Tower of Avadi
"Three bursts of white smoke, three of blue. I wouldn't be outdoors in an hour's time."The Tower of Avadi is a tower constructed atop the central ring of Avadi's Harbour, the main maritime access point of the city of Port Avadia. It serves as the maritime authority hub in the city, along with the primary signals tower for incoming sea traffic into and out of the port. In recent years it has also become a prominent communications hub throughout the city, using recently-discovered scientific techniques to communicate messages through an elaborate system of coloured smoke.
-A townsperson in Port Avadia, observing the smoke signal for an inbound storm from the Tower of Avadi.
Purpose / Function
The Tower has expanded its purpose over the years. When it was originally constructed in the third millennium DoM, it was built to meet Port Avadia's booming status as a frequent stop for fishing and trade vessels, and the need to guide vessels into its harbour by night. As history has marched on, new roles have been added to the tower, such as becoming the hub for all maritime operations in the harbour. When the larger brazier was added to the Tower, it also doubled as a sacrificial altar for prominent religious festivals, where burned offerings are given up to the goddess Avadi.
Most recently, the development of Avadian coloured smoke has allowed the Tower to become something of a communications hub for the city as a whole. By combining different colours of smoke from the main brazier, Avadians are able to send messages out to vessels, such as requesting them to stay in a holding pattern or to defend the harbour. As the smoke can be seen throughout the city, it has also become a way to send messages out to the entire population by varying the density, colour and frequency of smoke - everything from calling Assembly meetings to weather warnings.
Alterations
Throughout its history, the Tower of Avadi has undergone various renovations, going from a simple beacon tower to an all-purpose maritime command centre. The Tower is almost as ancient as the city of Port Avadia itself, having been set up on the islet that would one day become the central ring of the city's famed circular harbour. The original instance of the Tower was considerably smaller than it is today, instead being a simple five metre tall stack of limestone, upon which was built a single 'fireplace' of stacked wood and twigs.
The first major expansion to the tower took place in the 1200s DoM, during the formation of the Avadian Sovereignty and the consolidation of the Avadian tribe as the dominant power in the Beyan Archipelago. To commemorate this, the tower was completely revamped and its height increase tenfold, rising to fifty feet. The primary focus of this was the relocation of the signal fire to the new top floor, replacing the simple stone and wood fireplace with a wide, deep bronze brazier capable of producing a much larger - and therefore much more visible - fire.
After the hand-over of political power from the Sealord to the Avadian Assembly in 788 DoM, one of the earliest decisions of the Assembly was to further expand the Tower to include purpose-built observation points and offices for the port authorities and maritime controllers. These were added to the floors beneath the signal fire.
Small additions have been added over the centuries to the tower to further centralise operations, such as the customs and port taxation headquarters and even housing for a local priest of Avadi.
Architecture
In the present day, the tower is built in the same white-washed style of most Avadian buildings. Most of the tower is a simple hollow cylinder of stacked and sealed limestone, with windows cut into semi-circular arches. On the upper third of the tower, circular balcony rings extrude from the outside of the tower, serving as viewing points. At the top of the tower where the brazier is located, most of the walls are cut out to expose the brazier to the open air, allowing smoke and fire to be unobscured from view.
Each floor of the tower is connected by spiral staircases on the very edge of each floor. The inside of the tower floors tend to be somewhat unadorned, adopting a utilitarian approach save for necessary items for each floor's role (for example, tables and desks for maritime offices).
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