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A cult of mages sought to control magic even after the power used to create magic was used up. It was the Impirious of Talaona that succeeded in creating the Helix, an artifact that radiates power....unfortnately they did not forsee the concesquences of making this powerful relic....

The Helix is a floating ball of energy roughly 12 inchs in diamiter, surrounded by a mesh of magicked metal. The orb of energy is the heart of the Helix, and it is from this source the arifact gets its power. The orb constantly changes color, and sheds a rainbow of light up to a distance of 30 feet. Anyone who looks directly at the orb of energy is affected by a Color Spray spell(caster lv20).

Although created to be a source for magical energy for spellcasters in dead magic zones, or perhaps even on a dead magic planet(example:Talaona), the Helix does not function the way it was intended. When a spellcaster casts a spell near the Helix, a portion of the spells energy is actually absorbed by the Helix instead of acting normally. Treat the spell as if it were a Shades spell of the same name that affects all schools of magic(this effect is not limited to evocation and conjuration schools).
For example, if a player casts a Magic Missle spell in the Helix's range, then the spell becomes a Shades Magic Missle, that follows all other rules for a Shades cast spell(3/5s or 60% as strong as the real thing if the targets make their Will save).

The Helix's range is 100 feet in reguards of affecting spells. After absorbing some of a spells energy, the Helix recieves a number of charges equal to half the spells lv, rounded up. When the Orb achieves 60 charges, it unleashes its Mana Drain ability. Mana Drain creates a huge dead magic area, as the orb quickly begins to drain magical energy from the surroundings. Magical beings(fey,djinn,unicorns,dragons,ect) are dealt xd6 damage, where x is the current radius of the Helix's dead zone, as the orb of energy literally sucks them dry. Beings that cast spells spontaniously(ie. bards and sorcerers, ect) suffer a similar fate. This damage is checked and applied once every hour.
Beings not born into magic(clerics, paladins, rangers, wizards ect) instead of being dealt damage, lose access to a random spell for every hour they spend in the Helix's dead zone.(treat the spell as if it had not been memorized or prepared for that day.)
Finally, the surroundings themselves lose magical energy to the Helix at the rate of 3 points of energy per round.(the limit of the energy of a planet in a given area is left to DMs discreation, but i hold that a magic heavy world supplies 30 rounds worth of energy, while a magic lite world would supply 10 rounds of energy.)
The orb absorbs the damage dealt to magical beings, spell lvs of stolen spells, and energy in an effort to increase the range of the dead zone, which in turn gives it access to more victims and energy. The radius of the dead zone starts at 60 feet when first activated, and grows 40 feet when the orb has drained 100 points of magical energy. The zone persists for one hour after it has drained all energy from its current radius.

It is believed that the Helix could drain the power of even the greatest of artifacts, but the cost would be tremendous, as the Helix will not function in its current resting place, the dead world of Talaona. Since no magic currently works there, the artifact would have to be moved to another planet, fed enough energy to activate, and then...well you see what it can do! DMs are cautioned about useing this as a means of destorying artifacts; if the artifact is powerful, then it should be treated as a heavy magic world for purposes of energy drain...perhaps even feeding the Helix far longer than a heavy magic world(example:60 rounds worth of energy, almost gueerenteeing the orb will have a dead zone radius of 240 feet...if not more!)