Public Domain Artifact: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Filmation's Ghostbusters]]'' features Excalibur, conflating it yet again with the Sword in the Stone. Here, it's used to set up a [[Stable Time Loop]] in the stone age—they get it stuck in the stone that Arthur will pull it from.
 
=== Durandal ===
 
Durandal—Sword of the Hero Roland, knight of Charlemagne, as well as Hector of Troy. Supposedly he threw it into a "poisoned stream" in order to protect it from the Saracens; this seems to have occasionally given it a "Darkness" element in fiction and games. It could also be associated with evil or [[Marathon Trilogy|insanity]]. [[Bungie|One game studio]] has not only used it, but also the inscription on Ogier the Dane's sword Curtana, which read My name is [[Halo (series)|Cortana]], of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and [[Marathon Trilogy|Durendal]]. In ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' Durandal ''is'' Excalibur, having been stolen by Orlando/Roland and renamed to not arouse suspicion (because even he knows it was kind of a dick thing to do). [[w:Durendal#Local lore|A sword embedded in a cliff face in Rocamadour, France is claimed by local folklore to be Durandal.]]
 
==== [[Literature]] ====
* ''[[The Song of Roland]]'', [[Trope Maker|naturally]].
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter]]'', Eramus carries it.
* The holy sword ''Esperacchius'' in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' is Durandal, albeit reforged to look like a cavalry saber. Like the previous example above, it also has one of the Nails of the True Cross worked into it.
 
==== [[Live-Action TV]] ====
* ''[[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger]]'': A duplicate of Durandal is forged for [[Monster of the Week|Dora Knight]]. The process requires some of the hammering to be done by a child whose birthday it is (Bandora had him kidnapped, of course), which becomes important later because the sword can't harm its maker. The sword is incredibly powerful, able to damage the Zyurangers' Legendary Weapons and even the sword of their [[First Church of Mecha|god]] [[Humongous Mecha]].
 
==== [[Video Games]] ====
* In ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'', Durandal is a ship AI. ''Marathon's'' [[Spiritual Successor|spiritual prequel/sequel]] ''[[Halo]]'' features an AI named Cortana.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]'''s [[Fire Emblem Elibe|Elibe canon]], Durandal is the [[BFS|absolutely enormous]] sword used by the legendary hero Roland in the Scouring. In 6 it serves as the [[Infinity+1 Sword]] and can be used by any sufficiently skilled swordsman, while in 7 it's a [[Sword of Plot Advancement]] usable by [[The Hero|Eliwood]] in the final battle.
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* You get this sword by supporting the French forces in Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War.
 
=== Aro(u)ndight ===
 
=== Aro(u)ndight ===
Aro[[Spell My Name with an "S"|(u)]]ndight, which may or may not have been Lancelot's sword.
 
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=== Other Swords ===
Less frequently, you will see other legendary Western swords such as Cortana (which actually exists as part of the Regalia of Great Britain), or Joyeuse. They do show up in ''[[Castlevania]]: Symphony Of The Night'' and all the portable 2D Castlevanias that follow it. You can find a huge amount of named armor, swords and artifacts—from Joyeuse to the Masamune to Death's Scythe. The most powerful sword in ''[[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Aria/Dawn of Sorrow,]]'' the Claimh Solais, apparently comes from Irish mythology... odd for a Japanese game about vampires.
 
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=== Stonehenge ===
Stonehenge is a real place (and it's not the only such circle in Britain, either), but it gets ascribed all sorts of mystic powers in fiction.<ref>Of the many theories of its purpose, on of the most widely believed is that it was used to tell what time of year it is. That's right, it's a ''calendar''! To be honest, keeping track of the seasons was incredibly important in the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural ones.</ref> Nor isare itthe British ones the only oneones in the world. There's one, also of unknown origin, in Michigan. [[wikipedia:Stone circle#Distribution|Stone circles]] seem to have been popular with [http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/carahunge.htm everybody's] ancestors. This isn't just a British/Irish trope.
 
==== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ====
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==== [[Video Games]] ====
* ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery]]'' uses it. You can't go seven leagues in a single step though, but it does improve your movement a bit.
 
 
== Egyptian ==
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* In ''[[The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest]]'' there is an episode centered around the stone. The bad guy wants to use it for his own greedy purposes, but fortunately there are other mystical forces around to help the Quest Team stop him.
 
==== Other ====
The Voynich Manuscript, an untranslated medieval manuscript of a seemingly occult nature, sometimes appears in fiction as a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]]. A list of some works featuring it can be found [http://www.ciphermysteries.com/the-voynich-manuscript/big-fat-list-of-voynich-novels here].
The Pied Piper's flute usually appears in that character's possession in stories or plays, but turns up on its own (as the ''Pipes of the Sewers'') in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' RPG.
 
The Pied Piper's flute usually appears in that character's possession in stories or plays, but turns up on its own (as the ''Pipes of the Sewers'') in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' RPG.
 
== Finnish ==
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* ''[[Colonization]]'' lets you discover it as one of random bonuses. It makes several units of eager colonists appear in European port. Amusingly, it doesn't limit how many times you can discover it, so a player who explores thoroughly can find dozens of Fountains of Youth scattered all over the Americas.
 
==== [[Web ComicComics]] ====
* The webcomic ''[[Oglaf]]'' parodies this, with an explorer discovering the [http://oglaf.com/fountain-of-doubt/ Fountain of Doubt], the [http://oglaf.com/fountain-of-death/ Fountain of] <s>[http://oglaf.com/fountain-of-death/ Death]</s> [http://oglaf.com/fountain-of-death/ Water So Delicious That Even Dead People Want It], and the [http://oglaf.com/fountain-of-girl/ Fountain] [http://oglaf.com/fountain-of-girl/2/ of] [[Gender Bender|Girl]].
 
==== [[Western Animation]] ====
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=== Judas' [[Thirty Pieces of Silver|30 Pieces of Silver]] ===
==== [[Film]] ====
* In ''[[The Librarian]]'': The Judas Chalice, they had been forged into a silver equivalent to [[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade|the Holy Grail]] for vampires.
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=== The OtherHand of Glory ===
* The Hand of Glory is a common item in folklore, a magical relic made from the hand of a hanged man. It can be lit like a candle and provides a light that only the wielder can see. Various other powers have also been ascribed to it in various tales - generally something appropriate for a sneak thief.
 
==== Literature ====
** [[The Laundry Series]] has HandHands of GloriesGlory serving as channels from an extradimensional energy source. Not only do they bestow invisibility, they can be used to fire [[Frickin' Laser Beams]], though this causes the hand to degrade. The Laundry usually gets theirs from Chinese political prisoners.
** [[Simon R. Green]] occasionally has one show up with the power to open and seal locks, portals and barriers both mundane and magical.
** Also appears in a poem by the same name in the ''Ingoldsby Legends'' where it has the power to send a household into a deep slumber.
** Also seen in [[Harry Potter]]: It seems Draco Malfoy owns one.
** ''[[Labyrinths of Echo (Literature)|Labyrinths of Echo]]'' had the Order of the Icy Hand, who used an extra source of power made of the adept's left hand chopped off and embedded in an enchanted ice crystal. Of course, then they had to take turns guarding those. As one could expect, they were people with great desire to work high-end magic, but little natural "talent" for it, so this inconvenient way to compensate was their only known option.
 
==== Live-Action TV ====
** The TV Dresden Files adaptation had a Hand of Glory that could let people walk through walls.
 
==== Tabletop Games ====
** ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'' has the Hand as a top-level example of [[They Would Cut You Up|the Cheiron Group]]'s Thaumatechnology. Instead of granting invisibility, however, it grants a light that enthralls all who see it. And unlike other examples, the user needs to have it grafted to their wrist first.
** ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', as usual. There are many artifacts known as "hand of X" (often hands of various avatars)
*** ''[[Greyhawk]]'' has the Hand of Vecna
*** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has Hand of Harrowing (it's mostly used to ward a place against undead).
 
==== Web Comics ====
** ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' had something very like this made, except from a hand of still-living dude.
 
=== Other Others ===
* Nowadays we have U.F.Os, Area 51 and [[The Greys]], which seem to qualify as the latest Public Domain Artifacts.
** Or, as the quote from ''Angels of Light and Darkness'' states, half of what they say was owned by [[Godwin's Law|Hitler]].
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* Lemuria and Mu. Mu is a mistranslation of a Mayan codex. Lemuria was a land bridge by Ernst Häckel to explain similarities in the ecosystems of Madagascar and Indonesia [[Science Marches On|before plate tectonics]].
* Some public-domain fictional characters' bits of associated items have attained this status, such as Dr. Jekyll's Hyde-transformation elixer or Dorian Gray's youth-sustaining portrait.
* The Hand of Glory is a common item in folklore, a magical relic made from the hand of a hanged man. It can be lit like a candle and provides a light that only the wielder can see. Various other powers have also been ascribed to it in various tales - generally something appropriate for a sneak thief.
** [[The Laundry Series]] has Hand of Glories serving as channels from an extradimensional energy source. Not only do they bestow invisibility, they can be used to fire [[Frickin' Laser Beams]], though this causes the hand to degrade. The Laundry usually gets theirs from Chinese political prisoners.
** ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'' has the Hand as a top-level example of [[They Would Cut You Up|the Cheiron Group]]'s Thaumatechnology. Instead of granting invisibility, however, it grants a light that enthralls all who see it. And unlike other examples, the user needs to have it grafted to their wrist first.
** The TV Dresden Files adaptation had a Hand of Glory that could let people walk through walls.
** [[Simon R. Green]] occasionally has one show up with the power to open and seal locks, portals and barriers both mundane and magical.
** Also appears in a poem by the same name in the ''Ingoldsby Legends'' where it has the power to send a household into a deep slumber.
** Also seen in [[Harry Potter]]: It seems Draco Malfoy owns one.
** ''[[Labyrinths of Echo (Literature)|Labyrinths of Echo]]'' had the Order of the Icy Hand, who used an extra source of power made of the adept's left hand chopped off and embedded in an enchanted ice crystal. Of course, then they had to take turns guarding those. As one could expect, they were people with great desire to work high-end magic, but little natural "talent" for it, so this inconvenient way to compensate was their only known option.
** ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' had something very like this made, except from a hand of still-living dude.
** ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', as usual. There are many artifacts known as "hand of X" (often hands of various avatars)
*** ''[[Greyhawk]]'' has the Hand of Vecna
*** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has Hand of Harrowing (it's mostly used to ward a place against undead).
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter]]'', there are more public domain artifacts per square inch in the Prosperos' mansion than anywhere else. Several are mentioned above. But they were collecting them.
* The tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Some [[expy]] versions use artificial lake of mercury or terracota figurines alone.