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Archmage, archmagi, or archmagus is a title used to identify an especially powerful wizard, usually within the context of fantasy fiction. The term is a neologism strung together from the Greek word arché, meaning "first" + magus, a reference specifically to the astronomer-astrologers of ancient Persia.
The archmage of the world of Ursula K Leguin's Earthsea is a fairly typical example of an archmage, in that he is the head of a college of wizards, a primum inter pares or "first among peers". The character of Saruman in J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle-Earth novels is also an archmage, though he is never referred to by that title; however, as the head of the order of wizards (as Gandalf describes him), he seems to occupy the place of an archmage in Middle-Earth.
Archmage (MMORPG)
Archmage was a wildly successful browser-based MMORPG, where the player plays a mage resurrected from the depths of hell and commands vast armies with magical and mundane elements. The original was created by MARI, but this company has stopped supporting the game. There are made several games based on Archmage's concept: for example The Five Pillars (http://thefivepillars.org) and the attempt to recreate Archmage from bottom: The Reincarnation ( http://www.the-reincarnation.com/ ).
Although a pioneer into the MMORPG world, it has since been outclassed by more advanced browser-based games such as the Java-enabled Runescape.
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