Tower Madness

March 30, 2026

The study of magic is fraught with perils - but wisdom, caution, and a reliable friend to steer you away from poor decisions are often enough to keep a practitioner from the more catastrophic outcomes. The aged wizard with a map of the world on their face is a testament to those resources and their application. By mundanely growing old she says to the world, "I have danced with the devils above and below, weighed and measured them, and seized what amount I may." There are a great many young hedge mages and illusionists. These upstarts inspire none of the reverence that those archons do, because they have yet to be truly tempted.

What occurs, then, when one of these would-be wielders of great power lack in these safeguards? To overfill the reservoir of a mortal body is to have it burst at the seams, and that bursting is the genesis of Tower Madness.

Tower Madness is degenerative, and the rate of degeneration accelerates as more and more magical knowledge is acquired. Sadly, the more a wizard constructs their tower, the more they establish their sanctum and the workshops within it, the faster they accumulate magical knowledge. And the Madness takes deeper root within them.

One might stumble upon a man or woman, of approximately middle age, dirty and gaunt, stacking rings of stones deep in the woods. The onset of Tower Madness is a burst of manic activity, where the foundation of the tower is laid by hand. At the end of this mania, the mage typically collapses of exhaustion, and awakens within the walls of what becomes their mental prison, a fixation that will only end upon their death.

Mental fortitude delays the degeneration of Tower Madness, but it can never be stopped. Physical endurance seems to play a role as well, with younger and more able-bodied mages able to withstand the madness for longer and even remain within and near civilization for many years while their spire grows. And the spire grows prodigiously. Excepting the foundation, magic is employed to increase the tower's mass and complexity.

Eventually though, all wizards and all towers fall. Sometimes evil festers in the soul; in others, memory abandons them, at first sporadically, eventually entirely. Some transform themselves, or mutilate themselves, or find elaborate ways to inter themselves forever in the structure.

And then, on bright summer days when the air is clear and the morning fog has burned away, standing on the shore, one can make out the silhouette of the Spire that Pierces the Heavens and its summit that has never been seen.