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"You do not need to worry about Mesmeroth, Master Mayfair. When the snake shows his head, I am... more than prepared."
(Archimedes)
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Grand Regent Archimedes (better known as Archimedes) is an innovative inventor and the only Grand Regent of Arcadia in the history of Gaia before the Catastrophe. His origins are traced back to Source, the birthplace of all humans, from where he fled with his wife Calliope to the south to start a family and begin his innovations. He soon becomes one of the Wise Men, councilors which govern in the absence of a king, and later takes on the role of Grand Regent, bringing an age of peace and prosperity to Arcadia due to great technological advances. However, the threat of Direfolk comes upon Arcadia when the Emblems are removed from their pedestals to be studied by the Grand Regent. Archimedes defeats the Direfolk and peace returns to Arcadia. Now that the darkness is returning once more in the face of Mesmeroth, Archimedes tasks the knights to return the Sacred Emblems to their Beacons. However he also wants to return the Sacred Emblems to complete his Grand Core and to launch his spaceship to the stars in order to keep a promise he made to his late wife.

Appearance[]

Archimedes-fullbody

Archimedes outside the Palace.

Archimedes is an elderly man with a full white beard and partially balding white hair. A simple and thin golden ring circles around his head and rests above his brows.

He wears a long, sleeveless white robe with a thin belt around his waist. Underneath he has a sleeveless, blue shirt with high collar. Around his neck drapes a red stole at which ends are two golden triangles attached, featuring the symbol of Arcadia, the combination of symbols of the three benevolent Gods. On the backside of his robe is a faint symbol of Arcadia using the waves instead of the three triangles.

Archimedes-backside

The same symbol is visible on the Bloodstone Collector's back, as well as the Knight's Shield.

Personality[]

Archimedes always knew he was meant to bring the society of Arcadia to a new level.[1] He is incredibly intelligent and a hard-worker,[2] with a eternally burning fire within him that drives him to excellence,[3] even to the point of neglecting his private relationships.[4] Archimedes expects results not only from himself but others also, and has his engineers often work extra hours.[5]

In his younger years, Archimedes was loved by the people of Arcadia.[6] The success of his governmental career and the visible advancement of Arcadia's society and betterment of the lives of its people, has shaped him to be a self-centred and rather proud ruler, believing to be the most important man on Gaia.[7] At the same time, at his old age, he fails to truly appreciate what he as accomplished[8] and will never bend to Mesmeroth's will.[9]

He was besotted with his wife Calliope and even after her death he considers his promises to her more important than all life on Gaia. This is proven by the risk of Gaia’s destruction, that he is willing to take in order to take Calliope to "their special star".[10]

Synopsis[]

History[]

Archimedes is born and grows up in a remote village up in the north called Source[11]. The people there belong to the cult of the Originals[11], philosophers that study the Streams of Creation and life on Gaia. His father was an Arcadian explorer[12] and his mother a celebrated Philosopher in the village[13]. However, the young Archimedes has no interest in the philosophers’ principles of conserving the world and seeks to revolutionize life in Arcadia and learn more about it.

Eventually he gets to know Calliope, then wife of the High Philosopher of Source, and falls in love with her. After they spend a night under the stars, observing them with his telescope[14], Archimedes writes her a letter, suggesting that they escape their boring lives[15] here and move to the south in order to start a family together[16].

So they do and Archimedes becomes involved in the local politics pretty quickly. Even though he is only in his 20s, he becomes one of the Wise Men, ruling over Arcadia in the absence of a King.[17] Shortly after, he takes over the reigns completely as the Grand Regent of Arcadia.[18]

During his years of governance, he invents and develops most of the technological advances seen in Arcadia during their peak of existance before the Catastrophe (including electric trains, terminal computing and more[19]). As he keeps searching for more knowledge, he eventually desires to study the Sacred Emblems in more detail[20]. He manages to get hold of the Emblem of Sun from Source, leaving the remaining villagers of Source petrified as a result of the removal of the Emblem. As the Direfolk War becomes a clear, unavoidable threat, he can negotiate the Emblem of Earth from the Owrus in exchange for protection of Pirta by Arcadian soldiers. He is also able to acquire the Emblem of Ocean from the Gillfolk. Unknown to Archimedes at that time, the removal of the Emblems from their Beacons allowed Shadowmaga to emerge, a creature associated with the Shadow.

Archimedes-younger

Archimedes during Trin's childhood.

At around the same time, when Archimedes personally travels on an expedition to one of the Beacons in Gaia, he creates a baby girl known as Trinity from a soul from another world by using ancient Beacon machinery. He takes the baby back with him to the White City. As they were never able to have children[21], Calliope is overjoyed and takes care of Trin as her daughter.

Just before the height of the Direfolk War, he finishes his invention Shield of Chronos. He uses it to set ablaze the approaching war ships of the Direfolk at the shores of the White City and achieves a significant victory in the battle. The Arcadian Army, together with Sir Corbin, Master Mayfair and young Mesmeroth follow the Direfolk to the Outlands where the face Shadowmaga. Even though Mesmeroth was the one to end the war once and for all, Archimedes had no interest in honouring the young man and cast him away, fearing his rise to power and being jealous of his accomplishments.

Some day after the war, young Trinity enters his workshop in the Palace and opens a storage cube by a mere touch. It shows the blueprints and purpose of the Grand Core, detailing a spaceship leaving the surface and heading towards a vessel in Gaia’s orbit: the Lunar Tear. Archimedes rushes outside into the Palace Exterior to tell Calliope since he has discovered that was the star he promised to take her one day, but she has fainted and died only minutes prior. Calliope's death changes Archimedes. He leaves Trinity's upbringing to others[22], one of them being Master Mayfair, and more than ever he now focuses on his technical work and develops his greatest inventions yet: the Living Fortresses and the Grand Core.

Pre-Catastrophe[]

Archimedes is in his Palace laboratory, standing before the three Sacred Emblems, when Hero, Master Mayfair, Gen and Trin arrive. He regrets the bad news about the Dark Army but is not overly surprised or concerned. Archimedes explains that when the Emblems left their Beacons an ancient being called Shadowmaga was born which ultimately led to the Direfolk War. Even though Shadowmaga was defeated, the darkness remained and is now returning in the face of Mesmeroth. He tasks the Knights standing before him to return the Sacred Emblems to their Beacons for two reasons: first, doing so will weaken the darkness and potentially stop Mesmeroth and his Dark Army and second, his Grand Core will only be complete when the Emblems are returned.

When the Knights return from their first mission, Archimedes summons Trinity to the Palace without delay. It is only the next day, however, that he also invites Master Mayfair, Gen and the Hero to witness the reveal of his great invention, the Living Fortresses. Archimedes presents them in their hangar at the back of the Palace and they watch as they rise from the depths into the sunlight.

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"People of Arcadia! It is time to celebrate! Mesmeroth’s army has been destroyed! My Living Fortresses have shown their power and burned down the enemy ships, just like I burned down the Direfolk army with the Shield of Chronos, twenty years ago. Those who oppose light and wander in the darkness cannot prevail, for Arcadians are unstoppable and their future is written in the stars. Never has the world been more united! The Grand Core already serves thousands of people in the White City and it will soon enrich the lives of all the kingdoms! I praise your boldness, Arcadia, and your citizens. No-one can deny us our future!"
(Archimedes, victory speech after the Dark Army has been defeated)
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It is there that they meet again after the successful counter-attack on the Dark Army. When Trinity shares her fear of Oceanhorn's power, he doubles down on that, for the Living Fortresses are meant to channel the wrath of the Gods and thus SHOULD be feared. He reveals that the third Beacon is located in the north, near an area called Source. He urges the Knights to go straight up to the Beacon and return the Emblem and not to stray from their path. He then dismisses them to do their duty.

When Trin, Master Mayfair and the Hero try to stop Archimedes, he is not present in his usual place, the Palace Interior. Instead, Archimedes is inside the Grand Core, ready to take his kingdom and his wife to the stars. He is confronted by Mesmeroth, however, and ensnarled into a conversation. He is surprised when Mesmeroth reveals an imprisoned Shadow and even more so when it is destroyed. He is not afraid of Mesmeroth or the threat of TRILOTH and refuses to bow to "a servant of the Shadow". He hastily turns on the Grand Core's main function and hopes to see his hidden spaceship lift into the air and off to the stars. However, Mesmeroth informs Archimedes that the Emblem of Sun has never been returned to the Source Beacon and that Archimedes's plan will fail. Remaining behind alone in his greatest creation that turned out to be his downfall, the fate of Grand Regent Archimedes remains unknown. As the Grand Core nevertheless lifts up the Palace and is surrounding high up in the sky, causing innumerable amounts of damage, it may be presumed that Archimedes perishes during the Catastrophe.

Tarock Card Description[]

Tarock-archimedes

"Grand Regent of Arcadia - In his youth, Archimedes escaped from a small settlement of cultists together with his wife Calliope. Over the decades spent in the field of science and government, he has grown into by far the most influential figure in all of Gaia. He's single-handedly responsible for much of the technological advances the world has seen thus far, and no one has studied the secrets of ancient technology more than him. After the tragic death of his wife Calliope, Archimedes focuses entirely on his cutting-edge work: the Grand Core, which is supposed to take his beloved Calliope to the stars one day."

Version on X: "Archimedes is by far the most influential figure in Arcadia and all lands of Gaia. He's single-handedly responsible for much of the technological advances the world has seen thus far, and no one has studied the secrets of the Sacred Emblems more than him. Protector of the Realm against Mesmeroth and his Dark Army, and adoptive father of Trin, Archimedes misses his wife, Calliope. To forget his sorrows, he focuses entirely on his cutting-edge work: the Shield of Chronos, the Living Fortresses, and his masterpiece, the Grand Core."

Trivia[]

  • Out of all of the main NPCs of the story (Trin, Gen, Master Mayfair, Mesmeroth, and him), Archimedes is the only one who doesn't speak directly to Hero at all.
  • Cornfox posted a post on X that (not further defined or disclosed) "strong evidence" suggests that Archimedes is the same person as Grandmaster Ludwig[23], from Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas.
  • Archimedes's name is implied to have been based on the Ancient Greek physicist, inventor, and mathematician with the same name, who is an influential scientist like him.
  • Archimedes's eye colour changes dramatically: In Before the Lost Realm, his eyes are sky blue, while they are hazel/red in Knights of the Lost Realm, being hazel in a flashback and red in the game's current events.

Gallery[]

References[]

Sources are hidden by default, click expand to view them.

  1. "My heart burns when I think about what we could achieve with all the knowledge of the ancestors! We could reach our own true potential, instead of settling for this simple life here in the north. I know I am young, but I feel like I can see the future so much better than the Philosophers. Philosophers, our leaders and their stupid vows for conserving the world. [...]" (Archimedes, Letter to Calliope)
  2. "My grandfather Archimedes is quite a person. Incredibly intelligent, fierce, and dedicated to his life’s work." (Trin)
  3. "I don't know Trin. He is not like common men. Something inside him burns like fire and drives him to excellence." (Master Mayfair)
  4. "He’s never spent much time with me though, [...]" (Trin)
  5. "I'm waiting for my husband. Archimedes always makes his technicians work extra hours, but why did it have to be today?" (Citizen, White City)
  6. "People loved him and your grandmother Calliope. Under the rule of Grand Regent Archimedes, people lived in peace and prosperity." (Master Mayfair)
  7. "Oh, and remember to be polite when you meet him – he can be pretty arrogant about his own importance sometimes and prefers if other people know their place." (Trin)
  8. "He is too old and too blind to appreciate what he has already accomplished." (Master Mayfair)
  9. "He will never stand down." (Master Mayfair)
  10. "[...] Do you remember that special star that I showed you with my telescope? I will take you there one day. You have my word. - Arc" (Found inside High Philosopher's house, Ghost City, Source)
  11. 11.0 11.1 "Archimedes comes from the cult of the Originals, people living in a distant village up north called Source." (Cornfox&Bros, X)
  12. "Archimedes’ father was an Arcadian explorer and it is said that Archimedes inherited his passion and restless nature from him." (Cornfox&Bros, X)
  13. "But his wit he inherited from his mother, one of the most celebrated Philosophers in Source." (Cornfox&Bros, X)
  14. "Thank you for allowing me to take you to see the stars last night. I was so excited about the telescope, I hope I did not bore you." (Archimedes)
  15. "We could reach our own true potential, instead of settling for this simple life here in the north." (Archimedes)
  16. "Maybe we should escape to the south and have a family; you have always dreamt about it, is it not?" (Archimedes)
  17. "I was born and raised in the Lower Town, and Archimedes was a public figure already back then." (Master Mayfair)
  18. "I am almost 70 years old now, and I was just a child when he became one of the Wise Men, who used to govern Arcadia in the absence of a king. When I was ten, he was the first one to take the role of Grand Regent." (Master Mayfair)
  19. "Archimedes is responsible for all the crucial inventions, from electric trains to terminal computing... [...]" (Trin)
  20. "But at the same time Achimedes became obsessed with the Sacred Emblems and began to seek out some mysterious underlying truth about the fate of men." (Master Mayfair)
  21. "But one piece was missing from their lives. They never had a child." (Master Mayfair)
  22. "But he has not been much of a caretaker for me… I was raised by my grandmother Calliope and Master Mayfair." (Trin)
  23. "Strong evidence suggests that Grandmaster Ludwig and Archimedes are the same person. Thoughts?" (Cornfox&Bros, Instagram)

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