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Is there a functional reason for wizards to live in towers so often?

179 points by tech-historian 5y ago

gostsamo 5y ago
Magicians and strologists where pretty close in the past. Many of the magic powers were related to celestial bodies and hence astronomical observations were part of the job. Hard to do astronomy from the ground if your neighbor's henhouse is stopping you from observing the raise of Mercury.
verisimi 5y ago
Magic works better in rarified areas, away from the oi polloi?
kderbyma 5y ago
strategic defense. towers provide options to cast Magic in 360 degrees, gain visibility from on high to see approaching caravans, psychic falloff is less with LoS
MikeDelta 5y ago
Maybe the origin is symbolical because they are different than regular humans and not taking part in normal society?
blaxis 5y ago
prevents the trees from blocking their astronomy
GekkePrutser 5y ago
Better reception obviously. Also phallic symbol. Warriors don't have anything to prove physically. So the wizards have the "hey you wanna see my tower" routine. A nice cup of mind control potion seals the deal.
- jaggirs 5y ago
  what
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Hey don't blame the messenger. What do you expect from an evil wizard? I tried complaining to the magic council but they turned me into a toad. Took me 30 minutes to write this lol. Webbed feet are shit. And you can forget using speech input.
  - staticman2 5y ago
    From a fruedian perspective a wand and a tower can both represent a penis. Also a witch's broom. TV tropes cites two references to this in Terry Pratchett Discworld novels in the Freud Was Right article: "Going Postal: As she looks over Moist's ideas for stamp pictures, Adora Belle Dearheart notes that the stamp with the highest value has a picture of the Tower of Art at Unseen University — the tallest building in the city. Adora: Oh, the Tower of Art... How like a man. Lords and Ladies: Naggy Ogg tells Casanunda "Magrat says a broomstick is one of them sexual metaphor things." (Footnote: Although this is a phallusy.)"
- js8 5y ago
  or the "looks like I am gonna erect my tower in this forest, to get a nice view of the two hills" routine
sineroth 5y ago
cause thats where the sexy princess is
- dylan604 5y ago
  Sorry Mario, the princess is in the other tower
hackerfromthefu 5y ago
The view is really great!
bell-cot 5y ago
In any vaguely medieval setting, a tower is a conspicuously high-status abode, with both "loner" and "don't mess with" vibes. Whether looking down at us from a window, or up at the stars from the parapet, the Wiz is both physically and metaphorically above us mere peasants. And, when story-telling, a wizard's tower is a very cheap bit of the narrative. The audience visualizing a mere house might need mention of the size, materials, style, color, etc. - not so the tower.
- AtlasBarfed 5y ago
  And it references the "ivory tower" of academia, the pursuit of "higher learning". In the age of skyscrapers we don't appreciate the inherent power/awe that tall structures likely had on people. It symbolically indicates power from ability, technology, competence, engineering, and use of resources. Actually, skyscrapers ARE the modern equivalent. The "wizards of finance" and the like inhabit them, exerting power with the magic spells of technology, finance, bribery, influence, and organization. Corporations seek them for the same reasons that fantasy wizards, kings, and churches used to. And duh, Tolkien. It's the title of the second book.
  - faeriechangling 5y ago
    The United States recently elected a leader that lives in $100M gilded 3 story penthouse atop a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan. This leader made amongst the most enemies of any living person I can name and was ostracised from popular society upon exiting the presidency. One of the ways he pitched himself as a worthy leader was boasting of all the Resplendent Wizard Towers across the world with his name on them. Here is an article where both a CNN columnist and one of Trumps former underlings warn of his dark magic: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/opinions/trump-lindsay-graham-rnc-dantonio/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/opinions/trump-lindsay-graham...
    - janto 5y ago
      Ehhh, Trump got popular in part because he says what he thinks and doesn't want to make friends with the then establishment. Making enemies is expected. When you say ostracized, do you mean removed from Twitter?
300bps 5y ago
Wizards are physically weak, have finite spells to use and require solitude and rest to regain them. Living in a tower gives them substantial physical security. You can have one point of entrance at ground level that is significantly guarded. A typical house has numerous points of entry. Not as big of a deal for a fighter that can defend him/herself at a moment’s notice but much riskier for a wizard.
VoodooJuJu 5y ago
I believe it's a symbolic reflection of their knowledge and wisdom. Low to the ground, you can't see much. There are obstructions in the way. What lies beyond those mountains? Ascend high and find out. Atop the tower, there is nothing obstructing your vision. You can see for miles. One who has scaled the tower is all-seeing. Wizards have reached great heights of knowledge and wisdom. They are all-knowing, or all-seeing, as is the one who's scaled the tower. Now why a tower rather than something like a whole castle? Towers are a bit more humble, independent, and potentially isolated, as the wizard himself often is.
steanne 5y ago
controlled environment for book storage. https://critical-hits.com/blog/2017/02/22/the-wizards-and-the-sheep/ https://critical-hits.com/blog/2017/02/22/the-wizards-and-th...
mkl95 5y ago
Living in a tower allows wizards to focus on spellcrafting at the top while business analysts and product owners make unintelligible noises in the basement.
- cushychicken 5y ago
  It's effectively the opposite arrangement of a modern bank's headquarters skyscraper.
lotroneoff 5y ago
D&D (& most modern high fantasy) was heavily influenced by LOTR. Saruman lived in Isengard (a tower), therefore the common modern high fantasy trope is that wizards live in towers. Here’s a thread explaining why Saruman lived in the tower of Isengard. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/33b4v3/lotr_why_does_saruman_have_a_tower_what_was_it/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/33b4v3/l...
- bombcar 5y ago
  Fantasia has a wizard’s tower and it predates LotR, it’s an older trope.
  - 3np 5y ago
    A lot of things popularized by Tolkien and later trickling into D&D lore have very old roots. If it weren't for Tolkien there may not even have been a D&D. I'm in line with Saruman.
  - teddyh 5y ago
    > Fantasia has a wizard’s tower Does it? It has a wizard, and later there’s the mountan peak with Chernobog, but no wizard’s tower, from what I recall.
    - bombcar 5y ago
      Mickey is in a tower it seems based on the stairs the buckets are being carried up. But maybe it’s just visually some stairs.
      - GeoAtreides 5y ago
        I don't remember Chernobog or a Mickey or buckets in An never-ending story... The Empress had a tower, true, but I wouldn't call her a wizard per se
        5y ago
rr808 5y ago
To get some peace and quiet away from the wife.
1970-01-01 5y ago
The Wizard of Oz lived in Emerald City. He wasn't actually a wizard, however.
mLuby 5y ago
I like to think of wizards as lone scientists like Galileo or Faraday or Tesla—dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge—where the wizard's tower is the scientist's laboratory. It's where they conduct research into arcane phenomena and invent weird new spells and artifacts. Occasionally wizards venture out of their lab to conduct in-situ field research or collect rare materials for experiments. Adventuring wizards are kind of an oddity, like Indiana Jones is to most archeologists. Evil wizards are mad scientists: their twisted experiments may inadvertently or intentionally create undead abominations or unfeeling automatons, unleash dangerous magical effects in the nearby lands like poisoning water or blighting crops, and luring criminals to buy or steal the fruits of the wizard's research for ill ends. And yeah, the tower keeps the wizard safe from harm and distraction. No open tower floor plans please.
- _0ffh 5y ago
  Well, maybe the adventuring wizards are like the engineers of the wizarding world, applying their acquired knowledge to concrete, real life problems. Meanwhile, the secluded wizard-in-a-tower is the scientist dedicated to pushing the boundaries between the known and the unknown. Also, I expect them to visit conferences, though not in person but by using telepresence-spells.
unfocussed_mike 5y ago
Line of second sight?
maerF0x0 5y ago
Towers improve the range of vision (at least in terms of distance of the horizon) . In mythology vision is often used as a proxy for wisdom -- the eye sees things, it points out things, and then wise thoughts (&actions) come forth to enact the will of the viewer (the wizard) . As the stackexchange answer says it's a trope, but I think it's much richer than that. The territory covered by the field of vision represents the depth of wisdom and domain of the wizard. They are in a sense able to "rule" (or influence) over the area through a perspective and foresight that others do not have on the ground.
- ecocentrik 5y ago
  Exactly. Altitude improves visibility and gives humans (wizards included) improved perspective. The view from the top of a ziggurat, Mayan temple, wizard's tower gives the viewer perspective over their domain while also allowing them unimpeded access to the sky so they can keep calendars, predicting the seasons and astronomical phenomenon like eclipses, or even see a storm coming before anyone else.
zhte415 5y ago
A powerful wizard emerged from the darkness designed a tower to differentiate themselves from the other wizards, wizards of fruit, friendship, neighbourhood or next door. They cast a partial specification that stirred anger in other wizards but gave away a bag of spell tricks for free to the carpenters. Quirks such as only wood from the initial wizard's forest fitting the door frames correctly, or occasionally the height of the tower obscured by the blue sky, were fixed over the years. As time went by, various other wizards devised new but still similar with variations on visual appearance and potion specifications, or even giving away wind chimes so visiting the forest to hunt song birds was no longer necessary, or imposed medusa-like speaking curses so that only those in the villages following them could use a mutually understandable tongue, locking out others for security, but resulting in many wars of flame. As wizards are a vain lot, they employed wordsmiths to spread messages of lore when they added an extension to their tower. Sometimes they step too far, for example one wizard long long ago started living in a collection of fields, but this was too flat for even the townsfolk. They moved back into their old tower, sulkingly changing the entrance door to a doormat and fiddled with rivet shapes 11 times. And as it was, so it will continue to be. Wizards will continue to live in towers that are minor iterations of each other, all imitations of The Mother Of All Towers from times long ago that only stories are told of.
Timpy 5y ago
It's a shame this was posted on the rpg stack exchange and not the world building stack exchange, I understand they're moderating it to keep it on topic but they're suppressing what could be some really great ideas and conversations.
smoldesu 5y ago
"Because they can't afford houses." - Response attributed to Talk to Transformer/InferKit
newsbinator 5y ago
When early tall buildings started to rise, you would find the most expensive lawyers and bankers in New York and London with offices on the ground floor, while admin staff toiled away on higher floors, having to walk up and down those stairs all day to move paper and transmit messages. With the invention of the elevator, that pyramid was inverted. Whereas Wizards, as everybody knows, have never required elevators.
- PeterisP 5y ago
  IIRC it was similar in ancient Rome with their multistory insula residental buildings - the higher floors were cheaper, with smaller rooms and worse in all aspects.
  - swasheck 5y ago
    good point. labor. heat. collapse. neglect. just a few of the things that contributed to the “worse”
    - PeterisP 5y ago
      Also, fire safety - IIRC some Roman insulas were 9 stories high; but if there was a fire those on the upper floors would die.
Eddy_Viscosity2 5y ago
It's pretty obvious that its because 'tower' rhymes with 'power'. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
protomyth 5y ago
Sometimes you just need to have some help with power from lightning or moonlight. You just don't get that with some ground-hugging hovel.
kingkawn 5y ago
In medieval times living in such a tall building itself probably seemed line wizardry
wintermutestwin 5y ago
No door at ground level > Wizard casts Levitate.
- shrimp_emoji 5y ago
  Some Telvanni towers in Morrowind don't have stairs for this reason (more out of magocratic elitism than defense concerns).
nkingsy 5y ago
Reading this thread, it’s funny how universally identified with wizards software engineers are. It’s not just the arcane knowledge and elaborate incantations. I actually think musicians and athletes possess more of this type of ability. Movie magic to me seems to involve timing and physicality. I think the real connection is that programming truly is a generalizable tool. A wizard can apply magic to all kinds of general situations. Similarly, a programmer can apply computation generally. A musician can make magical, mind-blowing music but they can’t use music to make a dishwasher.
- dymk 5y ago
  I’m almost certain my ability to program will help me make a dishwasher about the same as my ability to play the guitar.
  - monetus 5y ago
    Buttons based on a fretboard, triggered with pickups... Timers sounding off with chord progressions... Seems fun.
    - swasheck 5y ago
      someone should turn that into a video game
      - monetus 5y ago
        Dishwashing hero, featuring aerosmith and whirlpool
  - mwint 5y ago
    If you’re able to program, you’re in a much better position to figure out control flow, sensor feedback systems, etc. Certainly your programming experience would help make a dishwasher more than your guitar experience.
    - 5y ago
staticman2 5y ago
They are closer to the stars and further from the worldy concerns of men. It can symbolize some sort of wisdom or power found in "higher" concerns than that of our day to day life.
satisfice 5y ago
I am surprised no one has mentioned what is most likely to be the actual answer: towers are closer to heaven. In medieval thinking, the ground is less prestigious because it is closer to hell. “Lower” forms of life are called that based on the high-is-close-to-god metaphor. When wizards draw pentagrams on the ground they are doing darker magic that invokes the powers of Hell. So, a tower is like an insulator. Great and good magics will need to be invoked up in the air.
- krapp 5y ago
  It's an interesting theory, unfortunately none of the magical texts from that period that I'm aware of actually work that way. Many occultists of the time believed magic and demonology was justified by Christ giving his followers power to command demons and the elements in the New Testament.
jelliclesfarm 5y ago
I can’t speak for wizards but I have a work in progress storybook about witches who adopt a strange feral boy. He has a strange power as the colour of his hair changes with his moods..from blue to red when he is sad or angry etc. So they keep him in their ‘Witches Hat Tower’..(which is actually a legit architectural design for tower a pointy top and no parapet) and I had to do a ton of research for that. Tower tops are good launch off pad for broomstick flights. Perfect for stargazing and the crystal mirror gazing. The witches hat tower is supposed to symbolize the witch’s pointy hat as the tower itself is the physical body of the witch. Turns out pointy witches hat have been around since 2-4th century BCE. Mummified remains of witches in China have been found with pointy hats. Here is my theory..you see, witches(and wizards) have to beckon lightning. When lightning strikes them, they’d end up as charred sticks if not for their pointy witches hats. The hats have a lightning conductor at the tip. Sometimes you will find it broken..you know that this witch has attracted lightning but hasn’t had time to repair the conductor at the tip. Witches be busy. Of course..I know everyone will think that it’s also useful while flying the broomstick. But this has nothing to do with the broomstick flying. As it was a children’s book, I didn’t think it was age appropriate to explain the dynamics and purpose of flying high on broomsticks. That’s another short story. For adults. Of course, not all witches live in towers. As Terry Pratchett informed us..Nanny Ogg lived in a townhouse. Even Granny Weatherwax(Esme Weatherwax) lived in a cottage in the woods. Pointy hats are only for witches who can summon lightning.
- D13Fd 5y ago
  > Turns out pointy witches hat have been around since 2-4th century BCE. Mummified remains of witches in China have been found with pointy hats. I feel like the line between fantasy and reality has blurred for a lot of people lately.
  - jelliclesfarm 5y ago
    https://www.historicmysteries.com/the-tarim-mummies-of-xinjiang/ https://www.historicmysteries.com/the-tarim-mummies-of-xinji... [..] Other Tarim mummies have also been found wearing decidedly western clothing. One of the oddest bits of clothing found any of these mummies are the flat-brimmed pointy “witch hats” that were discovered on the “Witches of Subeshi.”[..] https://mummipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Witches_of_Subeshi https://mummipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Witches_of_Subeshi [..] Three female mummies of Subeshi were found wearing tall, pointed black hats of felted wool that resemble the stereotypical headgear of traditional witches, and dated to between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC They were located in a high gorge just to the east of the city of Turfan. It has been suggested that one of the three, wearing a heavy glove, may indicate that she hunted with a raptor. The headgear worn by the Iron-age mummies were fashioned from black felt, the steep spire tapering to a peak nearly 60cm (2ft) high.[..] https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ancient-mummies-of-the-tarim-basin/ https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ancient-mummies-of-... [..] The most intriguing mummies in ECA may be the “witches” of Subeshi, who wear very tall, pointed black hats that resemble the iconic headgear of their sisters in medieval Europe. Subeshi, dated to between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE, is located in a high gorge just to the east of the important city of Turfan. Historian and author Adrienne Mayor has recently suggested that the single heavy glove worn by one of the female mummies may indicate that she hunted with a raptor such as a golden eagle. A number of impressive male mummies have also been excavated at Subeshi, including a man who wears a felt helmet and another man whose chest has been stitched up with horse hair in what must be one of the oldest (4th century BCE) examples of surgery in the world.[..]
ffhhj 5y ago
Aren't wizards based on astrologers/astronomers? They would need a high place so trees or other buildings don't block their view. Might also be useful to have a well positioned window to get the light of the sun or moon in specific angles, to make calendars, horoscopes, or other tracking. Also could be useful to keep adversaries from spying on research, might have made it difficult for thieves to enter and steal valuable instruments. People with enough time to research might have been wealthy and able to build these buildings that required more engineering. Could have also been a "showroom" for monarchs/warlords to display castle/fortress engineering.
- krapp 5y ago
  Yes, the ancient Magi were the astrologer-priests of Persia, from which we get the root for "magic."
Supermancho 5y ago
I always thought portals or alternate methods for travel to/from. It's also highly defensible from a medieval perspective and easily identifiable (don't mess with wizard towers).
- User23 5y ago
  There wouldn’t be stairs to the upper quarters, just a ladder that gets pulled up. Even wizards need to sleep.
pfdietz 5y ago
I assume it's to get away from the stench of the peasantry.
- logicallee 5y ago
  first of all this is absolutely not true, any good wizard spends 99% of their time in the most inconspicuous dirty clothing. Where do you think they get their spells, just lie down and think "I wonder how I would summon a polar bear?" They have to go out and learn that stuff in dirty bars tracking down people who once knew a guy who knew a guy who once thought they saw a polar bear. You try turning that into a summoning spell my friend. Secondly, as for the actual tower a wizard's tower just reflects their power, the more they've learned the more they see. There is a tower that is a vertical line up to heaven itself, you could stand next to it crane your neck up until it hurts and ask "how the fuck did she get up there?" The answer was that she read every book in the library. these other answers about status or power miss the big picture. wizards are not elected nor appointed by any king. They go out and they learn magic based on what is real and what works. If it doesn't work, it's not magic. Anyone can be a wizard based on casting spells that work. It's the most egalitarian profession that ever existed. The tower is a natural byproduct of commitment to the craft of skill and magic.
scsilver 5y ago
I would assume it gives them unobstructed views of the land and sky. Helpful for channeling solar or moon beams, general foresight, and good positioning to launch spells.
ineedasername 5y ago
Easier to see the local villagers coming for you with their torches and pitchforks.
gpderetta 5y ago
I think because the hero ascending the tower to go slay the evil wizard and encountering stronger and stronger opposition as he ascend is a powerful and symbolic image. Specifically in D&D dungeons have levels, similarly to heroes, and get harder the higher (or deeper) you go.
corysama 5y ago
Towers are expensive and difficult to construct. A lone tower is highly unusual and suspect. Towers are looming and ominous. All of these together help the writer convey that the character within the tower is powerful, odd and scary. They also set up the story of adventuring through the tower, floor by floor, in increasing levels of difficulty —as illustrated in the great fantasy movie: Bruce Lee’s Game of Death. :D
drcode 5y ago
I always assumed this dates back to the mystery of ziggurats (tall temple structures) in ancient Mesopotamia, back when ideas of magic and religion were still heavily interwoven. In ancient cultures, towers were directly associated with status, because at that time it was still impressive to construct tall objects, and tall objects were used by ruling classes also as a tool to help during defensive military emergencies.
- tcbawo 5y ago
  I think also in the days before garbage collection and sewer/water management, being above the ground level had perks. Being high above the fray is still a luxury that denotes status.
  - Tyr42 5y ago
    On the other hand, Romans did not have elevators, and the top floors of the townhouses were the cheapest to rent.
bryanrasmussen 5y ago
Maybe, the wizards I've known were all of a very paranoid type, and the towers they lived in did not have stairs, meaning that the only things these wizards had to worry about, pretty much, were griffin variants, dragons, and other wizards and witches. I heard of an alchemist once that lived in a very nice townhouse, and was driven nearly mad by the incessant visits of tax collectors. But a tower without stairs wouldn't of been much use to him either, given the limits of what he could do.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  I can't believe I wrote wouldn't of instead of wouldn't have. I must have been very tired.
captainmuon 5y ago
quadcore 5y ago
The wiz can put traps on each and every towery level!
orcasushi 5y ago
I would like to add: Increases range for sending and receiving communication via air. This in addition the the already mentioned: - greater field of sight (eye of Sauron) - greater range of fire - symbolic (to heaven) - status symbol - defense against enemy I remember this scene from movie 3 lotr where the 2 wizards communicate to each other to invade, by shooting beams from their towers.
goldenchrome 5y ago
I’m pretty sure wizards are based on high IQ autists. Towers are strange and isolated, like many high IQ autists. Isn’t Richard Stallman a modern wizard?
hotsauceror 5y ago
Wizards perform manipulations of the basic structure of the physical world. This may include dangerous chemical reactions, warps in space-time, and high energy physics. A lab on top of a tower provides a buffer zone and limits the scope of damage from, say, a fire or a lightning bolt. It’s also like an antenna, in that regard, so it may help to channel, tune, and concentrate energy.
shagie 5y ago
An older asking of the question from sci-fi stack exchange rather than world building - https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/12379 https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/12379
tshaddox 5y ago
Is there a reason NBA players live in houses that have swimming pools? Why don’t I see anyone mentioning that wizards are rich and powerful (because they have magical powers), so they live in large expensive houses, which in a medieval setting are often castles with towers?
- bidirectional 5y ago
  The trope is not 'castles with towers' though, but thin, tall, vertical structures.
- lewispollard 5y ago
  Well, no one said anything about castles, and I don't think the wizard trope generally includes "rich"
TheAceOfHearts 5y ago
A wizard builds a tall tower to test themselves and to demonstrate their powers to the universe. In order to build a tower that reaches into the heavens you require a strong foundation and the capability to enchant the building against the elements. In a way, it's a fitting example of how perspective can shape your perception of reality. From the ground you can't see far but the details are easy to make out, as you rise you're able to see further away in less detail, but as you continue rising your vision eventually becomes obscured by the clouds, and finally you reach the vastness of space.
shantara 5y ago
Observatory towers like Copenhagen’s Rundetaarn are probably the closest real world inspiration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundetaarn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundetaarn
tasha0663 5y ago
Isolation, better observation of the heavens, doubles as a rookery for sending and receiving grim tidings, proximity to the dungeons and/or tower prisoners in case you need a research spec-*ahem* volunteer. And if you blow the place up running arcane experiments or attempting congress with demons, hopefully the damage is contained.
tryauuum 5y ago
They actually don't live in towers by choice. The truth is, magic affects the reality around them. Buildings get taller, clothes baggier, hats siller. Hopefully this affects human height and dick size as well
- carlos__sorry 5y ago
  I’m an MIT-educated (vi) paranoid schizophrenic and I can attest that, after ten years of hellish voices lurking behind every real-world cupboard, my “mental palace” did evolve to a tower. This eventually deferred to the ageless and permanent shelter of a pyramid: we’re much more happy with the sand and silence. My dick size, for what it’s worth, has not changed.
JoeyBananas 5y ago
I'm pretty sure this trope started with Tolkien, like so many other DnD tropes.
tzs 5y ago
A tower might have advantages against long range ballistic attacks. Consider a wizard who owns a building that is being attacked by an enemy lobbing projectiles, and assume that the building is either box shaped or is a cylindrical tower. If it is a long range attack all the projectiles arriving in the target area of the building will be traveling almost in parallel. Due to uncertainty and imprecision in aiming they will be randomly distributed over an area. Suppose the sun at the time of the attack happens to be positioned such that sunlight near the building is moving in the same direction as the projectiles. A projectile that would have hit a given point on the ground if the building had not been present hits the building if and only if either that point is directly under the building or that point is in the building's shadow. Let's call the area directly under the building plus the area in shadow the building's target area. The chances of being hit by a given random projectile are proportional to the target area. Now lets compare towers with boxes. Suppose the projectiles are coming in at a 45 degree angle. Consider a wizard with a cylindrical tower with a radius of 10 m that has 10 floors with 3 m between floors. The gives floor space of around 3100 m^2. A one story box with the same floor space would have a target area of 3250 m^2, assuming a square floor plan and the attack is coming in from a direction perpendicular to one of the sides. The tower, if I've done the math right, has a target area of around 900 m^2. If we double the height of the tower, making it 20 floors and ~6300 m^2, its target area is ~1500 m^2. A 6300 m^2 box with a square floor plan has a target area of ~6500 m^2. Note that doubling the area of the box doubled the target area, but doubling the area of the tower only made the target around about 67% bigger. For the one story box, target area is always larger then floor area, and the ratio approaches 1 as floor area goes up. For the 10 m radius tower with floors 3 m apart, the ratio of target area to floor area goes to ~0.19 as the number of floors goes up. Although tower wizard's chances of getting hit by a random projectile are lower the box wizard's chances, it should be noted that a hit on the tower is potentially more damaging than a hit on the box. Box wizard doesn't have to worry about a lucky shot collapsing his building. When deciding which kind of building to build, you need to take into account your enemies and decide whether whether a higher chance of a hit being a critical hit is worth a lower chance of not getting hit.
jonathf 5y ago
According to my tour guide at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, preservation of books back in the olden days was all about reducing humidity. And the best way to achieve this before proper isolation were invented was to bring them up as high as possible. Rich people who collected books therefore always kept their books upstairs. Also the curators of such collections are also often scholars. Old men, going up stairs to read their old books. An hypothesis on my part of course, but to me I can se how this over generations gets morphed into "wizards in towers".
YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
Last reply is the most well-sourced: In short, according to official Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks, powerful wizards often live in towers because they can create towers quite easily using magic, and have need of a highly defensible home for reasons of security and privacy. They have many valuable belongings which they need to protect from theft or harm, especially while they're away. They often undertake long periods of research or item crafting where they don't want to be disturbed, and often have enemies or rivals who want to attack them or steal their magical research or items. They may also wield significant personal and regional power and require a base of operations from which to control the local area. All these things necessitate a defensible home, and a tall tower or castle of some sort is a time-tested solution to this. https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/196562 https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/196562
pvaldes 5y ago
Mud. Lots of mud. And flooding is bad for the books
slowhadoken 5y ago
I wish people would stop using the word “trope” in place of “convention” or “cliche”. It drives me up a wall. It signals to me that you don’t care about story as much as you care about issues disguised as themes.
stakkur 5y ago
No, but the ‘why’ is fairly simple: early RPGs (like D&D) drew heavily on existing fantasy stories, and ‘wizard in a tower’ was a popular theme. Is this not common knowledge?
chezzwizz 5y ago
I don't know if this is intended to be analogus, but line of sight seems pretty compelling.
da39a3ee 5y ago
I'm a very boring person, and apparently an easily annoyed one: it annoys me the way these silly geeky fantasy questions appear in the side panel in stack overflow when I'm trying to read my serious professional programming questions. On the plus side it made me very happy when I discovered that modern adblockers contain functionality for hiding arbitrary page elements.
betatron 5y ago
SPELL AREA. A tower, shaped as a square, a hexagon, or usually a circle, is a series of limited closed spaces, stacked upon themselves. Any area spell a wizard casts, centered on himself, will probably cover an entire floor. Making the structure easy to defend. Besides, consider the scenario: attackers in the low floor, wizard can see them by a hole in the ceiling. Through the same hole, the wizard can cast a cone area spell that will hit everyone in the floor below. This spell may not kill the entire party, but the wizard can rinse and repeat, going up the tower, wearing down the attackers, until he wins. And that is just one strategy the wizard can use. So, in towers, ONE wizard, can stop an army.
anothernewdude 5y ago
Wizards have towers, Warlocks have mountains

Magicians and strologists where pretty close in the past. Many of the magic powers were related to celestial bodies and hence astronomical observations were part of the job. Hard to do astronomy from the ground if your neighbor's henhouse is stopping you from observing the raise of Mercury.

verisimi 5y ago

Magic works better in rarified areas, away from the oi polloi?

kderbyma 5y ago

strategic defense. towers provide options to cast Magic in 360 degrees, gain visibility from on high to see approaching caravans, psychic falloff is less with LoS

MikeDelta 5y ago

Maybe the origin is symbolical because they are different than regular humans and not taking part in normal society?

blaxis 5y ago

prevents the trees from blocking their astronomy

GekkePrutser 5y ago

Better reception obviously. Also phallic symbol. Warriors don't have anything to prove physically. So the wizards have the "hey you wanna see my tower" routine. A nice cup of mind control potion seals the deal.

jaggirs 5y ago
what
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Hey don't blame the messenger. What do you expect from an evil wizard? I tried complaining to the magic council but they turned me into a toad. Took me 30 minutes to write this lol. Webbed feet are shit. And you can forget using speech input.
- staticman2 5y ago
  From a fruedian perspective a wand and a tower can both represent a penis. Also a witch's broom. TV tropes cites two references to this in Terry Pratchett Discworld novels in the Freud Was Right article: "Going Postal: As she looks over Moist's ideas for stamp pictures, Adora Belle Dearheart notes that the stamp with the highest value has a picture of the Tower of Art at Unseen University — the tallest building in the city. Adora: Oh, the Tower of Art... How like a man. Lords and Ladies: Naggy Ogg tells Casanunda "Magrat says a broomstick is one of them sexual metaphor things." (Footnote: Although this is a phallusy.)"
js8 5y ago
or the "looks like I am gonna erect my tower in this forest, to get a nice view of the two hills" routine

sineroth 5y ago

cause thats where the sexy princess is

dylan604 5y ago
Sorry Mario, the princess is in the other tower

hackerfromthefu 5y ago

The view is really great!

bell-cot 5y ago

In any vaguely medieval setting, a tower is a conspicuously high-status abode, with both "loner" and "don't mess with" vibes. Whether looking down at us from a window, or up at the stars from the parapet, the Wiz is both physically and metaphorically above us mere peasants. And, when story-telling, a wizard's tower is a very cheap bit of the narrative. The audience visualizing a mere house might need mention of the size, materials, style, color, etc. - not so the tower.

AtlasBarfed 5y ago
And it references the "ivory tower" of academia, the pursuit of "higher learning". In the age of skyscrapers we don't appreciate the inherent power/awe that tall structures likely had on people. It symbolically indicates power from ability, technology, competence, engineering, and use of resources. Actually, skyscrapers ARE the modern equivalent. The "wizards of finance" and the like inhabit them, exerting power with the magic spells of technology, finance, bribery, influence, and organization. Corporations seek them for the same reasons that fantasy wizards, kings, and churches used to. And duh, Tolkien. It's the title of the second book.
- faeriechangling 5y ago
  The United States recently elected a leader that lives in $100M gilded 3 story penthouse atop a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan. This leader made amongst the most enemies of any living person I can name and was ostracised from popular society upon exiting the presidency. One of the ways he pitched himself as a worthy leader was boasting of all the Resplendent Wizard Towers across the world with his name on them. Here is an article where both a CNN columnist and one of Trumps former underlings warn of his dark magic: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/opinions/trump-lindsay-graham-rnc-dantonio/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/opinions/trump-lindsay-graham...
  - janto 5y ago
    Ehhh, Trump got popular in part because he says what he thinks and doesn't want to make friends with the then establishment. Making enemies is expected. When you say ostracized, do you mean removed from Twitter?

300bps 5y ago

Wizards are physically weak, have finite spells to use and require solitude and rest to regain them. Living in a tower gives them substantial physical security. You can have one point of entrance at ground level that is significantly guarded. A typical house has numerous points of entry. Not as big of a deal for a fighter that can defend him/herself at a moment’s notice but much riskier for a wizard.

VoodooJuJu 5y ago

I believe it's a symbolic reflection of their knowledge and wisdom. Low to the ground, you can't see much. There are obstructions in the way. What lies beyond those mountains? Ascend high and find out. Atop the tower, there is nothing obstructing your vision. You can see for miles. One who has scaled the tower is all-seeing. Wizards have reached great heights of knowledge and wisdom. They are all-knowing, or all-seeing, as is the one who's scaled the tower. Now why a tower rather than something like a whole castle? Towers are a bit more humble, independent, and potentially isolated, as the wizard himself often is.

steanne 5y ago

controlled environment for book storage. https://critical-hits.com/blog/2017/02/22/the-wizards-and-the-sheep/ https://critical-hits.com/blog/2017/02/22/the-wizards-and-th...

mkl95 5y ago

Living in a tower allows wizards to focus on spellcrafting at the top while business analysts and product owners make unintelligible noises in the basement.

cushychicken 5y ago
It's effectively the opposite arrangement of a modern bank's headquarters skyscraper.

lotroneoff 5y ago

D&D (& most modern high fantasy) was heavily influenced by LOTR. Saruman lived in Isengard (a tower), therefore the common modern high fantasy trope is that wizards live in towers. Here’s a thread explaining why Saruman lived in the tower of Isengard. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/33b4v3/lotr_why_does_saruman_have_a_tower_what_was_it/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/33b4v3/l...

bombcar 5y ago
Fantasia has a wizard’s tower and it predates LotR, it’s an older trope.
- 3np 5y ago
  A lot of things popularized by Tolkien and later trickling into D&D lore have very old roots. If it weren't for Tolkien there may not even have been a D&D. I'm in line with Saruman.
- teddyh 5y ago
  > Fantasia has a wizard’s tower Does it? It has a wizard, and later there’s the mountan peak with Chernobog, but no wizard’s tower, from what I recall.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    Mickey is in a tower it seems based on the stairs the buckets are being carried up. But maybe it’s just visually some stairs.
    - GeoAtreides 5y ago
      I don't remember Chernobog or a Mickey or buckets in An never-ending story... The Empress had a tower, true, but I wouldn't call her a wizard per se
      - 5y ago

rr808 5y ago

To get some peace and quiet away from the wife.

1970-01-01 5y ago

The Wizard of Oz lived in Emerald City. He wasn't actually a wizard, however.

mLuby 5y ago

I like to think of wizards as lone scientists like Galileo or Faraday or Tesla—dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge—where the wizard's tower is the scientist's laboratory. It's where they conduct research into arcane phenomena and invent weird new spells and artifacts. Occasionally wizards venture out of their lab to conduct in-situ field research or collect rare materials for experiments. Adventuring wizards are kind of an oddity, like Indiana Jones is to most archeologists. Evil wizards are mad scientists: their twisted experiments may inadvertently or intentionally create undead abominations or unfeeling automatons, unleash dangerous magical effects in the nearby lands like poisoning water or blighting crops, and luring criminals to buy or steal the fruits of the wizard's research for ill ends. And yeah, the tower keeps the wizard safe from harm and distraction. No open tower floor plans please.

_0ffh 5y ago
Well, maybe the adventuring wizards are like the engineers of the wizarding world, applying their acquired knowledge to concrete, real life problems. Meanwhile, the secluded wizard-in-a-tower is the scientist dedicated to pushing the boundaries between the known and the unknown. Also, I expect them to visit conferences, though not in person but by using telepresence-spells.

unfocussed_mike 5y ago

Line of second sight?

maerF0x0 5y ago

Towers improve the range of vision (at least in terms of distance of the horizon) . In mythology vision is often used as a proxy for wisdom -- the eye sees things, it points out things, and then wise thoughts (&actions) come forth to enact the will of the viewer (the wizard) . As the stackexchange answer says it's a trope, but I think it's much richer than that. The territory covered by the field of vision represents the depth of wisdom and domain of the wizard. They are in a sense able to "rule" (or influence) over the area through a perspective and foresight that others do not have on the ground.

ecocentrik 5y ago
Exactly. Altitude improves visibility and gives humans (wizards included) improved perspective. The view from the top of a ziggurat, Mayan temple, wizard's tower gives the viewer perspective over their domain while also allowing them unimpeded access to the sky so they can keep calendars, predicting the seasons and astronomical phenomenon like eclipses, or even see a storm coming before anyone else.

zhte415 5y ago

A powerful wizard emerged from the darkness designed a tower to differentiate themselves from the other wizards, wizards of fruit, friendship, neighbourhood or next door. They cast a partial specification that stirred anger in other wizards but gave away a bag of spell tricks for free to the carpenters. Quirks such as only wood from the initial wizard's forest fitting the door frames correctly, or occasionally the height of the tower obscured by the blue sky, were fixed over the years. As time went by, various other wizards devised new but still similar with variations on visual appearance and potion specifications, or even giving away wind chimes so visiting the forest to hunt song birds was no longer necessary, or imposed medusa-like speaking curses so that only those in the villages following them could use a mutually understandable tongue, locking out others for security, but resulting in many wars of flame. As wizards are a vain lot, they employed wordsmiths to spread messages of lore when they added an extension to their tower. Sometimes they step too far, for example one wizard long long ago started living in a collection of fields, but this was too flat for even the townsfolk. They moved back into their old tower, sulkingly changing the entrance door to a doormat and fiddled with rivet shapes 11 times. And as it was, so it will continue to be. Wizards will continue to live in towers that are minor iterations of each other, all imitations of The Mother Of All Towers from times long ago that only stories are told of.

Timpy 5y ago

It's a shame this was posted on the rpg stack exchange and not the world building stack exchange, I understand they're moderating it to keep it on topic but they're suppressing what could be some really great ideas and conversations.

smoldesu 5y ago

"Because they can't afford houses." - Response attributed to Talk to Transformer/InferKit

newsbinator 5y ago

When early tall buildings started to rise, you would find the most expensive lawyers and bankers in New York and London with offices on the ground floor, while admin staff toiled away on higher floors, having to walk up and down those stairs all day to move paper and transmit messages. With the invention of the elevator, that pyramid was inverted. Whereas Wizards, as everybody knows, have never required elevators.

PeterisP 5y ago
IIRC it was similar in ancient Rome with their multistory insula residental buildings - the higher floors were cheaper, with smaller rooms and worse in all aspects.
- swasheck 5y ago
  good point. labor. heat. collapse. neglect. just a few of the things that contributed to the “worse”
  - PeterisP 5y ago
    Also, fire safety - IIRC some Roman insulas were 9 stories high; but if there was a fire those on the upper floors would die.

Eddy_Viscosity2 5y ago

It's pretty obvious that its because 'tower' rhymes with 'power'. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

protomyth 5y ago

Sometimes you just need to have some help with power from lightning or moonlight. You just don't get that with some ground-hugging hovel.

kingkawn 5y ago

In medieval times living in such a tall building itself probably seemed line wizardry

wintermutestwin 5y ago

No door at ground level > Wizard casts Levitate.

shrimp_emoji 5y ago
Some Telvanni towers in Morrowind don't have stairs for this reason (more out of magocratic elitism than defense concerns).

nkingsy 5y ago

Reading this thread, it’s funny how universally identified with wizards software engineers are. It’s not just the arcane knowledge and elaborate incantations. I actually think musicians and athletes possess more of this type of ability. Movie magic to me seems to involve timing and physicality. I think the real connection is that programming truly is a generalizable tool. A wizard can apply magic to all kinds of general situations. Similarly, a programmer can apply computation generally. A musician can make magical, mind-blowing music but they can’t use music to make a dishwasher.

dymk 5y ago
I’m almost certain my ability to program will help me make a dishwasher about the same as my ability to play the guitar.
- monetus 5y ago
  Buttons based on a fretboard, triggered with pickups... Timers sounding off with chord progressions... Seems fun.
  - swasheck 5y ago
    someone should turn that into a video game
    - monetus 5y ago
      Dishwashing hero, featuring aerosmith and whirlpool
- mwint 5y ago
  If you’re able to program, you’re in a much better position to figure out control flow, sensor feedback systems, etc. Certainly your programming experience would help make a dishwasher more than your guitar experience.
  - 5y ago

staticman2 5y ago

They are closer to the stars and further from the worldy concerns of men. It can symbolize some sort of wisdom or power found in "higher" concerns than that of our day to day life.

satisfice 5y ago

I am surprised no one has mentioned what is most likely to be the actual answer: towers are closer to heaven. In medieval thinking, the ground is less prestigious because it is closer to hell. “Lower” forms of life are called that based on the high-is-close-to-god metaphor. When wizards draw pentagrams on the ground they are doing darker magic that invokes the powers of Hell. So, a tower is like an insulator. Great and good magics will need to be invoked up in the air.

krapp 5y ago
It's an interesting theory, unfortunately none of the magical texts from that period that I'm aware of actually work that way. Many occultists of the time believed magic and demonology was justified by Christ giving his followers power to command demons and the elements in the New Testament.

jelliclesfarm 5y ago

I can’t speak for wizards but I have a work in progress storybook about witches who adopt a strange feral boy. He has a strange power as the colour of his hair changes with his moods..from blue to red when he is sad or angry etc. So they keep him in their ‘Witches Hat Tower’..(which is actually a legit architectural design for tower a pointy top and no parapet) and I had to do a ton of research for that. Tower tops are good launch off pad for broomstick flights. Perfect for stargazing and the crystal mirror gazing. The witches hat tower is supposed to symbolize the witch’s pointy hat as the tower itself is the physical body of the witch. Turns out pointy witches hat have been around since 2-4th century BCE. Mummified remains of witches in China have been found with pointy hats. Here is my theory..you see, witches(and wizards) have to beckon lightning. When lightning strikes them, they’d end up as charred sticks if not for their pointy witches hats. The hats have a lightning conductor at the tip. Sometimes you will find it broken..you know that this witch has attracted lightning but hasn’t had time to repair the conductor at the tip. Witches be busy. Of course..I know everyone will think that it’s also useful while flying the broomstick. But this has nothing to do with the broomstick flying. As it was a children’s book, I didn’t think it was age appropriate to explain the dynamics and purpose of flying high on broomsticks. That’s another short story. For adults. Of course, not all witches live in towers. As Terry Pratchett informed us..Nanny Ogg lived in a townhouse. Even Granny Weatherwax(Esme Weatherwax) lived in a cottage in the woods. Pointy hats are only for witches who can summon lightning.

D13Fd 5y ago
> Turns out pointy witches hat have been around since 2-4th century BCE. Mummified remains of witches in China have been found with pointy hats. I feel like the line between fantasy and reality has blurred for a lot of people lately.
- jelliclesfarm 5y ago
  https://www.historicmysteries.com/the-tarim-mummies-of-xinjiang/ https://www.historicmysteries.com/the-tarim-mummies-of-xinji... [..] Other Tarim mummies have also been found wearing decidedly western clothing. One of the oddest bits of clothing found any of these mummies are the flat-brimmed pointy “witch hats” that were discovered on the “Witches of Subeshi.”[..] https://mummipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Witches_of_Subeshi https://mummipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Witches_of_Subeshi [..] Three female mummies of Subeshi were found wearing tall, pointed black hats of felted wool that resemble the stereotypical headgear of traditional witches, and dated to between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC They were located in a high gorge just to the east of the city of Turfan. It has been suggested that one of the three, wearing a heavy glove, may indicate that she hunted with a raptor. The headgear worn by the Iron-age mummies were fashioned from black felt, the steep spire tapering to a peak nearly 60cm (2ft) high.[..] https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ancient-mummies-of-the-tarim-basin/ https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ancient-mummies-of-... [..] The most intriguing mummies in ECA may be the “witches” of Subeshi, who wear very tall, pointed black hats that resemble the iconic headgear of their sisters in medieval Europe. Subeshi, dated to between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE, is located in a high gorge just to the east of the important city of Turfan. Historian and author Adrienne Mayor has recently suggested that the single heavy glove worn by one of the female mummies may indicate that she hunted with a raptor such as a golden eagle. A number of impressive male mummies have also been excavated at Subeshi, including a man who wears a felt helmet and another man whose chest has been stitched up with horse hair in what must be one of the oldest (4th century BCE) examples of surgery in the world.[..]

ffhhj 5y ago

Aren't wizards based on astrologers/astronomers? They would need a high place so trees or other buildings don't block their view. Might also be useful to have a well positioned window to get the light of the sun or moon in specific angles, to make calendars, horoscopes, or other tracking. Also could be useful to keep adversaries from spying on research, might have made it difficult for thieves to enter and steal valuable instruments. People with enough time to research might have been wealthy and able to build these buildings that required more engineering. Could have also been a "showroom" for monarchs/warlords to display castle/fortress engineering.

krapp 5y ago
Yes, the ancient Magi were the astrologer-priests of Persia, from which we get the root for "magic."

Supermancho 5y ago

I always thought portals or alternate methods for travel to/from. It's also highly defensible from a medieval perspective and easily identifiable (don't mess with wizard towers).

User23 5y ago
There wouldn’t be stairs to the upper quarters, just a ladder that gets pulled up. Even wizards need to sleep.

pfdietz 5y ago

I assume it's to get away from the stench of the peasantry.

logicallee 5y ago
first of all this is absolutely not true, any good wizard spends 99% of their time in the most inconspicuous dirty clothing. Where do you think they get their spells, just lie down and think "I wonder how I would summon a polar bear?" They have to go out and learn that stuff in dirty bars tracking down people who once knew a guy who knew a guy who once thought they saw a polar bear. You try turning that into a summoning spell my friend. Secondly, as for the actual tower a wizard's tower just reflects their power, the more they've learned the more they see. There is a tower that is a vertical line up to heaven itself, you could stand next to it crane your neck up until it hurts and ask "how the fuck did she get up there?" The answer was that she read every book in the library. these other answers about status or power miss the big picture. wizards are not elected nor appointed by any king. They go out and they learn magic based on what is real and what works. If it doesn't work, it's not magic. Anyone can be a wizard based on casting spells that work. It's the most egalitarian profession that ever existed. The tower is a natural byproduct of commitment to the craft of skill and magic.

scsilver 5y ago

I would assume it gives them unobstructed views of the land and sky. Helpful for channeling solar or moon beams, general foresight, and good positioning to launch spells.

ineedasername 5y ago

Easier to see the local villagers coming for you with their torches and pitchforks.

gpderetta 5y ago

I think because the hero ascending the tower to go slay the evil wizard and encountering stronger and stronger opposition as he ascend is a powerful and symbolic image. Specifically in D&D dungeons have levels, similarly to heroes, and get harder the higher (or deeper) you go.

corysama 5y ago

Towers are expensive and difficult to construct. A lone tower is highly unusual and suspect. Towers are looming and ominous. All of these together help the writer convey that the character within the tower is powerful, odd and scary. They also set up the story of adventuring through the tower, floor by floor, in increasing levels of difficulty —as illustrated in the great fantasy movie: Bruce Lee’s Game of Death. :D

drcode 5y ago

I always assumed this dates back to the mystery of ziggurats (tall temple structures) in ancient Mesopotamia, back when ideas of magic and religion were still heavily interwoven. In ancient cultures, towers were directly associated with status, because at that time it was still impressive to construct tall objects, and tall objects were used by ruling classes also as a tool to help during defensive military emergencies.

tcbawo 5y ago
I think also in the days before garbage collection and sewer/water management, being above the ground level had perks. Being high above the fray is still a luxury that denotes status.
- Tyr42 5y ago
  On the other hand, Romans did not have elevators, and the top floors of the townhouses were the cheapest to rent.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago

Maybe, the wizards I've known were all of a very paranoid type, and the towers they lived in did not have stairs, meaning that the only things these wizards had to worry about, pretty much, were griffin variants, dragons, and other wizards and witches. I heard of an alchemist once that lived in a very nice townhouse, and was driven nearly mad by the incessant visits of tax collectors. But a tower without stairs wouldn't of been much use to him either, given the limits of what he could do.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
I can't believe I wrote wouldn't of instead of wouldn't have. I must have been very tired.

captainmuon 5y ago

quadcore 5y ago

The wiz can put traps on each and every towery level!

orcasushi 5y ago

I would like to add: Increases range for sending and receiving communication via air. This in addition the the already mentioned: - greater field of sight (eye of Sauron) - greater range of fire - symbolic (to heaven) - status symbol - defense against enemy I remember this scene from movie 3 lotr where the 2 wizards communicate to each other to invade, by shooting beams from their towers.

goldenchrome 5y ago

I’m pretty sure wizards are based on high IQ autists. Towers are strange and isolated, like many high IQ autists. Isn’t Richard Stallman a modern wizard?

hotsauceror 5y ago

Wizards perform manipulations of the basic structure of the physical world. This may include dangerous chemical reactions, warps in space-time, and high energy physics. A lab on top of a tower provides a buffer zone and limits the scope of damage from, say, a fire or a lightning bolt. It’s also like an antenna, in that regard, so it may help to channel, tune, and concentrate energy.

shagie 5y ago

An older asking of the question from sci-fi stack exchange rather than world building - https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/12379 https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/12379

tshaddox 5y ago

Is there a reason NBA players live in houses that have swimming pools? Why don’t I see anyone mentioning that wizards are rich and powerful (because they have magical powers), so they live in large expensive houses, which in a medieval setting are often castles with towers?

bidirectional 5y ago
The trope is not 'castles with towers' though, but thin, tall, vertical structures.
lewispollard 5y ago
Well, no one said anything about castles, and I don't think the wizard trope generally includes "rich"

TheAceOfHearts 5y ago

A wizard builds a tall tower to test themselves and to demonstrate their powers to the universe. In order to build a tower that reaches into the heavens you require a strong foundation and the capability to enchant the building against the elements. In a way, it's a fitting example of how perspective can shape your perception of reality. From the ground you can't see far but the details are easy to make out, as you rise you're able to see further away in less detail, but as you continue rising your vision eventually becomes obscured by the clouds, and finally you reach the vastness of space.

shantara 5y ago

Observatory towers like Copenhagen’s Rundetaarn are probably the closest real world inspiration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundetaarn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundetaarn

tasha0663 5y ago

Isolation, better observation of the heavens, doubles as a rookery for sending and receiving grim tidings, proximity to the dungeons and/or tower prisoners in case you need a research spec-*ahem* volunteer. And if you blow the place up running arcane experiments or attempting congress with demons, hopefully the damage is contained.

tryauuum 5y ago

They actually don't live in towers by choice. The truth is, magic affects the reality around them. Buildings get taller, clothes baggier, hats siller. Hopefully this affects human height and dick size as well

carlos__sorry 5y ago
I’m an MIT-educated (vi) paranoid schizophrenic and I can attest that, after ten years of hellish voices lurking behind every real-world cupboard, my “mental palace” did evolve to a tower. This eventually deferred to the ageless and permanent shelter of a pyramid: we’re much more happy with the sand and silence. My dick size, for what it’s worth, has not changed.

JoeyBananas 5y ago

I'm pretty sure this trope started with Tolkien, like so many other DnD tropes.

tzs 5y ago

A tower might have advantages against long range ballistic attacks. Consider a wizard who owns a building that is being attacked by an enemy lobbing projectiles, and assume that the building is either box shaped or is a cylindrical tower. If it is a long range attack all the projectiles arriving in the target area of the building will be traveling almost in parallel. Due to uncertainty and imprecision in aiming they will be randomly distributed over an area. Suppose the sun at the time of the attack happens to be positioned such that sunlight near the building is moving in the same direction as the projectiles. A projectile that would have hit a given point on the ground if the building had not been present hits the building if and only if either that point is directly under the building or that point is in the building's shadow. Let's call the area directly under the building plus the area in shadow the building's target area. The chances of being hit by a given random projectile are proportional to the target area. Now lets compare towers with boxes. Suppose the projectiles are coming in at a 45 degree angle. Consider a wizard with a cylindrical tower with a radius of 10 m that has 10 floors with 3 m between floors. The gives floor space of around 3100 m^2. A one story box with the same floor space would have a target area of 3250 m^2, assuming a square floor plan and the attack is coming in from a direction perpendicular to one of the sides. The tower, if I've done the math right, has a target area of around 900 m^2. If we double the height of the tower, making it 20 floors and ~6300 m^2, its target area is ~1500 m^2. A 6300 m^2 box with a square floor plan has a target area of ~6500 m^2. Note that doubling the area of the box doubled the target area, but doubling the area of the tower only made the target around about 67% bigger. For the one story box, target area is always larger then floor area, and the ratio approaches 1 as floor area goes up. For the 10 m radius tower with floors 3 m apart, the ratio of target area to floor area goes to ~0.19 as the number of floors goes up. Although tower wizard's chances of getting hit by a random projectile are lower the box wizard's chances, it should be noted that a hit on the tower is potentially more damaging than a hit on the box. Box wizard doesn't have to worry about a lucky shot collapsing his building. When deciding which kind of building to build, you need to take into account your enemies and decide whether whether a higher chance of a hit being a critical hit is worth a lower chance of not getting hit.

jonathf 5y ago

According to my tour guide at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, preservation of books back in the olden days was all about reducing humidity. And the best way to achieve this before proper isolation were invented was to bring them up as high as possible. Rich people who collected books therefore always kept their books upstairs. Also the curators of such collections are also often scholars. Old men, going up stairs to read their old books. An hypothesis on my part of course, but to me I can se how this over generations gets morphed into "wizards in towers".

YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago

Last reply is the most well-sourced: In short, according to official Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks, powerful wizards often live in towers because they can create towers quite easily using magic, and have need of a highly defensible home for reasons of security and privacy. They have many valuable belongings which they need to protect from theft or harm, especially while they're away. They often undertake long periods of research or item crafting where they don't want to be disturbed, and often have enemies or rivals who want to attack them or steal their magical research or items. They may also wield significant personal and regional power and require a base of operations from which to control the local area. All these things necessitate a defensible home, and a tall tower or castle of some sort is a time-tested solution to this. https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/196562 https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/196562

pvaldes 5y ago

Mud. Lots of mud. And flooding is bad for the books

slowhadoken 5y ago

I wish people would stop using the word “trope” in place of “convention” or “cliche”. It drives me up a wall. It signals to me that you don’t care about story as much as you care about issues disguised as themes.

stakkur 5y ago

No, but the ‘why’ is fairly simple: early RPGs (like D&D) drew heavily on existing fantasy stories, and ‘wizard in a tower’ was a popular theme. Is this not common knowledge?

chezzwizz 5y ago

I don't know if this is intended to be analogus, but line of sight seems pretty compelling.

da39a3ee 5y ago

I'm a very boring person, and apparently an easily annoyed one: it annoys me the way these silly geeky fantasy questions appear in the side panel in stack overflow when I'm trying to read my serious professional programming questions. On the plus side it made me very happy when I discovered that modern adblockers contain functionality for hiding arbitrary page elements.

betatron 5y ago

SPELL AREA. A tower, shaped as a square, a hexagon, or usually a circle, is a series of limited closed spaces, stacked upon themselves. Any area spell a wizard casts, centered on himself, will probably cover an entire floor. Making the structure easy to defend. Besides, consider the scenario: attackers in the low floor, wizard can see them by a hole in the ceiling. Through the same hole, the wizard can cast a cone area spell that will hit everyone in the floor below. This spell may not kill the entire party, but the wizard can rinse and repeat, going up the tower, wearing down the attackers, until he wins. And that is just one strategy the wizard can use. So, in towers, ONE wizard, can stop an army.

anothernewdude 5y ago

Wizards have towers, Warlocks have mountains