This item is almost unimaginably old, yet at the
same time eternally new. It is an
artifact, proto-Tether, even possibly a form of Life, yet not quite any of
those things. It both creates and
destroys. It is the First Flame, and
possibly may be one day the Last.
The name 'Bright Tear of Ahura Mazda' was given to
it by a past guardian (one with a poetical bent and a certain charming
indifference to mythological consistency).
Its physical appearance is that of a small, flickering yellow flame that
burns without fuel and moves in an almost purposeful fashion. The heat it gives off is noticeable but not
normally intense enough to cause physical damage to flesh.
That's what it looks like. What it is is the direct descendant of the first fire ever
purposefully created by a human being.
That first fire was used to start other fires, and then other fires were
started from those fires, and so on. After
a few thousand years of this, the mystical link was so strong that the Archangel
Gabriel found it easy to tease the essential nature of the First Flame out of
its current 'host'. He then brought it
to Heaven as a living symbol of the Word of Fire and an ornament to his court.
More millennia later came the Rebellion.
The servant Belial's motives for attempting to
strike down the First Flame have never been really understood, although it can
been claimed that it was merely an accident of the day. The fighting at the Citadel of Fire was confused
and especially bitter; Belial might not have even been aiming for the
artifact. Whatever the reason, the
rebellious Ofanite smashed the First Flame into a thousand scattered pieces...
and, needless to say, carried one of those shards away with him. The Flame has been incomplete and set against
itself ever since, a microcosm of the war between Fire and Fire. There is now the Bright Tear of Ahura Mazda
and the Dark Tear of Ahriman, and it is said that the two shall not meet again
until the Final Battle, when the Bright Tear will grace the cheek of Gabriel
and the Dark Tear will ward the face of Belial.
Until then, it pleases Gabriel to allow the Bright
Tear out into the world, for its powers are... many... and only a human may
bear it:
The bearer of the Bright Tear enjoys the use of the
Ofanite of Fire Attunement.
The bearer may also freely use all of the Songs of
Fire and Numinous Corpus: Flame (target number of 8)' if the bearer already
knows one of these Songs, he or she may instead add the appropriate Forces to
the skill roll.
The bearer adds +2 to all Artistry rolls.
The bearer may set anything afire by spending 1
Essence (triple this for items normally difficult to burn on the corporeal
plane).
Finally, the bearer may create a Tether to Fire -
once, and only through the deliberate and voluntary self-sacrifice of the
bearer's life. The Tether that results
will be wild, and may not end up being stabilized, but Soldekai makes it a
special point to keep an eye out for these Tethers.
Unfortunately, the major weakness of the Bright Tear
is metaphysically reflective of the current struggle for Fire. The bearer is constantly wracked with the
smallest shadow of the struggle that Gabriel must endure; it gives him or her
the Angry Discord/5 when dealing with instances of Cruelty and Angry/1 generally.
The Bright Tear itself is technically
unquenchable. Should someone ever
manage to find the right materials to put it out (which would be an epic task
in and of itself), the artifact will simply re-manifest itself in a fire also
descended from the First Flame. Such
bloodlines of fires do exist, and they are quietly guarded with tireless fervor
and dedication, as no one knows what would happen if this artifact lost all its
potential hosts, and no one wishes to find out. As for the Dark Tear... it never leaves Belial's possession, so
its powers are unknown.
As Above, so Below.