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Tower of Nine

first quote by Sparrowhawk, the rest by Darloth

"Remind me please, why did I take this job?"
- Master Drago, Senior Officer of the Tower of Nine's "Group A."

"Zzzzzzzz... Owwww!"
- Southward Flying Crane, new student learning that 'discipline' in the Tower does not consist of sleeping through instruction, and is often painful.

Under Construction - I like taking notes while writing

The Tower of Nine is one of the most successful mercenary companies in Nexus, and this can be shown by the sheer volume of contracts, both large and small, that flow into it's imposing headquarters in the Cinnabar district every day. However, the origin of the Tower is less well known, although just as impressive. However, anyone actually asking one of the upper echelons of the Tower or digging around in it's archives will find this most interesting story:

9 warriors or at least adventurer heroes.

At least one scavenger lord - Kinian Seven Eyes

At least one thaumaturge (probably minor sorceress) - Ivory Wind

At least one master thief - Spirit

Ranthar the Strong - northern tribesman turned adventurer

generally, adventurers

betrayed somehow, still need to work out details - who, and more importantly why.

They all died back... sometime certainly before the release of celestial soulshards (because I suspect that many would have been candidates for solar exaltation), and the massive collection of hirelings, underlings, friends and hangers-on that accompanied them took back their bodies, and entombed them all in the Tower. Even now, on the highest floor of the building, their 9 sarcophagi look out over the city of Nexus (thus giving the tower it's rather odd name) and see the organisation that has been made in their memory.

the mob followed their teachings (etc) sounds a little bit too... **waves hands undecidedly** religious, so their ways perhaps. Something like that. Anyway, they realised that although their leaders were gone, they could get new leaders, and if they continued doing what they were doing in the organised, effective and dedicated way they had been doing it, they could get really really good at it. And so they did.

Organizationally speaking, the Tower is both highly advanced and rather simplistic. On a small-scale level, units are split into increasingly fine sections, and the Tower makes use of advanced and sensible military grouping to increase force effectiveness while requiring less troops.
However, on a larger scale, the Tower is not organised in any meaningful fashion. Instead, individual commanders command a Group, designated by letter. These groups are ranked approximately depending on how skilled their memebers are, and what sort of jobs they tend to accept. Group A, for example, has a reputation for taking on the hardest, strangest, and all togeather most complicated jobs that the Tower recieves. Group D specialises in bodyguarding, wheras Group F is known to contain some of the best tacticians in and around Nexus, and thus often takes jobs involving medium sized groups of troops repelling barbarians or other hired-army type jobs.

The Tower also trains people to increase their numbers, taking in any vaguely skilled youth that wants to prove themselves, or old and over-the-hill mercenaries or soldiers who could be of use training the unskilled. However, they do not retain the services of all that they retain, and most people will leave the tower after only a year or two of service to pay off the training. The rich can even 'buy' martial training at or (for a higher cost) from the tower, for whatever purposes they desire, although both of these options are rather expensive. A fair amount of funding for the Tower's operations is belived to come from here, although the main amount is still generated through contracts. Finally, both to increase their numbers and as a 'service' to the city (although many do not see it that way, considering the Tower's ever-growing influence in various circles) the tower takes in orphans, the homeless, and the outcaste. 90% of these are either thrown out again a few weeks later, or never seen again.

Rumours:

• Some say that the Nine still aid their followers, returning from the other side to give council, or even forming a ghost-only secret high council of their own to decide what the Tower does or does not do.
• Apparently one of the current Tower leaders is a mortal scion of the Realm, seeking to emulate the House of Bells, and prove that the dragon-blooded are unnecessary. If this is true, the dragon-blooded will most likely try all they can do to undermine the success of the Tower.
• According to the deepest, darkest rumour-mongers, the tower does... other... things, with a good number of those it takes in. Instead of being trained, these are used in dark rituals below the foundations of the tower, rituals that appease the Council of Entities and ensure that the Tower remains successful and accepted. This is why (according to some) many of the children taken in are never seen again. Interestingly enough, people spouting this particular rumour often disappear a few nights later, although most people believe that's what you get for forwarding rumours involving the Council of Entities.

Sparrowhawk called dibs on this unwritten link on 11/22, at 10:28 PM (US Central time) Darloth begun writing it on 12/08 at 6:57 PM, (GMT)

Comments

We should put more entries for mercenary companies in Cinnabar, since that's supposedly where many mercenary companies have their headquarters. - Sparrowhawk

I have a (hopefully good) idea for this if you don't... Not trying to steal it, just telling you I can fill in something pretty interesting if you don't think you can.

Let me rephrase that... I'd -like- to do it unless you actively have an idea you'd prefer. Sorry. Realised the first one was actually not quite what I meant to mean.
-- Darloth

Oh, I'm not lacking for ideas. (Quite the opposite, in fact.) What I'm lacking is time. I wanted to finishDorsons Doorstep yesterday, and do this page today. But complications with school, and figuring out what I'll be doing next semester, have drained my creative energy. I think I'll let you have this one. There's plenty of other unwritten links that I can fill when I have the time -- Sparrowhawk

Okidoki -- Darloth

Woohoo! After checking, I have a completely free reign, none of the backlinks even suggest what it might be... (Thanks for noticing my lexicon error Quendalon, and if I've missed -another- one here I'd love to know, because this time I've checked).
-- Darloth has an epic tale to relate

Well, apart from it being a mercenary company, anyway. :) - Moxiane