Arcanthys

Start-class article · First seen: pre-campaign brief · Last seen: s23
Arcanthys
the Floating Metropolis · the Floating Empire · the Floating Empire of Magic · Howville
Portrait of Arcanthys.
Location
StatusUnvisited
First seenpre-campaign brief
Last seens23

Arcanthys is the floating empire of magic, a city of marble platforms and crystal spires held above the land by enchanted chains and ruled as a magocracy by Archmagister Vylarine Thael (world-brief canon). Its heart is the Grand Conflux Spire, the reality-bending nexus that fought Aurelia’s Nullstone Constructs to a stalemate in the War of Fractured Heavens (582-589 A.I.). The party has never visited, but Harvo gave it as his birthplace in session 2 [1], the players of Terry and Kole later made it their characters’ home, and in session 23 the DM called its quarrel with Aurelia “kind of a Cold War, sort of” [22].

Arcanthys
Arcanthys

Overview

Arcanthys, the Floating Empire of Magic, is the sky-suspended magic city of Eldurae and one of the six great powers of the world brief (world-brief canon). Magic here is engineered rather than learned, and its citizens believe themselves the height of mortal civilisation.

The party has never visited. The city enters play through people and talk: Harvo gave it as his birthplace [1], the players of Terry and Kole later made it their characters’ home [16][24], and the DM described its long quarrel with Aurelia as “kind of a Cold War, sort of” [22].

Geography and appearance

A vertical city built on suspended platforms. Marble platforms and crystal spires hover on colossal enchanted chains anchored deep in the bedrock, and bridges of levitating stone drift between them at the whispered will of robed archmages. Streets ripple with shifting sigils, lanterns glow with bottled starlight, and silent arcane constructs tend the markets and carry burdens. The runes etched into the spires hum with leyline energy. The look is glass, crystal and pale stone; at its heart rises the Grand Conflux Spire (world-brief canon).

Inhabitants

Magic shapes every part of life. Those with aptitude, the mage elite, are citizens in the full sense; those without magic are pitied and given menial work beneath them. Citizens believe their city the height of civilisation, a society sculpted by pure mastery over reality (world-brief canon). Arcanthans met in play are Harvo, a half-elf artificer, and, by their players’ accounts, Terry and Kole.

Government / control

A magocracy: the top-tier mages are also the governing class. The world brief names three figures.

  • Archmagister Vylarine Thael: ruler and custodian of the Grand Conflux, cold and brilliant, obsessed with transcending mortality to become a being of pure arcane essence.
  • High Seer Orlun Marr: the blind prophet, who guides the city with cryptic leyline visions.
  • Lessa Sunweave: Artisan of Sentient Threads, who crafts garments with living intellect, whispered to house her brother’s soul.

Nothing below these three (councils, schools, registries) has been described.

Notable features

  • The Grand Conflux Spire. A crystal-and-adamantine nexus that anchors the floating platforms and bends reality as the city’s last defence (world-brief canon).
  • The War of Fractured Heavens (582-589 A.I.). Aurelia sent its Nullstone Constructs, war machines of magic-suppressing Nullstone, against the city. Arcanthys unleashed the Grand Conflux, which trapped Aurelian battalions in mirrored illusions and shifting streets. Neither side could win: destroying the Constructs risked collapsing the platforms they were built to suppress, and Aurelia could not advance without ruinous losses. The peace since has been uneasy (world-brief canon).

History in the campaign

Session 2: The Bark, the Dryad, and the Riddle that Wasn’t a Tree

Main article: Session 2

At the tree line Harvo gave his name as Harvalent Irsaron, “originally from Arcanthys, Howville” [1]. When someone accused him of being part of “the Arcanthys industrial complex” [27], he answered that he was “very much not part of anything official that is involved in Arcanthys” [28]. Howville is named nowhere else, and Harvo’s ties to the city’s institutions were never explained.

Session 11: Owlbears and the Soulbinder

Main article: Session 11

Before play, Terry’s player said he wanted to “register my interest in Arcanthys” [3]. On the road a father warned the party that people with magic “rarely make it” near Aurelia [29]. When Terry joked about marching in and magicking everywhere [30], the DM said Arcanthys had “kind of failed at that” and that the party were not “as powerful as a floating city of wizards” [31]. He also said “the elves from Arcanthys does come by once in a while” [5], and placed Eldwythe “in between” Arcanthys, Umbrafall and Aurelia [6].

Session 14: The Gummy Mummy and Aurelian Eldwythe

Main article: Session 14

In the clearing outside Eldwythe, as the party weighed how to get past the Aurelian occupation, the DM told them that “the only ones that can get away with using arcane magic near Aurelia are the people in Arcanthys”, and that Aurelians would otherwise carry out their divine right to exterminate arcane users [7]. Hugo suggested bluffing that the party came from Arcanthys [32].

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

Main article: Session 15

In the Eldwythe sewers, Phil Flowerforge said that he and Briochebane would be heading to “Arcanthys or Velkris” [8], then added “Or maybe Wyrmbough” [33]. Whether the baker and the dragon ever reached Arcanthys is unknown. Later, as the party weighed the dangers of Aurelia, Terry’s player said he would “much rather go to Arcanthys right now” [9].

Session 17: New Hands, the Black Mask’s Renegotiation, and the Rimeclaw

Main article: Session 17

As the party sailed south, talk turned to how badly suited they were to Aurelia, and Terry joked that they could go to Arcanthys “where they do like us” [10]. When they hailed Nessa’s fishing boat she took them for Arcanthans, fearing that “they’re coming to destroy us” [34], and the DM, as Nessa, asked Steven whether he was from Arcanthys [35]. Terry later listed Arcanthys among the places she could not safely go, “where you’d be turned away as an Aurelian” [36].

Session 18: The Wyrm Falls, the Catfish Escapes, and Mike Dies on the Road

Main article: Session 18

At sea, when Hugo wondered whether the red dragon overhead was the red-scaled one Sevryn had spoken of, the DM said it was flying “directly north, sort of towards Arcanthys” [12], and Terry decided “Those magic fuckers will deal with it” [37]. On the beach Mike’s player, asked where his character was from, said “I am from Arcanthys” [13]. On the road inland, the Aurelian patrol’s leader said that the trouble at Eldwythe had been handled and the arcane heretics chased back to Arcanthys [14].

Session 19: A Penitent Priest, an Unmade Leash, and the Pixie in the Dark

Main article: Session 19

Arcanthys came up five times, none of them on screen. Hugo’s recap of session 18 had the red dragon “flying up to Aurelia”, corrected to Arcanthys [15]. Terry’s player said his backstory was “slightly being retconned” to being raised by a rat in the sewers “underneath Arcanthys” [16]; on night watch Terry asked “Can we go to Arcanthys?” [19] and the DM answered “back home to Arcanthys” [38]. In Hugo’s private scene The Wraith had orders “to assassinate a higher noble in Arcanthys” [18]. Told the Egg had been stolen, Gristleback said to buy a new one in Arcanthys, and Hugo replied that such things are not sold there [17]. His tale of Seraphine in the “Arcanvian War” [20] may point to the War of Fractured Heavens; that is unconfirmed.

Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Main article: Session 20

On the road to Umbrafall the DM explained the failing ley lines as “a brownout in a electrical grid”, with magic starting “to act weird especially in cities that rely on it like Arcanthys which is where you first notice the signs” [21]. The first place the world’s failing magic shows is the city built on it.

Session 23: The Changeling in Manacles

Main article: Session 23

At the ridge temple the DM told Kole that Arcanthys “has been in open confrontation with Aurelia for quite a while, and now it’s kind of a Cold War, sort of” [22]. Kole said that where he came from he would be tortured for saying such a thing [23], and his player named Arcanthys as his home [24]. Terry claimed he was “trained in the arts of martial and spellcraft in the sewers of Arcanthys” [39]. Both are player statements the DM has not confirmed. Father Thomas judged that “Our greatest ally might be Arcanthys here” [40], and Kole concluded that setting Arcanthys and Aurelia at war “would benefit us” [41]. Nothing was decided.

Status

As of session 23. Unvisited and not on the party’s path. Arcanthys matters as the home city of two party members by their players’ accounts, as the first place the failing ley lines show [21], and as the far side of a long quarrel with Aurelia, which the world brief gives as the War of Fractured Heavens stalemate and the DM now calls “kind of a Cold War, sort of” [22].

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 2, line 212: Harvo's claimed origin ("originally from Arcanthys, Howville").
  2. ^ Session 2, line 284-286: Harvo denies being part of 'anything official that is involved in Arcanthys'.
  3. ^ Session 11, line 155: Terry's player: 'I would also like to register my interest in Arcanthys' (table talk).
  4. ^ Session 11, line 842-843: DM, on marching into Aurelia with open magic: Arcanthys 'kind of failed at that'; the party is no 'floating city of wizards'.
  5. ^ Session 11, line 938: DM, asked about non-humans in the lands near Aurelia: 'the elves from Arcanthys does come by once in a while'.
  6. ^ Session 11, line 978: DM: Eldwythe lies 'in between' Arcanthys, Umbrafall and Aurelia, with no jurisdiction of its own.
  7. ^ Session 14, line 1616: DM: Arcanthys arcane casters are the exception Aurelia tolerates.
  8. ^ Session 15, line 609: Phil Flowerforge: 'Me and Brioche will be heading to Arcanthys or Velkris'.
  9. ^ Session 15, line 663: Terry's player: 'I would much rather go to Arcanthys right now' (table talk).
  10. ^ Session 17, line 870: Terry: 'we could go to Arcanthys where they do like us' (table talk).
  11. ^ Session 17, line 889-894: Nessa takes the party for Arcanthans ('they're coming to destroy us') and asks Steven if he is from Arcanthys.
  12. ^ Session 18, line 507: DM: the red dragon is flying 'directly north, sort of towards Arcanthys'.
  13. ^ Session 18, line 1747: Mike's player: 'I am from Arcanthys' (player-stated).
  14. ^ Session 18, line 2016: Aurelian patrol: the Eldwythe heretics were chased back to Arcanthys.
  15. ^ Session 19, line 271: s18 callback: the red dragon was seen flying up toward Aurelia / 'Arcanthys'; party theory is 'they got the dragon wrong'.
  16. ^ Session 19, line 360-362: Terry's backstory retcon: being raised by a rat in the sewers beneath Arcanthys.
  17. ^ Session 19, line 642-643: Gristleback: buy a replacement Egg in Arcanthys; Hugo: such things are not sold there.
  18. ^ Session 19, line 445: The Wraith carries orders to 'assassinate a higher noble in Arcanthys' (Hugo-only).
  19. ^ Session 19, line 567: Terry's homesick watch reverie: 'Can we go to Arcanthys?'; the DM voices the homecoming as 'back home to Arcanthys'.
  20. ^ Session 19, line 658: DM (as Gristleback): Seraphine 'destroyed five Archmages by herself' in the 'Arcanvian War'; war-name ties to Arcanthys (spelling unconfirmed); possibly the War of Fractured Heavens, unconfirmed (the DM's post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27).
  21. ^ Session 20, line 1271: DM: the failing ley lines are like 'a brownout in a electrical grid', felt first in cities that rely on magic 'like Arcanthys'.
  22. ^ Session 23, line 1299: DM: "Arcanthys has been in open confrontation with Aurelia for quite a while, and now it's kind of a Cold War, sort of.".
  23. ^ Session 23, line 1300: Kole, in character, of his home: "where I come from, you would likely be tortured for even saying that to me" (player-stated; not confirmed by the DM).
  24. ^ Session 23, line 1304: Kole's player names his origin: "you don't know I'm from Arcanthys, but yeah" (player-stated).
  25. ^ Session 23, line 1313-1317: Terry: "trained in the arts of martial and spellcraft in the sewers of Arcanthys"; Kole: "you're one that dwelled below"; Terry on "the magical backwash" (player-stated).
  26. ^ Session 23, line 1398-1401: The players weigh Arcanthys as an ally: "Our greatest ally might be Arcanthys here."; "there's a Cold War going on" (plans only).
  27. ^ Session 2, line 284: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 2, line 286: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 11, line 841: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 11, line 842: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 11, line 843: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 14, line 1617: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 15, line 611: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 17, line 889: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 17, line 894: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 17, line 980: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 18, line 509: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 19, line 568: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 23, line 1313: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 23, line 1398: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 23, line 1401: Inline citation.