Samiel/HarmoniousStaffOfTheTellurian

Harmonious Staff of the Tellurian

Artifact •••

Description

Before the Great Contagion and before the dark times of the Dinasty, the powerful Solar studied the Terrestrial Circle with their breathen, the Dragon-Blooded, and used it against the servants of the Primordial.

It was clear that magic, with all its power, was too slow to be used in close combat: many sorcerers were slayed when their guards fell because they couldn't cast spells before being hit by their enemies.

It was then that a powerful Twilight named Huyn developed a way to channel the power of the spells in a physical object in order to store them for later use: it was a consuming process, but some artifacts were made and they quickly became very sought after by sorcerers.

Legends say Huyn was killed by one of his apprentices, a fallen Solar who sold his soul to the Primordials hoping for greater powers and who started the slaughter of his former companions: the last of Hyun's disciples stopped the Infernal, but died in the fight bringing the lore of this artifact making in the grave. Recently some tales tell about new staves of the Tellurian made of dark steel: maybe the spark of Hyun or of one of his initiates has been born again... or maybe one of them has returned from the grave as one of the dreaded Abyssals.

System

This wonder is made of one of the Five Metals and it must be attuned to the wielder in order to function: he or she must commit 5 motes of Essence to use the staff and unlike most of artifacts it only function if the Exalted is of the right type (so Jade for Dragon-blooded, Orichalcum for Solars and so on).

It has five hearthstone spaces, but they can only be filled with level two or better hearthstones and while they are placed in the staff they are depleted of every other power. The staff will operate even if not all the slots are filled, but it will store a corresponding lesser number of spells.

For every Hearthstone the artifact gains enough mystical power to store a single spell: the sorcerer prepares the spell the usual way and then can cast it once without concentrating; the same spell can be channelled more than once if the user desires. This artifact can only store Terrestrial Circle spells and only one spell per turn can be unleashed by the wielder.

With the coming of the Abyssal some staves made of soulsteel have appeared. They cannot store Terrestrial magic, but are crafted for Necromancy and can store Shadowland Circle invocations.

In the past similar artifacts were forged in other forms: rings, gauntlets, amulets and even weapons. The number of slots on these variations depends on their size, but never more than five and usually around three. This explain why the sorcerers of First Age preferred staves for this wonder