Overview
Essence towers gather ambient essence and concentrate it into essence cores. Charged cores from towers power travel, gates, shields, engines, lights, clothing, weapons, and other city equipment.
Essence towers stand across Valrindor and beyond: inside cities such as Irrathis and Chronasis, near gates, beside lakes and plantations, along borders, around settlements, and in essence-rich terrain.
Function
Each tower pairs a visible exterior with a protected core-charging artifact. The artifact is a strange metallic construct suspended by iron beams, with slots and machinery for essence cores. Tower exteriors vary by region and local materials, but the central artifact keeps the same core-charging design.
At active towers, attendants and workers manage cores, charge equipment, prepare supplies, and redistribute stored essence. Recharging can create public queues. High-ranking visitors can receive priority access. Used cores can be exchanged for charged ones, and tower inventories supply armies, travelers, gates, ships, clothing, and weapons.
History
Essence towers originate in Arcanis's Malverand research. He developed specially mined crystals that could store essence, taught a small group of engineers and mages how to recreate the dangerous machinery, and built large isolated towers to house the artifacts that created essence cores. Tower-charged cores let cities and armies power travel, gates, shields, engines, lights, clothing, weapons, and other equipment.
That advance damaged the land when the devices drained too much essence from the environment. Blackened corruption spread around overused areas, so Malverand's leaders banned draining inside Maraveth, moved tower production toward essence-rich regions, and built more towers in places such as Morindel. Later, when the empire lost Barachiel and Arcanis, the guardians curtailed essence use and reduced tower production to slow further corruption.
The atraxi later copied and modified tower technology after arriving in Xalmyrra. Amos, Jareth, and Kheran kept towers running for the atraxi remnant's cores, supplies, and survival needs, and Jorhan expanded tower use across Atraxis Prime.
Later Uses and Variants
Xalmyrran cities rely on towers for cores and city magic, Thalassai uses them for equipment and supplies, Thiravos and Theryssa use towers to sustain elite gate travel, and Vireen expeditions plan new towers to stabilize their supply. Essence shapers depend on towers and cores for survival, making tower clusters strategic targets during the Battle of Raindawn.
Tower designs vary. Atraxis Prime has a massive black tower that operates like a reservoir, giving essence outward to the atraxi and the surrounding life. Around Xalatun, towers stand near the false-war battlefield, and some abandoned or inactive towers still contain the familiar central artifact.