All the ideas sound good, Grakhim, I\'ll try to advance your idea
Basically Relics should be rare items, but not too rare. They could be found through advanced quests or given from user to user as a items that\'s been passed down generation to generation.
Ok, when someones find a relic, there is a story behind it. Relics should be driven by different beliefs. Some are evil, some are good, some are neutral. Every relic like I said should have a story which will explain the responsibilities of the player if he wants to own the relic.
The relics give different responsibilities, some require players to be saviors of the good, some require to sacrifise an animal, some may require to do a single quest, but with given time limit. Depending on a relic and it\'s political view, players will be required to work hard to keep the relics.
Here are some examples of relics, don\'t mind names:
Relic of Wisdom
-story behind it, some mage dropped it here, but never returned because he was killed. He left this strong item under a spell, after time this item became known as a relic of wisdom. To own this relic, one must unlock the spells.
-This particular relic can\'t be picked up at first and must be unlocked. I don\'t have any ideas how

another example.
Relic of Passage
-this relic was given from gereration to generation in the family of famous mercenary who travelled a lot, but the chain was interrupted when the last of the mercs lost this relic in gambling. But because it\'s new owner didn\'t do the reqirements, the relic was transported here, to it\'s rightful location(wherever that is).
-You are allowed to pick up the relic. It would give you great speed bonus and agility for example. But you would have to become a merc in practice and do merc missions once a month for a example.
SO this how I see it