Magic has existed for quite a while in Easthalen, but before the barrier was erected it was seen, at best as a fun tool and at worst as a dangerous power to be messing around with. Artefacts with an arcane origin where few and far between.
This changed quite dramatically after the population became trapped behind the Great Barrier. The first few years after the GB was raised saw a flood of magical items and artefacts into the world, as new-found magic-users experimented. Many of these experiments failed and the Arcane Protectors had their work cut out for them. Eventually, as the rules and laws of magic use came into effect, the decision had to be made to what to do with the vast number of powerful,
yet highly unstable artefacts. Several solutions were offered including:
- Destruction by volcano – Rejected to the interaction of volcanoes and artefacts made the process dangerous and unstable.
- Offing up them up to the gods – Rejected due to the fact the gods were rather busy at this moment with the barrier.
- Throwing them into the Barrier – Partially Accepted. Those nations within throwing range of the barrier used catapults and the like to throw the artefacts into the barrier. This could only be done within the Bleed and was not practical for all places.
- Disintegration – Partially Accepted – Some artefacts had a nasty way of defending themselves and reflecting magic used on them back to the user. A few unscrupulous nations sacrificed some of their population this way.
- Storage – Generally Accepted – A remote and hidden location was made in a neutral and trusted nation to store and study these artefacts in an attempt to learn from them and destroy them if necessary. All but a few nations sent their items to this location, even though most of them kept a few for themselves, just in case…
This location, known only as Archive in the few official records that do exist, is protected by a permanently station force of Arcane Protectors. Only the most powerful sages, priests and rulers are allowed here or even know it’s location.Exact details of the Archive are, as you can imagine, non-existent as one of the known security measures is memory wiping. If you are a permitted visitor, then the only thing wiped is about the inside of the Archive. If you happened to stumble into this location by accident or with malicious intent, then ALL memories are removed, including remembering how to talk or who you are, in a rather painful way.
A few times in history an artefact or Item has been allowed to be removed temporary from the Archive, but it has always be escorted by an arcane protector, called a Custodian. If you have found are donated artefacts in the past, then the chances of you being allowed to borrow one is vastly increased, but a full petition to the protecting council must be made first. Empires who have tried to seize the artefacts by force have learnt the hard way hat attacking a place filled to the brim with items of unpredictable power is not a good idea. It is one of the few truly neutral places in Easthalen.
Within the Archive, the items are stored according to various categories, based on the powers and strength of the item. There is one wing that only 2 people since the founding of the Archive have been allowed to enter and remove items from. The section of the Archive is simple known as “The T-Wing”. When asked, those who are allowed to know are told the T stands for Technology.
Next time, some sample Artefacts and items of power will be covered
