Cursed Talismans

The Cursed Talismans are mass-deployed hostile artifacts that impose the Beast Form curse on monsters, accelerating their advancement and driving them toward settlements. Although no individual talisman is named, the class forms the physical center of the monster crisis during the United World invasion.

History

Seeding the Wastes

Forest Grove discovers that monsters are being cursed into rapid advancement even when no caster is nearby. The talismans are scattered along migration routes and near populated regions, where unused devices will eventually fade but active ones can transform local monster populations. United World forces compound the attack by bringing monsters through portals and herding them across the devices toward the west. (Chapters 498–500 and 506)

The devices are not voluntary possessions of a single villain. Captured witches reveal that curse workers were forced to make and deploy them, while repeated production mutates or ruins the casters. This coerced supply chain becomes one reason ordinary witches turn against the Saints directing the invasion. (Chapters 530, 552, 568, and 973)

The aerial hunt

Wolfe organizes aircraft, Fae spotters, scouts, and villages to locate and destroy the talismans. Fae senses can detect their dark magic from great distances, allowing one device to be destroyed from more than ten kilometres away. Patrols prioritize valleys, ridgelines, grazing areas, and village routes; one report credits local forces with twelve destroyed devices in a single day. (Chapters 501, 513, 518, and 551)

The number found first declines and then rises again when the enemy changes deployment regions, forcing Forest Grove to expand scouting and build armed buggies for remote searches. By Chapter 699, the local command believes the remaining physical talismans are gone, but the monsters they advanced continue to attack from regions that were searched too slowly. (Chapters 552, 557, 560, 699–700, and 711)

Properties and limitations

• A talisman applies the Beast Form curse to nearby monsters, increasing aggression and pushing them toward rapid artificial advancement. (Chapters 498–500)
• Once a monster completes the advancement, the curse fades but the new power remains. Breaking the curse too late therefore does not restore the monster's former rank. (Chapter 498)
• The artifacts depend on monsters encountering their effective area. A device that never affects a target eventually fades rather than remaining active forever. (Chapter 500)
• Fae are exceptionally sensitive to their curse signature, and the talismans can be destroyed from long range. They are dangerous strategic traps, not indestructible relics. (Chapters 501 and 551)
• The source does not establish a standard material, shape, color, inscription, or size. Their shared identity comes from function and deployment, not a visually confirmed model.

Associated characters

• Wolfe Noxus: Wolfe identifies the campaign's mechanics, coordinates searches, and helps destroy the devices before more monsters can advance.
• Ella Noxus: Ella directs Little Reaper to search for talismans and treats their spread into Coven territory as a strategic emergency.
• Faerie Katerina: Faerie Katerina represents the Fae scouts whose curse sensitivity makes the aerial hunt effective.
• Little Reaper: Little Reaper is dispatched as a mobile hunter when cursed beasts and possible talismans threaten allied territory.