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in: Historical Item

Blood Dagger

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The Blood Dagger is one of the most destructive weapons to have ever existed in Oberin. Forged with the magic of the Curio - Oberin’s most powerful artifact - the weapon would consume the souls of whoever it killed, denying them the chance of resurrection. It was created during the Third Era, shortly after the time of Elara and her disciples, and was fashioned by the black mage Aborek, who was the leader of an ancient city called Brogan’s Keep.

The Dagger played an important role in a larger war involving Brogan’s Keep and the partitioning of the Curio. During the conflict, the city was destroyed, and the Blood Dagger became lost within the ruins for centuries. It would be recovered during the Fourth Era by the wizard Elefin, who unbeknownst to the wider public was the leader of the Black Hand. Armed with the Dagger, she led the Hand through the Lancaster Wars and the Siege of Marali. The Dagger would finally be destroyed in the Bleeding Moon of Year 426, as the result of a desperate bargain made between Mirith and a pair of embittered Black Hand generals (known popularly as the Twins).

The Third Era[]

Background[]

The Third Era is most widely known for the rise of Elara, the deeds of her seven disciples, and the bloody War of the Gods. After the last disciple, Dethras, was defeated in the war, a long period of peace ensued. Oberin’s most powerful artifact, the Curio, was partitioned into three pieces to prevent any future conflicts from becoming so deadly. One piece each was bestowed upon Marali, Mirith, and Andris for safekeeping - but none was given to Lerilin or Brogan’s Keep.

At the time, Brogan’s Keep was a city with greater military might than even Marali. As a result, Aborek felt snubbed, and so he hatched a plan to prove himself worthy: he would steal Marali’s piece of the Curio and become its guardian. But somewhere along the way, plans changed, and he decided to use the Curio in combination with other rare artifacts to craft something even more powerful. And so the idea of the Blood Dagger was conceived.

Creation[]

To construct the Blood Dagger, Aborek would use three objects of untold power: the piece of the Curio, the Golden Box, and a vial of centaur blood. The Curio, he successfully stole from Marali as planned. The Box, he acquired from his assistant Ayara Rita (who in turn stole it from her lover, a treasure-hunter named Arlis). And the centaur blood, he acquired by trapping and murdering four centaurs in cold blood. This, plus a simple holy dagger and a magic rune (that has since become known as the Black Stone), was enough to begin forging the Dagger.

However, when Aborek and Ayara had stolen Marali’s Curio piece, all of the other cities had begun to assemble a coalition army to invade Brogan’s Keep and return the Curio to its rightful place. Aborek was prepared for this of course, and was planning to use the soon-to-be-ready Dagger to wipe out the invading forces. But as would soon become abundantly clear, the Dagger had a mind of its own, as well as a certain way of corrupting the souls of whoever dared to wield it. The very moment that the Dagger was finished, Ayara took it up and murdered Aborek. What happened next is still a matter of mystery. Most scholars theorize that the weapon turned on Ayara, compelling her to stab herself, and thus giving the Dagger another soul to consume.

The Blood Dagger is born.
Ayara Rita slays Aborek.

The Blood Dagger is born.

Ayara Rita slays Aborek.

The Blood Dagger is born.
Ayara Rita slays Aborek.

It was at this point that the coalition army entered Brogan’s Keep, only to find hoards of vicious blood creatures. They recovered the Curio piece, but with no sign of the Dagger - or even any awareness of its existence - they burned the fortress to the ground.

Scholars subsequently learned of the Dagger by studying the notes of Ayara Rita, as well as investigating the countless paranormal phenomena that still occur today in the ruins of Brogan’s Keep (or Aborek as it is now known). Many daring adventurers have reported hearing the ghostly wails of Aborek, or seeing the ethereal apparition of Ayara plunging the Dagger into Aborek’s ghostly form. But the Dagger itself went unaccounted for, and hundreds of years passed with it lost to the mists of time.

The Fourth Era[]

Elefin Ascendancy[]

One day in Year 425, a team of some of the most well-known figures in modern history descended into the ruins: Father Amalphus Vei, Evers, Commander Asliendor, and Elefin, among others. The Dagger revealed itself to them, and Asliendor picked it up, immediately almost becoming corrupted by its malicious spirit. With the magical aid of Vei and Evers, he managed to drop the Dagger, but chaos soon erupted as an Alliance force that had been following the party decided to attack. The brigands were defeated, but somehow during the frenzy, the Dagger had vanished.

We now know that it was Elefin who stole the Dagger that day, but the rest of Oberin wouldn’t realize this until far too late. Later, while still posing as the weak and beautiful girlfriend of Asliendor, she tagged along on a Mirithian delegation to the Centaur Cave. The Mirithians had gone there out of the hopes that the centaurs might be able to heal the wounded Royal Guard, Zexe. Instead, when the moment was right, Elefin produced the Dagger and slew the Elder Centaur, to the great shock of all those present (including Asliendor). She absorbed the elder’s power and killed dozens more centaurs, before murdering Zexe - trapping his soul inside the Dagger - and departing.

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Elefin shows her hand.

It soon became clear that Elefin had secretly been the leader of the Black Hand the entire time. Historians believe that she was also the one who orchestrated the earlier Alliance attack on the group in Aborek, for the purpose of acquiring the dagger. With the dagger in her arsenal, she led the Hand through a period of unprecedented influence. She oversaw the infamous Siege of Marali, carried out by her second-in-command agents, The Twins. She formed an alliance with Senator Lancaster during the Lancaster Wars, using her augmented powers to seal off the walls of occupied Andris. And she personally led the raid on Mirith that resulted in the capture of Serene, heir of Elara (this was also the same moment in which Duchess Tirana revealed herself as an agent of the Hand).

The Black Stone[]

At around this same time, further information on the Dagger was acquired when Mirith’s Royal Mage Beleth recovered a blood-stained magic rune - now believed to be the Black Stone. When he wore the rune, it initially caused him to be possessed by the twisted spirit of Aborek. He was able to recover, and the chronicle of his actions during the incident has since become a valuable source of information on the Dagger.

Destruction[]

Meanwhile, other citizens from Mirith - the last remaining free city - came to Brigobaen to do research on the Golden Box that had been used centuries earlier to forge the Dagger. With the assistance of the Grand Mage Seth (as well as some more apparitions from the past), they managed to retrieve the Box from deep within the Aborek ruins. Their research also revealed that the Dagger could be deactivated and destroyed if placed back inside the Box. This would also supposedly release all of the souls contained within the blade. The only problem, of course, would be prying the Dagger away from Elefin.

And that is where the Twins reentered the picture. While Elefin had been directing all of her campaigns, the Twins were growing tired of her leadership. And so they proposed a deal to Mirith: the Twins would reveal the date and time of Elefin’s next raid on Mirith, if Mirith promised to leave Marali to the devices of the Twins. Not having any other real choices, Mirith accepted, and plans were immediately drawn up to trap Elefin and destroy the Dagger. The mercenary rogue Darkstar volunteered to be the one to steal the Dagger, and Seth himself would be present to ensure that it was conveyed to the Box.

Elefin and her forces arrived right on schedule, with no knowledge of the trap awaiting them. Everything went more or less according to plan, except for the tense moment when Darkstar was holding the Dagger. As it had done once before with Asliendor, the Dagger attempted to take over Darkstar’s soul. With Seth’s considerable powers guarding her mind, the Dagger could not succeed, but it did manage to turn on the rogue and wound her, before she and Seth placed it into the Box and destroyed it for good.

All the souls trapped in the Dagger were released, including Zexe, and the weakened Elefin was slain on the spot. But there was a catch: when the Dagger wounded Darkstar, it left some sort of curse on her soul (described more fully in her article), which not even the finest clerics could heal. Her story would only end in tragedy, but the Blood Dagger, at last, was no more.

References[]

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