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

=War of the Colleges=
Interestingly enough, the history of the Ebony Tower continued past the terrible end of Benalor and into the Empire of For'Channar. During the early formation of the Empire, old mages of the Vashialian tradition and even surviving Shapers from the former Benalor who survived the '''Three-Way War''' and the end of their own nation were integrated into the new government, soon forming magical Colleges of their own. These Colleges were not structured and regulated like that of the Benaloran College of Shapers, and were certainly more politically motivated. With the ascension of '''Margurim II''' to the throne came the founding of the Imperial University. By the new Emperor's decree, the various Colleges of magic established in the Empire and its bounds would be evaluated by the Chancellor for inclusion into the University as officially sanctioned forms of magic, to become Departments under the new '''College of Magical Arts'''. Unsurprisingly, this move infuriated those who practiced some of the more dubious traditions, including the '''Fleshmages''' of the ethnic Vashialians. Many of these mages rescinded their Imperial citizenship and headed elsewhere to continue their studies. Given the shambled and dangerous state of Vashial, many relocated to the subterranean halls of the Ebony Tower's ruins.

The Emperor would not stand for such subordination and would send a battalion of the newly-minted Battlemages to the ruins to rout out the detractors. A painter, mage, and intellectual who moved out to the ruins would be the first to hear of the plot. '''Guyle Bezier''' was a jack of all trades to many, and certainly an eccentric to go along with it. He pioneered the mentally intensive art of '''Mnemonics''', which used mana like a paintbrush, transcribing the artist's thoughts and emotions onto a magically-reactive surface. It was not this for which he made the exodus to the Tower's ruins, but rather his intellectual outrage at the Empire's policy on cherry-picking the magic which can be used there. Being the renaissance man he was, Bezier also possessed a silver tongue, rallying many of the other mages there with an eloquent, impassioned speech about the Empire's oppression upon free thought and free expression. The Battlemages were met with resistance once they got to the ruins, but the brief "War of the Colleges" was handily won by the Battlemages' discipline as well as their strategy. Bezier would be among those who would surrender, brought back to Tabula Gloria in chains, living the rest of his days in prison.