The collapse of the Tower of Water
Upon arrival in the year 22, the refugees from Gobaith found the town of Runewick in a state caused by an incident that must have happened only a few years earlier. When asked for the exact date, the Archmage always falls into sad monosyllables, so that this date cannot be accurately recorded in this transcript.
The reason for the sadness is the loss of the then Tower of Water, which was located in the southeast of the town and was connected to the Towers of Air and Earth by bridges. The Tower of Water contained, among other things, an extensive collection of magical artifacts. And if today we hear bad-mouthing about the stock of our library, it is because the reputation of being the most important library in Illarion precedes us. What we find today, however, is only the remnants of this unique collection of knowledge, which could be salvaged from the rubble of the collapsed tower. Most of the books, however, were in such a bad condition that they were copied in multiple copies by the scriptors of Runewick and thus could be made available to the libraries of the other towns, in order to avoid at least another loss of otherwise unique copies. Thus, the other towns owe their rich endowment of books, for their educational standards, to the generosity of the Archmage.
The mighty Tower of Water, like the other towers, was once created by the Archmage through magic, and also stabilized by magic. This stabilization was provided by an appropriately placed and particularly powerful crystal wand, a wand of water. This crystal wand was created by the Archmage as a result of years of research.
The events that led to the collapse of the Tower of Water could be traced by the
traveling historians Anton Guile and Hadwin Riley in 63, who provided us with their findings as well as artifacts from each era.
Erin Solace was a student at the Arcane School of Water. During the time of her studies, Erin also gained early knowledge of the existence and power of this particular crystal staff dedicated to her element of choice, water.
As her arcane education progressed, Erin developed into a very ambitious student. Her ambitions were very much focused on the element of water, so she paid little attention to the other directions and elements of magic. However, this arrogance and lack of knowledge of the interaction of the elements was to determine her fate.
She became cold and distant towards students of the other elements, even towards those who were once her friends.
While studying the Element of Water, she apparently overestimated her own abilities too early, and became preoccupied with procedures whose requirements exceeded the scope of her rather one-sided knowledge. She requested permission to perform a dangerous and very risky experiment, but the archmage forbade it.
Disappointed that the archmage did not trust her with these supposed abilities, she made a secret plan. When the archmage visited Lor Angur again, she performed the experiment.
To understand the effects of her action, it is important to understand that each of the towers was protected by a crystal wand.
These crystal wands were used to channel mana, which in turn shielded the tower and prevented it from breaking into pieces.
By taking the rod of water and using it for her own experiment, Erin obviously disrupted the mana flow and caused the tower to collapse.
She panicked and stole the crystal wand to cover up her own failure.
When the archmage returned from the trip, Erin wanted to blame Gergely for what had happened. Gergely was a student at the Arcane School of Fire, he secretly loved Erin, and was downright obsessed with her.
Erin Solace had a far greater influence than Gergely during her time at Runewick, and she made no secret of her disapproval of the students of Fire.
Erin obviously realized, however, that this lie would not stand up to scrutiny.
She buried the crystal wand in a place known only to her. In order to find this place again, she described it in her diary, in which she also confessed her deed and the lie. She hid this diary together with a necklace in a hole in the cellar vault of the Tower of Fire and sealed it with a stone. Believing that only she would succeed in breaking it, she put a protective spell on the hiding place. She then fled Runewick and thus escaped punishment.
It can only be guessed what followed. But it is obvious that Gergely watched her hide the diary, because obviously he found it. Nothing else is known about Gergely's training or later career, but he was also a student of the archmage, and he seemed to have been able to remove the protection spell.
Through the diary, Gergely not only learned about the place where Erin had buried the crystal wand, he also took note of how much she spurned his love and despised him.
Under the cover of night, Gergely went out to dig up the wand. One would think that he wanted to return it to the Archmage, but perhaps the scorns and lies in Erin's diary made him change his mind, because he hid the crystal wand in another place. In Erin's hiding place, on the other hand, he left a note that set them on the path to a common story that led from one place to another until finally the place where the crystal staff, necklace and Erin's diary were hidden could be found. As clues, Gergley left love letters to Erin at various hiding places and also pages from her diary containing clues to the next hiding place in each case.
The historians solved the riddles, and at the end of the investigation, not only fragments of an unhappy love affair were recovered, but also the crystal staff and Erin's necklace, which turned out to be her family's heirloom.
The latter was learned by citizens of Runewick during a brief personal visit of Erin Solace to Runewick a few months before the appearance of the historians. She had come to town under the pretext of looking for the necklace, but was clearly searching for her diary. When she finally realized that the hiding place was empty, she fled in a panic, with no possibility of finding out anything more about her.
The town of Runewick would like to thank the two historians Anton Guile and Hadwin Riley, who contributed with their great work to the historical reappraisal of the history of Runewick.
The crystal wand was handed over to the Archmage, whose joy at the find was obviously struggling at that moment with the memory of a loss.
Even if his words about Erin Solave are not very flattering, those who know him better may know that besides the loss of the Tower and its contents, he may also be pained by the loss of a student who had the mental gifts to be a great mage, but whose character was not up to the responsibility that comes with it.
As personal words, I would like to add to this write-up that I decided against displaying the crystal staff and Erin's necklace as examples of transgression because I do not see Runewick as a place where people are pilloried. From my experience, time holds many opportunities for change, for better or worse.
Runewick, 12.Tanos 63
Deanna
