The six skyscrapers of Bedenheim, known as the Sacred Towers, had long been neglected and left in disrepair due to their malfunctioning elevators.

While the ancient floating architectural relic of the Golden Age, Raftel, was inaccessible due to powerful security barriers, the Sacred Towers were left in their current state due to far more practical issues.

The inability to travel up and down the high floors without elevators was a problem, but even more pressing were issues like access to drinking water and functioning bathrooms.

When the towers were first constructed during the Dark Age of Fanaticism, the elevators had worked, albeit briefly. At the time, mages were poorly treated and exploited like slaves for minimal pay, allowing the elevators to function for a short while.

But that did not last. As the fanaticism of the Dark Age peaked, the remaining mages fled underground, and the elevators eventually ceased to operate altogether.

When the Age of Barbarism followed, the towers’ upper floors—anything above the 10th—were essentially abandoned.

Later, with the advent of the Silver Age, when mages could openly practice their craft again, the elevators still weren’t repaired. The reason was simple: the costs were astronomical.