Towers of High Sorcery

History

The History of the Towers date back to the golden age of Bergegthim. During the height of this time of learning and magic, the Dwarves used their magics to erect eight towers, one that specialized in each school of magic, though the eighth and final one was not generally accepted as it was a place where Necromancy was studied above all, though it was more of a study of life and death, rather than what is thought of necromancy in modern times of Tio Luma, which is just that of the undead. Each tower created powerful magical artifacts over time, but the pinnacle of each tower was an artifact that contained the highest level of magics for that school. Not much is known about these artifacts, as there is no remaining records of them that is avalible to those outside the Council of Fourteen and the Archmagi of each School.

During the War

When war was declared on Bergegthim, the Dwarves knew that the focal point would be on these towers. The four that were in the most danger were the towers of Necromancy, Transmutation, Abjuration, and Illusion.
The Necromancy tower was in the eastern most city, near the boarder with the Drakhian Empire. The Drakhians made fast progress over the land that was hear, being that the city was located where the plains began to grow into the foothills of the Mountainous region that was the heart of Bergegthim. The wizards of this tower knew that they would have to vacate the city fast, but the armies of the Drakhians were even faster than initially anticipated. They were unable to activate the fail safes of the tower that would destroy it, and the city fell shortly after the wizards got out. However, one stayed behind, and jumped from the top of the tower unleashing a powerful spell using his own life force to cause a mass fear spell to lay heavily on the tower at the center of the city. To this day, no one has been able to overcome the spell to re-enter the tower. Legends say that only a true master of Necromancy, one who had mastered control over life and death, could enter the tower, and lift the spell. It is said that the body of the wizard who cast the spell, still hangs from the spikes over the gate into the central courtyard. Years later, Inquisitors from Koth Keep would appear and create a barrier surrounding the area affected by the tower to keep the magics in, and people out.
The tower of Illusion was the next to fall, this time, to Cervo. The tower parched on top of a cliff, in the south east, overlooking the sea known as Dragon's Domain. It's shimmering walls made it hard to see exactly what it was, but if you knew it was there you could see it glimmering form miles away. Since the war was declared so suddenly, the dwarves were not able to mount a proper defense. Those in the tower of illusion, used their powers to make it appear that the tower was elsewhere, which did lead to the deaths of a couple of battalions who charged off a cliff that appeared to extend much farther out. In the end though, the tower was tracked to it's actual location, and sieged. As food ran out, the wizards, knowing the harm that could come from their magics falling into the wrong hands, shattered the walls of the cliff below the tower. This caused a section of the cliff, and the tower on top of it, to slide down, into the sea.
The Tower of Abjuration had more time to prepare, given that the armies of Cervo were delayed so long dealing with the Tower of Illusion. Given their powers of protection, they created powerful barriers to prevent the armies from entering. Like many of the other towers, this one was at the center of a town. They were able to create a large enough of a barrier to protect the town, and some of the surrounding land as well. This had the intended affect of keeping the invaders out, but had an unintended side affect of locking everyone else inside. The thing that they did not anticipate however, was that Elizia held the Vorpal Sword of Sylvar. After the siege had begun, Cervo was initially caught off guard, not expecting such a defense. After a few years of trying to batter down the barrier in various ways, Elizia arrived on the scene to find out why there had not been a change in the situation. She soon discovered that the sword appeared to be the one thing that could weaken, and likely break through the barrier. The Wizards who were in the tower, noticed instantly that the barrier was about to break. Knowing that their unbreakable defense was about to fail, they initiated their emergency escape, pulling the tower, and everything inside the barrier with it into another dimension. The tower has not been seen, nor heard of since, leaving a massive crater in it's wake.
The battle over the Tower of Transmutation was a long one, lasting far longer than anyone would have thought. Part of this was due to the disorganization in the leadership of the Drakhian horde. After the long intense journey from the plains to where the Transmutation tower was located, there were many changes in leadership, as there was quite a bit of anger at the original leadership, the lower officers made challenges and rose to positions of power, without any real experience leading at that high level. This cause some communication issues, as different divisions fought as separate units, rather than a fully cohesive army. Because of this, along with the magical powers of the dwarves, there was a fairly large war of attrition that developed. It wasn't for another 14 years for these circumstances to change. With the reinforcements the defenders quickly found themselves on the backfoot, and without any other option, they activated the contingency plan, unleashing a blast of transmutation magic, turning the city, tower, remaining defenders, wizards, half the Cervo army, and two thirds of the Drakhian army to black obsidian stone. All materials that were not already stone, were also converted, including all documents and books in the tower.
The next to come under fire was the Tower of Enchantment, in 1582. The battles fought here raged for another decade. The years of the war had allowed the wizards to turn many of the cities into veritable fortresses, and the Towers were the center of these defenses. The defenders of this tower were masters of their craft, and used their abilities to wreck havoc on the trust of the three armies that besieged the city. They would lure small groups away from the encampments, and cause them to attack their allies in a different camp. This made it hard to siege the city properly, until all the tunnels in and out of the city were discovered and collapsed. In the end, the city was finally breached. The tower's contingency plan was activated, causing a previously unknown spell to be activated. The tower, city and surrounding lands, including the three armies, were placed under an advanced mass sleep spell. Everyone, and everything were preserved in the same state that they were at the time of activation. Nothing dies, and yet nothing lives. All the bodies have fallen to the ground and appear to be in a magical sleep. Even races who are unaffected by normal sleep spells. Years later it would be discovered that if you stay in the area for to long you would fall under the same affect, the closer to the center, the faster it would happen, to the point where anyone getting to within a few hundred feet from the base of the tower, would instantly collapse. It was also discovered that any who were taken from the bubble around the city would instantly have their ageing restart, accelerated up to the current point in time. This area became known as the Sleep Entrapment.
A full century into the war, the Tower of Conjuration would be sieged. Over the course of the years, they had been working on conjuring armies. The army that had been raised here consisted of elementals, demons, fey and beasts. The battles here were gruesome and bloody. After a year of fighting here, a stalemate developed. The next two decades, only small skirmishes would breakout under the siege of this tower. It remains like this, until the three armies bring their full amount of forces to this one battle location. What follows is one of the most bloody and destructive series of since the time of the coming of the Second Moon. In the end, the invaders would win, but their armies would be decimated. The defenders would fight to the last man, and prior to the tower itself being breached, all documents, books and artifacts that remained were destroyed by the most powerful Fire Elemental that the defenders could summon. The tower would survive, but the knowledge that it once held would be lost.

Remaining Towers

The only two towers to still be inhabited after the war were the Tower of Evocation and the Tower of Divination. The Tower of Evocation had always been one of the stronger towers, given that it was located in the capitol. After the war it became the central school for magic in the nation. After a century, it was renamed to be the Collage of Magic. It is here that all wizards, and sorcerers would now be trained in all schools of magic, though only the healing aspects of the school of Necromancy would be acceptable teaching. It is also here that the members of the Council of Fourteen reside while they hold office. The Tower of Divination on the other hand, would give rise to other types of magics, especially given that divination magic has close ties to divine magic. It is where the Artificers, Clerics and Paladins of Bergegthim would train and learn.