Archmage

An archmage is someone who can wield all poioumenonic energies as masters thereof. They use a wide variety of objects to channel these powers, but the most common is the use of magical rings made by the archmages themselves.

Becoming an Archmage

Only those with extremely long lives could possibly study and practice all of the poioumenonic arts in order to master them within their lifetimes, but many have found supernatural means to achieve this mastery:

• Alchemy: use of the Great Work to transform oneself into a master of all poioumenonic flows. See alchemy for details of this transformation process.
• Arcanum: unlocking the secrets of all poioumenonic arts. Unlocking the power of arcanum to become an archmage requires use of arcane revelation to investigate the mysteries of narrative magic. If this has ever been done, the secret is well kept. Beyond the theoretical potential of unlocking these secrets, there is no evidence of this every working.
• Bondsmagic: bonding into the correct configuration of ethereal essence to draw upon powers that allow for control of all forms of poioumenon. See below.
• Brewing: the creation of brews that give the drinker the powers to control all forms of poioumenon.
• Ceardaíocht: fey crafting by the cruth to create objects that allow for mastery of all the forms of poioumenonic arts.
• Dialectics: drawing upon historical archmages to become one oneself. As archmages are notoriously secretive, this will require incredible persuasion, stealth, or powers. See dialectician for how to review time.
• Enchantment: enchantment of objects or gathering of enchanted objects to give the same powers as an archmage.
• Festivities: celebrations using stagma to grant someone a form of control of poioumenonic energies.
• Fortune-vaning: just lucking into it. Extremely improbable, of course, but that's the point.
• Grinning menace: the use of unfugl to create lateral jumps in the narrative flows to become an archmage.
• Imaging: crafting of images that open gateways into dreams to become an archmage.
• Magic: using mana to cast spells that empower the user to control other energies.
• Scrying: finding a path through fate to becoming an archmage, sealing one's fate. See seer for more information on how viewing fate works.
• Spinning: spinning one's fate to become an archmage. See spinner or voelva for how spinning fate works.
• Symbology: invoking ancient, lost symbols of power to become an archmage.
• Witchcraft: using the lore to unlock powers forbidden to become an archmage.
• Wyrding: commanding the narrative flow to draw upon legends.

The Ethereal Configuration

In order to become an archmage through bondsmagic, a bondsmage must find masters of each form of poioumenonic arts and bond with them in a specific configuration called the Undecim Pontes.

1. First, bond with a master of mana, a powerful mage, wizard, or witch, preferably from a culture stepped in the use of mana. A member of the Cunning would be ideal.
2. Second, bond yourself and your master mage to a skilled dialectician, preferably a yokai or someone from a similar culture. These bonds must flow in all three directions.
3. Third, bond this triple set (not all three, but three as one) to a master imager, one who has walked the Dream Realm. They must have a mirror capable to reflecting the bond back to the triple set, creating a two-way bond.
4. Fourth, bond just the imager to a seer, who will see their own fate reflected in the mirror. This seer should be an ancient master of the art of scrying and able to safely traverse the threads without binding to a specific fate, unless that fate is the one in which the bondsmage becomes an archmage. The imager's mirror will make any false fates illusory, theoretically. If the seer is of a culture steeped in the arts of fateweaving, such as a djinn, all the better. One may use a voelva or spinner instead, but this requires the mage be a witch.
5. Fifth, the trio from the first two bonds must be bonded to a symbologer, preferably of the thaumari, but not necessarily. The symbologer must have at least one greater symbol.
6. Sixth, the original bondsmage should bond themself and the symbologer to a brewer or cupbearer or similar user of stagma, preferably one of the insulari, while all three are drunk. This will create another triple bond.
7. Seventh, a bond must connect all seven to someone with good luck. A single bond from seven people to one person, which is absurdly difficult. Also, the seer and the person with good luck cannot have a direct bond, so the singular bond must connect them through someone else, preferably the cupbearer.
8. Eighth, the imager should be connected, and only the imager, to an arcanist or similar wielder of ArcaneShadow, preferably a cyclops, though these are very rare and hard to find. This bond should be hidden from all of the others.
9. Eighth, because the last bond is hidden, "eighth", the cupbearer must be bonded to a grinning mage, especially a dvergar one if possible, forming a third trio with the bondsmage. This bond will be unstable, and it must remain that way without breaking. Somehow.
10. Ninth, someone who has been irradiated must be bonded to the three trios at once. Or a hand can be used.
11. Tenth, finally, they must bond a wyrder, preferably an orisha or a fairy, in such a way to form a complete loop between all of them.

If this is done correctly (ha, good luck), one will have the powers of an archmage, if and only if everyone in the sequence is a master of their respective crafts.

Brewing Powers

Those who know how to use stagma may find out about the special brews that can give those who drink them power over the forms of poioumenon, but to make them in the right sequence, with the right counter-potions, with the correct timing, with the correct measurements, etc. all while drunk... is very difficult. The potions, recipes, and other requirements are

1. Find a bottle of sake that was at least 1,000 years old. Save this for later.
2. Find the 11 legendary ingredients for a tincture of elevens, the most powerful liquid form of mana. Start brewing it.
3. Start with a base of pure stagma. Get very drunk off of it.
4. Put in the second ingredient of the tincture.
5. Take liquid ethereal essence in a cup made of a kind of wood with poioumenonic energies in it, mix it with stagmatic wine. Drink this on a night with three full moons, while dancing naked around a natural tree stump.
6. Put in the third ingredient of the tincture.
7. Wake up somewhere unexpected and capture your urine. Boil it for three hours, capturing the steam. Filter the steam through a cloth made of pyrite, and use that to filter a brew of raspberry tea. Get drunk on stagma again, then take the tea back to where you woke up. Drink it.
8. Put in the fourth ingredient of the tincture.
9. Now take out the sake from earlier. Pull out mementos of your own past to reminisce upon while drunk on pure stagma and sake. Make sure you do not ponder your future. Do not consider other possibilities. Focus only on the past, and while doing so, hope like hell you dream.
10. Dream of fairy whisky. Drink it in one's dreams. If you fail to do this, start the whole process over again.
11. Put in the fifth ingredient of the tincture.
12. Get the poioumenonic cup from earlier. Use it to mix a brew containing one of the greater symbols, bought fairly from a symbologer or alchemist. Also mix a luck potion, using all seven lucky ingredients. Mix these together. Make sure your luck is good, and that you are still drunk, then drink it.
13. Put in the sixth ingredient of the tincture.
14. Find some arak (a Mahadi liquor). Mix it with the sands of fate. Take a single drop of liquid ArcaneShadow distilled from a secret recipe of unknown origin. Drop the drop in your eye at the exact same time you drink the arak mixture, so that you see and don't see fate at the same time. While drunk.
15. Put in the seventh and eighth ingredients of the tincture.
16. Brew a radioactive drink of any kind. Coat your insides with protective materials. Drink the radioactive brew. Be sick for a long time, but do not throw up anything you have drunk thus far. Stay drunk, which might make this part easier.
17. Put in the ninth ingredient of the tincture.
18. Put in the tenth ingredient of the tincture.
19. Be sure you're still drunk. Serve pure stagma to at least six other people at a party. Dance with all of them, and sleep with at least one if possible.
20. Put in the eleventh ingredient of the tincture.
21. Sing stagmatic songs all night long.
22. Drink the tincture of elevens before the moons go down.
23. Use the incredible magical power this legendary tincture gives you to fashion a magical decanter called a musafaq. Make sure you are still drunk,
24. Find the nine ingredients of the legendary potion known as Omi Àlàyé. This requires witchroot pulled under a triple full moon, an ata (pepper of legend) from western Taggarus, an egg laid by a rooster, the teeth of a newborn, a coin made of vorpal, six drops of geranium tea, a dragon's tears, an ancestral relic of the brewer's family, and the ashes of a forgotten hero.
25. Be drunk still.
26. Finish brewing the Omi Àlàyé before the sun sets.
27. Drink it.
28. Don't die from being overwhelmed by magical power.
29. Wake up, still drunk, permanently drunk, but also a master of all poioumenonic energies.

At least three of these steps are impossible.

The 12 Rings

A cruth or enchanter may create magical objects of incredible power that give them the abilities of an archmage. These usually take the form of 12 rings, and each one is extremely difficult to create:

• A common ring of uncommon metal. Specifically, uranium or another rare, radioactive metal that should not be worn by mortals who value their health. Crafted or forged simply, but with care.
• An esoteric pyrite ring with flakes of real gold within, made with materials found unexpectedly, designed to fit only the pinky fingers of the wearer (or equivalent). It must be made in a mold of ottun, deep underground, near a magma flow, and three spells of unfugl must be lain into it as it is forged: one to grant the user cunning, one to grant them stealth, and one to grant them speed. Finally, it must allow the user to sense trouble.
• An esoteric ring produced of chrysopoeim, the byproduct of an alchemical work, that resulted in a completion of the Great Work, thus transforming the practicioner - but it may not be the crafter who transformed. This ring must be made with a greater symbol engraved in its interior, thus allowing the wearer to interpret symbols more clearly.
• An esoteric ring of ambrosium, studded with three aole ona stones equidistant from one another. It must be cooled with liquid stagma and then kept through three winters under a frozen lake, near to a community that performs the festivities of the seasons. This ring must then be honored in a feast held by up to six people, one of which is the crafter. During the feast, each guest must raise a toast to the ring (and/or the crafter), calling upon the imbuing in the ring of a power of celebration.
• An esoteric ring of 12-linked jidhiry entwined with a ring of 7-linked jidhiry, the process of creating the links being complex and difficult of its own right. Once created, the ring must be kept until the end of the craftings so it may bond all 12 rings to each other and the crafter.
• An esoteric ring of kinzoka with a fossil stud in it. The metal must be at least 1,000 years old, and the fossil must be older than the crafter's species. The ring must be an exact replica of an ancient ring from the crafter's culture, and it must sharpen the crafter's power to review history.
• An esoteric ring of oneirium studded with a clochcorcra and woven in a thin silver wire net, made to match the crafter's dreams--the crafter must record their dreams for six nights, then use them for inspiration to craft the ring. It must then sleep under the pillow, bed, or resting place of the crafter for a year and a day without being disturbed by a nightmare or unslept upon by the crafter, save for a night of three new moons. Once done, the ring must allow the crafter to perfectly remember all dreams.
• An esoteric ring of good luck, in whatever form that may take, that aids the crafter's ability to sense the winds of fortune.
• An esoteric ring of quickwolfram, a liquid metal that must remain liquid yet wearable as a ring, tied up with a simple piece of common thread. The ring must then contain a jinni.
• An esoteric ring of quickcopper, a liquid metal that must remain liquid yet wearable as a ring, with a lyngurium stone in it. It must be woven with secrets and not shown to anyone, ever, so that it may be empowered to allow the wearer to sense mysteries.
• An esoteric ring of elevenium covered in common blue enamel, made with eleven spells of great power stored within it, then discharged and refilled eleven times, eventually having eleven spells that allow the wearer to see mana.
• And finally, an esoteric ring of common baobab wood, dyed indigo and russet and green, with a thousand and one stories told into it as it is tightly woven.

Once all twelve rings are made, they must be used to connect one another to each other and the crafter, thus unlocking their full might. The downside to this method is that if any ring is lost, all the power is lost.

festivities?

lateral leaps of unfugl

Dream Reflections

The Eleven Legendary Spells

The Symbols of Power

Forbidden Witchcraft

Drawing Upon Legends

Mixed Methods