Artifacts

Artifacts are a collection of 2681 Unique Items found within the world of Empirical. They were created by Butterfly (Effect) Games in order to give the world a sense of history, and each has a detailed description of its imaginary origins, referencing defunct kingdoms and bygone eras. Sometimes new Artifacts are found hidden in difficult to access areas, or behind puzzles and challenges.

Immensely valuable, and sought after by collectors and die hard fans of the game, the majority of these items possess minor effects not seen anywhere else in the game world. An example of this is the Clementine Amulet, which gives the wearer an insight into the inner workings of NPC personality and attitudes. Sometimes, these items are used frequently for their intended purpose, or simply kept for display, in museums and private reserves.

Many individuals and factions exist with a deep interest in Artifacts, including the Omnibus Anthologica, the Guardire Museum of Eurestan Illustry, and the notorious Hackwork Camorra.

There used to be many more Artifacts in Empirical, but almost 500 have been destroyed in the years the game has existed, although most of those have been fully documented and can be viewed online.

The effect of having Artifacts in game is the cause for great contention amongst the playerbase, with many pointing out the almost supernatural abilities can break immersion, and cause unrealistic turns of events. However, the riding opinion is that they are a rare and treasured part of the game's identity, and there are no plans to remove them.

List of Known Artifacts
The current list of all known pieces:
 * 1) Dread Glaive
 * 2) Trevonian Master Key
 * 3) Visor of Valorous Charge
 * 4) Astrid
 * 5) Torch of Ithacanthia
 * 6) Westblade, Pledge of Guardire