Almet's Lance

A mysterious relic of a dead culture

Purpose / Function

The original intent of the tower is difficult to discern. With its shifting texts, impenetrably locked doors, and comprehension-defying script windows, it is likely the tower's original function will remain lost. In absence of any evidence, various explanations for the tower's existence have been proposed since its discovery. Some have said it spawned the Veyd. Others believe it to be an arsenal designed by the lost Francurians. A few have even speculated that it carried life from the heavens down to Kaot, especially given the wide variety of skeletal structures belonging to the ancient Francurians that clearly indicate multiple races.
Historically, the tower has often served as a central military stronghold or trade hub. The encompassing city's location straddling a river that has carved a path through the crater, the surrounding fertile volcanic soil, the nearby ore-rich hills, and the rare and plentiful flora and fauna of the island grant it significant strategic value.
As the general understanding of science around the world has improved and Arkenian scholars have had greater luck translating the Francurian texts, though, the tower's purpose has doubled as a famed and highly sought after source of knowledge. The tower was most recently claimed by the Order of Almet as both their new capital and the center for all of the Order's future research and worship.

Alterations

Fortifications and additions to the tower have been made, demolished, and rearranged dozens of times since its discovery. Structures erected around the base of the tower attempt to crawl up its sides, seeking purchase in fissures and openings in the external walls.
Inside, partitions have been added to some of the larger chambers to create living quarters, while some of the static walls have been carefully removed to expand other areas into open auditoriums for lectures, political rallies, sermons, and so forth. Kitchens, smithies, apothecaries, worship centers, prisons, barracks, throne rooms; the various chambers of the tower have seen many adaptations.

Architecture

Millennia ago, the Tower of Francuria was probably an elegant and imposing structure. After so many centuries exposed to the humid tropical air and jungle growth, along with abrasive ash from the occasional volcanic eruption and what must have been a tremendous impact, though, the tower is beaten, partially overgrown, and permanently stained by ash. Even still, the tower is surprisingly stable and its former pristine beauty is not impossible to picture beneath at least 2000 years of weathering.

Exterior

The entire structure leans at a roughly 7 degree angle. It is about 30 meters wide at the base, stands about 85 meters tall and narrows to a point, while extending at least another 45 meters below ground. Fractal lines corkscrew over the tower's silvery exterior in sweeping curves and several large windows offer excellent views of the surrounding city--or tantalizing peeks at the secrets the tower still hides behind locked doors. Several hatches dot the walls, cleverly concealed by the artwork, although some of them have been found or forced open and now act as additional entrances. Near the top of the tower, two bulbous structures extend gracefully from either side of the tower like a cross guard, earning the tower its most recent name, Almet's Lance.

Interior

Inside, the rooms are oriented horizontally (causing the floors to slant since the entire structure is tilted), but are stacked on top of each other like layers. Moving from one level to another required the use of ladders originally, but a series of simple lifts have been designed in long hollow tubes running the height of the tower to ease travel throughout. A few of these lifts have been established outside, as well, and the ladders are still perfectly functional. The levels themselves appear to be organized into categories by function, with every three to seven levels ostensibly serving a similar purpose, followed by another three to seven levels serving a new purpose. It is difficult to tell what each region of the tower was for since about a third of the levels are locked off and a significant portion of the rooms in some of the other levels are locked, as well. However, some of the regions have been identified as being used for living quarters, research, recreation, or storage of knowledge or materials.

Words of the Tower

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the tower, though, is its writing. A peculiar script appears on many of the walls and doors, but it constantly shifts and changes before the reader's eyes. Sometimes the text will move, tracing serpentine trails along the walls before fading away. Other times it will appear suddenly on a door in large interconnected symbols, then disperse into smaller symbols and disappear. And still other instances of the script appear to respond to the words and actions of the occupants of the room, perhaps even attempting to converse with them.
What appear to be blank sheets of strong glass can be found in almost every room in various sizes and shapes and quantities. Interacting with one of these sheets, commonly referred to as script windows, by touching it or speaking directly at it causes it to sputter a dim glow and display more of the mercurial symbols from the walls in a stuttering font. Touching or speaking to a script window causes the text to flow around its surface and change, sometimes even eliciting sounds like movement from other parts of the tower. Trial and error experimentation, along with recent leaps in translating the text, has unlocked a handful of new chambers and resulted in illumination and climate control provided by the tower itself in most of the levels.
Scholars have continued prodding at the script windows and studying the writing on the walls for centuries. It was not until they accidentally unlocked what appears to be a library only a couple decades before the Order of Almet rose to power, however, that they were able to make significant headway towards constructing a grammar and lexicon. The process is still slow moving, however.

History

A Vacant Land

Long ago, something happened on the walled-off subcontinent of Francuria that transformed all of its inhabitants into Veyd. Human historians vary on exactly when this event occurred and its nature. Skeyll historians are reluctant to share their knowledge of the event with Humans, but have revealed it took place not long after a great streak of light fell from the sky and slammed into the island. It is generally agreed the mysterious disaster took place around 1900 Before the Mages' Ascent according to Almet's Count (the calendar of the tower's current owners) . Historians from both races confirm no creature capable of casting was able to visit the great island for roughly five hundred years following the disaster. The tower was discovered around 1380 BMA, shortly after human explorers making an expedition up the coast of the main continent, Arken, realized they could not feel the tug of Veyd on their aurum and decided to investigate. While most of the Francurian civilization was now in ruins, this lone structure was found largely intact, jutting from the center of a crater that was once a Francurian city. The explorers named the tower Niveydhulde or Former Home of the Veyd.

Trading Blood

Since Francuria's resettling, Niveydhulde has passed back and forth between Human and Skeyll control repeatedly. The Mendelles, who initially reclaimed the tower and the island, treated the tower as a trade hub until about 1265 BMA when Skeyll warmaster Liskin Sitest invaded and eradicated every human on the island then claimed the tower as a keep. The Mendelles retook the tower nearly four hundred years later in 882 BMA, by which point it and the surrounding crater had been converted from keep into a permanent basking ground. The Mendelles re-established the tower's fortifications and used it as a central command for further colonization of the sub-continent and for defending against the following Skeyll assaults that persisted periodically for the next 240 years.

Rise of Order

After the Mendelle colony on Francuria declared itself the independent nation of Yrethica in 499 BMA, the tower was designated as the new sovereignty's capitol building. Skeyll, who were later permitted to the island as a show of peace, usurped the Yrethican government after laying siege to the tower in 362 BMA. A truce was eventually reached, however, and a peace treaty was signed in the tower in 309 BMA. The tower watched silently over the resulting Skeyll-Human society that developed under the new peace treaty until year 0 of the Mages' Ascent. A cult of mages known as the Order of Almet succeeded in its political maneuvering to take control of the tower and the government. The Order has been using the tower, which it dubbed Almet's Lance, as the seat of its political power, as well as its primary research center and house of worship, for a little over a century.

Alternative Names

Tower of Francuria, Niveydhulde, Liskin's Keep, Mage's Overreach

Type

Tower, Mage