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Auberean
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The strange pyramidal structures known as
Advocate Towers are actually ancient Empyrean artifacts, though
their name derives from the members of a famous philanthropic order.
The advocates occasionally set up headquarters in those towers where
portal-space travelers arrive from Ispar. With the perpetual magic
glow suffusing the area between its spires, a tower serves as a
beacon to those in search of the advocates' help.
The original purpose of the towers is unknown. One found in the
Direlands actually levitates, and purportedly others are crushed
into the ground as if they'd fallen from the sky. Maybe all the
towers have some latent power of flight. If so, it may be connected
with the mystery of why so many are located near portal-space
landing areas. Asaina al-Arqis, an expert on ambient magic, states
that hotspots of magical energy exist within the earth near the
starting towns and that this energy may have been used both to
create portals between worlds and to levitate the towers. She
surmises that most towers were on the ground for recharging when the
Empyrean fled the Olthoi, but a few were abandoned in mid-air and
plummeted when their power ran out. Someday, Asaina predicts, the
tower in the Direlands will come crashing down too.
Asaina even has an idea of what the towers were for, though it
has met with little support. An Empyrean legend once shared by Elysa
Strathelar holds that primordial gods struggled with evil shadow
creatures. After a long contest that exhausted their powers, the
gods banished the shadows into the earth by creating the sun and
stars. Asaina believes that shadowy demons do exist within Dereth,
and that the towers patrolled the land to keep them at bay. If so,
by using the towers to serve and protect the people, the advocates
may be using them very much according to their original design.
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This text was one of the Zone's
Mysterious Portal entries.
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