Well, if you want my opinion, the true difference between a village and a town has nothing to do with walls or population, it is the presence of a Wizards Tower that truly lets you know that civilization has set up a permanent outpost someplace.— Jasper Cameron, Leader of the Bronze Ravens
Outside of the elves, dwarves, and the more nomadic races, It is largely accepted that the presence of a Wizard's Tower is the best indicator of how truly safe a given settlement is from the dangers our world presents. This is not to say that all wizards are all-powerful, far from it. However even someone who was only able to complete the first year at a Wizards College can provide massive boons to a town, ensuring it has the best chances of survival.
I would caution you against preconceptions that the term "Wizard's Tower" tends to bring to mind. Surely you were thinking of a large tower, probably made of stone with strange glowing lights and other obvious signs of magic towering over some hamlet. While this can, and often is, the case there are other forms that this can take. A church that houses a cleric, for instance. Really there are only 2 hard requirements and then a suggestion that most structures follow.
- The structure houses a magic caster. This could be a wizard, warlock, witch, sorcerer, cleric, or even druid (although unlikely, it has been known to happen)
- The structure in question be in the town or on its borders.
- The "suggested" trend that many but not all structures follow is that whatever is fulfilling the roll of Wizard's Tower is usually the tallest structure in the town. This has several advantages, but mostly, a lot of magic requires line of sight, and if you live in the tallest building you can see more. It has also been theorized that this helps in the casting of long range communication spells, for those few able to cast them.
Notable exceptions to this rule are a druid grove located on the outskirts of Twolilly, although one could argue that the Trees are in fact the tallest thing for miles, and the Hut of the hedge-witch Minerva, which wanders the lands around Sunrunk (believed by many to be one of the oldest settlements in the world, despite its relatively small size.)
Minerva, that old fox is still arou... OW! I mean that wonderful old wom.. SON OF A..! ...beautiful young lady I'm sure has many years left before Father Time even think about possibly visiting her. *stupid bloody witc....GODS DAMMIT!— Ishmael Tenebris, Lord of Thunder Dunes (alleged vampire)
Nice article :D I love that wizard's towers are kind of similar to churches in their importance and how they distinguish villages and towns. Are the wizards also very important people locally, similar to what a mayor or local noble would be? Or are they consider inferior to such people?
Wizards are usually similar in importance to the mayor or the local noble, yes. Really it depends on the situation, is magic involved, or will it make things easier, probably talk to the Wizard, is it an interpersonal problem, probably go to the local mayor. It also depends on the wizard though, if they are aloof they may abandon their assigned duties to study magical wizard things, others interact with the town and actually become part of the community.