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Artifact of Death: Difference between revisions
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[[File:MoxJet 8634.jpg|link=Magic: The Gathering|frame|Go ahead, tap its power. It won't [[Evil Is Not a Toy|hurt you.]] You'll [[Power At a Price|do that yourself]].]]
The [[Artifact of Death]] is an item that will eventually bring about the death of anyone who owns, uses, or comes to be associated with it, often in a [[Necro Non Sequitur|grisly]] and supernatural manner. It can take any shape, whether ancient, toy-like, or high tech. This [[Artifact of Doom|terrible item]] is often [[MacGuffin|foolishly sought by many]] for its "power"... which, of course, always comes with a price: the life of the user. More often than not, it ''just'' takes, rather than both giving and taking, typically because it contains a terrible [[Curse]].
Though it has a lot of overlap with the [[Artifact of Doom]], the Artifact of Death doesn't actually need to have a corrupting influence or magical powers, it just has to kill whoever uses it. Also, the time taken to kill whoever uses it varies. In some stories, the Artifact will kill anyone who attempts to use it on the first try. Other stories will have the owner die in a set amount of time, after a set number of uses, or it may simply [[Power Degeneration|shave years off a user's lifespan]]. It can sometimes be an [[Amulet of Dependency]] as well.
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If an artifact is intended for the [[Chosen One]] and reserves its dangerous side effects only for ''other'' persons who try to use it, it's an instance of [[Only the Chosen May Wield]] (and/or possibly an [[Empathic Weapon]]).
If the [[Big Bad]] is a walking
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* The Book of Darkness from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. It grants ultimate power to its master if they fill up all [[Number of the Beast|666 pages]] by draining the [[Mana|Linker Cores]] of other magical beings... and it does so by taking over its master and pushing their magical powers to the limit to [[Omnicidal Maniac|destroy everything in its path]], killing the master in the process. And if the master doesn't fill up the pages, they will still die as the Book feeds on their life force instead.
* The [[Death Note]]. Possessing one means the [[Shinigami]] who owns it will eventually write your name down and kill you. (though typically, if they aren't the foxy Ryuk, they have to get the book back first.) Also, you can choose to gain [[Shinigami]] eyes so you can see the name and remaining lifespan of any person, which makes it much easier to write their name in the ''[[Death Note]]'', but at the cost of half your own remaining life. Finally, if you use it, your life will suck. It's guaranteed. Ryuk even warns Light upfront about it: "But there ''is'' the terror and torment that only humans who have used it will experience..."
** The last appears to derive from strictly psychological reasons, because the power to kill with impunity is huge and yet useless, but [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]], everybody starts to look like a nail, and the role of a killer comes to define you, and your ethics are perpetually in crisis...most people don't have Light's perfect narcissism, and kill themselves fairly quickly.
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'': the Mirror of Forlorn Hope/Darkness can grant the user a wish, but at the cost of his life. Kurama, who stole it, is quite calmly aware of this, but has no problem dying for his mother's life. Yusuke is somewhat freaked out by his zen.
** When Yusuke jumped recklessly in in the middle of the wish-granting and told the mirror to take half of his life and half of Kurama's, so he didn't have to see Shiori broken up at the loss of her son, he managed to avert the normal ending.<ref>(His deadbeat mom was completely flattened by the loss of his punk self, so obviously the sweet, fragile Minamino-san with her caring, responsible boy would practically die of it.)</ref> The mirror either was so impressed by this gesture that it granted the wish for free, or more likely took half of Yusuke's life and half of Kurama's life, knocking them out temporarily. This reduced the wish to a mere [[Cast
*** Interestingly, it has a small soliloquy afterward where it appears that it dislikes being an [[Artifact of Doom]] and wishes more people were like Yusuke, so it didn't have such a depressing name.
* Zearth from ''[[Bokurano]]'': anyone who is chosen as its pilot will die as soon as they've done so once.
* The Anathema Scythe from ''[[Tetragrammaton Labyrinth]]''! It is even more cursed than several hope diamonds put together!
* The Imperium Silver Crystal from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': Using its full power is fatally taxing. Usagi manages to get around this by borrowing power from her teammates, and in the first movie she actually does die from it, but recovers.
* The anime version of ''[[Black Butler (anime)|Black Butler]]'' has the Shard of Hope, a piece of the Hope Diamond.
* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' has the Lullaby, a flute that kills anyone who hears it except the player. It also contains a gigantic demon, which will come out if nobody plays it in a while.
* ''[[Witchblade (anime)|Witchblade]]''. Even the original Witchblade may be terminally taxing depending on the host's physiology or frequency of use, and attracts [[Ax Crazy]] monstrosities. With [[Evil Knockoff|Cloneblades]], it's [[Deadly Upgrade|rather short one-way road]]: they have [[Phlebotinum Breakdown|very limited resource]], probably due to being neither alive enough to regenerate damage nor invulnerable enough to resist a lot of it in the first place. After a few hard fights, the user starts to suffer physical and possibly mental deterioration, then quickly [[Superpower Meltdown|turns into]] a [[Literally Shattered Lives|pile of glassy shards]] with a broken Cloneblade sticking out of it.
== Card Games ==▼
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''▼
** Unsurprisingly, a few cards are like this; the most straightforward example is probably [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=4613 Jinxed Idol], which keeps dealing damage to the player who controls it until he or she sacrifices a creature to hand control of it to an opponent.▼
** Black magic has plenty of examples that do similar things, although they're not technically "artifacts". Graveborn Muse, for example, is a creature but basically functions like an enchantment or artifact that lets you draw extra cards at the cost of losing life—and it's not optional so if you don't manage to kill your opponent using the extra cards, the Muse will kill you.▼
** Nevinyrral's Disk: upon use, destroys ALL creatures, artifacts and enchantments in play, including itself. Global armageddon at the push of a button.▼
** In a bit of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Gameplay and Art Segration]], one of the [http://www.gatheringmagic.com/mox-deck-box-deck-protectors-promotion/ artwork] of the Mox Jet depicted it as this. However, it's anything but in the game, as it's a free black mana source that you can play more than one of a turn. In the right decks, this is a [[Game Breaker]], and it was one of the first nine cards to be banned.▼
** ''Final Fortune'', while not being an artifact, has shades of this: It grants you an extra turn... at the end of which you will lose the game. Let's hope you win before that turn is over!▼
▲== Comics -- Books ==
* The Ghost Key from ''[[Locke and Key]]'' might fall under this trope. If you open a door with it and walk through, you die and turn into a ghost.
* The Ultimate Nullifier, seen in ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' and [[Marvel Comics]], can destroy anything, but in doing so destroys its wielder... ''unless'' they perfectly understand who they're nullifying and how they work.
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* ''[[Superman]]'' villain Lex Luthor got cancer from his Kryptonite ring.
== Film ==
* ''[[Lone Wolf]]''▼
** The book ''The Caverns of Kalte'' "rewards" you with a big shiny jewel if you screw up a puzzle... which unholy radiation can ends up killing you if you are not warned in time and discard it.▼
** Another Doomstone appearing in ''The Darke Crusade'' has pretty much the same effect on its wielder, High Warlord Magnaarn. The Scepter of Nyras, on which it is mounted, is a powerful artifact allowing to control the armies of the fallen Darklords... but it is also turning him into an undead servant of the Doomstone itself.▼
** The Death Staff from ''The Legacy of Vashna'' is also a quite deadly artifact. Just touching it causes Lone Wolf to lose [[Hit Points]], and it drains some more every time it is used.▼
** Given their very evil origins (the Doomstones were created by Naar's most powerful servant [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Agarash the Damned]] and the Death Staff was forged by Naar himself) this makes perfect sense. The only ones who can use these things without any consequences are supernatural beings of pure evil such as the Darklords and the Deathlord of Ixia.▼
** The [[Big Bad]] of Book 7 avoided the lethal side effects of using a Doomstone by coupling it with one of the Lorestones in a [[Yin-Yang Bomb]].▼
* In Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', nearly the entire contents of the Cave of Wonders, except for the lamp. When Abu can't keep his paws off the shiny, the entire cave collapses with intent to kill.
* In the 1981 cult classic ''[[Heavy Metal (animation)|Heavy Metal]]'', the Loc-Nar is the embodiment of evil, and quickly corrupts and destroys everyone it touches—only those who are incorruptibly pure of heart can resist it.
* The DCAU title ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|The Batman]] [[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman]] Movie: World's Finest'', a very rare, valuable green dragon statue is known to cause all its owners to die mysteriously. The statue is actually made out of Kryptonite, which, in the DCAU, can be deadly to humans ''if they're exposed to it over a long period of time.''
* The Ark of the Covenant, in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', supposedly grants the owner great power, and may be used as a Radio to God. However, opening the ark releases the Wrath of God, and anyone who looks upon the spirits that are released dies an extremely gruesome death. Arguably, it's less about ANYONE than "anyone who opens/handles/misuses the Ark with bad intent." The ancient Israelites (at least within the movie 'verse) did use it to make armies invicible and topple kingdoms. The Ark leaves Indy and Marion unharmed less because the angels automatically kill than because Indy knows not to look—he respects the power of the Ark and by extention the "Hebrew God whose Ark this is". Belloq and the Nazis ape Jewish rituals (even [[Lampshaded]] by one of the Nazi officers) and assume they only need to dress up and say the right words to make the magic box work. They don't die so much because they opened the Ark, but because they did so out of hubris.
** At least one of the false Grails from ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'' causes you to suffer [[Rapid Aging]] till past the point of death, as Walt Donovan [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36WEn-9zs1U found out rather painfully].
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* In 2009's ''Night Train'', it's said that anyone who looks inside the box will be dead by sunrise, and the movie's [[Kill'Em All|body count]] bears this out. The box contains [[Something for Everyone]]—depending on the viewer, it can appear as diamonds, gold, or anything else valuable enough to make the viewer willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to keep it for themselves. Even the characters who overcome their greed and realize it's an [[Artifact of Doom]] end up fighting (and dying) over it as a result of their desire to destroy it.
* In ''[[The Grudge]]'', an entire house is this trope.
== Literature ==
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* Vasher from ''[[Warbreaker]]'' actually makes use of one of these in his combat strategy. His sword, Nightblood, is an [[Empathic Weapon]] that telepathically tempts nearby people into drawing it. It is also an [[Artifact of Doom]] that makes its wielder murder a bunch of his friends and then kill himself. Vasher doesn't actually use it as a sword; he throws it into a group of enemies, sheath and all, and waits for them to fall for the [[Schmuck Bait]].
* The Traitor's Sword or Sword of Straw, in Amanda Hemingway's book. It's been passed down from King to King, but can be safely wielded only by the one destined... The problem is that ''many'' people have taken the chance that they are the one destined. It doesn't invariably kill the wielder, but may cause them to kill someone else!
* St Michael's Sword from Preston and Child's novel ''[[Riptide]]'' is a good example as well. Spoken of vaguely as a sort of Spanish Excalibur (though even older than the Spanish in origin), it's written in legend as having the power to kill anybody who looks at it. It's also the grand prize item in an extremely difficult to penetrate treasure hoard, buried in the depths of an extensively booby-trapped island and sporting a legendary curse to boot. The mysterious lethality of all this becomes clearer as the story progresses....
* The eponymous device carried by E.E.Smith's ''[[Lensmen]]'' is essentially benign, but is characterised by its tendency to kill anyone who touches it except when the Lensman who's matched to it is wearing it.
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has a machine relic from an ancient civilization capable of transferring life force [[Equivalent Exchange|equivalently]] between people, so while it was an Artifact Of Death ''and Life'', it still killed from overuse. It's [[Aesoptinum|telling]] that its use in that civilization was as a form of capital punishment.
* The 2004 ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* The infamous Tiki idol from the Hawaiian ''[[Brady Bunch]]'' episode.
** ... which was brought back (and referenced as such) in an eighth-season episode of ''[[Scrubs]]''.
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* 'La Fin Absolue du Monde' in the ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode "Cigarette Burns". Pretty much anyone involved in the production of this film-within-a-film died because of it, as do people who try to go look for it.
== Music ==
* The Arizona Sword, from the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xohmUNBvtvQ song of the same name] by [[Leslie Fish]], turned on and killed its only known owner, and after it vanishes immediately afterwards, it gains a reputation for killing any wielder who is too foolish or too power-hungry.
== Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myth and Legend ==
* The [[wikipedia:Necklace of Harmonia|Necklace of Harmonia]] in [[Greek Mythology]] was cursed. It did not harm to Harmonia herself (she being divine) but every mortal descendant who owned it came to a bad end, or brought misfortune on her family. Betrayal, murder, and tragic deaths followed the necklace from legend to legend.
* [[wikipedia:Hope Diamond|The Hope Diamond]], anyone?
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* The Ark of the Covenant in [[The Bible]]. If anyone who wasn't ''specifically authorized'' to touch the Ark did so, God would kill them right there. Even one guy who tried to prop it up when he noticed it was slipping out of the hands of the priests. For the record, he had it on a bull cart instead of having it carried by 4 people like it was supposed to. If you're handing a holy artifact, you'd better damn well carry it like it's supposed to.
** Claims are often made nowadays that the historical ark was some sort of capacitor or otherwise was electrically charged, and therefore the smitings of non-priests who touched it were because they weren't wearing the holy (and electrically insular) robes of the priests. These are likely apocryphal, supposing a far greater knowledge of electricity than existed at the time.
*** ''[[
* [[Older Than Dirt]]: ''Princess Ahura: The Magic Book'' is a New Kingdom Egyptian story (c. 1100 BCE) about prince Naneferkaptah, who covets the magical Book of Thoth, buried in the river in six nested boxes and guarded by snakes and scorpions. He digs it out, kills the guardians, and obtains vast magical power, but the offended gods promptly cause the death of Naneferkaptah, his sister/wife Ahura, and their son.
== Tabletop Games ==
▲=== Card Games ===
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''
▲** Unsurprisingly, a few cards are like this; the most straightforward example is probably [
▲** Black magic has plenty of examples that do similar things, although they're not technically "artifacts". Graveborn Muse, for example, is a creature but basically functions like an enchantment or artifact that lets you draw extra cards at the cost of losing life—and it's not optional so if you don't manage to kill your opponent using the extra cards, the Muse will kill you.
▲** Nevinyrral's Disk: upon use, destroys ALL creatures, artifacts and enchantments in play, including itself. Global armageddon at the push of a button.
▲** In a bit of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Gameplay and Art Segration]], one of the [http://www.gatheringmagic.com/mox-deck-box-deck-protectors-promotion/ artwork] of the Mox Jet depicted it as this. However, it's anything but in the game, as it's a free black mana source that you can play more than one of a turn. In the right decks, this is a [[Game Breaker]], and it was one of the first nine cards to be banned.
▲** ''Final Fortune'', while not being an artifact, has shades of this: It grants you an extra turn... at the end of which you will lose the game. Let's hope you win before that turn is over!
===
▲* ''[[Lone Wolf]]''
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has many of these, called "cursed magical items", such as the hand and eye of Vecna, especially if used together.▼
▲** The book ''The Caverns of Kalte'' "rewards" you with a big shiny jewel if you screw up a puzzle... which unholy radiation can ends up killing you if you are not warned in time and discard it.
▲** Another Doomstone appearing in ''The Darke Crusade'' has pretty much the same effect on its wielder, High Warlord Magnaarn. The Scepter of Nyras, on which it is mounted, is a powerful artifact allowing to control the armies of the fallen Darklords... but it is also turning him into an undead servant of the Doomstone itself.
▲** The Death Staff from ''The Legacy of Vashna'' is also a quite deadly artifact. Just touching it causes Lone Wolf to lose [[Hit Points]], and it drains some more every time it is used.
▲** Given their very evil origins (the Doomstones were created by Naar's most powerful servant [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Agarash the Damned]] and the Death Staff was forged by Naar himself) this makes perfect sense. The only ones who can use these things without any consequences are supernatural beings of pure evil such as the Darklords and the Deathlord of Ixia.
▲** The [[Big Bad]] of Book 7 avoided the lethal side effects of using a Doomstone by coupling it with one of the Lorestones in a [[Yin-Yang Bomb]].
=== Tabletop RPG ===
▲* ''[[Dungeons
** ... and which led to the player-versus-player trap [[The Head of Vecna]]. To use the Hand, you must first cut off your own hand and attach the Hand to the stump. To use the Eye, you must put out your own eye. The Head of Vecna would have been a sort of ''[[Too Dumb to Live|instant]]'' Artifact of Death
** The AD&D 2nd edition rules gave a chance of accidentally creating one of these ''any time'' a character crafts some magical item.
* Most daemon weapons in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' tend to lead to their owner's death eventually. That is, if they're lucky... But if they're ''very'' lucky, it leads to death and ascension to [[Eldritch Abomination|Daemon Prince.]]▼
** The [[Heroic RROD|Spear of Ulthanash]] is a specifically mentioned example; it was once considered too dangerous to use because it binds itself to the user and slowly drains his soul, until [[Godzilla Threshold|the Tyranids attacked the Craftworld where it was sealed away]] and Yriel had to take the Spear from stasis to kill the central beast of the [[Hive Mind]] and drive the Tyranids from his home.▼
* The [[Infinity+1 Sword|Sword of Khaine]] in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' is an immensely powerful weapon forged at the beginning of time by the elvish smith god. Unfortunately, it tends to bring doom and madness on anyone who wields it, most notably the man whose son started the great elvish civil war of eons past.▼
* The ''[[Champions]] Universe'' of superheroes had the Juggernaut suit of power armour which can turn any ordinary schlub into someone able to throw down with the strongest superhumans on Earth. However it's powered by a tiny but improperly shielded nuclear reactor so you'll be dead in a matter of months after starting to use it.
* Many of the more powerful (almost exclusively evil) artifacts in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy Battle'' fall into this trope. Especially Skaven—not only can their normal "wonder weapons" decimate their own troops, but the magic items can cause madness, burn the skin off their arms, turn them into gibbering spawn or even suck them into hell. This doesn't stop them [[Rule of Funny|being used extensively]]. Well, when your army has an explicit rule called [[We Have Reserves|Life Is Cheap]] (a.k.a. "coratteral damage"), you should think about what gadgets you strap yourself into.▼
* ''[[FATAL]]'' is full of these. Any piece of magical armor you find has a 7% chance of having an effect that will kill you. And these are ''uncursed'' items. But if you're actually [[Fate Worse Than Death|playing]] ''[[FATAL]]'', instant death is a fairly tempting prospect.
=== War Games ===
▲* Most daemon weapons in ''[[Warhammer
▲** The [[Heroic RROD|Spear of Ulthanash]] is a specifically mentioned example; it was once considered too dangerous to use because it binds itself to the user and slowly drains his soul, until [[Godzilla Threshold|the Tyranids attacked the Craftworld where it was sealed away]] and Yriel had to take the Spear from stasis to kill the central beast of the [[Hive Mind]] and drive the Tyranids from his home.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'':
▲** The [[Infinity+1 Sword|Sword of Khaine]]
▲** Many of the more powerful (almost exclusively evil) artifacts in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy Battle'' fall into this trope. Especially Skaven—not only can their normal "wonder weapons" decimate their own troops, but the magic items can cause madness, burn the skin off their arms, turn them into gibbering spawn or even suck them into hell. This doesn't stop them [[Rule of Funny|being used extensively]]. Well, when your army has an explicit rule called [[We Have Reserves|Life Is Cheap]] (a.k.a. "coratteral damage"), you should think about what gadgets you strap yourself into.
== Toys ==
* ''[[Bionicle]]'': the Ignika, Mask of Life. One of its purposes is a reset button for the Matoran Universe... by taking away all the life in the universe should there be things like a never-ending chaotic conflict. And the more conflict in the universe, the shorter its countdown to death is.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Fate/stay night
* In ''[[Dragon Quest I]]'', there was a chance of you getting Cursed Belts and Cursed Necklaces from certain chests. They did ''nothing'' good except strangle you, [[Vendor Trash|yet bizarrely they sold very well.]] There's a big market for suicide/homicide items in [[Crapsack World]] Alefgard, apparently.
* ''[[Castlevania]]''
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* [[Nethack]] has the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Amulet of Strangulation.]] It's usually generated cursed so you can't just remove it before it kills you. And it will kill you even if you happen to have unbreathing as an intrinsic (it [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|cuts off blood flow]]). The only way to survive a cursed amulet of strangulation is to pray to your god.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'', it's strongly implied that the Remnant kills its anchor (a.k.a. the person who takes and uses it) after a few days. This is a problem because the protagonist, Glenn, is the current anchor.▼
* In ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'' Dean [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=539 complains] that everything [[Indiana Jones]] brings back is extremely harmful to those around and/or attracts attention of someone who doesn't mind murder if it helps this thing to change hands again.
==
▲* In ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'', it's strongly implied that the Remnant kills its anchor (a.k.a. the person who takes and uses it) after a few days. This is a problem because the protagonist, Glenn, is the current anchor.
* Every other person, place, or thing cataloged by the [[SCP Foundation]].
== Western Animation ==
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* The Broodwich of ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]''. Anyone who ate the whole thing would be transported to another dimension where they would be axed to death.
* In ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]: the Series'', Mozenrath's gauntlet, which is the source of his power but is slowly killing him.
* The short cartoon ''Awfully Lucky'' has the Paradox Pearl, which grants its holder incredibly good luck—followed immediately by incredibly
* Played with in ''[[Duckman|Duckman and Cornfed in Haunted Society Plumbers]]'' with a diamond called the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Sharon Stone]].
{{quote|'''Cornfed''': Isn't there a legend about the Sharon?
'''Huntz''': ''Legend?'' I don't think so. Oh, I suppose you could find some peasant who would say the diamond is cursed...that its very presence can unleash the ''ghastly'' spirits of its former owners...all of whom '''died in unspeakable terror and agony, vowing to return to torment ANY WHO DARED TO POSSESS IT!!!'''
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Plot Device]]
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[[Category:Ancient Artifact]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Artifact of Death]]
[[Category:Magic Items Index]]
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