The Royal Palace Cellar

(Year 234, Winter) It's about 85 years since the royal palace Chateau Peak was built in Del Sol Valley, but this far no footage showing the mostly locked off undergound were leaked to the public. Fact is that there was not that much to boost about, mainly the kitchen, servants' section and a prison cell. Well, that is what we all thought, anyway. The palace holds a full cellar, several sections holding daily activity. Recently a photographer was admitted access to explore some of the underground facilities. 

Let's start on ground floor, more precisely in the so called official quarters. Between the Throne Room and King Tybe's dining room there is a rather small kitchen (above). This room connects to the main kitchen right underneeth it, and is used for preparing food to smaller events. For the big gala events this room is where the servings line up before being brought out to the guests.

The room also serves as a storage of table cloths, table deco, tableware (at least those used more frequently) and much more. Many smaller courses prepared in he cellar are brought up her for easiwer access during the day. Other meals might be prepared in the main kitchen, but given a final touch up here. It is a station between the cooking and the serving, simply to get things out of the way and to limit the walk distance for those who do the serving. There exist similar stations up in the Formal quarters and the Private quarters, just smaller.

But, let's go underground...

In the cellar is the main kitchen, operated by the Royal Chef and the 2nd Cook, and with the assistance from hired staff when required by the program of the day/week.

The first room is for pastry and smaller courses, while the real busy kitchen is behind that glass wall. Most days this working space is much more quiet than you might expect, but before and during bigger events like a gala dinner, the place is buzzing! Preparations might start a week ahead. On such occasions it is utterly important that the royal Chef is good at navigating his staff.

Not far from the main kitchen we find a rustic room dedicated to nectar making.

The palace get most nectars delivered from outside warrants, but most of the daily consume is actually produced locally. Just like many members of staff (and upgrowing members of the royal household) needs a certain skill of gourmet cooking, they are expected a minimum of nectar knowledge. Nectars is basically the field of Head Butler, but he often assignes the duty to anyone in need of sharpening their skill. The regular consume mostly contains grapes nectar and fruit nectar, but there is also a storage of well aged nectars of various sorts.

Another major section of the Cellar Quarters is the huge vault.

It is actually 3 connected vaults, each with their own security system. To access the last of them you need to open no less than three vault doors! We see Royal Chief Accountant Miss Maiden back there in the 3rd vailt.

This is where they store old regalia, some items are brought up only for a single coronation event, meaning they might be stored for decades between each appearance. Meanwhile some items need repairing and cleaning, and Jesper Jewellery Broker, Baroness Erica Rab-Saxor has been appointed the royal warant for at least three decades, handling jewellery maintenance.

Also gala jewelries are stored here. Most of the items can be traced back to the Medieval era, and are quite valuable. Other members of the royal family might have a few items on loan. When someone grows up or marries into the royal family, there will be arranged a meeting where available items will be displayed and an agreement signed. A loan is normally a lifetime agreement.

The middle storage is for art items of a certain value. HRH Queen Venezia enjoys managing the palace's exhibitions and displays every now and then, but when it comes to paintings the usage won't vary as much. There are 7 grand estates in addition to the royal palace, though, and this vault sometimes provides a temporary stop for heirlooms on the move.

The first and largest vault is packed with gifts received by stately guests and citizens of Mazaloom. The royal family receives averagely 500 gifts every year. Gifts meant for consume or to be worn will hardly be stored for longer than it takes to register them. All other gifts are stored here for minimum a few years. Some items seen as less essential to the Mazaloom kingdom's identity might be gifted out again, and to avoid them gifting an item back to someone close to the original gifter, every single item is logged at a small office conneced to the first vault. That is where they note when anything is added or removed from the vaults.

Another "storage" is the royal crypt!

This is the only section of the Cellar Quarters that is open to the public on certain days of the week. We might join a guided tour at some later point, but right now just state that the crypt is slightly younger than the palace itself, meaning only two regents were actually buried here. King Tybe and his Queen Anna were the first, and will forever be the only to rest in the crypt's main room. The crypt was ready just in time for their funerals. Their daughter Queen Evez is also buried here, and she was the first of the modern regents to have her own little room, on the left. On the left there is also a royal crypt in the crypt, for urns of regents' consorts. The only member resting there is Queen Evez' Prince Consort Clempus.

On the right side rest the dust of the nation's historical monarchs. They were originally buried in Britechester, but their grave remainders were moved here as the old Heighwood Castle is now only ruins.

So, that's all we got to see down here! There is also a Servants section that is seen as private. It is mainly a corridor with access to private bedrooms and bath facilities, and some offices. It will never be open to the public.