Item
Aeternum Gehennae
A ceremonial scimitar that woke up and turned out to hold time
Alfred Varanov gave Aldor this scimitar for defending the northern border and the village of Rougemarche against giants. It had been in the Varanov family a long time, and it was a small thing: an enchanted blade, +1, the sort of reward a lord hands out because the gesture matters more than the steel.
Aldor barely used it. He casts; he does not fence. The scimitar became ceremonial — carried, admired, and left alone.
| As given | enchanted scimitar, +1 |
| Origin | long held by House Varanov |
| Awakened during | Battlefield, against Jerax and Sobiesansky |
| Revealed power | control of time |
| Caster level | 35 |
| Intelligent | yes — it speaks, and it asks questions |
The Waking
Aldor cast Battlefield against the Aboleth Jerax in an Underdark cavern, turning it into June pasture under a summer sun. The spell rains enchanted weapons across its arena, and every worthy opponent who lifts one feeds power back to the caster. Every blade in that field was made by the spell and would vanish with it.
Every blade but one. Aldor was carrying his own, and Charisma is the measure of how strongly a body expresses its mana — his poured into an arena built to enchant weapons, with one piece of steel in it that already belonged to him. The scimitar came out of that cavern an intelligent object.
It said nothing. Sobiesansky, surviving as green vapour under the rubble, spoke the command hidden inside the verchoix and ordered the worms in Aldor, Frolix and Gyllyn to eat. Aldor cut his own out of his body with the ceremonial blade, and still did not know what he was holding.
The Naming
It showed itself during the war against Cauchemar. Daviau Morin, bought with dreams, had killed Frolix with a ray of cold that left him a statue of ice. Aldor came for him.
The scimitar stopped time around Daviau's spell.
Aldor named it Aeternum Gehennae on the spot. The sword asked what the words meant.
Why Time
Its power is the control of time — the magic that made Gérard Alois the most powerful mage in Cerberus, and the last thing anyone would predict from a fire sovereign's ceremonial sidearm. Nobody has explained why a blade woken by the man who is bound to the realm of fire came back holding Time Stop instead.
It is also not the only intelligent thing Aldor carries. Fleur de Bataille is divine armour with opinions of its own, and Aeternum Gehennae is afraid of its jealousy.