Lore Jam #1: Oryth Artifacts (July 2026)

Worldbuilding
1

Welcome to the first Veiled Age Lore Jam. This coincides with the release of the Veiled Age World Guide, which details a Creative Commons fantasy setting.

Lore Jam?

Kind of like a game jam, goal of a lore jam is to collectively add depth and detail to this setting by submitting lore entries or story scenes around a specific theme.

Our first theme is Oryth artifacts. To participate, simply reply to this thread with the full text of your entry, anytime between now and July 31.

I will then pick some entries to canonize in the next version of the World Guide. If there’s continued interest, we’ll do it again with another theme. In this way, we can build an ever-expanding fantasy setting that will always be free for other writers to use.

About Oryth Artifacts

Oryth artifacts are objects recovered from the ancient ruins of a hyper-advanced reptile civilization called the Oryth. For more info on the Oryth, see page 31 and page 52 of the Veiled Age World Guide.

Ancient Yet Futuristic Treasures. Oryth artifacts are clarketech, meaning they are pieces of technology so advanced that their internal mechanisms are beyond the comprehension of the planet’s medieval-level civilizations. An artifact could have practically any function, but it must have enough limitations or rarity to avoid breaking the medieval technology level of the overall world setting.

Distinct Appearance. An Oryth artifact could be as small as a coin or as big as a mountain, but is nonetheless recognizable visually. It is usually made of an off-white stone resembling alabaster and/or a metal resembling tarnished silver. Its shape usually features rotational symmetry or equiangular polygons. Think spirals, triangles, and elegant geometries.

Your Post

The first line should be the title of the artifact, with a # at the beginning to indicate a header, like this:

# Cold Sleep Chamber

Then, write 300-3000 words, in one of these two formats:

  1. An in-world document discussing the artifact, as if from a scholar researching it.
  2. A scene involving the artifact, showing its significance to those in possession of it. It might be a family heirloom, a centerpiece of a town, a weapon, a holy relic on display in a temple, or just a curious toy in a merchant’s wagon.

Either way, try to convey a pre-industrial perspective. If a medieval merchant came across a cryo-stasis pod, what would he call it? What would he use it for?

REMINDER: To post in the Worldbuilding category, you’ll need to log in here and join the “worldbuilders” group, by going to this page and clicking the “Join” button in the upper right. That way, we know everyone has explicitly decided to share their ideas freely.

2

The Dawn and the Dusk

My friend,

It was good to receive your most recent letter and to learn something of your current situation. You confessed that you are often exhausted and feel lost on what to do. I would like for you to know that I have complete faith, for whatever that is worth, that you and Geniveve will be exceptional parents. Be patient with the child, with Geniveve, and with yourself. I know you are kind and caring, and trust that, despite your current misgivings, you will learn to deal with whatever challenges arise. I hope that my travels may soon take me that way, so that I can see the child for myself., and share a meal.

Your mention of the child’s difficulty sleeping – I assure you that this is quite normal – reminds me of something I once came across on my travels. It was, when left to sit on the small table where it rested when not in use, a triangular object with a circular section in the center. The three points, which were of a dull golden hue, could be pulled out from the central part of the device. Each of these was itself a triangle, though one side would be partially covered by the curve of the central section when pushed in. When pulled out, these smaller triangles could be rotated and then pushed back together. Depending on how the triangles were rotated, the color of the central object would change from the brightest white to the darkest ebon. When the center was tapped, the room in which it was kept would be either suffused with or drained of light, as it was light or dark in color.

I was informed by the family to whom it belonged that they would sometimes use it if they wished to continue their activities after the sun had set, and that they had used it to help their second and third child to sleep when they were young. They had not found the object until after their first child had grown past needing it.

I am afraid that the two of you, like most parents, must do your best without the aid of such a curiosity!

Do continue to write me. Your letters are a source of constancy and connection in my work, for never allows me to stay anywhere for long.

Your friend,

Jothnan

3

The Child’s Drake

“Hey. what’s that dumb kid doing with a fancy-looking construct like that?”

“Who cares? That thing will make us rich once we bring it back.”

“Grab the kid too. Know some dealers that’ll pay good money for young coldbloods once we make it back to Tophet. Plus he might know how it works.”

Nearby a child wove some beads onto a string, not understanding the foreign chatter of the raiders and apparently not paying the strangers much mind. Instead he hummed to himself song of nonsense words as he selected the next bead. Curled up immobile next to him was a silvery-scaled creature, delicate wings folded against its back and mechanical eyes half-lidded, for all the world looking like a large lizard basking idly in the sun.

One of the bandits pulled his sword from his sheath and roughly grabbed the child by one arm, hauling him to his feet. “You’re going to tell us how…” he never finished that sentence as the construct’s teeth bit through his armor and ripped a chunk of flesh from his thigh. It was on him in an instant as he fell, severing his sword-hand and ripping him apart with teeth and claws until he stopped moving. Another one of the bandits got close and suffered a similar fate, tail wrapping around him and pulling him off his feet before he even landed a blow.

The remaining three, slightly smarter, attempted to attack at range. The metal dragon raised its wings to shield its charge as it finished its current battle, before launching itself at the threat with frightening speed. One more raider died near-instantly to the claws puncturing his chest. The last one took the opportunity to run off while the creature finished her companion. The construct huffed at her menacingly before turning back to the child and patiently holding out a limb for the child to tie the finished bracelet onto.

The construct looks somewhat like a quadrupedal dragon done in white metal, with an armored hide of hexagonal scales and wings that consist of three triangular sections each, joined together. About the size of a large dog, the wings do not appear to enable flight, although the creature sometimes uses them for balance.

It bonds with a single child at a time and will guard and defend its chosen child until maturity. The creature will follow its chosen charge anywhere; in one instance it bonded to the young son of a visiting peddler and kept pace tirelessly behind the wagons for the next fifteen years. Equally tirelessly, it then returned to the same village and once again went to sleep in the ruins. No one is sure how it chooses its charge; only that at some point in the next five years it will wake up and unerringly go to the side of its new charge. Chosen children have ranged in age from infants to teenagers, though the most typical selection is a child between 2 and 8 years, and coldbloods appear to be slightly more common. So far all attempts to determine any other common factor have failed.

Once bonded the construct will fiercely defend its charge against any threats, although thankfully it seems able to differentiate cleanly between serious threats, childish squabbles, and caretakers performing actions the child simply doesn’t like. (More than one youngster has whined at their dragon’s failure to protect them from the enforcement of unwanted bathing and grooming at the hands of their guardians.) A few scholars have theorized it likely has some form of simple telepathy that allows it to detect intentions. Otherwise it appears to display pet-like affection towards its bonded child.

It leaves around the age of maturity, although again the exact point appears to be not entirely defined. There are no records of who it was originally designed to protect. Attempts at telepathic contact have revealed only a very simple mind, and any attempts to take the creature away for study have generally proven lethal. One relatively comprehensive work on what is known of its nature and abilities exists, entitled The Child’s Drake, and written by a young adult bard of a particularly scholarly temperament who had been its most recent chosen charge at the time, based on their recollections and recorded notes.

Possibly at some point it was intended to protect a particularly important heir. Or possibly it’s simply a gift from a protective inventor to a child. There are many theories, and a variety of superstitions about the construct and its chosen, but so far nothing more than that.

4

Forgotten Starlight

I have acquired what I believe to be an artifact of the Oryth, at no small personal cost. The caravan master had an inkling of what it might be (of course, why else would he bring it here?), and so charged accordingly despite the seeming lack of utility in the thing. The stains left on its surface when I acquired it spoke to the ill treatment of those who owned it prior – I have little doubt that the merchant bought it for a song.

The acid bath has cleaned it well, showing the dull white stone and the dull lustre of that metal the Oryth favored so highly. Not silver, silver could not survive the strikes of hammers; nor mithril, mithril does not tarnish so. Some other substance, with such a strangely ugly sheen perhaps native to the alloy?

This item has a simpler shape than some others found: a pyramid, triangular. Any side might be the base, so perfectly equal are they in all aspects (which also speaks to its origin – show me the artisan that can make the like with nary a flaw and tell me they are not already beholden to some noble’s house, and I’ll cut you as a liar).

Why it took a bathing in fire for the thing to wake, I may not ever know, but happily it need not stay there to operate. The metal on one of the edges shows glyphs in subtle yellow now that I believe are Oryth, though I only recognize them by style. Certainly I have never seen their like before.

I believe they respond to touch – certainly it seems to warm and change in hue at the press of a finger. Perhaps the right sequence will have an effect?

I shall hope this one is not marred by the machinations of the Amalgam.

It opened! With the right sequence, three of the pyramid’s sides have been revealed to be panels that open! I had it the wrong way down at first, which may be why it failed so often before (a note to self, mark the base, to avoid this in the future). These panels revealed what I can only call metal flowers, six-leaved and curved in a fashion that reminds me of how some choose to paint the six wings of Genos. What the purpose is, I am not sure – light poured forth, bathed the roof my study, and then shut off. There are glyphs in the air on one side, a mild orange or red. A message, I assume? Will I need to translate the script?

…

It closed itself up again. The behavior repeats with each attempt: the opening of panels, the gentle bathing of light, the message, and after half a mark it closes back up. The glyphs never change, either, so I doubt it is some form of augury. I must push away frustration – even this is a discovery to make others envious. It may be time to bring in other minds.

The consensus is that my study was too small. Truly, any study would have been too small. To demonstrate what I’ve found so far to my esteemed colleagues, I took the item to the meeting hall. The gentle light bathed the ceiling, and that time did not shut off. Rather, it transformed that vaulted ceiling into an expanse of deepest black, darker even than the Veil at night, and painted points of light across its face. We all were shocked; for a moment I feared we had reached into the Abyss, or something like it.

Fortunately, it was only illusion. A sacrificed shoe still struck the solid ceiling, and the hall is well intact. There is yet the chance of danger, so it must remain under watch (and I of course will not be leaving this hall, even should they bring horses to drag me off) until the priests can name it safe.

I should stop writing and pray.

There is no threat. Study may resume. I shall hope for a minimum of backbiting. Perhaps the priestly attaché will keep us all in line.

It goes faster with assistants. The methods to control the artifact are being recorded for posterity (I must remember to make a second copy of mine, store it somewhere other than just here). Sudren discovered how to close the item up again, and happily it opens just the same as ever. The lights on (or in? some have claimed there is depth to them, but I am no certain) the illusionary black expanse can be made to move in nigh any direction, simply by pressing upon the correct glyphs. Curiously, they do not move if the artifact is moved, though if it is turned over it will close itself up again. The same if it is moved through a threshold.

The illusion does appear sourced from the flowers; if they are blocked by a body or a heavy cloth the lights in a section of the darkness snuff out, and there seem to be similar points on the blocking entity. If too much is blocked, the illusion ceases, and that same message it showed in my study appears. Perhaps it means that it feels constrained?

We have found what can only be the Arc of Heaven. It is not the right angle, but it can only be the Arc. Why would it create an illusion of the Arc? Some suggested worship, but this does not follow, unless a god lived there in the time of the Oryth too. It is a troubling discovery – what is that black expanse, that the Arc is contained within? What are the lights, that shine beyond the Arc?

… I wonder if the artifact will work outside.

This thing treats the sky itself as if it were a meeting hall. Even under brightest day, those within the dome of its effect can see the dark expanse, the lights within, the Arc of Heaven. We have even found the moon, Phalora’s gentle light captured fully within the artifact’s whimsy. Good that the courtyard is not open to all and sundry. If I am unsettled, what of the common man on the street?

It took much time and tedious care, but I have matched the Arc in the artifact’s dome to the Arc in our sky. It is exact – a perfect replica. I can only conclude that this item shows the sky; perhaps a tool used to study the skies as is done in Ur. With that in mind, I found the Last Star, secure in its place. It is only by reference to the Arc that I know that it is the Last Star; it looks so very much the same as every other point of light within the illusion.

Are these, then, each another Star? The Last Star had brethren, else it would not be the Last but the only. Is this what the Oryth saw, before the Mother’s Veil?

5

Heart-Stones

Dear Mr. Hob,

I obtained your address from the records of Atticus Lurius, who I regret to tell you has passed away. I am his niece, Adelais. Though we have never met, he spoke fondly of you.

It may be crude to discuss business in the wake of death, but the sooner I am able to resolve his affairs, the sooner I will find the space to grieve properly.

As Atticus had no children of his own, he left his estate to me. His estate amounts to little, as most of his modest capital went into funding an expedition to some buried Oryth ruins beneath the Yobani desert. Unfortunately, he passed away only days before his explorers returned. It’s come to my attention that you had a 50/50 stake in the expedition and are entitled to half the proceeds from the venture, if any.

To that end, I seek your advice and consent on what to do with a curious set of stones found in the ruin, the only thing found there I suspect may have noteworthy value.

It is a wooden box containing an array of six stones. Each has an identical size and shape: from a hexagonal base, triangular faces rise to meet at a peak, forming a sort of hexagonal pyramid. They are all whitish-gray stones a little less than a handbreadth in width.

I showed them to a local merchant who deals in rarities. He claimed they were once used as ornamental tokens of friendship. I am ignorant of Oryth artifacts, but thanks to my uncle, I am not naive to the ways of merchants, and I felt that the man’s eyes almost glittered upon seeing them, even as he downplayed their value. I hope you might have insight into their worth and purpose, and have resolved not to sell them until I hear from you.

In your replies, please keep in mind that though I am well educated, I know little of Oryth history and artifacts. So please explain as to a scholarly peer with no expertise in your field.

Signed,

Miss Adelais

Dear Miss Adelais,

I am sorry to hear of your uncle’s passing. Though I didn’t know the man for as long as I would have liked, I found him to be always a deep thinker and fair in our arrangements.

Upon receiving your letter, I could scarcely believe what I was reading. It is essential that you neither sell these objects nor show them to anyone. Further, I ask that you make it a point to tell anyone who has seen them that you have already sold them, so that none believe they are still in your possession. I have made arrangements to visit you near the moon’s end, so that we may speak about it privately.

An explanation is in order. Most Oryth artifacts, such as the handheld light-manipulating device known as Dawn and Dusk, seem to work inexhaustibly by some unseen internal drive or mechanism. What is less commonly known is this: there is a class of very large Oryth artifacts – one might almost call them monuments – which feature a hexagonal indentation to receive a stone like you describe. Inserting a stone usually brings to life these mysterious objects once thought merely ornamental or else long dead.

To share one example, there is a swamp in Amloth with a nondescript obelisk in its center. Its purpose was unknown to the native elves nearby until a few years ago, when they acquired a heart-stone and placed it into the obelisk. Ever since, the obelisk gives off a low hum, and the surrounding landscape is slowly changing from a fetid swamp to a crystal clear pond full of exotic flora.

In some cases, inserting the stone into such an object appears to have no effect, as with the towering black spheres found in the mountains of Ur. It could be that such objects are no longer functional, though it is also possible their functions are invisible.

Oryth writings have found occasional reference to these stones, calling them heart-stones (a rough translation). Some of us believe them to be standardized power source for Oryth equipment, though some believe they may contain some kind of knowledge or will these machines require to operate.

In any case, heart-stones are incredibly rare. Never have I heard of an expedition returning with more than two. Hide them and deny all knowledge of them until I arrive.

I apologize for the boorish and impersonal nature of my reply. I hope after we have determined together what to do with the stones, we can turn to lighter conversation. Atticus did speak fondly of you, and I look forward to making your acquaintance.

6

The Sword of Seradoc

Abott John the Lame, Caretaker of the Shrine of Memories, County Borel, Arvel

To: the Aurum Congregation on Dangerous Relics

May the Light of Genos grace you all,

In compliance with the Emperor’s request for an inventory of all dangerous artifacts within the borders of Arvel or the possession of the Ecclesiam, I have consulted our shrine’s records and all practicable sources for information on the Sword of Seradoc. In the interest of preserving information, I am reporting everything I found. I do not think it is all true, and I have discarded anything I felt obviously misleading (although it has been noted in a secondary document in the shrine’s archives, should some scholar wish to consult in the future).

As far as I can find, Seradoc grew up on the Yobbani border, long before the Tophen schism. His boyhood was completely ordinary, until around the age of sixteen. His village was attacked by desert raiders. The local count was apparently corrupt, and allowed small scale raids so long as not too many people died and some of the spoils made their way to his coffers. Unable to fight back, Seradoc hid in a well. There he was discovered, and the raiders took him out to kill him. He somehow broke free and killed one of them with his own knife, which impressed their chieftain. Seradoc was given the option to take over the fallen man’s place – his role in the band, his possessions, even his family – as an alternative to death.

This he did, and for seven years he lived as a nomad raider. But he never forgot the burning of his village, and when the opportunity presented itself he betrayed his chieftain to a rival. A decision that did not pay off the way he’d hoped, for the borderlands have no use for men who betray their allies. He was chased into exile and joined the crew of a trading ship. While in the deep Yobbani south, Seradoc and his companions stumbled across ancient ruins of white stone. In the ruins, he discovered a strange sword, made of tarnished silver. Alien glyphs decorated its blade, and it emitted a strange pale light. Seradoc took the sword, and served out his contract with the ship’s captain. I could find no further record of the voyages, and his life afterward is obscure.

He reappears at the age of 30 in the city of Oslik, at the time an important trading post between Arvel and Yobba. After a night of drinking, he quarreled with a knight of the city guard (perhaps over a woman, but the only accounts of this I could find were speculative and somewhat salacious). The knight attacked, and for the first recorded time, he used the sword in combat. His first parry cleaved the night’s steel blade as if it were nothing. His first blow clove the man from shoulder to hip, again as if he were nothing. This caused quite a stir in the town.

The next day, speaking of the power of his magic sword, Seradoc urged the men of the town to take up arms and cleanse the borderland of the raider scum. Apparently he held his grudges. Three hundred sallied forth under his command, but it turns out that a magic sword does not make one a great commander, nor is it especially useful in battle against lightly armored horse archers. Seradoc’s band was decimated many times over, and Seradoc himself died in the desert. But a survivor brought his sword north.

The sword reappears nearly two centuries later. Apparently, it was gifted to St. Simeon the Martyr by a brigand chieftain, whose life the good saint saved after a highway brawl with the Imperial Guard went badly. Simeon was in the region with the Templars of the Northern Lights to face the necromancer Tar-Lszzt and his aberrant cultists, whose fiendish plot is lost to history. Simeon cast down the necromancer in battle, cleaving the black iron cuirass fortified by hardening spells with a single blow. But not before Tar-Lszzt’s mace struck his sword-hand, cracking the sword’s pommel. The necromancer must have placed some hex upon himself that infected the instrument of his demise, for from the day of the battle Simeon was cursed. He became ill, his hair fell out, and after a few months he died of consumption. The sword remained in the possession of the Templars, but after its next two owners succumbed to the same curse, it was retired to the Shrine of Memories. It sits now, embedded in thick stone walls, in a mural of St. Simeon slaying the necromancer.

Over the centuries, whenever the county is in grave peril, some sacrificial hero or heroine has taken up the Sword of Seradoc. No blade or armor however enchanted can repel it, and every time the one who wields it in battle wields it in victory. But the curse of Tar-Lszzt always takes its due. The hero inevitably falls to the same symptoms. In their memory, stars crafted of diamond are added to the mural everytime someone takes up the word. There are 7 stars in the mural, but I could only confirm three sword bearers:

Count Valens the Younger, took up the sword in the 10th year of the reign of Emperor Henry II to face the bandit chief Yanna.

Lady Alisan Canforth, took up the sword in the 12th year of the reign of Emperor Phillip III the Good when the demon Carcathall (note: I have transliterated this name into Arvan as best I can) and his contract-slaves attacked.

Sir John of Avarran, took up the sword for some reason in the 1st year of the reign of Emperor Henry VI, but the scroll giving account was partially burned in a fire and I could find no other record of this incident.

The curse seems to effect only those who own the sword, and shows no sign of abating over the years. At any rate, the days of danger in this county are mercifully sparse, and it is my hope that no more diamond stars will join those in the mural

Your Humble Servant &c,

John the Lame, Abott-Caretaker of the Shrine of Memories, County Borel, Arvel

PS: I have included a drawing of the sword, in case it is of use. Please pardon my humble skills.

sword_of_seradoc
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