Profiles in History: The Archons

Forgive me if I begin by talking about people you have never heard of. It will all get to the point eventually.

Once, long ago when the Dericost Empire ruled a large part of Auberean, there was a secret society called the Disciples of Blood. These mages developed a means of draining a person's memories, leaving him a mindless husk. This practice served them both as a means of punishment and as a source of useful information, which they stored in a small green triangular crystal. The Dericost word for this container has not come down to us, but we call it a Mnemosyne (ne-MO-si-ney), after the Rouleian name of the goddess Memory, mother of the Arts. Geraine's Filinuvekta discovered the Disciples and destroyed them; but the technique for making Mnemosynes remained hidden away in the archives.

Ages later, in the days of the Fourth Sending, when Bael'Zharon had been released from his crystal prison and was raging across Dereth with his army of Shadows, a Dericost scholar named Tennar Portheran feared that many of his people would be lost in the coming war and that their heritage and culture would be lost with them. In the archives he found the instructions for making the Mnemosynes. Any undead Dericost noble who was deemed to have memories important enough to preserve, kept a Mnemosyne on his person which would record his memories upon his destruction. But Portheran wanted to keep the knowledge safe from unauthorized view, so he determined to provide the Mnemosynes with locks--only to find that none of his own people had sufficient skill at lockmaking to fashion the appropriate keys. Portheran must therefore turn to an Isparian lockpicker named Vinchlane Dranal, offering him a great price to create the keys that would unlock the Mnemosynes once they were safely in Dericost hands. But Dranal was no fool; he suspected that immediately he had delivered the keys to Portheran, the undead lord would slay him. He therefore left instructions, in the form of a document called "Mnemosynes and the Art of Lockpicking," with a friend. He went to his appointment with Portheran; Portheran killed him--but Portheran was himself killed in the Shadow Wars, leaving no Dericost with the knowledge of how to unlock the Mnemosynes.

Portheran had had three servants, scholars and archivists, whom he had set up in a cavern near Samsur to receive the Mnemosynes. They were Saelar of Menilesh, Renselm, and Hahnain. They must wait to carry out their charge until the craft of keymaking had spread among the Humans and they had learned to unlock Mnemosynes and deliver them to the scholars in exchange for pyreal coin and prestige. Strange situation: only the Humans could unlock the Mnemosynes; only the Dericost (much to the chagrin of Lore-seeking Humans) could read them.

The journal of Ispar Mariamaua tells of such a meeting. "I found the undead Saelar in the cavern, a skeleton with a few tight strips of dried flesh stretched over his bones, trembling slowly in the near-darkness as if he still breathed. I gave him the tiny Mnemosyne that I had unlocked with the wooden key, and the trembling increased; the strips of skin fluttered like aspen leaves with some unnamed emotion. 'By His Name Who walks eternal!' he cried. 'I had never hoped to see these memories again.' Or I think that is what he said: his agitation alarmed me and I quickly portaled away, wondering who it might be Who walks eternal, and what His Name could be." In the days shortly after the Fourth Sending, of course, neither Mariamaua nor any other Isparian had heard the name of Geraine.

From this point there are gaps in the records. We do not know when Geraine next woke from sleep. The Oriad Menhir tells us that Aerfalle, having faced the Hopeslayer twice before (during the Shadow Wars and the Fourth Sending), was determined to cast him down when he arose once more at the end of the Golden Age, in the Fifth Sending. "Now, she swore, the Firstborn would triumph. All they needed was the book."

The Book of Eibhil, full of old Falatacot magic, had been hidden away for ages. It had at one time been possessed by the Gelidites of Frore, but neither the ill-fated Sir Joffre Tremblant nor the more fortunate Abrim, who stormed Frore's gates, found any trace of it. Now three Dericost archivists were assigned to find it: the same Saelar, Renselm, and Hahnain who had been patiently gathering Mnemosynes outside Samsur for a century and more. They found it at last in the Olthoi-haunted caverns of Vasmora below the plain of Gelid in Dericost, where Geraine's servant Amauxi had hidden it before he was destroyed. Perhaps their long years of reading salvaged memories enabled them to locate the Book where others might have failed. Perhaps it was through no virtue of their own that they achieved it; for the Malthabbor Menhir says enigmatically, "In the end, the Firstborn did not find the book. It found them."

What happened after that has been told elsewhere: Geraine used the Book of Eibhil to steal the Menhirs that channeled Asheron's magic, and cast down the Three Kings. The Nemesis races drove us into the Shelters, and there we remained for ten generations.

Much later, we learned what happened next: Geraine called the archivists before him at the celebration opening the new Mage Academy in Linvak, praised them for their efforts and gave them the title of Archons of the Way (which translated out of poetic metaphor means only Chief Archivists), to be theirs forever. Rytheran, speaking to Saelar afterwards, was surprised at his anger: "nothing but a title, when we were responsible for his victory!" But the Archons did not rebel against Geraine openly. They murmured. They bided. And Geraine sank back into sleep, as did Aerfalle.

Shortly after our exodus from the Shelters began, in Morningthaw PY 499, adventurers began to report occasional attacks by armies of undead mortals (Skeletons in Osteth, Bal in Omishan, Flayers in Linvak Massif), led by the Dericost scholars turned generals. They were driven back with difficulty, if at all, and they were overheard saying some interesting things:

"What fools we were to wait so long."

"The Book has truly been a boon to us!"

"Geraine, ungrateful wretch. Even after 15,000 years he is still a spoiled prince."

"Ha! Sleep on, Geraine! You will lose your throne once more."

"The old witch isn't the only one who can animate those who've been long asleep!"

"It is always fascinating to see how beliefs of the reanimated creature affect its physical appearance!"

"These reanimated Lugians will be of service until the necropolis is ours."

(Which sheds some light on the question that many have asked, "Why do Flayers have twice as many arms in death as they had in life?")

And, as the Drudges began to dam the River Prosper to drain Lake Artefon and reveal the Necropolis beneath, a document was found on the shore that read: "Those who command the Burun and the Gurog are pleased with your efforts. Continue to maintain the dam so that the mortal's necropolis is revealed. there is much there that may be of aid to us. Failure in your duties would result in unpleasantness. We recommend you do not fail." And it was titled, "Archons' Edict."

"Archon," by the way, is another old Rouleian word, meaning "ruler," here used to translate a Dericost term that is difficult to pronounce. The former archivists had set up in business on their own.

In subsequent months the Archons opened the tombs of many heroes of the Golden Age and set up an eidolon (another Rouleian word, meaning "image") of each in their underground Holdings on the Linvak Massif. Others they turned into walking undead and sent them forth to fight against their descendants. Adventurers who fought their way into the Holding found the eidola of Elysa Strathelar, Aun Aulatah, and Lord Kresovus, and received from them Mnemosynes containing their final thoughts, and giving them quests to fulfill. Further into the Holding they found a page from the Book of Eibhil, and with its aid they made their way into Aerfalle's sleeping chamber and awoke her. Learning from their minds what had befallen while she slept, she went off at once to rouse Rytheran and Geraine.

The Archons and their rebel followers, and Rytheran and his Loyalists, each set up camp far to the north of Osteth, and summoned their troops ... including those mortals who wished it; yes, they were willing even to take on mercenaries from among their despised enemies, and many joined one side or another ... or joined one side and then the other, turning their coats day by day for the love of combat and the experience that comes of it. Others said firmly "A plague of both your houses" and stayed away.

As the year ended, the battle began: living and undead struggled and fell. The Archons' forces were victorious. They struck down Rytheran. They struck down Aerfalle; but as she fell she made a gesture. The air trembled. The Archons' cry of victory resounded through all Dereth ... and Geraine appeared.

"You've come far, my Archons of the Way, but I see you've listened to the Book's whispers and been tempted by its promises of power. Now it has led you to this end. There is nothing left but to settle this revolt. Shall we?"

The Archons had the Book of Eibhil. Geraine had his long experience in the mastery of magic, including what he himself had read in the Book. But in the end it was the Book itself that prevailed. Saelar invoked the Book's most ancient spell, perhaps not aware that it would unmake the world. When he realized what he had done, he could only call for help: "Cannot... stop... the void... the void calls... for release. Ancient crimes... Stop... Stop!"

Geraine spoke: and the Archons vanished in a swirl of chaotic energy; in their place stood a writhing Chaos Archon, blended from the remnants of the three of them and embodying the gateway into Chaos. Vicious and powerful: but the remaining mortal warriors were cutting it down. As it fell, Geraine ran to its dissolving body and stepped through the gate. Tales tell that he faced the spirit of Eibhil and destroyed it; that he spoke the final spell and went beyond the boundaries of the world we know in search of the Kemeroi that created the Book, to battle and overcome it. We know only that he has never been seen on Auberean since.

But the Archons linger, in a sense: in the Master Vaults of the three continents their Warped Aspects linger, to be cut down by any competent band of Heroes, for the love of combat and the experience that comes of it. Sometimes the Warped Saelar's Aspect speaks: "The void... the void..." or "Rytheran... help..." but there is no help for him, and Rytheran is far away on Knorr. Armed with the Heart, the Eye, and the Hand of the fallen Archons, the Heroes may go on into the Chaos Planes to battle the Chaos Eidolon, last trapped remnant of a power that might have split the world apart.