A short guide to items: from wooden sticks to legendary blades.

The quality of an item is essential, wherever you go, whatever you do. Give a champion a legendary, colossal axe, and he’ll carve through thousands of regular soldiers. Give a champion a wooden stick and no matter how skilled he is, he’s likely to be beaten up by a rat.
This is a guide, written by your friendly neighbourhood Kalandras, to tell you about how item quality works in this universe.
There are three types of qualities, two minor and one major, to be considered.

Material quality is extremely straightforward: iron is better than bronze and steel is better than iron. This is determined by the material’s properties, and I won’t go through that as I am sure not all of you are chemists or physicists. Higher quality materials will usually be tougher, or more easily sharpened. A sharpened mithril dagger will slice through bronze armour just like a knife through butter, but an iron knife will hardly carve a hole in the armour. Material quality is briefly covered in the Materials topic, which should be lying around somewhere.

Magical quality is simply how strong the magical component of an item is. While a cardium sword is about as good as a steel sword, the same enchantment or rune on both weapons is going to be quite a bit stronger on cardium (because of it being a metal with magical properties, sort of). It also depends on the strength of the enchantment or rune itself.

Item quality, or type, is the general, yet most important way of defining how powerful an item is.
The “power scale” roughly goes like this:
Basic < Enchanted < Rune < Magical < Assembled < Artifact/Relic/Essence.
General rules are the following:
* More than one enchantment on a single item is likely to increase its item quality.
~ A basic item has no magical properties whatsoever. An example could be a steel sword. Basic items are usually unnamed, and are the most common type of items. Example: Steel Sword.
~ An enchanted item is, guess what, an item that has been enchanted. As such it has a degree of magical properties, however they are prone to being depleted (over time or uses). They may be unnamed, but their enchantment will be mentioned after the item’s name. They are relatively common especially amongst higher status or wealthier people. Example: Steel Sword of Fire.
~ A runed item only beats an enchanted item in that the duration of the magical effect is increased; it will decay over time only very slowly and not as quickly over uses. Naming is identical to enchanted items but with “Rune(d)” at the beginning. These types of weapons are rare, as runes are usually found in other item types as well. Example: Rune Sword of Fire.
~ A magical item is an item directly imbued with magic. This can be done during the crafting process, which prevents the weapon’s magical effect from being depleted over time or usage. It also increases the overall strength of the item, magically and physically. While it is not much, it can be quite an improvement. Magical items are more common as runed items, but nowhere as common as enchanted items – they are a relatively common find amongst the highest ranks of armies or households. When it comes to naming, the magical effect is put BEFORE the item name. Example: Fiery Steel Sword.
~ Assembled items are the last “common” type of items. While the magical power of an assembled item is very similar to a magical item’s, they usually have more than one effect or enchantment and they are considered as flawless, material-wise. This is because of the nature of the assembly process [SEE: PROFESSIONS] which prevents human and environmental mistakes from affecting a weapon’s craft and ensuring its perfection. Assembled items are second only to artifacts in terms of rarity, and are usually in the hands of assemblers themselves. Assembled items may be named, especially if they have multiple effects. If not, “assembled” is added to the magical item naming. Example: Assembled Fiery Steel Sword.
~ Artifacts are unique items, and the most powerful type of items. They cannot be reproduced or created, however, save rare exceptions. Both relics and artifacts may be used to contain an essence.
Artifacts are divided in three types.
+ Artifacts are usually derived from ancient civilisations, other worlds/planes/continents or forgotten relics. They are often found by adventurers and treasure hunters, only to be lost again and let the cycle repeat itself. Some forgotten artifacts may be returned to a God’s shrine and be turned into relics again, and are usually bestowed upon the finders as well. Only very few manage to be passed from generation to generation or from friend to friend. Artifacts are often named by their owners and their names may be changed often, especially if a family, household or guild has owned the item for a while. The power of an artifact may vary widely and sometimes cover several aspects or types of magic. Examples: Pureblood Blade, Amulet of Tongues, Goldendale Bulwark.
+ Relics are specific to Gods. Almost all the time they are granted to a God’s Champion. They have a very specific name, chosen by the God or, rarely, the first Champion to wield it. They are usually related to the God and its element; however they may also have effects and powers of closely-related elements. Relics are almost always returned to their respective shrine or temple once its user dies. Relics are rare and while at least one relic could be traced to each God, they aren’t very abundant overall. Example: Death’s Grasp. Earthen Barrier.
+ Essences are unique to Aspects. There is only one essence for every Aspect. Differently from all other items, essences are usually small items or trinkets that may be fitted onto pre-existing equipment. Only a Rider can wield and use an essence. They are already powerful alone, but combined with a relic or artifact they can form items of tremendous power. They have symbolic names, often related to their shape or element. Examples: The Hourglass. Life-bearing Leaf.