I was reading a review of this book "Holy Bones, Holy Dust", a history of early Christian "relic cults". A brief description: "Relics affected everyone in medieval society. Saintly morsels such as bones, hair, teeth, and clothes, and items like the Crown of Thorns, coveted by Louis IX of France, were thought to bring the believer closer to the saint who might intercede with God on his or her behalf. In the first comprehensive history in English of the rise of relic cults". Of course, this lead me to think of Clockwork Empires. What better way for new settlers to honor their most revered predecessors than to pilfer their tombs, stealing ornate Memorial Cogs and Splintered Shinbones to squirrel away in Reliquaries... leading, of course, to the inevitable cults and madness that come from any respectably ancient relic. It might also be a fun meta-game element for players to see characters from long abandoned campaigns resurface in new games as foreign relic traders offer to sell highly prized chunks of their desecrated remains.
