Paths to Power: Artifacts

There's a number of things one might call artifact on Battle Fantasia - items of power, from the mythical reality-twisting Silver Crystal, to transformation-enabling pens. Such items are an essential item to the mythology of Battle Fantasia, and their ubiquity cannot be ignored. Items are an indispensable part of the power equation in Battle Fantasia - virtually everyone has something.

Although many artifacts can grant power, and surely an item of power must wield great magic to even be worthy of the term, for the purpose of Paths to Power, an artifact may be defined as the item by which a magical girl's power is governed. Many of these are transformation items, which must be in hand for transformation to occur - Sailor Moon cannot transform without her brooch, nor can most Pretty Cures transform without their magically-modified cellular phone or Heart Perfume. Many others are the source of power, but do not appear until after a transformation is invoked - the Child of a HiME, or the Cybody of a Star Driver, both of which govern and define that person's power despite not being physically present most of the time. (Notably, both of these examples require the person to have a particular mark on their body and/or soul...)

In some cases, this definition of "artifact" catches things that are not, strictly, items of power - we come again to Children, which are thaumatechnological life forms, but which if destroyed, their HiME's power dies with them; or the Guardian Characters of a Character-Bearer, which are more properly considered fairies, but nonetheless, if captured or destroyed, the Character-Bearer loses all power. (Notably, Characters mostly seem to get kidnapped while they are sleeping in their much more item-like Guardian Egg!) For this purpose, such magical beings, whose continuing survival and often physical proximity is necessary for their controller to retain their own powers, count as an artifact granting power, rather than as a Contracting magical entity.

A similar but unrelated concept is magical weaponry - some of which are just outright called Artifacts in their own themes. But there is an essential difference between Sailor Moon's Transformation Brooch and the Crescent Moon Rod, or Cure Blossom's Heart Perfume versus her Flower Tact, or even Mai Tokiha's Kagutsuchi versus her magatama Element. They're often similar, visually, but the distinction is important: If a magical girl's weapon is taken, she loses a lot of firepower. If the artifact powering her is taken or destroyed, she loses her powers, potentially forever.

For clarity, this is of course primarily to stress the IC boundaries; powers being lost from damaged power artifacts is relatively rare, and like all major changes to your character, governed on a strictly consensual basis.

Mages need a little clarification of their own here. Perhaps more than any other type of powered individual, mages often draw power from a Legacy, rather than a contracted force or a lost artifact. However, mage powers rely on their weapon items to a degree that magical girls do not - a mage who has been disarmed of his or her spellcasting items is as powerless as Sailor Moon without her transformation brooch. Such spellcasting items are far from trivial to replace, as well. There is such a thing as a Beginner Wand, which any mage can use at any time, but they are commensurately weaker; almost every mage is wielding some unique casting item special to them. Often, such items are heirlooms, irreplaceable - Madoka Mano's family ring passing to her granddaughter Yohko; Syaoran Li's sword, in the Li family for generations.

For a mage, their unique gate to their magic should be every inch as iconic as Cardcaptor Sakura's Sealing Wand or Nanoha Takamachi's Raising Heart; indispensable and highly identifiable. Mage OCs will want to think about the nature and history of their spellcasting item or items, just as much as an OC magical girl will want to think about her transformation item's theme. Pretty much everyone has some kind of power artifact in this way. The main exceptions are those fallen to the Power of Darkness, whose freedom from such trappings comes with a terrible price. And sometimes, not even they are truly free - having some artifact buried deep into their soul, a number of generals reveal the source of their dreadful power only in the instant of their death or purification.

To address something that's probably going to get pointed out sooner or later: What Devil Hunter Yohko calls "eastern magic" appears in several themes, and gives exception to this, in the form of treating chi as a form of magic, but not always requiring chi-users to wield items. However, this Eastern magic is usually onmyoudo, Buddhist or Hindu magic, and most such practitioners carry prayer bead chains and similar sacred items. When they do not, many of these spells are cast on paper charms and other talismans that are consumed in the casting. These all serve to qualify for the artifact rules.

Finally, regarding mystical martial artists: they are no exception! Everyone needs something beyond really good punches and kicks, even if in their transformed state they mostly fight with Ultra Kenpo. Mariko Kakizawa can be the heir to a hundred generations of kung fu mystics with a thousand spiritual techniques at her disposal; but she needs the jeweled gloves she got from her grandfather in hand to awaken the sublime chi that makes her a true demon hunter!

In summary, Artifacts are the items and sometimes creatures of power through which a magical fighter retains their powers. Virtually every character has an Artifact of some kind, whether it be a transformation pen, or their heirloom magic wand, or a bejeweled scepter received from an alien god, or a mighty blade forged for them alone, or even a mystical pet who fills their soul with might. The only notable exception is generals of the Dark Worlds, whose powers often come from something far more terrible - with the price of mandated, unflinching loyalty -- and even they have fundamental connections to crystals and the like, more often than not.

Example Power-Granting Artifacts:

• Sailor Moon's Transformation Locket.
• A Chara-Bearer's Guardian Egg.
• Nanoha Takamachi's Intelligent Device, Raising Heart.
• Sakura Kinomoto's Sealing Rod.

Example Weapons:

• Sailor Moon's Crescent Moon Rod.
• Yaya Yuiki's Giant Rattle.
• Nanoha Takamachi's Intelligent Device, Raising Heart.
• Sakura Kinomoto's Clow Cards.

Some examples that were modified in Battle Fantasia integration:

• The Rose Signet Ring of the Duel Games grant wearers the ability to fight at a magical level.
• Cybodies confer magical combat-level physical abilities on their Marked individual once they achieve Third Phase. To do so the Marked must transform into their Ginga Bishounen gear. Glittering Crux masks also confer this ability, similar to the Signet rings.

For more information, please see: Paths to Power, Theme