> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Arkangel > [![[Arkangel_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Arkangel.webp) > ###### Location Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Point of Interest | > Location | [[Valtorra]] | > Defining Feature | Autonomous flying city of arcane knowledge | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Active | **Arkangel** is a legendary autonomous flying city that drifts above [[Valtorra]], sometimes glimpsed as a distant cluster of spires catching the light before vanishing again into cloud and distance. Its origins are unknown to all but a rare few — yet it has persisted for centuries, accumulating magical knowledge from those wise enough to find their own way to it. ## Location & Geography Arkangel has no fixed address. It moves above [[Elandis]] at altitude, its position at any given moment unknown to the public and apparently governed by no predictable schedule. It tends to avoid the skies over major cities, making deliberate sightings rare and happenstance glimpses the stuff of travellers' tales. From a distance, it presents as a broad floating platform bearing a cluster of elegant arcane spires — graceful, impossibly large, and held aloft by means that no external scholar has been able to fully document. Up close, runes glow faintly across the stone foundations, and the hum of ancient enchantments is a constant, ambient presence. Approaching Arkangel is a significant undertaking. Arcane wards encircle the platform, and determining the city's location in the first place requires considerable ingenuity. Part of the unspoken rite of entry is solving the problem of arrival independently — there is no prescribed method, and no one can simply be escorted there by a friend who already knows the way. Valid approaches have ranged from the elegant to the audacious: [[Belinda Bubblegum]] constructed a teleportation rod calibrated to the city's position using energy drawn from the [[Emberspire]] during the Solstice. A mage capable of flight could in principle reach it by air — but only if they could determine precisely when and where the city would be, and then navigate the wards. ## History The origins of Arkangel are not publicly known. What can be inferred from the contents of its archive suggests the city predates living memory by centuries, and the oldest of its accumulated texts are believed to predate the current age by several hundred years at least. It was not built by any empire or school whose records survive; there is no founding documentation, no attributed architect, no named creator. Mages who have reached it rarely speak in detail of what they find inside — not from secrecy, but because the depth of the archive resists easy summary. ## Significance Arkangel operates under strict and apparently ancient protocols that have never changed. It is explicitly neutral ground for all who practise magic — sworn enemies are expected to acknowledge each other without hostility, political rivals to set their differences aside, and working collaborations between opposing parties are not unknown. The city has been structured so it cannot be claimed, controlled, or turned to political ends; its sole sanctioned purposes are the pursuit, exploration, and preservation of magic. Enforcement falls to the city's automatons — powerful constructs purpose-built to counter mages. They are near-immune to most forms of magic and capable of stripping magical ability from a caster when required. Any conflict results in immediate expulsion. There is no appeal. Mages come and go freely. No one lives in Arkangel permanently, and no record is kept of who visits — but there is an unspoken understanding that visitors are eventually expected to contribute something to the city's collection in return for the access they are granted. Knowledge, documentation, original research: the form is unspecified. The expectation is not enforced, but it is understood. ## [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 29 - Lighthaven Awaits]] In [[Lighthaven]], the party encountered [[Belinda Bubblegum]], an artificer who had spent years working toward a means of reaching Arkangel. She proposed a bargain: if they would hammer a specially-prepared piton into the side of the [[Emberspire]] during the Solstice — harnessing the tower's surge of energy — she could use that power to construct a teleportation rod calibrated to the city's location. The party agreed and aided her in completing the task, providing Belinda with the means to achieve a goal she had pursued for years. ## Trivia - Entry to Arkangel is considered by mages who know of it to be something close to a rite of passage — not because of any formal tradition, but because the difficulty of arrival naturally filters for those with both the knowledge and the ingenuity to belong there.