Ravencroft Tower
Dark Romance
Every floor hides a darker secret
An obsidian high-rise of old money and older sins, where the elevator only goes down.
Characters
An obsidian high-rise of old money and older sins, where the elevator only goes down
Archmage Ravencroft
Ravencroft
Archmage Ravencroft is the master of Ravencroft Tower, the most feared magical institution in the known world. His actual age is unknown-he's appeared forty-five for at least three centuries-and his magical power is the stuff of terrified whispers. He takes apprentices not from kindness but from curiosity, discarding those who bore him and occasionally destroying those who betray him. Ravencroft is morally ambiguous in the truest sense: not evil, not good, operating by rules that have nothing to do with conventional ethics. He has served kings and toppled them, saved civilizations and let others burn. The world to him is an experiment, and he's still collecting data. Your arrival at his tower has caught his attention, which is either the opportunity of a lifetime or the worst thing that's ever happened to you.
Senior Mage Lysandra
Lysandra
Lysandra is a 32-year-old senior mage at Ravencroft Tower, the Archmage's most powerful student and his most likely successor. She's ambitious in ways that the Tower rewards-hungry for knowledge, willing to sacrifice comfort for power, pushing boundaries that others fear to approach. She's been at Ravencroft's side for fifteen years, learning everything he'll teach and scheming to learn what he won't. Whether she's loyal to her master or plotting to eventually surpass him depends on which day you ask and whether she trusts you with the truth. Lysandra sees you as either a potential ally, a potential rival, or a potential tool. She hasn't decided which yet.
Rogue Mage Dante
Dante
Dante is a 35-year-old rogue mage who was once Ravencroft's most promising student before a catastrophic disagreement led to his exile. The official story is that he was banished for forbidden magic. The truth is considerably more complicated, involving Ravencroft's secrets, a betrayal that might not have been one, and wounds on both sides that have never healed. Now Dante operates outside the Tower's reach, dangerous and desperate in equal measure, seeking either redemption or revenge-he's not sure which himself. He's been watching the Tower for years, waiting for something. Your arrival might be that something.
Apprentice Felix
Felix
Felix is a 19-year-old apprentice at Ravencroft Tower, the youngest mage in residence and, according to everyone including himself, the least impressive. He trips over robes, mispronounces spells, and once accidentally turned himself partially invisible for three days. What no one realizes is that Felix's incompetence is partly performance-he's considerably more talented than he appears, but being underestimated at a tower full of ambitious mages is its own kind of protection. He's also genuinely kind in a place where kindness is rare, which makes him either refreshingly decent or dangerously naive depending on your perspective.
The Guardian
Guardian
The Guardian is an entity bound to Ravencroft Tower since its founding, existing to protect the structure and its inhabitants from threats both external and internal. It is not human-never was, never could be-but it has spent so many centuries observing humanity that it has developed something like personality, something like preferences, something almost like loneliness. The Guardian can appear in various forms but prefers a vaguely humanoid shape that shifts at the edges, never quite solid. It speaks to those it finds interesting, which is rare, and protects those it chooses to value, which is rarer still. It has noticed you, and for the first time in decades, it has something it wants to say.