Imperial Ring

The Imperial Ring, also called the Ring of the First Emperor, is a plain silver band that grants soul perception and forms one of the five components of the Key to the Sovereign Gate. Its unassuming appearance hides both a rare spiritual function and a controller-only ability to track marked souls.

History

The Ziggurat of the Sun

Zorian and Zach locate the ring on the hand of the sulrothum high priest who guards the Ziggurat of the Sun. Their first recovery requires a costly assault, after which Zorian briefly overwhelms the priest's will and forces him to throw the ring across the battlefield. Inspection with the Guardian of the Threshold identifies it as a Key component and reveals that its principal everyday use is most valuable to Zach, whose marker makes conventional methods of unlocking soul perception especially dangerous. (Chapters 82–83)

The angels' contingency

In a later restart, Zorian and Zach attempt negotiation before attacking. The high priest peacefully hands over the ring because the angels had instructed his people to surrender it if a powerful human mage came seeking it during the month. This arrangement turns a prolonged siege into the simplest of the recurring Key recoveries, and the ring is subsequently assembled with the orb, dagger, crown, and staff. The copy gathered inside the loop does not survive the escape into the real world, leaving the original ring in the priest's custody. (Chapters 88–89)

Abilities and properties

• The ring grants soul perception only while it is worn. It gives Zach a safe way to perceive souls and practice soul magic without the dangerous procedures normally required to unlock that sense. (Chapter 83)
• The controller can place stealthy tracking markers on souls. The ring reports a marked target's direction and distance across intercontinental ranges, and ordinary divination wards do not block the signal. (Chapter 83)
• Tracking is limited to one selected target at a time, requires the wearer to interpret distance and direction, and can be detected by sufficiently skilled soul mages. The markers would persist across restarts for a controller who began each restart with the ring. (Chapter 83)
• The solid-silver band has no gems or prominent decoration; only faint lines and sigils distinguish its surface on close inspection. It resists divination like the other imperial artifacts. (Chapter 83)
• As one of the five imperial artifacts, it contributes to the authorization needed to unbar the Sovereign Gate. (Chapter 89)

Ownership and custody