Tower wards

Table of Contents

Classroom help: Tower Wards

Tower wards are an essential piece of technology that is the only thing keeping our tower standing

Why they are needed

Magic floods
Our city is built above a magic hotspot, and since the last emperor destabilised it, the magic currents regularly overflow and flood, corroding everything in their wake.

Cave system
The city was bult above a cave system, and so the vast hollow space below it means that the ground is weak and could collapse at any moment, especially given the enormous weight of the towers.

Age
It has been a thousand years since the fall of the empire and the start of the fiefs, and the towers have not changed much since apart from being erected again from the same material when they crumble.

Wear
The industrial activities going on inside the towers, such as glasswork and metallurgy, and the farming going on at their surface require the towers to have special support to prevent them from getting damaged.

Design
The towers are not marvel of architecture. They have been built in a hurry with what was available, often by just pilling up everything. They are also extraordinarily high, at 50-100 floors, and do not even stand straight.

How they work

Source
In order for tower wards to have access to the enormous amount of power they require to do their work, they are linked directly to and fuelled by the wards of the fief.
This ensures that they are under the sole control of the lord of the fief, and so both that nobody can sabotage them but also that nobody else can help in their maintenance.

How
In the basement of each tower, the lord traces runes to help them divert the magic from the fief wards and to control what they do to the towers.
Since destroying the runes destroys the wards and so the tower, new lords cannot start from scratch and have to add runes on top of their predecessors' work, resulting in a dangerous combination of symbolic magics.

Where
Tower wards are an invention of our city as a response to the fall of the empire and the erection of the fiefs; with people fighting fiercely for control over small areas, we have to make the best possible use of what little space is available.
They are only made possibly by us living over a magic hotspot, which is why we are the only city in the world with towers that are as high!

Far too regularly we hear of failures, with inefficient wards unable to prevent a tower from suddenly collapsing and killing thousands such as happened with our Long Glass Tower 15 years ago.
But do not be afraid, for our lady has invested an enormous amount of effort in the upgrade and maintenance of all our towers!

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Related articles

The City of the Hundred Fiefs

Territories The City of the Hundred Fiefs · Geography (The world's strongest magic hotspot, The cave system under the city) · Fiefs (The Fief of Glass, The Diviner Fief) · Neutral areas (The Council's Palace) Politics Government system (Lords and Ladies of the Fiefs, The Council) · Conflict (The ongoing Elantian civil war, Lord Adélème's fanclub, The Resistance against the New Empire, Water sickness, Previous inhabitants of the Fief of Perfumes) · Lords & ladies (Lord Adélème of Spinner, Lady Olénie) Magic Dangers (Seasonal magic flood, Magical corrosion, Are the magic currents under the city expanding?, Basement kraken) · Technologies (Tower wards, Ward pins, Tasty Treat) · Magic system (Runes, Glass and Magic Lenses) Culture History (The Return of the Empire, Dragonic magic manifestations, The Last Emperor's Experimental Notes, The Ruins of the Ancient city of Elante, Anti-imperial sigil) · Travellers (Trading caravans, Travelling healers, Divination Sessions) · Others (Lord Adélème's Tower, Tower cats, The Worship of the Imperial Family, Election of a Tower Leader, Spying Devices)