Magical Artefact

A magical artefact is not a magical item per se, although it represents a special class of magical item. Artefacts are rare and are much more powerful than even the strongest magical items. They sustain themselves, meaning they are always permanent, they are quite often indestructible by regular means and almost so for anything but the most powerful spells or rituals.
On the other hand there are legends about artefacts which are of proverbial fragility, the phrase "Fragile as a fae's mirror!" is widely used throughout Söe, Alver and Mitarin.

So you can immagine that it is a futile endeavor to serch for one of those, despite their legendary properties.

An artefact is something far rarer than a magical item, even a permanent one, it is a wonderous and fantastic thing. They are often the work of demigods, gods, daemons or demons etc. and one might well guess that they are not meant for the hand of mortal men.

Artefacts are the stuff of legends like the Spear, Helmet and Shield of Andrim a legend from the Teloderon Empire or the Ark of the Covenant a mystical item of power talked about around the campfires of certain nomadic tribes on the Kento-Plains.
The Ho'Cron, a legendary device of teaching is interesting because that legend can be heard on several continents in very similar ways.
The myth of an artefact stretches through the millennia it may change and evolve but not so does the artefact, never changing, - eternal.