Marble Archive
TR
Organisation

Archon Academy

CanonOfficial lore from the booksSSGp. 3, 11-13, 15-17, 39, 42, 44SoVp. 43, 57-58, 220MCp. 40, 60, 77, 82, 94, 104, 136, 146, 198, 201DoTp. 22

Archon Academy, or simply Archon, is the largest and most powerful school of magic in the realm. After the War of the Immortal Mages it was isolated on a vast floating landmass in the north-west of the Lands of Exile, hovering above the Great Western Sea. The enchantment that holds the whole island aloft is counted the most potent magical relic to survive undisturbed in the realm.1

Founding

Towards the end of the Second Age a human scholar named Xeratos learned to work magic through books and arcane knowledge, as the elves did, and developed a method of his own. He was one of the founders of the Academy. When his prophecies of a second Desolation went unheeded, despite his position and prestige, he became a fugitive, and his students followed him.2

A school and a prison

Attendance at Archon is compulsory for anyone with magical ability; every identified wielder of magic is sent there young. The Academy lets wizards work without being wiped out and grants them some autonomy, but it is also a kind of imprisonment, and it is spoken of as both university and prison. Every Archon wizard bears an unmistakable magical tattoo around the neck, and their blood is bound to Archon for ever.13

Archon promises a life that an ordinary peasant child could never dream of, yet some have reasons to escape that fate. It is said that those who can harness and direct magical power become invaluable resources for the emperor. All sanctioned casters are those who were trained at Archon.3

The future abjurer Willford the Hexbreaker, son of a commander in the Northern Provinces, was eight when a professor of Archon recognised his potential and spoke with his father. His father, who disdained sorcerers, hesitated, but allowed the boy to be tested; the tests showed remarkable promise, and Willford cast his first spell within a month at Archon.4

The lowest-ranking members are the apprentices. Even earning that title takes much time and effort, and until then a student may not leave the Academy's grounds. Apprentices know little of magic's secrets, but every great wizard of the Empire was once an Archon apprentice.5

The Blood Archive

Since the folly of the immortal wizards, anyone able to work arcane magic has been taken from their family by imperial decree and made to attend Archon. The practice continues to this day: the blood of potential spellcasters, including those who work magic in other ways, is collected and stored in a colossal vault called the Blood Archive. Through it the Empire can find a spellcaster anywhere in the realm, even after graduation; the vault safeguards Archon's assets and is a precaution against rogue casters.7

The blood is processed mainly by experts in dririmancy, an art developed almost entirely by human wizards, and the Academy has the most advanced dririmancy laboratory in the Lands of Exile. The portable blood vessels called Red Vas are smaller, less capable versions of a massive contraption at the Academy.7

A wizard's blood can be taken back out of the Blood Archive only with a special insignia of honour bestowed by the emperor in person. The act signifies the civilised world's complete trust in that wizard.7

In history

When a cabal of arcane scholars found a ritual of immortality in 1768 BVD, most of the Academy supported the immortal wizards. The war that followed is the reason the Academy now hangs in the sky.61 On Victory Day, when the forces of the Heralds clashed with the Grand Alliance outside Marble City, it stood with the High Church behind the Chain Wardens' ritual that defeated the darkness.8

Archon wizards skilled in illumination spells went underground with the legions of Emperor Conrad II in the Dauntless Crusade, and after the death of Conrad the Conqueror, the Academy created tireless, ever-vigilant construct guardians for the royal family.910 During the Skolpa Scourge the northern raiders managed to cut the Academy off from the Farr Islands and the Empire.11

In 285 AVD the young and ambitious Archon wizard Castor Onerio gathered scientists, explorers, sailors, historians and wizards and sailed west, on the voyage that found Canarque, the New World.12

Magic for the Empire

The Empire's gunpowder, once a craft of dwarves and gnomes, is now made through the partnership of imperial engineers and Archon wizards.13 Its production requires magic and science to work together: wizards specialising in metallurgy and magical alloys work with alchemists from the imperial engineering facilities, mainly in Westreach, and the work is expensive, risky and slow.14

Over the past decade, imperial engineers, Archon wizards and gnome craftsmen gathered from many regions have together built the two hellfire cannons Gloria and Invictor.15 The arcanists of Archon also created the secret weapon called the Blade of Thaluantor, a magical concoction that gave Kaldor his psychic power when it touched his skin.16

Towers beyond the island

Ages after the Academy's exile, Emperor Falkred allowed it to found affiliated training towers elsewhere in the realm. Wizards everywhere welcomed the decision; the Holy Inquisition protested.1 Some conspiracy theorists believe the secret society known as The Hand pulled the strings behind it, though the truth cannot be known.17

Graduates and outsiders

Archon wizards are seldom seen working as mercenaries, yet several of the Empire's hired swords studied there.4

Marisela Stormweaver of the Brine Blades has spoken of wanting to use her magical talents freely, without the limits Archon imposes.22 Among the nobility, the lord of House Arvantess was known for his close relations with Archon and the Empire's other secular orders.23

Game Master’s section

Sealed. Break the seal to read it; it may spoil your game.

Notes

  1. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 39
  2. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 11
  3. ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, pp. 57-58
  4. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 146
  5. ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 220
  6. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 12
  7. ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 43
  8. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 13
  9. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 15
  10. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 44
  11. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 16
  12. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 17
  13. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 3
  14. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 198
  15. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 201
  16. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 94
  17. ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 42
  18. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 40
  19. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 77
  20. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 136
  21. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 60
  22. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 82
  23. ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 104

Sources

This article draws on:

  • SSGLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide(Bad Badger Games, 2024), pp. 3, 11-13, 15-17, 39, 42, 44
  • SoVShadow Over Vansreik(Bad Badger Games, 2024), pp. 43, 57-58, 220
  • MCMercenary Compendium(Bad Badger Games, 2024), pp. 40, 60, 77, 82, 94, 104, 136, 146, 198, 201
  • DoTDesolation of Time(Bad Badger Games, 2024), p. 22

Images in this article

In Archon Academy

CharacterHorus MaxwellA grandmaster of conjuration at the Archon in the Mürekkep ve Çelik campaign, who chairs the board that examines Castor's two theses, leads him down to the sunken city of the master's exam and offers him a place in his research circle.CharacterNocklinThe young master of applied offensive magic at the Archon in the Mürekkep ve Çelik campaign, Castor's admired teacher, who sends him into the Golden Arrow to find the disciples of a mage returned from death.CharacterRiklonThe master of the infirmary at the Archon in the Mürekkep ve Çelik campaign, a healer who is not a priest and who nurses Castor back to health several times, after the witch hunters' torture and after the battle at the Dwarf Gate.

Related articles

RegionThe EmpireThe human realm at the heart of the Lands of Exile, an absolute monarchy heavily shaped by faith, ruled from Marble City by the unbroken line of the Red Eagle and divided into five provinces under their Sovereigns.EventThe SanctionThe imperial decree of 1203 BVD, issued by Emperor Valigard IV after the war of the immortal mages, that binds every mage to the Archon Academy and remains in effect today.PeopleRevivedPeople who died and were brought back among the living, remembering nothing of the afterlife but a voice calling them back, and living with the secret of their return.EventWar of the Immortal MagesThe long, devastating war among wizards that followed the discovery, in 1768 BVD, of a ritual that made its subjects unable to die, and that left the realm's lasting fear of magic.RegionLands of ExileThe northern lands of Caligran where the ancient races took refuge after the Desolation, with the Empire at their heart, a harsh world of rare magic, scarce learning, many faiths and dangerous wilds.OrganisationHigh ChurchThe religious power that stands above the temples of the Empire and binds them together, seated at the First Cathedral in Sanctuary and led by the Supreme Patriarch; its influence on people, wealth and politics is unmatched.OrganisationHoly InquisitionA fanatical order of witch hunters that hunts illegal sorcerers, cultists and cursed creatures across the Empire, judging them by the verdicts of the Magnus Malus.OrganisationCoalition of EnlightenmentA leaderless but united community of scientists from every people and culture of the realm, who seek to replace feared magic with technology and to make science a power in its own right.OrganisationFasbarn CollegeThe most prestigious of the Empire's art schools, a school of music and the arts in Bluelands named after the legendary bard Fasbarn the Cunning.OrganisationGrey OwlThe secret service of the Empire, whose agents work in the shadows against threats within and beyond its borders and are feared even by the Inquisition.