Archmage

The Archmage is the highest title a wizard can attain in Earthsea, the supreme master of the School for Wizards on Roke Island and the ultimate guardian of the world's magical and moral balance. The office is held by a single mage at a time, chosen by the Nine Masters of Roke from among the greatest wizards of all the islands. The Archmage is the living embodiment of the highest ideals of wizardry: wisdom, restraint, and the service of Equilibrium, the cosmic balance that underpins all existence. The title carries immense authority, but also immense responsibility, for the Archmage must guide the School, protect the Archipelago from supernatural threats, and ensure that the great powers of magic are used only for true need.

The Archmage Nemmerle

The first Archmage encountered in the story is Nemmerle, the Warder of Roke when Ged first arrives at the School. He is described as an old man, older than any man then living, with white hair, beard, and robe, seeming as if all darkness and heaviness had been leached out of him by the slow usage of the years, leaving him white and worn as driftwood that has been a century adrift. His voice quavers like a bird's voice. When Ged meets him in the sunlit court of the Great House, Nemmerle speaks in a tongue Ged does not understand, mumbling as an old man whose wits go wandering among the years and islands, yet there is a power in his voice that moves Ged's mind so that the boy is bewildered, and for an instant seems to behold himself standing in a strange vast desert place alone among shadows. A great black raven of Osskil, his pet for thirty years, comes walking over the stone terrace and the grass, pecks three times on the white staff Nemmerle leans on, and the old wizard ceases his muttering and smiles. Nemmerle is the one who, years earlier, had been dear to Ogion when he came to Roke from Gont. He is the Archmage who, when Ged summons the shadow on Roke Knoll, appears instantly, his staff hovering silvery above Ged's breast, and drives the shadow away. To check the ungoverned spell and drive off the shadow from Ged, Nemmerle spends all his power, and with it his bodily strength is gone. He lies dying in the unroofed court where the fountain plays, unmoving, cold, only his eyes living, watching the fall of moonlit water and the stir of moonlit leaves. The death of a great mage, who has many times in his life walked on the dry steep hillsides of death's kingdom, is a strange matter: for the dying man goes not blindly, but surely, knowing the way. When Nemmerle looks up through the leaves of the tree, those with him do not know if he watches the stars of summer fading in daybreak, or those other stars, which never set above the hills that see no dawn. The raven of Osskil that had been his pet for thirty years is gone; no one has seen where it went. "It flies before him," the Master Patterner says, as they keep vigil. The next day, iron bells speak out aloud in the Chanter's Tower, harshly tolling, announcing his death.

The Succession and Gensher

After Nemmerle's death, the Nine Masters of Roke gather in a place somewhere under the dark trees of the Immanent Grove, setting nine walls of silence about them, that no person or power might speak to them or hear them as they choose from amongst the mages of all Earthsea him who would be the new Archmage. They choose Gensher of Way. A ship is sent forth at once across the Inmost Sea to Way Island to bring the Archmage back to Roke; the Master Windkey stands in the stern and raises up the magewind into the sail, and quickly the ship departs, and is gone. Gensher, like the old Archmage, is cloaked in white, but like most men of Way and the East Reach, he is black-skinned, and his look is black, under thick brows. When Ged, still recovering from his ordeal, comes to offer him fealty and obedience, Gensher is silent a while. He says, "I know what you did, but not what you are. I cannot accept your fealty." He tells Ged that Nemmerle himself could not undo the evil Ged has loosed, and that nothing protects Ged but the power of the Masters on Roke and the defenses laid upon the island that keep the creatures of evil away. If Ged left, the thing he loosed would find him at once, and enter into him, and possess him. He tells Ged, "You must stay here, until you gain strength and wisdom enough to defend yourself from it—if ever you do." Gensher ends the interview by saying, "You are safe here. You will live here, and go on with your training. They tell me you were clever. Go on and do your work. Do it well. It is all you can do." Later, at winter's end, Gensher accepts Ged's fealty. He also sends Ged, after his eighteenth birthday, to work with the Master Patterner in the Immanent Grove. When the men from Low Torning come to Roke begging for a wizard to protect them from the dragons of Pendor, Gensher judges their fear well founded. He tells Ged, "There is no comfort in this place, no fame, no wealth, maybe no risk. Will you go?" When Ged answers, "I will go," Gensher nods, but his look is somber. He says, "I do not know if I do right to send you from your safety here. I cannot see your way. It is all in darkness. And there is a power in the North, something that would destroy you, but what it is and where, whether in your past or on your forward way, I cannot tell: it is all shadowed." He admits he does not want to send Ged out into the dark.

The Archmage's Role and Significance

The Archmage is not merely a political or administrative leader; the office is deeply intertwined with the magical and moral fabric of Earthsea. The Archmage is the ultimate authority on the use of power, the guardian of the Equilibrium, and the one who must make the hardest decisions about when and how magic should be used. The Archmage's word carries immense weight, as when Gensher tells Ged that the shadow has no name, a statement that Ged later questions when Ogion says, "All things have a name." The Archmage is also the one who, in the end, must judge the worthiness of a wizard, as when Gensher refuses Ged's fealty until he has proven himself. The Archmage's death is a moment of profound significance, as Nemmerle's sacrifice shows that the office demands the ultimate price. The Archmage is the living symbol of the School for Wizards and the entire tradition of High Magic on Roke, and the choice of a new Archmage is a matter of the highest secrecy and importance, conducted by the Nine Masters in the Immanent Grove. The title is so revered that the Master Doorkeeper, when Ged finally wins his freedom from the School by learning the Doorkeeper's name, is revealed to be one of the Nine Masters, and the Archmage is often considered the ninth. The Archmage is the one who, in the end, must face the greatest threats, as when Nemmerle confronts the shadow, or when Gensher must decide whether to send Ged into the unknown. The office is the pinnacle of a wizard's career, and Ged himself is destined to become Archmage, as the raven of Osskil is said to have hailed him at his arrival as "Archmage to be." The Archmage is the ultimate authority on the use of power, the guardian of the Equilibrium, and the one who must make the hardest decisions about when and how magic should be used. The Archmage's word carries immense weight, as when Gensher tells Ged that the shadow has no name, a statement that Ged later questions when Ogion says, "All things have a name." The Archmage is also the one who, in the end, must judge the worthiness of a wizard, as when Gensher refuses Ged's fealty until he has proven himself. The Archmage's death is a moment of profound significance, as Nemmerle's sacrifice shows that the office demands the ultimate price. The Archmage is the living symbol of the School for Wizards and the entire tradition of High Magic on Roke, and the choice of a new Archmage is a matter of the highest secrecy and importance, conducted by the Nine Masters in the Immanent Grove. The title is so revered that the Master Doorkeeper, when Ged finally wins his freedom from the School by learning the Doorkeeper's name, is revealed to be one of the Nine Masters, and the Archmage is often considered the ninth. The Archmage is the one who, in the end, must face the greatest threats, as when Nemmerle confronts the shadow, or when Gensher must decide whether to send Ged into the unknown. The office is the pinnacle of a wizard's career, and Ged himself is destined to become Archmage, as the raven of Osskil is said to have hailed him at his arrival as "Archmage to be."