Along with Vellers Square, the main plaza in central Jalkin. Dominated by Huwdone House on it's eastern side, the square is a favourite gathering point for crowds and the political focal point for the Cities. Major public announcements, including the announcement of the elections for a new Chancellor, most of the Chancellor's addresses to their people, are all made to the Parliament Square crowds, with the orators standing on a mobile platform which is wheeled in front of Huwdone House. Any demonstration worth its name, even those directing their ire at other targets (e.g. striking workers) also tend to converge on the square. During daytime wheeled transport, beyond the carriages of state officials, are banned from it, as are any kind of trading. These restrictions enhance its status as a place for off-duty workers to gather, relax and above all gossip. The one exception to the trade ban is the sale of newsheets. Vendors regularly line its sides, for it is one of the most prized pitches of all. The fact that many sell papers containing the most brazen denunciations of authority imaginable shows the degree of confidence of the federal government.
The paving stones of Parliament Square are a black and white chequerboard fashion, a style borrowed from the Church of Garrath. The centrepiece is a huge black iron statue of Tars Tukas which rests on a tall plinth, the greatest of the multitude of Tukas statues which blossomed shortly after his death. Four lines spiral away from the plinth. They are composed first of smaller statues erected in the 1080's (of Myran Bennett, Rudanc Masterson, Goran Balbo and Piers Dalbass, the latter a long-standing Baron of Elsey), then a series of elaborate fountains and finally a string of ornamental wells, whose roofs are again decorated in a chequerboard fashion. Aside from Huwdone itself, most of the buildings surrounding the square are long, sedate terraces, mostly built in the 1100's after the existing buildings were deemed insufficiently grandiose. Typical is Langdale Terrace which runs most of the western side and whose open portico offers a handy shelter to escape the sun or rain. Five stories high and built of grey stone with carved window eaves, covered balconies with small statues decorating their roofs, arched and barred windows, high chimney stacks and decorated gables, it is a classic mixture of the leaden and the over-adorned which typified 1100's architecture. Langdale, like most of Parliament Square's other buildings, holds offices which have overspilled from Huwdone itself. (The government's main stables and coaching rooms lay just down an alley on the northern side, next to the South Star Coaching Co. depot, the private firm which manages the government's local transportation). One exception stands on the corner with Tukas Road, the Kakranfan Embassy. Another comes from the Pantheon, quite close to it on the southern side. A temple devoted to all the acknowledged gods in the Terafan pantheon, though dominated by altars to Garrath and Ella, it is nowadays used for most political rituals which require a religious touch; the presentation of a new Chancellor to senior clergy being an obvious example. The current Pantheon is the second such structure to grace Parliament Square, the first having occupied the northern side but burnt down in 1207. The origins of that fire were never solved, giving rise to two superstitious explanations. One was that it was the Gods' revenge for the New Ecumenacalist Acts, passed two years earlier. The other was that the Gods basically don't like to cohabit, because all Pantheons have tended to meet an unhappy end; East Zabrial's and Salbair's being two obvious examples. However, the second Parliament Square one was completed in 1280 and it still standing. It is a beautifully symmetrical building, its high entrance door flanked by four marble pillars.
A typical gathering to see the Chancellor's traditional pre-Garreday address:
"The sun continued its complete mastery of the sky, and though a breeze could be found elsewhere, the tall, graceful buildings which flanked the square made it as still as a dungeon. Hanging heavy in the air was the reek of the legions of people who filled the square. Almost all locals, their brown faces were shiny with sweat, their long hair was matted to their scalps and dark stains mottled their bright clothes. Unlike a trademark Vellers Square scene, where most of the huge mob are hurrying to be somewhere else (a good idea, if you're in Vellers Square) the Parliament Square crowds were stationery, standing desperately fanning themselves or sprawled on the checkerboard paving stones. And though there were the usual jostlings (nut, pickled fish and water-flask vendors weaving through the crowds, toddlers staring at strangers like drunks inviting challenges to the distant, desperate protests of their parents, the scuffle-shout-collision of a mock-fight, the scuffle-shout-scream of a mock-rape) most people were waiting expectantly. They were also staring at the elegant slab of marble that was Huwdone House, its white walls painfully bright in the sun. The focus of their gaze was the front of the entrance doors, where a large platform had been wheeled into place. It was draped with colourful awnings and large gongs stood at either end, beside which two muscular men waited stoically. The platform was level with the doors and extended a small distance into the square itself. A heavy presence of Huwdone Guardsmen was gathering, ringing the crowds and forming an arc around the platform, sartorially resplendent in their gleaming copper armour.