Truebound - the Liminal Mooring
GM-Info!
Work in progress!
Slightly NSFW!
FEATURED
Swordtember: #anchor
Most blades are forged to draw blood. But Truebound was forged to draw a line between what is here and what is elsewhere. At first glance it is a slender hand-and-a-half sword of moon-pale steel, its rippled blade glimmering like frost on black water. The crossguard holds a thumbnail shard of opalescent stone that never quite settles on one colour; tilt it and you catch a starfield that isn’t yours. From the pommel ring trails a hair-fine filament of light only the bearer can see, forever tugging toward “home”. When planted tip-first into earth or deck plank, it sings, a clear, steady tone that quiets echo and doubt.
Truebound is an anchor. Carry it into the liminal - mist-roads, mirror-halls, dream-basements, pocket-worlds - and you will not wander. Grip its leather, and you keep a thread back to your own reality no matter how the path twists, no matter who bids you stray. Drive the blade into a solid surface in your world and the ground remembers it; as the anchor settles, a visible silhouette of the sword remains embedded like frost shaped into steel. You draw the blade free to carry with you, while the afterimage stands watch. Step away into otherwhere and a single thought will draw you back to that remembered place, as if the sword were a mooring post hammered into the quay of existence. Set a new anchor by planting the blade elsewhere and focusing until a fresh silhouette blooms; the old one fades like breath on glass.
The first telling names the High Conservator of Echoes, Archacoust Sorilien, as the mind behind the thing. In the uneasy decades after the Shardfall of Amalthea, Sorilien studied the way places learn to rhyme with other places - how a ruined cloister can perfectly mirror a grove of standing stones if you listen long enough. He sought a tool that would let travellers return from those rhymed spaces without depending on fickle guides or the mercy of doors that close behind you. Sorilien bartered with gnome artificers for an Aeum-rich billet that would hold resonance, set a sliver of moon-shard in the crossguard, and tempered the blade to ring at a note that reality itself "hears". 
He bound into it the trick of leaving its own standing wave behind, a law-shaped afterimage that the world would honour. He called it the Liminal Mooring; everyone else called it Truebound because that is what it does.
Over the centuries the sword passed through remarkable hands. Sir Aurel Latchley, a waywarden of the south roads, used Truebound in the Candle March, when a whole hamlet drifted sideways during a week of thick, greenish fog. He planted the blade in the village and led folk out by twos and threes through back kitchens and barn lofts that opened onto the wrong sky.
Later, Nai Mera of Lymyra - an elven cartographer who dared the wind-bridges of the Night Orchard - borrowed the sword to map a path that existed only at dusk. Her sketches remain, but she returned the blade with a quiet shake of the head: some gates will not yield, anchor or no, and that truth saved her from throwing herself against them.
A generation on, the Makalee salvage-captain Tauk-Tauk the Unshy took Truebound beneath a listening sea to plunder Shirki’s Mirror, a drowned market whose stalls still whisper prices. 
He left with pearls that showed their owners the day they were happiest, and with both gills and soul intact because the luminous after-blade he’d planted under the North Pier never once slackened. More recently the Brightstone Investigative Services recovered the sword from a private collection after a string of disappearances in a tenement cellar that contained far more corners than the ground plan allowed. For now, the Enigma Society keeps Truebound under ward and watch, lending it to expeditions that can argue a good case and sign for the consequences.
History and keepers of the blade
Archacoust Sorilien by Tillerz using MJ
Sir Aurel Latchley by Tillerz using MJ
Nai Mera by Tillerz using MJ
Tauk-Tauk by Tillerz using MJ
Description and use in the world
In hand, Truebound feels a whisper lighter than its size suggests, perfectly balanced to the point the mind stops noticing the weight. The grip is wrapped in dark eel-skin that never slicks, even in mist. The Amalthean shard brightens when crossings are near; specks of distant lightning skate inside it like minnows in glass. In some lights the blade shows faint way-marks etched along its fuller: not runes exactly, more like the shorthand of surveyors, the sort of marks you’d cut into a fallen tree to remind yourself which bend in the river you meant. Tap the flat with a nail and you hear an unhurried chime that seems to ripple through your bones and point the way your childhood house would lie if you started walking now. To set an anchor, the bearer plants the point into a firm surface in their own reality and breathes out until the blade’s tone steadies. As the resonance settles, a glassy, moon-silver silhouette of the sword remains in the place you set it - cool to the touch, immune to pry-bars, and humming at the edge of hearing - while you draw the true blade free. From that moment a traveller may step aside into reflection or rumour and always feel the thread of return to that afterimage. Set another anchor later and the first fades like mist in sunlight.
Truebound, the Liminal Mooring
Notes/Limit: Truebound does not create portals where none exist; it only guarantees orientation and safe return to a valid Anchor. If passage to a realm is warded or barred by stronger laws, the sword’s protections still apply, but you cannot force entry.
WFRP4e
Cypher
Type: Hand Weapon (Sword), Unique, Magical
Encumbrance: 1
Availability: - (Unique Artefact) Reach: Average
Damage: +SB+4
Qualities: Magical; Defensive; Precise
Liminal Anchor (Passive): While wielding Truebound, you cannot become Lost in otherworldly, extradimensional, or illusion-ridden locales. Any Navigation Tests made to orient, back-track, or find egress in such places are never harder than Challenging (+0), and you gain +20 to Perception or Intuition Tests to detect misleading paths, glamours, or spatial anomalies. You always sense the direction toward your current anchor point in your original reality. Set the Mooring (Action): In your original reality, as a Full Action, plant Truebound in a solid surface and focus for one Round. If uninterrupted, a visible, intangible silhouette of the sword remains embedded at that spot as your Anchor while you draw the blade free. Mundane force cannot move or damage the silhouette. Setting a new Anchor causes any previous silhouette to fade. Return to Anchor (Special): While in another reality, you may attempt to return to your Anchor as a Full Action by testing Willpower (Average +20). On success, you and up to WP Bonus willing allies in physical contact with you immediately return, arriving within 1 yard of the silhouette. On failure, you do not return and gain Fatigued. On a Fumble, each participant gains 1 Corruption and arrives scattered 1d10 yards from the Anchor when you next succeed. You may try again after 10 minutes of rest. If the Anchor’s location is destroyed, arrive at the nearest safe ground within 5 yards of where it stood. Aethyric Surety: While you are wielding Truebound in otherworldly spaces, you gain +1 SL on Tests to resist the Confused or Fear Conditions caused by spatial distortion or illusion.
Encumbrance: 1
Availability: - (Unique Artefact) Reach: Average
Damage: +SB+4
Qualities: Magical; Defensive; Precise
Liminal Anchor (Passive): While wielding Truebound, you cannot become Lost in otherworldly, extradimensional, or illusion-ridden locales. Any Navigation Tests made to orient, back-track, or find egress in such places are never harder than Challenging (+0), and you gain +20 to Perception or Intuition Tests to detect misleading paths, glamours, or spatial anomalies. You always sense the direction toward your current anchor point in your original reality. Set the Mooring (Action): In your original reality, as a Full Action, plant Truebound in a solid surface and focus for one Round. If uninterrupted, a visible, intangible silhouette of the sword remains embedded at that spot as your Anchor while you draw the blade free. Mundane force cannot move or damage the silhouette. Setting a new Anchor causes any previous silhouette to fade. Return to Anchor (Special): While in another reality, you may attempt to return to your Anchor as a Full Action by testing Willpower (Average +20). On success, you and up to WP Bonus willing allies in physical contact with you immediately return, arriving within 1 yard of the silhouette. On failure, you do not return and gain Fatigued. On a Fumble, each participant gains 1 Corruption and arrives scattered 1d10 yards from the Anchor when you next succeed. You may try again after 10 minutes of rest. If the Anchor’s location is destroyed, arrive at the nearest safe ground within 5 yards of where it stood. Aethyric Surety: While you are wielding Truebound in otherworldly spaces, you gain +1 SL on Tests to resist the Confused or Fear Conditions caused by spatial distortion or illusion.
Artifact (Level 6)
Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (on Return activation only)
Form: Longsword (medium melee weapon; 4 damage). Passive – Liminal Anchor: While carrying the sword in any liminal, extradimensional, or illusory environment, you cannot become lost. All tasks to orient, navigate, retrace, or find an exit are eased by two steps, and the GM should not use intrusions that solely serve to make you lost or loop you endlessly. Set Anchor: In your original reality, plant the blade and spend one minute focusing. A visible, intangible silhouette remains embedded as your Anchor while you draw the true sword free. Only one Anchor may exist at a time; setting a new one dismisses the old. Mundane interaction can’t move the silhouette; a level-6 countermeasure can suppress it briefly at the GM’s discretion. Active – Return to Anchor (Intellect, 3+): While in another reality, grasp the blade and spend 3 Intellect to tear a quiet seam and step through to your Anchor. You may bring a number of willing creatures in Immediate range equal to your Intellect Edge (minimum 1). For each additional creature beyond this, increase the cost by +2 Intellect. After each activation, roll Depletion (1 in 1d10). On a failed depletion roll, the shard in the guard dulls for 28 hours, during which the Return function cannot be used (passive benefits remain). Phase-Sure Strike: Against creatures that are incorporeal, phased, or partially out of reality, the sword ignores 1 point of Armour.
Form: Longsword (medium melee weapon; 4 damage). Passive – Liminal Anchor: While carrying the sword in any liminal, extradimensional, or illusory environment, you cannot become lost. All tasks to orient, navigate, retrace, or find an exit are eased by two steps, and the GM should not use intrusions that solely serve to make you lost or loop you endlessly. Set Anchor: In your original reality, plant the blade and spend one minute focusing. A visible, intangible silhouette remains embedded as your Anchor while you draw the true sword free. Only one Anchor may exist at a time; setting a new one dismisses the old. Mundane interaction can’t move the silhouette; a level-6 countermeasure can suppress it briefly at the GM’s discretion. Active – Return to Anchor (Intellect, 3+): While in another reality, grasp the blade and spend 3 Intellect to tear a quiet seam and step through to your Anchor. You may bring a number of willing creatures in Immediate range equal to your Intellect Edge (minimum 1). For each additional creature beyond this, increase the cost by +2 Intellect. After each activation, roll Depletion (1 in 1d10). On a failed depletion roll, the shard in the guard dulls for 28 hours, during which the Return function cannot be used (passive benefits remain). Phase-Sure Strike: Against creatures that are incorporeal, phased, or partially out of reality, the sword ignores 1 point of Armour.
Truebound by Tillerz using MJ
Fascinating artifact.
Explore Etrea | WorldEmber 2025