One of the three Dread Trove relics — a golden death mask that raises and commands the dead
The Mask
“The Mask can raise the dead. It is a death mask, molded from the face of a long-forgotten king. Wear it and you may summon the dead to you, command them to march at your will.”
A Court of Silver Flames
A golden death mask molded from the face of a long-forgotten king — primitive, embossed with whorls so ancient they've lost all meaning. Put it on, and the dead rise to your will.
One of the three Dread Trove objects. Nesta hauled it out of the drowned dark of the Bog of Oorid. We're still not over it.
What it is
The relic
A golden death mask, molded from the face of a long-forgotten king. Not ornate — primitive. The surface is embossed, in the text's own words, with 'whorls and patterns so ancient they had lost all meaning.' One of the three objects of the Dread Trove. Among the most dangerous things in Prythian, and we mean that affectionately.
What it does
Power
The power is necromantic. Wear it and you summon, reanimate, and command the dead — fallen warriors and corpses bent to your will. At the Bog of Oorid it raised an entire legion of long-dead interred warriors, who obeyed Nesta, tore the kelpie apart, then knelt to her. Take the Mask off and the commanded dead drop where they stand. And like everything in the Trove, it wants to rule whoever puts it on.
The binding
Cannot be removed
For anyone ordinary, the Mask is a one-way door. On is forever — the only way to sever the bond is to behead the wearer. It claims you, dominates you. Nesta is the exception, because of course she is: Made, reborn from the Cauldron, sharing the Trove's dark source, so she can wear it unruled and she can take it off. Not gracefully — after the bog she pulled it free and collapsed unconscious from the sheer effort.
How Nesta claimed it
The Bog of Oorid
Rhysand's bargain: recover the Dread Trove before Briallyn and Koschei could get there first. So Nesta scried — the dropped-stone divination Amren taught her — and found the Mask in the Bog of Oorid, a black, lifeless former burial ground out in the Middle, the unclaimed land between the courts. Cassian and Azriel went with her. Autumn Court soldiers were waiting, and then a kelpie — 'whiter than bone,' obsidian hair, forearm-length fingers — erupted from the water and dragged her under to drown her. Sinking, she felt the Mask calling ('like calls to like'), seized the gold shining beneath the water, and put it on her own face while still submerged. Golden light. Spears breaking the surface. A legion of the drowned rising at her command. She came up wearing the Mask, holding the kelpie's severed head by its black hair, the dead kneeling around her. We will never recover.
One of three
The Dread Trove
The Mask doesn't stand alone. Three objects make up the Dread Trove — the Mask, the Crown, the Harp. The Crown controls minds and wills. The Harp opens any door and moves its player through space. Together they're catastrophic, which is exactly why the Night Court raced to lock them down. Warded room or not, the Mask keeps calling to Nesta — same Cauldron, same source. By the end of A Court of Silver Flames she's keeper and wielder of all three. Smug? A little.
Who wields it
The holder
Swipe to meet them all
The set it belongs to
The Dread Trove
Three ancient Made objects, Cauldron-tied, individually terrifying. Nesta ends A Court of Silver Flames holding all three. Naturally.
In the text
Verbatim canon
“A golden mask sat upon her face, primitive but embossed with whorls and patterns so ancient they had lost all meaning.”
A Court of Silver Flames
“The Mask can raise the dead. It is a death mask, molded from the face of a long-forgotten king. Wear it and you may summon the dead to you, command them to march at your will.”
A Court of Silver Flames
The File
- Type
- Made relic — one of the three Dread Trove objects (with the Crown and the Harp)
- Power
- Raises and commands the dead
- Form
- Golden death mask molded from a long-forgotten king's face
- Holder
- Nesta Archeron — Made, so she can wield AND remove it (ordinary wearers cannot)
- Recovered at
- The Bog of Oorid, in the Middle (A Court of Silver Flames)
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