My headcanon on Stanengist

If you take the description of the early events of Ravenland at face value, the early elves were explorers and scholars, and would have no interest in ruling a realm after it had been mapped.

If you want to say that the orcs were always a slave race (which Bitter Reach says isn’t true), you have to explain why they’re free now. Surely, during the centuries of the blood mist when many orcs will have died but elves and dwarves mostly didn’t, the elves and dwarves should have re-established their dominion? (Or the orcs, knowing their freedom was only going to be temporary, should have seized their chance to slaughter every single elf and dwarf while they still could?)

There has to be a reason why Stanengist can seal the nexus, and why nobody can open another nexus almost immediately afterwards, which makes the sacrifice of Stanengist and the ancient elves pretty pointless.

It’s also not at all clear that there was ever one single ruler of the Ravenlands, even before the First Alder War. Kins mostly kept to themselves.

So this is how I think things happened:

Between 825 and 826, as Zygofer leads an army from Alderland, the dwarves and at least some elves (e.g. Kalman Rodenfell) decide to reforge Nebulos’s circlet into Stanengist, turning it from a simple device where elves could sit and watch, to a deliberate item of rulership and subjugation. The leader of the dwarven armies in the Second Alder War is crowned with Stanengist, with the Ritual of Legitimacy. Elves and dwarves pour huge amounts of Willpower into Stanengist, fuelling the Ritual of Subjugation and enslaving the orcs. This is when Iridne walks out.

All of this attracts the attention of local demons, and then demons from beyond Ravenland. A rift opens in Shadowgate Pass, which Zygofer eventually discovers in 841. The reasoning is that the existence of Stanengist is inherently both a target and a challenge. It says “there is a land that is ruled by only one person”, which makes said land something that’s suddenly interesting to steal. But it also says, Fisher King-style, “the land and the ruler are one”, and if there’s anything that’s clear about demons, it’s that they’re not from here. And them’s fighting words. If you’re going to say, explicitly and emphatically, “no demons allowed here”, well, that’s how you get demons.

A couple of wars and a couple of centuries of bloodmist later, various people are aware that Stanengist exists, and think that if they could wear it they could rule over Ravenland. The problem is that the demon-tainted ones can never rule via Stanengist, and only Merigall (because he’s smart) or Krasylla (possibly through dumb luck) have decided not to try. But as soon as Zytera / Zygofer / Therania, Zertorme, Kartorda, or for that matter Krasylla or Merigall, put Stanengist on and declare themselves the master of the crown, it’ll say “yes master! let us destroy all demons!” and the resulting mental mayhem is what drives them mad.

I added “Find candidate rubies” because I like the idea that when Merigall cast the “let’s have nobody know where these are” spell on Stanengist and the Maligarn Sword, Gall-Eye stayed in Maligarn but the other elven rubies fell out of Stanengist as it landed, possibly because they weren’t as committed to being in there. So when the PCs find Stanengist and pick it up, they realise that there’s not just a crown, there’s an ancient elven ruby; another; wait, is that yet another elven ruby in the rubble?

And they get to explore having one, then two, then three rubies in the crown, rather than it starting off as “yeah, we’ve always been here”.

So here’s my revised description of Stanengist, as per my recent addition of other elven ruby effects and artifacts.

Stanengist

Find candidate rubies: Always available. While anyone is touching Stanengist, any suitable elven rubies that are within NEAR range and not set in Stanengist will glow, or make a chiming sound if obscured from view. This includes rubies inside living elves. Suitable candidates include the surviving elves from the Heart of the Sky, Algared, and any other sufficiently-ancient elves - e.g. Kalman Rodenfell, Blaudewedd if you think they’re not one of the elves from the Heart of the Sky.

Commune with elves: Available if any rubies are set in the crown. The wielder can telepathically communicate with all of the elven rubies in the crown. They can expand this communication by an act of thought to anyone touching their hands, who can in turn expand the communication further. If the wielder spends a Willpower they can cause the image and sound of the elves to be projected onto an empty space within NEAR range, the same size as the wielder, at conversational volume.

Ritual of legitimacy: Available if at least two rubies are set in the crown. The wielder spends a turn communing with the ancient elves, who recognise them as the rightful wielder of Stanengist. The wielder can thereafter transfer Willpower to the crown at will, beyond the usual limit of 10 Willpower per person. Performing the ritual of legitimacy attracts the attention of demons: all demons in the current hex, and other stronger demons from further away.

Protection against magic: Available if at least three rubies are set in the crown. The wielder can enable or disable an automatic mechanism whereby every time a spell is cast within NEAR distance, or against the wielder, it automatically triggers a DISPEL MAGIC with Power Level d6. This DISPEL MAGIC costs no Willpower.

Ritual of subjugation: Available if at least four rubies are set in the crown. The wielder can spend the stored Willpower points to bend all participants in the ritual to their will. (This is how the orcs were originally enslaved.) The effect lasts for 10 years, or until someone else completes the Ritual of legitimacy. Performing the ritual of subjugation attracts the attention of demons from other worlds, creating a nexus somewhere (not necessarily in or even near the current hex; the geometry of realms is mysterious, and a nexus might form at a weakest point even if that’s far away).

No demon shall wield: Available if at least four rubies are set in the crown. If a demon or demon-tainted creature tries to activate any of the powers of Stanengist, the crown retaliates, doing (number of rubies - 3) d6 damage to Wits. If the victim’s Wits drops to zero, it becomes permanently insane, throwing itself through the Protonexus or otherwise storming off into the wilderness.

Undo the nexus: Available if at least four rubies are set in the crown. If the crown goes through the Protonexus, the Protonexus will be permanently sealed, and no further nexus can be created into this world.