Overview
The spiral shard is a unique god-core artifact from the Malverand era created by Arcanis to store extraordinary essence and place that power in a compatible wielder. Its wielders can drain essence, restore poisoned land, trap regions inside cycles and veils, control darkness and corruption, and cast godlike spells. Its power comes from stored essence.
The shard's history runs through Arcanis's experiments, Barachiel's Morozkaya essence drain, Sariel's removal of the split shards from Malverand custody, Aldred and Jorhan's fight over the Xalmyrran shards, Eira carrying Xol'Zahir's shard, Aldar's control of darkness, and Aurion's depleted final shard.
Appearance and Claiming
The original artifact is a small spiral-shaped object that can dissolve into a wielder's palm or remain there as a spiral-shaped mark or embedded crystal. It glows purple or violet when active. Dormant fragments can look lifeless with immense power inside.
Bonding with a spiral shard is dangerous. Barachiel survives the first bond. The bond drains essence over Morozkaya. Sariel is thrown back and injured when he attempts to take one of the split shards into himself. Eremion and Uriandel carry power from their gods and receive no response. Public contenders at Maraveth die, dissolve, or are hurled away by shockwaves. Existing god-pacts or carried shards can prevent a spiral shard from responding. The competing link must be severed before the spiral shard can respond.
Properties
- The shard stores and channels enormous essence reserves. Empty or newly bonded shards can drain essence from land, air, cities, and living beings.
- The shard can control darkness and corruption. Barachiel restores corrupted land, Jorhan gathers and redirects darkness fields, Aldar shapes corruption around Xalmyrra and Cyndarel, and Aurion uses shard power for starfield barriers and restoration spells.
- Jorhan uses two spiral shards to regulate Atraxis Prime's essence reservoir, control the storms and veil around Xalmyrra, and maintain the cycles that reset the region.
- The shard can strengthen a wielder's existing magic. Shard-powered spells affect cities, battlefields, barriers, storms, veils, and cycles.
- The shard's power is finite. Heavy use leaves spiral shards dim, nearly depleted, or shattered.
- Overuse damages the wielder. Barachiel's body breaks under the original power, Jorhan absorbs darkness into himself during the clearing of corrupted land, and Aurion is left partially blackened after spending most of his shard's remaining strength.
History
Arcanis creates the original spiral shard during the Malverand era. Barachiel bonds with it above Morozkaya, where the bond drains essence from the city, the land, and millions of people. After the Morozkaya essence drain, Barachiel uses the shard to isolate corruption, restore poisoned land, create food and forests, and keep Malverand stable. The power steadily strains his body.
During the Aethrendar Gate test to Vireen, Barachiel enters the gate after Michael and Eremion cross safely. From Valrindor's side, the gate collapses into a black void and the original spiral shard returns split into two dormant fragments. Barachiel reaches Vireen alive and separated from the shard, having been attacked by something inside the gate that wanted the artifact.
The guardians keep the split shards at Maraveth during the search for a new wielder. Sariel fails repeated attempts to bond with them, then takes both shards from Malverand. In Xalmyrra, he seals one beneath the council hall and carries the other west to an uninhabited island.
The shard beneath the Xalmyrran council hall restores Aldred's youth, vastly increases his essence, and lets him seal the hidden chamber easily. Jorhan retrieves another shard from the western island vault, returns with devastating power, defeats Aldred, and takes control of both shards.
Jorhan uses the spiral shards to sustain Atraxis Prime, direct its essence reservoir, contain darkness, and trap Xalmyrra inside storms, a veil, and repeating cycles. One shard powers the storms and veil. The other handles the resetting cycle. His control over darkness eventually makes him known as Xol'Zahir, the god of darkness.
During the collapse of Jorhan's Xalmyrran cycles, Eira carries Xol'Zahir's spiral shard. The shard overwhelms her, and she creates darkness magic and Lythariel, altering Xalmyrra to give Lythariel a life and history. After Eira loses the shard, Aldar bonds with it and uses it to control darkness corruption, defend Xalmyrra, and recreate a smaller cycle-like veil over Cyndarel.
After Jorhan clears corruption from Durakarn and dies, Aurion bonds with the shard Jorhan leaves behind. Aurion uses it during the Siege of Omberion, where his starfield barriers blunt skyship detonations and let part of Garrik's force escape. The barrier spellwork nearly empties the shard and leaves his arms blackened by corruption and darkness. He spends its last spell beneath the Luminary Halls to restore Seralyth in altered form, and the shard shatters.
At Cyndarel, Alistair removes Aldar's dormant spiral shard from Aldar's ruined body, draws it into himself with the Malverand heart, kills Zorath, and takes Aldar's appearance. The shard responds. Its essence is running low.