Situated within the stunning Kingsbridge in upper Seanaire, the Royal Museum is home to thousands of exhibits featuring items and artifacts from around the world, with wings dedicated to everything from paintings and paleontology to historical arms and armor. Enter, and our guided tour will begin.
OOC: Joint post with me and Cowlass
Our first exhibit of interest is a personal favorite of mine, an item wreathed in legend and superstition. Located in the Borean History Wing, the Tato’Akøy—that’s Nys’tat’en for “Knife of the Isles” by the way—is a ceremonial dagger from the northern islands of modern-day Nystatiszna. According to the fanciful tales of Akuanist legend, this knife was used to carve out the Varkkain forest along the coast of the Blåhimmel province in northern Nystatiszna, and scalped the mythical Ba’doric monster.
History takes over from myth when the Tato’Akøy was stolen by the Borean Trading Company during their ransacking of the Shrine of Talinstia, the shrine in which the knife had been housed. It was used as a paperweight by a BTC board member until the company was liquidated in 1900, after which it was auctioned off to a private collector, and it has been sold six times since then. Now, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the so-called “curse” of the Tato’Akøy, so allow me to explain how this delightful superstition arose. The second owner of the Tato’Akøy, the private collector who bought it in 1900, killed himself in 1918 using the knife itself. His children auctioned it off in 1921 to another collector who himself sold it in 1940 after his child had an accident with it. The collector who bought it after that went bankrupt and was forced to sell the artifact in 1964 to a Seanairey weapons collector named Pàdraig MacCormac, who himself was a practicing Akuanist. He vanished in the Seanaire forest in 1977 and his children sold the Tato’Akøy to the Association of the Servants of Akua the following year, who loaned the knife out to our museum through their Seanaire branch. Our wonderful city is, after all, home to the highest concentration of Verian Akuanists; there’s no better place for such a spiritually significant relic.
Multiple of the collectors to possess the Tato’Akøy throughout the years have reported suffering frequent nightmares, financial poor luck, increased suicidal thoughts, and even the knife moving on its own. These are no doubt exaggerations, but if you’ll inspect the wooden case you may notice it appears to be a relatively new addition. This was reportedly added by one of the collectors to replace the original rotting fabric, but if you’re the type to listen to rumors you may have heard it was added as a muffle to stop the knife from talking to them. On popular request, we have installed a microphone inside the Tato’Akøy’s sound-proofed case, linked to this speaker mounted on the outside. Take a listen if you wish, but I can assure you the Tato’Akøy is just a knife.
