The Neo Byzantinian Empire of Stropon

[Pat]

Whaaaaaaaat no pics aaaaaaah man that bites but at least in 2 days we will get some!!! See you then Hubert... - pat

[bat]

Looking forward to part 2!

[Strechnitz]

Ennedi Hello and welcome to Stropon my friend. I am sorry that my stories are always so long. It is a bad habbit that I use 10 words if I can say it in 5.   And honestly, I have never noticed that your English is poor. all your posts that I have read are all very clear and well written.

I am glad that you like the stories I try to weave in with this MD. They really are fun to make. although sometimes I must restrain myself not to add another one while I have not yet finished others.  The old paintings I use are from artists that I admire just like most of the art fotography. Most of them come from my art books. Sometimes they are a lucky find on the internet. the fotography are partly from the internet, and partly stills from films and series from my personal DVD collection. the rest Is usualy found on blogs made by creative friends or distant acquaintances on the internet.    almost every character I use are pictures of actors in some role they have played and which fits in the story I want to tell or illustrate. I hope this answers your question   

I myself am very fond of English landscape gardens too. But I haven't come to that part yet. I do have a Palace waiting to be finished which has such a garden. but that is a secret for now. at the present it is time for the trimmed baroque hedges of Dampotzen

Bat & Pat (great combo ) Well here it is. And my apologies to you and everyone for being so late with this update I had promised for the 20th. my partner surprised me friday with a surprise trip to Vienna. we have spent a wonderful christmas there. It was partly because of the tough exams I had in december. He's such a darling. I love him!
One week in the Austrian Capital has fully revived me so with no further ado I give you the second Dampotzen update.




Good evening. My name is Alexandra von Hofenburg, and welcome back to Sights and Seeings my dear viewers. We left you in the last episode on the doorstep of the Water Palace.

As I have told you this is the second Wasser Palast built on this spot. The first renaissance pavllion met an unfortunate end when malfunctioning fireworks set the building ablaze.

But a mere fire has never stopped any emperor to build something new. No, rather than that it seems to bring out the best in them, or in there architects at least.

Emperor Victor Augustus II, the conqueror of Quitaniania ordered his architects to recreate an eastern pavilion. A paradise filled with Lustre and Glitter. A depiction of the orient that had little to do with the actual styles and materials used in the Orient, but all to do with the romantic perception the Stroponians had of it.

And while Victor Augustus II was off subduing the natives of Quitaniania in the Americas, his wishes for this veritable Fata-Morgana were materialised in stone. hewn out of limestone and decorated with every colour and material possible.

As the former pavilion, the Wasser Palast would be the only structure of the Dampotzen complex apart from the gates that would be visible to the outside world. Its onorthodox structure and appearance however would give it a most peculiar nickname. The commoners who could see the Pavilion from the opposite bank of the Strachen river generally called it the 'Emperors tent'!

Oh, the silly simple people, although if one looks closely, one could see why it appeared as a big tent to them.

If the exterior has a dubious oriental appearance. than the interior of the building is even less convincing. it is however beautiful!

No costs were spared to decorate the building. Its interior was perhap lacking oriental authenticity. It was a unique creation the European Continent would not surpass until George IV's feeble attempt in Brighton.

Now we have seen the Persian Room and the Indian Dining Room.
But there is much more to see here. We will not find however any appartments in the building. this building was not used for sleeping. simply for dinners, parties and other such diversions and entertainment of the Imperial family and the Nobility.

Under the central dome lies the heart of the building. The grand Chines banqueting room. The walls of this room are spanned with silk and on them scenes of chinese life at the imperial court are painted. Not even close to resemble the real thing, but beautiful none the less.

Here you can see a drawing of a banquet held in this room in 1824.

And last but certainly not least is the Grand Ballroom of the Wasser Palast. here the couple would swirl around the room dancing quadrilles or later on Waltzes while time leisurely ticked the night away.

Now, let us return to the the New Palace. I won't show you much of the garden because we will go into that in detail later on. Ah here we are, back in the Square garden.

On the far side we see the New Palace, that replaced the old renaisance pavilions of Emperor Hector Friedrich II , nicknamed the benevolent. But on this side we see the Pavilion of the Four Seasons. A lasting testament that jeallous women can produce beautiful architecture.

It was built by Alexandra penellopy. She was the Empress consort of Emperor Victor Augustus I who had built the original Wasser Pallast. She had very poor limbs and could not walk more than a short distances. and she dispised being carried in a sedan to the Wasser Palast. therefore she ordered this pavilion to be built close enough to the Palace for her to reach by foot supported by two lackeys.

It was built in the same style as the Wasser Palast. and gives us a good picture of what the original structure looked like. Naturally parties continued at the Wasser Palast. Her jealoussy made her believe that the emperor had numerous affairs behind her back. and that that was the reason why the Water palace ws built so far from the Palace.

And that's why this pavillion is so very high. It enabled the invalid yet jeallous Empress to spy on the water Palace over the treetops through a looking glass. Naturally this could only happen when servants had carried her to the top terrace. They had not yet invented CCTV yet in tose days, but this comes close to the same concept. But I don't think this stopped the Emperor from having his amorous affairs though.

Although it was attended as a ballroom it has hardly been used as such. the sheer size of the Ballroom made it almost impossible to heat the room comfortably. Even when it was warm and sunny outside. It has been used frequently for musical concerts though.

Well, dear viewers, we will leave now for the commercials. And when we get back we will enter and visit the New Palace. till then...






Strech.

[urban]

The Water Palace looks amazing. I hope the mid winter ball will be held there
Her Holiness, the sea of wisdom and godness of beauty
and wealth, her divine Karen Walker is looking forward to it a lot

[kimcar]

  Very great parks that you have done.  It`s very majestic. That`s like an artistic work. Keep it up 

[suplado!]

wow -- that palace looks awesom!! really like the royal gardens as well as the added waterfront park near it!!

[bat]

Yes, a very great palace there! Wonderful part two! And the other places are looking fantastic, too!

[Russell]

Visiting Stropon continues to be a joy as always. A truly charming and excuisite empire indeed. 

The ruling Gods of Bliss delightfully accept your invitiation to the mid-winter ball and would like to know if they can, for propagandistic purposes, mask themselves as "happy citizens of Bliss". This picture from their latest dress rehearsal in preparation for this glorious social event shows you what they mean.

[Emperor Stormont]

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Stormont III is delighted to be attending the ball, he has yet to decide on a costume, he is very fussy......and then he must have his mask made.....but he shall be ready for the event.

Both His Imperial Majesty and accompanying guests are looking forward to a glorious event.


Onto the palace update, it looks stunning the use of RL images and artwork go together in a simply gorgeous fashion, again we have beauty and splendour from Stropon.

[pipishere]

It was a unique creation the European Continent would not surpass until George IV's feeble attempt in Brighton.

Lol, made me chuckle! Very nice update though, i admire your skill with the grounds...truly fab.

Also, his Majesty King Helhm I humbly accepts your invitation to the Mid-Winter Ball and will be attending with senior members of the Royal Court.

[Amerikaner]

Ah TIENT is very excited to see something other than the Emperor's back.  We gladly accept your invitation to the ball, and the Prime Minsiter along with myself are very excited, along with the rest of the Royal Court. For gifts we bring some of TIENT'S top models-

Baron Mastrif

& Mardsa Marie

HM I was thinking that we could come looking like this, just need to find some darn masks.  

We are looking forward to a LOVELY time, so please don't dissapoint. 

ANYWAY to your lovely update, you have certinaly become a wonderful CJer and its nice to take a break and look at all that you create. That palace is outstanding and rivals that of many others in the real world. I shall be back haha.       

[Strechnitz]

From here in Rotterdam 2008 is only 8 hours away from now.
The year 2007 has been a wonderful year for me, and I hope it has treated you all very good as well. Or at least decent if not better

But apart from all the good and the ugly. SC4Devotion is one of the most fun things of 2007. This site and it's people rekindled my enthusiasm for the game and gave me the opportunity to express my sometimes feverish imagination in a fun way. And thus Stropon entertain at least some of you 

So I hope 2008 will be a wonderful year for all of you. here at Devotion and certainly so in Real Life!

So without further ado my dear friends, I and the silly Empire of Stropon wish you all a happy new year!!!!



Strech.    a.k.a. Hubert

[pipishere]

A Happy New Year to you too Hubert 

[bat]

I wish you also a Happy New Year!

[Strechnitz]

A new year and a new season. the previous episodes we're a taster for all what is going to happen in the new season where the action and melodrama realy kicks of.

For all who are new to this MD and are too lazy to read all the previous updates, RB&R is a soap-like tale of some extraordinary Stroponians, and what they encounter in their day-to-day lives. As it is set in places and cities in SC4, it is nothing more than fictional irony, or ironic fiction. Whatever you prefer!

For a list of participating characters click here: Characterlist
This is however not a complete list. Other minor characters are introduced in the episodes of RB&R

UrbanGlad you like Dampotzen. Her Holiness, the sea of wisdom and godness of beauty and wealth is most welcome of course.
KimcarThank you very much. I apreciate your comment
SupladoThanks! The waterfront park was the platform from which they ignited the firework displays.
Bat Thank you my friend.
Russel Thank you my friend. A toga party? I like the way you think
StormontWonderful, I have no doubt in my mind that the Emperors attire and mask will be top notch! Half of Venice's maskmakers slave away with the orders for the Stroponian Elite.
Pipishere Thank you, and king Vilhelm is most welcome
Amerikaner Two lovely gifts Amerikaner. But why do you want to see the back of the Emperor?  He is 84 years old. Strange habbits you have Luke
Pipishere Ditto to you Pip!
Bat And a happy new year to you too!

A short synopsopsis of the previous episodes before we continue the story:

Jerome Victor IV Holy Byzantine Emperor of Stropon returns from his Atlantan State Visit. His trusted Personal Private Secretary welcomes him and accompanies him the Imperial winter residence. There the emperor asks him to snoop around to find out how the prince electors think of him and the new policies. He worries about his legacy now that he feels that in a few years he may be no more. He tries to get a glimpse of the future when a new dynasty rules the Stroponian Empire.

He is not the only one to ponder about the future of his possessions. In Quitaniania, the Vice royalty in South America. Business mogul and banker Augustus von Geizhals deals with a similar problem. His son and heir is still not married and instead of connecting with young Stroponian heiresses of titles and properties he prefers to spend his free time from the national baseball team to party with the workers on their summer estate. Will he ever marry?

Spurred by his Enthusiasm, the Emperor astounds the nation with his 'State of the Empire' Speech. His call for more democracy and empowerment of the vast working masses stirs up a lot in the old Empire. The proletarians want to have a bigger say in politics and the old aristocracy and Simeonist Clergy fear losing their power.  While the Imperial cabinet tries to lull the Emperor into believing his wishes are carried out, they also try to restore calm and order to the masses.

Unaware of all these court plots and political intricacies a young man is released out of a shed in the Stroponian vice royalty of Nargoon in Asia.  He is brainwashed and made to believe that he follows devine orders brought to him by a cell phone. The perpetrators get there orders from someone close to the vice royal palace in Sri na Dagangh, the Capital. The first missionthis twisted Simeon fulfulls in the name of the innocent is the slaughter of the inhabitants of a villa in Nargoon. What horrors will follow?

In he meantime Amaranta Borges, Star reporter of the Stroponian Herald has to meet an ultimatum to produce a top story if she does not want to face unemployment. Her lover who is colonel in the Imperial Secret Service slips some information to help her. Perhaps the late Empress who died so tragically after falling in the palace chapel did not die a natural death after all? With her pitt-bull instinct Amaranta tries to find out the true story of the empress her demise which occurred more than 40 years ago. Is it wise to meddle with such things? Is it healthy?

Well, answers and more questions will come in the following episodes. Where the entire Empires elite is focussed on thé society event of the winter season. The fabled midwinter ball! An even greater event than ever before because all the monarchs and heads of state of befriended countries are invited to add more splendour to the feast. All will be revealed...soon.

Strech.

[Strechnitz]

I'm so sorry, I now seem to bump my own thread, but this is one of my spare moments where I can update these weeks.




And welcome back my dear viewers for the third part of the Dampotzen Palace series.
In the first part we showed you the early history and first glimpses of the Dampotzen complex.
And in the second part we visited the exotic Water Palace and the Four Seasons pavilion.
Today we will cover more of the palatial grounds and enter the palaces that make this place famous.

We start with das Neues Palast, or the New Palace which replaced the original renaissance pavilions that stood here. It is however not the newest palace constructed in these gardens. Oh no, today the Neues Palast is little more than what the Trianon is for Versailles. The current imperial residence is the Grand Palace constructed during the reign of Emperor Hector Heraclius who restored the Cavalry parades in the Imperial Citadel in Strechnitz.

But now we will look at the treasures concealed by the New Palace. When Victor Otto III came to power the Renaissance Pavilions of Hector Friedrich II were hopelessly out of date, they lacked capacity to accommodate the ever expanding Imperial Court, and the buildings were in a derelict state.

So the demolishers soon started their work while new plans were drawn up. The result is an elegant early baroque palace in sandstone. A welcoming sight compared to the violently bombastic facades of the Four Seasons Pavilion and the original version of the Water Palace.

Originally it was bigger. On the site of the two rectangular knot gardens between the palace and the palace gate stood 2 enclosed rectangular side wings. They housed the servants and courtiers. They were demolished when the Grand Palace was built and the side wings lost their use.

When we enter the left wing the Palace immediately has a nice surprise in store for us. This does not look very baroque does it? Indeed it is not. This hallway and staircase is the sole surviving element of the old renaissance pavilions. They were included as a sort of testament to the Old Palace. The lovely fresco painted walls show us a glimpse of the lustre of those days.

But let us continue our walk. We go up the stairs and find ourselves in a lovely antechamber, which gives us access to what is behind these panelled doors. Lets open them and see where it leads us shall we?

Ah what marvel! It let us enter the Imperial Balcony in the Palace Chapel. Just look at the marble and gilded splendour in front of us! What a stark contrast with the elegantly simple facades of the Palace. Victor Otto III was not very fond of the Baroque extravaganza his pre- and successors liked so much. But his wife Empress Georgiana was a devout catholic who was convinced that God was only rightly worshipped if it cost a fortune...How different from the Simeonist notion of later Emperors. Never the less it is a beautiful Chapel.

But let us continue. There is much more to see in this Palace than the work of óne pious Empress.

Our next stop is the Card Room. Also known as the Lacquer Room because of the Japanese and Chinese Lacquer panels mounted in the wall panelling. Here the courtiers liked to indulge in several card games as a pastime for long summer evenings. And the lords liked to gamble. It is said that entire estates have been lost and gained on these cardtables. And some even lost their lives in duels over disputes that broke out during card games. What about that ladies and gentlemen?

Next up is the Imperial dining room. You will no doubt notice that compared to dining rooms you have seen in Kaiserbürgen and Listerlunde that this one is unusually small compared to its counterparts. That's because this dining room was only used if the emperor wanted a quiet informal meal. All dinners usually took place in the grand dining room of the Water Palace what made huge state rooms in this palace which was solely intended to sleep in pointless.

And now we arrive at the central wing of the New Palace. for even if there were no great formal rooms planned in this building there were a few rooms which no Imperial residence could do about.

One of them for instance is the throne room, which again is quite small for Stroponian standards, although it spans the entire width of the Wing. And to make it worse dear viewers, it at the same time functions as the sole ballroom of the palace. But the décor is quite sweet is it not?

Another of such features is the enfilade of stately salons where the courtiers and visitors could walk up and down while waiting for the Emperor to receive them.

But there is so much more. The square renaissance garden was spared from the Imperial buildingfever because Victor Otto III liked the layout so much. And to enjoy it when one did not want to leave the palace 2 long galleries were built overlooking the gardens. One on each side of the central wing.

These long galleries or the Garden Galleries as they are called here, are decorated with tableau's of Portugese Majolica tiles, depicting several views on the gardens of paradise. The garden galleries give many visitors the feeling that they walk through an Orangerie. And although the galleries were never were intended to be one, that feeling was exactly what the decorations were intended to bring out in its visitors.

Why was the New Palace spared? Why was the Grand palace not simply built on that spot as was very common in those days? We have to thank Empress Louise Martine for that. She was the only Stroponian Monarch to abdicate from the throne to spend her old age in retirement instead of ruling until the deathbed. She was the last of her Dynasty and wanted to spend her retirement with artists and philosophers. The Newly Elected Emperor Hector Heraclius had big plansfor the Summer residence. But the old Empress who also was his mother in law refused to leave Dampotzen palace. He was no match for the old Empress who still had a lot of pull in the Empire and decided to built the new Grand Palace on another side thus sparing the building in favour of the old Empress. I wonder, perhaps her nickname 'the harpei' had something to do with it.

And so we conclude this visit with the 2 of the private rooms of the Empress. The Imperial Bedchamber is the most austere and simple decorated room in the palace. Empress Louise Martine was convinced that the presence of gold leaf or goldthread would keep her out of her sleep because she loved it so much. Therefore she had it all removed out of her bedchamber. And thus her room is decorated only with painted wood,  silk, damasq, and tapesties. Odd is it not?

Her private breakfast room however is more recognisable as a default palace interior. In this room many famous artists and philosophers of the day have used breakfast or tea with her Imperial Majesty.

Well that was the last room of the New Palace. Lets have a last look on the pretty little Amor temple in the centre of the Square Garden and lets continue our exploration of Dampotzen.

The servant wings of the New Palace may have been demolished long ago. Much of the other side buildings have stood the test of time and the taste of the Emperors. Here for instance we have the original kitchen gardens of the palace. A very lovely feature are the granite and copperThey are no longer in use now but the layout is maintained all these centuries. The little pavilions surrounding the kitchen gardens are potting sheds tool sheds and storing sheds.

Another of those buildings no Imperial Palace can do without is the barracks for the Imperial Guard. The Dampotzen barracks are a little palace itself compared to the normal austerity of defensive structures. The pavilion in the centre houses the Commandants quarters.

And the interior is equally if not more impressive than the outside of the building. The walls are decorated with battle scenes of historic battles, both of the Stroponian Empire, its predecessor the Byzantine Empire, and its respective predecessor the Roman Empire. Not bad eh?

And the interior of the Commandants pavilion is naturally a tad prettier than the rest of the barracks. His walls show classical scenes with allegories of Virtue, Justice, Prudence, and Loyalty. Probably the Emperors hoped that these scenes instilled faithful loyalty in order to spare the Stroponian the fait of many Roman and Byzantine Emperors who died at the swords of their own Praetorian Guards.

Before we conclude this episode and visit the Grand Palace in the next update I will give you, my dear viewers a peek into on of the Grand Palace buildings. Namely the Imperial Coach house which stands next to the kitchen gardens.

The one story wings house the barracks for the coachmen and their helps as well as the several workshops for repairing or adjusting any part on the Imperial Carriages. The 2 story main wing is now a museum with a fine collection of Baroque coaches. All are in fine working order. They are mostly heavily decorated gala coaches used to transport the imperial family and their favourites from residence to residence or drives along the rustic forest lanes surrounding the Palce parks.

Well dear viewers, and with this last look on the Grand Palace, Which we will visit in the next episode of Sights and Seeings, I take my leave of you for tonight. My name is Alexandra von Hofenburg and I hope that you have enjoyed the show! Tadaah!




Strech.

[Nardo69]

Impressive! 

You do have a hand for bareocque Gardens and palaces ... 

Bernhard 

[bat]

Great two new updates there, Strechnitz! Wonderful work on the palace(s)!!

[kimcar]

Great garden you have done again .very well done

[capo]

Your MD is truly unique and I really enjoyed reading up on (most of) the updates I missed. I love the giant gardens and all the lots you have made in this MD, are you planning to release some of them perhaps?


Please keep it up and all the best for the new year!