The Artifact


 * This article is about the item found in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. For the items found in Heretic and Hexen, see Artifact. For the Top 100 1995 level set, see The Artifact (WAD)

"Hell reaches out for what is ours!"

- The Maledict

The Artifact, also known as the Heart of Hell and the Bloodstone, is a demonic device available to the player in the Doom 3 expansion pack, Resurrection of Evil. This Artifact, as a powerful device of non-Human origin, is the equivalent of the Soul Cube from Doom 3. It is a demonic heart-shaped device that was initially designed to aid the forces of Hell, but is used by the marine. It also acts as a gateway between Hell and our dimension. The Ancient Martians captured the Artifact during Hell's first invasion, but were unable to destroy it, so they locked it away in a secret chamber.

When the UAC returns to Mars at the beginning of Resurrection of Evil, a team of marines - including the game's protagonist - enters the Artifact's chamber and accidentally awakens it. This enables the forces of Hell under the command of Malcolm Betruger, in his new form as the Maledict, to invade once again. Betruger also sends the three Hunters to kill the Marine and retrieve the Artifact for himself.

Much of the game's plot revolves around the Marine learning the truth about the Artifact and ultimately setting out to return it to Hell where it can be destroyed. At the end of the game, the Marine brings the Artifact to Hell and uses it to destroy the Maledict. The Artifact itself is destroyed in the process.

Properties
The Artifact uses human souls as opposed to demonic ones. When used near human corpses, it charges up by absorbing souls (they'll be seen as a red glow on a corpse) and destroying the bodies. The Artifact will absorb souls automatically when needed so long as it is being held over the corpse; it will not absorb a soul if it is already fully charged. Three charges can be held at maximum.

The Artifact itself has no attack capability, but is more strategic than the Soul Cube. It has the ability to give the player a period in which he manipulates time, gains super strength (similar to a Berserk pack), and becomes temporarily invulnerable. These abilities become available each time the player defeats one of the three Hell Hunters, respectively.

A human heart-shaped object with a large curved handle, you will gain this at the start of the game but it will be useless until you defeat the Helltime Hunter, at which point the Artifact will absorb its Helltime abilities. Defeating the Berserk Hunter and Invulnerability Hunter allows the Artifact to absorb their abilities as well.


 * Helltime allows the player to move very fast, represented by time appearing to slow down to the point that enemies can not react to your movements.
 * Berserk strengthens all weapons, including punches that can kill a Hell Knight or a Bruiser in one hit.
 * Invulnerability is literally that.

All powers possessed by the Artifact are activated simultaneously when invoked, meaning someone with a charged Artifact later in the game has the potential to become a lightning fast, invulnerable death machine that can rip apart a Hell Knight with his bare hands. The weapon is not completely without disadvantages, however minor they may be - while in use, the Marine's vision is partially obscured by a swirling vortex of hellish materials, and his sense of hearing is impeded, both in a basic sense and by the constant whispering of unintelligible speech that continues for the duration of activation.

Depiction in tablets
The Artifact is depicted in a number of ancient Martian civilization tablets recovered from Site 1 both during its original excavation and during Dr. Elizabeth McNeil's research expedition. Amongst them are the following:
 * Shards of a tablet which show revenant-like armored demons appearing out of the Artifact, a reference to the fact that it contains a portal to Hell.
 * A large piece of a tablet depicting what may be the origin of the Artifact, where it appears to be integrated into an entity or structure which closely resembles the Maledict.
 * A shard which displays the Artifact housed within a containment unit, possibly the same device in which it is found in the game.
 * Full tablets which display the Hell Hunters and icons associated with the power which they impart to the Artifact, and a tablet shard displaying the Invulnerability Hunter seemingly striking down terrified humans.
 * The Primitive, a small tablet serving as a cipher key for the glyphs on the other tablets, simply depicts a picture of the Artifact itself.