The Black Tower

It is unknown who crafted the Black Tower, its once magnificent form now a broken and shattered husk of its former self. Made of black granite, jet and obsidian, augmented by bones, blood and flesh the Black Tower stands as a bleak, grisly structure of ancient, archaic form upon a landscape of death and ruin. It is known that the tower predates the First Void Invasion, for it was when the great portal was destroyed that the power released shattered the Black Tower into what it is today.

Catacombs and an ancient city of unknown origin lie beneath the tower, yet the bones left there remain uncalled, for it seems that the creatures laid to rest there have been able to resist the call of necromancy since their deaths. Every Master of the Tower has tried to work their magics to call these unknown creatures from their graves, all to no avail, not able to even animate a single bone.

Discovery:
The first humans to discover the tower were a nomadic people from the north, driven south by enemies and rivals. They were a small group of hunters and gatherers led by a shaman of little note. However, as they grew closer to the tower's site, the shaman's dreams became laced with the darkness suffusing the tower. Desedus, the Void god of death and undeath called to the weak mortal, and led him and his people to the tower's gates. The ruins around the tower became a home to this tribe as their shaman entered the tower, vanishing for nearly a month before returning. He came back a thing of pale, gaunt skin, emanating decay.

His people became both subjects to his experiments and members of the first Black Cabal, a society of necromancers, shadowcasters, dark clerics and warlocks, dedicated to the service and worship of Desedus.

In time, the cabal reached out, attacking other tribes nearby and raising their dead to fight against the living, dragging more down. Shaman and magical adepts were captured and converted to Desedus, enhancing the black robe's living strength and adding the dead to a growing mausoleum, being carved below to house the Black Tower's defenses. When death came to members of the living Cabal they were raised again by the master of the tower as liches, to continue their eternal work.

Half a millennia into their conquests, the black robes were attacked by many united tribes who had banded together to face the undead menace. Though the fighting was fierce, especially at the gates of the Black Tower itself, the cabal was destroyed, its power broken and shattered. The first shaman was killed, and his body and phylactery destroyed by clerics of Ordanus, along with many other liches. One managed to flee to the hidden catacombs and tomb city below the tower, however and once the threat had moved on, reemerged to start the eternal work anew.

Now ruled by the Grand Lich Ecaden the Lightreaper the Black Tower has become a meeting place for the most powerful necromancers on the Ordainian Continent.

Use:
The Black Tower is a magical focal point for the Shadow-Weave as well as the Plane of Death. While most other magical towers of Aggal are sentient, the Black Tower is not. Attunement to the tower requires the permanent death of the previous Master at the hands of the new supplicant or the first one to hear the call of Desedus while in the tower when no other Master exists.

A Master of the Tower is automatically considered a Chosen of Desedus and is given all power that comes with such a prestigious title. The attunement to the tower grants a massive boost of magical and necromantic power, allowing a single individual to control vast amounts of corpses. Even Archliches can be dominated by the power and influence of the Master of the Black Tower.

The Tower also corrupts and blights the land and water surrounding it to a degree such that living creatures that set foot within the zone of decay begin to feel necrotic effects. Life energy leaches from their bodies, fatigue sets in and souls begin churn within their vessels at the call of the tower.