the onyx tower is one of the oldest surviving buildings in stygia and to talk about the
onyx tower we will talk also a little bit about charon but he is not the focus of today's episode
i wanted to talk to you about the onyx tower hello everyone welcome to the table my name's nathaniel
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the onyx tower is the oldest building on stygia stygia is an island in the tempest it is also a
major western city for dead spirits to go to the onyx tower is the tallest building on the island
the tower was built on onyx point originally the tower served as a lighthouse and this was
to guide the new souls coming into stygia or the isle of sorrows and it was also a warning light
as lighthouses are to watch out for the rocks as time passed the tower was added to and it grew it
wasn't always the 18 story monstrosity that it is now from the outside the tower is very plain
looking it is black it is silver and it goes up into it goes up into the sky and of course there's
the soul fire guiding light that is the light for the lighthouse now inside the tower there is a
spiral staircase that goes all the way up as you go up there is a door that denotes each new floor
and there is a special arcanos on each door an arcanos is a spiritual ability these can be
learned the higher level they are the more difficult they are obviously to learn
the 16th floor is a little bit different it is a large open room and it is a basically a mechanical
model or some sort of machine that's in there it moves around like a solar system model but it's
not of the solar system it's designed to show the nature of things and the relationship of things
between the different death lords or the guilds however only the trained eye will be able to
decipher any of it the 17th floor is rather plain there is a large stone table in the center of it
there is some chairs around the table also made out of stone that's about it the table and what
it was actually used for its original purpose has been lost over time nobody really knows
it's presumed that there was some sacrifice made on the table at some point since there are some
grooves on the table but nobody really knows after charon's disappearance the death lords have used
it as their forum hall now the 18th floor is also slightly different this is where charon's throne
is it is made of the same black material as the tower and there are windows all around the top
the throne sits on a dice that can spin and so charon could actually look out at any point of the
island and see what was happening or look at what was happening or just get a nice view the floor
also contains the eight sigils of the legions of the hierarchy there are some markings on the outer
side of the eight sigils those contain more sigils sixteen in fact these would be the 16 sigils
of the guilds now if someone was to look at that in today's version of the onyx tower you would
find that three of those sigils have been smashed away as if somebody's taken a hammer to them and
removed them from this this floor marking but around the base of this tower there is a
very active marketplace many spirits many rates will come and set up shop and do business at the
base of this tower although the tower has been locked for a very long time it's been locked
essentially since charon went to go fight karul but the lighthouse portion you can get into and
it still serves as a beacon for wayward wraiths try to save that five times fast wayward wraiths
wayward wraiths wayward wraiths wayward wraiths raywood wraiths that's five yeah Ha Ha Ha the onyx
tower is such a landmark and such a important piece of what stygia is and who stygia is that
they're often tied together when you think of stygia you think of the onyx tower it is a shining
and somewhat ominous monolith it towers over the deathlord citadels it towers over everything and
the lighthouse beacon is so powerful that it can be seen from the very edges of the sea of shadows
stygia has survived several great maelstroms they have done their damage and left their mark on the
city but it has always remained and always rebuilt the onyx tower is no exception to this there are
some rumors that surround this tower as well that it was built on pieces of the original lighthouse
from alexandria and every so often its light will pierce the shroud and help wayward sailors
find their way home coming out of the tower there is a single road that goes basically across the
entire island it is called the road of lords it used to be a very difficult road to travel
but over the millennia the dead have made it a little more easy to travel on instead of being
sharp up and down slopes they've made tunnels and smoothed out rough areas so it's gone through its
own transitionary period as well for a while there was some residential communities around the onyx
tower and when i say a while i mean like through most of history there were some residential areas
some businesses that didn't want to be harassed by the patrols that came up and down the road
of lords but it wasn't until the 20th century when charon ordered that the area around the onyx tower
called the iron hills now belonged to the onyx tower it was now part of his territory part of his
property charon used the area to house new spirits that were coming into stygia because they had
nowhere else to go when you have an island that doesn't grow over incalculable amounts of time
you run into a bit of a population problem more spirits come less places for them to
go and with the mass eviction that he did if it makes you feel any better about the guy he did
fairly compensate the the wraiths for their abodes for their homes their areas and places of business
he overcompensated them for it in terms of monetary and items and things but he still
kicked them out now while there have been many storms that have come out of the tempest not all
of them have been a great maelstrom however the first storm that was big enough to earn that title
also had it happen during a time of war stygia had been given warning that a maelstrom was coming
or a big storm was coming they decided instead of preparing for the storm they decided to get
ready for war and charon was not here to direct his forces he was off fighting on a different
battlefield trying to stop the forces of oblivion from coming through after the storm had ravaged
stygia and destroyed it leveled the city basically it destroyed everything almost everything the
specters that were fighting the city came in on the heels of the storm and whatever the
storm didn't take care of the specters did they raised the city and they ransacked the onyx tower
charon's home now as charon and his forces returned to stygia they drove out the specters
and were able to reclaim the city it took several decades to do but they were able to rebuild
stygia back to what it was that doesn't mean that there wasn't storms that happened
again that sort of delayed their building process but stigia was rebuilt and some of the horrors
that had also come out of this storm some of these creatures and they also caused a bit of problems
for the residents of stygia and for charon some of the wraiths who were displaced by this had really
lost their faith in charon and they set up encampments outside of stygia along the roads
and the pathways to get in and they would actually cause problems by tearing up the roads and
spreading rumors and malcontent with other spirits some of these wraiths even pierced the veil
going into the skin lands and presenting themselves to mortals as demons demanding
sacrifice it took a few centuries but that was how long it took charon and his armies to destroy
all of the problems and all of the creatures that had come out of that first mail storm and solve
the problems of all these other wraiths that had been not listening to him in the brief time of
peace that followed the onyx tower was rebuilt the outcome that that first maelstrom had in
the skinlands also provided stygia with a vast new array of new souls these souls were worked
to near death and when they were approaching their death event they were instead crafted into items
that charon used to further his own purposes in the onyx tower forges the onyx tower was raided
again for a second time after the city of stygia had been rebuilt the race of that period or the
race of those times they sort of grouped together and formed guilds they were societies modeled
on trades of the living charon took credit for the formation of the guilds and that will come
into play later he also formed a group called the hierarchy which he himself was on top of with his
death lords underneath him the hierarchy demanded that the guilds work for stygia and for charon for
free they didn't really appreciate this and the guilds revolted one particular guild of note in
this revolt was called the fishers the archbishop of the fishers which was the largest guild
in stygia they had the largest taxes levied on them and they were not too pleased about it they
paid some lip service to charon and to the onyx tower and they went off into their own guild
hall and by guildhall i mean it was a temple it's called the fishers temple now the fishers also had
a private army of their own on top of being the biggest guild having their own private army that
charon did not control he saw them as a threat and rightly so or maybe self-fulfilling prophecy
he ordered their guard to be disbanded and then he increased the tithe that they had to pay to him
this did not sit well with the fishers the fishers at one point organized a massive insurrection and
they tried to take the onyx tower unfortunately the fishers were betrayed from somebody within
one of their own members did not feel that this war against or this attack against charon and
the onyx tower was justified and they gave the onyx tower and the death lords an advanced notice
needless to say the assault on the onyx tower did not succeed that's when charon took his arms
to the fishers temple and found that they had been holding reserves of gold and items and weapons and
things that they had been saying that they were going to give to him but never did so he took all
of it he also took the rebels to the lighthouse and basically lit them on fire for seven days
this is how you make an example of someone who's trying to be treasonous to you i suppose
if you're a horrible person but that's not the end of the tower raids no no in the 16th century the
onyx tower was again raided by renegade spirits stygia was stormed by renegades charon and his
knights were there to meet the assault but with the city being in panic the assailants were able
to use that confusion and they were able to get into the onyx tower and they raided it they took
everything that they could from charon and from the onyx tower one of the things that they took
was this spear of longinus or as it's otherwise known the spear of destiny this was the spear
that was rumored to have pierced jesus side when he was when he was dead they were checking
now the knights were able to get back some artifacts but not everything
they did drive the attackers back but there was some significant loss of life for the personal
guard or the royal guard of charon charon lives in the onyx tower and has guided stygia throughout
the centuries as the skin lands changed as society progressed and advanced he was able to watch them
and take his cues and develop and change stygia in the same way that the skin lands was changing
and he's done this several times throughout history the industrial revolution was one of them
the age of exploration was another one that's when the english were exploring and finding
that there was new lands that they could conquer although there was already people living on them
each time he's done this has been to advance his population so that they can be kind of the best in
death i suppose charon has enemies unsurprisingly and he wants to make sure that he is better than
his enemies and there's been some decrees and changes that he has implemented to try to set
himself above them now the last thing to know about a wraith and the importance of the onyx
tower did you know that a wraith when it sleeps still dreams they dream in extreme passion they
dream in extreme emotion and sometimes these dreams are guided by its shadow they often
dream in scenes that they experienced in life they can also see and dream experiences that someone
else had as long as they're somewhat in the close vicinity there are wraiths that try to sleep near
the onyx tower in hopes that they will see a dream or get some sort of experience of some important
dignitary or some important other person who is living near the tower to what end are they looking
to experience these dreams who knows maybe some just want to experience life again maybe they want
to glean some insight into the future and some view it as something holy something to be revered
that they could get an image or get a memory of charon so what did you think of the onyx tower did
i miss anything of significance i know i did gloss over a little bit of the history and some of the
maelstroms i do plan to cover those in a different video i would like to thank my patrons autumn
alchemist orbs mcmellons rrsbq ducky vox caneroot war pony get of math rocks ba bravo a root fin
the first layer bones malone westheimer and ain't no waifu thank you for your continued support
if you would like to learn more about stygia and wraith the oblivion i have a playlist for you on
the screen now my name's nathaniel this has been the maple table thanks for stopping by everyone