Star Rod
Mighty control module for mastering Precursor machines
Janov placed the flanged head of the sceptered mace into the control socket of the Brightmoon Biodome SEA and watched as one by one the wall panels began to light up. They looked like the “light tables” he'd read about in tales of the Oldsiders. The golden mace was more than a weapon. It was a machine key.
Introduction
The Star Rod (originally known as the Star Staff) is a relic passed down since the Days of Renewal when it was gifted by the Night Man to Yves Olivoix along with the Sword of Seven Stars (also known as the Seven Sword). Collectively, these artifacts were known as the "Sevenfold Regalia" and they were associated with an enigmatic mission known as "The Seven Sea Quest."
History
The staff and sword were initially lost when Olivoix and his Sentinel brethren perished in the tunnels of Paris. For them, the Seven Sea Quest ended before it had really begun.
The staff, now shortened into three-foot rod, resurfaced at various times and places for the proceeding six centuries and eventually came into the possession of Britannian Lord Protector Decker Chamberlain. When Chamberlain met Pierre OIivoix upon the field of battle at Somerset the two heroes reunited the Star Rod and and the Seven Sword. After their deaths during an ambush orchestrated by the Hidden Empire, Fredrick Brasden took possession of both artifacts and began wielding the Star Rod as his own signature weapon.
Lord Fredrick and his companions then embarked on a world-spanning, decades-long campaign to reclaim the lost legacy of the Seven Sentinels and overthrow the hegemonic rule of the Princes. Fredrick carried the Star Rod to all corners of the world and everywhere used it to liberate common humanity from the Princes' yoke. His long journey eventually brought the Star Rod into the shadow of the Stairway Tower where the final decisive battle of the Princes' War was fought.
The explosion that ended the lives of Brasden and the other Four Heroes appeared to claim the Star Rod as well. This assumption proved to be false when Janov Seldon entered the Brightmoon Biodome complex and discovered the Star Rod had been left there after the Stairway battle. Receiving instructions from a holographic projection left by Lord Harold Mayfield, Janov became the new Star Rod wielder. In alliance with the Machinist known as Jimmy Nails, Janov used the rod to oppose the tyranny of the Phoenix Order and its Golden Empire.
This was to be but a temporary arrangement, for in only a few short months the mysterious Strijder would conspire to wrest the rod away from Janov in order to pursue his own agenda against the Phoenix Order. Firstly, he used it to revive the lifeless metal body of XHAN, the Fallen Prince. The rod proved to have a compelling power over XHAN, who obeyed the the Strijder without fail so long as he held the rod. For the following two years the Strijder carried the Star Rod into battle along with his other puissant mace known as the God Staff and established himself as one of the most dangerous warriors in all Europa.
When XHAN was captured along with the God Staff by agents of Emperor Goland Revize, the Strijder followed him to Kiev and tried to use the rod to free him from Revize's control. Though XHAN refused to rejoin the Strijder and instead seized the Star Rod from him, he nonetheless could not be compelled to harm his old master.
The Strijder was nonplussed and traveled directly to Rome in an attempt to reclaim the Rod from The Phoenix Order. There he joined forces with Salvor Dorrick and other unlikely allies such as Phillipe Depardieu and Denille Olivoix in order to defeat Emperor Goland and overthrow the Golden Empire. But the Strijder did not participate in the Battle for Rome's final confrontation. As ever, the Strijder pursued his own ends to the last.
In the grander scheme of things, the Strijder actually did not care about the Phoenix Order or Revize. Certainly he didn't care with the same intensity as his companions did. Empires rise and fall and kings come and go. For one with inscrutable plans and purposes, such matters can seem incidental. And so it was for the mysterious Strijder. All through their shared struggle in Rome the Strijder never revealed that his true purpose in the Eternal City was to once more take possession of the Star Rod and continue his own quest. To this end he patiently bided his time and fought to defend those that only months before would have been his enemies. All the while the Strijder secretly gathered information on the whereabouts of the Star Rod. He learned it was being held by the primary Phoenix Technik, Parmezzius the Mad. When the rest of the party was bearing down upon Vatican Hill for their final clash with the Phoenix Order, the Strijder slipped away into the shadows and headed for the transport tower where he knew Parmezzius awaited an escape shuttle. If he could reach the tower before the shuttle arrived, he would slay Parmezzius and once more claim the wielder's mantle of the Star Rod.
Mechanics and Inner Workings
Little is known about how the Star Rod functions but it is understood to be a source of great power. When Jimmy Nails used the rod to revive XHAN for the Strijder (under significant duress), he observed that the sceptered head of the rod emanated a slight but noticeable gravity field.
Through trial and error, Janov Seldon learned that the Star Rod has a modular interface that may be used to communicate with electronic machines. Back at the Brightmoon Biodome, he found that when the rod's interface was engaged he could converse with machines through thought alone as if by telepathy.
Significance
Universal
Item type
Unique Artifact
Rarity
Unique artifact
Weight
3 lbs.
Dimensions
3 feet long
Base Price
Inestimable
Raw materials & Components
The Star Rod is a 3/4-inch thick golden shaft crowned with a sceptered head-piece. This head-piece is composed of a 3-inch long ruby jewel encased within a golden mace head consisting of five hardened vertical flange ridges.
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