Renovast's Oaken Cuff

 

Before you lies a rare example of an artifact not actually uncovered by scholars of the Emporium, but rather, donated. Unlike the rest of our current collection, this piece consisted of an enchantment that is so benign that it borders on useless. On the other hand, however, this sets it apart as an incredibly unique item and probably the most meaningful that we have seen in quite some time.

This silver cuff, shaped like an oak branch with a leaf on one end and an acorn on the other, is thought to be—with near full certainty—the original item mentioned in Relian Renovast’s infamous fable “Boughs of Arcane Love: The Druid and the Mage.”

As you undoubtedly are familiar with from your childhood, Renovast’s story follows the atypical love between a famed Archmage and a quiet Druid; for those schools of magic are so precise in their teachings that company outside of their Circles is incredibly rare…and stories of love and affection even more so. Though perhaps quietly scoffed at by some of the less intellectual students, there are no actual written laws within Arcane or Druidic teachings that prohibit such pairings.

What made the characters in the story Renovast penned so unusual was how ingrained in their respective cultures and magical worlds both the mage and druid were, and how unlikely it would be that such otherwise different practices would come together in one of the greatest love stories of our Age.

Which, of course, brings us back to the item before you. Though asked to be anonymous on an official basis, the item was donated by a family with long ties to the Mages Guild in an [unnamed but] very prominent city. It was claimed—and this portion is entirely verifiable—that in this city, sitting forgotten in one of the oldest districts, sat a medium-sized silver statue of an oak tree. This statute had been there for several generations and lay witness to buildings raised and razed, natural disasters, summer sunshine, lovers poems and children’s games. Until, that is, it vanished without a trace rather recently.

Our donor claimed that while sorting through family scrolls and tomes held in storage for countless years, they found what seemed to be an original copy of ‘Boughs of Love’ apparently hand-penned by Relian Renovast himself. One with an additional chapter at the end withheld from subsequent publications.

Readers of these notes will surely recall that within the story, the gift that the Mage gave to the Druid: a piece of pure silver jewelry shaped like the branch of a mighty oak to signify their deeply rooted, unbreakable and timeless love.

(On a personal note, as a young scholar I myself had one lecturer in particular who would melt time and again recounting the fact that druids tend to wear and use only natural materials such as wood, hide and cloth, while mages would often enchant their talismans and wands made of silver, copper, platinum, and other precious metals. Ergo, the Mage using Arcane magic to forge and enchant something made of pure silver yet in the shape of something as natural and symbolic as an oak tree—with the acorn circling back to the leaf—was such a loving metaphor that it perfectly represented “the poetic nuance of ages past.” Seeing the piece before me now, my cynicism is admittedly largely quelled, for the attention to detail is immense and my lecturer feels correct in their sentiments.)

Not only was it a striking token of love, but it was enchanted with two command words: one would turn the cuff into an arcane silver staff with the acorn on the bottom and the leaf on the top…the other would, when the acorn was planted firmly into the ground, turn the staff into a medium-sized silver statue of an oak tree.

This then takes us back to the early (perhaps original) edition of the story our donor found…for the lost chapter included in its pages contained in great detail both command words and precisely how they were to be spoken. Our donor traveled to the district of the city containing the oak statue—until now thought to simply be a work of art reminiscent of the forests felled for the early construction of the city—and spoke the correct word. In an instant, the statue returned to its jewelry form, and not long after was brought here to the Unearthed Emporium for safe keeping.

We are naming it after the author of the story and labeling it “Renovast’s Oaken Cuff,” as the names of the mage and druid are, surprisingly, never confirmed and are the one detail about the fable which change region to region depending on where it is told, printed, or sold.

We also were provided with both command words for the cuff, and have tested them successfully. As students and protectors of history, however, we feel that these words were omitted from final publication for a reason, and as such will be moving forward with the same mystery surrounding them which flourished for so many years, per the wishes of Relian Renovast.