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Forums > Home› Champions Pen and Paper RPG

Creating magical items lore

kjames91kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User
in Champions Pen and Paper RPG
Hey there!

So I am wanting to create a magical staff that holds a gem inside. How can one make a magical item even in future RPs? Thanks!

Comments

  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    Hm. Well, the short answer is, any way you want to. ;) Magic in Champions is inspired by a very wide range of cultural precedents, historical and fictional. It's possible to translate almost any style of item enchantment to this world. The details are often vaguely defined, since the point is to have them to use in a game, not create a treatise on their crafting. However, those particulars that are spelled out vary substantially depending on the magic tradition. Lemurian mechano-mysticism takes a different approach from Atlantean oricalchum infusion, which is different from Chinese alchemical preparation, etc.

    However, there are factors that seem to recur broadly in Hero Universe books when it comes to making magic artifacts. They usually require special materials, rare or difficult/dangerous to acquire. The enchanter needs to have particular skills in order to fabricate them. The magic they're imbued with normally has to come from a style that the enchanter himself, or someone he works closely with, understands and can wield. But that last point appears less important if the item draws upon the power of a supernatural entity, like a god. Nonetheless, there's nothing that says there can't be exceptions to any or all of those points, if that would serve your purpose better.

    I'd need to know more about what you want to do before I could offer more than the above. :)
  • kjames91kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User
    What I was thinking was having some stone/gem be used in this druid's staff. He is an apprentice of Dweomer, so I'm trying to find some druidic solution on how Dweomer and this gem is connected.
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    Okay, here's my suggestion. Dweomer draws much of his magic from the dimension of Faerie, and is said to have received increased power from Queen Mab of Faerie to help in battling the Fomorians (The Mystic World p. 58). Let's say that part of that power was focused in a gemstone from Mab's treasury, and Dweomer has entrusted it to his apprentice.

    The gemstone most associated with Dweomer's homeland of Ireland is Connemara marble, a variety of green-hued serpentine found only in that region of western Ireland.
  • kjames91kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User
    Sweet. Thank you!
  • kjames91kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User
    In CU lore, is it possible to own one of the gems or possibly a shard of it?
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    Could you please clarify what you mean by, "one of the gems"? Are you talking about my Mab-related suggestion above? (Which gem isn't canon, just an extrapolation from Dweomer's official backstory.) Or some other gem? If the former, since it isn't officially defined you can describe it pretty much as you want.
  • kjames91kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User
    Sorry! I meant to have one of the gems like the flame gem, earth, etc.
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    Ah yes, the Elemental Gems. I wondered if that's what you meant. Well, per official CO continuity, as of the end of the Vibora Bay Apocalypse story line, and the ascension of Robert Caliburn to Archmage status, Caliburn has collected all four of the gems. I suppose he could lend or even give one of them to another character, with sufficient justification. "Shards" of any of them are never mentioned, so it's up to you how you'd want to deal with that issue.

    BTW the Elemental Gems in Champions don't fully conform to the Aristotlean four elements, but rather the "Four Elements of Mankind: the Earth from which he was made; the Soul that God gave him; the Flame of his intellect and creativity; and the Chaos that so often resides within his heart." (Champions Universe p. 92) The PnP books do define some of the powers of the Flame and Earth Gems, but nothing for Chaos or Soul.
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    edited April 2019
    Couple of other points about the Elemental Gems. Their description in CU notes that Caliburn fears any fallible human having all four gems would wield too much power over Mankind, so he might want to remove that temptation from himself by disbursing one or more of them to bearers he deemed worthy. Also, the history of the Flame and Earth Gems implies potential nemeses for a hero carrying one. The Earth Gem was long the property of Cairngorm, leader of Britain's Dark Druid cult, who would undoubtedly want it back. (Besides his appearance in CO, Cairngorm's background is elaborated in Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains.) Caliburn himself decades ago liberated the Flame Gem from unnamed malevolent cultists in Vietnam, who appeared to attempt to destroy or corrupt it.

    Both gems seem to possess at least limited sentience and intelligence, and in the past have communicated mentally with their wielders on a basic level.
  • kjames91kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User
    Sweet Thank you!
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    This discussion reminds me of the Infinity gems in Marvel, and their less often seen counterparts in DC comics.

    How many lesser, but similar objects of power exist?
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  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    edited May 2019
    If you mean, gem-like, the Champs Uni has the Cosmic Gems, able to tap vast cosmic energy commensurate to the will of their possessor. Depending on said will, their power is potentially limitless. One gem adorns the brow of the alien supervillain, Galaxia (CV Vol. 3). At least three such gems are known to exist, but there may be more.

    Beyond those, the list of artifacts gets pretty long, both mystic and cosmic. Just counting major items not currently located, there's the Annihilation Scepter, Ashlarn Arexes the Staff Without Peer, the holy sword Auralia, the Basilisk Orb, the Crystalline Starshatter, the Hellstone, the Jade Mirror of Transcendence, the Janus Key, the Kdothri Mirror, the Krypticon, the Scepter of Night, the Star Seed, the Swords of Nama... I could go on, but you get the idea.
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