Sun Sceptre

The first time she had seen it, she had shrunk back into her sister's skirts, fear written plain as ink across her features. It seemed to burn her eyes, too bright by far, a cruel thing laced with malice and beauty at once. A heavy body of engraved dark wood rose to an orb of pure gold inlaid with sparkling rubies and diamonds, fashioned into the shape of a resplendent sun.
The day before, her father had been pacing nervously through their dining hall, speaking in too-quick murmurs to his advisers before he swept all at once from the room. But with the sceptre in his hand, a long cloak flowing five paces from his back and a crown of heavy gold nestled atop the honey-gold of his hair, her father appeared endlessly regal, a storybook vision, the most awe-inspiring man Izar had ever seen. A little girl of only three, she could remember none of his frantic pacing in that moment. She could see only his mesmerising grace and the beautiful lethality of the gold he held so easily, like an extension of his own form. The fingerbone of a god, they called it.
And then a soft voice chided her, and Izar's attention snapped back to her duties, composure forced into her expression lest she face another of Lady Gentxia's lectures. The orchestra played loud and shrill, and the diamonds glimmered like tiny stars in the corners of her vision.

Manufacturing process

Like many other royal ventures, the manufacturing of the sceptre was incredibly difficult on the gold mines to the south of the country, and led to the underpaid work of hundreds of Itxaroan citizens. Many died deep in the mines. The diamonds were retrieved by colonies in the south under terrible conditions. Naturally, the monarchy did not recognise these problems or the process it took to create the sceptre itself, greatly punishing those who complained as conspirers against Urre and the Hirune.

Significance

The Sun Sceptre represents the king's direct connection to Urre, the Sun God, as his direct voice and body on earth. Further, as it was made following the Grief, the Sceptre represents the power of the king over dissidents and those who would claim godly power over the Crown itself. It is a reinforcement of royal ideals and authoritarian superiority over the masses, as well as a religious tool used to demonstrate the divine power of the king and his bloodline. It is used only on special occasions for that reason, and is otherwise heavily guarded.

Item type

Unique Artifact

Rarity

The only one of its kind, the Sun Sceptre was fashioned solely for the Grave King following the events of the Grief. It has been maintained and updated several times since, but otherwise it is the only one in existence.

Weight

6kg

Raw materials & Components

A body of gleaming ebony is engraved with likenesses of the Divine Hirune and other symbols of the Itxaroan monarchy. It rises to a large orb wrought from pure gold, its edges carved into the undulating flames of a sun. Rubies glimmer at each fiery end, diamonds lighting the body of the orb, both stones embedded into its engraved ripples of fire. It is connected to the ebony body by a ring of white gold which is also embedded into the wooden engravings themselves.