Sark (3.5e Equipment)

Sark
 Created by a few deities and epic druids, sarks can be useful and powerful. When an intelligent creature dies, it can choose to willingly undergo a ritual which creates a sark from it's body as the soul leaves. The body crumbles to fine ash, leaving only the sark: a web-like skein of tiny, faintly glowing orbs connected by tough, wiry cords. This sark contains the creature's lower brain functions, muscle memories, and occasionally subconscious habits. When another creature wraps the sark around themselves, their own mind connects with the lower mind left in the sark. The magic in the sark causes the wearer to believe themselves to be a creature of the type which created the sark, and their belief makes it so.

The wearer changes into a creature of the same type as the sark's creator, as though affected by a shapechange spell. Unlike the spell, there is no HD cap, but the wearer uses either his HD or the HD of the sark's creator at the time of its death, whichever is lower. The wearer must make a DC 20 Will save when they want to return to their normal form in order to convince their real mind that they are not actually a creature of the sark's type. Failure causes a cumulative -2 penalty to the next Will save, and after three failed saves in a row, the wearer cannot voluntarily end the shapechange. At that point, only a Limited Wish, Wish or Miracle spell can free the wearer from the enchantment before the sark is ruined.

The sark is tough and durable, surviving even the death of the wearer (who will revert to his original form upon death). However, it can only be worn for 1 hour/HD of the wearer, and afterwards cannot be used again until an equal amount of time has passed, or 8 hours of rest, whichever is less. If the wearer exceeds this time, he loses all memory of himself, believing that he has always been this creature. While he may not automatically be hostile to his allies, he will not recognize them and may have difficulty believing them. After one hour in this state, the sark is ruined forever, and the wearer returns to his original form.

Note: While this artifact is listed as minor, a sark created by a great wyrm or other extremely powerful creature would count as a major artifact.