Upheavology: Enchanted Items and Artifacts · 12:45pm Sep 7th, 2017
Enchanted Equipment in Equestria
Magical improvement of objects is a common practice in Equestria. Skilled transmuters find work enhancing equipment to be stronger, tougher, sharper, or lighter for brief periods of time for a price. The Legion employs even apprentices to enchant items. Firebombs used by pegasi in raids are magically enchanted to briefly burst into flame when their fragile shells are cracked, igniting the chemicals they hold inside. Before an expected battle, available transmuters do simple enhancements to the gear of high ranking legionnaires or those with special assignments. As most unicorns prefer evocations and even illusions over transmutations, highly skilled transmuters are valued greatly.
Doing anything more than a temporary enhancement of any item, however, greatly increases the cost for the caster. Permanent magical items, or artifacts, require a magical cost so high that it invariably results in the death of the caster. Particularly powerful items will require several sacrifices. They do not need to be unicorns, though the caster is almost always part of them. Willingness also factors in to the quality of a sacrifice, as does youth and good health.
As such, the Legion discourages the creation of artifacts as a default stance. Exceptions, however, are frequent. Another problem with artifacts is that they can be lost, essentially wasting the deaths of many ponies. Worse, they can be stolen by the enemy, and used against the Legion. The latter problem can be mitigated by a failsafe built into the sacrificial ritual that binds the artifact to a specific wielder. Such artifacts will not function for anyone else. To accomplish this, however, the lead sacrifice must be a dear friend or close relative to the chosen wielder. Attempts to create artifacts that will only function for ponies have been tried, but the results have been mixed. Such artifacts that were stolen did fail to function for thieves for a while, but the ophidites could patiently subvert the failsafe given enough time unlike the more specific artifacts. These also did not prevent traitors and simple criminals from benefiting from stolen artifacts.
The Eternal Herd and Artifacts
As they possess immense magical potential, alicorns can create powerful items with greater ease. However, they are also less inclined to invest their personal power into magical items, preferring to rely on their spells and physical prowess. Alicorns are weakened when they create artifacts, recovering only when the artifact is destroyed and the invested power returns to them. Scholars among them have made the connection between the creation of artifacts and the speed of diminishing. The exemption to this are the devices crafted in specific locations within the Eternal Herd such as the Lightning Forge, and the Mountain Heart. Here, magical arms and armor are crafted through the infusion of the Eternal Herd's boundless energy and the titanic forces channeled by the elemental entities living in them. Such gear forged in these places are highly prized, though the smiths forging them are temperamental, and bound to the influence of these places.
It is also in the Eternal Herd that alicorns noted the damage that Equestrian ponies carry by creating artifacts. Sentinels have noted escorting damaged souls, some to the point they appeared ready to diminish, coming from Equestria. These were ponies who had sacrificied themselves and thus had a portion of their essense linger on in the world-within-the-void. It has been observed that these damaged souls recover, presumably, when the artifacts they created are destroyed.
A Short List of Eternal Herd and Equestrian Artifacts
Desiderium Cordis and Sol Fata (Heart's Desire and Sun's Fate) - the twin swords of Sanctus Dominus were crafted for him in the Lightning Forge by Conlis Corde, the premier smith of the Eternal Herd. The paired, straight swords stretch six feet from hilt to tip. They gleam silver when dormant, then glow with blinding white light when Dominus channels the power of sunlight. Even dormant, they are razor-sharp and exceedingly strong. Channeled, the burning hot blades slice even Herd-forged steel armor with ease. Their brilliance makes it difficult to look at them directly. Not only that, they bend light as Dominus wills them, appearing either a foot ahead or behind where they actually are. Many a foe has fallen before the Lord of Sunlight for simply miscalculating the sword's position. The swords allow Dominus to use his blades of sunlight without draining too much of his personal power. He can divert more of his power into the blades, causing them to increase in size, sharpness, and heat. He can also cause the to violently release what power he stores in them, to create massive explosions. He normally wields them telekinetically, but often switches to a mouth or hoof grip to confuse enemies.
During the Void Rift Crisis, Desiderium Cordis shattered into four pieces when Dominus struck the core of the Agamanthion. These pieces have been reforged into the weapons meant for his children by request of Divina Gratia. Dominus continues to wield Sol Fata as a single blade.
Obscurus Alis (Dark Wings) - Obscurus Alis is a set of six, feather-shaped, black blades wielded by Divina Gratia. They were not forged in either the Lightning Forge or Mountain Heart, simply appearing by Gratia's side after a particularly long session of meditation in the Midnight Grove. The blades have a knack for finding even the smallest shadows to disappear into, flitting and dancing where light is at its dimmest, then inexplicably finding themselves at the right place at the right time. Gratia, during the very few times she involved herself in Ida, favored leaving them floating around certain spots so her opponent flew into them. They possess powerful nondetection enchantments: difficult enough to be spotted by the naked eye and also virtually undetectable typical divinations. Obscurus Alis also possesses the ability to instantly teleport near a foe casting a deep enough shadow, emerging from their own shadow for a swift stab. They are incredibly sharp, thin, and flexible, able to slip into the tiniest gaps to deal horrific damage, even bending and twisting in the process.
Glacis Anima (Glacial Soul) - the former sword of Oceanus was a slender blade of translucent, ice blue metal, forged from the right edge of Sanctus Dominus's broken sword. The enchanted, Herd-forged steel looked as it did thanks to the power of water it naturally channeled merely by being near Oceanus. Glacis Anima possessed several powers at its forging and Oceanus added more as he saw fit. The sword can alter its shape at its wielder's whim, turning liquid to slip into difficult places, then turning solid again to cause terrible wounds. Oceanus often kept it in vapor form, making it nearly invisible without relying on illusions, then striking when least expected. The blade also draws water out of its cuts when Oceanus wills it, causing the flesh to dry up and die rapidly. When Oceanus cut his way through Empyrea, those slain by his sword were briefly transformed into vaporous wraiths when all the water in their bodies were stolen, attacking allies before diminishing.
Glacis Anima suffered a crack when Oceanus struck his sister, which only worsened when he used it against the Eternal Herd during the first rebellion. By the time he faced his father, the sword was too badly damaged to be of any use, forcing him to rely on a newly crafted blade of his own design. When he fell into the world-within-the-void and disappeared into the Eastern Waters, he shattered what remained of Glacis Anima and let the fragments drift within the abyss.
Aurea Gloriam (Golden Glory) - the spear of Celestia was forged from the tip of her father's broken sword. Gloriam appears as a golden spear, seemingly crafted from a single piece. The spear flies true at great distances, able to strike at anything within Celestia's sight and beyond, then instantly teleporting back to her with a mere thought. It resonates strongly with the power of sunlight and greatly amplifies Celestia's favored sunlight spears. Gloriam also extends the reach of Celestia's spells, allowing her to affect anything within its immediate radius, no matter how far she has thrown it. Despite Gloriam's power, Celestia has never used it in Ida, and only used it briefly in the fight against Lexarius. She was never seen even carrying it during her time in the Herd.
Adamantem (Adamant) - forged from the hilt and base of Dominus's sword, Adamantem is Terrato's great, black-bladed sword. In its natural form, its straight, wide, double-edged blade reaches six feet in length. It responds readily to his transmutations, growing, shrinking, even bending at his will. More spectacularly, it magnifies the destructive impulses of half-formed transmutations, allowing Terrato to send out waves of disinintegration with each swing.
Unlike the other regalia created from Dominus's sword, Adamantem was forged in the Mountain Heart, a great cavern within the deepest depths of Bytos. At the center of a raging sea of molten rock, a colossal magma elemental allied to the Herd, Adamantem was forged. The smith had requested the honor after two pieces of Dominus's sword had been reforged in the Lightning Forge. Terrato used it extensively in his frequent forays in Ida where fellow alicorns often called it "the black blade of disaster". He used it for a while after arriving in the world-within-the-void, until it was taken away by the King.
Argentea Tenebris (Silver Dark) - Luna's regalia is a large, slender, crescent-shaped blade, four feet long from tip to tip in a straight line. Forged from the left edge of Dominus's sword, the blade saw frequent use in Ida during the short period of time between Terrato taking her there for the first time and their journey fo the world-within-the-void. Teneberis becomes invisible whenever Luna channels the power of moonlight into it. It reinforces her illusions, granting more realism to her shadows so that they cause more harm, and making it much more difficult to dispel them. The blade is particularly adept at duplicating itself whenever Luna uses mirror images, so that even images of her cut with the almost the same lethality as the real one. As a physical weapon, it slices with supernatural keeness. Its inherent illusionary power allows Luna to alter the pain it causes, either magnifying the sensation to cripple her foe or numbing the pain and placing an illusion of undamaged flesh over the wound to hide the cut. As with her siblings, Luna lost the use of Tenebris when she chose to remain with them after the defeat of Lexarius.
Atrox (Ferocity) - mighty Atrox belonged to General Gravitas and served the Herd all throughout his lifetime. Created and sculpted in the Mountain Heart, Atrox possessed a simple, but highly effective enchantment. Its blows negated the magic of whatever it struck, destroying magical shields and other protections with ease. Atrox is a massive, white, stone caber which Gravitas has used to batter many foes in his long history of fighting, from forays into Ida, to would-be planar invaders, to the Void Rift Crisis, and the First Rebellion. With it, Gravitas slew nearly all of the so-called handmaidens of Oceanus.
When Gravitas fell during the Sending of the abyssal throne, Atrox, already weakened with corruption, was destroyed by Black Rose.
The Bone Thing - perhaps the very first artifact ever created by the ponies of the world-within-the-void. It was created during the earliest days of ponykind, by an earth pony hunter who found himself being observed by Solis Coruscaria, one of Oceanus's prime servants. Upon seeing such a majestic and powerful being, the hunter was filled with murderous rage and desire. He crafted the Bone Thing using the largest bones within the ram he had just killed, and immediately attempted to kill her.
Solis Coruscaria instantly obliterated the hunter, but his crude weapon survived. The thing soaked in the tremendous, insane grudge that this pony held and lay there until it was picked up by another pony. It has had many wielders throughout the ages, though often forgotten as time went on. The Bone Thing hungers for the death of anything more powerful than its current wielder, eventually driving them insane with battle hunger. At the present, it is wielded by Rainbow Dash, who inherited it from the crazed lancer, Yargh. Throughout the ages, its piercing power has increased as more and more maddened wielders soaked it in their insane grudge.
The Royal Mirror - a massive, round shield with a steel finish polished to a mirror-like shine. The Royal Mirror was created by a cadre of ponies during the reign of the first King of the Unicorn Kingdom. It was wielded by the King's Mirror, a unicorn knight who served as the King's bodyguard. It had, since then, been passed along to every pony who inherited the position. In addition to deflecting physical blows as an exceptionally strong shield, the Royal Mirror deflected harmful spells that struck its polished surface. Its signature ability, though, is to create a shadowy clone of a foe reflected on its surface to aid its user.
During the invasion of the Old Kingdom, Fume Rage shattered the Royal Mirror with a powerful blow that also proved fatal for Blade Gleam, the last unicorn to hold the office of King's Mirror.
The Clangorous Blow - this huge mace, easily recognizable by its brass, bell-shaped head, was once wielded by Bell Strike, the last commander of the Unicorn Guard before the Unicorn Kingdom dissolved. Each time it struck, it released a burst of arcane energy in the form of destructive harmonics. The ringing sound ruptured flesh and bone, and shattered even stone as it echoed out in a cone-shaped spread from the point of impact. The weapon was buried with Bell Strike upon his death, but was later exhumed by scholars from Arcanotropolis. Since then, it has served as the weapon of the city's Arcane Mirror.
Fang of the Mountain - this huge, stone club resembles the curved fang of a titanic beast. Its wielder, Rock Maven, emerged from the deepest parts of the mines of Mount Unicornia with it and the knowledge of earth pony channeling. Nopony knows of its origins, though many were aware of its power. The club is nigh indestructable, absorbing the blows of swords and spears without so much as scratching. Its weight and hardness alone crushed any creature unfortunate enough to be in its path. Like Rock Maven's stone armor and stone shield, the Fang of the Mountain is unaffected by any form of unicorn magic. Rock Maven wielded the Fang all his life, and it was entombed with him and his armor deep in the Great Delve. Research done by Lexarius himself only led to theories as searches of Mount Unicornia revealed little. The most popular one is that it is the fossilized fang of an exceptionally powerful dragon with a grudge against magic. The True Earth ponies believed that the ley lines themselves birthed the weapon so that Maven could punish unicorns and pegasi for their evil.
Anathema Blade - earth pony artifacts functioned differently from unicorn and alicorn crafted ones. They were attuned to ley lines, and thus required a powerful channeler to function properly. An earth pony need not die to craft them, but they were useless without an energy source. Rock Maven's full gear was nothing more but a heap of stone to a pony who could not match his connection to the earth, and no pony ever did accomplish that, not even his apprentice, Magma Dart. Thus, Magma Dart crafted an artifact that would function differently. He still crafted an artifact tied to the ley lines, but also secretly kidnapped and sacrificied dozens of unicorns to aid the process. The result was the Slaughtering Blade, a large, stone sword easily wielded by a channeler, but still functional for any earth pony. The blade specialized in brutally chopping up non-earth pony foes, particularly unicorns and pegasi, cleaving through flesh and bone as if they were twigs and paper. Its true strength, however, lies in its ability to heal the wounds of its wielder. When thrust into sufficiently bloodsoaked earth or stone, the blade drew the fleeting life force, mixed it with ley energy, then healed the user's injuries and fatigue. Through this power, the wielder essentially became a tireless killing machine. When the artifact was discovered, however, Magma Dart was imprisoned by Lexarius. The crime was so heinous that most of the earth ponies turned away from the channelers, creating the rift between the so-called True Earth Ponies and the normal earth ponies. The blade became known as the Anathema Blade since then.
The blade disappeared before Lexarius could seal it away. Many suspected the True Earth Ponies of hiding it to use it later, but the weapon never surfaced until it was taken by Frenzy Heart, who would become one of Black Rose's Thorns. Once a promising channeler, Frenzy Heart became feared and hated by other True Earth Ponies for his frequent dalliances with unicorns and pegasi. Upon acquiring it, he also became known as Anathema. He used it as the perfect complement to his berserker style of fighting, spinning into the thick of the fray with reckless abandon, slaughtering his foes despite his wounds, then simply healing himself when the carnage was over.
Before he entered the stasis, Frenzy Heart entrusted the blade to Black Rose, who later gave it to her brother, Blue Moon, to give to an earth pony who might serve their cause while wielding it. It was responsible for destroying the Coldsteel Construct, but has since returned to Blue Moon's care.
The Chain of Apple Slice - this artifact's exact origins are unclear as it was not created for Apple Slice, despite the name. The unicorns that analyzed it estimated that it was created during the period of the Old Kingdom to bind especially powerful slaves and to dispatch them easily. Indeed, Apple Slice discovered it and its abilities when he and his unit were trapped in some ruins by an ursan ambush. That the chain has attuned itself so well to Apple Slice indicated that it must have been incomplete and in need of somepony to attune to when Apple Slice found it. Since then, he had full control of the improvised weapon, even subconsciously altering who it allowed to use it. The chain is nearly unbreakable thanks to its fine, force links, and stretches great distances. It loops, knots, and twists according to its wielder's will and strikes with tremendous force, at command, the links become incredibly sharp, allowing Apple Slice to slash with it, and to slice apart those unfortunate enough to be tangled in the links.
Before his death, Apple Slice entrusted the half of the then broken weapon to a friend so that it may find itself with an Apple. The chain made its way to Applejack after centuries, who restored it to full strength.
True Frost Shot - Ash Frost's signature bow was crafted for her during the height of her career, at the cost of several fanatical unicorns she had impressed during her time in the Southern Legion. Despite its horrid origins, the bow itself proved powerul and useful. It granted each arrow it shot an aura of killing frost. Should a target somehow survive a shot from Ash Frost, the spreading cold would swiftly kill it through frostbite. At the very least, the chill would severely slow the target, leaving it easy pickings for a second shot.
At Ash Frost's demise, the bow was lost to the ophidites. Emperor Sesyth has it displayed in the Imperial Palace in his capital as a trophy as the bow proved useless to those outside of Ash Frost's family. It took decades until a brave band of thieves managed to steal it back. Unfortunately, the band was intercepted on its way back by imperial troops, and its leader, a powerful unicorn in his own right, chose to destroy the artifact. A replica of the bow lies within the memorial tomb of Ash Frost in Legion's Rest.
The Rose Pins - Black Rose had these simple pins crafted for the Thorns, enchanting them using a large group of captive cobrahns and unicorns as a sacrifice. Each one resembles a five-petalled rose with six thorns arranged symmetrically around it. They enable their wearers to communicate with each other over long distances, even crossing extradimensional places such as Black Rose's hidden pocket plane. They cannot cross Vestibulum, however. Each Thorn was given a pair of these pins. As is typical of Black Rose's machinations, these devices are also enchanted with nondetection spells to prevent typical divinations from detecting them.
Camellia - crafted by the same project that produced him, the bow of Longstride is a great, composite long bow, strung with dragon gut and enchanted with the power to extend the reach of its arrows to great distances. It is often described as line of sight, but this is more the limit of the archer, not the weapon. The bow is specifically tied to Longstride and will not function for anyone else. Camellia also temporarily enchants arrows fired from it to bite deep and fly harder, letting even simple iron heads penetrate tough hide and armor plates.
Warsinger - technically not an artifact and more a supernatural entity, Warsinger grants musical devices devastating power so that they perform like artifacts. Its first recorded bearer, Rhapsody, claimed that it found her when she accompanied her father to an Old Kingdom ruin. It had, since then, resided in her throat, amplifying her singing voice with various abilities. It can send out destructive harmonics to destroy solid objects externally or internally. It can also produce subtler, subsonic effects to cause unease and fear.
Before she entered the stasis, Rhapsody had developed enough of a bond with Warsinger to convince it to stay with Black Rose for safekeeping. After her failure to revive, Warsinger has since moved on to inhabiting the cello of Octavia.
No mention of the Elements of Harmony?
I'm assuming Rarity's swords are not enchanted then?
Have to say, love this lore blogs.
4661124
Not artifacts, at least. It sounds like temporary enchantments are much more practical.
4661250
The Elements are certainly Artifacts, though I wonder where they made by the Eternal Herd of does the Tree of Harmony exist in this timeline. I could see the tree as nature itself seeking to "cure" itself by purifying ponies from their initial form, not a perfect or completed process BTW.
4661302
They might be? Or they might be part of a living creature or something, as opposed to part of the soul of several dead ones like most artifacts apparently are.
Oh right, Alicorns can make them without dying -- maybe Luna and Celestia made them?
4661310
The Tree could be an Alicorn that transmuted them selves for the purpose of spreading harmony to Oceanaus' children.
What an interesting information dump. I gotta say that I very much enjoyed the descriptions of these enchanted items.
I can't help but wonder, seeing as the Wolven have something of a disadvantage in regards to magical knowledge is the creation of such items is beyond their grasp? Or are they left to the random "bone thing" style of construction?
4663907
Wolven have shamans that can enchant and create magical items. They are caught in a dichotomy. Their ruthless nature means that their shamans are happy to sacrifice weaklings in creating items, but most wolven do not like relying on anything but their fangs and claws to kill their enemies.
Liking this. The style of sacrificial magic involved in the creation of these items is very ASoIaF. Though, that mirror is very distinctly Dark Souls. I'm guessing that's from a chapter past the point where I fell behind.
So, I guessing Pinkie is either going to use the Anthema or somehow get the Fang, Rarity is going to find some artifact Mage-blades in the Hall and use those, Fluttershy is going to find a fragment or maybe even all of the fragments of Oceanus’ old blade and reform them into a weapon for her, and Twilight is going to get some weapon from the Eternal Herd?