The Last Emperor's Pen

The Pen of the Last Emperor is the writing utensil of the last Emperor of the Louthian Empire, the late Marian Thius Frait.
A tool commissioned for the Emperor by one of his concubines, the Pen was crafted by Cleolinian artisan Vias Bellsenger, and gifted with power by the court priests and archmagi of the Church of the Great Design. Although a powerful wand in its own right, Marian Frait did not see the power as a boon, but had his mind set elsewhere.
In comparison to the previous Louthian emperors who ruled by sword, Marian Frait ruled through the body of law instead, his Pen utilized to draft and sign dozens of new laws to promote the internal growth of the Louthian Empire, while slowly whittling away the ranks of the undesirable and making them disappear from the Empire's bounds forever. The Pen was always by his side, and was seen as the symbol of his office - the utensil brought forth fear in his political enemies, and the golden nib shining in the sun was viewed with awe and wonder by his proponents, who saw the pen as realizing the Emperor and the Empire's dreams. 
The same nib that was said to shine with the majesty of the sun would also be the blade that condemned hundreds of thousands to their deaths, either through the systemic extermination performed by the Louthian Empire's Purity Corps, or through the bloody conflict that would become the Louthian War.
The pen itself was recovered from the ruins of the former Imperial Palace in Moume in 1632, alongside the body of Frait and his royal guard. The first person on the scene, Daisy Strixel, saw the pen and immediately hid it among her articles, knowing of its legacy and power, and how it should not fall once more into undeserving hands. Imperial loyalists would later on scour the lands for the Pen (and, in their mind, the right to rule the rebirth of the Louthian Empire), though none would believe it to have fallen into the hands of the sapients the Empire despised.
The Strixel family has held onto the writing utensil until voluntarily surrendering it to King Marcus Mitfield in 1875. In a ceremony commemorating the fall of the Louthian Empire and the rise of Mithambe and her sister states in its place, the Pen was donated to the newly opened Royal Mithambian Museum, where it remains under high security to this day.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

The Last Emperor's Pen consists of two components:

• The mundane components of the pen consist of a nib that is made from solid gold, and a grip of cured Fencoverian drake leather;
• The ethereal components of the pen can only be accessed by twisting the cap of the pen, which turns finely made gears that open the shaft and reveal a combined purified Ethercrystal in its core. The needles tapping into the crystal channel the power and convert the pen into a wand of unequaled potency.

Significance

The Last Emperor's Pen was the very pen that signed the extermination warrant of hundreds of thousands of sapients that the Louthian Empire deemed 'undesirable', setting the wheels in motion for what would become the Louthian War. 
As the unique "blessed" writing instrument of the ruling elite, the Pen was also the hidden symbol of authority among the upper Louthian nobility, who acquiesced to its wielder, lest their names and deeds be re-written out of history.

Item type

Unique Artifact

Current Location

The Royal Mithambe Museum

Rarity

The Last Emperor's Pen is a one of a kind item.

Raw materials & Components

The Pen of the Last Emperor is known to have been constructed from the following materials:

• Purified gold
• Platinum
• Ruby
• Unified Ethercrystal
• Fencoverian Drake leather