The Illuminated Ring

Of all the artifacts of Starfall, the Illuminated Ring is one of the most well known in rumor, but least understood in fact. Forged and detailed sometime within the first decade after the disaster, as magic spread in leaps and bounds across The World Behind, its name refers to the styling of illuminated manuscripts, not light production. Tales say the ring is made from a silvery-green metal (many debates have been held as to what metal this was, considering the sheer magical intensity it is said to endure), created over the course of months, as the Jeholrak artisan not only is said to have worked flecks of the Starfall meteor into the base, but spent endless hours engraving illuminations that were then filled with different materials from the impact to create the art's brilliant colors. What the illuminations are of is debatable, with stories ranging from the ring being a record of the devastation after Starfall, a prayer to the light, or a spell that if cast grants the users dearest wish.

This is not the only artifact attributed to this artisan, whose name has been lost to time but whose craftsmanship is distinctive. They consistently worked with impact materials, proving they had a connection to either the location or were well-connected in smuggler markets, and had a proficiency at delicate detail and color work that has been difficult to replicate. Not all of their pieces are as immensely magical, but due to the choice of materials very few are completely mundane. Some other known pieces are a necklace with similar design to the ring, and a variety of jeweled horn or claw covers. The commonality of the latter has led some historians to speculate that the artisan was not actually Jeholrak, but others consider this argument to be somewhat species-ist.

The last time the ring was seen in a verifiable way was six hundred years ago, when the Deinodon explorer Tyrial left Kayenta to venture into the lands of Yixita. Multiple reports say he had on him a ring of astonishing design that left the viewer feeling breathlessly unsettled. He is recorded as saying it would protect him, and that 'secrets cannot hide from a sympathetic heart', a sentiment that while considered acceptably heroic, is puzzling in relation to a ring. As Tyrial was not among the survivors of the expedition, it is unknown whether the ring was left with his body and belongings in the Yixitan tundra, or if one of the three members of the crew who made it back to the main land took it with them. More than one brave (or foolish) Saurian has gone looking for Tyrial's resting place, searching for both the storied explorer and his ring that might grant their wildest dreams, but so far no one has succeeded.