Staff of Dragon Breaking
The Staff of Dragon Breaking is a powerful artifact forged in the First Era. It is considered by many to be the most powerful object in existence, though not all scholars agree. Nevertheless, its power and historical significance make the single most valuable item in Eltcarem, rivaled only by the Iron Crown. The staff is made of Illuvium, and is therefore faint gold in color. At the head of the staff are two twin dragons, and where their heads meet, they hold a black sapphire.
In the First Era, Ilde Ironcrown, leader of the Ironcrown clan, lived in the Kainir Mountains. The clan had been dispersed from the Mædenjolt Mountains after the siege of Zekdremor, and most of them now resided in the Kainir Mountains with an uneasy alliance with the local giants and gnomes. When the giants decided to wage another war against the dragons, Ilde offered the support of her clan. Dwarves and giants did not get along, but in this case they had a common enemy in the dragons. They knew that the dragons were more power than both of their races combined, so they began working on plans for an item with power that rival that of the dragons.
The gnomish scholars and tinkerers that lived in the Kainir Mountains helped come up with the item; they were not warriors, but among them were many geniuses at both tinkering and magic. It was the gnome Glinder Gimblefirn, arch-mage of the Kainir gnomes, who conceived of the item: a staff imbued with the dragons' own magic that could be used to overpower them. But in order to create a staff that could contain that much magical energy, Gimblefirn needed a material beyong ordinary wood or metal. He requested that the item be made of pure illuvium. He had seen a Dragonborn shield made of illuvium once and observed that it had immense capacity for storing magical energy. To get this, the dwarves and giants began their war before their weapon was even started. They sought out the nearest dragonborn army, since they were the only ones who used the mysterious metal, and attacked. The dragonborn were formidable, and the giants and dwarves suffered many casualties, but they returned with enough illuvium weapons and armor to create a staff.
Next, Gimblefirn need magic from a dragon. Even all of the magic of the gnomes could not replicated the pure magical power of a dragon. If they could forge the staff in dragon fire, they should be able to extract enough magical energy from the fire to power the staff. After many failed plans, only option remained: they had to get the fire from a settlement that a dragon destroyed. The magical energy in the fires would burn out quickly, so it had to be gathered during a battle and then forged immediately. Getting a dragon to attack a stronghold in the mountains was not difficult, as they were currently at war, but getting the dragons to attack the exact stronghold where the forge and illuvium were was difficult to plan. They also needed a forge that could withstand the heat from the dragon fire. The project council chose the giant stronghold of Zodokoor, as it had a large forge made by the fire giants. After much waiting, dragons eventually attacked Zodokoor, and while the ground was burning, fire giants gathered as much dragon fire as they could and brought it to the forge. Ilde Ironcrown died during this battle, and her son Buldroic took over leadership of the Ironcrown clan.
The task of forging the staff fell upon the dwarves, at great protest from the giants. As the warning bells began to ring, a team of dwarf smiths began smelting down the illuvium weapons and armor, and as soon as the they were brought enough dragon fire, the master smith, whose name has unfortunately been lost to history, began forging the staff. As the staff was cooling, gnome priests and mages, led by Glinder Gimblefir, began manipulating the pure magical energy from the dragon fire to create the desired effect.
When the staff had cooled, the battle still raged outside. Buldroic, the newly crowned chief of Clan Ironcrown, was the first to wield the staff in battle. It is significant to note that during this battle, Buldroic had both the Iron Crown and the Staff of Dragon Breaking, two of the most valuable and important artifacts in Eltcarem's history. Accounts of the staff's effect in this battle vary, but one thing is for certain: the dragon attacking Zodokoor was dead within moments. One other dragon was present at the battle, and this one fled when it saw the destruction wrought by the staff. In later battles, dragons grew so fearful of the staff that they bowed before its power. This staff was used in many significant battle during Eltcarem's Dragon War, and played a large role in the dragons' eventual defeat.
In the Second Era, dwarves, giants, and gnomes argued about who should keep the staff. They all used it in battle during the war when its power was needed, and they all played important roles in its creation. This led to many conflicts during the early Second Era. At some point, the artifact was lost. It was possibly sealed away because of all the conflict it brought even after the dragons had been defeated, or it could have been taken with the giants to Jolsunvas when they were expelled by the dwarves at the end of the era, or it could have suffered some other fate. Whatever has happened to it, if one were to find the Staff of Dragon Breaking, that individual would have an artifact of immeasurable value, and could probably trade it for an entire kingdom if they so wished.
Mechanics & Inner Workings
Significance
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