# Archmages?



## Astner (Sep 1, 2012)

Does anyone use the title Archmage, and so what does it mean to you?


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## battlestar (Sep 1, 2012)

To me, archmages are mages that practice the magic of arches. 

Arch magic appeared as early as 2nd millennium BC when the concept of magic itself was still in infancy. Though seemingly a docile magic form, as many archmages now work in the construction field, arch magic can be a powerful weapon in the experienced hands of arch-archmages.  

Archmages could create an arch over themselves for shielding. They would create linking arches over their enemies for capturing. They could also directly attack a foe by landing the impost of an arch on their target. 

The application of arch magic is limited only by the imagination of its practitioner. Its most famous practitioner was Arch Arch, the Arched Arch-Archmage.


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## Astner (Sep 1, 2012)

To me they're the head of a department of mages -- compare to professor and doctors --, however not all institutes in the empire are allowed to give the title of archmage, and so grand mage is used as an unofficial substitute title.

The prestige of the title depends primarily on the institute and department, some mages are considered better than certain archmages, though it's rarely the case.


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## Feo Takahari (Sep 1, 2012)

I don't use the title "archmage," but I have something equivalent in the _Cold Steel_ universe. Spellcasters can be very roughly divided into three levels of skill and experience:

* Apprentice, with the power to (try to) kill. As an example, even the most inept fleshcrafter can randomly reshape someone else's internal organs.

* Journeyman, with the power to help and to heal. A fleshcrafter at this level can mend wounds, and can also increase someone else's muscle strength.

* Master, the equivalent to archmage, with the power to radically reconfigure. A master fleshcrafter could turn a human into a (human-sized) wolf and back again, without causing any permanent harm.


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## Mindfire (Sep 2, 2012)

I don't use the title "Archmage". I have a few characters who could somewhat be considered the equivalent, though they each have slightly different functions.

The Highseer is the religious authority of the Mako people, advisor to their king, and the de facto leader of the tribe's seers and healers, the Vicarius is a powerful mage who is also head of the (fake) state religion of Beorgia and commands a league of mage-assassins, the Fox-Lord is a former ordinary soldier granted magic powers by the divinity in order to oppose the Vicarius, etc.

So basically I'd define "archmage" to mean a powerful magic user who's also the head of some group or organization composed of other magic-users.


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## Anders Ã„mting (Sep 5, 2012)

*Arch-: *Chief, highest, most extreme. Prefix derived from the Greek _archon_, which means "higher in hierarchy." 

In other words, an archmage would be a magician who is distinctly higher in power or rank than "ordinary" magicians, or otherwise of special significance.


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## Telcontar (Sep 5, 2012)

As Anders said, the word itself denotes a real hierarchy of mages with the Archmage at the top. I use the word in a planned work - but in that world it is actually incorrectly bestowed by the masses upon a person whose power exceeds that of normal magi. It is not the title he takes for himself.


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## dangit (Oct 24, 2012)

Anders Ã„mting said:


> *Arch-: *Chief, highest, most extreme. Prefix derived from the Greek _archon_, which means "higher in hierarchy."
> 
> In other words, an archmage would be a magician who is distinctly higher in power or rank than "ordinary" magicians, or otherwise of special significance.


Anders is absolutely right.


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## psychotick (Oct 25, 2012)

Hi,

Likewise. I have used archmages in some of my work and basically use it to mean a mage of higher status / power / position than others.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Jess A (Oct 25, 2012)

Read Maggie Furey's _The Artifacts of Power_ books. I suspect I gained my idea of an Archmage from those when I was a kid. 

The Artefacts of Power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hmm, I just realised the creator of this thread has 'banned' under his/her name.


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## Mindfire (Oct 25, 2012)

Astner was BANNED??? Wow. Too bad. Guess all the arguing finally caught up with him.


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## Devor (Oct 25, 2012)

Mindfire said:


> Astner was BANNED??? Wow. Too bad. Guess all the arguing finally caught up with him.



It's unfortunate, but it happens.  It's best, I think, to just move forward.


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## Jess A (Oct 26, 2012)

Devor said:


> It's unfortunate, but it happens.  It's best, I think, to just move forward.



My point was that we were chatting in a thread where the original poster is now gone, and I noticed too late. Topic is still interesting, I suppose.


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## Zero Angel (Nov 3, 2012)

In my books, humes have eight archmagi. I don't use it much for other species, although it is not a species dependent term in my books. Elves use "archwizard" to describe their sage-level wizards (like 1-2 ranks above "master), but it is not an official title. 

The hume god of magick is known as the Archmagus, but he is the inheritor of the original seven archmagi from 40K years before. They were powerful enough to wield all of the magick of the humes and forge it into a shield to prevent travel between the realms and force elves back to their home realm. It had the inadvertent effect of making magick very difficult to manifest until the shield was destroyed 20K years later.


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## Nihilium 7th (Nov 3, 2012)

In the book I'm writing at the current moment an Archmage is a title given to mage who is a member of the Order of Arcanys who has reached a high level of prestige at an aspect that the order thinks a mage should have, be it wisdom, intelligence, creativity, will power, etc. It is the fourth highest rank and honor a member of the order can receive.


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## Wanara009 (Nov 5, 2012)

My world use the term 'archmages' interchangeably with 'sages' to denote someone who is knowledgeable in the field of magic. The Technology-side prefers using Archmages while the Magic-side prefers Sages. This is because Mage = Magic, which denote that it is alien, mysterious, and unreliable in the eye of the Technology nations. However, the Magic-side don't see magic this way (because they study it and called it The Etheric Arts instead) so they use the term sages.


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## Zero Angel (Nov 5, 2012)

Nihilium 7th said:


> In the book I'm writing at the current moment an Archmage is a title given to mage who is a member of the Order of Arcanys who has reached a high level of prestige at an aspect that the order thinks a mage should have, be it wisdom, intelligence, creativity, will power, etc. It is the fourth highest rank and honor a member of the order can receive.


What's higher than archmage?


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## Queshire (Nov 13, 2012)

hmmm.... in my setting an Archmage would be someone that has managed to glimpse the Truth about magic and not go insane or lose their magic as a result. See, the basic thing about magic in my setting is that if you truly believe in something with all your being it redefines reality. All the rituals and spells and various forms of magic and what not are essentially mnemonic devices to achieve that level of belief.

This is really, really hard. I mean, how can you convince yourself, truly and fully convince yourself in something fake? However, it's very powerful. If you can manage it you can literally warp reality, but if you can't you might loose your ability to do magic at all.


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## ThinkerX (Nov 13, 2012)

> hmmm.... in my setting an Archmage would be someone that has managed to glimpse the Truth about magic and not go insane or lose their magic as a result. See, the basic thing about magic in my setting is that if you truly believe in something with all your being it redefines reality. All the rituals and spells and various forms of magic and what not are essentially mnemonic devices to achieve that level of belief.



Quite biblical, actually.  Jesus talks about this in a couple of places.  Something to the effect of '...if he says to the moutain 'move', then the mountain shall move.'  (Then again, that might be from one of the gnostic texts.  They blur together after a while).



> This is really, really hard. I mean, how can you convince yourself, truly and fully convince yourself in something fake?



Cults - christian and nonchristian alike do this all the time - as do others.  It involves denying or altering information contrary to ones worldview, holding a single work as 'absolute truth', and other things.



> However, it's very powerful. If you can manage it you can literally warp reality, but if you can't you might loose your ability to do magic at all.



What usually happens with cults is they either breakup - reality has a head on collision with dogma, and dogma fails - OR they completely rework their beliefs, and then vehmently insist that the new beliefs were actually the real beliefs all along.  This happened several times with christianity, including the NT.


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