The Wishing Star

The Wishing Star is the first of the divine Avatars and the oldest discrete object in the world. A truly legendary object of immeasurable power, The Wishing Star and its many children remain as Gran Cynosure's gift to the world.

"It's just around the bend- it's where the mountains end!"

Description
The Star is a sphere of flawless cyan, precisely ten meters in diameter. A faint nimbus of light surrounds the sphere, shimmering like a miniature aurora. For hundreds of miles around The Star's resting place, the rocks and water all glow softly with absorbed radiation, and the sky above seems warped and unfixed.

History
The Wishing Star was deposted in the middle of what is now called The Starlit Sea, the clearing in the center of Mountain's End Range by the god Gran Cynosure. Over the course of centuries, the sea surrounding the Star absorbed the radient energy leaking from the star, creating a beautiful and deadly wonderland. Obedient to the will of Gran Cynosure, it built The City of Peace Abiding before going silent for the rest of the Age.

In the dawn of the Second Age, Servants began to rise from the glowing waters of The Starlit Sea, wisps of flickering pale energies floating upon the surface of the water. This Elder Race drew power from the Star's presence and were sent out into the world by Cynosure's will, to seek those in need and attend upon their desires. Before Cynosure disappeared from his creation, he called forth The Placid Lord to be his regent and guardian of his legacy.

When the first of The Reasonable Folk awoke from metamorphosis, The Placid Lord armed them with Wishblades forged upon The Wishing Star. For centuries more, The Wishing Star sat idle.

As the Second Age drew to a close, a cabal of traitors among The Reasonable Folk reached The Wishing Star. They slew the Commendatore given guardianship of the star and, in defiance of their holy laws, used it to call forth a being capible of slaying their regent. As The Magma Kraken emerged from the heart of the world, however, the cabal's leader found that the ancient star had become dead to him, unwilling to aknowledge his commands. As he sought for one among his cabal trustworthy enough to finish the task, The Knights of the Silent World arrived, scattering the cabal. In the wake of that unprecented shock, Commendatore Silence appointed himself the new guardian of the stone, and the cabal was forced to abandon their plan.

In the heat of the Third Age, as the great war of the Trollish people had begun to flare into true battle, a new, better-organized Cabal launched a full-out assault on Commendatore Silence, forcing him to do battle with a dozen powerful assassins, backed with swordsmasters and two archmagi. By the time the Commendatore had slain his foes, the Cabal had snuck onto the The Wishing Star's island and created The Gate of Desecration, teleporting a traitorous legion of Reasons and Servants to participate in the Trollish wars and reap their souls.

Since then, no recorded use has been made of The Wishing Star's power.

Abilities
The power of The Wishing Star is simple- any being who touches the star and makes a single wish has complete access to Gran Cynosure's divine power.  After granting that wish, The Wishing Star ceases to respond to the character.

With an item called an Access Tag, a being can use The Wishing Star's power more than once, but this is known only to The Placid Lord and his direct subordinates.

The presence of The Wishing Star is also highly radioactive. While the energy it exudes has a variety of potential effects both harmful and beneficial, it is almost inevitably fatal to beings who remain near it.