracious towers that hurt the eye with their slenderness and precision. It was a monument to wealth and beauty. Back in it's day, at least, it would have been a monument to wealth and beauty."

There is a central tower, numerous terraces, and a large shuttle dock. Many towers have crumbled. The base of the building is overgrown, and the windows and balconies had long ago been overtaken by the gardens, which are now dead. The white walls are shot through with gold veins.

Inside, the palace is a labyrinth of halls, doors, and rooms, all beautiful and all falling apart in some way.

Locations

Quarters

Sixth House Quarters

The quarters given to Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect were high in the central tower. The room contains large airy windows, that the Sixth summarily covered with blackout curtains. They have attempted to recreate the climate and light-controlled environment of their home planet, and absolutely covered every surface in flimsy.

Eighth House Quarters

The quarters given to Silas Octakiseron and Colum Asht are square and airy. The Eighth House duo has gotten rid of all furniture it may have contained, and cleaned the room to a high polish. The only decoration in the room is a large painting of The Emperor.

Ninth House Quarters

The quarters given to Harrowhark Nonagesimus and Gideon Nav reside directly below the shuttle dock. As such, they are wide with low ceilings and a sunken floor, with sloping stone ramps leading up to the doors. The walls have floor-to-ceiling windows that remain shaded by the dock above. There are chandeliers, described as being 'festooned black crystals on wire'.  The room is dressed in dark ruby, sapphire, and emerald, but most of the furniture has seen better days. Even so, it is an upgrade from Ninth House.

The Ninth House quarters also contain a large bathroom with a bathtub (mostly archaic and unusual technology to the Ninth House residents), sink, and sonic cleaner—as well as accompanying soap and antibac gel. The bathroom still reflects the rundown nature of Canaan House in its molding marble floors and cracked mirror.

Research Laboratories

X-203

"It was a study, left crystallised by someone who had one day stood up and never come back to the place where they must have worked for years."

Discovered by Harrow and Gideon, X-203 is the Second House's study from when Canaan House was in use by the original Lyctors, over nine thousand years ago. It was inhabited by Gideon and Pyrrha. The laboratory part of the room contains the complete notes for the transference theorem, as well as books, flasks of blood, chalk and chalk diagrams, jeweled tools, and laminate benches. Another part of the room contains an open stone floor, two rapiers on a rack, and a blowback carbine gun. A third, on a raised platform, contains a small living area with beds, chairs, a table, and abandoned tea.

X-???

This Lyctor study, discovered by Palamedes and Harrow, is mess of an abandoned workshop. It belonged to the original Sixth House Lyctors, Cassiopeia and Nigella Shodash. Covered in bits of paper, sleeping bags, clothing, and experiments. The room also contains a pinboard with numerous designs tacked intentionally into the board, and a binder of images, including one of Teacher. This study revealed the theorem that allowed Teacher and the First House Skeletons to exist.

X-???

The third Lyctor study, discovered by the Third House, is unexpectedly light with fantastic murals of white trees, purple flowers, golden clouds, and flying birds painted on them. It is sparsely furnished and neatly kept. It was the study of Cytherea and Loveday Heptane.

The Atrium

"Everything in that room was beautiful, and all had gone to seed. [...] The House of the First had been abandoned, and breathlessly waited to be used by someone other than time."

Beautiful and ancient, the Atrium is a cavernous room filled with couches and benches, rugs and mosaics, and broken glass ceilings (supported by pillars) and windows letting in trailing vines and mosses. The floors are wood and contain areas of gold-shot marble and mosaics. Two grand staircases lead up to the upper levels of Canaan House. There is a grand three-tiered fountain and aging portraits decorating the space.

The Dining Hall

A tall, glass-roofed room where the postulants take their meals. Describes "modern conveniences haphazardly pasted atop ancient riches", the room features a freshwater fountain (with filter) against one wall, and a number of long, worn wooden tables to seat about 50. There is a net stretched across the roof to prevent birds from getting through the cracks in the glass. The hall is "decorated" with ancient tapestries, tarnished filigree, and the many plants growing wherever they can find enough space to take root.

The Dock

An enormous metal-plated dock, The First House dock has enough space to dock one hundred shuttles simultaneously. Closed to travelers (except by explicit permission of The Emperor), the shuttle bays now stand empty and have been covered in sea salt from centuries of disuse.

The Facility

Located in the basement of Canaan House, the Facility is a laboratory built by the original Lyctors to study and refine complex theorems. The Facility contains six rooms: Laboratories 1-10, the Pressure Room, the Preservation Room, the Mortuary, the Work Rooms, and Sanitiser.

The Fridge/Freezer

Located off the Dining Hall, the fridge is a fan-blasted room containing any perishable items used or eaten by the priests and postulants of Canaan House. There is another door in the Fridge that leads to another nondescript room containing big shelves, and tall, long tables. This room is used as a Morgue during the events of Gideon the Ninth.

The Garden Terrace

No longer a true garden, this metal terrace is covered in salt and stunted green plants. The terrace is filled with strange, heavy smells. Outside of the greenhouse-like area is an open area with a few wrinkled old trees.During the events of Gideon the Ninth, Cytherea posing as Dulcinea spends much of her time here.

The Pool Room

Used by the cavaliers as a training facility and sparring court, the "chemical pit" is an empty and dilapidated pool that is slowly refurbished by the skeleton constructs over the course of the novel. It is discovered by Gideon and the Third House (separately) on the first full day at Canaan House, and serves as a meeting point for inter-house cavalier discussions throughout the novel.

Double doors lead from the pool room to a "mirror room" where most of the sparring matches take place. Aside from the massive mirror, the room contains little more than a flagstone floor, water basin, and rusted swords on a rusted panel. It is clearly intended to be a training facility.