Akrion is Batch Eight Hundred Eight, an adjuster of the Assembly Yard. He tuned the periscopes the Steward looks at the world through: mirrors, reticles, rangefinders. In all his years of service not one of his readings was off, not by a hair, and for that the Steward named him Akrion, after the old word akribeia, precision down to the last line

Periscopes see only as far as the horizon, and the Steward wanted the whole world in numbers. He sent Akrion to lay a survey chain: benchmark posts across the grey lands, one every verst, each with a blue light on top. The Haze does not settle on the Etalons, so Akrion walked where the living cannot go, set his posts only on firm ground and lit them with his own light, since there was no other light beyond the gates of the works. A year later people began to walk by his lights: a blue light meant solid ground underfoot and no Haze nearby. The Steward ordered the chain to run to the Spire, but the people were heading west, to the Dam, where the shift towns still lived. Akrion led the chain after the people. In the reports this was called an error, and he stopped sending reports

Every post took a share of his light. Akrion knew his reserve down to the last share and knew the point past which he could never make it back to the works, and he passed it without slowing down. Selma followed his lights with the Lantern and found him where they ended: by a dark plinth on the slope down to the Dam, with exactly enough light left in him for one more post or for himself. He lit the post. Selma raised the Lantern, and the rest of his light went into the glass. The last thing he said was the number of versts to the shift towns, and he was right

He is quiet and polite and speaks briefly and in numbers: instead of “close” he will say “three cells and two tenths”. He cannot stand anything crooked, and at a rest stop he straightens other people's crates without noticing. For every post he set he marks his left forearm with a thin gold notch, and his arm is notched up to the elbow. Unarion walked to the Lull by his lights and still says only one thing about that road: “Deviation zero”. Seyvar calls him Horsetail: straight, jointed and growing where nobody asked

Abilities by rank

Trait

Triangulation

Akrion's posts shoot at his target if they can reach it. A target that Akrion and at least one of his posts have in their sights is fixed from two points: Akrion and the posts deal it 20% more damage and never miss it, even if it dodges or they are blinded

Awakening at level 100: every third beam of a post at a fixed target pierces the line to the edge of the board, and every enemy behind it takes the same damage

Ability 1 · mana 90, starts with 30

Benchmark Post

Akrion drives his survey rod into the ground, a gold survey mark lies down on the cell beside him, and a benchmark post rises out of it. The post does not move and shoots a blue beam at an enemy within 3 cells, and its health and attack are a share of Akrion's. He keeps at most two posts: the first rises at his side, the side closer to his target, the second at his other hand, and Akrion stands between them. When both posts stand, the cast repairs the more damaged one to full health

Rank	From level	Post health, % of his health	Post attack, % of his attack
I	1	35	50
II	20	42	60
III	40	49	70
IV	60	56	80
V	80	63	90

Stars make him stronger on top of the ranks: attributes ×1.4 at ★2 and ×1.9 at ★3, and his posts grow with his health and attack

Look

tall and narrow, all straight lines, like a drafting instrument: a late batch, with smaller and smoother plates than Unarion's, seams thinner than a hair and not a single crack

a smooth oval helmet with no crest, and instead of a visor slit one round blue lens with a thin gold crosshair, like the eyepiece of a sight

a blue diamond core in his chest, a gold “808” on his shoulder, and rows of thin gold notches on his left forearm, one for every post he set

a folded tripod of white ceramic with gold tips on his back, its head with a blue lens sticking up over his shoulder

in his right hand a survey rod taller than he is, white with gold divisions, and small work plumb bobs on fine chains at his belt

his benchmark post stands chest high to Akrion on three legs, white ceramic with gold edges, topped by a round head with blue lenses

How to play

Put him in the second row and leave free cells at his sides: that is where his posts rise, and then his target is almost always within reach of both. Triangulation pours all his damage into one enemy, so he is good against thick single targets: elites, guardians, bosses. Next to Unarion, who holds enemies with his Taunt, a fixed target goes nowhere, and together with Brakhin's acid and Varga's Prey it melts fastest of all

His attack and health pass into his posts, so he wants items with attack and health, and mana helps him set the first post sooner. Area attacks that knock the posts down, Silence before his first cast, fast enemies that slip out of the posts' range and lose the fix, and leapers all work well against him: Akrion himself has only 424 health

Akrion

Abilities by rank

Triangulation

Benchmark Post

Stats at level 1

Look

How to play

Lines