The Nine-Tailed Sun

“Nine as Scribes. Nine as the Virtues. Nine as the Heavenly Realms. Nine as the Legions. This is the number of the sun. Of Ysand. Nine sacred blades from which I wear in curved steel above my heart.”   -Oracle of Ysand

    The Nine-Tailed Sun is a necklace that looks almost exactly as the name suggests. From a star shaped by humble iron, the curved rays stick out like scimitars chasing one another. Forming a circular diagram with either a glass or metal centerpiece.   This central piece consists of different parts depending on what is important for the wearer. Some may have a clock hidden beneath a glass panel, while others may choose a compass or a locket beneath a metal sheet. Some may even have a piece of silver, gold or even a gemstone in a hidden socket.   On the back of the necklace, the name of the wearer is always inscribed by firebranding the iron.     The Nine-Tailed Sun is an heirloom gifted to all children of Ysand during their so-called second birth. When they are formally baptised underneath the light of the heavens at the age of sixteen.   The necklace serves both as a reminder of devotion to the wearer and a candle in the dark, to remind them of inner strength and truths.   In death, it also serves as a kind of dog-tag for whomever retrieves the fallen. The name engraving and special modification serves as a sign of who, or at least what someone was in life.     The Nine-Tailed Sun was first created the day after the death of Ysand. As a tide of sorrow threatened to drown the Golden Empire, its people focused their grief into creating symbols of remembrance. Now smiths, soldiers, merchants and metallurgists from all corners of the empire’s regions joined in a week-long campaign to forge an iron pendant for each and every citizen.