Sword of Sacrifice

The Sword of Sacrifice is a magical longsword, balanced for wielding either in a single hand or in two. It was stolen from the vault of House Zaal in Cameri by adventurers in 1344 AK.

Design of the Sword

The sword's blade is double-edged, straight and only minimally-tapered in profile, with a flattened diamond cross-section. It is forged of high quality steel, and etched along the each side of the blade are three entwined serpents. The guard is relatively small, with lobe-like quillons that are curved backwards. The hilt is wooden, wrapped in rough, untanned sharkskin. The pommel is round, and bears the image strikingly similar to the personal seal of Isabella of Saria - a sixteen-rayed sun with an inner annulet, countercharged in or and sable.
The leather scabbard found with the sword, though clearly well-made, is of a common design, and is generally unremarkable. It is likely that this was not the original scabbard made for this weapon.

History of the Sword

An exhaustive search of the archives of the Gilded Tower found mention of the sword being given to Duchess Hendrika Zaal van Cameri in 1180 AK by Acatlayac, a Yuan-Ti emissary from the city-state of Tenuatlan. Acatlayac had been invited to the ducal court of Cameri in celebration of the hundred-year anniversary of the Aldenri victory in the War of the Seas; the exact role played by the Second Empire of Yua in the war against the Sahuagin is unclear.

Symbology

The symbol on the pommel is described in Melkar Runescribe's famous work of 946AK, A Reckoning of Glyphs, Runes, and Sigils, as being a glyph of the Second Empire of Yua:

The divided sun... consists of seven rays fully light in the darkness, and seven rays of darkness in the light, with two rays that are split between light and darkness. The rays represent the sixteen Anathemata, the so-called god-kings of the Yua, to whom their mortal rulers are as priests; the seven rays of darkness represent the seven anathemata who walk the world in secret, whilst the seven rays of light represent the seven who reside in solitude within the periphery, and the two mixed of light and darkness represent the two who keep the Doors of the Rising and Setting Sun that links the periphery and the material world. The inner annulet is said to represent the praxis of their philosophy of bringing conflicting opposites into harmony with each other - to preserve light in darkness, and darkness in light.

The comparison to the iconography of the Sarian Sect appears to be more than just coincidental, though the reason for this is unclear. It is unknown if Isabella of Saria ever saw the Sword of Sacrifice herself, though it is notable that she was attached to a diplomatic mission to Aldernord from 1224 to 1226 AK, and did visit Cameri on at least one occasion during that time. It should also be noted that after her time in Aldernord, Isabella of Saria journeyed to Aaranak for several years, and it is plausible that she may have encountered the symbol there - though why she might have taken up that symbol to represent herself and her philosophy is unclear.

Metaphysics

A magical examination of the sword notes that it bears an enchantment which is somewhere between Chronurgy and Necromancy in nature. Examination of its the nature of the enchantment, and correlation with various treatises on the two closely related disciplines, suggest that it functions as follows:
All creatures - whether they strictly meet the definition of "living" or not - are possessed of a certain animating force. In the case of living creatures, this force is derived from various processes, such as eating and breathing, which are understood as being required to sustain life; in others it may be a direct manifestation of their nature (as with elementals), or else a property of the spirit which causes them to be animate (in the case of constructs and the undead). An abrupt death releases the reserves of this energy - though many authorities consider that it is in some respects tainted by the violence involved in its release - and certain forms of necromantic magic deal with the gathering and manipulation of it. Conversely, a recently deceased creature can be returned to life through the influx of the proper quantity of this animating force.
The sword does not harvest the life-energy of the dying, but rather functions in a rather subtler fashion. Scholars of chronurgy understand that whilst fate and destiny are potent forces which must be grappled with, the precise way in which any particular fate might manifest is rarely fixed until such a time as it occurs. Although bound by the Web of Fate, living creatures rarely have only a single possible future, and these alternate possibilities represent a well of untapped potential which can be drawn upon using certain chronurgic techniques. In the event of death, it tends to be the case that all remaining possibilities are drawn to a close - and in doing so, there is a pool of "temporal energy" which can in theory be drawn upon. This temporal energy is much harder to harvest and wield than the life-force of a creature, but it is not tainted by the violence of death in the way that the stolen life-force is; whilst the ethical difference between stealing the life-force of a creature and stealing the potential of their future is arguable, many authorities would agree that the latter is at least somewhat less spiritually hazardous.

Item type

Weapon, Melee