Magical Items and Artifacts

The natural result of an intensely magical world, magical items are a fact of life in Genesis and are used by everyone from everyday people to powerful mages and priests. Most often crafted by mages specialized in the Shaping discipline of natural magic, and their creations can range from the common charms and trinkets considered a fact of life to legendary artifacts.
This article deals with the creation and classification of magical items. For a list of specific items and notable artifacts, see Specific Items.

Creating a Magical Item

Creating a magical item is no easy feat; it's the domain of Shaper-mages, many of whom are also talented craftsmen due to the fact that magic is far easier to imbue during an object's creation rather than to add to an existing object. The process of shaping is a delicate one, with the mage involved needing to have a thorough understanding of the desired spell they're working into the object, the knowledge of how to fuse the material with the immaterial, and enough strength of their own to give up the spark needed for the spell to take hold. The amount of power a Shaper needs to put into their creation depends on what it is; passive items require less delicate skill to create but require more energy since they're meant to function without further input, while active items are a much more involving process to create but are meant to be powered largely by their future user. For the most powerful magical items, their creation may require collaboration between multiple Shapers or a Shaper working alongside a Weaver.
Different natural materials seem to have more or less affinity for magic, and are favored accordingly for the creation of magical items. Though it’s not always the case, inorganic materials such as stone, metal, and glass tend to be harder to imbue but will retain energy with more stability and predictability, while organic materials such as bone, wood, and leather are more unpredictable and often have their own quirks.
Though very few materials have explicitly magical qualities, one notable exception is the metal compound known as truesilver. The specifics of its composition and creation are unknown, as it seems to be created exclusively by the Seraphs, but it's renowned for being both extremely durable and antithetical to almost all other forms of magic. The touch or even close proximity of the compound is damaging and painful to magical beings, and contact with it serves to suppress the subject’s magical abilities so long as contact is maintained. Wounds inflicted with a truesilver-edged weapon on a magical creature have difficulty healing and often fester; creatures with fasthealing cannot fastheal these wounds. Thankfully, the process of creating truesilver seems to be exceedingly difficult as even among Seraphs it’s rare and seems to be used primarily to combat the Reaper’s abilities; how Seraphs are capable of magically controlling and manipulating what is essentially and anti-magic substance is unknown.

Passively Magical Items

Passively magical items are imbued with their creator's magical energy and require no use of natural magic on the user’s part; they are constantly functioning, but will eventually run out of power unless occasionally replenished by a mage. These kinds of items are common in everyday life, and the constant demand for items that require little advanced skill to craft creates a great demand for Shaper-mages. Renewing and reinforcing the magic contained within these is also a common way in which mages make a living, since it gives them a simple and profitable way to offload their excess energy without needing to have the skills for crafting items themselves.

Examples of passively magical items are protective wards, items spelled to give off light, glamor charms, magical reinforcement on building, armor, etc. They're the thousand small conveniences that help provided Genesis's magical counterpart to the Old World's technology, and are meant to provide magical assistance to those who aren't mages themselves or allow mages to save their own energy.

Actively Magical Items

Actively magical items may also be imbued with magical energy, but require a user’s own magic in order to activate or function. They're typically magical foci, reinforcing and strengthening a user’s magical power and making its use more efficient or sustainable; it’s also common for mages to carry magical repository items that serve as a sort of passive/active hybrid, allowing a mage to regularly store their own excess magical energy that they can then draw upon when needed.

Examples of actively magical items are staves, wands, and reservoir items. It can also cover things that simply require too much power to be passively enchanted. Many natural mages and servants of the gods use these sort of items to let them stretch their innate reserves of power further.

Atmospheric Magical Items

By far the rarest sort of magical item are atmospheric items, items that seem to be capable of maintaining a magical charge without needing to be regularly replenished like a passive item. It’s thought that atmospheric items naturally leech energy from the ambient magic of Genesis itself, though how this is achieved or what would happen if such an item is removed from Genesis is unknown; it’s theorized that the creation of Genesis itself may have affected them, as they typically date back to pre-Genesis dates, but this is purely speculation.
These rare items are seen as extremely precious relics, and are either fiercely guarded or kept secret by those who possess them. Their creation is incredibly difficult and happens vanishingly rarely; the process generally requires close collaboration between highly talented Weavers and Shapers, if not assistance from a deity or powerful spirit being.