The Arch of Blades: The Arch of Blades is an old and respected establishment in Miroi T'Chi-Chang--or Miroi Chang, for they do not stand on ceremony there. It has long been a favorite drinking place for the men of the city guard and the men of the army. The main room is large, with a long bar down one side and tables around the other three, but the center of the room is left free. (It is said that once the room was divided into genteel smaller sections by ornamental screens, but when several distinguished patrons over the decades had crashed through them in their eagerness to join friends across the room--or enemies across the room, for that matter--they were taken down (what was left of them). There is nothing, now, to impede free association in the barroom--provided only that you don't damage the major fittings, such as the long bar mirror and the heavy chandeliers that hang from the high ceiling.

The liquor is very good here--the Arch is one of the few places in this ancient city where the distilled grain liquors and oddly mixed drinks favored by foreigners and gladiators are regularly available--and the prices are reasonable. (Traditionalists still prefer brandy for a high-potency drink.) The Arch will serve food--nothing formal, but snacks, sandwiches, shish-kebab (customers are asked not to attack each other with the skewers), and other "finger food." (It is not true that the cook once said, "We serve finger foods because most of the customers don't know how to eat any other way.")

There is no entertainment here, no musicians to play so that the customers may dance, no singers or tellers of old jokes. Women, yes, strapping serving wenches and jolly barmaids, but no dancers--for that you must go elsewhere (the Place of Three Ancient Willows is suggested). Nor are old soldiers allowed to monopolize the whole barroom and all the customers with their reminiscences--there is a story-room where you may tell of old battles...if any of the other old soldiers will shut up long enough to listen. At times, the large central floor has been used to stage fights--that's STAGE fights, folks--with padded weapons, but serious fighting must be taken outside--all regular patrons understand this and will gang up to help remove some newcomer who attempts to flout the rules.

The owner of the Arch of Blades is believed to be a man by the name of Jendel ten Miko, once the personal servant of a great general (so they say) who left all his wealth to Jendel on the understanding that he open just such a place as the Arch. Whether or not this is true... No one has ever met this Jendel ten Miko, but the Arch is a pleasant place for serious drinking, so no one worries about it much.

White Walls: White Walls, more formally known as Fort Miroi-Zenar, was once the fortress-palace of the Emperor, in the long-ago days when the capital was at Miroi T'Chi-Chang. It is a huge enclosure--roughly a thousand feet square--built of pale granite and faced with white marble from the Jade Panther Hills. The outer wall is thirty feet high and fifteen feet thick, for in the old days this royal stronghold was not so far from the border of the Empire of Ratan (fallen long since). An inner wall fifty feet high, separated from the outer one by thirty feet of paved courtyard all the way around, protects the inner courtyards and the towers of the main citadel. It is said that at one time the fortress was connected with the city by tunnels, but when the capital was moved, the tunnels were filled in. These days, no one would know where to begin to look for them.

The fortress is still Imperial property, of course, and the citadel is maintained in a state of readiness to receive a visit from the Emperor at any time. The rest of the fortress is used as a military storage depot--armor and weapons, supplies of all sorts, are kept in the storerooms until the time comes for them to be dispatched to some distant outpost--for this is the headquarters of the Quartermaster Department.

Because the border between the Empire of Lirith Kai and the Ratani Emirates is near--well, fairly near--there are troops stationed here as well--light cavalry, mostly, suitable for operations on the semi-arid plains to the southeast.

Traditionally, the fortress is always commanded by a native of Miroi T'Chi-Chang--at this time, it is General Vorion ten Hardansa--but the cavalry units are under the command of Tanar ten Dharro, a younger man of lesser rank (about a colonel) from Zur Dannath farther south. They don't get along very well--General Vorion is fully conscious of the age and dignity of his House as compared to Tanar's and of his greater rank. Tanar, for his part, considers the General to be old-fashioned and rigid in his thinking--Vorion keeps insisting on telling him how he should use the cavalry companies, though he has never commanded anything but infantry and chariots. To further confuse matters, the Quartermaster Depot is under the command of a Major Heziket tel Sru, considered by both Vorion and Tanar (it is their only point of agreement) to be a fussy paper-shuffler. Leldamar ten Sarnika is the majordomo of the Emperor's quarters and the peace-keeper among the three officers; what his own views are, no one knows, for he has mastered the art of concealing his thoughts behind a mask of manners.