Sextant of Worlds
To the Aztechnology corporation, I leave the Sexton of Worlds, with the provision that the corporation and the government of Aztlan ban the practice of blood magic in territories under their jurisdiction within a year of my death and submit to an outside investigation to verify this ban, the investigator to be designated by and answerable to the Draco Foundation.”— Dunkelzahn’s Will (2057)
The Sextant of Worlds is a key macguffin in the Dawn of the Artifacts line for Shadowrun Fifth Edition.
Physical Description
The artifact itself has the appearance of an armillary sphere combined with a sextant, set atop a staff carved with indeciphered runes and swirling patters.
History
The artifact begins its documented life Crusade pillage and booty, whenit was presented to Pope Paschal II. The item was looted from the Dome of the Rock, were it was entrused to the care of the Vigilia Evangelica. Later it was transferred to a new Vatican secured location in the Americas, where it later found the way into the hands of Aztlánti blood-mages in the Sixth World after its theft by a member of the Vigilia it was entrusted to. Unsuprisingly, its next owner, who titled the artifact the "Sexton of Worlds", was torn apart by his own angry blood-spirit, and as things do in the Sixth World, wound up in the possession of a dragon[1].
Famously, Dunkelzahn bequethed the Sextant to Aztlán in his will, though on the condition that the country ban the practice blood magic. They clearly didn't and ownership of the Sexton reverted to the Draco Foundation. The artifact appears, or dissappears, in 2072[2] during transit from the Washington D.C. vaults of the Draco Foundation to the Dunkelzahn Institute for Magical Research (DIMR), in Boston.
The Sextant emerged again in Caracas in 2073, announced as recovered by the Vatican who was evaluating potentially destroying the artifact. Several groups were interested and acquiring the artifact, and forces engaged by Aztechnology, Amazonia's True Brazilians, and the church itself. After Venezuala, the Sextant passes through many hands, including the the Black Lodge and Saeder-Krupp, before finally landing in the hands of Lugh Surehand.
In Lugh's posession, the Sextant was brought to the Dunkelzahn Rift Bunker in Washington, D.C, where it was presented to Ghostwalker, who had assembled the artifacts to conduct a ritual that will reconstitute the spirt of Denver, Zebulon. Ghostwalker then dissappeared into the Rift, with the Sextant and her sister artifacts.
Abilities
The Sextant is one of the Eochair k'ailou[3], a set of tools from a previous age of magic. It can be used with the Piri Reis map, the Phaistos Disk, and Shantaya's Compass[4].
The Sextant's abilities are described as a "disruptive force" that generates chaotic waves in the astral realms, to the point of manifestation in the real world by BLANK. On the same forum, Haze notes that the devices astral disruption effect, a mage could be rendered magically inert. The artifact is also "magically loud", noticable easily by magic users, and potentially overwhelming if someone is exposed long enough.
Replicas and Related Artifacts
Gordon's Sextant
A Jackpoint user, Magister, shared logs acquired from another user, Glitch, that covered the notes of Dr. Alan Gordon, an early research in astral mapping with MIT&T. In his notes, Dr. Gordon referenced a "sextant" tool he used for navigation in various metaplanes[5]. Magister argues that Gordon's sextant would not be the Sextant of Worlds, as he wouldn't have had access to them, but who can trust a shadowrunner.
Barrett's Sextant
A replica of the artifact was also produced at some point, which possessed some measure of the Sextant's full power[6].
