Greetings.
Players of my Rhine saga need not put too much into this...But would anyone care to weigh in with stats for the Divine relic "Shrine of the Three Kings" in Cologne Cathedral?
My advice: don't overdo their importance as relics.
- In Milan they were kept in Saint Eustorgius near a city gate in a late Roman sarcophagus, apparently without much of a cult.
- After 1164 the Barbarossa took them to Germany and made them symbols of his crushing victory over the Guelf city.
- In Cologne they became symbols of that trading city, its most important relics and religious reason for traveling there.
- The shrine in Cologne is an epitome of medieval art, and as such also a matter of competition between the houses of Staufen and of Welf.
- And finally, the Order or Hermes, especially its middle European Tribunals, might adopt the three mage kings as their patrons.
This is already a lot of symbolic, political and commercial burden for them.
Best have them bestow some blessing on devout, selfless foreigners new to the city.
And perhaps have some demon of competition watch over them for easy prey. Gaap (RoP:TI p.52f) or Berith (RoP:TI p.59f) can perhaps be adapted for this. Bael (RoP:TI p.67f) in this function could be the base of a saga.
Cheers
As the Three Kings were magoi, or astrologers, you could attach astrological significance to the shrine.
Alternatively, give it three miracles - a gift of gold, a miracle that affects wealth or worldly power; a gift of frankincense(1), a miracle that raises prayers to heaven (maybe helping invoke divine aid, or maybe causing a Wisdom effect from RoP:D) and a gift of myrrh, a miracle that relieves pain/disease/suffering.
(1) OK, so technically incense that's been sold to a "Frank" or western European could be called "Frankincense" but you know I mean the super-high quality resin from east Africa or Yemen that has a low enough vapour point it could spontaneously sublime.
You could also go the Baudolino route and suggest that they're fraudulent.