Potentia wasn't always the goliath of an empire it is today. 1000 years ago it was shattered into many miniature nations, like a pain of glass obliterated by a large hammer, at its centre was an impeccably power hungry individual that just so happened to rule over what is now central Potentia. This individual, a direct relative of the current emperor of Potentia wished nothing but see the entire continent under his absolute control. We wanted this for three reasons. First the shattered nations that would one day make up Potentia, where all squabbling and fighting over petty territory disputes and silly politics over particular points of interest across the region. Serviced to say that the people that would one day make up central Potentia where really unsettled about all this war and fighting and would rather not have to deal with it, this individual was happy to deal with his citizens' concerns for his second reason. This reason was he was itching to get into this war and take the territory that he believed he was entitled to.
The third reason that this individual used to justify all this needless violence was simple dominion of Potentia, all of the wealth and power across the country he wanted. It was scattered of course but the shattered nations of Potentia had all sorts of gold and powerful artifacts that he wanted to solidify his and his family's dominion over the country for the rest of time. Of Course one small nation in the direct centre of a huge war mongering scattergun of violence was not going to go down well and this individual knew this well, he needed an advantage and he was going to find one.
This individual named Cyrus, other than a tyrannical dictator obsessed with power did also had genuine care for his people not something the current emperor shares, and his aspirations for complete dominion of Potentia was an Ill willed attempt to provide this citizens of his small nation, more power and a stronger economy. This plan, obviously rooted in a severely flawed logic was something Cyrus in all of his divine stupidity was determined to accomplish and decided he was going to provide his army with an advantage in order to complete his insane goal of dominion. This advantage was Forty-seven expertly forged weapons and armour, its purpose to provide his Forty-seven best warriors with fortifying equipment designed to gift these people with divine skills and abilities. This would make them no match for any opponent or adversary and in Cyrus' view give them the advantage they needed to conquer the other nations in Potentia.
These Forty-seven weapons and armour dubbed the Forty-seven wonders of man were forged by an ancient race of blacksmiths commissioned by Cyrus. But what Cyrus didn't realize when he originally ordered the Forty-seven was the nature of how these ancient, long forgotten blacksmiths forged these pieces of equipment. He knew they bestowed power and abilities on the user but he didn't know how and was happy to not know how as long as it gave him an edge in the war of Potentia. This equipment was not forged like any normal tool or weapon by any normal blacksmith. No, the forging process required a secret skill that only these ancient blacksmiths had. This skill, lost to time but it did have a notable effect on the Forty-seven. The first people who used them noticed that the weapons exhibited signs of being sentient like living things. These descriptions didn't quite fit the typical weapon or set of armour and when Cyrus heard of this, went to approach the blacksmiths once again to find out why his soldiers had been reporting such strange things.
Cyrus being the way he was didn't like the idea that the Forty-seven weapons and armour sets he had commissioned to be the perfect and best in his arsenal had some flaw. So when he went to confront them he was astounded to find that they had all disappeared. In Fact he was absolutely astonished to find out that every trace of their existence had been completely wiped from existence. The only things left from these ancient people, their legacy you could say, was the Forty-seven. Their secret to their incredible blacksmithing abilities and their semi-sentient legacy, lost to the sands of time. With this in mind Cyrus left to continue his all important war with these strange weapons.
To Cyrus' delight he dominated the war with his superior firepower and smite and united the nations of Potentia to a one unified nation ruled over by himself. The scattered and uncoordinated armies of all of the small nations squabbling over each other had no chance against one unified army after all and believe it or not but the people of all of these miniature nations were actually quite happy to have some actual structure and leadership and so there were no hard feelings. At least from the citizens, the army's and old leaders not so much but were quickly bought out with Cyrus' newly founded huge fortune. And so all ended surprisingly well.
What he didn't anticipate was the Forty-seven, he knew previously that the Forty-seven had started to gain what his soldiers called sentience. But after the war when the Forty-seven wasn't being used as often and only used to suppress rebellion every now and again, something strange happened. Something that none could ever have guessed. The Forty-seven grew relentless and gained something vaguely reminiscent to "personality". They become unruly and disobedient, refusing to obey the soldiers that previously used them during the war. It almost seemed like they were bored or frustrated. For instance, one of the Forty-seven, a beautiful crafted bow that shot blazing bolts of glowing light, when given to another person for inspection the bow all of a sudden heated up and severely burned any individual that touched it that wasn't the original soldier that it served with during the war. The bow was apparently now only loyal to that one man and everybody else was like scum in its eyes. Metaphorical eyes being that it was an inanimate object apparently. Another reported example was a katana given to a person that knew nothing about welding such a weapon and after the war, in what can only be described as immense disrespect, drained the life-force out of the person killing them in an instant. The next person who tried to use the blade also suffered the same fate and as such was locked away.
Cyrus at this point had enough of the complaining and bricking about the Forty-seven and decided to completely ignore the problem as it wasn't causing him any trouble and he had already achieved his goal and as such appointed somebody else to deal with this issue. This person was a young lady named Grace who had a weird affinity with the misbehaving weapons and armour. She possessed a gorgeous violin and this was indeed also one of the Forty-seven, when played the sound would put everyone but the user into a deep sleep. This also strangely made misbehaving weapons and armour go to sleep, even if it was temporary, it made controlling them much easier. This just goes to show how unimaginably strange these Forty-seven were. Over time the Forty-seven would align and grant the users they deemed worthy all sorts of mystical abilities. They would make partnerships between themselves and their users. It was almost like the souls of living things were forged into the weapons and armour. Made the weapons act more like people than some humans.
In the thousand years since the Forty-seven have become more and more illusive. Their allegiances changed many times over the time and as such they have spread all across the country, ending up in all sorts of people's hands. Even bandits and mercenaries gained the power of the Forty-seven and used them maliciously to gain money and loot. This and the ignorance of humanity had caused many deaths and casualties, whether it was the emperor violently suppressing rebellion across Potentia or the Forty-seven themselves causing trouble like the mirror shield that would uncontrollably trap anyone who looked at it into a mirror dimension. To this day none managed to tame the insane mirror and free the people inside. Some of the Forty-seven grew allegiances to a specific family line and would be passed down through generations. Some just refused to be used for hundreds of years, after all they did seem to care about the people who used them so it would go without saying that some of them were just a bit anti-social.