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Venture

Your Artifacts

As scions of the mighty and powerful Great Houses, you have inherited ancient works of power from your family’s vaults. Maybe you wield your great-grandfather’s famous daiklave, or a devil caster handed down from your House’s conquest of a barbarian kingdom.

Every Artifact is a relic of great power and its own internal legend. The nature of the Artifact is shaped by all of its wielders – including you! By wielding an Artifact, you can unlock Evocations, Charm-like magic that reflects your Artifact’s history and power.

Every player gets an Artifact ••• to begin with. You may spend Merit points to either increase the rating of the Artifact – making it more powerful – or to buy further Artifacts, like a suit of armor to go with your sword.

Materials

Most Artifacts are made from magical materials: either one of the Magical Metals or an exotic component that reflects its legend. Almost all of the Dynasty’s Artifacts are primary made of jade.

Jade

Jade is the soul of the dragons made manifest in Creation. Jade is a colorful stone which resonates strongly with elemental magic. It is crushed into powder and alloyed with steel to create weapons.

Black Jade

Black jade glitters darkly with motion, like the sea under moonlight. It resonates with Water Essence and the subtle movement of currents and rain. It is often found along coastlines, on the ocean floor, or buried along river shores or the hearts of lakes.

Black jade has themes of: aquatic life; fluidity; resilience; elusiveness; deception; illusion; mystery; intuition; emotion; indirect action; change; adaptation; corrosion; acid; dissolution or melting; spirits; etc.

Blue Jade

Blue jade is pale like a robin’s egg or cloudless sky or dark and azure like a stormy horizon. It resonates with Air Essence and is often shot through with veins of white and silver, like captured lightning or raging frost. It is usually found in frozen wastes, atop soaring mountains, or throughout the North.

Blue jade has themes of: wind; cold; ice; preciptation; lightning; flying creatures; swiftness; precision; clarity; understanding; language; logic; philosophy; music; silence; etc.

Green Jade

Green jade is found in all vibrant shades of green, or sometimes speckled or mottled with brown. It resonates with Wood Essence and the vibrancy of life. It can be found anywhere that life is vibrant: in jungles, deep in ancient forests, or wrapped around by roots of trees and crops.

Green jade has themes of: animals; plants; growth; fertility; life and death; poisons; vitality; healing; narcotics; disease and treatment; wilderness; the cycle of seasons; joy; etc.

Red Jade

Red jade is hot to the touch and deep or pale red. It resonates with Fire Essence and is often veined with gold and orange, or occasionally smokey gray. It can be found in the burning places of the world such as scorching deserts, volcanic tunnels, lava tubes, and so forth.

Red jade has themes of: flame; smoke; heat; light; illumination; revelation; passion; zeal; unpredictability; flickering movement; violence; destruction; consumption; speed; etc.

White Jade

White jade is heavier than other jades, and often marbled with gray tones. It resonates with Earth Essence and can be found deep in the ground or under soaring mountains.

What jade has themes of: earth; stone; magnetism; gravity; stability; resistance; inertia; stubbornness; momentum; tradition; history; focus; sleep; claustrophobia; civilization; etc.

Exotic Components

Every Artifact includes jade in its design, because jade is unrivaled in its power and expressiveness. Many Artifacts also work in other exotic components, such as demon-gold, hungry silver, meteor iron, or the spinal cord of a huge slain beast. These exotic components allow the Artifact to behave in ways that deviate from the usual elemental power.

Types of Artifacts

Most Artifacts are martial in nature, either arms or armor. The Realm is first and foremost a military empire; the Shogunate likewise; and the Realm Before was no place of peace.

Here are some of the funny artifact names you might hear me use:

  • DAIKLAVE: An Artifact sword;
  • LONGFANG: An Artifact spear;
  • POWERBOW: An Artifact bow;
  • DEVIL CASTER: An Artifact flame piece;
  • DIRELASH: An Artifact whip;
  • RAZOR CLAWS: An Artifact claw;
  • FATE RING: An Artifact wind-fire wheel;
  • SMASHFIST: An Artifact gauntlet;
  • DIRE CHAIN: An Artifact whip;
  • (GRAND) GOREMAUL: A (big) hammer;
  • (GRAND) GRIMCLEAVER: A (big) axe;
  • etc.

The names are very silly and I adore them.

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