Icon of the Judge
Description
These ceremonial tools, in common with several other, allow a priest to perform or assist with a Liao ceremony that they have not personally mastered. The Icon of Judgement is the rarest of its kind. They are often crafted from thin rods or even short staffs, or from a bundle of thin rods bound together with bands of precious metal. This last form is a metaphor for the idea that a single stick can be broken, but several sticks bound together are almost impossible to snap. Given the uses to which this item, and the ceremony it provides, are commonly put the bundle's symbolism is especially apt.
An Icon of Judgement requires months of work by a skilled artisan, commonly with a set of tools inlaid with dragonbone used especially for crafting religious items. The materials used are usually carefully purified, and in the The Marches in particular a crafter will not embark on creating one of these icons without first being shriven by a trusted priest. Unlike most other icons, an Icon of Judgement is rarely ornamented. They are serious items with a very serious purpose.
Rules
- Form: Weapon. Takes the form of an icon. You must be holding this item in hand to use its magical properties.
- Requirement: You must have the dedication skill to bond to this item.
- Effect: While you are wielding this icon you can perform the excommunicate ceremony as if you knew it.
- Materials: Crafting an Icon of Judgement requires no special materials. It takes two months to make one of these items.