Turiel Vulkenssen
The Blacksmith
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Aliases: The Blacksmith; Wyrm of the Mountain; The Tarasque; Behemoth; Metal Master; Big T; Golden Duke of the Court of Dragons
Age: Old. Very Old. Ancient, even.
Gender: Male
Height: 6’10”
Weight: 275 lbs
Aspect of Death: Covetousness
Side: Las Noches, Hueco Mundo
Station: Segunda Espada
Speech/Reiatsu: #B37400

Description:
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Mask Fragment: Two thick pieces replacing his eyebrows, with slight horn shapes at the outside ends
Hollow hole: A single hole, about 3 inches wide, on his upper left chest (roughly top of the lung on a human).

Turiel is a big man. He towers over most others, and his wide-shouldered frame is practically piled with muscles. His
skin is unnaturally dark, and has a slight sheen to it. Many say he is carved from obsidian. His eyes contribute to the mystique, with his sclera shining like polished marble, and his irises appearing like metallic gold. His bright smile shows off perfect teeth that also seem almost like marble. His head is bald.
His hands have a multitude of small, light scars on the backs, knuckles, and palms, with a couple more scattered on his forearms. The rest of his body is scar-free.
All in all, he would appear to be a large, vigorous, extremely fit man of perhaps 30-some years old.
He typically dresses in thick, robust clothes, opting for off-white pants and shirt with black boots. Around his waist is almost always a blacksmith’s toolbelt, a pair of heavy black leather gloves tucked in one side. As often as not he wears a heavy leather blacksmith’s apron as well.
On more formal occasions, he pulls a bright, pure white three piece suit.


Personality:
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To many folks, Turiel is a genial giant, offering smiles, laughs, and the occasional back-slap (that never reduces the recipient into bloody mist).
When he’s working, Turiel is quiet and focused. Some might seem him as too focused, but as blacksmithing and the associated arts are ones that require focus, patience, and steady hands, it is not likely out of malice.
When speaking with someone about his trade, Turiel is animated and excited.
He also enjoys speaking about music, though he has a strong preference for older music (be it soaring classical orchestral pieces, or bawdy, rowdy bar songs). He is, however, open to new experiences and music.
He generally only uses lines like “back in my day” and “kids these days” as humorous jabs at others, in virtually the same breath where he’ll call himself an “old fogey”.
Turiel seems to fall into a natural sort of “counter balance” with Jehoel when they’re interacting. Jehoel is the serious, restrained one while Turiel is more relaxed and animated.
Those with exceptional insight into psychology, human behavior, and so on, though, might realize that Turiel is always observing everyone around him, and there’s a certain calculation in his eyes. It’s the trained eye of an experienced warrior who’s constantly wary of subterfuge and attack. As well as a sort of judgement, a weighing and measuring of those around him. If they could follow him for days they might observe he seems to find most others wanting in some way or another. Yet for all that he judges many of those around himself to be something less, he displays no wanton cruelty, no “dehumanization” of them. He simply carries on with his cheerful, polite self.

If pushed into a genuine, serious fight, Turiel himself becomes serious, and will typically go for a set of tactics that result in maximum lethality in minimum time. He prefers to not waste too much time on fights, and especially not on the posturing that some seem to enjoy. Unless the other person really annoys him; then he will crank the melodrama and posturing up to 11.

One quirk is that he tends to refer to Shinigami as “Psychopomps”, likely reflecting his somewhat more European outlook and culture (or at least adopted culture).


History:
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While in the present day the truly ancient and terrifying Hollows are few and far between, their impact on the myths of the world cannot be denied.
From the court of the Ghost King came those who would inspire legends of guardians of the underworld, while the Ghost King himself resembles the most terrible legends of sanity-shattering horrors.
Jehoel, the Primera Espada, is the inspiration of stories of terrible dragons and sea serpents.
Turiel, then, is the inspiration for the myths of roaring dragons that dwell in mountains. He is Behemoth. He is the Tarasque. He is a dozen different great, pondering dragons that never take to the skies.

Some say he was the King of Dragons, but Turiel himself will deny this. He took part in that mighty court in the ancient days, a court that sought but never claimed Jehoel as a member, and a group that clashed with the Ghost King’s capricious lot when their days came about.

Turiel himself was always more “low-key” than Jehoel; while the latter would be known for towering, thundering rampages that ravaged the land, Turiel was lurking in caves and mountains for decades, his presence seeping into the area until Mortals slowly moved away and marked the map with “Here There Be Dragons”.
Those bearing treasure were often waylaid and consumed by the Wyrm of the Mountain; their souls and their metals both sated his appetite.
Sometimes, the Psychopomps would come and try to claim him. Always, his hide turned their blades and his teeth and claws shed their blood and claimed their power into himself.
Eventually, the hunger became too much, and he fully retreated into Hueco Mundo. There he claimed one of the rare clusters of mountains and hills as his territory, putting him as one of the “anchor points” of the Court of Dragons’ territory.
And for centuries, he found himself as content as a hungering Hollow could be, for he had his wits about him, strength in his limbs, flesh in his belly, and metal in his mouth.

And then the Court of Dragons was shattered by the Court of the Ghost King. Turiel himself clashed with Oscar the Hundred-Handed, their titanic strengths colliding. Turiel survived the fight, but was thoroughly outclassed, his body almost shattered, much of his power torn away. He retreated to his mountains and began to dig, finally breaking into the Forest of Menos.

There he spent centuries more hunting and feeding, his ever-growing bulk lurking from shadow to shadow. He spent but a brief time as a mostly-mindless Gillian, quickly ascending to the power of an Adjuchas, his reborn self showing more power and resilience than ever.
Still he hunted and lurked and fed. He began searching for a new domain, a search that had him using “shortcuts” through the Mortal World on rare occasions. Such shortcuts gave birth to new rounds of legends about him, born from his altered form. The Psychopomps thought him some entirely new Hollow, and sent unprepared troops to face his ancient, canny self.
Finally, after what was likely a thousand years of slow but steady growth, he achieved the pinnacle of his strength. He became a Vasto Lorde. His shining presence was a beacon of...well, there wasn’t much in the way of “hope” in the White Sands, but he was one of the fairer points of power among the sands, though his hatred of the Court of the Ghost King (for their role in the downfall of the Court of Dragons) was somewhat legendary.

And then the Ghost King and his forces were laid low, and even that was denied Turiel. After a time, he left the small “court” he had been “in charge” of and began simply wandering the desert. He would stop at the occasional community of Hollows, his fearful presence still bringing an odd sort of comfort to many. He would craft trinkets and tools, sometimes build stone buildings, and then move on.
Eventually he reached a positively huge mountain that he’d never encountered before. Curiosity overtook him, and he delved down into it. Deeper and deeper he went, and word of his presence soon stopped.
For centuries he was gone from the knowledge of Hueco Mundo. Tales of his existence passed around, but many took him to be a myth.
Finally, a veritable giant of a man with a hole through his chest and skin like obsidian was sighted on the white sands. He claimed the name “Turiel”, but appeared as one of the dreaded Reapers. Surely a jest!
His power with just his bare hands proved the scoffers wrong, and soon the Blacksmith became the new legend. He could take any metal, mortal or spiritual, and forge wondrous tools and even weapons from it.
For Hollows, weapons were rarely needed, but some found his unique inventions (metal overlays for claws, spiked rings for horns, or other, even more esoteric items) to give them an advantage that won them a fight.
And so Turiel the Blacksmith grew in legend, power, and skill. Especially skill. He learned more ways to fight, but (more importantly to him) he also learned more and more ways to work metal and stone. To take dull lumps of rock and turn them into masterpieces of gold and silver and steel. He moved about the Mortal World sometimes, his presence hidden from all, simply watching and learning.
In this way, he’s also kept pretty well abreast of what the human world is like, major innovations, and so on.


Story So Far:
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Having heard of the re-emergence of Jehoel Yurius, of how he’d laid claim to the fabled city of Las Noches, how he was seeking to change the very foundations of the afterlife, Turiel Vulkenssen could not stay away.
So he came to Las Noches. For a time, he hid himself among the people, unknown except, perhaps, to Jehoel, though it had been over a thousand years since they’d last met. And then, when the time was right, he made his move.
The former Segunda Espada, Wakahisa Daiki, was bloodlessly deposed from that lofty perch when Turiel arrived and, in two non-lethal blows, knocked the other Arrancar senseless. Daiki's precise fate is unknown, though it's unlikely he was eaten or something so crass.


Abilities:
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General Abilities:
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General Physical Ability: Turiel is strong. Stronger by far than even his large frame would suggest. He can dent and bend metal with his bare hands, and has been known to crush stone without effort at all. His general resilience (even aside from his Hierro) is phenomenal as well. But while his reflexes and general speed are above the level of many, that is only because he himself is very powerful. Compared to others anywhere close to his “tier” of power (such as Jehoel), Turiel is fairly slow. His defensive reflexes are better than his offensive reflexes and general operating speed, though.
Intelligence: While he may look like dumb muscle, and often acts like a friendly, if skilled, workman, Turiel is not stupid. You can’t be as old as he is and be stupid. While not a genius scientist or the like, Turiel is intelligent, and has had plenty of time to learn plenty of things. He has what you might consider a broad general education, picked up in bits and pieces over the years. Beyond his crafts, he’s got an excellent head for mathematics, numbers, business, monetary systems, finance, and related subjects.
Fighting Skill and Style: While he can use most any weapon he makes with a fair bit of competence, staff fighting is where Turiel has few peers. He’s assimilated styles and moves from all over the world, making him quite possibly the best staff-user in the world, or certainly in the top few of them. His hand-to-hand skills are also excellent, though not quite to the same degree; in this regard, his skill is helped by being very broad, more so than how deep he’s delved into any one style. Turiel relies very much on a “use what works” style, which often means brutally cracking or crushing bones or otherwise using his immense strength to take an opponent completely out of the fight. He does seem to favor styles that use grappling or kicks, though.
Expert Stonesmith: While it is not his focus area, Turiel is good at working with stone. He lacks the skill to do small, detailed carvings and the like, but larger works (such as walls, archways, doorways, and so on) are perfectly within his skill range. He’s done a few life or larger size sculptures that turned out alright. Part of this is simply experience working with stone that was keeping pieces of metal buried within it, and his efforts to use the bits of detritus left over by that process.
Legendary Blacksmith: Turiel is so good at working iron and steel and bronze and metals into tools and weapons, he has inspired myths and legends. Even before his transformation into an Arrancar he had crafted wonders. Some of his works were left at the doorstep of mortals, or on a couple of rare occasions gifted to the mortals directly (when said individuals had notable amounts of power). These weapons, while not possessing the powers of the blades of Shinigami or Arrancar, are nonetheless without peer. They are light, sturdy, sharp, and whatever other positive aspects one wishes to apply. He is capable of crafting mostly-decorative pieces, but his greatest joy comes from making swords and other items from exotic metals, using a fairly practical pattern. He is familiar and equipped to use just as many new, cutting-edge techniques developed in the modern mortal world as he is to use classical methods.
Legendary Jeweler: More surprising is that equal to his skill in forging weapons and tools, Turiel is capable of making pieces of beautiful jewelry. Crowns, necklaces, bracelets, the list goes on. He has as much of a knack for precious metals as he does with the baser sorts, and while he doesn’t have quite the same connection with precious gems, his skill is fine enough it doesn’t overly matter. At least a few of his works in this field have made their way into the mortal world, where they’ve become incredibly sought-after items. AS with his other metalworking skills, Turiel embraces technology and progress rather than rejecting it.
Well Traveled: Turiel has been to a lot of places over the years and years and years. He’s seen a lot, heard a lot, read a lot, learned a lot. Chances are he’s been somewhere someone else is describing, or has an idea of where it is. Better still are the chances he can speak a particular language. You pick a few things up when you live long enough to see empires rise and fall.


General Hollow Abilities:
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Reiatsu/Reiryoku: Or, put another way, his sheer power. Which is quite sheer; Turiel is very old and immensely powerful. His physical stamina is exceeded by his spiritual stamina. He is very much a peer of Jehoel, though it’s hard to tell how close their power is. Both Arrancar are reluctant to simply unleash the full measure of their power in any world, so truly gauging how they measure up is difficult. Turiel does lack quite the same level of control as Jehoel. While the Primera can make himself completely undetectable, the Segunda is only capable of reducing his presence to that of an average Plus. He can somewhat mask his Hollow nature, especially to those sensing him from far away; up close, the more astute are likely to realize what he is even if he disguises his Hollow Hole and Mask Fragment. If unleashed, his presence is suffocating, and feels like you are wrapped in heavy chains of iron, dragging you to the earth.
Hierro: Along with his generally incredible power and physical stamina, Turiel has a rather powerful Hierro, allowing him to withstand or even ignore many attacks from those of insufficient spiritual power.
Regeneration: While he has not traded away his regeneration entirely, Turiel does not have high-speed regeneration of any sort. Instead, his regeneration requires him to be relatively still and resting; in that situation, and assuming he can stay alive, he can regrow virtually anything. He can regrow organs, but the trick at that point is keeping him alive long enough, as it can take a couple of hours to regrow something that complex. Simple burns, cuts, and breaks heal within a few minutes of rest. Limbs and organs take hours. He would die if you cut off his head, so he can’t regrow a new one or regrow from it (unless you did something really bizarre and then it’d be from his head while the decapitate body withered).
Sonido: Turiel is fast, but that’s mostly a function of his high levels of power. Within his “weight class”, his speed is solid but not incredible; Jehoel can run rings around him with ease. He also does not know any specialized techniques with Sonido. He is fairly maneuverable with it, however.
Cero: Turiel’s Ceros tend to feel very hot, though they don’t really start fires. He can keep one going for several seconds, sweeping it across an area. Their charge time is the typical few seconds. His real trick is that he can fire them from his hands, mouth, or even in front of his eyes, with his eyes not requiring a gesture or warning.
Bala: His Bala are average, though they carry the same sense of heat. He can only fire them from his hands/fingers.
Pesquisa: Turiel’s ability with Pesquisa is decidedly average. He can use it, and track people with it more accurately than general spiritual senses. But he has no special techniques with it or particular affinity for working with it.
Descorrer: Turiel’s Garganta open quickly and smoothly, and he can support a number of passengers on a pathway with no trouble at all. He can open and maintain a single Garganta screen in close proximity to his person, with the other end being no further than 1,000 kilometers away.


Zanpakuto
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Name: Behemoth
Release Command: “Crush”
Appearance: Behemoth is a 5-and-a-half-foot-long steel fighting staff. It bears no handgrips, and is the same polished matte steel finish along the whole weapon. When not in use, it can seamlessly contract in on itself to half of its starting length and store in a leather sheath strapped to his back.
Resurreccion:
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Turiel holds Behemoth in a vertical line, and molten rock pours out of the top, quickly cocooning him and hardening into a solid shell. After a few moments, said shell fragments outward as his new form is revealed.
Description: Turiel becomes a true beast, his form growing until he’s as big as a tractor-trailer, not counting his tail. While not the normal mental image of a dragon, it’s not hard to see how he inspired many tales of dread and woe.
He has a long, thick torso that’s encased in a gleaming white armored shell (which vaguely resembles that of a tortoise, top and bottom). The dorsal side of this shell bears a half-dozen sharp ridges of bone with small spikes rising at regular intervals along their length.
Growing from the side of the torso are six legs; they are thick, powerful limbs covered in dense black fur that is as rough as the skin of a shark. Each leg ends in a paw with four fingers and two thumbs (one on each side) that can extend gleaming silvered claws. The paws are as dexterous as a hand, but obviously are typically engaged in more mundane tasks.
From his hindquarters sprouts a tail covered in white armor scales that ends in an extendable “stinger” that more resembles a retractable sword, right down to its shined finish.
His head bears a mane like a lion’s, but has features that are a strange, equal mix of lion and dragon, including a “crown” of white horns growing up out of the black fur. His eyes are glowing red pits, resembling the furnaces he loves to work with so often. His teeth gleam the same silvery steel color that his claws bear.
Power(s):
-General: While he can still use Sonido, Turiel is noticeably slower in this form (though for many opponents he is still shockingly fast, especially for his size). His skill with Descorrer is lessened, while his Pesquisa remains unchanged. His Regeneration also stays at roughly the same level as before.
He can still speak, in all the languages he knows.
But it is his strength, his stamina,and his Hierro that show the most increase. Turiel, in his Resurreccion, becomes a nigh-unstoppable powerhouse of destruction and indestructibility. His shell provides an even greater degree of protection, seemingly focusing some of his released power into solid defensibility.
He can now only fire Bala from his tail (more rapidly than he could previously), and only fire Cero from his mouth.
In short, Turiel becomes a creature of legend and, once more, proves he is a peer of Jehoel Yurius, and likely not trying for Primera out of respect for the other Arrancar.
-Aliento ardiente Acero: (Burning Steel Breath) Turiel’s most remarkable, and signature, ability in his Resurreccion: He is able to expel liquid metal from his mouth at incredible velocity. This metal is always at or above the temperature required to melt that particular element. Because Turiel can actually alter the type of metal he expels. He tends to favor the following:
--Molten Gold is hot and heavy but cools quickly enough to become a serious impediment. He can fire it in a cone, stream, or small “globs”.
--Molten Mercury is heated well above its melting point, and in fact comes out not far from boiling. But it moves fast, and Turiel can control its trajectory to a degree. Further, it’s a contact heavy metal poison that might at least temporarily slow down or negatively affect an opponent. He can fire it in streams or globs.
--Molten Steel is the metal he can produce in the greatest volumes. As well, he can alter the area it is fired in on the fly. When he first breathes it out, the steel is almost white-hot, though it quickly cools to red-hot.
--Molten Tungsten is perhaps his most dangerous iteration of this ability, as tungsten’s melting point is the highest of any element. Turiel breathes it out at temperatures around 4000 degrees Celsius. The downside is that he can only fire small streams of it with little control. Still, the liquid tungsten clings to whatever it touches, and obviously takes a long while to cool down.
--Metal Caesium is the competitor with Tungsten for “most dangerous”. While Tungsten comes out incredibly hot, Caesium just keeps burning. Water does not quench it, it only feeds it. Air provides it fuel. It will burn and burn and burn until there is none left.
-Armor forjado: (Forged Armor) The shell on Turiel’s back and stomach is incredibly resistant to damage; it is to Hierro what Hierro is to normal skin. Few enemies can truly hope to pierce this part of his hide. Further, if he so chooses, Turiel can withdraw into the shell, locking himself within its impenetrable depths. While locked in like this, wounds to his tail or limbs heal at a very slow rate, while his torso/organs and head heal a bit more rapidly than they might otherwise. He cannot move or attack in this manner, but is generally aware of his surroundings, and can speak through the shell. He can unfurl in the blink of an eye to strike down an unsuspecting opponent. It is not possible for him to only extend a single limb from this “lockdown” mode; its nature means it is an “all or nothing” defense.
-Vientre de la Bestia: (Belly of the Beast) Turiel can consume metal to help accelerate his healing or even just replenish energy. Just about any metal, mortal or spiritual, will do; he has even consumed the sealed form of Zanpakuto in this way.


Segunda Etapa
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Name: Oro Bestia Tierra (Golden Earth Beast)
Description: A golden light begins to shine from within Turiel’s bestial form, until his entire body is glowing, and then there is a flash of bright golden light that obscures his form.
When he emerges, he is humanoid once more, and actually smaller than he was in his fully sealed state. He stands only 6 feet tall, and is overall smaller, though his build has the lean look of an apex predator. His weight, however, clocks in at 400 pounds.
Considering he seems to be an animated golden statue, that’s understandable. Every inch of his skin is the color of polished gold. His irises are the color of polished rubies, while his sclera are polished sapphires; his pupils are vertical slits of black. Upon his head is a thick, flowing mane of hair that is half as wide as his shoulders, and tapers down to a point a bit below his waist. The hair seems to be in a multitude of small spikes that wave gently in the breeze.
His upper body is bare, while his lower body is adorned with simple flowing black martial artist pants. His waist is encircled by a belt composed of shining black metal threads, though at a glance one might take it for a simple cloth belt. His feet are bare. His fingers and toes end in slight claws.
Power(s):-General: Turiel’s strength experiences only a slight increase in Segunda Etapa; the fact that it was already stupendous means it’s not a huge loss for him. What does improve greatly is his speed; his initial release might as well be standing still compared to how he can move as the Oro Bestia Tierra. His golden skin and hair bear the same defensive strength that his shell bore in Resurreccion. His Cero and Bala have not increased in power from his initial release. His regeneration speed has improved, though.
-Aliento ardiente Acero: (Burning Steel Breath) Turiel can still expel various liquid-hot metals from his mouth, but now he is also capable of summoning Molten Gold from each of his hands. Gold is the only metal he can conjure in this way. The volume he can produce, and the speed he can produce it at, is increased.
-Vientre de la Bestia: (Belly of the Beast) This power remains essentially unchanged, though the sheer volume he can consume at once is, by simple dint of size and shape, reduced.
-Luminoso Garras de la Bestia: (Shining Claws of the Beast) The claws on Turiel’s extremities are extremely sharp and durable, proving themselves a match for any Zanpakuto, and even proving enough to harm mundane tungsten and diamonds.
-Afilado de pelo de la Bestia: (Sharp Hair of the Beast) Turiel’s flowing hair is a weapon all its own. With the concentration of but a moment, he can harden part or all of his hair into a mass of spikes that can slice and pierce any foe unwitting enough to try and use his luscious locks to their advantage. He can also whip the mass of hair about as a weapon to extend his reach and surprise his foes.
--Agujas para Perforar Cabello: (Piercing Hair Needles) Turiel can fire off his hair-needles as projectiles at opponents, imbuing them with a bit of the heat of his molten breath weapon. He can expend up to about half the mass of his hair, which renews itself within a couple of minutes.
-Shining Molten Cero: Turiel’s “ultimate attack”. He summons up a mass of molten metal, but instead of flinging it at an opponent he holds it in his hands for a few moments until he summons up a larger-than-normal Cero. Then, when fired, his Cero bears with it a swirling mass of molten metal melting and burning its way through most any target.


Segunda District
Spoiler: Watch Out For The Lava
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District Itself:
Much of the Segunda's District is just recently constructed or renovated, and the whole thing is well-crafted and fairly orderly.
It is populated with various buildings that are clearly large forging and smithing centers, metal refineries, stonemasonry centers, and other such industrial-focused efforts.
Other areas, done up like relaxation and enjoyment sectors, seem to have small streams and rivers and even ponds of molten lava.
Still other areas are half-covered by steam; large hot springs and saunas, some open to the air.
There is also a giant restaurant that cooks food over fast-moving streams of lava.
In the center of the District is a square tower that rises above the rest of the buildings, though not by a large margin. This is the Tower of the Segunda Espada.

Turiel's Tower:
It is actually many-tiered, with various square sections of rooftop popping up in a not-quite-spiral to the uppermost section of the building.
One of the lower rooftops has a lava waterfall gracefully flowing down the side of the building. Another couple have open-air forges and blacksmith work areas, manned by several diligent Arrancar.
On the topmost rooftop there is a set of sturdy-looking doors, which are operated by a pair of guards in body-concealing outfits of flowing cloth who share similar (large) builds.
From these doors descend a set of stairs into a circular central room, with doors going in several directions.
Among the amenities this "penthouse suite" (which actually encompasses several floors with multiple similar floor layouts around central rooms) possesses include:
-Several small saunas
-Several washrooms/bathrooms
-Several large closet/dressing rooms with clothes available for any guests invited in
-Several bedrooms with full luxury accommodations (most of which have a bathroom attached that can also be accessed from one of the main corridors)
-Several meditation rooms, each with a different "theme" (one has a small stream of lava, one is done up like a desert, one has many plants, etc)
-A multi-story library
-Several smaller studies
-A couple of large group entertainment rooms; there's a small theater room, a billiards room, and a couple others
-All rooms have indicator flag systems to help discreetly signal for assistance in most any matter

In short, the private domain of the Segunda is a luxurious stay for any guest he deems worthy.

Turiel's own quarters are actually right in the middle of the overall penthouse suite, with extremely limited access (by way of hidden doors in staircases and the library that only he or a few designated individuals can open) giving him even greater privacy.
In general his area resembles the rest of the penthouse, though his personal bathroom includes a nook that lets him take a shower in lava if he desires. As well, his meditation room includes not only a literal pool of lava that he sometimes swims in, it is also constantly at a very high temperature.
In lieu of some sort of game or entertainment room, Turiel has a personal workshop where he does most of his jewelry work as well as his high-end forge work; two of the walls have discreet windows that can open to allow fresh air to flow through the room, to prevent nasty build-up of fumes or the like.