Elven Dagger of Shadows
Also known as: Shadow Dagger
Forged from a single sliver of moonless-night obsidian harvested at the heart of the Fey Court of the Eternal Twilight, this dagger's blade drinks ambient light so completely that it leaves no glint, no shadow, and no reflection, only the faintest violet shimmer at its edge when drawn. The hilt is wrapped in Sylvan Elf-braided shadow-silk, cool as still water to the touch, etched with runes that whisper the name of its quarry into the wielder's mind the moment blood is tasted.
Artifact Details
- Type
- Weapon
- Rarity
- Unique
- Origin
- The dagger was commissioned in the age now called the Dusk Compact, when the Sylvan Elves brokered a clandestine treaty with the Fey Court of the Eternal Twilight to eliminate a chain of Desert Scholar inquisitors who had begun mapping the secret root-roads beneath the Sylvan canopy. The master bladecaller Aelindra Voss, a half-Fey Sylvan Elf exiled from her own court for practicing umbral metallurgy, shaped the blade over forty nights without sunrise, feeding the obsidian with Fey-court shadow-water and sealing its edge with a drop of her own silenced blood.
Overview
Elven Dagger of Shadows is a unique weapon in Landorya. Its known origin is The dagger was commissioned in the age now called the Dusk Compact, when the Sylvan Elves brokered a clandestine treaty with the Fey Court of the Eternal Twilight to eliminate a chain of Desert Scholar inquisitors who had begun mapping the secret root-roads beneath the Sylvan canopy. The master bladecaller Aelindra Voss, a half-Fey Sylvan Elf exiled from her own court for practicing umbral metallurgy, shaped the blade over forty nights without sunrise, feeding the obsidian with Fey-court shadow-water and sealing its edge with a drop of her own silenced blood.. Its most cited abilities include The blade becomes functionally invisible in any light below full daylight, leaving no gleam or silhouette to betray its presence., Upon a successful strike, the dagger suppresses the victim's ability to cry out or cast verbal spells for a number of heartbeats equal to the depth of the wound., and The wielder casts no shadow while the dagger is unsheathed, confounding perception-based detection and Sphinx-sworn truth-wards alike.. Accounts also warn of a drawback: Any wielder who draws blood with the dagger more than three times in a single lunar cycle begins to lose their own voice incrementally, first whispers fail, th…
History
Aelindra herself carried the dagger through seven documented kills during the Dusk Compact purges, including the silencing of Inquisitor-Archon Solveth Duun deep within the sandstone warrens of the Desert Scholars' Citadel of Reckoning, a death that went officially unexplained for three decades. After Aelindra vanished into the Eternal Twilight and never re-emerged, the blade surfaced among THE MYSTARANS, rumoured to have been traded for a forbidden memory-extraction rite. It passed through the hands of at least two Mystaran shadow-brokers before a Nereid sea-courier was found drifting, hollow-eyed and voiceless, off the Shimmering Isles, the dagger wrapped in kelp beside her, its sheath empty and its runes still wet. It is presently believed to reside in the private vault of an unnamed Islander merchant-prince of the Shimmering Isles, though the Sylvan Elves have dispatched a retrieval covenant, and the Fey Court has dispatched something considerably less polite.
Powers & Abilities
- ✦ The blade becomes functionally invisible in any light below full daylight, leaving no gleam or silhouette to betray its presence.
- ✦ Upon a successful strike, the dagger suppresses the victim's ability to cry out or cast verbal spells for a number of heartbeats equal to the depth of the wound.
- ✦ The wielder casts no shadow while the dagger is unsheathed, confounding perception-based detection and Sphinx-sworn truth-wards alike.
- ✦ Once per night, the blade may be driven into a surface to open a door-sized passage of living shadow, allowing silent passage through walls of wood, earth, or unenchanted stone.
- ✦ Blood drawn by the blade is absorbed instantly and leaves no trace, no stain on cloth, no scent for Talamhari earth-hounds, no residue for Desert Scholar alchemical analysis.
Curse or Drawback
Any wielder who draws blood with the dagger more than three times in a single lunar cycle begins to lose their own voice incrementally, first whispers fail, then speech, then even the ability to form sound in dreams. The affliction is not magical in the conventional sense and resists all but the oldest Fey Court unbinding rituals; Aelindra herself was rumoured to have communicated only in written runes by the end of her life.