Minecraft Dungeons:Arch-Illager

"Corrupted by evil... Driven by vengeance... The Arch-Illager made all bow before him... And if they did not bow... they would FALL."

- Minecraft Dungeons Opening Cinematic

The Arch-Illager known by his birth name as Archie, is the first main antagonist of Minecraft Dungeons. He is the founder and leader of the illagers empire in the game, and is a proxy for the Orb of Dominance to carry out its goals.

Story
"He became the Arch-Illager when he obtained the power of the Orb of Dominance. But before that, he was a misfit Illager who couldn't fit in a normal Illager society, and found this power within a mountain."

- Chris Nordgren

Before the events of the game, Archie was an exile from his tribe, repeatedly searching for a village to call home, only for the  to reject him, after getting in a scuffle with 5 heroes. He was seen being driven out of a village on the Squid Coast in the opening cutscene of the game.

Eventually, after a long time of searching, Archie stumbled upon a mountain cave containing the Orb of Dominance. The Orb made promises to give Archie anything he could ever want. It repeatedly told Archie that it was his destiny to rule the world. Although he denied this, Archie would go on to unite all of the illager tribes under one banner, taking the title of Arch-Illager in the process. He then used his army of illagers to raid the villages that shunned him, taking the Villagers as slaves.

The player(s) would then make it their mission to stop the Arch-Illager.

During his reign, he would collaborate with the evil of Soggy Swamp to obtain large potion supplies as well as the  of the Desert Temple to obtain the undead army. He would also order the development of numerous Redstone Mines to use his Villager slaves to mine redstone, and construct the Fiery Forge to refine the gathered redstone into redstone golems and the redstone monstrosity to enforce his rule. Eventually, the Arch-Illager would also attempt to betray the Nameless One, launching a raid on the Desert Temple to try and take the Nameless One’s staff to gain the ability to summon the undead army for himself. Each of these plans, however, would be foiled by the heroes.

Additionally, the Arch-Illager repeatedly appears in the game to summon illagers to attack the players, which occurs less often as the game progresses.

Eventually, once the players reach the Arch-Illager's throne room in Highblock Halls, he summons one last attack as the players reach him, before retreating to the Obsidian Pinnacle.

After the players finally reach him on the highest point of his castle, the Arch-Illager fights the player(s) himself. After having been heavily wounded, Archie is sucked toward the Orb of Dominance, which proceeds to manifest itself as the Heart of Ender. Once enough damage has been done to the embodiment, the Heart of Ender dissipates, rendering the Orb of Dominance extremely unstable.

Finally, the players find the Arch-Illager struggling to contain the Orb of Dominance, a few moments before it shatters, knocking Archie down and relieving him of its control. Without the Orb of Dominance to give him power, Archie becomes afraid of the approaching players. However, they unexpectedly offer kindness and help him up. Archie then celebrates the destruction of the Orb of Dominance, and by extension the persona of the Arch-Illager, with the players. However, The Orb of Dominance wasn't fully destroyed. Its Shards of Dominance caused problems like the events of Jungle Awakens, Creeping Winter, Howling Peaks and Hidden Depths, eventually leading to the discovery that the embodiment of dominance had been resurrected in an ethereal realm and is enacting its vengeance on the Overworld by way of a stronghold. The heroes mount a desperate assault in The End against the Vengeful Heart of Ender’s monolithic fortress. A shard is not in the Flames of the Nether DLC however.

Appearance
In the opening cinematic, Archie has ragged and teared clothes and is holding a torch. When he is crowned the Arch-Illager, he has blue robes that are similar to the evocation robe, a large necklace with a ruby on it and a crown with a diamond and a ruby on it. He also carries a staff to hold the Orb of Dominance. The Arch-Illager is also the only illager to have a horizontal head and a smaller height.

Behavior
The Arch-Illager has three attacks and 1 protective behavior. If a target comes within a certain range of the Arch-Illager, he begins rapidly teleporting around the arena and firing energy blasts after each teleport. His health pool is the 2nd lowest of any boss in the game, although this is mitigated by the deadly Heart of Ender battle that takes place afterward. Additionally, the Arch-Illager, when he isn't a boss, flies around summoning bosses and battles to try and thwart the player's efforts to stop him.

The Arch-Illager fires 3 purple energy blasts in a horizontal swath toward a random player. Deals a small amount of damage if it hits (16 damage per energy blast on Default). Used extremely often.
 * Basic attack

When a player comes within close range of the Arch-Illager, usually melee attack range, and the player gets hit by one if his energy blasts, the Arch-Illager teleports 4 or 5 times in a random area around the player to avoid taking much damage.
 * Teleport

Since the Arch-Illager is not much of a warrior, he is capable of summoning a group of Illagers to assist him, usually a circle of 10 to 20 vindicators around the hero.
 * Summon circle

The Arch-Illager can also summon a line of 20 pillagers through the center of the arena.
 * Summon line

He occasionally spawns a single redstone golem (mob) instead. Unlike the vindicators and pillagers, the redstone golem does not despawn once the Arch-Illager is defeated. While this attack is used sparingly, it is his most powerful attack.
 * Summon single

The Arch-Illager can enchant hostile mobs in the same way that the Enchanter does. However, if the Arch-Illager teleports, the enchanting is broken off the mob.
 * Enhance

Once the Arch-Illager has taken enough damage, his staff slips out of his hands, sucks him in, and absorbs him while transforming into the Heart of Ender.
 * Defeated in a whirlwind

Novel
The origin story is described in the canonical novel The Rise of the Arch-Illager.

Origin
The Arch-Illager was known as Archie at first, and lived orphaned in a The Woodland Mansion in game..

Archie's parents died when he was young and he was hardly any help to his Illager tribe. He insisted that if the Illager tribes of the overworld banded together, they could defeat the heroes that constantly hunted them, but the Illagers thought that was nonsense. Illagers are power hungry and combative by nature, they only worship the strongest Illager in the battle to become their leader, so if Illagers tried to unite, it would just be coup after coup.

Exiled
One day, a hero named Karl, who Archie knows instead as "Smacker", completely obliterates Archie's raid party, except for him and his childhood bully, Thord the Evoker. Thord decided that it was all Archie's fault for not helping, even though he was told to stay out of the fight. After they returned to the Woodland Mansion, Thord reports to the tribe leader, Walda the Evoker, and she banishes Archie.

Wandering
Eventually he arrives at the nearby village of Squid Coast. They are distrustful of him, but a villager named Yumi decides to take him in after he proves his credibility. He lived there for anywhere from a month to a year before "Smacker" returned. The village spokesperson, Salah, got the hero’s attention drawn to Archie. "Smacker" threatened to kill Archie, since he could never feel safe in a village if an Illager was there, no matter how small. Yumi wanted him to stay, but she had no choice but to tell Archie to run so "Smacker" couldn't find him.



After a long time of searching, he found the Orb of Dominance, promising to give Archie anything he could ever want. It repeatedly told him it was Archie's destiny to rule the world, although he denied this. Archie would unite many Illager tribes under his rule, taking the title of The Arch-Illager in the process.

Illager empire


The orb constructed Highblock Keep as Archie’s home, and gave him 6 Redstone Golems to protect him. However, these golems could not last forever, so he'd need a forge to make more, and a mine to gather redstone, and he'd need workers to do it. The Illagers were willing to work for him; at least once the orb proved that it would not allow anyone to take it from Archie. The Orb insisted they would need to attack the villages of the continent so the militant Illagers would not get bored.

Revenge
It was a downward spiral, as one thing required another, each more evil than the last. He eventually defeated Thord, who attempted to betray him, and despite how he tried to convince Yumi, his only friend, to join him, she refused. Yumi almost got him to quit the entire thing and just go back to living in the village, but the Orb, now partially controlling Archie's thoughts, would not let him. With the new title of the Arch-Illager, Archie, under the influence of the Orb, vowed to make all of the overworld suffer for taking away the peaceful life he could have had...

Trivia

 * The Arch-Illager's teleport sound is identical to that of the Illusioner miniboss that is found in the Creeping Winter DLC when doing a mirror move.
 * In the Arch Illager boss battle, if you get him onto the stairs leading towards the battle, the Arch Illager will lose the ability to teleport.
 * When he transforms into the 2nd phase, his voice becomes much higher.
 * In the ending cinematic, the Arch-Illager is seen with what appear to be bruises or blood on his face.
 * In Minecraft Dungeons Arcade, the top of the Arch-Illager's crown lacks a texture, only appearing black.