Lore:Neb-Crescen

Neb-Crescen is a cursed sword created by Sheogorath that causes its wielder to be filled with reckless abandon, compelling them to kill everyone in a fit of rage when they hold it. The 16 Accords of Madness describes it as being a seductive wide "arc of honed steel" that is intricately decorated, such as being adorned with jewels, having a beautifully decorated handle, and even having a practicality in its elaborate pommel, which is designed to balance its considerably hefty weight. It is most known for being used against Malacath to trick him into murdering his own son.

History

Sometime before the founding of the first Orsinium. The Orcish champion, Emmeg Gro-Kayra, was born in the Normar Heights as a bastard son. Seeking to make his own path, at the age of fifteen, he set out into the world and garnered a reputation throughout High Rock, performing noble acts that even Bretons began to speak of. On one fateful day, Emmeg came across a cloaked stranger who heard of his deeds, and offered him the Neb-Cresen, and claimed he obtained it for trading a "horse and a secret in warmer climes". The stranger offered the blade, saying it could change the hero's life, but in order to cool the Orc's suspecion, he took an exchange of furs, food, and a bit of coin for the weapon. A week would go by without Emmeg having a reason to draw his sword, until he heard movement in the woods nearby, thus causing him to draw Neb-Cresen from its sheath. The blade made him black out mentally, and upon snapping out of it, discovered the corpse of a young Orc women that had her body mangled from the neck down. Realizing what he had done, Emmeg threw the sword into the snow, and fled the scene in horror.

At the site of the grisly murder, Sheogorath manifested and summoned an avatar of Malacath, and instigated his vengeance. Sheogorath demanded a deal to allow Malacath to remain to honor-kill the Orc, his asking price being that he used the weapon of his choice to banish the murderer to his plane of the Shivering Isles, to which Malacath agreed. He manifested in the direction the killer was fleeing, and drew the blade, which further fueled his rage. The prince quickly crossed the distanced, and cleanly lobbed Emmeg's head off his body, and what followed was a sudden silence. Seeing the severed head, Malacath realized what he had done; He had damned his biological son that he had blessed a maiden with to the realm of the Mad God. To further exacerbate the pain, Sheogorath came to the scene of the infanticide to claim the still sentient head of Emmeg and the Neb-Cresen. Malacath stayed behind and mourned as he heard the pleas of his son being carried off into the distance.

It was believed that a splash of blood freed by Neb-Crescen and a teardrop from a watcher's eye can be used to bind Grinning Terror Bears to ones cause.