http://lore5.patternspider.net/ The ten most recently updated submissions from Lore 5. en-us The Five-Destinies Staff was not always called such. In the days before the Great Contagion it was simply “Starmetal Wrackstaff 2045A4”, a mass-produced weapon buried in the vast armories of Yu-Shan. However, when the Fair Folk tore the world asunder, it became something far greater. Whether this happenstance occurred by the design of Fate or by the sheer random chance of the Wyld, the Maidens do not tell, and heavenly scholars have debated it ever since. What is known is this: When the Fair Folk stood on the doorstep of the Shogunate, and the strands of Fate began to unravel and snap, the threads of four other great weapons became entangled with the destiny of 2045A4. In their mad rush to stitch the failing Tapestry back together, the pattern spiders wove these five tattered threads into one. The other four weapons no longer exist. Not even the memories of the gods can recall them, but a small fragment of each of their destinies have been bound into the Five-Destinies Staff, lying dormant until an essence wielder awakens them. Flagg Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:11:45 -0400 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/37 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/37 The Horizon Aflame is a set of Short Daiklaives made by Tepet Nivara, A Twilight Solar, as a celebration of mastering the Fire Dragon Style as many of her family had before her, created using an alloy of orichalcum and Red jade to represent her heritage and her Exalted existence. one of the blades "Red Sky Evening" is made with enough orichalcum to count as solely that material for the purposes of attunement the other "Red Burning Earth" is made in the opposite concentration and counts as Red Jade for all intensive purposes The blades are of exquisite quality, razor sharp, with a rippled pattern down the blade and an intricate pattern etched along the blunt edge. Stamped on the habaki (join between blade and handguard) is the image of a butterfly-crowned dragon emerging from flames, the makers seal. The tsuba (handguard) on each blade is one half of a Yin-Yang symbol, one made from solid red jade one made from pure orichalcum, each with a small disc of the other material floating freely so that when the blades are placed together in the correct way the symbol completes. Both swords have an orichalcum grip wrapped in essence infused red silk in a diamond pattern. the shitodome Kanagu (pommel) of each sword is split to allow a long red silk tassel to continue a fair distance from the end of the hilt. Suspended in the middle of the tassel on each weapn is a medallion, split in half, on red jade one orichalcum, made to resemble the horizon, the the gold as the setting sun and the red as the earth. The swords are perfectly balanced, apart from the Tsuba the weapons are Identical, supernaturally so. Smeggedoff Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:28:45 -0400 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/36 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/36 The Ciko#ya... or "Vine harp" as it is more commonly known to beings who cannot produce that particular back-of-the-throat whistle required to pronounce the proper word... is a type of musical instrument, once very popular amongst Exalted in the First Age, created by Dragon Kings using their magical technology. No two Ciko#ya look exactly alike, as each instrument is grown, rather than made, requiring such particular care that no two are created under the exact same conditions, even when crafted by the same individual. All Ciko#ya, however, do have the same basic shape, noted by humans as something like a cross between a harp and a lute. The body consists of a long, curving stem of vegetative material, coiled into a dense knot at the top and bent into a hook at the bottom to suspend a series of lengthwise strings. It is lined along the outer edge and the upper coil with a ridge of long, thin crystals, and along the sides near the strings with smaller, rounder stones. About halfway up the stem between the strings and the coil, a length of the surface is bare of crystals, and a touch will reveal that that area is softer, with perceptible "ribs" under the surface that yield slightly when squeezed. The Ciko#ya can be played in two ways; lying on its side and played from above like a zither, or carried across the torso and played like a guitar. In both cases, one hand plays the strings (humans require picks or long fingernails to do this) while the other grips and manipulates the ribbed area further up. The strings do not produce the music: rather, manipulating the strings causes the crystals to resonate and produce the instrument's distinctive sound. Varying the pressure and place on the Ciko#ya's ribbed area alters the tones of the crystals, allowing for a quite wide range of notes. The instrument's crystals automatically attune themselves to the Essence located in objects and creatures around them, and so the sound varies depending on the location, the player and the audience. The sound is generally described as something like a cross between a harp and a set of crystal chimes. The majority of creatures, particularly essence-using beings, find the sound of the Ciko*ya to be deeply calming, clarifying the mind and the spirit, although some players have attempted more fast-paced songs; the feeling elicited by such performances has more in common with the focus of a martial artist than the serenity of a sage. Those who have had the chance to make an informed decision maintain that pterok make the best Ciko#ya, but because pterok only have three digits available on each hand, their variant of the instrument uses a more complex system to achieve full range of sound, and is much more difficult to learn. Most of the relatively few human performers use the raptok variant. The Ciko#ya was a common instrument in the First Age, often bought by the Exalted for their own entertainers to play due to its effect on Essence-using creatures, and the best performers were often in demand. A few instruments have survived to the Age of Sorrows, mostly in the collections of gods, but two are known to exist in the Realm, one in the possesion of the Empress' staff and the other employed by House Cynis. In Yu-Shan, Dragon King performers on the instrument can make a decent living performing at various functions and gatherings. Jukashi Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:20:35 -0500 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/9 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/9 Soon after the dawn of the First Age, when the mighty nations ruled by the Exalted were still growing and the scars of the primordial war still stretched across Creation, the Fair folk made several attempts to undo Creation in the absence of its mighty creators. Though the Exalted were strong, they were also weary, and the Fair Folk caused significant damage. One fierce battle was fought in the far north, where the Fair Folk threatened millions of human lives; to fend them off while the defenses of the North were brought to bear, many of the Solar Deliberative called in favors and invoked their rights to command the elementals of the Pole of Air to do battle with the armies of Chaos. Many elementals would have been destroyed, had not one Solar, a mighty Twilight veteran of the primordial war, personally gone to their aid. And so, when the battle was over, the spirit courts of the north found that although they had cleared many debts by holding back the Fae, they were left with one enormous obligation to the Solar who had helped them. As beings innately tied to the concept of freedom, the spirits of air were caught between gratitude and deep resentment. In order to spare his fellows and to restore good relations between the Solars and Northern elemental courts, one Lesser Dragon of Air, named Eschalach, cleared the debt all at once by swearing himself into servitude to the Solar who had fought beside them. Over the next few centuries, Eschalach served the Solar as bodyguard, emissary and even as transportation; to his surprise and pleasure, the Twilight treated him with honour, respect, and an understanding of his elemental nature and needs. And one day, at the third centennial anniversary of the dragon's service, his Solar lord presented him with the Crown of the Solar Wind. The Crown is a large, but elegant and beautiful assemblage of all five magical materials and all five colours of Jade, thought is predominantly made up of Orichalcum and Blue Jade. When Eschalach is in dragon form, it rests atop his head, a vaguely triangular, streamlined shape with vine-like spirals that climb around his long horns and a hollow ridge that accommodates his swept-back, mist-like mane. When he changes to human form (a rare event), the crown alters itself into shining dragon's-head helm very similar to Eschalach's own draconic visage. During the Usurpation, Eschalach was at the Elemental Pole of Air, sent to find a rare, concentrated form of frozen lightning; by the time word reached him of the Dragon-Blooded's betrayal, it was too late for him to protect his master. But many Dragon-Blooded perished when he descended on them in his wrath, for the Crown's powerful magic protected him from their most effective Charms and Artifact weapons. In the Age of Sorrows, he spends much of his time at the Elemental Pole of Air, though he is not in Mela's favour due to his grudge against the Dragon-Blooded. At times he ventures forth at the behest of Lunars or Gold Faction Sidereals whom he remembers, or whom he has come to know; mostly, however, he has become lazy and distant, contemptuous of the corruption in Creation's spirit courts. But now the Solars have returned, and he wonders; will his old master's reincarnation be as worthy of his loyalty as before? Jukashi Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:16:46 -0400 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/32 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/32 Long ago in the First Age, the Twilight Caste Solar and veteran of the primordial war, Thrice-Radiant Misho, found himself confronted with a dilemma. Hating both the spawn of the primordials and the Fair Folk who thronged beyond reality, he refused to conduct the mind-expanding experiments of his peers. With his onetime tutor Autocthon departed, though, this limited his capacity to innovate. However, as he observed his Dawn Caste circlemate and his Sidereal advisers training their magical martial arts, he realised that here, too, was a means by which a person could reach beyond their own essence to find something new. The humility and discipline of martial artists, combined with their presence throughout Creation, had hidden this potential source of knowledge under the very noses of his peers. Though his talent for swordsmanship did not extend to the martial arts, he did train himself somewhat, and also conducted many experiments whereby he observed the flow and changes in essence that occurred when all manner of beings practiced the spiritual disciplines. This allowed him to advance his own artifice and sorcery in many ways, but one more tangible benefit was the Signets of the Celestial Arts; talismans that were formed, hearthstone-like, from the distilled and concentrated essence of those concepts which each supernatural martial art drew its power from emulating. Though the means for creating them is lost with the Age that birthed them, the Signets themselves remain in the Age of Sorrows. Ensconced in the hearthstone sockets of various artifacts, they are easily mistaken for such mystical crystals save for the symbols stamped on their surfaces and the fact that they do not provide essence to the one who attunes them. They provide other things. Jukashi Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:35:42 -0400 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/35 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/35 Repair 2. A Flame Tongue Repeater with and an odd power. Through savvy machining and thaumaturgical writes engraved into the inside of the Repeater, a new flame pellet is created out of excess combustion and automatically loaded every two shots with one slight drawback: whenever the chamber is opened to be reloaded any charge generated from fired shots disperses. magnificentmomo Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:19:00 -0400 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/34 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/34 Gauntlets of Sublime Transubstantiation These powerful First Age artisan's tools appear as a pair of articulated gauntlets. The palms and fingertips feature adamant lenses, which are able to project a beam of essence capable of scanning, disintegrating, transmitting, and assembling matter. A thick, flexible cable leads from each gauntlet to a small back-mounted unit, which is in turn connected to a domed headset, with a crystalline display. ThesaurusRex Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:12:19 -0400 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/33 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/33 It is said that there was an anathema known by the name or title of Jinzu who, in the dark era before the Ursurpation, had been offended by the righteous nature of Sextes Jylis and thus forged a weapon to deal with him. Forged of the tainted anathemic metal, Orichalcum, and various unsavory materials gathered from the Wyld and Melfeas, the weapon is potent against those who bear the blood and essence of sextes Jylis. While its intented use was denied by the power of the Immaculate Dragon, it saw much use by its Unclean creator in the Ursurpation as it scythed down wood aspect dragonblooded and spirits aligned to the element of wood. Historical records state that weapon is a single edged daiklave that resembles an over-sized kitchen knife with an orichalcum blade that shimmers with the prismatic colours of the rainbow. Its hilt is said to be a mother of pearl hued spiral; likely the horn of a behemoth or demon. The weapon also has three slots for hearthstones located in the blade just above the guard, in a vertical line rising from the hilt. Rumours and myths place this weapon having being in various locales in Creation involving dragonblooded setbacks after the Ursurpation. The latest such rumours placing it as a weapon used by an Anathema in the service of the Bull of the North or in the hands of a Deathknight in the service of the underworld. Haku Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:10:33 -0500 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/31 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/31 Casually referred to as "mosquito nets" by Legionnaires for their ability to ward off annoying but persistent "stings", these egg-sized devices are often mounted on to the hearthstone sockets of light Artifact armors. The Scales of Pasiap are prized by Exalted warriors for turning all but the most forceful attacks into ineffective, glancing blows. Flagg Wed, 13 Dec 2006 08:27:58 -0500 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/8 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/8 This artifact lute is of obviously magical construction- its body of green jade, laced with vine-like arabesques of moonsilver, gives it away at once. It has four strings of unidentifiable manufacture, but each seems to almost hum with power even when the lute is not being played. The thin green jade soundboard is decorated by a detailed bas-relief that, with some study, can be recognized as a map of Creation. In the center, where the Imperial Mountain should be, is the soundhole, which is divided into fourths by an ornate orichalcum cross. When played by an attuned user, the lute has a naturally exotic timbre, no matter who the listener might be. The listener is transported to the ends of Creation as he listens, and even wizened old men feel the wanderlust of their youth again. If played while traveling, everyone in earshot feels light-footed, and any road seems less wearisome. It can be played, awkwardly, by an un-attuned user, but the tension on the strings is enormous, effectively having a Strength minimum of 4. ThesaurusRex Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:32:19 -0500 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/30 http://lore5.patternspider.net/artifact/show/30