Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Mar 19, 2005 18:31:48	Here's a few things I've been noticing about various sources on the Towers of High Sorcery and on the Stones of Three: 1)There were 7 Stones of Three, one for each Tower to be built. 2)Only 5 of those Towers were built (Wayreth, Palanthas, Istar, Daltigoth, Qim Sudri), while the one at Kal Thax/Thorbardin was stopped by the dwarves. The other Tower was also unbuilt, its location being unknown, though there are some possible references to Karthay. 3)The Stone of Three for Thorbardin was discovered to have been destroyed by the dwarves while the other unused Stone was known to have gone down with Istar in the Cataclysm. 4)The Kingpriest had ‘heretical’ artifacts stored in the former Istar Tower, and since the Stone would easily count as one it would likely have been there. 5)The Tower of Istar has survived as the Tower of the Blood Sea. The Gods of Magic know of its existence but only Nuitari knows it has been reopened (by him). 6)Nuitari knows he will draw the ire of his cousins when it’s discovered that he reopened the Blood Sea Tower without their knowledge and is trying to keep it as his own. Therefore he needs something to appease them, ie. handing over the remaining Stone, something which if used to build another Tower would also benefit him and magic in general. A)The Towers were built at locations of natural magical power. B)Eclipses in nature are known to occur in arcs, so the same may occur with the three moons. C)Five of the known Tower locations form a rough arc across Ansalon: Daltigoth, Wayreth, Thorbardin, Qim Sudri, and Istar. Tarsis, the first choice for their Tower (which later was built at Daltigoth) also lies only a bit off of this arc. Palanthas, the most powerful of the Towers, lies at what could be considered the focus of the arc. Possible locations for a new Tower to be built/where the seventh Tower would have been built: a)Karthay: there are some references (probably errors refering to The Ruins, ie. Qim Sudri) of a Tower being here. Karthay is considered a mystical place. Also, it lies on the arc. b)Tarsis: it was chosen as a Tower site originally. It’s also roughly on the arc. c)Silvanesti: The 3 mages in the Second Dragon War were (in some books) in Silvanesti and unleashed an incredible amount of magic. Perhaps this was due to them being near an ideal Tower site. Also, this was considered as a possible choice for a Tower location, but was decided against. It was also the original home of the chromatic dragons. “The Dragons” clearly places the original home of the metallics in Thorbardin, ie. near another Tower location, so dragons may (knowingly or not) favor Tower locations. It’s uncertain whether the Thanoi were on Ansalon at the time of the building of the Towers but if a Tower was attempted here it may have drawn the ire of the Thanoi, leading to their known hatred of magic, though this is unlikely. Finally, it fits the arc. d)Khalkists: other references to the 3 mages (above) place them in the Khalkists, though this is not on the arc. e)It’s possible that several of these locations were considered and in having to pull out of building one of them the seventh Stone was lost, to be later recovered (undoubtedly the Conclave would’ve sent expeditions to recover something so precious to them) and end up in Istar, either through being stored there for safekeeping or by being captured by the Kingpriest. (If it was stored in Istar and forgotten when the Tower was evacuated, possibly due to the fact that the practicality of building a new Tower while Istar was dominant would be impossible. Hence the mages would’ve waited to recover the Tower and with it the Stone). A reason for storing it in Istar could be its closeness to Karthay, ie. near where the seventh Tower could have been built but failed for an unknown reason. The future: We know that Wayreth is open and that eventually the Cousins will allow mages back into the Nightlund Tower (once High Sorcery is back in power). Whether or not this Tower will be moved back to Palanthas by a decree of the Cousins or the Conclave is uncertain. The Tower of the Blood Sea will likely end up a Black Robe stronghold with a few Reds allowed, similar to the Tower of Palanthas after Dalamar took over. The last Stone could be used to build a fourth Tower, at one of the originally attempted locations or even to be used to rebuild a previous Tower. One last thing: Why aren’t there Towers on Taladas and other continents? It’s clear that the gods all seem to favor Ansalon over the rest of the world, ie over Taladas, Chorane, the ‘isle’ of the Brutes and the unknown fifth continent, but perhaps a new place to build a Tower could be on another continent, thus spreading High Sorcery to new places and allowing them to draw upon new membership never before accessible. In my current DL game I ran the KoD but want to go on a different path so I allowed the characters to get the Master of the Tower’s spellbook from the Ruins (having been protected by one of the black robes named Caradon who haunted the Tower before its destruction). They have been sent to Karthay to meet with the mages from the Tower of the Blood Sea to look at rebuilding there but there’s a possibility that it will be built overseas. Unread (possibly applicable) sources: Kingpriest trilogy
#2 raistlinrox Mar 20, 2005 2:20:38	I have asked a similar question myself, but didn't really get a very good reason.. For some reason, the laws of high sorcery don't apply to Taladas, there is no Testing of wizards, etc. So why on one location and not another? Are the inhabitants of Taladas just that much more responsible with their sorcery that there is no need for it to be regulated?
#3 zombiegleemax Mar 22, 2005 1:04:05	I think I found that thread and the only good reason given was that Taladas was more savage and hence less likely to produce any wizards. Presumably the same would hold true of Chorane and the 'isle' of the brutes. In Wizard's Conclave the 3 cousins only care about reopening Wayreth, with no mention of anything on other continents.