Magic items

Enchanted Items

• You must be bonded to a magic item to use it
• You can only be bonded to one item of each type at once
• Magic items last for the four events that follow their creation
• Magic items that can be made by an artisan are listed here.

To use an enchanted item, a character must be bonded to it. Magicians can cast a spell that will bond a character to an item, but an artisan can bond a character to any item that they know how to make. A bond lasts as long as the magic of an item endures, but magicians can cast a spell to break a bond.

Magical items fall into one of a number of types, you can only ever be bonded to one item of that type at any one time.

E.g. Your character is bonded to a sword with the Shield Breaker enchantment on it. You cannot become bonded to a two-handed axe with the Giants Maul enchantment because both of these items are weapon type enchantments.

Breaking Bonds

• You can never use two items of the same type in the same day
• If an item has been used then it cannot be used again that day

Any magician can perform a spell that breaks the bond between an item and a character. If the character has used the ability of their magical item in any way that day then they cannot benefit from the abilities of another item of the same type that day. The item is also affected - any character that is bonded to an item that has been used that day cannot make use of it until the following morning. The ref will inform you if an item has already been used that day when you are bonded to it.

E.g. You have a shield-breaker magic weapon that you have used to call SHATTER earlier that day, using the item. You cannot use any other magic weapon until the following day even if you bond to a new weapon. No other character can use this magic weapon until the following day even if they become bonded to it.

If the character or item is not present when the break bond spell is cast then the power of the item for the day is automatically used, as is the character’s ability to use an item of that type for that day.

Making Items

A character who has purchased the artisan skill has three months each downtime to make items. There is no monetary cost to make items, but the character must have the rare metals needed to make the item. Most enchantments take a month to complete but some weak enchantments are done without materials in two months. A character can continue to operate their personal resource while crafting items.

Enchanted items last for a single year from the day of creation. This means that they can be used at the following four events before the magic is lost.

Artefacts

An artefact is a magical item whose enchantment is permanent. These items can only be permanently destroyed with the Words of Ending ritual or by certain powerful creatures (including some eternals).

Artefacts are not common because they require a significant investment of the exotic material Materials#Ilium. The most common place to acquire this are material is from the Imperial Bourse; several Seats (such as the Regario dossier or The Scorrero Nets) provide their holder with a bounty of ilium. Occasional finds of ilium by private citizens also tend to be auctioned through the Bourse to the benefit of the lucky prospector.

Every artefact has a name, and many exert strong influence over their wielders in the form of roleplaying effects. Over time these roleplaying effects may become more pronounced, or subtly shift, based on the significant events in which the item is involved. This is a permanent part of the item and removed with a ceremony of exorcism.

Creating an atefact

An artisan can create an artefact version of any magical item they know how to craft.

Creating an artefact requires one ring of Ilium for each ingot and measure required to make the item, with a minimum of 10 rings of Ilium.  For example, crafting a permanent duelist's scales sword, which requires seven ingots of orichalcum, three ingots of tempest jade, three ingots of weltsilver and three units of beggar's lye will require sixteen rings of Ilium to craft as an artefact.

The ilium must be imbued into the item at the same time it is crafted; it's not possible to make an existing magic item into an artefact.

The creator gives the artefact a unique name when they craft the item, which appears on the item ribbon; they may choose to imbue the item with a roleplaying effect. Such roleplaying effects usually reflect the nature of the artisan, or the purpose for which it is intended.

For Example, the Guntherm's Hammer is an artefact greathammer which shares the magical qualities of a captain's command weapon but fills the wielder with a strong desire to kill any orc standing on Imperial soil.