d30 Archmage status flexes

Status seeking among archmages or what does the mage who has everything want?

This is rooted in a snip I recall from The Status Seekers about how once all material wants were met, a person sought status. Considering how a mage is effectively a post-scarcity entity in a world that is not there yet, they are competing for status with other mages.

Some things like political power, wealth, etc. can also be contested by lesser beings such as dragons, nobles and others that many archmages hold as beneath their notice. To gain status among other archmages, truly preposterous amounts must be gathered - a world ruled without challenge, every ounce of gold ever mined - scales no mere non-magician could hope to even consider.

Many of the things archmages pursue reflect the fact that only the opinions of their fellow archmages count, like the most esoteric of high art, often the uninitiatied will be unable to appreciate the glory of their achievements - but this is not for them, their opinions do not matter.

The below table of goals are also what its realm/lair/demiplane can be expected to be built around - the attainment and maintenance of whatever status display it has deemed worth while.

d30 status flexes of an archmage
1. Most dangerous beast collection - caged or free-roaming
2. Most ludicrous home - e.g. lava moats, bubbles on the Negative elemental plane, carried by a megalodon
3. Most ancient ruin inhabited - proportional to the dire reputation of the creators and the amount of their dangerous defenses left intact
4. Epic rituals - the more dangerous for the most frivolous gain the better
5. Most esoteric addiction - maintained through incredible effort to source supplies e.g. time travel to gather an extinct herb
6. Most unlikely political machination - holding some polity in place against significant destructive forces
7. Greatest realm sponsored - being known as a champion of a place and effectively accepting any and all challengers where/when they choose
8. Quantity of vassals - having nations, tribes, cults and organisations operating under your banner
9. Unlikeliness of servitors - getting everything done with really impractical servants - spring breezes, turtles, an order of blind monks
10. Stamp on the land / territory dominated - sheer scale of land indisputably dominated - nothing moves without their will
11. Elaborate conveyance - Baba Yaga's Hut or Howls Moving Castle but bigger and more frivolous
12. Epic item created - world shattering powers captured and harnessed within a thing anyone could use
13. Most frivolous item - have a thing you make become ubiquitous or demanded by all and fill that demand to no gain beyond the glory
14. Most ubiquitous spell - the classic, seen as somewhat cliche - have a spell that is 'yournames adjective noun' in most spellbooks
15. Powerful artefact collection - have walls hung with Chekovs doomsdays; glory is every day the sun comes up with all this lying around
16. Corner a reagent - become known as the only source for a thing; any who seek an effect must deal with you
17. Foundational/broadly adopted books - write the book that is on everyone elses shelf
18. Create a widely adopted magical school - other magicians say they follow your style
19. Rare creatures collection - have the last of whatever it is
20. Impossible body form - exist as something that is only alive through arcane force - keep your heart in a box, have limbs of mercury, etc.
21. Most elaborate garden - ideally with impossibilities like plants that cannot survive together growing side by side
22. Impenetrable traps - live in a place of no return - baited with a minor version of something else (roll again)
23. Legendary treasure - truly preposterous scale of treasure; dragon hoards piled atop dragon hordes
24. Famed demiplane creation - ideally create a place, seed it with something of interest (roll again) and abandon it for others to marvel over
25. Seal history - make a chunk of the past dissappear, erase all records, hide all that remains behind an impenetrable cypher
26. Champion of games - challenge fey, gods, other archmages, death itself to be known as the greatest player of whatever the game is
27. Legendary beauty - dazzle with beauty, slay on sight, steal hearts of all who see you, have children sought by others in quests.
28. Lover of Gods - seduce gods, monsters, famed beauties, the more unlikely the better
29. Clan head - weave your bloodline into all nations, all houses, clans, tribes and species.
30. Kingmaker - all must cross your threshold before anything happens, it is known

If many of these read like achievement awards from something like Crusader Kings then that is broadly the right mindset to have for these things. Only other Archmages appreciate how tricky these things are to pull off and those are the people to impress.