Keeper of the Tower of the Fall

Overview

The Keeper of the Tower of the Fall is an Urizen Imperial title created following an announcement in Autumn 378YE by the Crystal Architect of the Spires. The position of Custodian is a sinecure, requiring minimal responsibility but offering a regular income of crystal mana.

During the Spring Equinox 380YE, a plague of crystal-eating vermin saw the Senate commission white granite wards to help protect the Claw, which had the unexpected outcome of adding additional production to the sinecure.

Responsibilities

The Custodian is technically responsible for maintaining the Tower of the Fall; in practice though the day-to-day running and repair of the waterfall and pool lie in the hands of the civil service. The Keeper simply receives a bounty of crystal mana from the Tower of the Fall in Zenith. If the Tower were to be threatened in any way, it would be the responsibility of the Keeper to deal with those threats.

Powers

Bounty of Mana

The Keeper gains custodianship of a sinecure. They receive an income of 10 crystal mana each season.

Appointment

The Keeper of the Tower of the Fall is appointed by unanimous decision of the Urizen senators. If a unanimous decision cannot be reached, the title may be appointed by the Imperial Senate instead.

The title can be held by an Urizen citizen. The Keeper has tenure, and serves until they die or step down. They can be revoked by the General Assembly, the Urizen National Assembly, and by the Assembly of the Nine.

The Tower of the Fall

Set high on the slopes of a snow-capped mountain, this lonely tower stands on the cliff-edge of a cliff next to one of the tallest waterfalls in Urizen. It was almost certainly built as a place for meditative Illuminates to ponder the relationship between the body, the spirit, and magical talent - but that was before the discovery of the magical bounty of the pools below. The icy waterfall cascades down the mountain into a plunge pool far below, creating a churning vortex of swirling water. Incongruously, at the centre of the vortex it is just possible to make out crystal formations - the kind of formation associated with the natural formation of crystal mana.

There have been several attempts in the past to harvest these crystals, but each has met with failure. The exposed crystal formation is dangerously close to a fast moving wall of freezing water that strikes anyone nearby with the force of a dozen charging oxen. More than one tragic tale tells of would-be mana harvesters swept away and battered to death on the rocks below the plunge pool while trying to collect the crystals. The stories have grown with the telling, and the Pool of the Fall is often used as a metaphor for how courage in the pursuit of prosperity is sometimes not enough, and dangerous if not tempered with a little wisdom. The nature of the pool is also seen as having a strong resonance with Summer magic; at least once the eternal Barien has challenged an Urizen petitioner to recover crystals from the depths of the lake.

Over the years several plans have been suggested as to a safe and effective solution to collecting crystals, but it is only relatively recently that a practical solution has been found. Realising that a solution that involved stopping the water flow would simply lead to flooding the crystal formation and probably damaging them in the process (assuming that the falling water was not integral to their formation in the first place), an innovative solution has been proposed - a series of vanes and baffles down the length of the fall that rather that stopping the water flow, serve primarily to accelerate the vortex - both increasing its rate of magical convergence, and creating enough space at the middle to allow safer access to the crystals.

A mithril structure raised across the pool and delving into the centre has proved to be sufficient to allow harvesting when most normal materials have been insufficient to survive being occasionally caught by the vortex. The workers at the Tower of the Fall ensure that the tower is maintained (and available as a residence for the Keeper should they wish to visit the site), as well as being charged with adjusting the vanes and baffles to maintain the flow rate and vortex velocity through the year. The actual task of harvesting crystals is still dangerous, but not as lethally so as it was when brave (or foolhardy) men and women attempted to simply swim through the churning water to claim their prize.