The Arcane Supremacy

The Arcane Supremacy was a relatively short lived, centralised government which controlled northern Punjuki and a significant tract of southern Myruthea between 1196 APC and 1390 APC.

History

On 11th Kerax 1188 APC, in a secret family ceremony they called the Solemn Swearing, the mage Allakai, his son Serndin and grandson Mikerav dedicated themselves to the service of Magicians' End as its hereditary rulers. These were the so called "three rogue mages" and their plotting would end with the successful creation of the Arcane Supremacy in 1196 APC.
The plan came from Allakai. In 1188 he was a senior adviser to King Viranath, the ruler of the Water Kingdom of Skern, his son Serndin was working at the court of Linmelle whilst his grandson was at the alchemical school in Jebbin City. It so happened that each member of the family was in close proximity to three of the most powerful kings of the age. Allakai thought it best if the kingdoms were unified and if his family line ruled them. There was a precident for such a merger in the long ago stories of the foundation of the Trinity Moon Triple Enfolding, when three independent states were united under one flag in the age of the New Kingdoms. But that had been a more organic process driven by religious identity. What Allakai had in mind was something rather more cynically engineered.
There had been peace in the Water Kingdoms for more than two hundred years but the conflicts against the agents of the Dark Domains had left deep scars. The prospect that there might be wars between the human kingdoms was abhorent to nearly everybody and yet no one could deny that conflict between nations had been an enduring feature of life on Magicians' End for thousands of years before and even during the early years of the Old Pale Empire. Might the friendly nations, who now happily co-existed, one day turn to war again? Allakai and his descendents fed this fear in a variety of ways, the most subtle and pervasive of which was through a climate of magically induced dream pollution, spreading anxiety in a subliminal manner through the alteration and manipulation of the slumbering subconscious in all three kingdoms. At the same time as they were feeding fears of war, Allakai and Serndin encouraged their kings to prepare for it, each one advising that the armies and navies should be strengthened. Whilst young Mikerav was in no position to excercise overt infuence in Jebbin City, he did what he could to support his father's and grandfather's plans and the city reacted to arming elsewhere with increased defence expenditure. All of this was a feint whilst the ground was being prepared for their takeover. After eight years when tensions had brought the world to the brink of war, how wise it seemed to accept a peace agreement in which a mediators council would supervise disarmament. And who better to assume control afterwards than the mage Allakai? Thanks to dreams and propaganda, everyone now understood that the wise advisor had been working for a resolution where all nations could live together in harmony. It was only right that the kings stand down and their peoples made it happen. That was how the three rogue mages skilfully constructed a peaceful coup and established the Arcane Supremacy in 1196 APC.

Disbandment

The Arcane Supremacy came to an end with the death of Mikerav, the youngest of the three original rogue mages. It is said that he disliked the bureaucracy associated with the running of the Arcane Supremacy and had lost faith in his grandfather's plans even before his father died. He spent much of the last years of his life preparing for an orderly transfer of power to the Puzzle Lords Directorate, a society with which he felt a deep affinity and whose nascent development he encouraged.

Magicians' End - The Arcane Supremacy - Mikerav Repents by DMFW with Midjourney

Foreign Relations

After the initial engineered coup which brought the three former Water Kingdoms together under the authority of the three rogue mages, there was an unsettling period when it seemed possible that the Arcane Supremacy might seek to increase its territory by absorbing other Water Kingdoms. In fact this never happened. The two younger mages, Serndin and Mikerav, lacked the appetite for expansion at sea and co-existed with the Fisher King of Nephatar to the east (who represented the second greatest nation of the age in size and power, just a little smaller than the Arcane Supremacy itself) and Saltmoat in the south and east of Punjuki.
These cordial relations helped to set the tone for a peaceful transition into the age of the Puzzle Lords Directorate when the Arcane Supremacy came to an end.

DISBANDED/DISSOLVED

1196 APC - 1390 APC

Type

Geopolitical, Magocracy

Alternative Names

The Three Rogue Mages

Successor Organization

• The Puzzle Lords Directorate

Power Structure

Confederation

Economic System

Market economy

Gazetteer

The Water Kingdoms of:-

• Skern
• Jebbin City
• Linmelle