Introduction

The Omega Tower is a place that is clearly past the prime of its life, yet there remains a deep core of power that still has far reaching effects upon the continent of Danukoria. The men, women and Yiwaereen who inhabit what is left of the once copious living spaces are forever touched and some say they are controlled by it throughout their lives. In the same way that the coals of a great bonfire will still burn your hand long after the fire has died out, the Tower and all that it represents will leave its mark wherever and whenever it chooses.

Standing on the old border of Wharcer and Yadrios at the southern tip of the Zyvurge mountain range, it now houses the remnants of the once mighty Jophaidian Guard. It also happens to be the last standing of a string of 24 tower keeps that once protected and watched over the border. These tower keeps were the result of one of the most surprising treaties that had ever been signed. As the rulers of Wharcer and Yadrios met on the battle field for what would prove to be the last time as blood enemies, they agreed that the peoples of both lands would continue to fight their age-old foes until the ends of time unless something extraordinary was done. They then decided that a series of watch towers would guard the border to protect what was to be a very fragile, and sometimes bloody peace. While this in and of itself was not so extraordinary, who they chose to man the towers were. Choosing the best of each country’s war heroes and military generals, they crafted a new force of fighting men whose only allegiance was to the border, and the treaties that governed it. These men became the core of what was to become the Jophaidian Guard.

The trade that came and went over the border caused the keeps in most places to become centers of learning and commerce. The leaders of the guardsmen came to realize that if their core goal was to protect the border and the people who now lived there, they would have to include the best minds of the tradesmen, artisans, scholars and, with not a few doubts, representatives of the Yiwaer Council. It was at this time during the Annual Meeting of the border guard that the Jophaidian Guard was officially created, and its future destiny was shaped. The leaders realized that knowledge and skill were just as important as raw military power to maintaining the fragile beginnings of a real and lasting peace.

As centuries passed, the Jophaidian Guard worked almost too well. With pressures from the Northern territories threatening both Wharcer and Yadrios, and the somewhat embarrassing romance between the young prince of Yadrios and his future wife, the adopted daughter of the Regent of Wharcer, the people of both regions actually managed to put aside their few remaining differences and together fought off the ever-hopeful Northern tribesmen. So, after nearly four hundred years under the watchful eye of the Jophaidian Guard, the two separate countries became one, just as their two newlywed future rulers sealed their own wedding vows.

The fledgling country took its new name from the majestic mountains that had once separated them and thus was Zyvurge born. Like most births, it had its birthing struggles and the wars against the Northern tribesmen would never actually be fought to any permanent conclusion. Since strife and all that goes with it moved to the North, and since the border between Wharcer and Yadrios was dissolved with a single pen stroke, the Jophaidian Guard became obsolete overnight.

Several centuries have since passed, and although the Northern wars continue as a string of never-ending battles, the Border Towers have fallen. All but one. This one was the last built of the 24 Border Towers, and it became the best maintained. Located just outside of Jophaid, the once small village that has become a major center of trade and scholarship, it has definitely seen better days. Several of the out buildings are now just walls surrounding grass practice fields, and some people have said that the tower moans in its sleep as if it were fighting for its last breath. The remnants of the Jophaidian Guard still live here in the place where their very precepts and statutes were written, but they are now an elite force of military skill and a house of higher learning. Many members of the royal houses have private guards and secretaries who got their skills and learning here.