Shinkami was the first Exalted Focus. It was made by a very skilled high mage and his apprentice.

Shinkami was a demon that terrorized the island of Kairos, senselessly slaughtering and absorbing the magic of everything it came across by possessing their bodies and overwhelming them from within. Its presence was a threat to all of Nophra, and many had tried to stop it and failed, ending up as fodder and further increasing its destructive powers.

A high mage and his apprentice had been looking for a way to stop it, since clearly there would be no way to match it in power alone. They discovered the logistics behind harnessing Crystali magic through a weapon, and the unfortunate sacrifices that must be made to do this.

Exalted focuses work by essentially stealing a Crystali’s connection with Nophra. This requires harvesting their crystals while they are still alive, since that connection breaks upon death. Breaking enough of a Crystali’s crystals will kill them, so these weapons always have a bloody background to them. A masterful smith will then carefully craft a weapon and enchant it so that it acts as a bridge between the user and the harvested crystals. The results are a weapon or accessory that allows the user to access an extra flow of magic, which can greatly amplify their abilities.

The mages came to the unfortunate conclusion that a sacrifice needed to be made. Killing it with brute force would not be possible by any means available to them, so they had to turn to drastic measures. Their plan was for the high mage to allow Shinkami to enter him and overwhelm him, and the apprentice was to harvest the master’s crystals, killing him and trapping Shinkami within. The crystals would then be destroyed, in turn destroying Shinkami for good.

The only way for Shinkami to free itself would be for someone to use those crystals in a focus, and channel too much of his accumulated magic through them. This would allow it to overwhelm the user and free itself from its prison.

Greifstriken and lonely, the apprentice could not bring himself to destroy this piece of his late master, and curiosity got the better of him. He reasoned with himself that this would be for the greater good, it would be the perfect opportunity to test their theory without killing someone for their crystals. He made the staff using their research, successfully creating the first ever exalted focus.

Unfortunately he could not stop himself from trying the weapon, yearning to feel close to his master again.. He was very emotionally vulnerable at this time and Shinkami convinced him to use more and more power, very nearly overwhelming him and freeing himself. Something within the apprentice broke after realizing he’d almost ruined everything his master sacrificed himself for. Still unable to bring himself to destroy the staff, he instead hid it away in an unknown location along with plenty of warnings to never use this weapon.

The apprentice ended up vanishing without a trace. It is rumored he lost his mind and committed suicide.

Their research was hidden, but people who had heard of the events searched for it and it was eventually discovered. There have been a few practicing focus smiths around Nophra throughout the years, but it’s definitely a difficult thing to get into considering the way the materials need to be obtained. This craft is also completely forbidden for obvious reasons.

Shinkami’s reign of terror is now centuries in the past, and most have no idea what it is. He is mostly talked about in Kairos where the land bears a lot of scars from his rampages.

The apprentice hid the staff very well, and nobody even knew it was real anymore since literature commonly referred to it as a legend and people think the whole concept is too absurd to be real. Twilax was not the only one obsessively reading all the material she could find about it, but she was the first to actually find it. People who know of Exalted focuses know what her staff is, but none realize it’s Shinkami other than her.