Rainbow’s Rebuke

Aura Moderate abjuration and evocation; CL 9th
Slot —; Price 18,312 gp; Weight 8 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

This finely crafted heavy mace is forged from silvered steel polished to a mirror sheen. The head of the weapon resembles an unfolding blossom composed of six overlapping crystal petals, each subtly reflecting a different hue when struck by light. Though elegant in appearance, the petals are magically hardened to a supernatural degree, capable of shattering armor and bone with the same brutal force as forged steel. Along the haft are engraved dozens of tiny names in multiple languages - some faded with age, some impossibly sharp and new - each representing individuals who stood openly against hatred, cruelty, or persecution. When held by a creature of good alignment, the weapon emits a faint warmth similar to sunlight through stained glass.

Rainbow’s Rebuke functions as a +2 heavy mace. Against creatures actively attempting to harm, persecute, intimidate, or oppress others due to identity, orientation, expression, culture, ancestry, or sincere personal truth, the weapon’s enhancement bonus increases to +3 and it deals an additional 2d6 points of holy damage. This additional damage only functions against evil creatures.

Whenever the wielder uses the total defense action or fights defensively while wielding Rainbow’s Rebuke, all allies within 15 feet gain a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear, charm, compulsion, and intimidation effects. Allies benefiting from this aura feel a profound sense of solidarity and emotional grounding, as though reminded they do not stand alone.

Three times per day, upon striking an evil creature with the mace, the wielder may invoke a pulse of radiant color as a swift action. This creates a 20-foot burst centered on the target. Allies within the area immediately gain the benefits of remove fear and temporary hit points equal to the wielder’s Charisma modifier + level (maximum 15). Evil creatures within the burst must succeed on a DC 17 Will save or become shaken for 1d4 rounds as the weapon forces them to confront the emotional weight of the suffering they inflict. This is a mind-affecting fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

If the wielder willingly uses Rainbow’s Rebuke to participate in torture, humiliation, or cruelty toward helpless individuals, the weapon immediately loses all magical properties until the wielder sincerely performs an act of meaningful protection or compassion toward a vulnerable person or community.

LORE

Rainbow’s Rebuke was never created for conquest. It was born during an era in which fear became fashionable among the powerful, and cruelty disguised itself as righteousness. In city after city, vulnerable people vanished quietly into prisons, alleyways, and graves while polite society debated whether their suffering was unfortunate or deserved. The first wielders of these maces were not conquerors or kings, but guardians - tavern owners, priests, retired soldiers, healers, dancers, scribes, and ordinary citizens who realized that survival sometimes required standing visibly between hatred and its victims.

The earliest known example emerged from a hidden forge beneath a sanctuary district where refugees gathered under magical wards painted into stained-glass ceilings. The forge-smith, an aging dwarf named Taldrin Veilhammer, reportedly lost his son to a mob incited by demagogues claiming moral purity. Witnesses claimed Taldrin forged the mace in silence for nine consecutive days while choirs above sang funeral hymns and protest songs interchangeably, until the distinction between mourning and defiance disappeared entirely.

Over time, Rainbow’s Rebuke became less a single weapon and more a philosophy expressed through steel. Different cultures recreated it according to their own symbols and traditions. Some resembled cathedral relics adorned with gemstones and scripture. Others were rough iron cudgels wrapped in scraps of festival banners. In every form, however, the purpose remained unchanged - to remind frightened people that dignity defended together becomes harder to extinguish.

Stories surrounding the weapon often focus less on battles won and more on moments prevented. Riots that dissolved when defenders refused to retreat. Sanctuaries that held through long nights. Young people who survived despair because someone stood beside them openly and without shame. Scholars who study Rainbow’s Rebuke frequently note that its magic appears strengthened not by anger, but by communal courage. The weapon does not thrive on vengeance. It thrives on solidarity.

Many wielders describe an unusual emotional sensation when carrying the mace into dangerous situations. They report hearing distant music with no identifiable source - laughter, marching feet, whispered encouragements, and festival songs layered together as though generations of unseen voices walk beside them. Whether this phenomenon is divine intervention, psychic resonance, or simple imagination remains fiercely debated among theologians.

CONSTRUCTION

Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, holy smite, remove fear, heroism, creator must be good-aligned; Cost 9,156 gp + 732 XP + a fragment of stained glass willingly donated from a place of sanctuary or celebration associated with a marginalized community.

Kelwyn’s Notes

There exists a peculiar cowardice common among societies convinced of their own virtue - the belief that cruelty becomes sanctified when wrapped in tradition, law, or majority approval. One observes this repeatedly throughout history. Entire civilizations become so frightened of difference that they mistake persecution for stability. They begin to fear joy expressed openly. Love expressed honestly. Identity spoken aloud without apology. Such cultures inevitably produce violence not because they are strong, but because they are terrified.

Rainbow’s Rebuke is fascinating precisely because it understands this truth. It is not truly a weapon of wrath, despite appearances. It is a weapon of interruption. It exists to place itself physically between the vulnerable and the machinery of shame. The mace does not celebrate conflict. Rather, it acknowledges that there are moments in which peace survives only because someone chose to stand their ground instead of lowering their eyes.

I find the symbolism of the weapon unusually elegant. A mace is historically an instrument designed to break armor - to crush hardened shells through blunt inevitability. There is something poetically appropriate in transforming such a weapon into an answer against ideological cruelty. Hatred often functions like armor. People bury themselves within dogma, certainty, inherited prejudice, and communal approval until empathy can no longer penetrate them cleanly. Rainbow’s Rebuke does not stab such defenses delicately. It strikes them directly.

And yet, what lingers with me most is not the weapon’s power, but its condition for failure. The enchantment abandons those who become cruel themselves. That detail matters immensely. Many righteous causes rot from within once vengeance replaces compassion. The mace appears aware of this danger. It understands that protection and domination are not the same thing, though frightened people frequently confuse them.

Civilization, at its best, is measured by whether frightened individuals may exist openly without fear of annihilation. Any society capable of protecting only the familiar eventually begins devouring itself piece by piece. First the strange. Then the inconvenient. Then the merely different. In this regard, Rainbow’s Rebuke is less a weapon and more a declaration - a refusal to permit fear to masquerade as morality.