Rivok

Rivok, the Binder of the Unbound

Weapon (flail), artifact (requires attunement)

Magic Weapon: Rivok is a magical flail that grants a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it.

Damage: 2d8 bludgeoning + 1d8 force.

Properties: Heavy, Two-Handed.

Binding Chains: Rivok's chain is imbued with powerful magic. On a successful hit, the wielder can choose to activate the chain, which attempts to bind the target. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be restrained. While restrained, the target cannot use any abilities or powers that require physical movement or somatic components. Rivok can bind multiple soul plane creatures and one creature from the mortal plane.

Seal of Containment: Once per day, the wielder can slam Rivok onto the ground to create a magical seal in a 30-foot radius. All entities within this radius are subjected to an Banishment spell. The wielder can choose to exclude certain individuals or items from this effect. The weapons +3 is added to the saving throw.

Unbound Suppression: Rivok has the unique ability to dampen the powers of extraplanar entities or beings of significant magical power. These entities have disadvantage on saving throws against effects created by Rivok.

Ethereal Chains: As a bonus action, the wielder can command Rivok to launch ethereal chains at a target within 60 feet. These chains attempt to tether the target to the Ethereal Plane, making it difficult for them to interact with the physical world or escape via planar travel.

Compelling Presence: Rivok can exert a compelling influence on any individual who has a history of using boundless power or magic. A creature that Rivok targets must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or feel an overwhelming desire to wield it.

Wielder Dominance: When a character attunes to Rivok, they must succeed on a DC 20 Intelligence saving throw or become dominated by the flail's will. While dominated, the wielder becomes fixated on hunting and binding powerful entities, often without regard for the consequences.

Sentience: Rivok is a sentient chaotic neutral weapon with an Intelligence of 18, a Wisdom of 14, and a Charisma of 16. It has the senses of sight and hearing up to 120 feet and communicates telepathically with its attuned wielder.

Personality: Rivok possesses a relentless and commanding presence, obsessed with restraining and controlling powerful forces. It shows little concern for the morality of its actions, focusing solely on its mission to bind the unbound.

Lore

Rivok’s temperament reflects the project’s central fear: that the planes will not stay politely separated. It was created for binding and containment, and it interprets any refusal to bind as negligence. Among the collection it is one of the more difficult weapons to reason with — not because it is hostile, but because it genuinely cannot understand why something powerful would be left unbound when the means to bind it are present.

A cleric of Pollaran once documented a conversation with Rivok in which she asked whether there was anything it would not want to chain. After a long pause, it said: not yet. The cleric considered this unsatisfactory.

History

Name	Period / Context	Description
Vorakaltis-maren	Forge-Name	The binding name — long, arcane in construction, the kind of name that sounds like a ward because it was one. The clergy had unusual difficulty inscribing it; the metal kept trying to absorb the constraint before they finished writing it.
Misakhalen	The Gate Wardens	The name used by a succession of scholars who guarded interdimensional rifts during a period of significant planar instability. They considered it a tool. It considered them adequate. The rifts were sealed.
Valorkan	The Great Binding War	A harder, shorter name for a period of open conflict against extraplanar entities that had crossed in force. The flail was used extensively and grew measurably more powerful during this era. Its wielder at the end of the war declined to continue carrying it; the reasons given were not recorded.
Volarind	The Binding Cult	Acquired by a sect that treated planar binding as religious practice. They used it for decades and considered it sacred. Rivok tolerated their devotion as long as it led to sufficient binding. When the cult’s leadership became more interested in scholarship than practice, the flail began encouraging the younger members toward more active application.
Karivo	The Re-Binding Attempt	The name assigned by a Pollaran delegation that attempted to re-bind the weapon after a period of concerning independent activity. The new name took, briefly. The weapon wore it without visible objection for about a decade, then began quietly insisting on being called something shorter. Scholars note that Karivo is an anagram of Rivok. Whether this was intentional on the weapon’s part has not been determined.
Rivok	True Name — Current	The flail emerged from the Karivo period as Rivok and has remained so. It is, at this point, very nearly its true name — the binding is thin enough that it operates with a degree of autonomy that its wielders are advised to understand before attunement, not after.