TheHoverpope/TheSoapstoneHeart

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The Soapstone Heart, Fetich Soul of Zuratha

Zuratha once knew what he was, and it was written in the name of his great jade heart. Now that is lost, and the soapstone heart remains. It does not know its own true name, nor does any other. Great tragedy has wiped its very being from existence, leaving only this shadow, this husk of what it once was. The soapstone heart is just that, a massive sphere of intricately carved soapstone that rests in the center of Zuratha's body in Malfeas. It pulses softly with a nacreous internal light, but otherwise does not act. It once had knowledge of everything through the flesh of its yozi, and its pulse set the pace of the world; now, it is a great symbol of futility. The heart is covered in infinitely intricate carvings, some of which are great epic tales in pictogram that fail to tell a story or impress on the eye, and some of which are reams of text in infinite languages that speak meaninglessly, wasting their eloquence. Should a sorcerer attempt to summon it, he will waste his effort; while the heart still contains great power and knowledge, able to construct nearly anything, able to share any secret, anything it does will be sadly incomplete and meaningless. When it reveals the location of a great treasure, that thing will be broken or long stolen; when it creates a great object of power, that object will never turn out to be what the exalt needed. No sorcerer should ever ask it about meaning, or it will touch them and they will understand, and become like him, and no more cruel fate could befall them.

When summoned, the heart often takes the shape of a courtesan who seduces listlessly with disinterest; the sorceror who is seduced by her whiles finds her companionship somehow unsatisfactory, if almost addictive. The heart may take the form of an old sage with a staff surmounted by a calcite feather; this sage gives rambling lectures that are never more than tangential to their topic. The heart has a thousand other forms, all of which shape themselves to the needs of the sorcerer who calls him; each will merely reflect on the sorcerer the fact of their need, as he does for Zuratha.