[HoneyBadger]

Sorry JimMorrison, but I have to comment on this:

I'm more interested in artifacts that have stories behind them-what they *are*, and why they are, more than what they can do. I play Dominions in large part because of the depth already present in the game, and when I mod something in, I try to make it "live" a little.
It adds to the challenge of creating something, and I end having a sense of accomplishment, of either *being* creative, or preserving-in a popular form-something that already has a place in human culture.

I don't think it's quite fair to add a forgeable item to the game (or anything else, honestly) *just* to fill power gaps. Particularly artifacts. It's nice if they do, ofcourse, but shoehorning something it, just to have access to it, seems rather cheap...

Pretty much anything and everything has already been thought of-so whatever item you want to have access to via Forging is probably out there, and if it's not, or not quite what you want, it's a lot more interesting to put some thought into the item's place in the world, than it is to just come up with a random name and slap it on a bunch of stat increases or whatever.