The Priscian Monopoly of Legitimate Magic is the de facto arcane regime that the order of the Priscians exercises over the valley of Valakhan. It began not by decree but by confiscation, when the Priscians stripped the Seekers of Ardis Vala of their magic items in the octagonal chamber of the Mega-Dungeon.
| Type | Organization (arcane regime) |
| Exercised by | Priscians |
| Operative authority | Nerub Null |
| Seat | Former Sortian compound, Floor of the Great Abyss |
| Spanish entry | Monopolio Priscian de la Magia Legítima |
Nature
The regime was never promulgated by any council. In practice, no adventurer in the valley can operate an arcane object without passing through the Arcanum Forge on the Floor of the Great Abyss, and the Forge cannot be reached without negotiating with the archmage Nerub Null. The Priscians regarded the confiscation as a restitution of jurisdiction, and as the founding act of their renewed regime.
Doctrinal reversal
The Priscians claim descent from the Sortians, the defeated faction of the Magical Schism of Archontos, which held that the magical spark should be open to anyone who had it, regardless of lineage. Its formula:
“Todo el que posea la chispa debe ser entrenado sin importar su origen. El Imperio será mejor por ello. Yo, Priscus Pulcher, he hablado.” (“Everyone who possesses the spark must be trained regardless of origin. The Empire will be better for it. I, Priscus Pulcher, have spoken.“)
The formula was defeated militarily in the civil war of the Schism, but the imperial apparatus absorbed it centuries later, when Drusus V opened the Order of Thoth to anyone with magical talent — a posthumous victory for Priscus Pulcher. The modern Priscians, descended from the Sortian compound that survived the silence, now restrict that knowledge to those who pay the toll of their regime. They operate the knowledge without claiming office.
The founding act
The Seekers, ideologically sympathetic to the open spark, refused to let the Priscians into the library of the Palace of the Prism. Their motive is not fully clear; probably a mix of institutional prudence (the library guards secrets of the Pope) and sectarian prejudice (the Seekers are close to Pope Alexander VI; the Priscians are ideological rivals of the papacy).
The Priscians answered by teleporting into the octagonal chamber amid blinding flashes, entering through sortian eyes and fighting with scepters of absorption. The Seekers twice gained the upper hand, but the fight was decided by arcane degradation rather than damage. The Seekers were left unconscious but alive. The Priscians took every magic item and left gold, gems, rations and bags untouched: they do not eliminate; they dispossess.
Cosmological triangle
Until the present cycle the valley’s field of forces was bipolar: a light pole (Pope Alexander VI in the Palace of the Prism, with the Custodes Oculis Solis) against a dark pole (Caladan, Dark Lord of Valakhan, at the Castle of the Panther). The Monopoly adds a third vertex, an arcane hermetic pole (Nerub Null, the Priscians, the Floor of the Great Abyss, the Arcanum Forge), unaligned with either. The triangular regime is held to be probably irreversible until one vertex falls.
Open questions
- How the Pope will respond is unknown; Arkos, the Pope’s scribe and librarian, will probably open correspondence with the Priscian archmage first.
- How the Seekers will recover their arcane capacity: through the barrows of the Barrowmaze to the south, by negotiating and accepting Priscian jurisdiction, or by forging epic weapons from recoverable material, as they planned at the close of that day.
- Whether Priscian moderation will last if the Seekers attempt reprisal.