In Nomine Revisited: The Golden Heart of Quetzalcoatl.

Golden Heart of Quetzalcoatl – Google Docs

The Golden Heart of Quetzalcoatl

Well, not really. It is golden, it is shaped like a human heart, and it is Aztec in origin, but Quetzalcoatl didn’t make this particular reliquary/3. It’s not a particularly fancy reliquary/3, either; the gold is of fairly impure quality and the workmanship is mildly crude. The Golden Heart of Quetzalcoatl is an only mildly useful item: it can only be recharged while smeared with the blood of a willing donor, and offers no particular benefits otherwise. And yet, Heaven and Hell have been fighting over it for the last thousand years.


The answer to the question “Why?” is, of course, “Politics.” The Golden Heart of Quetzalcoatl is a historical curiosity: it is the first trophy ever personally collected by the Uriel, Archangel of Purity during the Purity Crusade. The combat in which he got it was in fact a surprisingly decent fight for the Archangel: Uriel was never in any particular danger, but his opponent managed to survive long enough to allow three of his companions to temporarily get away. Uriel was sufficiently impressed to keep the reliquary. The ethereal who owned it, he just killed: no more — and no less — harshly than was his usual wont. But the Golden Heart went up on the wall, somewhere that people could see it.

And, of course, six centuries later, Valefor, Demon Prince of Theft, promptly stole it. The Host recovered it. Valefor stole it again. It got recovered again. Valefor stole it a third time — and then somebody stole it from him, and then things started getting complicated.

By now, the Golden Heart of Quetzalcoatl has been on all three planes of existence, found in dozens of treasure hoards, and has a ridiculously high fatality rate associated with it. Demons and ethereals claim it’s cursed; angels don’t, but only because the Seraphim shake their heads in not quite disagreement. There’s always somebody who enjoys putting one in the eye of Heaven in general and the memory of Uriel in particular, and while Heaven may have the quiet collective belief that if people want the reliquary so badly they can just keep it, there’s the matter of pride to consider.

Which, yes, is a problem in and of itself. But even Dominic’s gotten sucked into this particular problem enough to understand the circumstances.

 


Reliquary/3 6pt
Use Restriction: Only when smeared with blood of a willing donor -2pt
Fragility: Unbreakable +5
Total Cost: 9pt

 

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