The elderly priest led Martin to an ornate cabinet in the back of the chapel. Inside the cabinet were two human skulls, a large one and a small one, decorated with gold leaf. "This is our church's most holy relic," the old man said; "The skull of John the Baptist."
"What is the smaller skull?" Martin asked.
"That's the skull of John the Baptist as a child."
Basic Information
Many religions give special respect and veneration to objects or items that were owned by or associated great holy men. If the item once belonged to a celebrity, we call it a souvenier. Since it belonged to a saint, it is regarded as a sacred relic.
In the Middle Ages, such relics were believed to possess divine power, residual holiness from their former owners, and it was common for people to go on pilgrimages to see such items, particularly on holy days. Although the Church technically forbade the selling of such relics, charging a fee to see them was a convenient source of income for some churches.
Relics include not just items owned by a saint, but also the saint's bones and sometimes mummified body parts. These items were frequently kept in ornate shrines or containers called reliquaries.
Perhaps the most famous Christian relics are the Shroud of Turin and various fragments of the True Cross
Although western cultures usually look on the veneration of holy relics as a Roman Catholic thing, other religions, such as Buddhism and Islam also revere items associated with their holy men. In addition, sometimes secular figures receive a level of adulation making their lives relic-worthy. Abraham Lincoln was a notable example.
Famous relics can be considered Public Domain Artifacts
See Also:
Sources
Game and Story Use
- One word: MacGuffin
- In a Historical or Time Travel campaign, the PC's could be part of a group of pilgrims on their way to a holy shrine to view a famous relic.
- In a magic-based game, such relics could actually possess great power, healing the sick or providing an energy source for mana-based technology.
- And even if they don't, Hitler will still stop at nothing to get his hands on them.
- In an authentic medieval European campaign, a portable relic would be a prized possession - and in one where the supernatural is a key theme may provide protection against the powers of darkness (and probably non-hostile magic as well) - it may even repel the Fair Folk, depending on your traditions. Having a relic set into your sword may make it effective against targets immune to normal weapons. Arguably these sorts of weapons will be more common than 'traditional' magic swords in an authentic campaign.
- The trick will be sorting the real relics from the pig parts before you bang heads with the powers of darkness.
