Magical Artifacts (ToF)

Many **Magical Artifacts** exist within the world of Carokiiv. Their true number is likely uncountable, and it is unknown how many such artifacts truly exist. Bound to the laws of magic that rules the world, these artifacts act as a strong force multiplier for anyone lucky enough to possess them. The power of artifacts in changing the world and shaping the future cannot be denied, even in a world where innate magic is always seen as more important.

Of the myriad magical artifacts that exist, the most significant would be anything that falls under the class of an "enchanted artifact" or a "Grimoire". There are clear differences between both classes of artifact, and very different origins, but in the end, they practically serve the same purpose of providing even more power to their user.

## Enchanted Artifacts

Enchanted Artifacts form the first class of artifact that exist within the world. They are always made from natural substances, and their properties are the result of powerful magic being imbued into them, or from naturally occurring magical properties that exist within the materials being used to craft them. As such, Enchanted Artifacts can be said to be "part of the world", as they can be created from components that exist within the world.

### Enchanted Weapon

Enchanted Weapons are a class of Enchanted Artifact that is meant to cause damage to opponents using not just their form as weapons, but also powerful magic that has been bound to them. They take the form of normal weapons, from swords to bows, that have been imbued with magical effects by their craftsman via an enchanting process.

The Enchanting process is very simple, and requires the use of a large volume of magical energy and the proper equipment. As such, enchanters use Enchanting Desks in order to focus the world's mana into carving the magic into the piece of equipment by altering the "fate" of the equipment via the world's processes. Normally, the will of a mage alone cannot permanently enchant a weapon, although a similar technique can channel elemental power into a weapon temporarily to imbue it with effects. Weapons can also be reinforced with reinforcement magic.

There are many possible enchantments that can be placed on an Enchanted Weapon, which fall into three categories: Effects, Traits and Voids

#### Effect (Weapon)

An effect is a powerful enchantment rooted in magic. This involves the addition of a new effect to the weapon in question, by making the weapon cast spells on contact with the medium to be affected. For most melee weapons, this is upon contact with the enemy, and for most bows, this is to make the weapon imbue the arrows with magical power. Effects such as additional flame damage, paralysis and destroy undead can be placed on a weapon. Void elemental damage falls under this.

When such weapons are used, mana is drawn from the user via the circuits, thus it would be impossible for someone born without circuits to use a weapon's effects as they cannot supply the weapon with the mana needed to activate it. However, the mana cost is often small as the weapon tends to draw in the world's mana to cast its effect.

When compared to imbuing a weapon with elemental effect, a preexisting effect is much more efficient with mana as it doesn't depend solely on a mage's innate mana. Furthermore, imbuing a weapon can be done even on an enchanted weapon to add more elements to the weapon.

Some unique effects includes the ethereal arrows effect for bows, allowing the user to convert their mana into ghostly arrows, providing unlimited ammunition so long as the user can supply mana to make arrows.

#### Traits (Weapon)

A trait is an effect that improves the function of a weapon without adding anything the weapon cannot do. It is a form of "direct upgrade" to the innate capability of a weapon, which makes it superior to a normal, unenchanted weapon of otherwise similar material and capability. Traits include indestructibility, increased sharpness (for edged weapons), lightened weight or other similar boost.

Traits are innate to a weapon and seem to stick forever on the weapon. Thus, they do not require any mana to function. Weapons possessing traits therefore still retain traits when held by people without a single magical circuit in their body

#### Voids (Weapon)

A void is a very unique effect placed on a weapon that allows it to absorb a portion of the opponent's vitality, be it their life force, their stamina or their mana. They only activate when the wielder of a void enchanted weapon is indirectly connected to a target via indirect contact via their enchanted weapon. Thus, most void enchanted weapons are melee weapons, and it doesn't work on arrows. All void enchantments will deal damage in the form of "void" damage, causing emptiness and making it hard to resist, but they tend to be weaker than effects by a fair amount. A Void enchantment is *not* an enchantment that deals direct void elemental damage and the additional void aligned damage is hardly the main intent.

When such a weapon is used, no mana is involved in the weapon. Rather, the weapon drains the opponent's various traits and supplies it to the wielder of the weapon via the circuits to revitalize them. This means that circuits are needed to enjoy the full power of a void weapon, allowing it to absorb an opponent's power to refresh and revitalize a wielder. Anyone with no circuits attempting to use a void weapon will be inflicted with burn wounds on their hand per hit.

Voids are always absorbing in nature, and vitakinesis can apply a similar life stealing effect to weapons via imbuing the weapons with vitakinetic energy. Vitakinesis tends to outdo a void weapon when used for imbuing, despite costing mana to do so, but they are very compatible and using a void weapon with vitakinetic imbuing can increase the power of the void enchantment dramatically.

### Spirit Weapon

#### General Information

A spirit weapon, unlike an enchanted weapon, contains the soul within it, which provides it power. As such, spirit weapons do not function like enchanted ones at all, and tend to have heavier mana requirements, unless enchanted with specific types of souls. A spirit weapon is created by taking a soul from an individual and placing it within a weapon, harmonizing both and allowing the soul to become the weapon. When such happens, the weapon gains multiple traits and becomes much stronger.

All spirit weapons have increased durability, sharpness(for edged weapons), spirit pressure (which increases weight behind strikes without actual weight increases) and several great magical powers. Weapons with the spirits of beasts and such can strike with unbridled ferocity and even summon spectral beasts to claw at enemies. Spirit weapons always have specific abilities and effects related to the original soul that was used to spawn them. Thus they wield multiple abilities.

A special class of spirit weapons are formed from the souls of Near Humans and Draconids, which are the magic races that possess circuits. These spirit weapons can gather their own mana, making them vastly more efficient and powerful compared to a normal spirit weapon. With no exception, these weapons are indestructible, always have maximal sharpness (for edged weapons) and exert crushing levels of spiritual pressure on strike. Near Human souls create the strongest weapons, which are capable of even city destroying attacks if made from the soul of a strong magus.

Spirit weapons with the souls of a sentient species, namely the Near Humans and Draconids, are fully able to communicate with their wielders, and need to recognize their wielders as worthy before they release their full power through a contract. This contract allows wielders to summon the swords to their hands if necessary. Weaker spirit weapons do not have this limitation

All spirit weapons have an energy projecting ability which allows them to release magical energy. For swords, which are by far the most common class of spirit weapon, this takes shape as a crescent of energy most commonly, allowing the user to attack at range. Stronger spirit weapons can fire torrents of energy that cause horrific damage on swing.

#### Kingslayer

These are extremely powerful magical artifacts that have a spiritual nature, due to containing a spirit of an Archmage. They were all created from the souls of extremely powerful mages, and are second in power to the weapons of the Kings of the End. They are known as Kingslayers as these weapons, when wielded by a powerful and competent mage, can be used to unleash powers enough to theorectically kill a King of the End. All of them are known to be swords.

There are 14 of these legendary swords made in the far past, and more may exist. Some of the known ones are listed below:

* Longinus, wielded by Lucian Aesion
* Byakuhime Kamiyuki, previously wielded by Shirayuki Ayashi. Currently wielded by Eleanor Asyrreion.
* Starsong, wielded by Ryner Aesion
* Amon-Ra, wielded by the Phenex Clan heads, originally owned by Ahriman Phenex
* Eleision, wielded by Vandes of Bismuth
* Laevatienn, which has changed hands many times. It was possessed by Felrhys Aesion at one point
* Solais, wielded by Ordecius of Bismuth
* Aeondill, wielded by Radriarc Khybelay
* Artlief Kadour, wielded by Setheron Asyrrieon

#### Sword of the Kings

A very unique and powerful spirit weapon is a "Sword of the King". These weapons are invariably extremely powerful magical swords and are owned only by unique male mages known as the "Kings of the End". They are unmatched by all other weapons due to being created by a powerful magus from their own soul. All of these swords can create powerful crescents on slash, or release torrents of elemental power.

### Enchanted Armor

Enchanted Armor is a class of Enchanted Artifact that protects and aids its wearer with the powerful magical effects that have been placed on them. It always takes the form as armor or clothing that one wears, imbued with whatever effect the maker intended to have.

The Enchanting process is very simple, like the one used for weapons, and requires the use of a large volume of magical energy and the proper equipment. As such, enchanters use Enchanting Workstations and Forges in order to focus the world's mana into carving the magic into the piece of armor by altering the "fate" of the equipment via the world's processes, which is a more specialized equipment than the enchanting table used for weapons. Reinforcement magic works well on armor, and can make it stronger.

There are less enchantments that can be placed on a piece of armor than a weapon, and they face more restrictions than a weapon. Like weapons, armor can be enchanted to have traits, in the form of intrinsic traits and extrinsic traits. Armor can be imbued with some effects, but this is a small selection.

#### Intrinsic Traits (Armor)

Intrinsic traits are enchantments which strengthen the armor of the wearer more by applying a magic to the armor, much like how the traits of a weapon upgrade the physical properties of the weapon. This allows armor to become stronger than it can be when limited to just blacksmithing and metallurgy techniques. Intrinsic Traits include durability increases, self repair and various elemental resistances.

A special intrinsic trait of armor can be used to generate a mana shield that has some durability and self repairs over the armor, providing an extra level of protection to the wearer on top of their armor. This mana shield works off mana in the air.

Intrinsic traits are innate to the armor and cannot be removed from an enchanted piece of armor except with very complicated machinery and rituals. Thus, they do not require any mana to function at all. Armor with intrinsic traits are able to retain all their intrinsic traits when they are equipped to a person without any circuits in their body.

#### Extrinsic Traits (Armor)

Extrinsic traits are enchantments which strengthen the wearer, rather than the armor, by applying magic from the armor onto the wearer. This allows for the addition of effects such as improved mana generation, improved stamina regeneration, increased sneaking ability, muffling and more.

Extrinsic traits require magical circuits to interface with the wearer's body and thus apply their effect to the wearer. This makes it impossible for a person without circuits to utilize the power of an armor that has extrinsic traits, as the traits cannot be flowed into the person's body. Powerful armor worn by someone without circuits can even cremate the person wearing it due to how much magic is flowing.

Reinforcement is a unique extrinsic trait that affects both the armor's wearer and the armor itself by interfacing with the circuitry of the wearer. Another unique extrinsic trait is the harmonizing of the armor to the wearer's circuits, allowing them to banish their armor and summon it again as needed.

#### Effect (Armor)

Some armor can be imbued with effects that activate when mana is flowed into the armor. These effects imbue the power of the elements and such to the armor, varying with what armor piece is actually enchanted. Effects can include flaming punches placed on gauntlets, or ice cloaks placed on chestpieces.

It is obvious that magic circuits and mana is required to make armor with effects work. If not, the effects cannot function at all.

### Spirit Armor

Spirit Armor is a very special kind of armor, like a spirit weapon, that isn't enchanted, but created by the binding of a soul into the armor. As spirit armor contains a soul, it is of a totally different class to a normal enchanted armor, and has wholly different requirements in using. A piece of spirit armor requires at least a piece of an armor set, and the spirit will have to be placed within the armor piece. When harmony of both is reached, the piece becomes a spirit armor piece with multiple traits and abilities.

Spirit armor, with no exception, possesses incredible self repair properties, high durability and light weight, along with the power to synchronize the the wearer's magic circuits to vanish and reappear on command. Armor imbued with animal or lesser being's souls will gain powers like granting the wearer increased strength or even claw manifestation, the summoning of ethereal beast allies or even the ability to pounce very fast like a beast. Spirit armor always has specific abilities and effects related to the original soul was used in its creation. Spirit armor normally has multiple abilities because of this.

The strongest class of spirit armor is formed from the souls of Draconids and Near Humans, which are the magic races that possess circuits. The spirit armor formed from such can gather its own mana and therefore even feed mana into the user, granting extreme levels of power and boosting its own innate effects. The size of the souls mean that one soul can enchant a full set, and all sets have the traits of extremely high speed self repair, very high durability, and the ability to change form into clothes or jewelry for easy storage. Draconid soul armor made from the soul of a true Dragon is the strongest class of armor as it replicates the nearly impenetrable scales of high tier Draconids and grants the whole armor control over Draconic flames.

Spirit Armor containing the souls of a sentient species, namely the Near Humans and Draconids, are able to fully communicate with their wielders and only can be equiped by those that they have chosen. This contract allows the wielder to call their armor forth to protect their body at all times, and can even manifest ethereal components of the armor for passive protection. Weaker spirit weapons do not have this limitation or abilities.

## Grimoire

A Grimoire isn't just a simple artifact, it is the intelligent helper of a mage, created by the links of the mage to the world. This makes the Grimoire a sort of high tier familiar for the mage who manages to create one, and it takes one with high enough magical power to finally begin the creation of the Grimoire. A Grimoire is always inhabited by a spirit, and this spirit is created purely based on the will of the mage.

Once created, a Grimoire's spirit has a definite form, and will only gain or lose spells according to the mage who wields the Grimoire. A mage's wish is normally crystallized as the basis of their Grimoire, and what spells the Grimoire is most proficient in casting is entirely up to the mage's choosing. This can easily make a Grimoire an additional source of firepower, a support unit or even a direct fighter to distract foes from the mage.

Grimoires can be sacrificed by overloading them with the mana of the mage, and then firing them as a sort of spear or arrow at a target. This leads to an extremely powerful explosion that releases immense amounts of mana. As higher tier Grimoires have larger capacity to store and convert mana, they generally cannot be used this way no matter what form they are summoned in. A "Perfected" Grimoire has too much mana capacity to be fired as an overloaded Grimoire, even if it is summoned in a lower form.

Grimoires evolve as they and their master gains power, becoming stronger and able to contain more spells as their versatility and ability to record spells improve. The power of the magic contained within the Grimoire decides the strength of the Grimoire, which means that a high tier Grimoire may not necessarily be more powerful than a lower tier one. Grimoires who have achieved a higher tier can be summoned in a lower tier to reserve less mana if necessary.

Grimoires are separated into Five Tiers: Book Form, Familiar Form, Weapon Form, Archon Form and Perfect Form. There is also a special art known as "Grimoire Equip".

### Book Form

The Book form of a Grimoire is the most basic form a Grimoire will be created in, and generally is the form used by a large majority of mages. In this form, a Grimoire takes the shape of a book with an ornate, decorated cover. Within its pages contains incantation spells that a mage may have problems performing on their own. The Grimoire thus serves as a summonable record keeper of these spells

Book form Grimoires cannot communicate with their masters and function mainly by supplying the master with knowledge and mana to cast complex spells. They flip automatically to the required pages when the master needs to know any spell that has been recorded within the Grimoire. This helps to speed up casting incantational spells especially, and doesn't really work for Flash Casting.

A Book form Grimoire is relatively weak in general, but they do not have a high mana requirement, and can in fact supply the mage with a small boost if absolutely necessary, which makes them appealing to beginner mages. They must always stay within 5 meters of their master if in free float mode.

### Familiar Form

The Familiar form of a Grimoire is the first evolution. Many more advanced mages are able to summon one of these, and they take the form of creatures or similar, except surrounded with an ethereal aura of strange white energies. Normally, there seems to be runic patterns all over the creatures that the Grimoire takes the form of. The Grimoire can hold more spells.

A Familiar form Grimoire is finally able to cast magic independently of the wielder, and function by casting magic when ordered by the master, allowing certain types of spells to be used at range, such as aura spells, by placing the Familiar at the target point. They can also act as an extra caster for casting flash casts, and they can supply incantations directly into the minds of their masters.

A Familiar form Grimoire requires mana to summon and upkeep, but their requirements are low and generally to not tax a mage too much. Thus, mid tier mages commonly have familiars in this range as they aren't powerful enough to evolve their familiar and this also doesn't use too much mana. These can go a maximum of 25 meters away from their master before vanishing.

### Weapon Form

The Weapon form of a Grimoire is not always a weapon, and is the second evolution of a Grimoire as it gains power and becomes stronger. A mage of certain high caliber will be able to summon a weapon form Grimoire and use it as such. These Grimoires can manifest as either weapons, like swords, spears and bows, or they may manifest as armor pieces, like cloaks, chestplates or gauntlets. The Grimoire can hold even more spells in this state.

A Weapon form Grimoire is still able to cast magic independently of the wielder, and can of course be controlled remotely and cast spells when ordered by the master, having all the useful properties of a Familiar form Grimoire. However, they are very durable and can behave as weapons or armor if necessary, and they can supply knowledge into their master's mind, or even perform the needed incantation spells independent of their master. Weapon form Grimoires also have additional spells that function like enchanting effects, applying them on hit with the enemy, or when certain conditions are fulfilled.

A Weapon form Grimoire begins to reserve quite a bit of mana, but it isn't very high and will not cause difficulties for a mage who isn't a beginner and has a large enough mana pool, along with a good circuit count. High Tier mages have Grimoires who are in weapon form in general because of that. They cannot move too far from their master or they will vanish. The maximum is about 50 meters.

### Archon Form

The Archon form of a Grimoire is when it begins to turn self aware and intelligent, and is the third evolution of a Grimoire, signifying that it has finally became capable of full autonomous function and has good intelligence. Only a very learned mage will be able to make their Grimoire enter its Archon form, and this is the final stage for most mages. These Grimoires manifest as more or less humanoid spirits, commonly as nagas, djinns, harpies or similar, and are capable of speech. Less common are grimoires that manifest as distorted monsters, such as balls of tentacles, wisps of light or even dragon headed humanoids. They can store a lot of magic spells and magical energy.

An Archon form Grimoire will cast magic independently of the master, and will accept orders from their masters with no question. They will cast spells not only when ordered, but use low tier spells when the situation calls for it even without the orders of the master, making them far more dangerous to face in combat. An Archon form Grimoire will adapt automatically to changing situations, allowing them to cover their master's back if necessary. Archon form Grimoires can feed information directly to their master via a mental link, or even perform the incantation on behalf of the master. They can also directly talk to their master via the same mental link, or serve to speak to others on behalf of their master.

An Archon form Grimoire begins to become taxing on the mana, and the requirements begin to become steep, which will cause difficulties for a mage unless they have quite a significant quality and quantity of circuits, as well as a large mana pool. This is because an Archon form Grimoire has magic circuits of significant quantity, but this has to be dedicated to maintaining their existence, and so their magic has to be cast from their master's mana entirely. Therefore, Archon form is the final evolution for a Grimoire for many, as they cannot cross the boundary. Their masters cannot go to far from them, not exceeding 100 meters, or they vanish.

### Pefected Form

The Perfected form of a Grimoire happens when it loses the boundary between being a familiar and a living being. A Perfected form Grimoire will look like a Near Human, and this is the highest form of a Grimoire as it is the true appearance of a Grimoire Spirit. A Perfected Grimoire has full human intelligence and speech capacity, and is capable of storing an infinite amount of information and spells. This is achieved only by exceptional mages who have high circuit quality and quantity, making them the best of the best. It is a requirement to have a Familial Crest and one Vitakinetic Circuit at least to summon a Pefected Grimoire.

A Perfected Grimoire will definitely cast magic independently of the master, and will accept orders from their master, although they will defy it if the order is obviously suicidal or stupid. They possess the crest that their masters have, thus allowing them to cast low tier magic even if not supplied with magical energy. A Pefected Grimoire is also able to summon weapon forms of itself to use for melee combat or ranged combat, without the spells, and they always adapt quickly when faced with any situations, able to make tactical decisions on their own. They can perform incantations easily or feed information to their masters, and their mental link is a high speed mental transfer that allows them to communicate privately with their master at all times, even when not summoned.

A Perfected Grimoire actually sustains itself on its own mana that is generated, due to their high circuit quantity, making them cost nothing to summon in any form, although their use of high tier magic can necessitate the use of their master's mana. Perfected Grimoires can easily regenerate their own mana, though, and while this is slow, it enables them to be completely independent from their master. However, they require support for the extremely powerful magic they can cast. This can make the use of Perfected Grimoires quite taxing even to the best mages, and generally only mages with significant mage ancestry and a good bloodline can reach this stage. This is the strongest Grimoire form, and is almost indistinguishable from a high tier mage on their own. They cannot be beyond 150 meters of their master if they are to cast high tier magic, but can independently move from their master to any distance.

### Grimoire Equip

A Perfected form Grimoire can still become stronger, although only for short periods, by harmonizing with their master in a process known as Grimoire Equip. This allows for the casting of spells that are beyond the power of a Grimoire or Master to cast, known as the Extreme Magic or Ultimate Magic. By synchronizing the Magic Circuits of the Grimoire and the Master, the flow of mana becomes huge and the control by two minds doing separate steps of a spell allows extremely complex spells to be processed much faster. This enables the performance of magic of immense scale.

Grimoire Equip can take the form of a weapon, armor or something more abstract, following the mage around. It requires for both the Grimoire and Mage to have the boundaries between them break down for the moment, and for their powers to synchronize as one. Grimoire equipping is truly the final stage of using a Grimoire, and not every Perfected Grimoire can achieve it.

Due to armor form Grimoire Equip symbolizing greater synchronization, mages who achieve armor form Grimoire equip tend to be able to use greater amounts of their Grimoire's power, closer to the art known as spirit equip. Grimoire equip can evolve from weapon equip/abstract equip form to armor form if the user and Grimoire spirit are able to increase their synchronization.

However, as Armor Form grimoire equip has a greater "overwriting power that overwrites the existence of the mage", it becomes harder for a stronger mage to achieve armor form Grimoire Equip if they have not already achieved it. Thus, only Masayoshi Ayashi of the Kings of the End can achieve Armor form Grimoire Equip, owing to the great understanding between him and his Grimoire Aiofe.

### King Servant

King Servants are unique Perfected Grimoires that hold strange powers, and serve the Kings of the End, who are the strongest mages. They always take the form of extremely beautiful women with wings, and are specialized to perform powerful magic even their masters do not have the capability of performing by themselves. It is known that the King Servants have full human speech capability, and high intelligence of a high tier mage.

## Spirit Equip

Spirit equip is a state where the spirit, be it that of the Grimoire or a Spirit weapon, is able to synchronize and overwrite the existence of the mage who is using this power. By all means, this is as good as incarnating the spirit as a living being using the body of the mage performing it as a catalyst. Due to how the magic and mana of a mage is reflected as their "sense of self" and has immense overwriting power, it is exceptionally dangerous for a mage of high power to perform a spirit equip.

The prerequisites for spirit equip include an extremely high count of powerful circuits to act as a vessel for the spirit, yet a mage with minimal "sense of self", which consequently leads to a very small mana pool for spell casting. Another benefit would be the similarity between the spirit and the mage, which leads the world to confuse them for each other. If the mage's "sense of self" is exceedingly similar to the spirit's "sense of self", it becomes easy for them to synchronize to perform a spirit equip even if the mage has an overwhelming "sense of self"

Thus, it is physically impossible for spirits and mages of opposite genders to perform a spirit equip, as their "sense of self" is too different and the distortions to the resulting body would scatter it to the winds. It is also impossible for a powerful mage to spirit equip a powerful spirit in most circumstances, barring those with great similarity to them, due to the clash of the "sense of self" and dominance for overwriting, which leads to instantaneous destruction of both parties.

Spirit equip is the only way for the full power of a spirit to be born into the world. All spirits, be it Grimoire Spirits or Equipment Spirits, are limited in strength in one way or another. Only when a spirit equip is performed can their true power be shown.