The Heartlocket
"It beats for you, until nothing else does.”
The Heartlocket is a relic wrapped in equal parts superstition, folklore, and cold reality. Gold-cased and wicked-veined, it resembles a small ornate gold heart locket inscribed with a weaving pattern, that beats faintly like a living heart. Most tales say it was once nothing more than a witch’s curse, a cruel jest told to frighten sailors and soldiers. But those who have borne it, and the scars they leave behind, prove otherwise. The most famous account tells of a nameless champion, a warrior who sought one final boon before embarking on a years-long campaign across the sea. Disguised as an old crone, a witch offered him an enchanted locket that would grant him the strength of ten men, so he could surely return home to those he loved. He accepted, never suspecting the curse hidden in her “gift.” In battle, he fought with preternatural might and speed, carving victory after victory. Yet when he at last returned, he found nothing waiting for him. His family, his hearth, his every joy had been taken away by the locket, forever. Only the faint pulse of the amulet remained, beating as if in mockery. It would take many unfortunate souls to claim it after this warrior would take his own life, for the world to understand what game the witch was playing. Thus began the Heartlocket’s true legend; not a charm of fortune, but a covenant of loss. It grants staggering power, but it feasts on affection itself, devouring ties to people, places, and even passions, until its bearer is left with nothing but the hollow strength they once thought a blessing.Mechanics & Inner Workings
The Heartlocket does not diminish the body as other cursed objects tend to do, it strengthens it. Wielders have fought with the strength of ten men, blades faster than lightning, wounds knitting in moments. But the amulet’s magic is parasitic. It seeks what the wearer values most, binding its pulse to those attachments. Feeding on them, taking them away one by one until the wearer truly has nothing else to lose. The locket cannot be bargained with, cannot be tricked with feigned affection. It knows what is dear, even if the wearer does not admit it. If all of your loved ones are given away, it begins stripping simple comforts and joys, until nothing remains but raw instinct and the cursed amulets' hollow beating.
Manufacturing process
Legends claim the Heartlocket was forged not by smith nor mage, but by a witch cloaked in mortal guise. Disguised as a bent crone, she is said to have approached a champion setting out on a great voyage, offering him an amulet that would ensure he returned home victorious. As a joke, or perhaps in spite, she cursed it with a bargain he did not know he made. The Gold was beaten thin in marshlight, inlaid in weaves of Mire-Iron and soaked in blood under a new moon. The “heartbeat” within it was sealed with a charm that bound the locket’s pulse to the very soul of its bearer. Though dismissed as a fireside tale for centuries, the Heartlocket has surfaced too many times in too many ruins for it to be mere superstition.
History
The first tale of the Heartlocket ends as grimly as the curse itself. The champion returned from war indeed victorious, his foes broken before his newfound might. But when at last he staggered home, he found his village abandoned, his wife vanished, his hearthstone cracked and cold. He had won every battle, yet had nothing left to fight for. Since then, the locket has appeared and disappeared across the ages, its story retold in sagas, sermons, and whispered warnings. Scholars in Opulence record at least seven confirmed wielders, each rising as an unstoppable hero before collapsing into ruin, joyless and alone. Some say the locket chooses its bearer, slipping into hands most desperate for power. Others believe it lies where the last victim perished, waiting to be found once more. Wherever it travels, it leaves the same tale: triumph turned to ash.
Significance
Among witches, the Heartlocket is cited as proof of their dominion over the proud and the desperate; to paladins, it is blasphemy made trinket. To the common folk, it is a children’s tale meant to warn against bargaining with power one cannot comprehend, though every generation sees some ambitious soul test whether the story is real. The Knights of All-Faith deny its existence, yet crusaders speak in hushed tones of inquisitors gone missing with the locket in their possession, only to return months later empty-eyed, stronger than ever, and wordless as stone. To the world at large, it is not a relic of honor, but of hunger: the locket beats not to guard, but to consume.
Creation Date
Believed to have been wrought in the early Civil Age when witch covens flourished along the still uneasy frontier coasts and often disguised their curses as blessings before organized hunts would begin.
Rarity
Unique. If copies exist, none have surfaced officially but it would explain the quantity of it's appearances.
Weight
When held, the weight seems to press inward, as though burdened with unseen gravity.
Dimensions
Roughly the size of a small locket, two inches across, but unusually heavy for its size.
Base Price
Priceless, though not in the way gold crowns a king. No sane man would sell it, for no sum can replace what it takes.
Raw materials & Components
Polished gold, trace Mire-Iron, blood , and a bound pulse of witchcraft that has never ceased.
Tools
Forges and furnaces are irrelevant; the Heartlocket was made in ritual, not craft. The light of the moon, curses, and the blood of one who longed for home were its true tools.
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