Cursed Equipment

Smith's from olden days used to believe that the only way to make a powerful piece of equipment was to pray to the god who's abilities you wanted to reflect. Now a days, people know that only spells work that way. However, there was one non-god who received a lot of prayers... Ruushu.

Equipment made under his name was powerful... but at a price. The equipment was cursed, harming the wielder. Many who wielded its awesome power fell before the curse (none the least Captain Chaffer's Uncle Burth Daisute, who's demon leather undies were rumored to have caused his untimely demise). So many lives were lost to the curses such equipment brought, that
three sages sealed them away. While even today, such equipment can be found, most are cleansed on sight, even Dark Vlad did such to his sword. However, guess where the technique was buried... under where Brakmar is now, and they clearly have decided to use it to their advantage (Bonta followed suit to avoid being destroyed)

Nature of Cursed Equiptment

Cursed equipment has excellent stats for their level, much better than any other. But they also harm the user, the strength having correlation to the item's power. The curse starts out minor, but gains strength as the battle progresses (meaning the wielder will want to end it as soon as possible). If two items have the same base curse, than only the stronger one will prevail, but it will start out an extra stage (that is, rather than starting on its turn one effect, it will start on its turn 2) in advance. Cursed items are denoted by a red name. The curse is a status effect, and thus, the Eni spell, Word of Youth (not normally used anyways), will have effect. The spell will reverse the curse a few stages (depending on the level of the spell). If the target dies, and they are revived, the curse will pick up where it left off.