History Main / CursedItem

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': The Ignika, Mask of Life, protects itself by inflicting curses on nearly anyone who touches it, save for those deemed worth to hold it. Given it is a very powerful object, this is necessary to prevent it from being misused by evil.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has the famous Cursed Shield. Equipping it will nerf the bearer's stats and inflict all of the StandardStatusEffects. This can be mitigated by also equipping a Ribbon, which grants immunity to most of those effects. So why go to all that trouble? Enduring the suffering through 255 battles breaks the curse and changes it into the [[ArmorOfInvincibility Paladin's Shield]].

* In Music/RichardWagner's ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Ring of the Nibelung]]'' opera tetralogy, the dwarf Alberich curses the ring he made out of the magical Rhine-gold before surrendering it along with other treasures the gods Loge and Wotan force him to give to giants Fasolt and Fafner as payment for building Walhall. The {{curse}} immediately takes effect as Fafner murders Fasolt to take the rinf and riches for himself. Then, years later, Siegfried slays Fafner (who turned himself into a dragon), takes the ring and ends up betrayed and killed himself.

* In Music/RichardWagner's ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Ring of the Nibelung]]'' opera tetralogy, the dwarf Alberich curses the ring he made out of the magical Rhine-gold before surrendering it along with other treasures the gods Loge and Wotan force him to give giants Fasolt and Fafner as payment for building Walhall. The {{curse}} immediately takes effect as Fafner murders Fasolt to take the rinf and riches for himself. Then, years later, Siegfried slays Fafner (who turned himself into a dragon), takes the ring and ends up betrayed and killed himself.

* In Creator/RichardWagner's ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Ring of the Nibelung]]'' opera tetralogy, the dwarf Alberich curses the ring he made out of the magical Rhine-gold before surrendering it along with other treasures the gods Loge and Wotan force him to give giants Fasolt and Fafner as payment for building Walhall. The {{curse}} immediately takes effect as Fafner murders Fasolt to take the rinf and riches for himself. Then, years later, Siegfried slays Fafner (who turned himself into a dragon), takes the ring and ends up betrayed and killed himself.

* ''WebVideo/TheAdventuresOfLeagueOfSTEAM''. In "Curses!", the team has a cursed artifact appraised in a curio shop run by [[Series/MythBusters Grant Imahara]] that apparently specializes in ArtifactsOfDoom. When our heroes realize what they have, they keep [[KeepAway passing it on to each other]], greatly confusing the {{Mummy}} that's [[FailedASpotCheck sneaking up on them with hands outstretched]].

->'''Creepy Old Man''': Take this object, but beware; it carries a terrible curse!\\
'''Homer''': Ooh, that's bad.\\
'''Creepy Old Man''': But it comes with a free frogurt!\\
'''Homer''': That's good!\\
'''Creepy Old Man''': The frogurt is ''also'' cursed.

* Near the beginning of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' Lina sells a magic dagger to a curio shop. The dagger curses whoever draws it into a BerserkerRage. When the shop keeper drew the dagger he began attacking Lina and Gourry who were forced to knock him out to stop the curse.

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* The ring Plagg gives Prince Adrien in ''FanFic/PrinceCharming''. Every night, if Adrien is wearing the ring he will transform into a cat-human hybrid and be stripped of his [[BlessedWithSuck blessing of brainwashing anyone he meets into an adoring slave]] until the sun rises again. Notably, since Adrien ''wants'' to be cursed (as it's the only way of removing his blessing), the ring is ''not'' a ClingyMacGuffin: Adrien can choose not to wear it if he doesn't want to be a werecat for the night.
* {{Fanfic/Curse of the Dualshock}} has a cursed controller [[spoiler: that traps anyone near the flash of light in the game the console it's connected to is running]]. [[spoiler: In the case of this story, it's the 9 pups (Chase, Marshall, Rubble, Rocky, Skye, Zuma, Shelly, Everest, and Tracker) in Minecraft (the game their Wii U 2 is running)]].

* In ''Literature/TheElricSaga'', Creator/MichaelMoorcock has his doomed hero Elric dependent on hard-to-obtain alchemical preparations to maintain his strength and vitality against his debilitating sickness. Then Elric discovers Stormbringer - The Black Sword which does away with the need for drugs. But this comes at an awful price; every time, Stormbringer kills and sucks the soul-energy from the victim to obliterate them and sustain Elric. And the sword isn't fussy about ''who'' it kills: one by one Elric's closest friends and lovers die to keep him alive. The sword is also a corrupting influence on Elric's soul.
* These turn up in quite a few different ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' books, where picking up a cursed item will permanently reduce one of your stats (usually Skill).

* ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'': The Ignika, Mask of Life, protects itself by inflicting curses on nearly anyone who touches it, save for those deemed worth to hold it. Given it is a very powerful object, this is necessary to prevent it from being misused by evil.

-->'''R2-D2''': Heh heh heh. Let's see what loot I got from your corpse.\\
'''R2-D2''': Only 13 gold coins? And what's this?\\
'''Chewbacca''': You may find that your combat stats are no longer as impressive as you recall.\\
'''R2-D2''': You put a cursed item in your own coin purse?! What sort of deviant would do that?!\\
'''Han Solo''': I warned you.\\
'''Chewbacca''': Let's discuss how you're going to pay for my resurrection, shall we?
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The Order [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0009.html finds]] a Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity, which inflicts a GenderBender on the wearer and can only be removed by magic. Roy, much to his annoyance, has to [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0234.html use it]] to bluff his way out of an ambush, and is glad to have a teammate with the necessary DispelMagic spell at the ready.

[[folder: Web Video]]
* ''Theatre/TheLeagueOfSTEAM''. In "Curses!", the team has a cursed artifact appraised in a curio shop run by [[Series/MythBusters Grant Imahara]] that apparently specializes in ArtifactsOfDoom. When our heroes realize what they have, they keep [[KeepAway passing it on to each other]], greatly confusing the {{Mummy}} that's [[FailedASpotCheck sneaking up on them with hands outstretched]].

* In the DOS AdventureGame VideoGame/TheRiddleOfMasterLu, you play as Robert Ripley, and pay for your traveling expenses by sending parcels back to his [[Franchise/RipleysBelieveItOrNot Believe It Or Not!]] exhibit in New York. One such item you can send, is the Romanov Emerald, a cursed russian crown jewel. Ripley is tasked with retrieving it from a castle to be rid of its curse, and [[ShmuckBait you have the option to send it.]] If you do so, you will be informed that the exhibit was shut down, and if you travel to New York after, you are arrested in a NonStandardGameOver. What the player is actually supposed to do, is give it to a villain, which leads to his demise via accident.

* ''VideoGame/NetHack'' has Cursed items, harmful versions of items which actively hinder the player and cannot be removed once equipped. Items can be found cursed, or cursed through a number of means. There are also a number of methods to remove a cursed item. Of note is that a few cursed items do have potential uses to the player though many require other capabilities to be used effectively.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' introduces a staple of the series, the sword-edged sword. It's actually quite good, but is technically cursed (gets the music and everything) that it inflicts a percentage of the damage it causes to monsters to its wielder. Despite this, people just equip it to a high HP meatshield and go to town.

** The One-Hit Obliterator in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBrathOfTheWild'''s DLC does exactly what the title says -- you can one-hit most enemies in the game with it, but in exchange you can only use this effect twice before it needs a cooldown. The one-hit part [[OneHitPointWonder applies to you as well]]. Interestingly, this is a trial for Link as the monks want to see how good he is with this kind of limitation.

* Cursed items appear in many of the games in ''Franchise/DragonQuest''. While there is no direct way to know if an item is cursed without equipping it, they are often described as having "an air of danger". These items tend to be very powerful for where they are found to entice the player to equip them. The drawback though is that someone wearing a cursed item often cannot attack in combat, and all items are of the StuckItems variety requiring a visit to the church to remove them.

* ''Theatre/TheLeagueOfSTEAM''. In "Curses!", the team has a cursed artifact appraised in a curio shop run by [[Series/MythBusters Grant Imahara]] that apparently specializes in ArtifactsOfDoom. When our heroes realize what they have, they keep passing it to each other, greatly confusing the {{Mummy}} that's [[FailedASpotCheck sneaking up on them with hands outstretched]].

* The cursed medal from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' which prevent you from opening your bag until you have them specially removed.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Graven Hunter Files'' novel ''Death by Demon'' has Sye first attempt to wield his families ancestral sword, only to suffer a horrific curse placed on the sword by Nagefilir, who's son was killed by Sye's ancestor. Sye has to convince Nagefilir to let go of his grudge to lift the curse.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': In Nazjatar any item or mob looted has the chance to drop a cursed item, such as an ancient coin or a skeletal hand. No regular merchant will take them and so long as it's held the player will periodically suffer a serious debuff, such as reduced health or any increased chance to be critically struck. The only way to get rid of these items is to trade them to an insane Tortollan for a sack of gold and dire warnings.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Halloween episode about a cursed Krusty doll, as quoted at the top. Homer buys the doll from a creepy shop and is informed that it is cursed. However, it comes with a free frogurt... which is also cursed. But, you get a free topping. Except the toppings contain potassium benzoate. ([[RunningGag That's bad]].)