This ancient item is a thing of legend, said to have been crafted by an entity of great power and enough renown that their efforts attracted the notice of the gods, who in turn offered the individual a boon of power, but at a price. A price that would sadly lead to an existence of perpetual isolation.
While the craftsman can be fickle, they had the ability to draw from the well of memory and in a slightly altered form, that power persists. On the down side of this, the craftsman can no longer remember their name, where they came from, their family, and entirely what happened to them. The information he is able to glean from the well of knowledge is jumbled and not always taken from the right time, though the answers given are usually relevant in some way or another to the spoken question. This, in turn, makes using the item much like trying to make sense of a riddle rather than any form of direct answer.
It is said that long before the Blight was summoned, and before the split of the Oileanda, an elven craftsman favored by Shah quested for over a century to gather the components for a creation of magnificent power and wonder, something that would grant the bearer of the item the ability to know and understand wisdom and knowledge from all corners of the planet. He used items taken from all the realms and people of the gods, and from Volri, who at that time had claimed no people as her own, a soft promise that his light could pierce the shadows of mystery provided he never use the power she granted him for his own purposes. Once gathered he returned home and began to craft the light that would guide the way to all knowledge, an item that would bind the people of Cairne in such a way that all would rejoice and benefit from their cumulative knowledge. The craftsman toiled night and day for months, measuring and shaping each delicate bend and curve by the skill and patient endurance of his own hand, and when it was complete, he marvelled at what he had done.
All the leaders of the world were called upon to gather and celebrate this magnificent achievement, heralded as the bind cord of all life that would unite the world and ensure the future for all, the sadly the craftsman was not to ever see his dream come to be. While the ancient tale has changed and morphed over time as these things often do, the gist remains the same. An accident lead to an embarrassing incident, and the lamp was cracked, its precious oil leaking out quickly. He panicked there, before them all, scraping up the glass and oil in bleeding hands, cut from the shards that littered the floor, weeping over the loss of such a prize when a voice without form whispered into his ear, encouraging him to use the item as a means to fix it...telling him he needed but use the power that remained to call forth the knowledge needed...the divine knowledge needed to make the item whole again. In the clouded min of his despair, the nudge was all it took, and the man did just that, invoking the power of the gods to repair his precious creation. Volri, with a sad sigh, saw what had been done, their deal broken. In a whirl of shadows with the sound of ravens crying, darkness overtook the chambers, as though night had fallen over the place far too early, and when it liften, the craftsman was gone, but there remained the lamp he had made, a gentle flame flickering to and fro as though trying to escape the glass.
This is a rare artifact made from relics of importance taken from the lands and people of the gods while they remained. It contains within it the spirit of the craftsman that made it, trapped there for all time unable to escape or die to end their incarceration.
Anna Katherina
How sad that he never got to use it for good and wound up trapped within it himself.
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Jason Milliken
It is! I always feel a little guilty being so mean to the denizens of my world, but from those struggles many amazing and heroic stories have arisen! :) Thank you for the time taken to look over my world <3
Anna Katherina
No guilt allowed for fantasy! Lol. But I know what you mean, ha. I always wind up chickening out and never doing anything terribly mean to mine; maybe I should take a page out of your book, ha!
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Jason Milliken
XD Within some of the darkest places and moments in my world, I've seen these event occur organically that are so incredibly bright and moving due to the bleak backdrop that it never fails to amaze me. My favorite instances are the tales behind the Somnambulistic Prophecy, most recently in the ongoing story, the Ventryte Mentalist, Jinacis managed to decipher using pure wit and a lot of luck, a manuscript granted by what appeared to be an avatar of the goddess Sinufae, left behind before she left the world. After managing the impossible task of doing that, in a moment of rest she was comforting the Seanachaisian musician Saoirse who was worried and sang the contents of the manuscript in song form in a moment of impromptu creativity and it was magical!! :)
Anna Katherina
I'm REALLY going to have to read that when I get a chance, if there's an article on it, because that sounds stunning!
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Jason Milliken
We're working on getting a chronicle going for their current playtest where this happened, but it is centered around the Butcher's Letter and the Fourth Utterance of the Somnambulistic Prophecy which they are currently chasing :) It's been quite a journey and the player characters have been brilliant to watch engage the wonders and horrors of the world!