Amulet of Zoar

The Amulet of Zoar is a MacGuffin-like item from the television series, Ace Lightning, created by the BBC. The Amulet appears as a large gold and silver-coloured triangular object with four purple gems incrested into it. It is said to have great powers that can be used for various purposes.

Overview
The Amulet is a primary part of the show's plot, being sought by both superhero Ace Lightning and the Lightning Knights, and by Lord Fear and his group of villains. While the Lightning Knights' goals with the Amulet are mainly unknown apart from having to guard it, Lord Fear intends on using the Amulet's powers to conquer the world and then the universe, one dimension at a time. Kilobyte, an antagonist introduced in the second season, at first simple seeks out the Amulet in order to summon more villains, but he eventually plans to use it to conquer the world by swapping mankind with the creatures of the Sixth Dimension.

The Amulet is shattered to pieces all forms of the franchise, including both the show, the fictional and a real-life video game series and the fragments have to be collected by the characters in order to fix it and decide the fate of the opposing side. If Ace Lightning gains it, he will be able to send the villains back to the Sixth Dimension for eternal imprisonment, and destruction for the Lightning Knights if Lord Fear gains the Amulet. The Amulet is shown to be able to send the villains back to the Sixth Dimension if shattered by a member of the Lightning Knights, namely Mark Hollander.

Despite the claim that the Amulet possesses "untold powers", little of them have been revealed over the course of the show. The Amulet's primary ability shown is the ability to summon characters or items from the Sixth Dimension, really the video game's database in the show, although this is unknown to the video game characters. Over the course of the television series, several characters are summoned or re-summoned, depending on their situation and location. The choice of character that is summoned seems to depend on who uses the Amulet pieces, and who currently owns the fragments used. For example, when Ace or Lord Fear summon a character, it is a hero or villain respectively; but when villain Dirty Rat uses two pieces of the Amulet, one piece each stolen from both sides, he summoned Random Virus, a character who suffers from multiple personality disorder and has a good side and an evil side, making him a neutral-aligned character until one of his personalities decides to side with one of the respective sides.

The Amulet appears to possess some signs of animate life, as the fragments are capable of hiding themselves in odd locations like the inside of a garden gnome, and when the Amulet is shattered, the fragments can fly away.

Fictional History
The Amulet's creation is unknown, but it is implied that a person named Zoah created the artefact and bestowed it with his own abilities. The Lightning Knights guarded it, until Lord Fear's attempt to steal it. He succeeded, but was imprisoned by Ace Lightning. Lady Illusion helped Lord Fear and his gang of villains escape and they stole the Amulet again, leading to their journey into the American town Conestoga Hills. Ace Lightning followed, as did the Amulet which shattered into seven pieces which flew off and hid themselves, following the programming of the video game.

The characters spent the first season searching for the Amulet fragments, summoning characters from the Sixth Dimension to join their sides, namely Googler, Random Virus and Sparx. The Amulet pieces were hidden around the Kent Bros. Carnival (or the Carnival of Doom to most of the characters), although three pieces were owned by Ace, Lord Fear and Lady Illusion from the beginning. The other pieces were found underground by Dirty Rat, in a crane game by Mark Hollander, in a garden gnome by Ace, and in a raffle prize box by Lady Illusion. The last piece was gained by Dirty Rat who briefly started a rebellion against Lord Fear, whilst Lady Illusion gained the Lightning Knights' pieces of the Amulet; having been blackmailed by Lord Fear's servant Staff Head when he learnt of her forbidden romance with Ace. Lord Fear gained the fully restored Amulet and it drained the Lightning Knights of their powers. They fought the villains until Mark located the Amulet in the carnival's haunted house and shattered it, sending all of the villains except Lady Illusion back to the Sixth Dimension.

In the second season, Mark hid the fragments around his house but they were quickly located by Lady Illusion, disguised as a housekeeper named Felicity Fury. Lord Fear returned and quickly summoned his fellow minions with some newcomers. Kilobyte ultimately decided to use the Amulet to trap mankind in the Sixth Dimension, although it seemed he could already do this with his own abilities. He briefly gained the Amulet in its complete form only to be blasted into the Sixth Dimension himself by Ace, Lord Fear and Mark. The Amulet shattered again and the pieces flew away. Their location was never revealed due to the show's cancellation, but it was revealed in the third season that Lord Fear was to try and use science and human technology to free his minions without the Amulet's powers.