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 main antagonist of Minecraft Dungeons. He is the first leader of the Illagers in the game, and is the keeper of the Orb of Dominance.

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 family, repeatedly searching for a village to call home, only for the s to reject him, after getting in a scuffle with 5 heroes. He was seen being driven out of a village in Squid Coast in the opening cutscene of the game.

Eventually, Archie stumbled upon a mountain cave containing the Orb of Dominance. The orb promised to him power if he did as it said. Thus, Archie grabbed the Orb and became corrupted by it, ascending to the title of the Arch-Illager and gaining immense power over his people. He then used his army of Illagers to raid the villages that shunned him, taking their 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 es of Soggy Swamp to obtain large potion supplies. He would also develop the Redstone Mines to use his Villager slaves to mine redstone, and create the Fiery Forge to turn the redstone into Redstone Golems and Redstone Monstrosities to enforce his rule. The Arch-Illager would also start a search to find the Desert Temple and take the Nameless One's staff to gain the ability to summon an undead army. Each of these plans, however, would be foiled by the players.

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 uses him to manifest the Heart of Ender. Once even more damage has been done to Archie, 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...but, 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 the players to enact a final assault in Echoing Void against the true mastermind behind the orb’s corruption. 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. If a target comes within melee 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's not a boss, flies around summoning bosses and battles to try and thwart the player's efforts to stop him.


 * Arch Summon

Since he is not much of a warrior, the Arch-Illager summons a group of Illagers to assist him, usually a ring of 10 to 20 Vindicators around the player or a line of 20 Pillagers through the center of the arena, however, he occasionally spawns a single Redstone Golem 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.


 * Arch Blasts

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.


 * Arch Blessing

The Arch-Illager can enchant hostile mobs in the same way that the Enchanter does.


 * Heart of Darkness

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.

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

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

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 humans that constantly hunted them, but the Illagers thought that was nonsense. Illagers are power hungry by nature, so if they tried to unite, it would just be coup after coup.

One day, a human 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.) Thord reports to the tribe leader, Walda the Evoker, and she banishes him.



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. He lived there for anywhere from a month to a year before "Smacker" returned. The village leader, 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 all the Illager tribes under his rule, taking the title of The Arch-Illager in the process.



The orb constructed Archie Highblock Keep as his home, and gave him six 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, (once he proved the orb would not allow anyone to take it from Archie), but the Orb insisted they would need to attack the villages of the continent so the Illagers would not get bored.

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, or rather, 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 head is different from that of any other illager: it is wider than it is tall, and has different eyebrows.
 * 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.
 * When he transforms into the 2nd phase, his voice becomes much higher for unknown reasons, possibly because of the Orb's corruption, or the Heart of Ender imitating Archie.
 * In the ending cinematic, the Arch-Illager is seen with what can be interpreted as bruises or blood on his face.

Issues
de:MCD:Erz-Illager fr:MCD:Arch-Illageois ja:MCD:邪悪な村人の王 pl:MCD:Arcyzłosadnik pt:MCD:Arce-Illager zh:MCD:奇厄教主 ru:MCD:Архизлодеянин