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The Five Towers:

The five towers control the principle operations of wizards within the realm.  Within Tharwain, at very least, it is difficult to practice any of the art without their leave.  Together, they represent perhaps the strongest cohesive force for unity left in the failing kingdom.  Despite this, the towers have suffered a shortage of pupils which have left taken to the much less restrictive climes of Caeluin.  This has reduced their numbers and their ability to field power independantly of Tharwain's armies.  Instead, they have turned to political means in order to maintain that power.  Their skill at manipulation ranges from bribes to blackmail to honest advice, and their interest does lie with the preservation of Tharwain's society, and even the restoration of its unity.

The towers enjoy an illustrious and long history.  The oldest of the towers was founded before the Dacadrin period.  Its founders had come from distant lands to set up a chapter of their guild, but events turned for the worse, and they were cut off from their brethren in the lands from which they came.  Making the best of the worst, they transformed into a power broker, a fickle ally determined to forge some semblance of stability on the now chaotic lands.  For many years, they retained a near monopoly on trained and educated wizards in the realm, giving them untold wealth and influence.  In later times, the first tower would be called by Noble Tower - the one that came before.  Its power has waned in recent years, and it is no longer foremost among the five.

Shortly before the Dacadrin invasion, a second tower was founded.  It was called the house of traitors by the first tower, but they dared not make war against the second tower, for they were sponsored by the Canthlin Nation, a powerful group situated along the eastern rim.  The second tower proved to be no less whimsical than the first, and quickly threw their support behind the marauding Dacadrin, which seemed to be on the verge of demolishing Canthlin.  With the loss of the second tower's support, Canthlin was quickly defeated.  The Dacadrin welcomed the second tower into their fold, and with its support behind their already massive armies, the rest of Tharwain quickly fell.  The first tower, begrudgingly, was forced to submit before the judgement of the Dacadrin lords, which deemed both towers as equals.  This judgement has forever remained, but for their history the second tower has never lost the title of "House of Traitors".

The Dacadrin eventually split into three groups; a seafaring nation that would form the foundation of Caeluin in the future, a southern kingdom that would wane into obscurity, and one situated over the future lands of Tharwain.  It was the Dacadrin that named the subcontinent Maridacan, but despite their goals they never consolidated even a fraction of the subcontinent into their fold.  By all accounts they tried, and met with nothing but harsh resistance.  The Dacadrin period was shortlived, but it saw the creation of a nation of Tharwain, a unified people that identified themselves under one banner.  As well, it is the calendar adopted by the Dacadrin that is in use to this day.  The only act relevent to the discussion at hand instigated by the Dacadrin after their rise to power was the creation of a third tower of wizards.  Displeased with the non-commital attitudes of the other two towers, but no so foolish as to suppress them by force, the Dacadrin created a state academy of wizardry to train their own wizards.  Despite sabotauge and blacklisting of those who took the sizeable wages offered to instructors, the academy flourished. 

In the end, the third tower outlived its creators.  The Dacadrin fell victim to civil war, and lest it be drawn into that same self-destructive spiril, the third tower opted to sever its links to them.  It found itself in good company with the other two towers, which wished to consolidate their own position and safety in this new and uncertain time.  The third tower was named the King's Agent, for this was its purpose in creation, and always it would find itself close to the one who ruled Tharwain.  However, its history was a darker one than its siblings.  Many of the wizards who studied within that tower were of lesser stock, rejected by the elder two, and eager to find some method of extending their power.  Before the banning of such techniques were ratified, the third tower specialized in "blood" magic, or magic which forgoes the preservation of the caster's body in order to increase its own capacity.  If used sparingly, injuries caused by such magic could heal.  If used irresponsibly, the caster could lose control and end up incinerating everything around - and including - himself.  The teaching of this magic was banned after a group of renegade wizards began a suicidal campaign of terror, destroying entire cities with their reckless blood magic.  None of the three towers were capable of stopping them, for they would simply be caught in the firestorm of this power.  The ban was lifted only for a short period of great need when the very survival of all the towers was in question.  The use of blood magic is considered punishable by death by the towers, for there is no way to decisively overpower even a single wizard who has knowledge of it.

The three towers stood for a long time as the only towers, but in the dark days following the War of Elders, the three towers held a conference to discuss the creation of a fourth tower dedicated to keeping a watchful eye on wizards in neighbouring realms.  The chaos of the War of Elders was due to ignorant and even reckless use of magic by the druid cults, which ended up creating things far beyond their means of control.  The original three towers, however, would need to undergo a fundamental structural change in their hierarchies in order to keep stations across the vastness of the land that was required under the mandate, and hence the creation of a fourth and independant tower was advised.  It was called "The Watcher", and its purpose was learn and document the happenings, particularly of the arcane variety, in lands other than central Maridacan.  Agents were deployed far abroad, each forming small offices which would recruit potential wizards to be trained at a central institute in Tharwain.  Without purposefully meaning to, the three towers had ensured their dominance as wizarding powers far beyond the boundaries of the Maridacan subcontinent.  The fourth tower has the largest followings of any of the five, but its mandate - which holds to this day - keeps its members spread out.

The fifth tower is the only one to have found its origins outside of the sub-continent.  The Mariner's Fellowship was a group of wizards which operated in Caeluin from an inaccessible island fortress.  It was the last remaining chapter of a dying tradition imported by the Dacadrin and inspired by the two towers they had encountered in the lands that would be Tharwain.  It came to the attention of the fourth tower, and in accordance with their mandate they sought to comprehend the techniques of the Mariner's Fellowship.  The Mariners had a brand of magic unique to them, developed in the lands of Caeluin after the fall of the Dacadrin had severed them from Maridacan.  However, the Mariners fiercely guarded their secrets, and no promise of wealth could buy it from them, so the four towers begrudgingly offered to make the Mariner's Fellowship into the fifth tower in exchange for the knowledge of their arts.  So the tower of the Mariner became the last of the five, and while it would remain active in Caeluin until the great revolution a century before our story begins, its primary center of operation was removed to Maridacan.

The five towers, the Noble House, the House of Traitors, the King's Agent, the Watcher, and the Tower of the Mariner, stand to this day, each regarding the other as equal in their art and in political authority.  Each existed before Tharwain was even a whisper of the future, and it is unlikely that they shall pass before Tharwain has been lost to the ages.  They are wise, they are fickle, and above all the towers are cunning.  They know how to defeat an enemy, and they know when it is not in their interest to fight an enemy.  They have survived countless generations by their prudence, and by all accounts shall continue to do so.

dude, you should become a writer

although, could you explain:
- Dacadrin
- Canthlin
- War of Elders
- how do these wizards and towers fit in the game?

edit: ok so you have another topic about the War

Throughout its history, the lands of Maridacan have had a diverse assortment of powers which have occupied it.  Canthlin was a relatively minor state along its fringes.  It appeared and disappeared in history, and would be almost without note except for its importance in the rise of the second tower.  In the time where the story takes place, the land inhabited by Canthlin has become inarable desert, and serves as one of the primary staging points of the Varnost hordes.

The Dacadrin were a group of foreigners who invaded many coastal lands by the sea, and Canthlin was one of their first targets.  With the allegiance of the wizards of Canthlin, they decided to conquer the entire subcontinent, and ended up forming a small empire in the region.  They normalized map names, language, calendar, and even wizardry in the realm, and as such have an important (if brief) part in history.  The Dacadrin era lasted only a few hundred years before collapsing into chaos.

The War of Elders was going to be my third history article, but I decided to make it my second.  I finished it in surprising speed.  I purposefully left it vague because it really needs its own thread to do justice to it.

The towers retain a near monopoly on human wizards in mainland Maridacan, and have immense political clout.  They seldom interfere in politics directly, and have never done so since the War of Elders.  Each tower has its own "character", and members of the various towers (and how they interact) will form some of the underlying plot lines.

It's thick and dusty, but it does give light to an already interesting world.