Fibre Tower

This great conduit once transferred data at impossible speeds between the lower and upper levels of the City. Now few of the ancient computers ever see use, and the upper realms are abandoned. House Arkentek has moved into the tower, and their cabal of tech-sorcerers have been working ceaselessly to reveal its secrets. Power has been restored to the tower for a long time, and rumor has it the maintenance frameworks that the Arkenteks live in have one or two working calorie nodes.

The residents of the Tower are mostly scientists or their servants. They have few natural resources and import a great deal of food, but the fabulous wealth they've accumulated by selling the arcane knowledge they've gleaned from the conduits allows them to pay for whatever they need. The Tower's sorcerers wander the mapped City, seeking to repair its data systems, and occasionally venture out into the unknown to salvage materials.

During the Great Interregnum an attack by a Djevak agent, more horribly successful than ever planned, led to a massive chemical fire in Fibre Tower. The Tower as it was has been destroyed, and its surviving inhabitants displaced. The future of the province and its people seems uncertain. However, due to the clever machinations of Lord Chiron Medus, Fibre Tower successfully maintained its independence from the expansionism of Houses Djevak and Kendar, and spent the next sixty years returning itself to its former glory. Now, under House Medus, Fibre Tower once again rivals the other regions of the Realm for power.

## Noble Houses

### House Arkentek

The Arkenteks of Fibre Tower commanded great influence through their knowledge of the arcane technologica of the ancient memory cores. They spent the last four hundred years slowly repairing the datanets of the central City, and finally began to reap great benefits. However, with the center of their fief destroyed and most of their assets lost, their rise to dominance faced severe obstacles, and was swiftly and abruptly cut short by the intervention of House Djevak. Extinct due to the assassination of Avitus Arkentek during the Great Interregnum.

### House Medus

Renowned for their inventiveness, House Medus specializes in developing new sorceries from combinations of old ones. Under Lord Chiron Medus, House Medus successfully maneuvered to replace House Arkentek as the supreme house of Fibre Tower during the Great Interregnum. Currently ruled by Lord Viridian Medus.

### House Venger

Considered the ‘thugs’ of Fibre Tower by the other Houses, the sorcerers of House Venger were less concerned with innovation and theory and more concerned with weapons and combat. House Venger was seemingly wiped out during the destruction of Fibre Tower, until Jen Venger, formerly married to the late Pontius Arkentek, was discovered to have survived in the custody of House Djevak. Currently ruled by Lady Trisha Venger.

### House Dedalus

Experts on magical theory and tech reclamation, House Dedalus was always wary of experimenting with new uses of technology, and preferred to search for and replicate the original applications. Currently ruled by Lord Makar Dedalus.

## Other institutions

### The Medical Cabal

For many centuries, medicine in the Realm has been controlled by a shadowy organization called the Medical Cabal. Cabal-approved doctors are skilled, reliable, and discreet, meaning that few Noble Houses would trust any other physician. However, during the Great Interregnum, the Tower Fire killed many of the Cabal's doctors and nearly all of their administrators, crippling the cultish organization so much that they fell out of the spotlight completely. A service once taken completely for granted by the Great Families - competent medical assistance - was now nearly impossible to acquire. The Houses compensated by developing their own medical staffs, though few outside Hab Spire Rise rival the competence of the Cabal's doctors. However, the Cabal is now poised to make a resurgence. Led by Yua Kleeb, a commoner recruited into the dwindling Cabal a few decades ago, they have been working hard to rebuild the technologies and infrastructure lost to the actions of Zvarak and House Djevak, and have recently announced they plan to begin graduating more physicians. Now all that remains is to regain the trust of their former clients: the most powerful people in the Realm.

### Sorcerors

Sorcery is the ancient tradition, rooted mainly in Fibre Tower, of practicing wondrous scientific arts. The Sorcerors are secretive and preserve their knowledge carefully. They are divided among eight schools that specialize in particular fields of technology. For example, Neuricians specialize in computing, Albyanites specialize in the Datalink, Decliners specialize in talking about the weather, High Chemists specialize in getting high using chemistry, and Synaptists specialize in electricity and cellular energy. Essentialists specialize in not specializing and just cover the boring basic science that upholds the other schools.