Sacrificial altar 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, bound into a made thing, and its treasure spirit answers to Wefan, the Weaver.
Its bargain is written openly in the accounts. Every turn its holder spends, the altar gives the kingdom mana. Every turn, it also takes people. The ordinary folk who settle the ground, grow the food and pay the geld grow fewer while the altar is kept, and the mana rises. Nothing about the exchange is hidden, and nothing about it is gentle.
A coreless lord can hold it too. Gathering mana is not casting, and a Human lord's nodes store what the altar gives. But its people pay the same price.
No one knows who made it. Cultivators of Umbra call it the Age of Odrin's lesson cut into stone. Odrin Half-Core laid his affinity over ground where the stranded dead pressed close; they rose on borrowed life, and his living folk faded. The link to Odrin is their belief, not a record.
Heaven counts the altar in its holder's Weight. 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
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Use | Permanent |
| Battle item | No |