FrivYeti/OnxyBands

The Onyx Bands

Artifact 2, Commit 1

Kenzari Bloodsword was a Dawn Caste general of the First Age who found that his prodigious talents were so far above those of the Solars he trained that he could easily, and accidentally, maim his own students. In order to surpress his vast capabilities, he travelled deep into the Wyld, shaping a kingdom where Essence ran in reverse, and took from there silkworms that bled dark strands of inverted Essence and the teeth of the local predators. Such things could not exist in Creation, but still within the Wyld he forged them into a powerful artifact. Finding it useful, he created five lesser ones for his main lieutenants, that they might more easily teach those lesser than themselves and improve their own capabilities, and thus the Onyx Bands were formed.

Any character may put on an onyx band, which seems to be a perfectly black cloth armband. When it attaches, however, there is a moment of pain as it latches on to a character’s Essence, and they commit one mote. Over the next fifteen minutes, the Band begins to drain the target’s Essence. Anyone wearing an Onyx Band has their Permanent Essence score reduced by 1 for the duration. Any motes that are lost in this manner are stored within the Band, and are returned immediately when it is removed. Any Charms that the character no longer meets the prerequisites for cannot be used, and any Attributes or Abilities that are above the character’s current Essence score are also reduced as long as the Band is worn. A character with Essence 1 who wears a Band cannot access their Essence pool at all, although they do not become Essence 0 or die. Any character may freely remove a Band unless restrained.

Kenzari’s own Band was far more powerful; taking the form of a black eyepatch, it greatly surpressed his powers. His Band is Artifact 3; anyone wearing Kenzari’s Band loses sight in their right eye, and has their permanent Essence reduced by 2. In every other way, it behaves as a normal Band. A character reduced below Essence 1 by Kenzari’s Band loses all access to their Essence pool.

There are rumours that a variant of the Bands were created by an observer, which cannot be removed by the one they attune to; these can only be removed by someone else spending 1 mote and touching them, in which case they will immediately attach to this new person. If these truly exist, they would have an Artifact rating 1 point higher than the normal Bands. The land which Kenzari created in order to shape the Bands is long lost, and thus they cannot be replicated in the modern age without someone with Wyld Cauldron Technique finding knowledge of them.