The Primal Axion

The Primal Axion was a potent alien device which was brought to the Fey Court during the reign of Bronwyn Glathkind. Its purpose was obscure but because of the way it had come to the attention of the fey, they rightfully regarded it with great suspicion and kept it locked away. In the end, it found a way to activate its power through the criminal acts of Telberon, at which point, having drawn sufficient magical energy to have a deep understanding of the local Laws of Form, it was able to open a number of direct portals to the realm of the Black Web. Thus began the Second Rift War.

Manufacturing process

The fey had no understanding of how the Primal Axiom had been constructed and they did not really understand its purpose, although some perhaps guessed what it might be.

History

The Primal Axion was originally brought back to the Fey Court by Sinrhyme Maddon when he was the sole survivor to return from the Eyesight Expedition into the deep Discontinuum, long after Queen Akasuki Ellethra, who had ordered the expedition, was herself dead. Before he committed suicide, Sinrhyme Maddon passed this strange device to Queen Bronwyn Glathkind, giving her to understand that it was the most important object they had found and retrieved at great cost from the hostile realm the prophets had seen in their visions. It was Sinrhyme Maddon who gave it the strange name it has always been known as, but the origins and reasons for the precise meaning of the name are unclear.
Unsure what to do with the Primal Axion, Bronwyn Glathkind stored it in the Vault of Old Magic at Shaldarenen, but she was unhappy with this as a long term solution, fearing that whilst she did not understand the nature of the object, it might be dangerous. The situation preyed upon her mind for many years until, after much thought, she attempted to create a special warding spell to isolate the item. This proved to be a mistake. The Primal Axion had its own defences and inflicted a fatal magical contagion on the queen, via the very field she was attempting to impose, and from which she died over a few days.
Queen Iceina Lanti, who succeeded Bronwyn Glathkind as ruler over the fey, also had no idea what to do about this weird and apparently lethal thing that had killed her mother, but she knew better than to try to destroy it. Instead, she ordered that it be locked away in the deepest part of the Vault of Old Magic and a watch set over it, day and night.
Many years and two more reigns went past with no more thought given to the odd object, until King Telberon took an interest in it. Telberon was possibly the most powerful sorceror the fey have ever produced. In the mystery of the Primal Axion, he recognised an alien power unlike anything with which he was familiar and which intrigued him. The truth was that Telberon had already committed an unforgivable sin when he ascended the throne. The Primal Axion resonated with the symbolism in this act in subtle ways he was not aware of and it began to bend him to its will.
So perhaps it was lucky when the Forbidden Magic he had used to usurp his father came to light in the Dangerous Magic Indictment and he was imprisoned far away from the Primal Axion. But the former king conceived of a way to use the device to free him, and corrupting the naive Kristiina Tallis, convinced her to steal it and bring it to him in his prison at Hen Tŵr Gwyn. That is when the real trouble started. After Telberon gained his freedom the energies which had been focused through the Primal Axion, allowed the denizens of the realm of the Black Web, to break through into the Fey Court, starting the Second Rift War.
To bring the Second Rift War to a successful conclusion, what remained of the device had to be analysed and reverse engineered to allow fey magic to seal the rifts. Titania, ultimately achieved this feat, co-ordinating the magic flows of the defenders in the last battles and the Primal Axion was destroyed.

Significance

It is now believed that the Primal Axion was sent with Sinrhyme Maddon by malevolent agents from the realm of the Black Web, who most likely having captured, interrogated and killed the other members of the Eyesight Expedition wished to plant a device inside the Fey Court which would help them gain access to it. This was the hidden purpose of the Primal Axion and in his madness, Sinrhyme Maddon had become the agent of the Black Web.

Item type

Magical

Destruction Date

At the end of the Second Rift War

Rarity

There was only one item like this known to the fey.

Weight

~3 kg

Dimensions

Approximately 30 cm in radius around the outer spines.

Raw materials & Components

The surface was composed of some unknown semi organic material, somewhat similar to keratin and probably dead but not certainly so. This was merely an outer shell for a set of stiff tendrils looking rather like insect legs or antennae, and appearing to contain a core of conducting material. Whatever was inside the seed like structure at the core was of high density. For the most part the object remained inert but occasionally, for no readily apparent reason, soft lights appeared to move within it in a disconcerting manner.

Sinrhyme Maddon by DMFW with Art Breeder

Bronwyn Glathkind by DMFW with Art Breeder

Kristiina Tallis by DMFW with Art Breeder

Telberon by DMFW with Art Breeder