Difference between revisions of "BogMod/SilverSwanShield"

Latest revision as of 01:10, 14 December 2010

Artifact ••••

This shield has an ancient legacy to outdo almost any other. A gift from Luna herself to Ebon Phoenix of the Horizon, a mighty Waxing Moon in the days before the breaking of the Lunar Castes. In fact this shield's origin goes back before the First Age to the Primordial War itself. In that tumultuous time with the whole of Creation at stake and the Gods very immortal existances on the line there was still time for this Lunar and his Solar mate to grow close and formally marry. Damage to the timeline makes it hard to tell but the two insisted they were the first to actually marry their bonded partner. This shield was a wedding gift.

That is but a small part of the shield's legend as most has been lost to time. Even worse it has a past corrupted by revenge and spite. The mated pair who ruled Ondar Shamball at the time of the Ursupation were the same pair who had married so many years ago though at this point young and new incarnations for each. The Sidereals who slew them and lost some of their number in the fighting dared not destroy the weapon itself or hide it away forevermore in some vault in Yu-Shan. Instead they poisoned its legend with lies. It became known as the Cursed Demon Shield. A pawn in their manipulations of the Shogunate its users would find themselves rising high and fast only to fall hard when they had outlived their usefulness as a pawn to the Viziers. Their backing of whoever possessed it ensured the legend that grew around it as an Anathema artifact that gave power to its user. Each one who held it swearing they would be the one to rule the device and not fall to its curse. Yet the sudden withdrawel of unknown Sidereal aid would lead to the downfall of its users.

For a time after the Great Contagion the Sidereals were too busy to worry about keeping up their vendetta against those dead so long ago and the weapon fell into the hands of the ones who would create the Ferem family of Cherek. It saw early success being used to fight off the hungry dead that had risen up in the wake of Great Contagion and the Fair Folk and shattered the gleaming diamond sword of the Relentless King, who even after the Realm Defense grid had shattered his army planned to continue on and strike at the Blessed Isle itself with a group of enthralled human followers.

In the third century of the Empress' rule it fell into her possession as tribute and she openly wore it on no less then two occasions. Once when she rode against a Lunar who had Exalted on the Blessed Isle and the second time when Monosque marched on her with the Eye of Autocthon. That neither incident lead to her downfall only added to the power and legend though thanks to her Sidereal connections she only used the shield because she knew it's curse was a lie. 18 years before her disappearance the Shield was given as a gift back to House Ferem. At the time two rumors circulated as to why. The first was that some unknown slight had been given to her by them and the gift would destroy them as only the Empress was strong enough to not be victim to its curse. The second was that she had broken the curse and for some reason she wished them to rise in power for some reason.

This moonsilver shield looks like six wings that come out of a single central point. The feathers of one wing partially covering the next wing making a full circle to make the shield itself. The shield grants +3 to both Dodge and Parry DV. When used in a Defend Other action however the bonus is +5 to both instead. Furthermore the one being attacked enjoys a +2 DV bonus as well should the attacker decide to continue on to try to strike the defended. Finally the protections woven upon the shield allow it to block the unblockable and defend against transitory environmental attacks. So it can defend against the blastwave of the Godspear but would be of no help trying to swim through Kimberry.

The shield costs 5m to attune.