History Main / ArtifactOfDoom

* The ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' episode "Armored and Dangerous" has the invincible armor of Kileem, a powerful warlord who was undefeated in battle generations ago. The Sultan, who puts on the armor in order to stop a minotaur threatening Agrabah, becomes invulnerable and immensely strong, but is possessed by the spirit of Kileem, who turns out to be an inflammable tyrant and warmonger, who not only plans to conquer the Seven Deserts and later the world but condemns Jasmine to death for resisting him. Aladdin stops him by tricking him into destroying the statue that is the source of Kileem's power, releasing the Sultan from his control and saving Jasmine.

* The short-lived series ''Dead Man's Gun'' revolved around one of these as the central {{MacGuffin}}--every episode the titular gun would fall into someone's hands, and possessing the gun brought trouble into that person's life until they either received their comeuppance or learned a valuable life lesson, at which point the gun would leave their possession and become someone else's problem.

** Throughout the series, the LegendaryWeapon sword, Umbra. In ''Literature/TheElderScrolls'' novels, it was too much for even [[spoiler:Clavicus Vile, a ''[[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]]'', to handle. It steals a good chunk of his power before he manages to get rid of it.]] The sword [[YourSoulIsMine absorbs the souls]] of the people it kills and corrupts the wielder - one to the point where the sword supplanted her identity and she was known by its name as a remorseless killer. Though it has [[GameplayAndStorySegregation no apparent effects in gameplay]], it always has a new wielder by the next game...

* The Mani Mani from ''VideoGame/Earthbound1994'' is very desirable, and emits an aura that causes anyone who gets near it to be consumed with greed. These factors allow it to play a prominent role in the BigBad's rise to power.

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'':In ''Ultra Deluxe'', in the New Content/Skip Button ending, the Narrator creates a Skip Button for the player which exponentially skips time, ultimately leading to the Narrator's own undoing. However, it is the cause of Stanley's freedom.

--> '''Narrator:''' Don't press the skip button!

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'':

In ''Ultra Deluxe'', in the New Content/Skip Button ending, the Narrator creates a Skip Button for the player which exponentially skips time, ultimately leading to the Narrator's own undoing. However, it is the cause of Stanley's freedom.

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'': In ''Ultra Deluxe'', in the New Content/Skip Button ending, the Narrator creates a Skip Button for the player which exponentially skips time, ultimately leading to the Narrator's own undoing. However, it is the cause of Stanley's freedom.

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'': In ''Ultra Deluxe'', in the New Content/Skip Button ending, the Narrator creates a Skip Button for the player which exponentially skips time, ultimately leading to the Narrator's own undoing.

** The ComicBook/StarBrand from ''ComicBook/TheNewUniverse'' is exactly like this. A limitless power only held back by one's imagination, it can only be used by living things. The first time someone tried to place it into a inanimate object to get rid of the power, it initiated the White Event, the world's biggest SuperpowerLottery. The second time, it ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero vaporized]] UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}!'' Even worse, even if you do get rid of it, you're keeping a portion of the power that will recharge itself back to full. It's so dangerous that, when the New Universe Earth was transported to the mainstream Marvel Universe, the Living Tribunal erected an impenetrable barrier so it won't contaminate the rest of the universe with its power.
*** Alterations made to the Star Brand mythos later, by Warren Ellis and Jonathan Hickman change this. The Star Brand isn't necessarily a AOD. It's supposed to be a planetary defense system. "But a hammer can build a home or break a skull." Not helping is that it has a bad tendency to wind up with people who shouldn't have it, or aren't adjusted enough to handle it.

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'': In ''Ultra Deluxe'', in the Skip Button/New Content ending, the Narrator creates a skip button for the player which exponentially skips time, ultimately leading to the Narrator's own undoing.

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'': Ultra Deluxe. In the Skip Button/New Content ending, the Narrator creates a skip button for the player which exponentially skips time, ultimately leading to the Narrator's own undoing.

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'': Ultra Deluxe. In the Skip Button/New Content ending, the Narrator creates a skip button for the player which exponentially skips time ultimately leading to the Narrator's own undoing.

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** The Star Brand from ''ComicBook/TheNewUniverse'' is exactly like this. A limitless power only held back by one's imagination, it can only be used by living things. The first time someone tried to place it into a inanimate object to get rid of the power, it initiated the White Event, the world's biggest SuperpowerLottery. The second time, it ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero vaporized]] UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}!'' Even worse, even if you do get rid of it, you're keeping a portion of the power that will recharge itself back to full. It's so dangerous that, when the New Universe Earth was transported to the mainstream Marvel Universe, the Living Tribunal erected an impenetrable barrier so it won't contaminate the rest of the universe with its power.

* The Mani Mani from ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' is very desirable, and emits an aura that causes anyone who gets near it to be consumed with greed. These factors allow it to play a prominent role in the BigBad's rise to power.

* The Cauldron of Blood in ''ComicBook/{{Arawn}}'' is a sentient and extremely malevolent pot that pretty much serves as the comic's BigBad on its own right, since it manipulates all sides against the middle promising them ultimate power in exchange for sacrifices.

** ''ComicBook/TheSandman'': when he is trapped in the opening chapter Dream has his mask, ruby and pouch of dream sand stolen. While the mask doesn't do anything (the demon who gets it knows how dangerous and powerful it is) the pouch of sand falls into the hands of a drug addict who uses it to get a high, only for it to start turning her home into a nightmare landscape. The ruby on the other hand is used by a mad scientist who starts using its powers to take over the world and is stopped by the Justice League. The items themselves aren't evil, just really powerful because Dream poured his power into them to make them what they were.
** How Creator/GrantMorrison describes ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Ultra Comics #1]]'':
--->"It's a haunted comic book, actually, it's the most frightening thing anyone will ever read. It's actually haunted -- if you read this thing, you'll become possessed."

* ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'' has [[spoiler: the Bag of Tirek, which contains the soul of its maker, the same evil centaur from the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyRescueAtMidnightCastle'' who wants to [[DisproportionateRetribution get revenge]] against [[UpToEleven the entire human race]] for Megan stopping them over a thousand years ago and enslave every living being under his will. Besides corrupting TCB!Celestia into an [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen insane tyrant]], it's also heavily hinted to have corrupted both universe's versions of Luna into Nightmare Moon]].

** Blackstone fortresses qualify, but [[UpToEleven is it a surprise that the artifact in question is a spaceship?]]

* ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'' has [[spoiler: the Bag of Tirek, which contains the soul of its maker, the same evil centaur from the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials'' who wants to [[DisproportionateRetribution get revenge]] against [[UpToEleven the entire human race]] for Megan stopping them over a thousand years ago and enslave every living being under his will. Besides corrupting TCB!Celestia into an [[MadGod insane]] [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen tyrant]], it's also heavily hinted to have corrupted both universe's versions of Luna into Nightmare Moon]].

* As a fantasy series, ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has a number of examples.
** The Alicorn Amulet from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]]". It [[AmplifierArtifact amplifies the user's magical powers to tremendous amounts]], but [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity also brings on paranoid megalomania]] and [[ClingyMacGuffin can only be removed by the user]]. By the end of the episode, [[spoiler:The Great and Powerful Trixie]] is ranting about how she doesn't trust wheels.
** The "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E23InspirationManifestation Inspiration Manifestation]]" spell is inscribed on a stone tablet-like book covered in spikes, kept in a secret part of an ancient castle, on top of a pedestal the stairs leading up to which start to collapse if the book has been moved, guarded with a barred and locked gate. ''This should have been a hint.'' Sadly, Spike fails to take the hint and brings the book to an unwitting Rarity, who uses the spell and becomes a MadArtist consumed by the desire to reshape the world according to her own creative whims and enough magical power to do so with little more than a thought.
** Chrysalis's Throne from "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E26ToWhereAndBackAgainPart2 To Where and Back Again – Part 2]]". Thorax describes it as "carved from an ancient dark stone that soaks up outside magic the same way changelings soak up love." It generates an AntiMagic field capable of depowering even Equestria's Physical Gods or Goddesses. Its influence also seems to make plant life whither, turning the area around the Changeling Hive into Mordor. Fittingly, its destruction is the go-to solution for all the problems faced by the heroes.
** Grogar's [[ForDoomTheBellTolls Bewitching Bell]] first introduced in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E8Frenemies Frenemies]]". It's an incredibly ancient yet powerful magic relic that, should one know the proper spells to activate it, can forcibly absorb magic from ''anything'', store it safely within itself, and release it back to its original source or give it to someone else, making it both a PowerNullifier and AmplifierArtifact. [[spoiler:Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow make full use of it to become the final villains of the series]]. Even more noticeably, unlike the other mentioned examples it's MadeOfIndestructium, which is why the ancient hero Gusty the Great [[SealedEvilInACan sealed it up inside a magic forcefield on a desolate mountain]] [[spoiler:and why even after getting blasted by the biggest rainbow-beam-blast-of-the-magic-of-friendship in the whole show it's still intact.]]
* It's been speculated that Gideon Gleeful's amulet from ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' is one, but nothing has been confirmed. [[spoiler:The second book itself, though, is most likely the cause of Gideon's madness.]]
* "Dodj or Daar" from ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' counts as one, as whatever punishment card you pull is made reality until the game finishes. This includes one player's arm doing whatever another's does, making you unable to walk on the ground due to it being 'lava', and most terrifying of all, ''making all the players physically unable to breathe''. There's a reason Gumball and Darwin first hid the game under their bed, then threw it away.

* The Key from '' WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}} can become an artifact of doom if its power is abused. Its main purpose is to power the portals between the human world and Centaurworld, but one of the things it can also be used for is fusing living things together to create monsters. Misusing it this way releases evil magical radiation that corrupts the user with repeated exposure. The being who became the Nowhere King used it this way in an attempt to create a family for himself because he didn't fit in in either the human world or Centaurworld. It turned him from a lonely pathetic creature into an OmnicidalManiac AnimalisticAbomination.

** The Book of Keeping is not truly a cursed artifact, but still a dangerous one in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' world. This book contains information on summoning powerful yugoloths, even giving the true names of a few of them. No-one knows who wrote it -- given that he would likely be the yugoloths' most hated enemy, he may no longer be alive. At least four copies of the Book exist, although some say as many as seven, and their owners tend to change frequently.

** The Fused Shadows, which are hyped up to be an Artifact of Doom by the Light Spirits that Link rescues throughout the game. However, they all agree that, despite the potential for evil the Shadows hold, Link needs to collect them in order to have a chance of challenging [[BigBad Zant's]] power. Their power is proven when a single fragment can turn a Deku Baba into a vast two-headed monster, or an ordinary Goron into a low-budget Balrog that causes Death Mountain to constantly erupt. [[spoiler: And it's later revealed that the three fragments only make up ''half'' of the Fused Shadows. The other half is the strange helmet thing that Midna wears, and with them, she pops Zant like a balloon, using only a 'fraction' of their power - though Ganondorf isn't so remotely fazed]]. They don't corrupt Link or Midna - though the risk to Link is graphically illustrated by Lanayru in a horrifying DreamSequence. It's suggested that like most Twilight magic they're [[DarkIsNotEvil not inherently evil]], just incredibly dangerous, and Link's Triforce and Midna's powers ([[spoiler: plus the fact that she's the rightful owner]]) insulate them. Instead, the main corruption is implied to come from the temptation of power itself.
** Just one shard of the Mirror of Twilight from the same game turns demure, unassuming Yeta into the crazy ice-monster Blizzeta. Afterwards, Midna comments on this (as well as regretting that they had to hurt Yeta to free her), saying that they could be assembling something terrible which they might end up having to destroy [[spoiler: (as Queen of the Twili, she later decides to do exactly that, to prevent another Ganondorf or Zant wreaking havoc on their respective worlds)]]. Ironically, once intact it's actually faar less dangerous. In pieces, the influence it has is... questionable.
--->'''''"NOT TAKE MIRROR!"'''''