Fiend Hearts
Extremely rare, Fiend Hearts are shroud stones corrupted by the Blight. Sometimes found amidst purged Blight thickets, sometimes made through heretical ritual or process, these strange artifacts are deemed ineffable by every sect of conventional society, as the potential harm they carry is profound.
This has not stopped the pursuit to wield their power.
From pauper to prince, stories and historical records detail accounts where fortune turned and fate twisted, once upon a bleeding black stone. The dwarves tell tales that pray all who hear: let the Deepstones lie. Whilst amidst the sands of the Kaikias, whispers around fires in the cool of twilight warn the young to walk with care about the Tears Between Night.
In places of learning, be they spiritual or academic, Fiend Hearts have been studied. Physical specimens requiring formal writs or proposals needing stamps of approval before they are handled. Tomes, texts, scrolls, journals, and codices found locked or behind chained sections in libraries across Khurun, the very details and observations involving a Fiend Heart stone too potent a danger for any simple soul to learn from.
Some studies have been conducted in Weaver’s Rings. Others in the captain’s log of an experimental Air Ship’s maiden voyage, a Fiend Heart engine powering it through the air. Its crash site is a highly guarded secret.
Where there is the most scrutiny, and the scalpel’s cut is most precise, is where Fiend Hearts have been used to augment a living being. The whispers of the Dilemma, they say, turning quick to roars.
Contributors: Garuda
Art Credit: Bloodstone Cameo by Tony Szczudlo
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