Floating Towers of Arcanix

The Village of Arcanix; Population: 800
The village of Arcanix, located along the southeastern banks of Lake Galifar and lies directly beneath the floating towers. The residents of Arcanix owe their livelihoods to the Arcane Congress, from the innkeeper who boards the parents of would-be wizards during the Autumn Entrance Examinations to the stablemaster responsible for exercising the steeds — both mundane and exotic — of some Arcane Congress spellcasters.
Most of the important wizards and sorcerers of the Arcane Congress live in the floating towers themselves, but a few reside in Arcanix. Raulo ir’Trannick, for example, is the lord mayor of Arcanix and a member of the Arcane Congress. His family has long had holdings on the southeastern banks of Lake Galifar, and his position as Trannick patriarch demands he live earthbound and board a hippogriff when he’s needed for the business of the Congress. Raulo and other members of the Trannick family are the proctors of the Autumn Entrance Exams, determining which of Aundair’s brightest will get a chance to become magewrights and wizards. Raulo also serves as a de facto ambassador between the Arcane Congress and any wizards who arrive at Arcanix unannounced. The Trannick family offers trained hippogriffs that can ascend to the floating towers for visitors unable to get there under their own power. The Trannicks collect a 25 gp per person transit fee, which they use to fund scholarships for deserving young mages.
Arcanix is also home to the Tower of Alchemy, one of the Five Nations’ premier colleges for the alchemical arts. Its senior mentor, Tzandro Kavalant, has created the alchemical golems that act as servants and guardians within the floating towers.
Arcanix’s unique position makes it one of the Five Nations’ most magically aware places. Many of the residents are downright blasé about powerful arcane magic, while others take great delight in the astonishment on visitors’ faces when a carpet of flying alights on the town square or an aged wizard turns into a glorious dragon and flies away.

The Wizards Academy

As you soar upward, you see four castles, each floating on a rocky island thousands of feet above the verdant fields of Aundair. Each castle is a crazy-quilt of different architectural styles, each more outlandish than the last. Periodic flashes of light illuminate the windows, and every so often a gout of flame or eldritch energy bursts forth from a door or chimney.
The Arcane Congress, one of Khorvaire’s greatest collections of arcane minds, operates out of the floating towers that hover above the village of Arcanix. Over the centuries, the Arcane Congress has turned its Aundair headquarters into a showcase for the power of magic. Visiting the floating towers means seeing wonders undreamt of by most Aundairians — from baffling illusions to animated contrivances to captured creatures from other dimensions.
The floating towers are at once a college of wizardry and the personal laboratories of some of the most powerful wizards in the Five Nations. Many a would-be magewright or wizard comes to the village of Arcanix, below the towers, hoping to study hard and someday ascend to the lofty ranks of Aundair’s finest arcanists. The Arcane Congress devotes two of the towers, Glarehold and Amberwall, to training the next generation of magewrights and wizards. Nocturnas and Skyreach, the other two towers, are the residences, libraries, and laboratories of Arcane Congress members. From these two towers, the Congress advises the Aundairian crown on magical matters and schemes against its rivals, the Twelve.
Environment: Everburning torches light every corner of the floating towers unless a member of the Congress has a specific reason to prefer darkness. Some everburning torches burst into flame only when someone enters the room, dousing themselves instantly when the room is vacant. Others burn with strangely colored flame, adding a bluish or reddish tint to everything they illuminate. The floating towers are a quiet place; distracting noise is conducive to neither study nor political machinations. The temperature is always mild within the floating towers, no matter what is happening outside.
The Arcane Congress built the floating towers over eight hundred years, so their walls have known many architects, both mundane and magical. Within the floating towers, there’s always a strong aura of transmutation (the spells that keep the towers aloft) and at least one other aura.
The White Arch: Visitors to the floating towers often ascend (via magic or the Trannicks’ hippogriffs) to Glarehold Tower, where an outcropping of rock has a massive white marble arch that leads to a white marble courtyard. The White Arch is also the traditional gateway that new students use when they begin their studies; many an Aundairian youth dreams of walking under the white arch, clad in the brown robes of a first-year student. The courtyard beyond the White Arch is the largest outdoor space on any of the four floating towers. Magically animated topiaries in the shape of boars stand at the corners of the courtyard.
Library of Robideur: Near the top of Skyreach is one of Khorvaire’s finest collections of arcane lore — although librarians in Korranberg would argue the point, and who knows what dark lore lurks in the libraries of Ashtakala? The library takes up the top four floors of Skyreach’s tallest spire, with bookshelves running from floor to ceiling. Only the doors and the stained-glass windows interrupt the walls crammed with spellbook, tomes, and grimoires. A unique spell not unlike unseen servant controls the books within the library. An arcanist of the Arcane Congress need only state the title and author of a book, and it slides from its shelf, opens wide, then slowly descends to the arcanist’s waiting hands, lazily flapping its cover open and shut in imitation of a bird.
The half-elf sorcerer Robideur died more than 450 years ago, but his descendant Tanila is the head librarian. The library forbids checking out books even to the most powerful members of the Arcane Congress; examination of a book at one of the library’s oak desks is the only option. Tanila has an initial attitude of unfriendly toward anyone who even asks about checking out a book, and she won’t bend the rules unless her attitude is improved to helpful.
The Library of Robideur is a terrific research tool. A PC using the library to research a specific question gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Knowledge (arcana) checks and a +2 bonus on Knowledge (the planes) checks. The library has a few books on other topics — histories, gazetteers, and the like — but they aren’t comprehensive enough to provide a bonus on the skill check.
Adal’s Demesne: At the center of Nocturnas are a series of chambers that Adal ir’Wynarn, Royal Minister of Magic and brother to Queen Aurala, calls home. Adal splits his time between the floating towers and his palace at Fairhaven. He regards the floating towers as a place where he can be free of court intrigues and free to direct his staff as they conduct magical research and build weapons of arcane destruction to defend Aundair or extend its reach.
Adal is more politically connected than most of the Arcane Congress. He has the queen’s ear at a moment’s notice (although the trust between them is far from complete). Adal isn’t a great wizard in his own right, but he’s a consummate power broker and charismatic leader. Most of the researchers on his staff are higher-level wizards than he is, and the many agents in Adal’s employ are likewise among the most elite in Aundair. At any one given time, Adal has three or four major research or weapon-development programs underway within his chambers. Each is kept separate from the others, and only Adal knows the extent and progress of all the programs. One team might be trying to reverse-engineer House Cannith’s creation pattern for warforged. Another team works on a system of weather control, and a third is breeding wyverns that shoot fiery rays from their tails.
Maze of Shadowy Terror: In the lowest level of Amberwall Tower is a maze intended to humble young apprentices confident of their ability to meet any threat with magic. The Maze of Shadowy Terror spontaneously generates shadows of mundane and mystical beasts that roam the maze. The Amberwall instructors intended that the maze, which looks like a typical set of twisting dungeon corridors, serve as a final test for wizards and sorcerers before they head out into the world or become members of the Arcane Congress. But brave and foolhardy students eager to prove themselves are always sneaking into the basement and entering the maze on their own.
Gate of Xabra: Near the top of Nocturnas is an astronomical observatory and one of the great artifacts of the Arcane Congress: the Gate of Xabra. This circle of menhirs, transplanted from a Q’barran ruin shortly before the start of the Last War, has graven glyphs that correspond to no known language or code. The glyphs hold overwhelmingly powerful conjuration magic sufficient to send everything within the circle to another plane of existence. When a would-be traveler uses a finger to trace certain glyphs on the stones, they glow slightly. When all the correct glyphs are lit, everything within the Gate of Xabra disappears and a whoosh of air fills the void that remains.
Finding the correct sequence of glyphs is no easy task. Fortunately, failed attempts don’t have negative consequences—or at least they haven’t so far. The glyph sequence can’t be learned by rote, because the correct glyph sequence depends on both the destination plane and the alignment of the stars around Eberron. Uli Blackthatch studies the Gate of Xabra for the Arcane Congress. He has a master's knowledge of the planes and will direct planar travelers in what he believes is the correct sequence.
The Gate of Xabra only opens for an instant, although in most cases it leaves a circular impression on the other plane that allows a return trip. Travelers appear within the circle at the moment they arrive; once they step back inside it, they reappear in the gate chamber in Nocturnas. On the plane of Irian, the return circle might be marked with crystals, while it might be a circular glade on the forest plane of Lamannia.

Type

Village