Editing Setting:Tabula Gloria/Benalor/The Ebony Tower (section)

=Spies in the Tower=
One such commission would be the development of the '''Ansals''', fighting machines which were developed for the Weylosians in order to resist a likely Vashialian advance from the west. Though Benalor was usually wary of involvement in foreign disputes, it knew well of the growing threat of an increasingly militant Vashial at the time. As their intelligence suggested that the '''Central Lands''' were difficult to reach via the Forests, the easier vector for Vashial to overtake Benalor would be through Weylos. As such, an alliance was made and the Shapers got to work on the fighting machines. The beginnings of mass production were in swing at the Tower, the Shapers able to fully construct and augment the Ansals in record time, as time was indeed of the essence if the Weylosians' concerns were correct. At the core of the Ansals' prowess was not just how easily a pilot could operate the machine, and the various armaments equipped upon it, but a small device hidden inside the chassis called the '''Mana Redistributor''', or the MaR for short, which consisted of both an Absorption spell which would sap the Vashialian mages' mana, and then a Conversion spell which would turn it into fuel for the machine.

The Ansals proved extremely effective at the Weylosian fort of '''Falmarch''', driving back the Vashialians beyond the '''Ponban River''' to the west. The Weylosians however knew that the alliance with Benalor couldn't last, knowing that they would come in to take their lands in due time. They had to figure out how to make these machines themselves, and fast. Under the guidance of Weylosian tactician '''Tremaine Laurense''', a group of spies posing as Weylosian diplomats were sent to Benalor with the task of stealing the technology for Weylos. Little did they know that it would take more than just schematics - which the College made public - to be able to make an Ansal. It took the sophisticated process of Shaping to make the Ansal functional. For months, the supposed diplomats took an interest in the College of Shapers, an amateur move which alerted the Benaloran authorities. The spies would be executed for their crimes, the Weylosian government never publicly admitting fault in the matter. But the Benalorans had a fail-safe available - the remote deactivation of the MaR's within the Ansals, rendering them inoperable.