June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: The Key of Hope

Item Type: Artifact

The Key of Hope is a bright white moonstone key with an opalescent effect to it.  This key is most mysterious; those who have studied it have been wholly unable to divine its powers while it has been in their possession–though admittedly, scholars have rarely been able to study it.  It is in fact held in trust for the scion of a particular line and is safely secured at Santrellis for the time being.  The Key of Hope, like the Gatekeeper’s Key, has been passed down within a particular family line, though this passage can be traced for twice as long at least as the inheritance of the Gatekeeper’s Key.

June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: The Gatekeeper’s Key

Item Type: Artifact

The keys of power are drawn and bound to particular carriers.

The Gatekeeper’s Key is a black moonstone key with silver veining that seems to have the power over life and death.  Tales also have it being known as the Assassin’s Key or Silentus’ Key.  A very few stories have it listed as Shadowen’s Key, but these do not seem to fit the tales of the man known as Shadowen.  Most refer to it as the Gatekeeper’s Key for various reasons, amongst them a particular tale that seems to indicate that the key’s true power is to open or close the gateway to the world beyond, to the heavens or the flames of the Hells.  It has been passed down the generations of a single family for at least the last five hundred years.

June gaming element challenge – Arcadius

Item Type: Deity

Arcadius – God of the earth

Arcadius, god of the earth, is often forgotten in the worship of those living in the “civilized” world.  The continent of Arcadia is sacred to him.
In truth, the elves largely worship the pairing of Immeria and Arcadius as the Goddess and God, the Divine Equals.  Many of the shrines and ruins in the wilds of Arcadia bear strong elven architectural features and were in fact crafted thousands of years ago by a combination of humans and elves that once lived on the massive continent).

Principle organizations: Kami no Kyoudai (Brothers Divine)

June gaming element challenge – Immeria

Item Type: Deity

Immeria – Goddess of the Sea

Immeria is the goddess sailors pray and sacrifice to, but only rarely, as much of Maraeternum are fairly irreligious in practice, though the belief is strong—enough sailors have seen her power at work to know that she is still a force in the world.  A shrine to the pale-haired goddess exists in every major port, usually tended by either a member of the Sorores Maritimae or the Kami no Kyoudai.  The Immersea is said to be sacred to her.

Principle organizations: Sorores Maritimae (Sisters Maritime), Kami no Kyoudai (Brothers Divine)

June gaming element challenge – Fragments of the Crownsong of Aristylia

Item Type: Fragments of a song or prophecy

The rise of the Unknown Star
Born of the moon’s light,
Of the black of night,
Blighted by betrayal, cursed and thrown down,
Forced to wait in silence and in doubt
For the coming of a new light
Born of two lines, pure and tainted,
Dark and light
But chosen of a Goddess shadowed,
Come to claim what once was lost
What once was stolen away
To claim the legacy of the Night and the Star.

With children grown
And from nest flown
Returned to the lands
Of a life long gone.
A threat from without and within
A fight that cannot be lost she must win.

June gaming element challenge – Immerian Prayer Beads

Item Type: Common religious item

Most commonly found in the hands of sailors, fishermen, and others whose livelihood depends upon the waters of the Immersea, these ropes of 90 beads are a symbol of devotion and a tool of prayer to Immeria, Goddess of the Sea. The beads are typically made of shell or glass, though some of the finest are made of pearl or polished gemstones. The most devout followers know each specific prayer associated with the subsections of ten beads, though most laymen simply offer their prayers while handling their beads.

Many are crafted by the Sisters Maritime and blessed in their Houses throughout the Free Isles.

June gaming element challenge – The Black Ship

Item Type: Adventure Seed

Old spacers tell the tale of the Black Ship, said to be a ghost ship, lost to the space lanes when the first cryoships were starting to ply the dark places between the stars. The markings on its hull suggest it came out of the yards over Mars sometime in those early days, but no record of the ship exists in any system that anyone’s been able to find–at least so far. Those who have managed to board the derelict have found empty cryotubes but nothing seemingly out of place. All of the escape pods are there. All of the spacesuits are there.

And yet, none of the thousands of people who should be on the ship seem to be there. The cryotubes look like they had been used, or so the stories say. Some whisper that the first people who found the ship sent a few of their crew aboard, only for the ship to warp away–and then be found again a week later by that same ship with no sign of the few crewmembers they sent over aboard.

The old spacers say it’s an ill omen, a cursed ship, and its ghosts are better left undisturbed. No mystery is worth one’s life.

Or is it?