SkyWing palace

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Queen Ruby's Palace, formerly known as Queen Scarlet's Palace or just the Sky Palace, was inlaid with talon prints made of gold (that no dragon would dare steal out of fear of Ex-Queen Scarlet's wrath), has a cloud shaped throne carved of stone, and is partially open to the sky and partially inside a mountain. Located in the northern part of the Sky Kingdom, the palace once housed Queen Scarlet, Queen Ruby, Peril, Vermilion, and countless other SkyWing subjects. The SkyWing arena and prison once rested within sight of the palace, along with fallen towers, scorched land, and ravines full of burned up dragons corpses and bones. Prisoners who aren't fighting would be placed on top of tall rock spires that overlooked the SkyWing Arena. The imprisoned were connected by wires, so if one dragon tried to escape, they would be weighed down by the others. However, most of these things have been removed to accommodate a hospital made by Queen Ruby, and all the prisoners were pardoned. Gold traces, talon prints, and outlines of flames and clouds are carved in the stone of the floor, and Ex-Queen Scarlet's throne room was said to contain massive amounts of gold in it, giving it the oppressive heat of a funeral pyre. A lot of the gold was pried out of the walls during Queen Ruby's reign, most likely used to fund the hospital.

The palace has many tunnels and arches, one of which leads to the arena (now a hospital). The SkyWings add extensions to the palace constantly using rock and other minerals.

In The Dragonet Prophecy, Kestrel and the Dragonets of Destiny were taken as prisoners to the palace and arena. Kestrel was caged and stored in the palace, Sunny was put in a birdcage and hung over the main hall, Glory was made into Scarlet's art piece behind her balcony by being draped around a marble tree, and Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight were put into the arena. This also was where Queen Ruby/Tourmaline defeated her mother and kept the throne of the SkyWings.

There is also a second prison in the palace, possibly for dangerous prisoners on trial.

SkyWing Arena

The SkyWing Arena is directly outside of the palace, in the northern Sky Kingdom. Prisoners of war were forced to fight to the death here for Scarlet's entertainment. Scarlet kept a variety of battlers, including scavengers and other creatures. The dragon prisoners mainly consisted of IceWings, SeaWings, and SandWings who were loyal to those other than Queen Scarlet or Burn. The winner was free to go if he or she won enough fights and defeated Peril. However, because of Peril's deadly firescales, no one ever succeeded in defeating her.

Queen Ruby transformed the arena into a hospital for wounded soldiers after her ascension to the throne.

History

Clay attacking Fjord in the arena

The practice of dragons being pitted against each other had existed in the Sky Kingdom for long periods of time and was possibly introduced during Queen Scarlet's reign. The idea was for prisoners to fight to the death and to gain freedom if a certain number of matches would be won. However, that never happened since Peril became champion.

The Arena is also known to house SkyWing trials, and Kestrel's trial is a known example.

This is where Peril was taught by Queen Scarlet to fight other dragons. Peril always won though, because she was hatched with firescales. Peril was able to kill any dragon just by touching them. The dragons Peril fought always died of severe burns, with the exception of Clay.

Spectators

Spectators mostly include SkyWings, however, MudWings have been known to watch, as well as a few "honored SandWing guests." Other prisoners also watched battles from the spires they had been chained to.

The spectators normally shout for death but keep justice and honor in mind with rules such as the Champion's Shield.

Spectators can throw treasure at combatants, the way small jewels were thrown at Tsunami when she won.

Queen Scarlet observed the matches, and her son, Vermilion, was the main announcer.

Arena Combatants

This is a list of all the known dragons who fought to the death in gladiatorial arena matches in the SkyWing Arena for Queen Scarlet's amusement.

• Clay: A male MudWing dragonet, who was pitted against Fjord, and later, Peril. Scarlet deliberately arranged this, as she was aware that Clay was immune to fire due to him being hatched from a red egg.
• Fjord: A male IceWing who was pitted against Clay in the arena. He had the MudWing pinned down when he was killed by Glory's venom, after Tsunami caused a diversion by throwing herself off the spire she was on, nearly choking herself and the other prisoners next to her in the process.
• Gill: A male SeaWing who was Tsunami's father (unknown to her at the time). He was killed by Tsunami in the arena. Before this, he was tortured and driven mad when Queen Scarlet took away all his water for months as punishment for trying to start a prisoner rebellion. Tsunami first pleaded with Scarlet to let him live, but when the SkyWing queen refused and taunted the dragonet, she snapped Gill's neck, imagining he was Scarlet.
• Horizon: A male SandWing who won four matches before being pitted against Peril. He committed suicide in the match against her by burning himself to death after realizing that he couldn't defeat her. Peril later told Clay that Horizon's actions were 'poor form' and that she preferred to kill dragons herself.
• Peril: A female SkyWing and the Queen's Champion. She was hatched with too much fire and burned anything she touched. Any dragon who won more than four matches and was in danger of gaining freedom was assigned to fight her, thus assuring that no one could escape from the arena. She was undefeated until being forced to fight Clay, who was immune to her red-hot touch.
• Starflight: A male NightWing in the prophecy. After Starflight was forced to fight Tsunami and refused, several scavengers were released and he and Tsunami fought them together. Starflight was then also almost pitted against IceWings, who hate his tribe with a passion until Morrowseer and a force of NightWings came and rescued him.
• Tsunami: A female SeaWing in the prophecy, forced to kill Gill (her father), by breaking his neck before she was pitted against Starflight, whom she refused to fight. Several scavengers were later released into the arena and she and Starflight fought them together.
• An unknown SeaWing- In The Dragonet Prophecy, Clay hears a short, gruesome fight between a SeaWing and a scavenger that the Queen found in the woods. The scavenger is killed quickly by the SeaWing, who ate the scavenger.
• Several unknown IceWings: Killed by Morrowseer's soldiers when Morrowseer came to rescue Starflight. One, a silvery female, was chained next to Clay for most of his stay on the rock spires.
• Some scavengers were also captured from a scavenger den and released into the arena for Tsunami and Starflight to kill. Two died (presumably males, due to a comment Scarlet made), the other two (females) went back into a cage.

Other Palace areas

Throne Room

The throne room is where Kestrel was held prisoner after being captured with the dragonets of destiny. The floor and walls were inlaid with gold so that the room, on a sunny day, was so bright it could instantly give a dragon a headache. This gold was removed after Ruby became queen. It has two thrones: one for the queen, a carved column shaped like clouds, and a guest throne, which is smaller than the queen's throne. It was often occupied by Burn during the war.

Wingery

This tower is where SkyWing dragonets live until they can fly very well. The bottom of the tower is covered in rugs and toy weapons, like spears and shields, for the youngest dragonets to play with. The middle section has many perches to sit on and navigate, and the topmost area is full of obstacle courses for the older dragonets to practice flying and turning sharp corners in mid-air.

Trivia

• Blister wanted Princess Anemone to enchant the palace to cave in on all the SkyWings.
• It is unknown if Ex-Queen Scarlet started the arena fights, or if it was a previous queen's doing.
• It is unknown of how many rock spires had prisoners on them, or how many died in the arena.
• When designing the prison, Tui wanted it to be the opposite of the standard dungeon that most people would be familiar with.