Archeron Family

The **Archeron Family** is a family that descended from the Archeron Demon bloodline, a noble demonic race in the upper layers of the Abyss. The family is noted by their lunacy, unrivalled military might, and dominance across Norland.

They are a family of upstarts. With only a few centuries of development, they became one of the most renowned families of Norland. The Archerons are based in the Azan Peninsula, in between all three human empires. They are vassals of the Sacred Alliance Empire and becomes one of Faust's Fourteen when Gaton became family head. However, they are also intrinsically independent from all three empires after Richard became a legendary being.

## Overview

Richard Archeron is a member of this family. He takes over the role of family head after Gaton was lost in Rosie Plane. Richard, similar to Gaton, has impressive bloodline unfitting of the weak Archeron demons. According to many legends, the two had unlocked their bloodline which was close to the source and primogenitor of their clan.

Just like with most upstarts, the Archeron family was subject to all sorts of infighting. Without a powerful head, the family would break apart from within.

The Archerons were a family of oddities, of contradiction. All members sought to break past the traditions they were subjected to, but were fundamentally in love with the very standards they wished to eradicate. Even those with other powerful bloodlines mixed in often chose this volcano to be their final resting ground.

It isn’t much to awaken a truenmae. Every Archeron has the potential to do it, it just takes a real lunatic to dig out that hidden strength. Truenames were the greatest secret of any existence; knowledge of it gave one great control over the target’s life.

With Richard managing the Archerons, they were now amongst the five most powerful families in the entire Sacred Alliance, and his runes had allowed all of the powerhouses of the Alliance to grow stronger.

### **Territories**

* The family origianlly had 59 fiefs to manage.
* However, due to Gaton's loss in the Rosie Plane, 21 of the family’s 59 territories have shown a decline in taxes as a result of the infighting between the Archeron's.

## Faust

Richard expanded the family island from the 10s to island 7-7. After more than a year, becoming the head and gaining top-offerings, he moved the island to 6-6. The Archerons’ rise in level alongside their newfound wealth became the word of the town once more. The Mensas’ misfortune would only serve as a backdrop to Richard’s glory, and the broken reputation would take several decades to fix if it was even possible.

Richard was now an extremely important person in Faust, with many waiting in line for just a chance to meet him. His daily schedule was thus planned far in advance, and every minute of this one day’s return was completely filled. 5;19

The floating island was only a symbol, its value calculable in terms of offerings. Its safety did not depend on the number of soldiers, only Richard’s overall might. Even if the castle was breached, the Archeron tombs were protected by a legendary-grade enchantment that would hold until Richard’s boiling vengeance destroyed the offender.

If Gaton and his thirteen knights were still around, nobody would dare set their sights on the floating island even if there were just a bunch of old and disabled people there. Similarly, as long as the rune knights Richard had gathered were not harmed, nobody would be so stupid as to attack his island. Just as well, the Archerons were the only family crazy enough to waste powerful offerings to break off the edge of another family’s island.

### **Leaving Faust**

Due to his friendship with Nyris, Richard stood by his good friend as he opposed Apeiron. Exactly three days later, a proclamation shocked the Sacred Alliance and all of Norland. The current head of the Archerons, saint runemaster and legendary mage Richard, had announced his withdrawal from the Alliance. Henceforth, the Archerons would be an independent noble family.

In only three days’ time, everything had been taken care of in secret. When the proclamation spread throughout the Sacred Alliance, the last of the Archeron soldiers had just entered the portal to Blackrose Castle.

Richard stood in front of his window, fiddling with a black spatial gem the size of one’s fist. This gem held the Archeron family tombs within. In front of him was the view of Faust, in all of its dazzling glory and extravagance. Numerous people lived here far too comfortably, but many many more struggled for their lives. This was the hotbed of countless evils in the Sacred Alliance, as well as the wellspring of boundless dreams. There were just far too many memories in this city of miracles, but he now had to leave them all behind.

## Information

The woman knew that Myron would rather have any other family as enemy; only an idiot would challenge the destroyers of the Schumpeters, Josephs, and Mensas

The Archeron family is a family with strong demon bloodlines. They are known to be battle lunatics. their prides are comparable, and may even surpass, the elves. this causes the family members to not bow down to a leader and makes the family to be divided. Despite their powerful bloodline, the family is weak compared to the other noble families.

The current family head, Richard, has no authority over any of the major people in the Archeron Family. Marquess Sauron and Earl Goliath were independent from the main family while Richard and Alice are allies.

The Archeron family tree had two marquesses and seven earls to its name in its several hundreds of years of development, alongside numerous viscounts and barons. The family also held more than 25 million acres of land despite their rather short history, their strength and influence in the Sacred Alliance not to be belittled. It was bizarre how many of their ranks occupied noble positions despite them not having a duke, forget a grand duke, to their name. They had great armies, powerful mages, strong warriors, and countless subordinates of strange occupations like dragon warlocks, hellriders, and shadow shamans.

### **Destroying Traitors**

He had rushed straight to Blackrose Castle once he returned from the Deepblue, gathering 3,000 footsoldiers that had just been armoured with superior-grade equipment, 200 elite shadowspear knights, 200 rune knight candidates, and 100 rune knights. The pack of wolves flooded out from the Azan Peninsula like a frightening horde, intent on wiping out all the Archeron branches that were unwilling to plead guilty.

The surrounding families that were eyeing these territories protested, but Richard didn’t care as he entirely ignored their protest and hunted down the traitors one by one. This scared off most of the smaller families, but some nobles were angered instead.

Earl Petron Tuescher was one such noble. Hailing from a branch family of the Tueschers, he had grown even more unyielding in the face of Richard’s threats and even pulled out his personal army to head the defence of one of the Archeron branches. His actions made it clear that one would have to go through him to attack them.

Far fewer people dared to challenge Richard after this incident, while some of those on the list fled their territories or surrendered of their own accord. Richard had added in his announcement that those who didn’t resist would be handled with more leniency.

Every absconder’s territory was occupied, their families exiled as punishment for their betrayal. Richard’s prestige soared to the skies, and Sauron’s fell. There had been some more people who just couldn’t learn, but after another earl and three viscounts were killed nobody dared to try and “reason” with him anymore. The upper class was reminded once again that Richard was a true blue Archeron; anyone who stole from him would pay ten times the price for their folly.

The branches that would rather die than submit were shown no mercy. Richard made sure to kill off every important member, and the rest were sold to slavers and the territories taken over. He didn’t care whether he had enough justification; since this was internal strife in the family, the courts could not intervene.

This was the first time Richard had personally dealt with the traitors, and it had shown just how merciless he could be. His army was only a few thousand strong, but they were like the scythe of a reaper spreading death and destruction wherever they went. 5;14

### **Rise of the New King**

Richard wasn’t just a commander, he was a master that they had followed from dirt to glory. He had painted an incomparable future in front of their eyes, the awkward youth having transformed into a true leader both within the battlefield and without.

This was the new king of the Archerons, the man who had promised them greater heights than ever before. Every rune knight here had absolute faith in him, as did Senma. The Blood Paladin acted like she just wanted better armour, but that was just a token request that only came up after he had earned her loyalty. 5;72

Gaton’s time, the Archerons had lived off the philosophy of ‘just enough'. Gaton would much rather put more meat in the bowls of his soldiers than spend money treating nobles to feasts.

Richard’s path was the complete opposite. He was basically never short on money, swimming in gold all the way from his first accomplishments as a runemaster to the reward point system at which point he was beginning to rival entire countries on his own. He basically had an endless gold mine, and he was using it to prove that upstarts could rival ancient families if they broke out enough.

### **Premier Family**

We Archerons barely have any territory in our name. It’s not just about the resources, there isn’t enough land for the family to develop. I need to get everyone to a point where they can progress for at least a few centuries without me.”

Alice will still live another century at least, and I’ll push it to three. With her around, there shouldn’t be any major losses in battle. As for powerhouses, my daughter should be able to hold her own.

She settled down to discuss the new division of territory, giving him everything within a hundred kilometres of the Deepblue as well as a thousand-kilometre stretch along Floe Bay that connected it to Azan. Most of the land taken away came from the Mensas, Schumpeters, and Josephs, with only a third being pulled from various small nobles.
Of course, Richard wasn’t done with just that. He took two strategic earldoms flanking Azan from the Millennial Empire, and about two dukedoms’ worth of land from the Sacred Tree. Solam’s lands were halved, with the most fertile sections being taken away.

In the Sacred Alliance, countless nobles argued the change in the Assembly. The debate wasn’t about how much land the Archerons should get, but just what duties they would take on afterwards. A combined area of over 500,000 square kilometres was enough to establish a small kingdoms, completely obsoleting Richard’s title as a duke. However, with the Empress still formally in charge of the Sacred Alliance, they couldn’t just upgrade him to a monarch either. Many started discussing just what sort of title would be fitting of the Archerons’ unparalleled status; if Richard adopted someone’s suggestions, that would be a small bond.

The country with the strongest response was naturally the Sacred Tree Empire. The Emperor and his cabinet debated the matter fiercely; the northern dukes resolutely opposed the proposed division and wanted to use the entire imperial army to destroy the Archerons, but the south refused to support with troops or even finances. On the other hand, the Church had no representation here at all; while Archbishop Hendrick had announced his withdrawal long ago, even the Pope wouldn’t pretend like anything could be accomplished here. The North’s only hope lay with the haggard Emperor who hadn’t slept since he received the notice.

Richard’s demand for territory ended up going just as smoothly as expected. While the Sacred Tree Empire delayed for a few days, they eventually acquiesced as well. This would have been exactly what a new epic deserved, but most epics merely asked for territory within their own countries. On the other hand, Richard had conveniently taken land from all three human empires and even a portion of the coastline that bled into the Far North. The nobility of Norland had no choice but to accept his ways, either; the massacre of the Sacred Tree Army was a final turning point that ensured no one dared challenge the Archerons any longer.

### **Three Year Gap**

After returning from the Darkness, three years had gone by in Faust. However, there was no end to the troubles of the Archeron Family. The only Norlandic power Richard could think of being stupid enough to attack the Archerons was the Frozen Court, but as he listened to Gangdor’s explanation he was left between laughter and tears. Richard had greatly expanded the Archeron territory before leaving for the abyss, and with the questionable allegiances of the new lords that had been created in this process it wasn’t difficult to stir up some trouble. Without even a supply line being established, most people assumed the expedition to the abyss had been annihilated and started testing the Archerons.

However, the family wasn’t easy to deal with even in his absence. Empress Apeiron still backed the Archerons, and Rosie’s rune workshop had expanded operational scale and was now producing full grade 2 savage knights that were even stronger than the average saint. The night elven army continued to walk through the Bridge of Hope, and their average level of 16 made for a frightening troop that could crush all opponents in Norland. Under Alice’s talented command, they crushed all the fake bandits and minor rebellions before heading around to the offenders and quieting people down.

It wasn’t long before Waterflower, Tiramisu, and the other followers returned from the abyss, making up for the lack of true elites. No one dared plot against the Archerons after that, but once Nasia came back as well she decided not to take the previous offences softly. She formally placed Fiora in the position of the family head, taking control of the family and transferring Asiris back to Norland to serve as the military advisor for the family. The Dark Priest was given full authority to conduct any conspiracies he wanted, and the Archerons attacked in all directions as they crushed everyone that had wronged them.

With a number of legends knocking at the door, even families like the Turings had to back down. The hot-blooded youths of these families who fought back were often simply killed. While Richard wasn’t around anymore, Nasia had killed a level 26 knight of the Turing Family to ensure that no one dared challenge the Archerons’ authority again. That knight had only been a step away from becoming an epic being, but he hadn’t lasted even three minutes before all of her divine equipment had crushed him.

## Planes

The Archerons had a total of eight planes under them combined. Three were controlled by Gaton, two by Marquess Sauron, and one by Earl Goliath. Alice had just obtained control of a lesser plane, and was in the process of constructing her forward base there. As for the last plane, that was held in tandem by five relatively small branches who all shared control. The rest of the branches did not have any to their name.

* Forest Plane

## Members

Richard Archeron - he became the patriarch of the Archerons after Gaton was stranded in Rosie Plane. The title was only self-proclaimed, but which Archeron leader wasn’t? So long as he crushed any dissenters, the position was his.

### **Nobles**

* Marquess Sauron Archeron
* Marquess Gaton Archeron
* Earl Goliath Archeron
* Earl Alice Archeron
* Baron Sua Archeron

* General Ibra, the commander of the garrison in the castle.
* Sir Kunder
	+ Having been with Gaton for many years, he clearly knew Kunder was just another chess piece. There were a dozen-odd vassals like him who would just serve as tests for Richard. If he couldn’t establish control of his lands, the Archeron fiefs would likely collapse and fall apart.

### **Descendants**

* Wennington Archeron
* Demi Archeron
* Vernica Archeron
* Coco Archeron

## Expansion

The Archeron's were dirt poor. Despite their great strength on the battlefield, most of their wealth were spent on expansion, leaving them with little money to spare. This was especially true for Gaton, since all of his savings basically went to Sharon due to a great ammount of debt incurred as trauma. The mottled army had become something of a symbol of the Archerons; the faster their expansion, the more colourful their soldiers became.

Outside of Sauron and Goliath who inherited their positions from their ancestors, none of the Archerons were rich. Gaton himself was no better than Alice; forget personal pleasure, even the equipment of his soldiers wasn’t all that great.

The Archerons were a young family that were expanding far too swiftly, not waiting to accumulate capital on their way up. Frugality was thus necessary in many areas, and had become second nature to every powerful Archeron. This was especially true amongst those branches that were only a generation old, like Alice’s and Gaton’s. But none of this applied to Richard. His army was already well-established, powerful followers controlling masses of elite troops. With his talent at runecrafting, gold was flowing into his pockets every day. Even without actively seeking information one would see all sorts of equipment and other materiel being moved in and out of the Archeron island’s warehouse, a massive flow of cash. Richard earned fast and spent even faster.

### **Expenditure**

The family right now was much different than in Gaton’s time; where Gaton had distributed his limited wealth to everyone, Richard controlled all of his vast resources and used them to fuel his own growth. The so-called elders who tried to take power from him were now a pile of bones, and nobody else dared to ask him for more than what he gave them.

In fact, even those vassals who had tried to become independent had changed their minds, obediently falling in line. Richard had planes to make them suffer for the betrayal— he would never tolerate such a thing— but he had constantly been sidetracked by other things. Now, he realised he should have diverted a bit more attention to developing the family’s youth.

## Faust Island

### **Volume 9**

A legend and more than ten saints walked into the teleportation temple in Faust, heading through the portal to the Archeron island. Meeting with the Celestial Sage Ruben in the island’s castle, all of them stood at attention as they carefully passed over a prisoner to the Archeron guards.

This was the group headed by Calamity, followed by Ghoul, Blood Axe, and a number of powerful saint assassins. Each one present was a famous killer, but they were all cautious here. While being in the presence of an epic being was one part of it, another was that they were in the core grounds of the Archeron Family; Richard Archeron’s nest.

Countless saints were walking through the portals here every day, even more than the guards placed around the place. Legends were a common sight as well, with many being clumped together in discussion from time to time. Only here would people like Calamity feel like legends like herself weren’t worth much.

## Vassals

With his meteoric rise in recent years, even the Archerons who weren’t direct subordinates of his had come around as well. Sauron and Goliath were still independent, but ever since the defence of the Unsetting Sun, they had become uneasy allies. Goliath continued to manage the family’s death training camps, having provided more than a hundred good rune knight candidates to date, while the Marquess leveraged his intelligence network to act as an informer. The two had managed to resist in the face of Gaton’s rise, but Richard himself had just been far too overbearing for them to even think of continuing their aspirations for the throne.

* Brolin, someone renowned for his outstanding bravery and wisdom. His potential should have run out at level 15, but year after year he had braved countless battlefields to slowly break through two bottlenecks to reach level 17. His true ability in combat was far beyond others of his level as well, even matching some weaker saints. This was someone not respected for their sheer power but for their tenacity and spirit. Became richards rune knight

## Family rules

1. all Archerons shall maintain the purity and continuity of the family bloodline.
2. There shall be no internal battles between members of the family.
3. The strongest Archeron shall be tasked with guarding the family tombs.

## Trivia

* After Richard became a saint runemaster, the Archeron bloodline was now top-class in the Sacred Alliance and all of Norland, granting it diplomatic immunity from the Orleans Family.

## References

1. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 196
2. ↑ Book 2, Chapter 127
3. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 197
4. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 69
5. ↑ Book 6, Chapter 146
6. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 119
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Book 9, Chapter 86
8. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 127
9. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 116
10. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 154
11. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 72
12. ↑ Book 1, Chapter 71
13. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 142