Artifacts – Gifts from the Gods
Notes from the Author: There are actually two, largely disconnected magic systems within New Heroes. The first is what I will call a scientific magic system: a system that follows certain rules and has strict behaviors (like allomancy from The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson). The other is what I would call a divine magic system. It just magically exists and, if there are rules dictating its behavior, they aren’t revealed to the reader or any characters (like the force from Star Wars, and yes, I know about midichlorians but that isn’t a real explanation of how jedi can do what they do). The scientific magic system in New Heroes is the World’s language, or the manipulation of ambient energy. The divine system is the existence of artifacts.
Artifacts: Gifts from Lior
Divine gifts once appeared throughout Kairodor. They were very rare and granted special powers to those that touched them. Those blessed with divine gifts grew into positions of prominence, and led their people into a golden age. However, Palas, the god of darkness, grew bitter of their prosperity, and jealous of Lior who they worshipped. He used his power to strip the people of their gifts and throw the world into disarray. Lior couldn’t undo his counterpart’s work but, when he brought his champions—Heroes—to Kairodor, he gave them the ability to accept the gifts, now referred to as artifacts.
Artifacts are a combination of two metrics: personal or enchantment, and passive or active.
Personal items can be applied to a hero directly, while enchantments are applied to non-living things like jewelry or weapons. Passive artifacts are always in effect, while active items can be turned on for a period of time. For example, an artifact that would make you stronger would be described as passive and personal, while an artifact that could turn fabric into stone once every hour would be an active enchantment.
Items have different stages, and some even have different upgrade paths. For example, let’s say there is a hypothetical active artifact that makes a hero faster for one hour. The item might be able to be upgraded to make the user even faster during that time. Or, this item could be upgraded to make the hero faster for two hours. Heroes can upgrade artifacts by performing rituals specific to that artifact and upgrade stage. Each additional upgrade requires a significantly more difficult and costly ritual.
Notes from the Author: Heroes are the equivalent of an invasive species. They are not supposed to mesh with the structure of Kairodor because they don’t belong in this world.