| “ | The time will come my pet when we will rule all of Antagarich. With your prowess and my dominative powers over the undead, the world will be MINE! | „ |
| ~ Archon to Tarnum |
Archon is the secondary antagonist of Heroes Chronicles: The Glory of War. He was the former Lich King of Enroth and the Undead that plotted to return to power and the master of the undead Tarnum.
Biography[]
Archon poisoned the King of Enroth and took the throne from him. He ruled the continent with absolute power as the Lich King for some years, crushing every rebellion, until a band of knights led by the former King's daughter Elizabeth challenged his reign. With the help of a treacherous cult of necromancers that could no longer tolerate the cruel treatment they received from Archon, the knights deposed Archon and banished him from Enroth. Archon fled to the continent of Antagarich, building a base of operations in a hidden valley in Erathia and starting to raise an army with his Cloak of the Undead King, which he was able to keep as the knights were unaware of its magical power. While in Erathia, Archon heard tales of the cruelty of Tarnum, a Barbarian tyrant who had recently been overthrown as well and killed. Since Archon's arrival, the townsfolk began fearing the prospect that Tarnum could be risen from the dead and seek vengeance upon the land, which inspired Archon to bring him back as an undead minion. Archon traveled to the nearby nation of Krewlod, where Tarnum was buried, battling a horde of Barbarian Chieftains guarding his tomb. Once reaching Tarnum's tomb in the underground, Archon reanimated his corpse. In the process, he had to surrender the Cloak of the Undead King, weakening himself and sharing his undead lifeforce with Tarnum's.
Archon made a deal with him: if Tarnum helped him reclaim the throne, Archon would make him one of his successors. Archon acted pompously toward Tarnum, whom he called his "pet". Tarnum, in turn, served Archon loyally on the surface but planned to overthrow him in the future. To regain his strength, Archon needed to take up the powers of the Gods of War, Anubis and Sekhmet. They traveled to a land where they could seek the ancient Temple of Anubis; Archon sent Tarnum to find the forgotten shrine and reveal its secrets, and to harvest more forces from the bodies of local Barbarian tribes, who were previously associated with Tarnum. He wondered if Tarnum would feel remorse when he killed his own people, but Tarnum never failed him. Archon tracked down the temple, which was located in the south and guarded by the tribes. He assured Tarnum that the Barbarians would not recognize him as their former ruler and they would soon be part of his undead army. Fighting past the Barbarians, Tarnum liberated the Anubite emissary from the temple.
Accompanied by the Anubis Warrior, Archon then traveled with Tarnum and another death knight, Lamentia, to a region in Erathia where the Chaos Sanctuary was located. Two months into the mission, Archon had captured a pack of Erathian farmers. One morning, after mutilating and torturing them for hours, Archon summoned Tarnum to his tent and showed him the prisoners pinned down to the floor, probably expecting Tarnum to kill them and reanimate their bodies. When Archon mocked him for hesitating to do so, Tarnum decided to keep them alive and enslave them, in order to not be seen as a weakling before Archon. Tarnum later freed the Sekhmet Priestess, who joined him in his ranks as well.
With the combined tainted blessings of the Anubis and Sekhmet, Archon's physical form was fully restored and he grew more potent than ever. In return, the gods demanded the blood of their enemies, the Sun Gods, so Archon took Tarnum and Lamentia to a forsaken place near the Desolate Lands, where Barbarian tribes guarded the entrance and their nomadic allies guarded the temples of the Sun Gods in a barren desert called Sandstorm's Reach. Later one evening, the power gods suggested to Tarnum that he, instead of Archon, was meant to rule. They encouraged him to bring down Archon, before vanishing. Several days later, Archon summoned Tarnum in his tent to confront him over their disappearance, thinking he had chased the emissaries away and was defying his authority. Tarnum convinced Archon otherwise, although still plotting his downfall.
Archon regained much of his strength after the Sun Gods were defeated. By then, Tarnum had learned of a Necropolis town called Blackwater and the ancient power and secrets that it held in store for whoever ventured into the city. After much arguing, Tarnum convinced Archon to let him conquer the city, professing to have Archon claim the power. They journeyed to Bracada, where Blackwater was located. While on the mission, Archon told Tarnum of his plans for them to embark for Enroth once he received the powers and secrets from Blackwater, and of one other object they needed to find before they could begin their plans, though he chose to not yet disclose it was the Cloak of the Undead King.
Archon still underestimated Tarnum and did not realize his mistake until Tarnum claimed the powers of Blackwater for himself instead. Once he became aware, Archon ordered his legions to attack the castle and bring him Tarnum's head, but Tarnum defeated his hordes of skeletons and walking dead and moved into Archon's encampment, before barging into his tent, grasping him by the throat and putting him in a cage. Tarnum took command of Archon's army, but they only followed him out of fear. When Tarnum interrogated the captive Archon on why he was not crowned the undead king, Archon chuckled and kept quiet until Tarnum cast a truth spell upon him, forcing Archon to reveal that the authority resided in the Cloak of the Undead King, which separated into three distinct artifacts when Archon reanimated Tarnum's corpse. Tarnum soon abandoned Archon, leaving him in his prison cell as he embarked on his own quest.