Anthur-Ro

Anthur-Ro is the great mage tower of Oa. In addition to the literal meaning, the term is used metonymically to refer to the collective of mages that train there and the powerful groups they form. It is the parent organization of The Arcanaeum in the Starboard Metro, the employer of Reghyxesh and the target of The Assault on Anthur-Ro.

Physical Structure

Anthur-Ro has a shifting physical structure that is often under adaptation. Internally, it is comprised of 60 floors of varying height. The main library the group visited on the 42nd "floor", for example, was at least eight storeys tall -- on the inside, at least, and was about 400 feet above ground level, despite being only three "floors" above the surface.
The group is unaware of the contents of the top ten stories, which information is apparently restricted. Nevertheless, they can plainly guess from the structure of the tower that there is an observation deck and an airship launch somewhere up top.
The contents of the floors the The Ladies' Hiking Club learned about from TED-E (the Tower Elevation and Descent Entity) are as follows, from top to bottom:
51-60: Unknown, must include airship launch and observation deck
50: Silken Mess, kitchen
49: Alchemy Garden
48: Alchemy Lab
47: Artificer's Theory Shop
46: Mage's Mess
45: Masters' Chambers
43-44: Journeyman Chambers
42: Main Library
40-41: Classrooms / Practice Facilities / Dojos
39: Entrance. Sports arena surrounded by teleportation rooms and Hall of Fame
- - - Ground Level - - -
38: Kitchen
33-37: Servants' Quarters
32: Basic library
30-31: Apprentices' Mess
27-29: Apprentice Barracks
20-26: Novitiate Barracks
18-19: Cells
3-17: Storage
1-2: Summoning Demiplanes
Beneath the Summoning Demiplanes, long forgotten, are a series of catacombs fitted with traps and challenges. Those structures were set up in the distant past to keep the riffraff out of Anthur-Ro before it was fully established and patrolled. Now that the tower is otherwise secure and the catacombs sealed, the leadership of the tower neglected to keep an eye on that access path such that Reghyxesh managed to either find or make an ingress point from his lair below in the Portside Sewer.

Individual Floors

The crew has personal knowledge of the following floors:
Summoning Demiplanes: Largely empty rooms serviced by TED-E and containing pocket dimensions, possibly all filled with prisoners or other undesirables. The group opted to release the Smoke Creatures from the lowest level of these planes as they escaped it themselves.
Prison Cells: Cell blocks in this surrealist prison float in seeming nothingness, at great distances from one another and connected only by magical gates that provide access only to those levels to which an intention to visit can be formed. If you do not know what you are looking for, you may be unable to find it. These cell blocks can be dozens deep or just a few to a level, but what they all have in common is the absence of a rear wall. At any point, a prisoner dissatisfied with their cell has the option of leaping into the abyss. There is no apparent bottom (as far as the group is aware), and according to Harrison Craig there is an enchantment in that plane that prevents not only spellcasting but cellular decay and bodily processing. Hunger and thirst are impossible. One does not get tired or age there. The cells are guarded only by a vanishingly small number of Justicars, following a significant transfer of enforcement resources prompted by Councillors Green-Eye and Sourtongue just before The Assault on Anthur-Ro. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

In the cells, the Ladies became aware of the following individuals:

• Harrison Craig: an unerringly polite, smooth-talking genocidal maniac(?) that is self-admittedly too dangerous to let out of stasis. The guards' paperwork suggested he was committed for treason, murder, unauthorized planar vortex, unauthorized necromancy, unauthorized blood magic, genocide, unauthorized access to restricted material, "&c." (pictured right)
• Althea Tanishi: the Ladies did not manage to meet her; the guards' paperwork showed that she was to stand trial in the next year for unauthorized necromancy, and they heard chatter about her having been a radical feminist imprisoned shortly after having been elected to Council
• Minfi Bellowmane: a punky Gnome sleeping off some misdemeanor public drunkenness
• Ushug Idima: a Master sentenced for multiple counts of murder and abuse of power; the Ladies did not manage to meet her either
• Safiya Judur: an initiate facing trial for murdering her instructing Master during a clumsy come-on gone awry. After spending some time convincing her of the passage of time, the Ladies set her free, to her unending gratitude.
• Seven Illinsi: held without stated charge, it appears these Silent Men have been mutilated and abhorrently experimented upon, several showing acute surgical trauma to their skulls.

Main Library
The main library at Anthur-Ro is a wonder all its own.

Fanny was a bit nonplussed by all this -- it doesn't hold a candle to the Opera House in Dartwright, for her money -- but the rest of you are positively engrossed in the surreal beauty of this place. It's eight storeys high if it's an inch, and the most inviting elements of a cozy bookshop, a greenhouse and a sculpture garden seem to have found a lava lamp-like equilibrium here.
Even in its vacancy given the hour and location, the Library at Anthur-Ro is alive and vibrant. The shimmering, soap-bubble glass looks out into the sheer darkness of Stille'en, and reflects in pink and lime-rind green the votives, sconces and floating lanterns bathing the space in a homespun glow. A cascading spring on the other side of the gumwood collections desk pushes out the silence, and the lilies in the pond below lend a fresh scent to the air. The stacks -- uneven, shifting and reaching in impossible angles -- defy gravity, keeping the volumes neatly in place even where they arch overhead and turn slowly, like a rotisserie of knowledge seasoned with manicured vines and peppered with succulents.
Alcoves, nooks and cozies with dedicated windows to the outdoor are checkered throughout the shelves, with ladders hanging loose in impossible directions. A handful of gnomish and other forms can be seen here and there, cozied up and nodded off on the ample pillows piled up before the windows.
Life-sized marionettes pass in and out of the stacks both before you and visibly in aisles seemingly half a mile away and six storeys up. Most are carrying tomes and scrolls for reshelving and seem to be nothing more than bare animated wood. As soon as that thought occurs to you, a rickety one graffitied in ink with a ridiculously giddy face and a half faded "FUCK MASTER POWELL" across its chest crosses your path. A number of brooms and dustpans work themselves across the floor to your left, and tin sparrows lit with eternal candles flit from surface to surface as the geography continues to shift organically. A pair of iron golems plod out from the stacks towards the salon in which you stand, surrounded by warm upholstery and good rugs.
Cherry lets out a low whistle. The Library at Anthur-Ro. Cross that one off the list.

Patrols

Anthur-Ro is patrolled not only by Justicars at the base entrance in Hearthaven and the main entrance on the mountaintop, but by airship (pictured left).

Governance Structure

Anthur-Ro is governed by a Council comprised of a Primate and eight Ministers with individual responsibilities. Practically parallel to the Primate and Council in priority is the Archmage of Anthur-Ro. Internal governance structures are generally not discussed with outsiders, but Beulah got the sense from speaking with Joshua Bridle during their ocean voyage that the Archmage is the title given to the greatest wizard of the spire, and the Primate and Council are actually charged with the administration of the arcane community and Anthur-Ro's many responsibilities and holdings. The Archmage retains ultimate authority to direct Anthur-Ro in the service of the magical arts, but is generally left to her own devices, being more of a genius mage than an administrator or leader. That said, the Archmage has every right to turn the tower and its resources to her own use in pursuing the greatest arcane discoveries possible: the ostensible purpose of the entire community. As Bridle put it, "the Council runs the ship of state. The Archmage charts the course... whenever it occurs to her."

All of the foregoing mages are entitled to wear Archon robes, as described below, but are explicitly exempt from all sumptuary standards imposed upon the lower classes. Some Primates, being elected officials for a term, prefer to dress simply, both for comfort and political purposes. One of the acknowledged benefits of being elected Archmage, however -- a lifetime appointment -- is the ability to fully flex on the competition and bling out. Archmages do not typically rise to their positions by being afraid of the limelight or modest in their own superiority to others, so typically the wardrobe of an Archmage of Anthur-Ro is a thing to fuckin' see.
Beneath this leadership class are a class of Archons: an elite group of wizards revered for their power and wisdom. They sit as judges, deputy ministers and ambassadors and are generally charged with responsibility for matters of state or business. The President of the Arcanaeum, the Captains of the Airships, the Regional Governors, the Consiglieri to the Corran Emperor: all Archons. There is no hard limit on the number of Archons that can be created, but because Ministers are elected from the Archons there is every incentive for the existing leadership structure to keep their ranks thin. Archons wear the indigo robes of Anthur-Ro beneath an ermine mantle and a hood embroidered to the mage's individual taste.
Generally beneath the Archons are a class of Justicars: enforcement officials charged with keeping peace, order, arcane stability and carrying out direct state action. They can serve as everything from police officers to spies, bounty hunters and aides-de-camp, to chief archaeologists and shopkeepers. In the fulfilment of their duties there is no restriction as to rank; accordingly, a Justicar charged with reining in unauthorized necromancy could arrest or even kill a Councillor caught red-handed without reprisal.
While Justicars are nominally inferior to Archons, they are often more skilled and experienced in their roles than the political climbers in the higher rank, and a well-suited Justicar position can be considered a career capstone rivalling a seat on Council. There is, for example, inevitably an enchanter serving as a most-feared interrogator; or an evocation mage serving as the pre-eminent enforcer and mage-hunter in case another master wizard falls out of line. Because Justicars are refined specialists, it is actually more common for Archmages to be drawn from the Justicar ranks, whereas Archons are exclusively eligible to be elected to Council. Justicars wear robes appropriate to their educational status (as discussed below), marked with metallic embroidery around their sleeves denoting their seniority. If a Justicar with white robes and two wisps of rust-colored rings around his wrists is after you, you may breathe substantially easier than you would if a "full bar" Justicar, hooded in indigo silk with thick white bands turns up over the horizon. It would be entirely appropriate and even expected for some of the most powerful active wizards in the world to wear that uniform.
All Archons and most Justicars are Masters: mages that have completed a full course of graduate study at the Tower and have contributed to the body of arcane knowledge by completing a dissertation and practicum. There is no fixed or meaningful average amount of time necessary to complete that course of training. A fiercely skilled divination mage could reach mastery in a decade or even less, whereas the number of skills a master artificer would have to learn and subdue to achieve mastery are so great that it is practically unheard of for that process to be complete in less than twenty years. Masters are granted the privilege of wearing the indigo robes of Anthur-Ro during the course of their studies and are 'hooded' upon graduation.
Below Masters are Journeymen: competent mages trusted to keep control of their gifts and to demonstrate continued loyalty to Anthur-Ro. They are released to the world or their internal occupation upon graduating from a standard course of study and the Course of Stages. School honours are granted to Journeymen but not Masters, so the fiercest competition among mages are generally reserved for the senior year of Journeyman training. Journeymen typically wear dark-tinted robes in colours of their own preference but typically affiliated with their school of magic (charcoal for abjuration, navy for enchantment, burgundy for evocation, etc.). Their robes have no hood and they bear embroidered honours upon their sleeves if earned.
Journeymen are Initiates that have completed their course of study and the Course of Stages. They are identified with white robes. Novitiates, identified by black robes, are initiates that have not completed their first two years of study and have not yet undergone preliminary safety training.

Current Composition of Council

Some of this information is gleaned from the The Pilfered Papers of Anthur-Ro, some of the rest (such as the identity of the Archmage and certain famed members of Council) are simply common knowledge, at least to adventurers. The below comprises all the best information the party has if it puts its heads together.

Archmage: Duck, an Artificer (gnome, identifies as female, pictured right)
Primate: Breadbasket, a licensed Necromancer (human, identifies as male): a public curiosity from the typically magic-skeptical population of Aildean, reputed to be physically intimidating but deeply kind, sage, gregarious zombie master. (Pamphlets recounting his exploits record him as frequently saying he "never stops being a people person".)
Councillors:

• Heartsblood, Minister of Domestic Affairs, an Evocationist (gnome, identifies as female)
• Green-Eye, Treasurer (half-orc, identifies as male)
• Kingfisher, Minister of Foreign Affairs (gnome, identifies as female)
• Sourtongue, Minister of ??? (human, identifies as female)
• Placer, Minister of Magic, an Illusionist (identifies as male): famous for recovering the Staff of the Magi from the Corran Empire and now being its rightful wielder
• Coleman, Minister of Foreign Affairs (human, identifies as male)
• Celerity, Minister of ???, a Diviner, (half-elf, identifies as non-binary): famously made terrifyingly accurate predictions of royal deaths as a child in Nessardine
• Third, Minister of Justice (unknown)

Present Status

With the beaching of the Wandering City, Anthur-Ro's normal operations have been disrupted, most particularly with respect to trade.  During their stay in Nessardine, Vega and Fanny managed to spot the deposed Council member, Kingfisher, parlaying aggressively with what appeared to be the commander of the Corran XIV Legion and General Kuzoh.  It appeared that Anthur-Ro was offering the Corrans two weeks to depart the premises before a conflict would ensue.  The Corran delegation was nonplussed by their threats.

Defenses

Defences include multiple Justicar patrols and magical traps, golems, artificial and invisible sentries, and an air force.

History

Founded by the initial Gnomish settlers upon the Shell in the early Autumn Age, Anthur-Ro was originally built as a modest mage tower up on the Spire in order to keep magical mishaps from doing too much damage to the general community of Hearthaven.  Over time both the tower and the Spire grew substantially, and due to the tight bonds of fraternity between mages the tower became more of a symbol of a powerful guild than a mere educational institution.  Contrary to popular belief, there has never been a formal exclusionary rule against non-Gnomes and there are records of Yishanim and dwarven members as early as the Autumn Age.  The more cosmopolitan makeup of the Tower, however, has been a fairly recent development as informal prejudices against accepting any but the most obviously powerful outsiders have only begun to corrode in the last few centuries.

Tourism

Anthur-Ro does not admit visitors.

Alternative Names

The Tower, The Spire

Type

Tower, Mage

Parent Location

Wandering City