The Stone of the Apocalypse is an artifact that, in its proper place at the axis mundi, sustains the world, allows communication between worlds and enables creation; out of place, it threatens the world. It passes constantly from hand to hand.
| Type | Artifact |
| Form | Dark stone veined with white, kept in a chest |
| Spanish entry | Piedra del Apocalipsis |
Description
A dark core veined with white, covered by “a substance older than this world” and enclosed in a sphere of shadow: three barriers between the world and its power. It travels in a chest; the taboo holds that “only the gods can take hold of it”. A red dragon could not break it. Where it falls, plants suffer necrotic harm, and the fall looks like a meteor followed by light. It hardens the bearer’s face and hurts when laid on the body. It once projected images of a palace, turns dark if its bearer is sacrificed, and has an associated talisman.
Properties
- To attune to it, one must kill a creature of one’s own alignment. After more than a month it turns the bearer to the opposite alignment, and it corrupts continuously.
- Custody is taken on by promise and negotiated as a contract.
- With the power of Tiamat confined in it, a double world can be created through it.
- Its holder can claim to be “the king of Jericho”.
It was created “as a protection so that all the worlds do not end”.
History
Stations, in no fixed order: it fell “from hell to London”, then to the Pacific coast of Mexico, where Anubis and Sobek appeared; twenty years ago Seth placed it in the belly of the Tarrasque, in Paris; about twelve years ago it slid into the other world, and a burst of the world followed; it was stolen from the flying castle of darkness; it floated before Asmodeus at the bottom of the world, and a dragon guarded it; it ended up in the year 1300 of the crystal layers; it lay buried nearly fifteen meters deep, and is said to be sinking into hell. It reportedly returns to within six miles of a battle site.
Custody
Whole gestas turned on recovering it. The original pact assigned it to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, expressly not to Asmodeus, so they could destroy the remains of the Oino Demon. Against that pact, Gideon gave it to Arian, who bears the Scepter of the Gods, the Stone of Powers and the Gem of Song.
Conflicting accounts
- One school holds that every object that triggered an end of the world is this stone, including the golden apple of Eris behind the Trojan War; it was also divined as possibly “the dragon’s stone” and “the grail of God”.
- One voice says it “has no magical properties”.
- One voice speaks of several stones of the Apocalypse.
Open questions
- Whether it is Arian’s Stone of Powers, the Rosetta Stone, a communication gem or “the stone of Arsaces”.
- Where the axis mundi is, and who created the stone.
- What the Oino Demon is.
- How the taboo squares with the many mortals who have carried it.