Lonely Tower
Overview
Today, the Lonely Tower is in ruins. Below it, underneath the frozen earth, lies a gateway to hell. The smoldering remains of the tower smoke and burn. It is surrounded by a circle of dead land where nothing grows and nothing survives for long.
Before its destruction by Agyrios Idrendorakis, the Tower was a black obelisk half a mile tall. Its origins predate any living memory on the continent. The tower was occupied by Pythea, Vandun's wife, a megalomaniac sorceress of extraordinary power who spent a thousand years accumulating influence over Anash'col from within its walls.
Properties
The tower's most dangerous property is the anti-magic field that surrounds it. Anything that remains inside the field too long becomes a shadow of itself and crumbles to dust. The field prevents all forms of spellcasting. A mage inside the field is as powerless as a commoner.
The field’s radius extends across the circle of dead land surrounding the structure. The material composing the field's edge has been harvested in small quantities over the centuries and used to line the vault beneath Kuenugarth, the only known application of this anti-magic substance outside the tower itself.
Shrines to Arth and Vandun are visible from the Lonely Tower. Deep beneath the tower is a forge where the rings of Dreadrock were originally created, crafted from Esk's tear and containing Aeon’s bound time magic. This forge is the only known place where the rings can be destroyed. It predates Eden and is separate from its infrastructure.
Eden: the Gateway to Hell
Beneath the Lonely Tower, Pythea built a hidden city called Eden approximately a thousand years ago. Eden is the gateway to Hell. It is a functioning demon settlement with a factory producing metalwork, armor, weapons, and barding, and a refining warehouse that exports its goods to the outside world. Buyers seldom know the source.
At one point, Eden was a place where Idrendor Arthel was imprisoned. His cage was a series of concentric black rings refined with powerful magic and infernal metals. Pythea used Idrendor Arthel as a power source for the city, siphoning his divine energy continuously until he was freed by Agyrios Idrendorakis and a small elite force.
The Witch in the Tower
Pythea has been the Tower’s sole inhabitant since its creation. She is Vandun's wife. Long ago, Vandun sired a nephalem child with her (half divine, half mortal). When it was born at the Lonely Tower, the pantheon’s enforcer Hejong killed the child to protect the world, for nephalem consume all matter and magic around them. The nephalem’s death is what created the dead field around the Tower.
Pythea was a megalomaniac who has spent over a thousand years building toward a singular goal: the conquest and subjugation of the world to her will. She made deals for immortality with the Sorceress Queen of Great Borea, binding the Queen's fate to her own. She captured Idrendor Arthel from a distant plane, imprisoning him in Eden. Pythea was slain by Agyrios Idrendorakis and her tower destroyed. She was resurrected in Hell, where she now resides with Vandun.
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