Tower Compendium: Topography

 

Tower Topography

Overview

There are four major ways in which a Tower may be configured and placed in the physical and psychological landscape, or geocosmic space, of a region. There is the ring model, of which there are three major 'layers' of placement possible, the central core, the 'inner' and 'outer' layers, or the Ring 9, Middle Garden, and First Ring respectively along a 9-ring configuration of discs for each floor. There are 'Arcs' of which have the least defining characteristics that can be said to be distinct. Then there are the floors themselves, which have been given about equal study as the layers but which are much less precise in terms of defining them. Finally there is the interspaced connection between the artery tunnels and lineage of boastful individuals who have left their mark across the tower's Substance and altered its topographical map in significant, individualized ways.  The four ways of configuration each have their own way of looking at geocosmic placement and the resulting effects, and one of those configurations will not be discussed in detail here, for reasons of brevity and the large number of details necessary to address such a large subject. In terms of overall 'place,' each of the placement modes of the Tower are intended to affect the 'place' a given location in a similar fashion. However, they are not identical in the way they do so, some are more subtle and abstract than others. The outermost rings of the Tower for example can be broken into simple districts, but within innermost rings these numbers simply defy accountability.

In thesis, a 'district' is what's commonly seen by most travelers and researchers as a separate 'world' so to speak. It’s what's most commonly seen as a room or unit of reality within the Tower. A district can be as minor as a small country, town or isle, or as large as an interstellar body. Due to the 6-arc configuration and 9-rings, 54 is the prototypical average number of districts or world localities per floor.

While the arcs are often stable in angle and place, rings are both uneven in their distribution and constantly moving. Although numbered 1-9, the number of ring segments on a given floor is increasing and decreasing constantly due to the ripple-like movement, merging rings at times and dividing others. This rippling occurs towards what is called the Ring of Joining, also known as 'Aeirean Space,' it's in this place that all major rings and the Tower itself are unified in.

 

Ellie’s descriptions are a vogue help in visualization here. “Imagine like around 300,000 pizzas atop of each other cut into 6 slices, but the pizzas aren’t touching and are kinda floating, and every pepperoni is another world that can hold either a gas station or a galaxy in it, and sometimes you can leave the gas station pepperoni to visit the galaxy one. These are all inside the Leaning tower of, Towerness, and the crust is occupied by maids and butlers with cute little bows to lure you in! Fun right?”

 

Arcs

The six arcs of the Tower, cut pie-style, are determined by a special type of Substantia wavelength, speculated to have to do with Ellie's dispositions. As one gets closer to the center, the Tower arcs gradually get smaller and smaller in size, which causes the Tower arteries and crevices to gradually go smaller and smaller and eventually vanish as the structure becomes small enough to contain a hollow cavity known as the Heartwood.

The six arcs are:

1)Arc of Origin:

This arc is located at the very north of the Tower. It contains vast ripples from 'Aeirean Space' that engorge the crevices in between districts, and is thus the easiest arc to navigate and use in terms of straightforward travel. The ring's soil is extremely potent and it's the most common arc to hold celestial bodies and favorable atmospheric conditions, often leading to small isolated towns, grey skies, run down but tranquil buildings, and in general has been described as fostering a working class pastoral feel as one progresses thru this arc. The whimsical feeling is equivalent across culture, technological era and setting throughout. This arc has the least rugged landscape and seemingly minimal barriers across each floor.

2)Arc of Joining:

This arc to the north-west contains the most powerful celestial bodies and is the most spacious, yet still the quietest and least populated. This is often accompanied by an odd feeling of air pressure, and while it's an ideal arc to use for transportation due to its low elevation, very minimal terrain and ease of access to the other sides of the main ring, it can seem to be rather dead, cold and airless despite its relative proximity to the main Arc. Many of its worlds on its floor are vast oceans, deserts, plains and forests which are populated with kingdoms and low-population centers. For newcomers to the Tower, it's often seen as the ideal virgin experience when first exploring.

3)Arc of Ascendance:

This arc along the north-east of the tower holds the most concentrated settlements, although not necessarily the most advanced, with a vast area of the tower held at 117 degrees. It contains the most amount of space, but it's not the safest from a navigational point of view due to the constant threat of both the 'Aeirean Space' that pushes onto across the shelves, methane explosions in the soil, and its known claustrophobic atmosphere in between rings and floors. The existence of common livestock is rare and great mythological fauna are commonplace, often to the risk of those there. Unique labyrinths can only be accessed through long and twisted passages, which lead into a circular chamber of unimaginable dimensions. The rumbling and roaring of the "Ring of Joining" can be heard in every district of the arc. For this reason it's thought to be a favorite among dungeon raiders and thrillseekers.

4)Arc of Reversal:

The south-eastern segment, This arc is surrounded by vast forests and a river system, and the soil here is rich, fertile, and the forests of the floors here are home to exotic bears and wolves, both which are extremely rare to encounter in this time and setting. A special earthly material, called serpent's soil, is particularly high in fertility and is both responsible for excessive plant growth and making this region a hotbed for marine life, being an arc of extreme biodiversity.

A special overlapping dungeon for this arc, the 'Vesica Pisces,' can be found in the middle of the Tower near the Ring of Joining, between the three layers of the Tower. This special feature is said to contain a rather distinct, shapely vein within the topography that can lead to any of the 6 arcs with ease, repeated across every floor. For unexplained reasons, the Vesica Pisces contains rivers of sticky, slow-flowing Baubble fluid. It can only be entered however from the Arc of Reversal near the centermost Ring. The Arc of Reversal is the most frequent site for naturalists, nomads, environmental researchers and those looking for special resources.

5)Arc of Return:

The arc of return is the south-western located segment of the Tower, the greatest of all magical and technological marvels ever achieved by any Tower civilization are credited here and the culmination of the efforts of countless millennia of research have been offered up to the Solar Society. This Arc's barriers are titanic silver-metal slabs enchanted by an unshatterable magical shield.

They are said to have been forged from the lost technology of a time which the Tower was still young and had yet to develop and refine, or to have been taken from the remnants of some vanished race who had reached these heights, so that they might worship the Sun's radiant light on a greater and higher scale and raise the slabs as high as the sun. A great many of the Arc of Return's labyrinths and corridors within the Artery systema have been 'colonized' by labs, mining corporations, researchers and even ancient ruins of civilizations long gone.

 The arc of return is also believed to be the Arc with the most poverty, along with countries and worlds stripped away of all resources. Due to an enchantment in the Silver-barriers, this Arc uniquely moves its rings at .0000000001x the rate of the others, ensuring an artificial physical segregation from inner and outer rings of the tower.

6)Arc of Destiny:

The southernmost Arc, and in reality it's the most barren and unforgiving of all the six. This is due to the harsh conditions in which it resides, with extreme cold, extreme heat, pressure, gravity, tidal waves and storms and winds coming from all directions, and unique landscapes in the Tower, such as waterless ashen worlds and lush deadly jungles. It contains many 'vast' worlds in some aspect of volatile nature, such as vast and serene oceans, forests of life and realms of stone, and the deserts of endless sand. The worlds of the Arc of Destiny tend to border on the extreme in terms of survivability. There are reports of people trapped inside its tunnels and dungeons for decades, with a few who managed to escape. Unlike the Arc of Return, this Arc Ring's shelves move faster than any other of its 5 counterparts.

Arteries

The labyrinthine series of passageways (known as A-levels) that are the heart of the Tower, are said to represent a maze leading to infinity, though in fact represent nothing more than the Tower's internal workings. Basically, the tower Artery systemata is actually a simple series of tunnels and chambers of great architectural beauty, as well as many other things that we do not understand. A crude way to travel in between layers of the Tower, they more often offer any being the potential to be trapped in the maze of stairways and corridors that are the Tower itself. While routes between Arcs and Rings are fairly common, the actual pathways between Floors are incredibly rare and difficult to locate. The rippling effect of the ringworlds makes these scarce routes also change position on a timescale that makes discovering one more a matter of luck than skill or even really perseverance.

A significant number of the Tower's residents have taken up residence in the vast number of interconnected tunnels, chasms and elevators that run through the entire interior, and one would hardly be surprised to find towns, cities or even factories within these inner spaces anchored in. These vast labyrinths, between a single floor, ring or arc can even stretch hundreds of miles, so be sure to remember to pack a sturdy pair of hiking boots.

There are no celestial bodies within the Arteries, nor many non-constructed light sources. The entire maze is lit by a single white, unbreakable, and unclimbable dome of glowing luminescent white light, set high in the uppermost reaches of the tower and situated so it never shines through anywhere but within the dark tunnels and spaces of the floor's mazes. The only way to reach the light is allegedly by climbing to the very top of the tower. The glow does not emanate from any physical source, but rather, emanates from the structure of the space itself. Rumours are that at the top of the tower this vernal light source takes the illuminated shape of a shapely, 5-cornered glowing star. Ellie has not confirmed or denied this.

The Dimensional Corridor

Near the 'top' of the Tower and the “Bottom” aswell - the place closest to the highest rings and at the same time furthest from the astral planes - the most prominent mobile structure is the Dimensional Corridor. At its lowest floor, the Corridor is the only place where a dimensional gate can be traveled through, to the other planes of being.

The lowest floor of the Tower is the place where dimensional gates from all over the Multiverse come to be. It is the most important location, in regards to traveling the Tower itself, for anyone seeking to understand this place and travel swiftly, as the dimensional corridor functions like an elevator that can reach any floor in the tower. In ancient times the place was called the 'Sphinx Flux' due to the riddles required to use it, and was ruled over by beings that worshipped Ellie.

It seems that any "gate" of the Dimensional Corridor is also a physical artifact, which is used to channel magical supply into and out of a tower, and as such, would need to be physically connected to it. There is only one gate on every floor. It would be the only form of direct interaction between floors, as Arteries appear to be surrounded by a non-euclidean void space. The Corridors do not seem connected with the Artery tunnels in any discernible way. In the same way as they connect floors, gates connect to each other, and function as the only real representation of direct travel between floors more than 1 level apart. They can become a focal point, or a location of power and end up with more gates within the Heartwood, becoming more accessible than they were before and starting a domino effect where they attract more visitors, generate more Tower-entities and increase the density of Substance. They can be used as a means to connect opposite points in the 1st ring in a full diameter, although this is surprisingly rare.

 

The Lobby, Mythros

The place of a large portion of the Tower's residents in the figurative egg-shell of the Tower's yolk, hosting those few individuals who have taken it upon themselves to guide the placement of their respective floors is described by Ellie as the first step in every outsider's journey. The Lobby world is a virtual utopia, complete with fabulous shopping centers, inns, luxury train tracks and shuttles, The shuttle lets them meet all the other players and stops in Mythros. A vacation world with tents and carnivals, furry butlers, gambling casinos, mountain ranges on the outskirts, a big coliseum and metropolises. It's located between the outer multiverse from which entrants come in and the first ring, and functions as a lobby, spa and resting area for the parties and adventurers first finding the Tower. Mythros has been compared to Venice, Paris, Tokyo and Disneyland all in one. It’s hotels are top class and all food and service is paid for by tickets, which can be won via simple carnival games or dropped from mobs within the Tower floors.

When you enter the Tower, the person in charge will give you a short summary of how to proceed. This person is called a proctor host, and usually takes on a rather overly cutesy form, but is able to shapeshift into one more fit for service later on, comparable to a flight attendant or bellman. They are always sharply dressed and Ellie’s finest service, and considered her loyal admins for these entry areas into the Tower.

"The Tower itself, if you didn't know, is a very big place. I used to say that it was the 'largest magic-made structure in existence', but the thing is, that's not true at all anymore. At first it was true, but things started to change a long time ago. A small handful of people – like those who built the great structures of the Lobby and who run it, and the ones who first carved the canyons and filled them with the light – who had their own place, a space that they kept on the surface, and didn't come down. Instead they kept building up up and up, until they were permanent hospitality for the Tower’s Entrance. Imagine that, a whole race was remade to serve our majestic clownscious ringleader! Or maybe they were always that way, made for that purpose? Who knows!"

Those who arrive here quickly learn who Ellie is.

Ellie is one of the strongest individuals among those with abilities, simply because, to date, she has seen and acted on parts of reality that nobody else has yet. Her experiences in the Tower, where the lines of reality are even thinner and the potential more extreme, have granted her powers she uses to manipulate time and space. Her ability to control over space is what causes her to visit far-off floors the most. She can go wherever she wants within a given space, even though it's limited in actual physicality, but this does not take away her potential for manipulating the Tower’s reality around herself.

Dr. Caeli-Yi-Ioseph, was a scientist during the era of discovery of the world.

They discovered this place for the Solar Society, which is far more than a Lobby in name, is in and of itself an entity with physical properties that has been formed by all the individuals that have been part of it and partake in it, it is a shared starting reality that exists before the Tower and even before the 'tides' of the ringworlds exist. At times the Lobby’s theme has changed, from more Carnival-based mirth to Fall festivals, all the way to eastern oriental shrines and even to futuristic arcades, yet every time its changed the service there appears to believe the entrance was always that way. It is a complex locational entity that functions in the background of a myriad of people and is always run perfectly smoothly to cheerfully greet those who enter. The individuals who find fulfillment for too long in Mythros, are said to become part of its staff overtime forgetting their old memories of before they came into the tower. Those that venture further, are transported to a random floor within the First Ring.

 

First Ring

Common referral to Rings 1-3 of a floor. It was once thought by ancient outsiders that the Tower was a kind of fortress to keep evil out, but we now know the Tower is far more than this, it is a vast fortress of opportunity for all who can make the most of it. The Tower is a place of choice for everyone who walks through its corridors and past the Lobby, but there are those who cannot choose where they are born, even if they are the strongest individual that has ever lived. When they step through the Dimensional Corridor and out of Mythros they have no control over which floor they enter or where they end up. Their only certainty is regardless of arc and floor, all newcomers not native to the tower start on the First Ring.

The lands and places here exist in parallel to the common flow and 'place' of the Tower, and are not bound by the constraints of the Tower's hypergeometric ontology. They typically possess much more mundane properties and recognizable forms of magic, as well as more sparse natives. In the Tower those who belong to this place hold the ability to reach places other than the Tower, another important component, allowing one to enter from the outside clearly and distinctly for the first time. A precondition however, stands that the outermost layer of this region is not as malleable and it is in this sense merely a reflected reality of the multiverse from which visitors come, this usually presents the challenge of those that must seek to understand any action within the Tower and the reality around them in reflection of themselves and the geoexistential forces on the mind. To those in the First Ring this is the case, whereas from the perspective of those beyond the Middle Garden, these infinite worlds appear as hostile pocket realities from which "Guests'' arrive.

Due to most individuals here coming from outside the Tower or being generated as a reflection of some world outside it, belief substance tends to be weaker as the elements clash instead of blend, and momentum is lessened. When an individual place finally becomes filled with the presence of enough individuals, and is able to have enough of a force of its own, then it can exert a more significant influence on the shape of the Tower. As they grow in influence and strength, so does their place. A guild of only a hundred can form an entire floor or segment within the First Ring if their passion and cultural density is strong enough - creating camps, kingdoms, cities and societies. Over time all physical land from the first ring succumbs to the gravitation of this momentum and starts shrinking inwards, compressing and growing denser. Inevitably it may move to the Middle Garden, rings 4-6 of the Tower.

Middle garden

Rings 4-6. The presence or absence of individuals are an important factor in how the place changes, where the place is held and kept are equally important to the shape, size and disposition of individual places, and even when places shift in relation to one another their presence is a significant factor. Areas within the Middle Garden that receive no attention, have few individuals naturally decay from lack of belief or interaction like a wilted flower, and even vibrant lands and dimensions become absolutely desolate with no one to continue their purpose. Those with strong narrative momentum and legends can revitalize even a wasteland world with enough time, carrying with them a 'tale' to alter the landscape.

These 'tales' have the ability to create a malleable and fluid spatial configuration that are able to shift and change according to floor's needs, with the most powerful of individuals and deities having the most in-depth of these configurations. Some places even have a 'ghost' or 'spirit' that is a part of the malleability of that place, and their interactions are also covered in more detail in the Negatrois section.

The placement of the various tales described here will be seen to reflect both the nature of the people who have inhabited the Tower and the nature of the place itself, and those relationships are reflected here by both physical and metaphysical descriptions. The placement and arrangement of these places is by no means fixed, but is fluid, and those who exist within the Tower are in a constant state of becoming at a point in the future that their own being in the past, will become mute when their significance is recognized differently, either by Ellie or the Tower's collective inhabitants. There is an inextricable mix of the real and the surreal, as opposed to the outer rings which are more grounded, and the inner rings which become more abstract. This place, Ellie tells us, is to be approached as a whole.

 In the Middle Garden, one can't go anywhere in the Tower without bumping into the presence of the Tower's denizens. It is the most densely populated due to being the meeting point between both the external multiverse's visitors and entrants, and those born, generated and given existence within the tower itself. Even in the most inaccessible parts of the Tower, which are largely invisible from the outside, it is easily possible to find a vantage point that is not inhabited, and no part of the Tower is as established with high-rises, walled kingdoms, majestic castles along countrysides, or space stations as the Middle Garden.

 

Ring of Joining

At the 'Ring of joining' where the segments are almost static, only the rings are changing, never the arcs. Once again this is an abstract contortion, as this area is defined by where the rings of the Tower meet and by each Ring of joining acting as a natural limit to Tower's movement. Rings once formed from new entrants and the outer reality, are finally pressured and met with those created from the Tower itself in its innermost core. Once one enters the Ring of joining, a single segment may be seen within as many as four rings, or four as many as three, and so on, until one emerges from the Ring of Joining with but a single ring. Because of this phenomenon, entire kingdoms, worlds and rooms may be merged- a medieval fortress realm from the exterior may be smashed into a toon-like world from the interior, and the two would resultantly fuse until they're one tooned castle, with everyone within both rooms changed permanently with attributes from both worlds.

 

Ring 9

Rings 6-9 of the tower are typically referred to under R9. For those here, their placement is so integral to their existence that there is no 'place' they could actually belong to, because they never leave the boundaries of their own place. They exist at the threshold of places, in the spaces between places, between the bounds of time itself, hiding in the farthest shadow of reality’s storage. It is the there for those who do not belong to a place or any here. It is only through a malleable sense of place in Ring 9 that Ellie and those she trusts use the 'tales' from the Middle Garden to alter things, to create structures and change the nature of the tower, to create what are essentially new paraspaces that the rest of the adventurers can cross from the outskirts, to change the nature of the tower and its function completely from its core.

These paraspaces, which allude to the Tower's true nature in this great long-spanning campaign, are not a part of the rest of the multiverse. They are original and wholly Tower-generated spaces, entities, races and civilizations that spawn forth from the propagation of the smallest 9th ring. Due to being the farthest distance from native reality outside the Tower, strange, diverse and exotic forms of magic are the most commonplace here. Arteries in this domain often take far greater liberties with paradoxical properties, defying space-time, flipping gravity upside down and horizontally, trapping passers in stairway loops and recursive hallways, and inflicting on travelers Negatrois-borne poltergeists, threats and entities. To these folks created in R9, the nature of the Tower is not simply the history or geography of the city, or even the structure itself, the Tower is more than any of these. It is seen as a universe organism, its great spiritual life-force emanating from and being drawn to this living, thinking creature, a being that has no name or form that can ever be known but is considered divine to them. To the centermost within the Tower, the Tower itself is often contrasted with god, and Ellie as god’s angel.

Unlike the First Ring, Ring 9 contains three 3 rings that have a tendency to grow rather than shrink, pushing out of Heartwood and expanding towards the Ring of Joining.

 

Darkest Disc

The final ring between the 9th crevice and the hollow void of the Heartwood. They exist in the highest level of the place and its associated pathways and arteryways, which correspond to the main artery that makes its way all the way down the central cavity of the Tower. They 'belong' where they don't belong as it were, because they carry tales that give them the knowledge and authority to do just that. But unlike the Middle Garden these tales do not reach their abyss and become mere whispers, folk legends inverted into negative phenomena that exist in conflict with the residents. See the Negatrois subsection for further review.

 

Heartwood

The Heartwood is an upwards ocean, an immensity, a nigh infinite array of light and dark, energy and matter that forms the core of the Tower and ascends at a vertical altitude bordering in infinity. Ellie has professed she doesn't own the Tower, and this 'place' is merely a physical extension of the will she possesses. This is an important concept.

Not much is known of this part of the Tower, though it can be assumed to be the central core, the "motor of the universe", if you will. There are reports of some sort of ancient and possibly forgotten race here, with a tower, possibly used as a tool of war. There are some references to people who have been seen here and then disappear, some say "disappeared." What is known for certain is that after much investigation of this area has been made, the inhabitants are said to have vanished and all attempts to communicate with them have been met with confusion. There are no doors or any sort of stairs leading into this section of the Tower. The space is completely sealed by a single, undulating veil of shifting light and cloud. No human being has lived in the center of the Tower, not even Ellie by her own report.

 

Barriers

It needs to be said, there is always a place for those who belong here or there, and that is defined with a simple line: that of a physical barrier. While some are built from iron or steel, others are more subtle, and rely solely on the subtlety of the mind. Barriers are the most direct, unerring form of a physical boundary. The barriers of the First Ring districts are made mostly of gravel, rock, metal and physical material. The Middle Garden's barriers are sources as cavern material and magical barriers powered by the Tower's gravitation. The final set of barriers between worlds in the tower belongs to Ring 9 and exists entirely, of Substance- effectively worlds apart by mental barriers that are the most complicated to cross. They are, ultimately, places that one belongs. And those places are made by both the people who visit them, the people who inhabit them and the people who are meant to be barred from them, a fact that becomes more prevalent in times of crisis and chaos.

The boundaries between individual Tower districts are defined by a barrier, as well as the three demarcations itself. There are different types of barriers, and some may even be invisible, abstract or mental.

Wards

Wards are constructs of the tower that defend both Gates and commonly patrol the countless Artery tunnels that exist throughout the Tower. Most have a certain theme connecting them to nearby Floors - a Puppet, a Geisha, a massive spider, a polycephalous crow, a large mannequin or a robotic contraption, even and on rare occasion a humanoid or furred appearance. They, far from being unreasonable and mindless guards or simple bosses, can be reasoned with and allow travelers to pass for a proper toll. This toll is almost always something exhaustive in some sense, such as hunting 5000 of a certain monster or obtaining an item from a suicidal quest doable within the Tower. Direct confrontations with Wards rarely go well for passengers, due to their ability to absorb magic and also said passengers. Those absorbed into Wards either end up permanently assimilated and merged as one with the pathway guardian in mind and body, or are spit out as familiars, lesser smaller versions of the Wards with far less autonomy.

It’s not uncommon to have party wipeouts occur leaving whole groups as merely indistinguishable minions of a Ward. When party members lose their autonomy and are fully transformed, they join the dungeons of the Artery ways and patrol, looking for more travelers to guard from. A Ward’s conversion range is usually only reserved for its protection space and towards those that attack it, but exceptions exist. Should the Tower perceive one as especially dangerous to the Tower, its constructs and native lifeforms, towns and worlds, it will instruct Wards to defy their usual fair range and act immediately to attempt to convert them in the vicinity, or to convert nearby travelers to amass an offensive in order to stop that individual much like a body’s immune system attempting to flush out pathogens.

For reasons not understood, having a very strong and expansive “Place” behind one’s existence, be it narrative momentum or substantial belief backing by a population or enough followers offers a level of immunity from conversion by Wards, but this protection appears tied to their health, stamina and wellbeing, dissipating if the person is injured or exhausted enough. These Ward constructs often give false hope in their destruction or defeat after exhaustive bloodshed from those trying to brute force their way thru- as Wards can essentially, even when eviscerated and destroyed, call upon the Tower to “Respawn them” back to perfect health in very short order. One often finds when a request from a Ward is honored, these beings can be incredibly helpful and very generous, offering blessings that boost the traveler, showing secret pathways and forging miraculously useful relics for them to use.

Opal Orbit

Due to the Joining Ring, all floor discs and worlds are constantly moving towards the Middle Garden and have a type of universal tectonic movement. The effect of the location changes the way the tower's material topology affects the physical and spiritual universe; one can compare this to the physical property of gravity. But, in addition to this, the mystical experience appears to present an alternate topology of the material world, one that has the effect of creating or linking multiple universes outside the Tower itself, beyond even the Lobby or First Ring. In many of these universes there exist alternate material universes that are not under the tower's topology control. They are gravitated, orbiting the Tower along a dimensional axis much like a celestial body orbits the other. Gates and Arteries may connect to them from inner Tower worlds to the Outer, and these seem to be both universes that originally existed and were synced and caught by the Tower’s spiritual gravity, and worlds that the Tower generated at some point but are not present within it. Due to their unique location, the wayward effect of Substantia imparts from the standard models of Tower dictation and appears to wire to entirely different sets of rules that are still being studied.

Mantra

Within the Tower, to master a mantra in magic is to chant an opening word and shape magic to the very core with language and thought. This allows the mind to align the internal structure of the mantra with the spiritual structure, thus permitting the creation of an unbreakable internal link between the mental and psychic planes as an individual Place. In magical meditation, each mantra is often chanted three times over the appropriate syllables, to enable the internal resonance to create the greatest possible effect. This is done with the intent of attracting all possible forms of energy to the situation at hand, whether it be positive or negative.

In common magical practice, chants and auditory activation triggers are common to draw upon magic. But in the Tower itself, the formal activation principles have been known to be significantly de-subjectified and powered by the annals of personal historicization and belief substance. If one repeats a mantra enough and is fully convinced of their connection with magical planes within the Tower itself, they obtain the ability to draw from this belief with Mantras and use a conviction-based magic that has no prior requirements.

While in magical meditation there is no time or energy limit associated with mantra, the power of its use rests in the correct synchronization to one’s mental structure and not a true energy source that might deplete or require calculation. This strict psychic synchronization is required in order for it to work, as the chant should follow the structure of the mental state of the user. The chant is performed with the chant being repeated three times. These repetitions of the chant occur while the practitioner is in a mentally arupt state, and the protrusion of word slips, puns, jokes, even stutters and swears at times, may have a substantial effect on the actual spell itself and turn the Mantra linked communication of a spell entirely on its head, causing unexpected side-effects

Negatrois

If Mantras and meditated beliefs are able to spur magical links and connections with the powerful substances of the tower that bring creation forth, their disavow, repression, distortion and dissolution of narrative on a successive decline appears to mediate a separate incident with physical consequences. Whereas regular belief altercations can be often displayed with relation to magical currents and fields, all measurements of belief negation appear correspondingly, as a Negative, or Net loss of magic below zero, although this appears to be impossible by normal means. It’s thought that if sufficient faith can bring forth the possible, denial and dissolution can materialize the impossible, bringing forth minus or negative magical power that is abnormal and incalculable.

 Negatrois commonly occurs as a globalized phenomenon in the Darkest Disc, where folk tales, stories and belief of those in the prior rings becomes inverted and takes the shape of various poltergeists, paranormal beings and inverted forms of actual events and individuals in the outer discs. A great golden dragon known to bring prosperity and good luck on one early stage near the Tower’s entrance was only a mere myth to one world in the farthest end near the center, and thus became a shadowy, intangible serpent that terrorized lands with curses and natural disasters. There have been rumours of cult-like practitioners wiping their own memories and utilizing amnesia, cognitive dissonance and dissociative practices to gain access to this effect and change the cosmos around them as they see fit, but this requires further study.