For twenty thousand years, the crowned House of Dehmohseni, its line of witch-kings and sorcerer-emperors, held dominion over the entire world. That dominion ended twenty-one years ago, when the last king was slain and the empire shattered.

The world rejoiced as the mad nephilim dynasty was cast down, its legacy buried beneath new borders and fledgling kingdoms. But on the night of the fall, unknown to most, a son of the slain king was smuggled from the City of Many Tongues by loyalists and hidden in a distant corner of the world.

Now twenty-one, Yvain the Younger has been raised in exile, taught to speak forgotten tongues, to conjure before he could walk, and to believe, without question, in his divine right to a throne that no longer exists.

This is the tale of his return, a journey across the broken realms of Malkuth, haunted by sorcerers, demon princes, eldritch gods, and the worst of men. As Yvain confronts the terrible weight of his bloodline, he must decide whether to inherit his family’s tyranny… or destroy everything.

It is a peculiar irony that the system most relied upon to determine a thaumaturge's worth is, by any fair scrutiny, the least reliable measure of their true capacity. The Magisterium Ranking was conceived, not as an impartial gauge of mastery, but as a bureaucratic instrument, a way for academies and councils to impose order upon the unruly diversity of the mystery thaumaturgic. What emerged is a hierarchy less reflective of power than of politics, less of wisdom than of pedigree.


But for the reader's perusal, here are the rankings by which the Magisterium judges knights, mages, demons, and angels.


The hierarchies of angels and demons are drawn according to the measure of their threat, whereas the stations of mages and knights are marked by their command of discipline and the breadth of their breath. Yet it is folly to place too much faith in such divisions. Rank has ever been a poor shield; history remembers more than one alchemist of high repute undone by a mere mudwitch of no standing at all. Mastery is not synonymous with strength, and in certain cases it may even prove a liability, for there are things abroad in the world that do not care to be known.


Of special note are the eldritch entities, who defy every ladder and category. They are unranked, yet their presence bears weight equal to the highest of angels and the most terrible of demons.


Should this knowledge discourage you, then my task is complete. If, after reading these pages, you are tempted to set aside the pursuit of thaumaturgy and instead take up carpentry, you may well have chosen the wiser course.


A Thesis on Magisterium Rankings