Some of these aren't done yet, but I'm posting it as-is because I want to get it out there, and because I've got an important question.
Specifically, does Raleris know (of) Zhiran? If so... why don't they pool their resources? If not... is that weird that they've never run into or heard of each other?
I ask specifically because several of the Keys are confirmed to be relics from the Endbringer War that Vasilias recovered and turned to his own uses (though he lacked many of the most powerful) and I've decided to write this in Raleris's voice because... well... we know he has some interest in Ikass and Vasilias's story, particularly now that he's run into Renn (I gotta revise that storyyyy T_T). I actually really like the idea that he doesn't know much of anything at all about the Endbringer War and for him Vasilias's era is already sort of a matter of a time Long Ago, and perhaps he simply isn't aware of who Zhiran is and the fact that he's super ancient.
Anyway, I figured this was a question worth exploring in a bit more detail and also here have some fleshed out artifacts and spells of Vasilias.
From Artifacts of Agency: A Study of Legendary Objects of Power by Raleris the Lorekeeper (Copy Annotated by Raleris, Maral, and Others)We know, of course, that when Vasilias began his conquests he had already acquired considerable power through the sheer might of his magic and will, which attracted early adherents to him. Shortly after acquiring his initial mass of followers, he expanded his reach through the acquisition of items of power on various planes, most notably Ikass. The much cursed and feared Howling Mines of Dellity apparently contained treasures the likes of which can be found in few other places in the Multiverse, and Vasilias's empire rose, and finally fell, by their power--or so rumor and legend goes.
Certainly, Vasilias's early conquests show a strangely scattered approach that run dramatically counter to the brutal efficiency he adopted later on. So sharp is the contrast that it is easy to divide his empire into two sharply delineated eras--the time of his greatest domination, stretching from roughly 2000 years ago to his fall during the Mending, and the time proceeding that, during which he made frequent conquests of particular planar regions before moving on to other planes, counting them among his demesne but spending little time, outside of occasional decade-long visits during the course of his wider campaigns of conquest, on their upkeep. The planes chosen seem frequently to be odd, of little strategic value, insignificant. And yet, during this time his power grew continually and towards the end of this period he was able to conquer planes with the overwhelming force seen later.
The first rumors of the so-called "Keys of the King" emerge during the latter decades of this era, and I think we might explain some of his earlier conquests through the understanding of this legend. While information is spotty, at best, it seems clear that Vasilias made use of some range of powerful magics and artifacts in his later conquests, and it seems reasonable to believe that he acquired them during these early, otherwise seemingly inexplicable campaigns.
What form they took differs from account to account and it is quite likely that imperial spycraft has, over the centuries, resulted in a hopeless muddling of information, disinformation, speculation, fearful folktale, and half-understood oral history. There is much confusion, for example, over whether they were keys (meaning objects used to unlock literal doors), keys (meaning signs used to unlock meanings in cyphered texts--arguably a more metaphorical kind of unlocking), a list of magical standards and processes, a mistranslation of the term "Ki" which is found on some planes and deals, as far as I understand it, with channelling mana through the body, or something else entirely, perhaps even a set of confusingly-named tools that metaphorically unlocked the door to imperial majesty. I suspect, however, based on the most reliable of the existing sources, that many if not all of them were key-shaped, barring a few notable exceptions, though not all were, in fact, artifacts, as we shall see.
There are several keys that recur among accounts fairly frequently. Appendix C. contains a list of the less recurrent Keys as well as a detailed bibliography of the various sources, but the primary keys are as follows:
*The Key of Tongues: supposedly granted the power to "unlock the tongues of a whole kingdom," whatever that means. The information on this Key is scant at best, but it seemed to have some sort of power to gather vast amounts of information rapidly, though whether from mind or speech or writing it pulled its information I can't say. Neither can I say how that information was inscribed.
Nevertheless, it seems clear that this item, which in some accounts is described as a small brass key, would be of use to any scholar studying the culture of the common man... or any ruler fearing rebellion.
Key Type: Artifact
Possible Colors: Colorless
Possible Location: Ikass, almost certainly Dellity.
[What appears to be a letter is folded in between the pages: "I had no luck in Osopospent. Not only is the city too small most of the time for me to even navigate, the natives are extremely closed-lipped when it comes to talk of Vasilias, particularly any alleged artifacts that he allegedly may or may not have gotten from what are alleged to be cursed mines. There are orcs trailing me now, and while I could take them, I worry about the wider repercussions. This is a city of subtle politics, and I don't
fit here. (There, I made one of those terrible jokes you love so much. Does that make up for my failure to get useful information?)]
*The Ocular Key, or the Eye of the King: A key with some relationship to spying. I suspect that it was, in fact, an artifact of scrying the future which Vasilias turned to his use in the present. After all, the near future is yet the future. This is one object that seems to have been key shaped, though the description of the key itself suggests that the shape was, as with many of the other Keys, part of a motif rather than an essential design feature. It is described as a heavy silver key with a glass eye set into the base, and it is the glass eye that served as the catalyst to the artifact's power. [A note is scrawled in the margins: "I love watching you jump through hoops to avoid phrases like "the key to its power." It's very entertaining."]
Some reports suggest that this artifact was not used by Vasilias himself, for some reason, but rather was used by subordinates on his behalf. Many of these artifacts have a dark origin, and perhaps Vasilias feared for his own safety if the artifact was used continuously for his endless lifespan. Perhaps a mortal would be better able to bear the strain.
Perhaps Vasilias simply did not care.
Key Type: Artifact
Possible Colors: Unknown, possibly colorless.
Possible Location: Unknown.
*Stormbringer: A bringer of storms like no other, storms that seemed to disrupt the tapestry of the sky with the introduction of alien threads (or so it is poetically described in Relbin's "Reliquaries" [see ch.3, footnote 14]). I suspect that this was, in fact, a spell, as there are no records of Vasilias casting it himself, and its effects seem to be of colors that Vasilias seldom touched upon if he could help it. This, like the Ocular Key, was used by subordinates.
Our sources on this are infuriatingly close to being useful while remaining vague about certain essential points. We know from Relbin that many of those who performed magic in service of the King made use of trinket memory--i.e. they rifled through their metaphorical library of spells by way of small items that served as mnemonic centers. Stormbringer seems to have been recalled by high ranking spellsquires of Vasilias by way of a key of heavily patinaed bronze. Relbin does not deign to explain to us just what the spell did. It seems to have been designed by a powerful weather mage, though--one highly attuned to the warp and weft of the sky.
Key Type: Spell
Possible Colors:
or possibly
Possible Location: Ikass
*The Golden Workings:
Key Type: Probable spell or series of spells
Possible Colors:
Possible Location: Tyrranix (Ordren)
*The Needle of the Lost:
Key Type: Probable Spell
Possible Colors:
Possible Location: Unknown
*The Huntsman's Hand: Almost certainly not a literal hand. One of the most feared keys, apparently had the power to deal death even from a far distant plane. This was, by legend, taken from Vasilias at the height of his power by a figure described in various accounts as "A/The Wicked Witch" or "The Stitcher Woman," a boogieman figure. This suggests that it was an artifact, but there are sorcerous powers capable of wrenching a spell from minds and books alike, and perhaps it was "taken" in this manner. This is another "Key" that isn't much of a "Key" at all from most accounts.
Key Type: Artifact or Spell
Possible Colors:
Possible Location: Unknown
[A note is glued to the side of the page, written in careful script that nevertheless drift somewhat off the vertical and horizontal from letter to letter: "I have looked for more sources on this item but have had no luck. It is not that the sources are absent, it's that they are lost or destroyed. There is record of them but the records themselves have all vanished. I fear that this is a Wild Strix chase and I request that I might leave this assignment unfinished.."]
*The Sleeping Dark: A fearful weapon of destruction, the Sleeping Dark could be smuggled into enemy cities where, in time, it would awaken. Upon waking, reality would begin to warp and fold around it, eventually dissolving into madness. It is not clear to me whether this key was an entity capable of literally awakening, or simply an artifact which could be activated, its strange effects given mythological trappings by the confused and fearful victims of its awful power. I suspect strongly that this is not a key of any sort, however, but is simply grouped sloppily in with Vasilias's other weapons of power by imprecise scholars.
It was seldom used due to its catastrophic effects on the fabric of planes, and its last recorded use was on the plane of Bajool, not long before the Mending. Given the breadth of destruction on that area of Bajool, it seems likely that the Sleeping Dark remained "awake" for quite a long time. The area is still strangely thin and there are places which bleed into the Blind Eternities. Perhaps the Sleeping Dark fell into them. Perhaps it was simply returning home.
Key Type: Artifact or Creature
Possible Colors: Possibly
or colorless.
Possible Location: The Blind Eternities
[There is a note stuck in the pages: "I've been over the region of Bajool several times but I've seen no sign of anything that could be described as as Sleeping Dark. Does that mean it wandered away into the Blind Eternities, or that someone else found it, or that it dissolved into aether? I'm not sure. In the absence of other evidence, I don't think it worthwhile to continue this search and I strongly advise you against pursuing it further."]
*The Key to All Worlds: Not a key at all but a ship, the Key to All Worlds is the only one of the Keys of the King that we might definitely say was metaphorically rather than literally titled. Some legends suggest that Vasilias arrived on Ikass in this ship but others suggest that he came by it on another plane, years after his conquest of Ikass. The strangest accounts suggest that the ship was conscious but that this consciousness was trapped somehow by a geas of some sort. The ship appears from records shortly before the Mending.
Key Type: A ship, but it is unclear whether it is an artifact, a living entity, or perhaps even a Planeswalker.
Possible Colors: Unknown
Possible Location: Unknown
I have some ideas for the Needle and the Golden Workings but if anyone else wants to chime in and possibly add some entries, feel free! Some of these entries are also potentially interesting but maybe drift a little beyond Vasilias's particular character preoccupations and touchstones so I might spin them off into something else.
Login
Register
Card Search
NGAWiki
Search
