Life of the Party
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In Progress [LP CYOA] Tower
- Thread starter treave
- Start date
Anything interesting to report?
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Messages
- 11,370
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Messages
- 11,370
A Brief History of the Tower
1492: Christopher Columbus first discovers the Tower while on searching for a new route to the Far East. The explorers establish a base camp on the ground floor. Knocking down the spires of gold found there, they send back a ship laden with the gold to report their finding, as well as procure more supplies.
1493: The second expedition arrives at the Tower, only to find that the Columbus expeditionary force has gone missing. Their camp remains intact with no signs of struggle. A note stating: “This Tower is of God, I am sure. I shall reach the top and gain His blessing” is the only clue to the fate of Christopher Columbus and his men. Expeditions continue to take place, in hopes of finding more gold.
1494: Arable land is discovered on the second floor of the Tower. There, the Spaniards establish the first colony in the Tower, Espanola.
1495: The Spanish and the Portuguese sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the Tower into east and west between themselves.
1499: Spices are found to grow well in Tower soil. Farming efforts intensify.
1500: The first expedition to reach the fifth floor of the Tower is led by John Cabot, an Italian-born explorer working for England. In the same year, Amerigo Vespucci’s expeditionary fleet launched from the Tower discovers the northern reaches of the New World.
1502: Legendary Italian genius Leonardo Da Vinci moves to the Tower with a contingent of Milanese explorers, his scientific interest piqued by the mysterious construct. He would stay there until the end of his days.
1503: The first coal mines are constructed on the mountainous sixth floor. The search for gold continues.
1510: Mapping of the New World coastline continues with efforts based out of Tower colonies. Pope Julius II declares the Tower to be “Land granted by God, for the shared prosperity of Christendom”.
1519: Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet berths at the Tower, resupplying on its way to attempt circumnavigating the globe.
1520: Spanish and Portuguese tussles in the Tower intensify despite the Treaty of Tordesillas. The two nations and their conquistadores are bogged down in skirmishes.
1527: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V makes the first of his three visits to the Tower together with his Queen, Isabella of Portugal. Their union puts to rest the bickering between Spanish and Portuguese governors in the Tower for some time.
1540: Lope de Aguirre is the first man to reach the tenth floor of the Tower. The vastness of the Tower’s interior has stretched supply lines so much that vertical progress has slowed down until enough of the Tower is settled to support further exploration.
1545: Lope de Aguirre declares his own personal kingdom on the tenth floor. Other conquistadores are soon tempted to follow suit, establishing independent fiefdoms of their own throughout the Tower.
1548: The Spanish and Portuguese Empires sign the Treaty of Zaragoza to affirm the division made during Tordesillas, and attempt to get their wayward territories under control. This marks the beginning of the Conquistadore Conflict.
1560: John Dee, advisor to Queen Elizabeth of England, pushes for greater English presence in the Tower. He claims to have had premonitions of the Tower being vital for the formation of a ‘British Empire’. The English begin a campaign of aggressive naval expansion while the Spanish Habsburgs are pre-occupied with machinations on the European mainland.
1563: Francis Drake makes the first of his many visits to the Tower. He discovers ancient ruins on the eighth floor and excavates the first Astra there. Later, he performs a daring escape with just a single ship against Spanish and Portuguese fleets.
1564: John Dee pens the Monas Astrologica, based on his research on the Astra retrieved by Francis Drake. This seminal work would serve as the foundation of Astra research for many centuries to come. It is rumoured that parts of the Monas Astrologica are cribbed from the Voynich Manuscript.
1566: The Eighty Years’ War begins in Europe.
1570: Ivan the Terrible launches the first Russian expedition to the Tower, claiming that the Voice of God spoke to him about the importance of reaching the top. The expedition fails to get past the tenth floor.
1580: The crowns of Spain and Portugal are united, and so are their territories in the Tower.
1588: The first usage of Astras in warfare is recorded, as both the English and Spanish fleets utilize the instruments in their sea battle at the English Channel. Francis Drake sinks the Spanish Armada, ending the battle with a victory for England.
1590: Azteca Confederation boats arrive at the Tower. The predominant power throughout the entire New World, the Azteca regard the Tower as a pillar of teotl, a divine entity in its own right, and see the European powers as heathens for attempting to explore it. However, that does not prevent trade from occurring, and the Azteca begin to do business with the conquistadores, trading slaves for Astras.
1592: War breaks out between the Azteca Confederation and the Conquistadore Kingdoms. Demonstrating an innate aptitude for Astra usage, the Azteca’s initial disadvantage when it comes to firearms is neutralized. Battles rage throughout the Tower, as the independent Conquistadore fiefdoms are each drawn into the conflict one by one.
1595: Edward Kelley, successor of John Dee and one of the foremost Astromancers of the era, arrives at the Tower with instructions to take advantage of the chaos and carve out a domain for England. Leveraging concessions from the conquistadore kingdoms, he secures English territory spanning three floors in return for his help in repulsing the Azteca Confederacy.
1602: The ten year war between the Azteca and the Europeans end with the Espanola Agreement. Signed in the oldest colony in the Tower, the treaty allows further exploration and climbing of the Tower, with the caveat that Aztec peoples must be part of any future expeditions.
1611: Henry Hudson becomes the first person to reach the eleventh floor. His party vanishes soon after in the icy wastes.
1618: The Thirty Years’ War begins in Europe.
1625: Cardinal Richelieu orchestrates an effort to advance France’s possession and knowledge of Astras to gain an advantage against the Austro-Spanish Hapsburg, obtaining greater access to the Tower via the English and the Dutch.
1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends both the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War. English and French influence over the continent expand while Spain recedes, and European powers once again turn their eyes towards the Tower’s potential riches. The speed of exploration increases.
1650: The Treaty of New Aberdeen is signed between all parties in the Tower. Each floor is partitioned into spheres of influence for three nations to ensure that no one nation dominates a single floor. The Conquistadore Kingdoms scattered across the floors continue to maintain their independence.
1656: Semyon Dezhnev leads the first successful expedition to reach the twentieth floor of the Tower.
1683: The powerful Ottoman Empire invades Europe, starting the Great Turkish War.
1690: Astra wielding European armies prove to be a determining factor in breaking the invasion. The defeated Ottoman Empire signs the treaty of Karlowitz, ceding large swathes of its European territories.
1692: The inhabitants of the Puritan settlement of Salem, on the fourth floor, disappear overnight. No traces of them are ever found. For a while, Azteca pagans are suspected to be the culprits, but no accusations are ever officially made.
1699: The first steam engine is demonstrated to the Royal Society of London. It is promptly put to work in the industries sprouting up in the Tower.
1700: Republicanism begins to spread amongst the independent Conquistadore Kingdoms.
1707: The United Kingdom of Great Britain is formed with England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
1710: British explorers led by Henry Kelsey push through to the thirtieth floor, far beyond the reaches of any civilization within the Tower. There they are confronted by a giant white wall stretching as far as the eye can see. They end their expedition without being able to find a way around the wall.
1766: The Tower Revolutions are sparked with the death of a Conquistadore taxman. All throughout the Tower, rebellions rise up against the conquistadore kings. The Western European powers intervene on the side of the conquistadores, but the Azteca Confederacy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire throw their support behind the revolutionaries.
1776: The conflict between conquistadores and revolutionaries escalates into the War of 1776, a full war between the powers within the Tower. The English, French and Spanish begin battling the Aztecs, Russians and the Turks in a bloody war that spills over into the rest of the world when the Dutch and Prussians attempt to further their own interests by invading colonial holdings elsewhere in Asia and Africa.
1780: The War of 1776 continues in a stalemate and causes an unstabilized France due to the costs of the wars. Revolutionary fervour from the Tower spreads to France itself.
1789: The French Revolution occurs.
1792: The newly born French Republic officially forms an alliance with the Azteca Confederacy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Feeling threatened, the rest of Europe form a grand coalition to defeat France. The French are led to victory in battles within the Tower by a Napoleon Bonaparte, who monopolizes the excavation of Astras, and then sails his forces to the European mainland, winning decisive victories there.
1804: Napoleon crowns himself the first Emperor of France. This marks the start of the Napoleonic Wars, widely considered a continuation of the War of 1776.
1812: With the blessing of Napoleon, the independent United Republics form out of the ashes of the former conquistadore kingdoms in the Tower, allied strongly to France.
1826: Napoleon is killed in battle at Waterloo as fifty years of prolonged war are brought to an end with the 1826 Congress of New Vienna, held on the tenth floor of the Tower. The congress both reshaped the territories of Europe as well as establishing a neutral organization to administrate the Tower. Knightly and Militant Orders from each nation, which proved themselves to be crucial in ending the war, were granted equal seats on the Council of Orders. All of the Tower was declared neutral ground, and the Council was vested with the collective authority to govern movement within it. Astra excavation and allocation was officially placed under a quota system.
1863: The first railways are constructed in the Tower, in United Republics territory.
1875: The Theosophical Society for Astra Research is formed by Helena Blavatsky in Espanola, and soon becomes renowned as the foremost center of research in the field.
1880: The first electric-powered public lights are installed in New Valencia.
1897: Bram Stoker writes Dracula while residing in Neo Carpathia, and claims it to be based off a true story. It swiftly becomes the most popular novel in the Tower.
***
1492: Christopher Columbus first discovers the Tower while on searching for a new route to the Far East. The explorers establish a base camp on the ground floor. Knocking down the spires of gold found there, they send back a ship laden with the gold to report their finding, as well as procure more supplies.
1493: The second expedition arrives at the Tower, only to find that the Columbus expeditionary force has gone missing. Their camp remains intact with no signs of struggle. A note stating: “This Tower is of God, I am sure. I shall reach the top and gain His blessing” is the only clue to the fate of Christopher Columbus and his men. Expeditions continue to take place, in hopes of finding more gold.
1494: Arable land is discovered on the second floor of the Tower. There, the Spaniards establish the first colony in the Tower, Espanola.
1495: The Spanish and the Portuguese sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the Tower into east and west between themselves.
1499: Spices are found to grow well in Tower soil. Farming efforts intensify.
1500: The first expedition to reach the fifth floor of the Tower is led by John Cabot, an Italian-born explorer working for England. In the same year, Amerigo Vespucci’s expeditionary fleet launched from the Tower discovers the northern reaches of the New World.
1502: Legendary Italian genius Leonardo Da Vinci moves to the Tower with a contingent of Milanese explorers, his scientific interest piqued by the mysterious construct. He would stay there until the end of his days.
1503: The first coal mines are constructed on the mountainous sixth floor. The search for gold continues.
1510: Mapping of the New World coastline continues with efforts based out of Tower colonies. Pope Julius II declares the Tower to be “Land granted by God, for the shared prosperity of Christendom”.
1519: Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet berths at the Tower, resupplying on its way to attempt circumnavigating the globe.
1520: Spanish and Portuguese tussles in the Tower intensify despite the Treaty of Tordesillas. The two nations and their conquistadores are bogged down in skirmishes.
1527: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V makes the first of his three visits to the Tower together with his Queen, Isabella of Portugal. Their union puts to rest the bickering between Spanish and Portuguese governors in the Tower for some time.
1540: Lope de Aguirre is the first man to reach the tenth floor of the Tower. The vastness of the Tower’s interior has stretched supply lines so much that vertical progress has slowed down until enough of the Tower is settled to support further exploration.
1545: Lope de Aguirre declares his own personal kingdom on the tenth floor. Other conquistadores are soon tempted to follow suit, establishing independent fiefdoms of their own throughout the Tower.
1548: The Spanish and Portuguese Empires sign the Treaty of Zaragoza to affirm the division made during Tordesillas, and attempt to get their wayward territories under control. This marks the beginning of the Conquistadore Conflict.
1560: John Dee, advisor to Queen Elizabeth of England, pushes for greater English presence in the Tower. He claims to have had premonitions of the Tower being vital for the formation of a ‘British Empire’. The English begin a campaign of aggressive naval expansion while the Spanish Habsburgs are pre-occupied with machinations on the European mainland.
1563: Francis Drake makes the first of his many visits to the Tower. He discovers ancient ruins on the eighth floor and excavates the first Astra there. Later, he performs a daring escape with just a single ship against Spanish and Portuguese fleets.
1564: John Dee pens the Monas Astrologica, based on his research on the Astra retrieved by Francis Drake. This seminal work would serve as the foundation of Astra research for many centuries to come. It is rumoured that parts of the Monas Astrologica are cribbed from the Voynich Manuscript.
1566: The Eighty Years’ War begins in Europe.
1570: Ivan the Terrible launches the first Russian expedition to the Tower, claiming that the Voice of God spoke to him about the importance of reaching the top. The expedition fails to get past the tenth floor.
1580: The crowns of Spain and Portugal are united, and so are their territories in the Tower.
1588: The first usage of Astras in warfare is recorded, as both the English and Spanish fleets utilize the instruments in their sea battle at the English Channel. Francis Drake sinks the Spanish Armada, ending the battle with a victory for England.
1590: Azteca Confederation boats arrive at the Tower. The predominant power throughout the entire New World, the Azteca regard the Tower as a pillar of teotl, a divine entity in its own right, and see the European powers as heathens for attempting to explore it. However, that does not prevent trade from occurring, and the Azteca begin to do business with the conquistadores, trading slaves for Astras.
1592: War breaks out between the Azteca Confederation and the Conquistadore Kingdoms. Demonstrating an innate aptitude for Astra usage, the Azteca’s initial disadvantage when it comes to firearms is neutralized. Battles rage throughout the Tower, as the independent Conquistadore fiefdoms are each drawn into the conflict one by one.
1595: Edward Kelley, successor of John Dee and one of the foremost Astromancers of the era, arrives at the Tower with instructions to take advantage of the chaos and carve out a domain for England. Leveraging concessions from the conquistadore kingdoms, he secures English territory spanning three floors in return for his help in repulsing the Azteca Confederacy.
1602: The ten year war between the Azteca and the Europeans end with the Espanola Agreement. Signed in the oldest colony in the Tower, the treaty allows further exploration and climbing of the Tower, with the caveat that Aztec peoples must be part of any future expeditions.
1611: Henry Hudson becomes the first person to reach the eleventh floor. His party vanishes soon after in the icy wastes.
1618: The Thirty Years’ War begins in Europe.
1625: Cardinal Richelieu orchestrates an effort to advance France’s possession and knowledge of Astras to gain an advantage against the Austro-Spanish Hapsburg, obtaining greater access to the Tower via the English and the Dutch.
1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends both the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War. English and French influence over the continent expand while Spain recedes, and European powers once again turn their eyes towards the Tower’s potential riches. The speed of exploration increases.
1650: The Treaty of New Aberdeen is signed between all parties in the Tower. Each floor is partitioned into spheres of influence for three nations to ensure that no one nation dominates a single floor. The Conquistadore Kingdoms scattered across the floors continue to maintain their independence.
1656: Semyon Dezhnev leads the first successful expedition to reach the twentieth floor of the Tower.
1683: The powerful Ottoman Empire invades Europe, starting the Great Turkish War.
1690: Astra wielding European armies prove to be a determining factor in breaking the invasion. The defeated Ottoman Empire signs the treaty of Karlowitz, ceding large swathes of its European territories.
1692: The inhabitants of the Puritan settlement of Salem, on the fourth floor, disappear overnight. No traces of them are ever found. For a while, Azteca pagans are suspected to be the culprits, but no accusations are ever officially made.
1699: The first steam engine is demonstrated to the Royal Society of London. It is promptly put to work in the industries sprouting up in the Tower.
1700: Republicanism begins to spread amongst the independent Conquistadore Kingdoms.
1707: The United Kingdom of Great Britain is formed with England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
1710: British explorers led by Henry Kelsey push through to the thirtieth floor, far beyond the reaches of any civilization within the Tower. There they are confronted by a giant white wall stretching as far as the eye can see. They end their expedition without being able to find a way around the wall.
1766: The Tower Revolutions are sparked with the death of a Conquistadore taxman. All throughout the Tower, rebellions rise up against the conquistadore kings. The Western European powers intervene on the side of the conquistadores, but the Azteca Confederacy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire throw their support behind the revolutionaries.
1776: The conflict between conquistadores and revolutionaries escalates into the War of 1776, a full war between the powers within the Tower. The English, French and Spanish begin battling the Aztecs, Russians and the Turks in a bloody war that spills over into the rest of the world when the Dutch and Prussians attempt to further their own interests by invading colonial holdings elsewhere in Asia and Africa.
1780: The War of 1776 continues in a stalemate and causes an unstabilized France due to the costs of the wars. Revolutionary fervour from the Tower spreads to France itself.
1789: The French Revolution occurs.
1792: The newly born French Republic officially forms an alliance with the Azteca Confederacy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Feeling threatened, the rest of Europe form a grand coalition to defeat France. The French are led to victory in battles within the Tower by a Napoleon Bonaparte, who monopolizes the excavation of Astras, and then sails his forces to the European mainland, winning decisive victories there.
1804: Napoleon crowns himself the first Emperor of France. This marks the start of the Napoleonic Wars, widely considered a continuation of the War of 1776.
1812: With the blessing of Napoleon, the independent United Republics form out of the ashes of the former conquistadore kingdoms in the Tower, allied strongly to France.
1826: Napoleon is killed in battle at Waterloo as fifty years of prolonged war are brought to an end with the 1826 Congress of New Vienna, held on the tenth floor of the Tower. The congress both reshaped the territories of Europe as well as establishing a neutral organization to administrate the Tower. Knightly and Militant Orders from each nation, which proved themselves to be crucial in ending the war, were granted equal seats on the Council of Orders. All of the Tower was declared neutral ground, and the Council was vested with the collective authority to govern movement within it. Astra excavation and allocation was officially placed under a quota system.
1863: The first railways are constructed in the Tower, in United Republics territory.
1875: The Theosophical Society for Astra Research is formed by Helena Blavatsky in Espanola, and soon becomes renowned as the foremost center of research in the field.
1880: The first electric-powered public lights are installed in New Valencia.
1897: Bram Stoker writes Dracula while residing in Neo Carpathia, and claims it to be based off a true story. It swiftly becomes the most popular novel in the Tower.
***
Esquilax
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2010
- Messages
- 4,833
Goddamn. Feeling some regret for not going with the Ambassador, the politics of the Tower are pretty enticing.
That being said, given that we chose a more curious route for our character and an investment into intelligence, perhaps this is something to think about down the road?
Let's be the first man to explore the vast, unknown reaches of the Tower beyond what appears to be an inactive portal of some sort. We can also see if the other side is inhabited by giant spheres. A "mountain man" type of character seems to be a good fit for our guy's skill set.
treave: Based on the loredump, I'm guessing that an Astra is a physical object linked to its owner's soul that allows them to perform feats that or enhance themselves beyond normal human limits?
That being said, given that we chose a more curious route for our character and an investment into intelligence, perhaps this is something to think about down the road?
Let's be the first man to explore the vast, unknown reaches of the Tower beyond what appears to be an inactive portal of some sort. We can also see if the other side is inhabited by giant spheres. A "mountain man" type of character seems to be a good fit for our guy's skill set.
treave: Based on the loredump, I'm guessing that an Astra is a physical object linked to its owner's soul that allows them to perform feats that or enhance themselves beyond normal human limits?
Baltika9
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2012
- Messages
- 9,611
First of all: 
No, that doesn't really capture how I feel.
Second: we gave up the ambassador for 'ol Wrinkly here? Don't get me wrong, Rain is adorable, but goddamn.
Third: there's a distinct lack of elves in this narrative. I wonder if they are unique to each floor. They may be the occupants of the upper reaches, or they may be the natives of the Tower.
No, that doesn't really capture how I feel.
Second: we gave up the ambassador for 'ol Wrinkly here? Don't get me wrong, Rain is adorable, but goddamn.
Third: there's a distinct lack of elves in this narrative. I wonder if they are unique to each floor. They may be the occupants of the upper reaches, or they may be the natives of the Tower.
Oh shit.
Last edited:
Esquilax
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2010
- Messages
- 4,833
Kind of reminds me of the old legends of the Hidden Folk:
Not quite the same thing, but there are parallels. We had a brush with the supernatural underbelly of The Tower.
Kz3r0
Arcane
- Joined
- May 28, 2008
- Messages
- 27,026
My vote is down for vampirism at first occasion.
Life of the Party
Arcane
- Joined
- May 8, 2018
- Messages
- 3,535
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Messages
- 11,370
The State of the Tower in 1900
Measurements and Towerspace
On the outside, the Tower is a gigantic cylinder with a breadth fifty kilometres in diameter. It apparently extends down to the seabed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, although no vessels have dived far enough to confirm it. Calculations and the use of telescopes have confirmed that the top of the tower is a staggering 100 kilometres into the sky. At present, no known vessel can reach that height, either. The surface of the tower is coated with a material unlike any in existence; all efforts to scrape away samples of it have failed, and it has proved impervious even to cannon fire or dynamite. There are no windows – no exterior light travels into the tower at all.
Towerspace is the appellation given to the unique dimensional aberration that is the Tower’s interior (e.g: “Och! Bleedin’ towerspace! I’m lost agin!”). The interior of the tower has been mapped thoroughly for the lowest 10 levels, and though the circular shape of the walls are evident, the size of the floors are each different. The ground floor is the same size as it should be on the outside, but the first floor is no more than a tenth that size, and the second floor covers an area almost equal to that of Ireland. Such variations in size persist throughout the floors that are known.
Geography of the Tower
So far, humanity has climbed 30 floors. The geography of each floor is wildly different and appears uninfluenced by any considerations of the outside world, another particular quirk attributed to towerspace. Each floor is connected by winding stairs constructed of the same indestructible material as the walls, going 1 km up to the next level; freight elevators have been built alongside these stairs up until the tenth floor. The stairs are not located at the same place on every floor – as such, travel up the Tower can take up to a week even to get to the twentieth floor, along established routes.
Some of the particularly notable floors are listed below:
Ground Floor: The foundation of the Tower. When Columbus first arrived, it was a dark cavern with rocky spires of gold. The gold is now gone and in its place is a bustling logistics hub. An extensive network of warehouses, shipyards and docks has sprouted up along the outside of the Ground Floor, where trade is conducted with the rest of the world.
First Floor: Once the site of numerous expedition base camps, it is now the residence for the workers employed on the Ground Floor. Also known as Dockers’ Ground.
Second Floor: The first farms in the Tower were founded here, as is its oldest and largest city, Espanola.
Sixth Floor: A mountainous region rich with ores. Coal and valuable mineral deposits can be found on this floor.
Eighth Floor: Evidence of an ancient civilization first discovered on this floor, in ancient ruins buried deep within a hole that should not be able to exist, considering the distance within floors.
Eleventh Floor: An icy wasteland spanning the entire floor. Few settlements can be found here.
Twelfth Floor: In sharp contrast to the previous floor, it is a sea of sand, a hot desert. Prospectors have been searching for oil on this floor in recent years.
Seventeenth Floor: A floor dominated by giant lakes. Fishery is the main activity.
Twentieth Floor: The last human settlements can be found on this floor. It is a calming place, with forests and gently rolling hills.
Twenty Sixth Floor: A humid jungle filled with dangerous beasts.
Thirtieth Floor: Where the White Wall can be found. Intrepid explorers are still attempting to scale or bypass it to this day.
Settlements & Biosphere of the Tower
The population of the Tower is estimated at around 15 million people in 1900. Most of the residents are concentrated in the first ten floors of the tower. The largest city in the Tower is also the oldest; Espanola (2nd floor). Other notable cities include Londinium (4th floor), New York (6th floor), Yankuik-Azteca (7th floor), New Madrid (9th floor) and New Vienna (10th floor). The most remote town would be Loch-Glasgow, located on the 17th floor. Agricultural settlements can be found wherever there is arable land. The frontier levels of the 15th – 20th floors see many small villages eking out a living, away from the prying eyes of authority.
Wild animals were already in the Tower from the start. Charles Darwin’s visit to the Tower resulted in the discovery that the common mammals and birds in the Tower, although common to the untrained eye, are actually of different species compared to the ones outside of it. So far, there has not been any particularly unique flora or fauna discovered in the Tower which could not have evolved from anything in the outside world.
Economy of the Tower
The Tower’s vastness has been a source of raw materials to be exported to the rest of the world. However, its most profitable industry for the past two hundred years has been the relics excavated in the ruins scattered around the floors: Astras. Besides that, there is a variety of jobs to be performed within the Tower; being as varied as dockworkers, farmers, miners, explorers and even artists or scientists.
The Tower is not entirely self-sufficient for food at the moment and relies on regular shipments of grain and livestock from the outside to supplement its food requirements. It has a burgeoning textile industry set up on the fifth floor, while its power generation is entirely self-sufficient, relying on coals from its mines on the sixth floor. Electricity is becoming more common on the first ten floors of the Tower. Furthermore, the smoke generated from coal powerplants is not an issue; it vanishes together with the clouds at the end of every day, baffling scientists as the Tower has for centuries.
The franc is the main currency in the Tower at the moment, although Azteca quachtli as well as other European currency will be accepted depending on the settlement.
Polities of the Tower
The neutral body administrating trade and movement between levels is the Council of Orders, formed at the Congress of New Vienna. The council has 11 seats, with one allocated to each representative order. The current militant orders involved are as follows:
The Order of the Holy Sepulchre
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta
The Teutonic Order
The Order of the Golden Fleece
The Royal Victorian Order
The Order of the Garter
The Order of the Gold Lion
The Order of the Star
The Order of the White Eagle
The Imperial Janissaries
The Society of the Jaguar
The head of each order is to be neutral in theory, but in practice, each will be inclined to act on behalf of the nations they belong to. They are tasked with inspecting, tallying and distributing the Astras excavated by companies and individuals alike. The knights are the only political bodies allowed to station a standing army within the Tower, and should any dispute arise amongst the Council, they are expected to put it to a vote on their own without outside influence... again, in theory.
Major cities and towns are directly governed by representatives of the nations which founded those settlements, but the further up the Tower one goes, the less beholden they are to their founding nation. Having been declared neutral ground, the Council of Order maintains general infrastructure between settlements, while the settlements are responsible for their own upkeep. Land is clearly delineated and carefully controlled on the lower levels, while up on the frontier floors, the Wild Tops, it can be anyone’s claim, as long as they can keep it.
The United Republics of the Tower is the only truly independent polity within the Tower, the remnants of the once powerful Conquistadore Kingdoms. They are a federation of five city-states concentrated around the ninth and tenth floors; New Madrid, New Valencia, Nuevo Castilia, Locoland, and Blue Rivers.
Religion and Beliefs in the Tower
The population of the tower practice myriad religious beliefs. Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Muslims and Azteca can all be found living in relative harmony.
Free thought and religious debates are common, particularly in the cultural centers of Espanola and New Vienna. One great difference of opinion between the religions is in how the Tower is seen. The Christians and Muslims currently believe that the Garden of Eden may be found on top of the Tower thanks to proclamations from their respective religious leaders, although whether or not they should seek to reach the top is a subject of furious debate. The Aztecs treat the Tower in its entirety as a living god, and insist that it must be worshipped to keep it happy. Child sacrifice was once the preferred method to do so, but thankfully it is not common practice nowadays, after a particularly heated religious schism in the Azteca Confederacy.
Freethinkers and occultists, of which the Theosophical Society for Astra Research and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn have a leading role, consider the Tower to be the lost continent of Atlantis, and believe that the secrets of the universe can be unlocked by finding a way to the top of the Tower.
Measurements and Towerspace
On the outside, the Tower is a gigantic cylinder with a breadth fifty kilometres in diameter. It apparently extends down to the seabed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, although no vessels have dived far enough to confirm it. Calculations and the use of telescopes have confirmed that the top of the tower is a staggering 100 kilometres into the sky. At present, no known vessel can reach that height, either. The surface of the tower is coated with a material unlike any in existence; all efforts to scrape away samples of it have failed, and it has proved impervious even to cannon fire or dynamite. There are no windows – no exterior light travels into the tower at all.
Towerspace is the appellation given to the unique dimensional aberration that is the Tower’s interior (e.g: “Och! Bleedin’ towerspace! I’m lost agin!”). The interior of the tower has been mapped thoroughly for the lowest 10 levels, and though the circular shape of the walls are evident, the size of the floors are each different. The ground floor is the same size as it should be on the outside, but the first floor is no more than a tenth that size, and the second floor covers an area almost equal to that of Ireland. Such variations in size persist throughout the floors that are known.
Geography of the Tower
So far, humanity has climbed 30 floors. The geography of each floor is wildly different and appears uninfluenced by any considerations of the outside world, another particular quirk attributed to towerspace. Each floor is connected by winding stairs constructed of the same indestructible material as the walls, going 1 km up to the next level; freight elevators have been built alongside these stairs up until the tenth floor. The stairs are not located at the same place on every floor – as such, travel up the Tower can take up to a week even to get to the twentieth floor, along established routes.
Some of the particularly notable floors are listed below:
Ground Floor: The foundation of the Tower. When Columbus first arrived, it was a dark cavern with rocky spires of gold. The gold is now gone and in its place is a bustling logistics hub. An extensive network of warehouses, shipyards and docks has sprouted up along the outside of the Ground Floor, where trade is conducted with the rest of the world.
First Floor: Once the site of numerous expedition base camps, it is now the residence for the workers employed on the Ground Floor. Also known as Dockers’ Ground.
Second Floor: The first farms in the Tower were founded here, as is its oldest and largest city, Espanola.
Sixth Floor: A mountainous region rich with ores. Coal and valuable mineral deposits can be found on this floor.
Eighth Floor: Evidence of an ancient civilization first discovered on this floor, in ancient ruins buried deep within a hole that should not be able to exist, considering the distance within floors.
Eleventh Floor: An icy wasteland spanning the entire floor. Few settlements can be found here.
Twelfth Floor: In sharp contrast to the previous floor, it is a sea of sand, a hot desert. Prospectors have been searching for oil on this floor in recent years.
Seventeenth Floor: A floor dominated by giant lakes. Fishery is the main activity.
Twentieth Floor: The last human settlements can be found on this floor. It is a calming place, with forests and gently rolling hills.
Twenty Sixth Floor: A humid jungle filled with dangerous beasts.
Thirtieth Floor: Where the White Wall can be found. Intrepid explorers are still attempting to scale or bypass it to this day.
Settlements & Biosphere of the Tower
The population of the Tower is estimated at around 15 million people in 1900. Most of the residents are concentrated in the first ten floors of the tower. The largest city in the Tower is also the oldest; Espanola (2nd floor). Other notable cities include Londinium (4th floor), New York (6th floor), Yankuik-Azteca (7th floor), New Madrid (9th floor) and New Vienna (10th floor). The most remote town would be Loch-Glasgow, located on the 17th floor. Agricultural settlements can be found wherever there is arable land. The frontier levels of the 15th – 20th floors see many small villages eking out a living, away from the prying eyes of authority.
Wild animals were already in the Tower from the start. Charles Darwin’s visit to the Tower resulted in the discovery that the common mammals and birds in the Tower, although common to the untrained eye, are actually of different species compared to the ones outside of it. So far, there has not been any particularly unique flora or fauna discovered in the Tower which could not have evolved from anything in the outside world.
Economy of the Tower
The Tower’s vastness has been a source of raw materials to be exported to the rest of the world. However, its most profitable industry for the past two hundred years has been the relics excavated in the ruins scattered around the floors: Astras. Besides that, there is a variety of jobs to be performed within the Tower; being as varied as dockworkers, farmers, miners, explorers and even artists or scientists.
The Tower is not entirely self-sufficient for food at the moment and relies on regular shipments of grain and livestock from the outside to supplement its food requirements. It has a burgeoning textile industry set up on the fifth floor, while its power generation is entirely self-sufficient, relying on coals from its mines on the sixth floor. Electricity is becoming more common on the first ten floors of the Tower. Furthermore, the smoke generated from coal powerplants is not an issue; it vanishes together with the clouds at the end of every day, baffling scientists as the Tower has for centuries.
The franc is the main currency in the Tower at the moment, although Azteca quachtli as well as other European currency will be accepted depending on the settlement.
Polities of the Tower
The neutral body administrating trade and movement between levels is the Council of Orders, formed at the Congress of New Vienna. The council has 11 seats, with one allocated to each representative order. The current militant orders involved are as follows:
The Order of the Holy Sepulchre
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta
The Teutonic Order
The Order of the Golden Fleece
The Royal Victorian Order
The Order of the Garter
The Order of the Gold Lion
The Order of the Star
The Order of the White Eagle
The Imperial Janissaries
The Society of the Jaguar
The head of each order is to be neutral in theory, but in practice, each will be inclined to act on behalf of the nations they belong to. They are tasked with inspecting, tallying and distributing the Astras excavated by companies and individuals alike. The knights are the only political bodies allowed to station a standing army within the Tower, and should any dispute arise amongst the Council, they are expected to put it to a vote on their own without outside influence... again, in theory.
Major cities and towns are directly governed by representatives of the nations which founded those settlements, but the further up the Tower one goes, the less beholden they are to their founding nation. Having been declared neutral ground, the Council of Order maintains general infrastructure between settlements, while the settlements are responsible for their own upkeep. Land is clearly delineated and carefully controlled on the lower levels, while up on the frontier floors, the Wild Tops, it can be anyone’s claim, as long as they can keep it.
The United Republics of the Tower is the only truly independent polity within the Tower, the remnants of the once powerful Conquistadore Kingdoms. They are a federation of five city-states concentrated around the ninth and tenth floors; New Madrid, New Valencia, Nuevo Castilia, Locoland, and Blue Rivers.
Religion and Beliefs in the Tower
The population of the tower practice myriad religious beliefs. Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Muslims and Azteca can all be found living in relative harmony.
Free thought and religious debates are common, particularly in the cultural centers of Espanola and New Vienna. One great difference of opinion between the religions is in how the Tower is seen. The Christians and Muslims currently believe that the Garden of Eden may be found on top of the Tower thanks to proclamations from their respective religious leaders, although whether or not they should seek to reach the top is a subject of furious debate. The Aztecs treat the Tower in its entirety as a living god, and insist that it must be worshipped to keep it happy. Child sacrifice was once the preferred method to do so, but thankfully it is not common practice nowadays, after a particularly heated religious schism in the Azteca Confederacy.
Freethinkers and occultists, of which the Theosophical Society for Astra Research and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn have a leading role, consider the Tower to be the lost continent of Atlantis, and believe that the secrets of the universe can be unlocked by finding a way to the top of the Tower.
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Pretty much, yes. Your affinity with the Astra dictates how many 'ranks' of their feats you can unlock, and you can own more than one. They can be found in shapes as varied as swords, to eyepieces, to pendants. It is also possible to reforge them physically to a certain extent, though it will not change the powers they give. Usually.
Locoland? 
I know where the rpgcodex would be found now.
I know where the rpgcodex would be found now.
Life of the Party
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Therefore aliens.
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Hang on,
No basement floors and suchlike?
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That's where all the majickal macheenery is hidden, that powers the towerspace thingamajig.
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Clearly the way down is up. Or maybe it's where the parallel space elves keep their laundry.
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Theosophy.
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Have there been any major disasters not caused by humans?
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Concurrently, any disasters in the tower?
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