The Stone of Septimia

The Stone of Septimia

When the Legions arrived in Akavir in 288, a town dubbed Septimia on the continent's western coast was made a temporary staging base for the invasion. Though the Emperor was eager to press his attack inland and ultimately relocated his armies further upriver to the settlement later known as Ionith, Uriel V decided that Septimia would become the capital of his new Akavir Province once the invasion was successfully concluded. The great violet gemstone seen here, dubbed the "Stone of Septimia", was found aboard an ornate triple-decked riverboat captured by the Legions in Septimia's harbor. Its original significance to the local Tsaesci is unknown. The Emperor, impressed by the Stone's beauty and vibrant color, commissioned an amulet to contain it, intending for the great gemstone to become the first piece of regalia for Akavir's new ruling lords.

The Stone of Septimia has a complicated history. For three decades after the disaster at Ionith, the amulet and the gemstone it contains were thought lost, destroyed, or recaptured by the Tsaesci. Only in 335 was the Stone located once more, when it was inexplicably found on the mantlepiece of a Wood Elf living in placid retirement in Bravil. The quick-fingered thief had evidently worked as a scout in the Emperor's service during the invasion, and plucked the Stone from Uriel's quarters while he fought to defend Ionith. With the Stone confiscated back into the posession of then-Empress Morihatha, the surge of renewed public interest in Akavir generated by the surprising discovery prompted the Empress to firmly declare to the disappointed masses of the Imperial City that there would be no second invasion of the Uttermost East under her reign. The Stone of Septimia was kept at the White-Gold Tower until the reign of our current Emperor, Uriel VII, who has generously permitted the College to display it in the Museum's Akavir Invasion collection since its opening in 389.