The Chalice has popped up here and there in history. Typically, its owners have come to see it as a curse.
A humble young
Elven prospector named Adelari Vhel unearthed the Chalice around a hundred years ago. Upon learning the Chalice's nature, he drank from it. Within a fortnight his wife and children left him, and his modest home burned down (events which may or may not have been related). Within a month he was the richest man in the county. Within a year, a sleepy village at the north edge of the
Falwood had become the prosperous town of Vhelton.
Raiders hit Vhelton more than once, clashing with mercenaries that Adelari could now afford. Upon his death, the town's prosperity withered, the mercenaries moved on or turned looters themselves, and Vhelton became a virtual ghost town.
Adelari kept the source of his wealth a secret throughout his life. The Chalice was not associated with Adelari or Vhelton until a Cortosi banker and some Anirian spies learned of its presence in Adelari's tomb. At Vhelton, a Dreadlord named
Venanin Sen Shiir clashed with the Silver Key mercenaries under
Ledhros Caur. By the battle's end, the Chalice belonged to the Dreadlord.
During the Age of Wonders, a Dwarven goldsmith and enchanter is believed to have created the Chalice of Estate as an idealistic commentary on the lust for wealth. It's said he then fell victim to his own creation: in desperate times, he drank from it and became both miserable and unspeakably rich until his dying day. The
dwarves of Belgrath remember him in song as Goldfever Dhukav, the master crafter. Dhukav's Cup, as those songs call it, was stolen from Belgrath a very long time ago, and has changed hands many times.
Some believe that King Grichen's devout knights quested for the Chalice in the final days of the
Age of Expansion. Certainly his great kingdom's collapse made some men immensely wealthy for the remainder of their short lives. Nursery rhymes in the
Allir Reach allude to a queen who drank from a golden cup and drowned in an ever-deeper lake of gold when she couldn't spend it or give it away fast enough. A folktale in eastern Liadain tells a similar tale.
There are very quiet rumours that the Chalice has been found again, though where and by whom is anyone's guess.