Beyond the raw power and symbolic grades, an artifact's true nature lay in its 'Characteristics'. These were the intrinsic properties that made each artifact unique, shaping its abilities and defining its identity. Unlike the auras of living beings, an artifact's characteristics were not created in the moment but were a legacy of its past. They were a distillation of the power, will, and very essence of the beings or events that birthed them, imprinted into the item through a process known as 'Residual Flow'.
The most common source of these Characteristics came from the raw materials used in their creation. A dagger forged from the fang of an awakened beast that has the ability to drain energy, for example, would retain a portion of that beast's ferocity and Flow-draining properties. A shield crafted from the shell of a creature resistant to fire would inherently possess a resistance to flames. These qualities were not simply passive; they were an active part of the item's being. The 'Artisans', those skilled individuals who crafted these tools, had the difficult task of manipulating this raw material, a process that required a deep understanding of Flow itself.
But an artifact's characteristics could also be a normal object that acted as a reflection of its user through the characteristics that it developed through it's Residual Flow. Through continuous channeling of their Trait into a weapon or a tool, a user could permanently infuse their own essence into the item. This was a slow, deliberate process, but once complete, the item would forever bear the mark of its wielder. A more potent, and far more dangerous, form of this occurred in moments of extreme emotional or physical duress. Upon the death of a powerful Flow-user, their entire Trait could become violently imprinted onto a treasured item, leaving a potent, sentient residue of their consciousness. These artifacts, far from being static objects, were living echoes of the souls that had once wielded them.
The problem with artifacts began with this very process of Residual Flow, and it was an aspect of a phenomenon known as Corruption. When a Flow signature was particularly strong, it did not simply add a new characteristic to an item—it could begin to influence, and in some cases, completely overwrite the consciousness of a new user. The universe, in its quest for balance, ensured that a stronger will would always dominate a weaker one. It was an insidious possession, not of the body, but of the soul. A tool forged from a particularly hostile beast could begin to stir aggression in its wielder. A weapon used by a serial killer, infused with their malevolent essence, could pass on a fragment of their dark personality to the next person to hold it.
This danger was most prevalent when dealing with the higher grades of artifacts—those of Grade 3 to Grade 1. These items were often imbued with the consciousness of beings far beyond mortal comprehension: demigods, gods, or primordial forces of the universe. To use such an item without taking the proper measures was to invite a slow, agonizing corruption of one's very being, to risk losing oneself to whatever mind inhabited the artifact.
This existential struggle for dominance was further complicated by the cosmic rule of balance, a principle that governed the four Trait Classes themselves. Much like a game of rock-paper-scissors, the classes were linked in a cycle of weakness and strength that ensured no single Trait could ever achieve absolute dominance,just as Rock was weak against Paper, Paper was weak against Scissors and Scissors was weak against Rock.
Cosmic Class was weak against Cognitive Class; Cognitive Class was weak against Existential Class; Existential Class was weak against Soulfire Class; and Soulfire Class was weak against Cosmic Class. This cycle applied to artifacts as well. A Flow-user, no matter their stage on the Ladder of Ascension, could still be corrupted by a lower-grade artifact if its Trait Class was of a type that opposed their own. The Anomaly Class, of course, was the sole exception to this rule, able to either be used by all or be rejected by all, the true wildcards in the cosmic game.
The most powerful artifacts of all, those of the highest grades, were sometimes said to be gifts from deities. They were artifacts into which the gods had imbued a fraction of their divine power, their characteristics a direct extension of their own divine will. But in this world of delicate balance, a grim truth was understood by all who sought power:
"Never assume a god is kind. Benevolence is a human fantasy and power does not demand goodness."
Not all artifacts are tools for power; some are nightmares given form. These are the Sealed Artifacts', a category of artifacts so corrupted, volatile, or malevolent that their very existence poses a threat to Flow-users and the populace of Aerthos. They are not merely potent; they are fundamentally broken, their Residual Flow signatures twisted into a miasma of madness or destructive chaos. Some are the relics of forgotten wars, imbued with the dying curses of entire armies. Others are the products of forbidden experiments, where the very laws of reality were bent and warped by Artisans who crossed a line they could not uncross. Others where where indeed objects imbued with divine power from higher existences that were too strong for mortals to handle.
To attempt to use a Sealed Artifact is to invite oblivion, not just for the wielder, but for all in the immediate vicinity. Their characteristics are not a subtle influence but an overwhelming force of Corruption, capable of consuming even the strongest wills and twisting them into grotesque parodies of their former selves sometimes even causing physical mutation.
To combat this ever-present threat, the government of Aerthos established a specialized body known as the Enforcers. Operating mostly in the shadows and dealing with the esoteric and the arcane, they are a special investigation unit tasked with identifying, tracking, and neutralizing the threats posed by both dangerous people and dangerous artifacts,too sensitive for the normal knights to do.
The Enforcers are a select group of highly skilled Flow-users, each with a deep understanding of artifact theory and corruption, trained to handle situations where conventional Flow-wielding would be a liability. Their existence was known to the public due to the King wanting to be transparent with the people of the nation as a way of building trust with the populace. However, their operations were s a tightly guarded secret, a necessary evil in a world where power can be as terrifying as it is magnificent.
The final destination for a Sealed Relic is the Forbidden Vault. A fortress of steel, stone, and meticulously woven Flow-sealing arrays, the Vault is less a storage facility and more a prison for the most dangerous relics in the kingdom. It is a place of absolute and total containment, where artifacts that house the remnants of demigods, the spiteful wills of powerful deceased, or the raw, chaotic energy of high stage beasts are kept in perpetual stasis.
The Enforcers are the wardens of this cosmic prison, the guardians of the locks that keep a world-ending catastrophe from being unleashed.
For them, every successful operation was not a victory, but a deferment of a cataclysmic fate.