The Tower of Asha

The tower could be heard before it could be seen. A deep, echoing hrmmmmmmmm that flowed over the rolling hills. The men looked at each other uneasily; Lily let out a laugh.
"It's just Asha calling her children, kids. Don't be worried." She had a skip in her step as she walked. This was a deeply familiar sound, one that reminded the adventurer of home and hearth.
Mellitus raised an eyebrow. "The district itself is part of a local myth?"
"The tower is most definitely not a myth." The woman spun around. "This is a frontier district. We've done things differently than from the rest of Etoile, even before there was an Etoile. You'll see what I mean once we go over the next bend."
Duboc let out a low whistle. "You don't see things like that every day." The road before the group had a sharp dip into a valley floor, and at the bottom of the valley was a massive stone tower; flared out into a pyramid at its base, rising at least three hundred feet from the earth, weathered and beaten but standing as though it would never fall.
hrmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Lily pointed near the top of the tower. A section was open to the sky, allowing the wind to flow through the tower. Some strangely carved stones were in the window gap, and on one side of the tower, water was flowing out of the side of the tower, cascading down the stonework and into a trench at the base.
"When the wind rises, Asha calls the people to return and reap the reward of the soil." She gestured to the rest of the valley, a patchwork of small farms and landsteads. "Not that the farmers here leave in the meantime, but this is how we keep some of the old ways alive."

Purpose / Function

The Tower of Asha is a remarkable monument, with origins forgotten to time. By local mythology, the sound emitted by the tower is a signal to the people of the Asha Valley to return to their homes and harvest. The tower itself holds more mysteries: the harmonic stonework responsible for the deep sound has yet to be replicated by modern technology, and even more mysterious is the way the wind somehow pumps water from deep under the valley floor to the top of the tower, allowing the Tower of Asha to guarantee a bountiful harvest even in a district known for drought.

Architecture

The Tower of Asha is made of stone in a style currently seen as unidentified; the tower predates written history and all known architectural styles. Even if it was identifiable, the age of the tower and the weathering over the centuries would have worn away any artifice or decorative stonework to dust.

History

The Tower of Asha has, as far as anyone knows, always been at the bottom of the Asha Valley, in what later became known as Asha District. Much of the rest of the district is subject to dust storms and is unfavorable for agriculture, but the Tower of Asha serves as a deep, somehow wind-powered well, drawing from an aquifer that no normal well has been able to breach and pouring water into a maze of stonework. Farmers in the area have always grown in accordance to the Tower; during planting and growing season, the Tower ejects massive quantities of water as the wind picks up sharply. As the wind dies down for harvest, the Tower emits its signature tone and the water slows to a trickle before the season ends.
The local community maintains the position of 'Tower Keeper' in honor of the monument that gives the valley life, with annual festivals, but the position is mostly ceremonial; the Keeper doesn't know much more about the Tower of Asha than anyone else in the valley, and the Tower doesn't need much in the way of upkeep or maintenance.
Researchers from the Capital have maintained a significant interest in the Tower as the oldest non-natural construction on Saibh, but when Asha Valley was conquered by the First Princeps, the locals extracted from him a promise to leave the Tower be, a policy his successors have kept over the years.

Type

Tower

Parent Location

Saibh

Owning Organization

Principality of Etoile