Sacred cup skull

Sacred cup skull is a relic of Umbra, the affinity of death and its aftermath. It holds an old piece of Covenant-stuff, the substance of the Seal-shards, and its treasure spirit answers to Wefan, the Weaver.

After each battle, the cup restores some of its holder's fallen companies, if the holder's core woke in Umbra. For any other affinity it does nothing, and a coreless lord gains nothing from it.

This cup is not Deep Hand. Since the Breaking, the natives' dead have been stranded at Deopa's threshold, and a mage who raises them as the restless dead pays in borrowed life, as Odrin Half-Core's folk once paid. Cultivators of Umbra say the skull cup works differently: it calls the holder's own fallen back before they can reach the threshold, so they rise as themselves. That is their belief.

It is one of five cups, one for each affinity: Sacred cup copper, Sacred cup silver, Sacred cup skull, Sacred cup stained gold and Sacred cup bright gold. No one knows who made it, or whether one hand made all five.

Tellan, the Keeper of Tallies keeps it among the Mnemoliths between Turnings. There is one in each Turning, and if it is lost, its shard returns to his keeping for the recasting.

Player-visible facts