Archmage
Archmage is an Imperial title bestowed upon a magician. There are six archmagi in the Conclave; one for each of the Magical Realms. They are appointed by the Imperial Conclave, and serve as representatives of that august body, as well as helping to control the use of the Conclave's resources.
There are six archmagi to match the six realms into which magic is divided. The titles are not purely ceremonial; Imperial citizens, the Senate, the Military Council, foreign dignitaries and Eternals assume that a given archmage is well-versed in the capabilities and lore of their Realm. While these are political positions, there have been unpleasent incidents in the past when (for example) a Summer Archmage with no real understanding of the Summer realm has been asked to address the Senate or to meet with a Summer Eternal.
Each archmage is addressed by their title and the name of the Realm of magic they stand for - Tavistock, Archmage of Spring or Archmage Reyon d'Esange of Summer. The title archmage comes originally from Urizen, a development of the title mage which is used in that nation to represent a political magician.
Powers of an Archmage
There are six Archmagi, one for each Realm of magic (Autumn, Day, Night, Spring, Summer and Winter). Each archmage is a separate Imperial title; as with all other Imperial titles it prevents the holder from holding any other Imperial title (including that of a different archmage).
Guiding the Conclave
Each archmage may add a single item to the agenda for free before each session of the Conclave. They have the option to make their agenda item a secret, which is referred to as the veil of night. It is then recorded only as "The archmage of (Realm) proposes a motion."
Gatekeepers of the Vault
The archmagi are responsible for hearing the gambits proposed by the orders of the Conclave and deciding which should be approved. Each position has their own store of resources and materials which is maintained by the civil service. It should be noted that the archmage can only access these resources in the context of resourcing a gambit - they are not for the personal use of the archmage.
Staff of the Archmage
The archmage takes custody of the ceremonial staff of the archmage. This staff is enchanted anew each year. If the archmage loses their position, the staff must be given to the new archmage. If the archmage's staff is lost or stolen it may be replaced depending on the resources available to the Conclave; otherwise it remains lost until the next Winter solstice when the civil service arranges a replacement. Theft of an archmage's staff is a very serious business. Archmagi are encouraged to take all appropriate precautions to keep the staff safe (such as arranging for someone with access to the Reading the Weave ritual to bond the staff to them).
Each of the staffs of the archmagi is a ritual staff, appropriate to the Realm of the archmage. This has lead to complaints in the past, but the rules are quite clear; the staff of the archmage is enchanted as a ritual staff.
Selection of an Archmage
The appointment, replacement or removal of an Archmage is made by the declaration of candidacy as part of the agenda of a Conclave session. A candidate can be presented for the post of archmage only once a season.
Removing an Archmage
An archmage cannot be revoked by the Imperial Synod. The archmage serves until another magician takes the title, or another archmage is appointed in the Conclave. When an archmage loses their title, they must give the archmage's staff to the new holder of the position.
Vault of the Archmagi
The resources available to each archmage when they are dealing with gambits are referred to as that archmage's vault. Archmagi are informed how much mana they have available at the start of each sequence of gambit hearings, and the information is as up-to-date as the Conclave can make it. Generally, the materials available to the archmagi to resource gambits include the following
Crystal Mana
Every six crystal mana gained by the Conclave distributed evenly between the vaults of the six archmagi. This is without doubt the most numerous resource which the archmagi have access to. The Conclave acquires crystal mana through a range of mechanisms:
- all mana spent by members as part of membership and political processes,
- all mana seized from enemy territories and mana sites by the Imperial armies.
- mana generated by certain mana sites owned by the Empire and administered by the civil service on behalf of the Conclave
- the Conclave as a whole charges crystal mana to provide tutoring in rituals and magic, and encourage all magicians to do the same when taking on their own students.
- the Conclave also maintains extensive libraries, and charge crystal mana to access them.
Ilium
The Conclave has small reserves of ilium; two rings of ilium are added to the vault of each archmage every season. They are predominantly requested by gambits that involve either permanent enchantments or the creation of artefacts to be used by magicians.
Raw materials
Each archmage's vault receives a trickle of ingots and measures of each of the either special materials - orichalum, green iron, tempest jade, weltsilver, dragonbone, iridescent gloaming, beggar's lye and ambergelt. Generally between 4 and 6 ingots or measures of each material are accumulated each season.
As with the ilium, these materials are generally used to resource gambits that involve crafting items for magicians, although some gambits intentionally substitute materials for crystal mana (for those rituals that allow materials to be substituted for crystal mana, or for those covens with access to covenstones that allow such substitution for a specific realm).