When Minthara comes to you in the camp for the first time, she also feels calmness and peace in her head for the first time since long. You then have the option to tell her it is the artefact that shields her as well. I didn't choose that option but preferred to say nothing about it. So I don't know what will happen if you reveal it there to her. She's still an absolute commander at that point.
So in addition to the Emperor's constant attention there also seems to be a "radius of protection" inherent to the artefact.
It's all quite messy to say the least.
Cheers. I haven't been able to bring myself to go all evil yet, so didn't know that. So it has a passive effect and an active skill, if you like? That actually makes sense for breaking the Emperor free. And not wildly different from a tonne of other magic items in the game.
Act 2 and 3 Spoilers:
It does... and it doesn't:
We see with both Duke Ravenguard and Minsc that they apparently get no benefit from simply being near the prism until the Emperor is convinced to extend protection.
There's also the situation with Jaheira when you approach Last Light Inn where if you reveal the artefact to her, it just... incinerates the tadpole she has in the jar? Despite the fact that we've been near many so far that seem unaffected by any sort of radiant effect of the prism.
At the end of Act 2, if the Emperor dies while you are inside the prism, you are instantly found by the Absolute who promptly transforms and enthralls you.
Similarly, at the end of Act 3, if you betray the Emperor in some way that causes it to leave the prism then there are a few possible options:
1. You have the hammer already - you're able to free a chained, but not yet fully cooperative Orpheus.
2. You did not kill Raphael but haven't made a deal with him - he apparently has the ability and time to teleport inside the prism, offer you the deal once again, and allow you to free Orpheus.
3. You either killed Raphael previously or just rejected his final deal and you do not have the hammer - you are instantly found and enthralled like the end of Act 2.
It could be inferred that the prism does have passive protection, but it just isn't strong enough to be effective within a certain distance from the Absolute. This however, then seems contradicts the explanation of the Absolute's reveal at the end of the game that all of this has been plot conceived by it. Does the prism have a passive effect that works a certain distance from the Absolute or was it indeed the Absolute who "freed [the Emperor] from its leash"?
The behavior of the astral prism seems to be pretty poorly defined and ebbs and flows as the story needs. People are of course free to choose some explanation they like and just roleplay with that, but as the story presents, it is...sloppy to say the least in my opinion. There are a couple of situations at the very end of the game that also present some issues with how exactly the power of Orpheus even works - which, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt for now and say it's just the result of very rushed development but time will tell.
Yikes, I tried submitting right as the forums began experiencing the timeout issues yesterday and it looks like it's managed to duplicate this. Sorry for that, I'll try to clean up the others.
