High Archon

The **High Archon**, full title **High Archon of the Church of the High Spirits**, is a character in *Magical Girl Policy*. His name has not been stated, as he is always referred to by title. He has not directly appeared in the series, but he is mentioned in the Spirit Guard's visions of the ancient Ardent Empire. He was the head of the state's religion, the Church of the High Spirits, making him one of the most powerful figures in the Empire with a rank compared to the pope of the Catholic Church. He was a corrupt man, being involved in conspiracy as well as a lasting affair with the Empress.

## Personality

Reflective of the Church reaching its lowest point at the time, the High Archon was selfish and corrupt, failing to characterize the values of the religious institute he led and apparently uncaring about its decline. His most prominent breach in this regard was his affair with the Empress, the tyrannical head of the secular state that the Church was intended to serve as a check to. He was a power-hungry budding tyrant himself, as he was part of a conspiracy to kill or remove any Vice-Archon who might try to indict him for his crimes, as well as the Empress's plot to rule over humanity as a deity.

## Abilities

The High Archon likely had a notable empathokinetic perception, as it is a common feature of Ardentia.

The Church of the High Spirits had access to exceptionally powerful forms of empathokinesis due to its emotional sway over the populace, but exact details as to the High Archon's empathokinetic abilities have not been given.

The High Archon's position made him a key political player, and he was able to keep enough subordinates on his side to make him effectively untouchable for his misdeeds. He was also the head of the Church's military forces during the Ardentia Civil War.

## Biography

### Background

It is unknown when this High Archon obtained the position for himself, but the Empire had already fallen far into corruption, with the Church of the High Spirits in a similar decline. During the Ardentia Civil War, he was not only a religious and political figure, but also the commander of the Church's clergy that got deployed as military units alongside the Empire's forces in the fight against Platicore's rebel forces. He was known for enacting swift and sweeping changes throughout the Church in order to weed out Platicore sympathizers.

At an unknown point several years before the Empire's fall, the High Archon and Empress entered a sexual relationship kept hidden from the public. It is believed that the two collaborated in the creation of the scheme for conquering Terra (Earth), which featured the Empress projecting visions of herself as the Atsah's gods when instructing them in the building of the gateway that would connect her world and theirs. The ultimate plan was for the Empire to conquer Earth and enslave the humans, with the Empress, and apparently the High Archon alongside her, being worshiped as gods. Rumors of the affair spread among the royals until it became something of an open secret among these social circles, something the Scholar became privy to as she climbed the social ladder throughout her career. Her grandfather, the Vice-Archon of Tranquility at the time, learned of it independently. The High Archon feared that the Vice-Archon would call an Inquisition and obtain a guilty verdict over the affair, because the High Archon only had two of the six Vice-Archons absolutely on his side. To prevent this from happening, the High Archon and those loyal to him crafted a conspiracy, leading to the assassination of the Vice-Archon of Tranquility. The conspirators knew that a particular traditionalist Shrine Maiden stood a serious chance of winning the vote of succession if she were to run for the vacated position, so some time before the killing took place, the High Archon posted her shrine to a remote area and ensured that she wasn't notified of the Vice-Archon's death until it was too late. As a result, the conspirators' preferred candidate, Shrine Steward Liff, became the new Vice-Archon of Tranquility. Armed with three Vice-Archons loyal to him, the High Archon became effectively unaccountable for his crimes, as it was now impossible for an Inquisition to obtain a majority vote against him.

The Shrine Maiden would not hear of any of this until two months after the assassination, when the Scholar traveled to the shrine to deliver the news. Upon learning of this, the Maiden lost all hope of reversing the Church and Empire's fall into corruption, a feeling shared by the Princess and Scholar. This led to the Maiden joining the Princess's cause: a secret plan to sabotage the Empire's relocation to Earth. The first thing the Maiden did was return with her shrine to the capital city, where the whole unit was immediately detained at the Halls of Inquisition for moving against orders. The conspirators hoped to have her executed in order to permanently remove her as a threat, so they attempted to force her subordinates to give a damning statement. Before that could happen, however, the Princess and Soldier visited the place, and the former threatened Liff into letting her release the Maiden, who she has removed from the clergy.

The High Archon is assumed to have died at some point during the Ardentia Civil War, as Platicore is the only individual known to have escaped to Earth before the Other Power engulfed the Ardentia homeworld.

## Relationships

### Church of the High Spirits

High Archon is the highest rank in the Church, is held by a single individual at a time, one in this position can only be deposed if indicted by a majority vote of the six Vice-Archons, and the Church is intended to be a check to the state's authority, so this character naturally held immense power both within the Church and in the Ardent Empire as a whole. The Church's gradual descent into corruption worsened under his watch, as he was apparently interested in little other than acquiring power for himself. In order to maintain his position, he surrounded himself with loyal Church authorities who would never condemn him for his crimes, which became a conspiracy to actively remove anyone who might challenge them, including the Scholar's grandfather and the Shrine Maiden. The assassination of the Scholar's grandfather and the man being succeeded as Vice-Archon of Tranquility by Liff made the High Archon legally untouchable, which the Shrine Maiden considered the point of no return for the Church's corruption.

### Empress

The High Archon and the Church as a whole were intended to check the power wielded by the monarch and the rest of the secular government. However, the High Archon and Empress would have a secret affair that was said to have lasted several years, possibly over a decade. Normally such a thing would be grounds for an Inquisition that would certainly end in the High Archon's ousting, but rampant corruption made this action effectively impossible even as the affair became an open secret among the highest government circles. It is believed that the two jointly came up with the plan to conquer Earth and hoped to jointly rule the humans as deities.