Are all artifacts made by deities?

[Kalan Tel]

I had a specific question that more then likely hasn't come up often. My question is, are all artifacts created by a deity? As opposed to a powerful wizard creating an artifact.

[Rogar Valertis]

No. Take the runelords as an example: they were just powerful mortal wizards (some not even mythic) who created several artifacts, just to name one, Korzoug's burning glaive is a major artifact (but it was created by Xin and not by Karzoug, although the point stands since Xin wasn't a divinity either).

[Saldiven]

I don't believe it's specifically spelled out anywhere.

That being said, artifacts being made by deities or other super-powerful beings makes them seem that much more special than something that can be Crafted by a PC.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Kalan Tel wrote:

I had a specific question that more then likely hasn't come up often. My question is, are all artifacts created by a deity? As opposed to a powerful wizard creating an artifact.

The definition of an artifact is a magic item that has unique rules-breaking methods of creation and a unique method of destruction.

Aside from that, anything quite literally goes.

[GM Rednal]

Note that artifacts don't have to be more powerful than existing spells. Many of them aren't, really. They do, however, tend to be hard to obtain because they're rarely sold and difficult to make - something that helps the PCs really feel special, and that they've acquired something genuinely rare and valuable (as opposed to magic items they can just craft themselves).

[James Jacobs]

Artifacts can be made however the storyteller wants them to be made. By deities. By powerful heroes. By monsters. By self-manifestation. By hauntings. By accident. Anything you can imagine can be the reason an artifact is created. They aren't created by rules. They BREAK rules, by definition.

Player characters can even create artifacts, but that requires GM permission and works best when the creation of said artifact is the result of an adventure or, even better, a series of linked adventures.

[DM_Blake]

In ye olden days, we differentiated between artificats and relics. The latter were religious type items (divine) and the former were not.

Which isn't to say religious guy (e.g. paladin) could walk around with an artifact, nor it it so say that only wizards made artifacts and only priest made relics. However, if a deity were to make a rule-breaking item of unusual power, it seems fitting that he'd make a holy relic suitable to his faith (or suitable to giving to his favorite follower so they can be even more awesome).

Artifacts, on the other hand, were supposedly something made ages ago and lost to time, an artifact of a lost age so to speak. Although the game term "artifact" just evolved to mean "super-item" without much lore behind it.

So to the OP, maybe you want lore. If so, maybe gods make holy relics and those have a divine purpose linked with the god. By pathfinder rules, those are still just "artifacts" but now there is more flavor. And the other stuff made by some legendary hero or long-lost runelord or any of what James said (except deities, usually) might be less lore-inspired and more random (that guy made a thing HE wanted, not necessarily bound by religious or cultural lore) would just be generic artifacts.

None of which has anything to do with rules, just with flavor.

[Kalan Tel]

Thank you all for the replies. My other question I had would be if you could tell whether or not an artifact was created by divine power or mortal power. (Also including any divine spellcasting class such as a cleric)

The reason I ask is the new character I'm creating will become a Puirty Legion Enforcer and his whole mind set is that any divine interference in the world should be stopped. Including artifacts. So if it were made by a spellcasting class that isnt divine he would be okay with it.

Thanks all.

[KenderKin]

The crystal shard.....yes I know was sparked to life, created by a group of lichs the shard destroyed them in the process.....

Other cool ideas I have seen include things in the world from other realms, such as first world, nightmare realm...

[Rednal]

If your party is capable of researching the history of the object, that should be enough to tell how the item was made. XD Or, y'know, if it's obviously engraved with a deity's holy symbol or something. Religious artifacts often are.