If the sucking the life out of people really doesn't fit... no problems with having it axed here. To be honest, I have no recollection of ever writing that bit... doesn't seem to fit.

It's utterly unrequired, naturally, but the explanation as given certainly gets my total approval.

Hah. You should know by now; speak my name and I appear.

And yes, it's supposed to be ^ shaped. Like an icicle that was dripping up from the earth. You can see why the entry needs to be revised.

Ximax is supposed to be something of a special case, education-wise. A year's class might be two hundred or so people, dropouts/deaths per year per class about twenty or so decreasing past the third year... a good six full years present and another 500 or so staying on to teach or learn more.

And then there's all the people on the waiting list. Not that Ximax has one, it's just that tuition can get steep for the ones who don't have a patron, and Ximax offers so many ways to earn money that offer so many ways to die interestingly.

Damn. I'm heading off-topic. I'll stop there.

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

Edited by: Xarl at: 9/18/03 1:35

No tower over the Sheild Dome. A marble dome, with six seats inside for the Archmagi, works well enough. My cheif theological concept behind Ximax was fragmented power... it was supposed to be reflected in the Towers. Big-McLargehuge power that no one guy can truly claim mastery of, just control of a tiny peice. (Also reflected in the guilds. Every single aspect of the city in a constant struggle for the tiny advantage of the Guild Hall.)

And my concept was that each of the towers is damn near self-sufficient in the more mundane of things. (Cafeterias, privies, dormitories... etc.) Naturally, some are gravitated to, and as a result have enlarged over the years, so the Red Tower's cafeteria hasn't changed a bit in 200 years, but the Garden Tower's is in a constant state of expansion... ya get the idea.

I have only one request to change something Talia said.

A P.E. building? NOOOOooooo....
*voice trails off into nonexistence*

More seriously? Hospital Tower doesn't quite seem to work; that strikes me as more a dependent building. However, it being... thinking, thinking...

The First Tower. (Name?) Where everyone goes for big announcements, where demonstrations are given.. generally the public face of Ximax.

Help on the Tower of Myth problem:
*lapses into Compendium mode*

The Three Towers of Knowledge, respectively Myth, Lore, and Records, each store a different aspect of Ximax's collection of knowledge. The Tower of Myth contains all things cosmological. From early copies of the Cárpa'dosía to tales of the Darkwinds to records of the High Demons, the Tower of Myth is, while not the most in-depth of the libraries of the Divine, certainly one of the most diverse in Santharia.

The Tower of Lore contains what is arguably the largest library of magical tomes on Caelereth. Inside this Tower's musty halls lie nearly all the spells ever known to the Archmagi, kept under the watchful eye of a 24-hour Honor Guard. However, not all the tomes of Ximax lie here... the strongest are sealed away in the Guarded Libraries of the Inner Circle's Towers, seen by none but those who have reached the title Magus...

The Tower of Records contains, for lack of a better word, the mundane side of Ximax's knowledge. Observations of nature, an extensive bestiary and herbarium, records of property transactions and the history of Ximax itself... there are student rumors of a small tribe of historians forever contentedly lost in this tower's depths.

*exits compendium mode*

Now, the problem becomes figuring out who the credit's going to go to on the final re-entry of the Academy. As of right now, I'm putting my money on Talia getting the credit; she's certainly been the most informative of all of us...

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

My proto-concept was that the Orb has no structures closer to it than the Inner Circle, if only because having a building directly on top of the Orb would result in the tiniest spell cast there being rendered twenty times more powerful. (The sheilds of Ximax are good. They are not perfect. On the upside, they've managed to drop the Orb's leakage by about 98%.)

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

Uhh... I was saying it was circular, too... Shield Dome-Inner Circle-Outer Circle-Academy Dependent Buildings-Inner City-City Wall-Outer City-Fields in a circular pattern was my mental plan of this...

Let's see if I can't put it clearer.

The Ximaxian Plateau is surrounded by the Zirkumire and Magic Sickle mountain ranges.

The city of Ximax is at the center of the Ximaxian Plateau.

The lopsided, vibrant, and chaotic Outer City sprawls outside the city walls.

Within the walls lies the old, mustier, nobler, and more cultured Inner City, but between it and the dependant buildings of the Academy still lie a couple hundred peds of open parkland, partially as a concession to beauty, partially as a buffer zone between the city and the Academy.

Between the dependent buildings and the Academy proper are long walks and quite a few physical and magical barriers.

Then outer circle, then inner circle, then the central parklike area that contains the ever-beautiful, ever-deadly Orb and the ultraconcentrated shields of magic that can only contain a fraction of its power.

Any better?

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

Uhmm... hold on. We need to figure something out. Sizes and geography.

I'm picturing the Ximaxian Plateau being a few leagues in total size, well farmed and settled outside the stral or two that is Ximax.

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

First were the buildings preceding the academy, and the settlement grew up around them, and so they grew together.

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

Vay I've got Xaramon figured, it was all mountain at one time, but over the years the Orb fixed that. A wizard is drawn by the Orb, casts a fire spell at some point...

Foom. The massive explosion leaves a fair-sized crater.

Another couple decades pass, but this time a wizard casts a wind spell too close.

Bye bye, those few mountains...

And so on, and so on, with earth mages averaging the thing out, but in the end: Right now, the establishment of Ximax (Which I've just finished; check places) is that it's at the center of the Ximaxian Plateau, the long stretch of flat land in the middle of the mountains that surround it.

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

Alright. Critical thing to remember: The Eleven Towers started off as the Eleven Wards. At the Founding, eleven (??? This subject to change soon, I suspect...) wards were put down to try to suppress the magical power of the Orb, and absorb what couldn't be suppressed. The Academy isn't constructed for outer defense, it's purpose is defending the rest of the Xaramon Peninsula from being scoured by fire every time somebody casts a light spell. That said, the layout of Ximax has the Magical Academy at somewhere near its center. Allow me to demonstrate.

M=Outer City
|=City Walls
C=Inner City
X=Academy-dependent structures (Sub-schools, various practice grounds, etc.)
0=Actual Academy.

Not doing this spherically; assume this is a radius of the city.

MMMMMMMM |||CCCCCC XX  0  XX CCCCCC||| MMMMMMMM

Ximax is at the center of the Xaramon Peninsula, and thus attack can come from any direction. The City Walls were built long before, and the Outer City sprang up beyond them out of sheer necessity. Anyhoo, the Academy cannot be constructed to defend in any one direction; attack could come from any side, and in fact did. (Fall of 733. Dark Elves laid seige to the city. And won.)

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

*pfoof*
Yo!

Ahh, good, somebody finally came up with a better name for the Guard Tower. Really, it was the main Tower, intended to house the main library of Ximax. Records Tower...

Green Tower-Garden Tower: Sounds great. Works just fine.

Hold on, I'm being called away. I will return!

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

*delurks*

I propose what I proposed all along. I come up with a vast load of information that is butchered, refined, and added on to as nessecary. Like I said, good ideas are built off of bad ones, and I've got plenty stored up.

Xarl Bluestride, Archmage of the White Tower, Elder of the Magic Forum, Master of RP Sorcery and generally cool guy. All requests are to be written on the back of a ten-dollar bill (or equivelant thereof) placed on a gilded hemmhoroid, and tossed in the sewer system.
Xarl Bluestride
Owner of the longest pure text sig in Santharia.
Xarlian Quote Of The Moment
When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons. And make super-lemons.
No Longer Master of the Magic Forum, but still basically dominate the place. All bribes to xarl@santharia.com

Huh. That actually sounds good, though. They pay their taxes anyway, might as well get some security out of it. Relatively decent system...

@Rayne: There's a reason all the old prophets needed cooperative editors. Voices in the wilderness often forget which mushrooms do what. Ximan and the Circle might have been open-minded and peaceful, but that damned Reality had to kick in at some point. (Partially the reason I like the idea of the Dwarves getting in on the action, and the reason the first tavern in the proto-city was built like a fortress. If I remember the Bard correctly, dwarves didn't delve into magical theory. They stuck to spells that worked/they wanted to work and ways to strengthen them. They brought a certain reality to magic that Ximax otherwise lacks.)

History lesson: The Dark Elves attack Ximax quite nastily, and with the aid of a particularly sharp Black Archmagus' theft of both the High Staff and his own from the Ximaxian defenses, they succeed in beseiging the city and eventually crushing all of its defenders by turning their own strategy against them. It's brilliance, really... kudos to whoever came up with the idea. The Ximaxians decided to lure the Dark Elves onto the floodplains so they'd get washed away. The Dark Elves under Moh'nul saw the strategy coming and gave the seasonal waters a little shove as the Ximaxian feint came.
(Oh yeah. And the fact the Red Archmagus rendered himself and the upper few levels of his Tower extra crispy trying to weild a spell of the Chosen against the Dark Elves didn't help the Ximaxians either.)

100 years later, Xarl shows up along with Khaelvan, he meets up with the surviving Volkek-Oshra who are all that live in the city nowadays, with their help he locates the remnants of the Unghur clan (the Ximaxian dwarves) and the descendants of the humans who fled the area, eventually Khaelvan sends word to his elven buddies that Ximax is being rebuilt, they show up, and the Refounding occurs; at Khaelvan and Xarl's insistence, the school decides to never ever ever ever risk the catastrophic loss of knowledge that occured in the Fall and remain neutral. Xarl leaves, Khaelvan becomes the first Archmagus of the Ximaxian Institute of Magic, yippitee skippitee, hoorah hoorah. It retains this stance until SWIII, for obvious reasons.

The Volkek-Oshra we can probably explain away with (Oooh! Tie-in!) the very design of their tower. They're recluses by nature, ergo the fact they have half a Tower and some fairly extensive catacombs beneath them to themselves. They were then, will be, and are at any given point in the history of Ximax an extreme minority. Seriously. There's about 1000 of them max.

A few elves, at least, would have helped in the Founding. You don't run the risk of humans botching a spell to contain the Orb of Ximax, oh no. I see the Yellow Tower having a skeleton crew of Elves, ten or twenty tops, just to make sure that at no point the lesser races screw the thing up...

There's some unity to be found in a common enemy, and the Orb provides at least two or three of the standard traits of one.