The Crown of Dark Wisdom, or Aschellion's Crown, was crafted by the sorceror lord Aschellion as a way to help him to ascend his cousin's throne during a terrible civil war. His three rivals for the seat of power had councils of the wisest and most learned sages in all the land, and Lord Aschellion found himself on the back foot more often than not as a result.

This crown allows the wearer to commune with their ancestors, and works best when worn by an anointed king or queen, but is also effective for close relatives of royalty. They will indeed offer excellent advice, but as time goes on their whispered words will become more obtuse and compelling, sometimes asking for favours and strange deeds to be done.

For what Lord Aschellion failed to reckon with was that his ancestors were just as power hungry as himself, and death had done little to blunt their appetites. He found that before long he was unable to force them to be quiet, whether or not he was wearing the crown, and he started to speak in ancient languages, pursuing long-gone grudges with the blameless descendants of centuries-vanished warlords.

These events culminated in Aschellion digging up an ancient tome of necromancy and resurrecting the most powerful of the ancestral voices in his head, leading to another civil war far more terrible than the last, this timebetween the living and the dead.

The crown grants large benefits to wisdom but must be used with great caution, for fear that the past might truly seek to control the future.