Skytaverns were a class of exceptionally large phraxships that acted primarily as luxury cruise liners for the affluent inhabitants of the Edge. Additionally, they sometimes carried cargo - the Deadbolt Vulpoon, at least, is shown receiving phrax crystals mined at the Prade Phraxmine, to transfer them to Great Glade.
Layout[]
Only one class of skytavern has been shown so far - an unnamed class to which the identical Deadbolt Vulpoon and Xanth Filatine belonged.
Skytaverns were extremely large, comparable to the Great Sky Whale of the First Age of Flight, and harboured a great many inhabitants, from criminal elements and the poor and desperate in the lowest decks, to wealthy merchants, mine-owners, and academics on the highest decks.
Like the majority of large phraxships, skytaverns had a single large phraxchamber located centrally on the top deck and reinforced by a stout internal mast. They were not designed with aerodynamic efficiency in mind, and had a large, snub-nosed prow.
Provision and Entertainment[]
Gambling[]
Gambling was a popular activity on skytaverns. Around large tables, up to forty gamblers[1] played games like Carillon, Hench, Rumblestakes and Shuttle, Shove-glader, Two-Bit Drop or, most popular, Splinters.[2]
Dining[]
Ordinary passengers ate in the "slop halls", communal dining halls. On the Xanth Filatine, this was a broad chamber with a low ceiling that was filled with twenty buoyant sumpwood tables and a central kitchen. The slop halls served mostly skyfare, sky creatures captured on a bait log, but also dips and sauces as well as snowbird and gullywing stew. [3]
Notable Skytaverns[]
References[]
- ↑ The Immortals, Chapter 51
- ↑ The Immortals, Chapter 16
- ↑ The Nameless One, Chapter 10