Blue Tower
Eastgate’s Blue Tower is the tallest building within Absalom’s walls, and the third-tallest in all of Absalom. Three thousand years ago, it was the disaster-proof bastion of the Blue Lords, a Taldan political faction that essentially controlled the city for an extended period during the infamous Age of Excess. Rivaling the Watchtower and the Absalom Lighthouse, the soaring Blue Tower was perhaps the best example of the limitless “Mount Absalom” construction boom of that era, when every noble house and political faction sought to outdo the other by building larger, taller, and more improbably elaborate homes and headquarters. The tremendous spiral tower resembles a unicorn’s horn fashioned of intricately fitted pieces of pale blue coral, and is capped with a narrow stone lighthouse. Along with the Spire of Nex on the northwest horizon, the Blue Tower is a landmark by which most natives of Absalom can easily gain their bearings as they travel across the city. The tower’s lighthouse is so tall that it can focus its beacon past the Flotsam Graveyard to mark a ship beyond Absalom’s harbor.
The Blue Lords abandoned the Blue Tower along with the rest of their endeavors in Absalom and returned to their homeland following the disastrous Taldor-Qadira earthquakes of 2920 AR. Whatever secrets the Blue Lords might have hidden in the tower’s walls and heights were left unrecorded, although occasionally people find cryptic notations on crumbling slips of ancient paper tucked into niches behind bricks and above interior keystones. It remains unknown whether these are a legacy from the Blue Lords or some other past occupant, and the found code slips have been too few, and too brief, for anyone to decipher.
Today, the Blue Tower is home to the Winged Sandals, an order of messengers dedicated to Iomedae. They trace their history to a decree from Aroden commanding them to bear messages anywhere in the world on demand. The Winged Sandals have a wide and centuries-old reputation for courage, determination, and reliability, and are considered one of the best options for conveying urgent, high-stakes missives to remote and perilous places. They also handle the majority of the normal mail services used by citizens of Absalom, employing an army of messengers and package delivery experts that work exclusively within the city in addition to a smaller number of highly traveled (and very expensive) worldwide couriers.
A number of the Winged Sandals’ more experienced traveling agents are veterans of the Worldwound and have considerable experience not only in navigating hostile terrain and avoiding wily adversaries, but also with using layered encryption, code-augmenting illusions, and other techniques designed to ensure that no message can be deciphered by unauthorized foes. The Winged Sandals also specialize in communications magic of all varieties and developed innumerable interception methods for purposes of testing interception-avoiding techniques.
As the third-tallest structure in the city, the Blue Tower serves Absalom as a reference point when traveling the city streets. The tower’s shadow also serves some citizens as a sort of sundial, while some cynical shills offer “Blue Doom” payouts, should the tower ever collapse in just the right direction to destroy a specific building.
The Blue Lords abandoned the Blue Tower along with the rest of their endeavors in Absalom and returned to their homeland following the disastrous Taldor-Qadira earthquakes of 2920 AR. Whatever secrets the Blue Lords might have hidden in the tower’s walls and heights were left unrecorded, although occasionally people find cryptic notations on crumbling slips of ancient paper tucked into niches behind bricks and above interior keystones. It remains unknown whether these are a legacy from the Blue Lords or some other past occupant, and the found code slips have been too few, and too brief, for anyone to decipher.
Today, the Blue Tower is home to the Winged Sandals, an order of messengers dedicated to Iomedae. They trace their history to a decree from Aroden commanding them to bear messages anywhere in the world on demand. The Winged Sandals have a wide and centuries-old reputation for courage, determination, and reliability, and are considered one of the best options for conveying urgent, high-stakes missives to remote and perilous places. They also handle the majority of the normal mail services used by citizens of Absalom, employing an army of messengers and package delivery experts that work exclusively within the city in addition to a smaller number of highly traveled (and very expensive) worldwide couriers.
A number of the Winged Sandals’ more experienced traveling agents are veterans of the Worldwound and have considerable experience not only in navigating hostile terrain and avoiding wily adversaries, but also with using layered encryption, code-augmenting illusions, and other techniques designed to ensure that no message can be deciphered by unauthorized foes. The Winged Sandals also specialize in communications magic of all varieties and developed innumerable interception methods for purposes of testing interception-avoiding techniques.
As the third-tallest structure in the city, the Blue Tower serves Absalom as a reference point when traveling the city streets. The tower’s shadow also serves some citizens as a sort of sundial, while some cynical shills offer “Blue Doom” payouts, should the tower ever collapse in just the right direction to destroy a specific building.
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