Come to the Arcadian Delights

Spending a night on the tiles is an old reference to cats prowling the neighborhood roofs and getting up to no good. When a human spends a night on the tiles, we don’t think of them as literally prancing from rooftop to rooftop, unless one lives in the Hellion House universe. There, anything can and probably does happen, sometimes with unexpected consequences.

In the walled city of Londria, space is limited and wandering beyond the city gates is likely to get one eaten by monsters. Rooftop gardens connected by aqueducts that supply the domestic needs of many citizens. In turn, the aqueducts supply the needs of characters in need of high stakes acrobatics, but more on that later.

Gardens can be for more than food production. There are those dedicated to medicines (and poisons), those that cultivate the rare and the beautiful, and there is plenty of historical precedent for pleasure gardens.

Readers of historical romance will know all about Vauxhall Gardens, which was established before the Restoration and reached its commercial peak in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It offered music, entertainment, food, and endless rambling pathways where one could see and be seen in the latest fashions. There was a whiff of scandal, too, as it was the perfect setting for secret assignations amongst the shrubberies, especially since it was famed for its nighttime displays.

Londria has its own version of Vauxhall, the Arcadian Delights. As an outdoor entertainment, it as many of the same features, with the added hazard that those shrubberies end in a very long drop to the pavement below. This adds a soupcon of excitement to any heated disputes that arise between rivals, not to mention a cautionary tale for those who like their wine a little too much.

Naturally, without hundreds of acres to work with, the architects of Londria’s garden had to get creative. It spreads over numerous rooftops in the prime shopping districts, spanned by ornamental foot bridges. The irregular rooftop levels are thoughtfully harnessed into the design, providing a platform for aerial acrobats, exotic aviaries, and artfully framed spreads of flowering trees. Platforms of ornamental ironwork are worked with jewel-like lights, the better to enjoy night vistas of the city.

Of course, gardeners can’t just replicate a regular garden. This is essentially container gardening on a grand scale. And, although most species could flourish many stories up, not all pollinators fly so high. Nature has adapted for such issues before—magnolias have existed longer than bees and butterflies and developed thick petals to accommodate beetles as their primary pollinator. However, given a much shorter historical timeline, species adaptable to heights are selected. The gardeners keep bees and bats as well as vivariums for the butterflies, thus establishing an entire ecosystem far above street level.

Given the views, and the safety of the rooftops, the Arcadian Delights are particularly popular at night. Besides the entertainment and lighting displays, night blooming plants are on display—moonflower vines, night phlox, and a variety of succulents brought by airship from far-off lands.

It might seem odd to think of such an extravagant pleasure garden in a city constantly battling for survival. And yet, there are those who always put their own enjoyment first, and ensure that they are seen doing it. Historically, such places were made by and for kings—think of the Sun King and Versailles. For all their loveliness, ornamental gardens have a meaning beyond beauty. Their very existence is a symbol of ascendancy, of creating a playground for those who can afford power.

And where there is power there is implicit danger for the unwary. Not just anyone takes the steam-powered lift to reach the Arcadian Delights. There are gatekeepers, and there are rules one is wise to obey. Putting a foot wrong could mean a long and literally fatal fall from grace.