UO Stratics - Baja - The Kingdom of Dawn

"A Mage Tower is a collection of characters (and their players) drawn together in the interests of role playing, exchange of ideas, and most of all, fun. It's a place to begin adventures, to learn the tricks of the trade, to practice, and to spend some time with friends. The Mage Tower is a neutral zone, and we don't care if you are red, blue, or grey. We have only 3 rules: no killing; no stealing; no looting (well, not unless you ask first). These rules can be summed up quite simply: No acting like a jerk. We provide a guildstone for those that would like the benefits of guild membership (NOTE: this is a neutral stone, it is never used for war), but you don't have to join to be a member. Becoming a member of the Mage Tower is as simple as coming and joining in the fun.."

The Baja Mage Tower was blessed by the Seer program sometime in 1998 which is when Baja's Tower was placed. The most unique things to point out are the runes at the base of steps, the tall braziers, the hedges which line the outside of the Tower, the metal doors which were dyed a copper color as well as the bulletin board outside which was also placed by a Seer.

Most of the furniture in the building has actually been "locked down" by a Seer so you may be able to click on certain pieces and it will not say that it is locked down, but it is. Although some pieces of furniture do in fact say "locked down" this was do to a few who were afraid that even though a Seer locked it down, did not want to risk losing it. Also, you can see a lot of things that are available now but were not available back in 1998. Case in point are the bookshelves on the West side of the picture above.

The MT guildstone, more decoration now than anything due to the recent addition to the guild system, stands hidden behind the forge on the main floor. The reason for the stone itself being hidden from public view is that the third *Keeper of MT, Lady Iseult, had heard rumors of an exploit where people on another shard some how found a way to release a guild stone and some how delete it. In fear Lady Iseult moved the guild stone away from the public for safe keeping.

*Keeper - The Mage Tower use to pride itself on not one person "ruling" the guild and that everyone had a say in matters so instead of calling them Guildmasters, they came up with the term "Keeper" which their main duty was to keep the stone safe so the guild may never be lost.

Upon walking up to the second floor you will see a row of dye tubs which were taken from the MT boat house and placed in the Tower by Lady Iseult. You will also notice the cave walls and the sparkles in the corner. When stepping into the sparkles you are teleported outside the entrance to Moonglow's sister city, Wind. Yes this teleporter does work so due be careful since this will teleporter you to the Felucca Wind and will be open to attack by other players. The second floor is also home to MT's study which has a few volumes of Dark Tower novels written by players of old. Some of the books on the table are old guest books signed by players dating back to 1998. There have been few times where I happened upon Lady Iseult changing out the books to keep them more recent just in case anyone stumbled into the Tower and fancied a read.

The third floor of the Tower consists of the guest room and the alchemy lab. I would again note that all that you see in the picture above (Minus the fishing net and bonsai tree) were put in place back in 1998 where most of these items were not available to the public.

On the roof of the Tower you can sit at the bar and drink a nice bottle of ale. The chest you see in this picture was once stocked with food and ale for any to take. The Mage Tower members were not shy about their drinking habits and I have learned there was once a lot of drunken fights, songs, and dances within the halls of MT.

"As a long standing member of the LSMT, I can say that the years in which I have been involved with the group are some of the best memories I have of UO. The Mage Tower is more then just a guild, or a group... but a true fellowship of people who enjoyed bringing magic to the community, in every sense of the word. It was a place you always had a warm seat, a cold drink and a hard laugh with a good friend. I will always fondly think of it as my second home... and I hope that future generation will have the opportunity to feel the same."
- John Cainbridge, Lake Superior Mage Tower, August 2009

Just west of the Tower you will find the Mage Tower boat house. The house itself was never Blessed by the Seers from the inside, but it was Blessed by them on the outside as it is the only house on Baja with its very own dock.

The boat house was given to me for safe keeping by Ivan of MT, the current Keeper. A bit of advice when inside the boat house. DO NOT USE THE LEAVE HOUSE OPTION! You will find yourself under the dock and unable to get out unless you use the stuck option or recall/sacred journey.

The inside of the boat house was decorated by the Kingdom of Dawn's very own Regent. The Grand Duchess,WildStar. Inside the wooden boxes are runebooks that will be able to take you to a few places.

I would like to take a moment to share a brief history on The Mage Tower, how they came to be and what they stood for.

The Mage Tower project was lead by Tiffric, the Fire Mage. He helped establish Towers on Chesapeake, Lake Superior, Catskills, Baja, Drachenfels and Great Lakes. Drachenfels was considered to be one of the Tower's closest to Baja's. Few people now a days can claim to have visited any, if not all of these wonderful Towers. I was lucky enough to be able to visit them all except for Drachenfels since this one came later and was not placed on Moonglow I was never able to find it.

To date, there are only two original Towers that were blessed by the Seers and they are Lake Superior and Baja. Although the Drachenfels Tower is still there, upon visiting the sign says that the Mage Tower has closed.
The Mage Tower had a dream of bringing a community together that everyone can enjoy and learn from. Every person in that community had a voice, which is why they came up with the Keeper title. There are no guildmasters, there is only the community. I enjoyed my time in MT and it gave myself a chance to meet many great people. The history of MT is a grand history that is slowly fading away from UO and one reason why I wished to do this establishment page. No guild on any server has ever been as big as MT was, we spanned across so many servers and held a few cross server events. To truly understand how to feel just how great MT once was all I could say is this:
Before coming up to the Tower itself on Baja, remind yourself that what you are about to see may be common things now, but back in 97? 98? You didn't have such items. Click on random things and you will see that a lot of the items are not locked down. The power crystals, the stone tables, the tall candles - so many things that are common now, were only a mere dream to those of us who played.

Then remember this as well, the only way anyone was able to have something blessed was if they were able to build a strong community.

I have known every single Keeper that the Baja MT has had. And so far Ivan was the only one who was able to bring forth such a strong community to MT. It was a pleasure knowing him and watching from the side lines on how he did it. And for that he will always have my upmost respect no matter what issues may arise.