The Many-Faced Gem

Those who have seen the Many-Faced Gem for its true nature report that it is not of this world. Unnatural and yet so wise in the ways of the natural. Some hypothesize that the Many-Faced Gem is not from the world of Tellucord at all. More grounded theorists maintain that the Gem is a gift from the inhabitants of Telluvetus, while the dremers amongst them believe it comes from father out. The Gem has inspired many a scientist to begin questioning, but remains largely unknown in terms of nature and composition. The Many-Faced Gem is understood by organized science to be a relic of immense power, specifically the power to manipulate, seemingly intelligently, the morphology and sapience of living things. It is not fully understood whether there is a set of rules that governs the transformations that the Gem causes, other than that it seems to base all transformations on the original form of the creautre. The Gem is famously known for its miraculous ability to grant 'enlightenment' to lower sentients. Many experimenters have tested this ability, and continue to do so, with varying results. The Gem is composed of a very hard, crystalline surface, lightly scuffed on the surface in odd looping patterns. Despite many attempts, no samples of the crystalline material have ever been taken. The body of the Gem is translucent and cloudy. Peering inside, a myriad of colors can be seen jutting out in sharp peaks and ridges. Focusing on the color groupings within, viewers report beginning to see smaller shapes within, natural, biological shapes ,some resembling known creatures, while others take otherworldly and unknowable forms. Worshippers who spend a lot of time observing the gestures of their kind, although it is unkown if this understanding is reflective of the realities of their respective speciation, or if it is simply an imagined or hallucinated history.
The true nature of the Many-Faced Gem is remarkable. The Gem is, at its core, a dice (a d20 in fact). It was extended down through the Veil from the Real into the world of Tellucord by a builder who knew nothing of the consequences. When it was rolled, its rolling churned the seas and tore the land asunder. Where it bounced, bountiful resources were sown. And when it settled, a pristeen 20 visible on top, life flowed from that point. Lent weight by the influence of something more tangible, those that encountered the Gem knew immediately that it was something special. Untold numbers of creatures have had their lives forever changed when chance allowed them a meeting with the Gem, long before any spiritual movements had associated themselves with it. When a living thing comes into contact with the Gem, a number of different effects can occur: some are granted increased sapience, often with a matching understanding of the world and current events, some have their morphology changed, varying from drastic, near total redesigns of the body to a change in eye or hair color, and others still are altered in nature causing them to adopt new walks of life, atypical for their species.