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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9776692" data-attributes="member: 6750502">Chapter 5: Lands of the Six Towers, Part One <img src="https://i.imgur.com/qiZGnIe.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 694px" /><a href="https://www.deviantart.com/craftycrew/art/Fantasy-Landscape-created-by-Shuxing-Li-762175695" target="_blank">Fantasy Landscape by Shuxing Li</a>Thanks to the ease of magic-enhanced communication and travel, what would have been smaller independent kingdoms and city-states in other timelines became six expansive nations in the Magocracy of Ansalon. Each nation is named after its resident Tower of High Sorcery, which serves as an administrative center for governance as well as magical projects and research. There are some cultural holdovers in naming conventions, such as the Land of Palanthas still having Solamnic as its primary language and cultural descriptor. But when speaking of governance and territories, people default to the use of the names associated with the Towers of High Sorcery. For example, when someone speaks of "the lands of Wayreth" or simply "Wayreth," they are speaking of Abanasinia, Kharolis, Qualinesti, and sometimes (more politically contentious) Thorbardin and the western Plains of Dust. When referring to the Tower proper, people usually say "the Tower of Wayreth" or "the Tower of High Sorcery at Wayreth."Lands of Daltigoth: Originally built by the Red Robes during the Age of Dreams as part of an alliance with the Empire of Ergoth, the original Tower of Daltigoth exploded during one of the Lost Battles against the Empire of Istar. Nearly half of the city was wiped out, and the rogue magic coursing through the land resulted in mutated violent life. Massive flooding from the Cataclysm twenty years later merely added more monsters from the depths to menace the city's newly-created coastline. Cut off from their kinsmen to the north, the Ergothians of the southern island suffered heavy losses in doomed battles against new horrors.Their saviors came from the most unexpected people: a group of Black Robes from eastern Ansalon, their former headquarters of Losarcum long-since lost in war against Istar. They figured that Ergoth would be an ideal place to resettle, far enough away from Istaran and Solamnic lands yet also not isolated enough to remove them from access to the wider world. While practitioners of the dark arts weren't much loved by the Ergothians, they had little choice in refusing aid at this point. The devotees of Nuitari were as good as their word, driving the monstrosities out of the former capital and raising battlefields of the dead to defend towns and villages from reprisal raids. By the time the roads became safe to travel again, the wizards had amassed both the strength in numbers and gratitude from the local populace that any thoughts of overthrowing them were a lost cause. And so the realm of Daltigoth became known as the Land of the Setting Sun, both for it being in Ansalon's far west and also a grim premonition of "where the light goes to die."Currently, Daltigoth's jurisdiction covers the isles of Northern and Southern Ergoth, Enstar, Nostar, and the Blasted Isles of Sancrist and Cristyne. Seafaring is important to the economy, and its people maintain reliable trade with neighboring Palanthas and Wayreth. The Utopians don't regard the reigning Black Robes highly, but their merchants bite their tongues when visiting the western islands. The majority of the populace lives in northern Ergoth, with the Blasted Isles virtually depopulated from the magical cataclysm 15 years ago. Most people are human, although there is a sizable minority of goblins, kender, and gnomes, with significant presences in Sikket'hul, Hylo, and Gulfport respectively.The islands of Enstar and Nostar are lightly-populated expanses of grassland, with only a few farming settlements for herding animals. Hylo comprises the eastern end of Northern Ergoth, and in spite of their best efforts the Black Robes eventually gave up on conquering the region due to both the difficulty in finding hidden kender villages and it being too costly to wage guerilla warfare against the inhabitants. Currently, the Twilight Council tolerates Hylo's existence, committing to border raids and forest fires as a show of strength but  short of a full invasion. The Blasted Isles were known as the last bastion of the Knights of Solamnia, falling in battle 164 years ago after the Magocracy set foot on their shores and claimed Sancrist. The destruction of the Tower of High Sorcery is more recent, having destroyed most of the gnomes of Mount Nevermind and neighboring communities 15 years ago. The responsible party is a group of now-dead saboteurs who served Takhisis the Dark Queen, although their corpses have since been turned to dust. The Blasted Isles are now a forlorn, dangerous realm, where magic-shaped wild weather scars the land and makes it uninhabitable for most life.Daltigoth is ruled by the Twilight Council headquartered in the city of Gwynned on Northern Ergoth. As to why not the Tower of Daltigoth proper, it serves as a better neutral meeting ground, as the Master of the Tower exerts such authority of the surrounding lands that the paranoid archmages prefer a place where nobody has a "home-field advantage." Consisting of 36 representatives, the Council's membership is drawn from a mixture of various familial dynasties of Ergothian nobility, court mages, and influential guild leaders dating back from before the Magocracy's founding. In theory they act as a limited democracy not unlike the Grand Conclave, although in practice the political bloc representing Daltigoth and its Tower's Master wields unchecked authority. The rest of the Council scrambles for the Master of the Tower's favor, too at odds with sabotaging each other to put up a united resistance. The majority of Council members are also various forms of undead, usually vampires or liches, although the Isle of the Serpent is notoriously ruled over by a regal ghost known as Lord Ordoth, and the city of Lanction's Lady-Regent is Selavini, a literal brain in a jar who is believed have been one of the island's finest bards in life.The Master of the Tower of Daltigoth is always drawn from the Twilight Council. Merithin, its most recent holder, is notable for being a Kagonesti half-elf coming from an impoverished background. She was bullied and ostracized by the Kagonesti she grew up among for her human heritage, but her display of talent in the art attracted the attention of wandering Black Robes of the barony of Hillfall. While initially intended to be molded by General Kerrik Hawtherin into a tool to demonstrate his military might, Merithin quickly assumed seniority over the archmage after an insurgency of kender managed to strike deep within Hillfall and slay several senior necromancers. Kerrik was blamed for letting them get through, although there are rumors that Merithin and her allies in the army overlooked security weaknesses, knowing that it would result in Kerrik's demotion.Daltigoth makes heavy use of the undead, both for manual labor and for military might. Every village has a garrison of skeletons, zombies, and sometimes more powerful undead in reserve and under the control of Black Robe necromancers. The undead are sent out on patrols in settlements and on the roads, serving as a constant reminder to the populace of the unmatched might of the wizard rulers. The undead are commonly made up of corpses drawn from the citizenry, with every household required to give corpses of able-bodied adults over to local necromancers for inspection and assigning into roles of either labor or warfare. Several military regiments are made from the bodies and souls of vanquished foes, known as the Conquered Legions. They bear the names of units modeled off of the respective cultures' warrior societies as a means of both commemorating Daltigoth's victories against enemy forces and as psychological warfare against people now forced to fight who were once their countrymen. Some of the Conquered Legions' most notorious forces include the Landsknecht (Solamnic heavy cavalry), the Ackalites (Ergothian nationalists who violently opposed the Magocracy's takeover of their islands), and the Gigantes (trolls from the swamps of Ogaral).Adventure Ideas: Several Black Robe dynasties use Nostar's relative isolation for the creation and modification of various forms of undead. Particularly promising specimens put on display in town squares. A recent outbreak of shadows is now rampaging across the land, attacking defenseless villagers. None of the Black Robes wish to take responsibility, blaming the others for this catastrophe.Hylo has long served as a refuge for people fleeing the Black Robe's tyranny. A group of kender sympathetic to their plight maintain an expansive network of mountain passes and tunnels across the Sentinel Mountains. The wizards use patrols of undead aerial monsters to survey the peaks for travelers, and there's always a demand for adventurers to help people escape into the eastern forests…or prevent such people from escaping, should one be willing to take blood money from the Twilight Council.Leopald Serindall II, the governor of Gulfport, is very interested in discovering the cause of the destruction of the Tower of High Sorcery at Sancrist. His efforts are being stymied by a crew of gnomish pirates operating a submersible off the northern coast. While the gnomes want to find what caused the destruction of their homeland, they don't trust the Twilight Council with this knowledge and fear that they will use it to cause similar disasters across Ansalon.The hobgoblins of Throt view the goblins of Sikket'hul as spiritual siblings, and have long pushed for Palanthas to take more drastic measures against Daltigoth's rulership over them. While the Knights of Huma are little more than glorified guards in the Black Robe lands, several hobgoblin knights managed to get stationed in the goblin city of Manic. Their presence is already causing tension with the undead soldiers, and it's only a matter of time before the necromancers use the situation as an excuse to take harsher measures in controlling Sikket'hul.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/DIxIfkl.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 303px" /><a href="https://art.marcsimonetti.com/fantasy" target="_blank">Artwork by Marc Simonetti</a>Lands of Losarcum: Consisting of Balifor and the Goodlund peninsula, the Tower of Losarcum governs the smallest amount of territory the Magocracy has in both land and population. The majority of the population consists of nomadic humans of Khurish and Saifumi heritage, with kender being predominant in the forests. The largest settlements are independent city-states that are little more than small towns in comparison to the sprawling urban centers of western Ansalon or New Istar. These territories are surrounded by lush farmland aided by the efforts of resident Storm Barons, with the wider wilderness made up of arid deserts, savannahs, and steppes. Most trade comes from the Blood Sea Isles and Silvanesti, and there's a major community of elven immigrants in Port Balifor and the nearby Khurish cities on the southwest coast.The city-state of Flotsam is a particularly rough and tumble town, its foundations made from layers of Istaran ruins that regularly wash up on the store. Nowhere else in the Magocracy are the doctrines of rule by mages tested here, as its Red Robe mayor Davide Esposito uses his powers as Storm Baron to keep the weather safe and little else. Day-to-day administration is decided at the Forum, a motley public gathering where he hears any and all claims from the citizenry and then makes quick decisions based on "common sense ruling." As for the city-state of Port Balifor, it is more orderly, although it has a growing criminal underbelly due to the influence of the Duskmen. Ellen Carano, the city's Storm Baron, is a corrupt individual. Growing rich from the black market, she turns a blind eye to organized crime as long as criminals "don't make things too loud and chaotic." It is this selfish apathy that will be her undoing, for Takhisis' Dragonarmies have chosen Balifor to bhe the first to fall, having taken note of the city-state's weakness in leadership and local resentment of the Duskmen.The domains of Losarcum are proudly independent, pointing to the repressive civilizations of Istar and Silvanesti as the price paid for "grandiose kingdoms." Willim the Scarlet is the Master of the Tower, a Theiwar dwarf who was exiled from his homeland of Thorbardin for the practice of wizardry. After being saved from goblin raiders by a wandering Qualinesti wizard, he fell in love with the more open and individualist cultures of the east. Willim rules with a light hand, mostly acting as an advisor who frequently maintains contact with local community leaders. After listening to their troubles and grievances and consulting with others, the dwarf makes a ruling based on what he believes will be helpful to the affected communities without violating their autonomy. If anything, he has the most trouble with the kender of Kendermore, who are an unpredictable factor. He thus leaves them to their business until absolutely necessary.Adventure Ideas: The Duskmen have long eyed Flotsam for its proximity to the Blood Sea and thus its trade in valuable Istaran artifacts. However, its mayor is too content with his station and beloved by the freedom-loving citizenry to be vulnerable to corruption. Thus, the crime syndicate seeks to take a "carrot and stick" approach. The carrot by greasing the palms of individuals with generous public works projects to "help give the children a better future," and the stick with veiled threats against those bought off to gain a better foothold in the community.The easternmost lands of the peninsula are claimed by sligs, goblins, and gnolls, with the former two forced to the most desolate territory after losing multiple conflicts with the other civilizations of the peninsula. Appealing to their desire for revenge and a higher standard of living, the Dragonarmy contacted the various slig and goblinoid tribes, offering them seats of power in helping them overthrow the prosperous city-states of the west.A shipwrecked human survivor bearing an odd accent approaches the party, claiming to have come from an island to the east. Tight-lipped about her origins, <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/11-monk" target="_blank">she is capable of wielding supernatural powers that cannot be so easily categorized by the existing disciplines of magic.</a> She offers to share what she knows with the party, if they can help her reach her home city of Claren Elian and overcome the trials of its gate guardians to earn the right to entry.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/gqFeAN5.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 711px" /><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/39WNmY" target="_blank">Bab City by Guillermo Martínez</a>Lands of New Istar: Possessing the most territory by area thanks to the great expanse of ocean, New Istar is dominated by the Blood Sea, with Nordmaar being its most significant landmass. The ogre lands of Kern are governed by the Tower in name only, with most traders giving that peninsula a wide berth via the continent's network of Teleportation Circles. The islands of Mithas and Kothas are the ancestral homelands of the minotaurs as well as housing its largest population centers, with the Island of Saifhum being human-majority and a trade hub due to being placed in the sea's relative geographic center. The Island of Karthay is the least-settled, home to some fertile plains for grazing but dominated by the Worldscap Mountains to the north. This mountain range's two claims to fame are it being home to the elusive race of kyrie as well as having the highest peaks in all of Ansalon. The people of Nordmaar make up about one-third of New Istar's population, although their relative distance from the Blood Sea Isles means that they have closer contact with the Solamnics in neighboring Palanthas.Seafaring and trade drive New Istar's economy, from tropical foods and spices to salvaged Istaran artifacts. The meat, scales, and bones of sea creatures are repurposed into all sorts of goods, items, and structures, with arcane magic helping create ever more inventive combinations and letting divers venture further into the ocean's depths. Nordmaar's rainforests supply northern and eastern Ansalon's shipyards with sturdy, rune-etched frames to ensure safe maritime travel, and a few Saifumi guilds managed to gain alliances with sea elven clans to better harvest the bounties of the deep sea. Like Losarcum, New Istar's government is a confederation of city-states who manage day-to-day governance independently but have mutual defense pacts which can unite them in times of emergency. But the omnipresent crimson ocean, combined with the many legacies of Istar, serve as a continual reminder to the populace of what can happen when an authoritarian government forcefully unites people "in the name of the greater good." So such pacts are rarely enforced.The island of Saifhum is a human majority domain, but with a sizable presence of minotaurs. Its natural landscape is a rocky expanse, where only the hardiest of roots and moss grow. While the various Storm Barons have done their parts in keeping Saifhum green, the communities heavily rely on fishing, kelp farming, and trade with other islands to make up for the deficit. The city-state of Sea Reach is the largest settlement on the island, and while the smaller towns and villages are technically autonomous, Sea Reach's influence means that its decisions in administration carry over to them. This is tolerated, even if town councils occasionally grumble and complain about "the reach of the Reachers."The islands of Mithas and Kothas are home to the city-states of Lacynos and Kalpethis respectively. The two civilizations share much in common in language, history, and culture, and there is a bit of a friendly rivalry. Mithan minotaurs regard their Kothian neighbors to be crude and flighty, while Kothians tend to view Mithans as uptight and self-important. Although both islands initially remained culturally isolated for much of the first century of the Age of Magic, their early incorporation into the Magocracy made them much more open over time to outside influences. While both islands are still minotaur-majority, they attract a large amount of tourism due to Lacynos' hosting of the annual Great Circus and it being part of the Magocracy's network of Teleportation Circles.Nordmaar is inhabited mostly by nomads and some Solamnics, with the former living in either the vast steppes or its expansive rainforests. It was in the forests of Nordmaar that the Wizards of High Sorcery found some of the most intact surviving writings of the druids. Inspired by the jungle's biodiversity and the natives' strong desire to undo the damage of the Cataclysm, these meetings between nomads and wizards helped set in motion the creation of the Storm Barons. Ever since, the wizards (and the Red Robes in particular) have found Nordmaar a welcome land for them.Adventure Ideas: The village of Crest, located on Saifhum's eastmost point, has recently welcomed a group of Dargonesti settlers. While they more or less peacefully integrate into the town, they are clearly afraid of something, speaking of a vast, shadowy monster attacking their home communities. Neither the sea elves nor Saifumi wish to dwell on what this monster is, or if it is still pursuing the elves, although some mysterious disappearances in the village point to kidnappers emerging from beneath the waves.In celebration of the Magocracy's 300th Anniversary, the city-state of Lacynos is pulling out all stops for hosting its most grandiose Great Circus yet seen. While there's plenty of fun and games to be had here, Ansalon's visiting movers and shakers are keeping on the lookout for talented individuals. The eccentric captain of a gnomish sea vessel has a particular interest in the contestants for the arena's newest mazelike dungeon, keen on selecting only the best for a delve into Istaran ruins. But one such contestant has quite the number of rumors swirling about them: a disillusioned mage bearing a mysterious staff of blue crystal said to have come from the depths of the Blood Sea.</blockquote>

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