See Magic

Races who can detect magic perceive auras around intensely powerful magical items.

It seems that the more fancy the aura, the more powerful the item.

+ show: Theories as for how the item power is determined

Theories as for how the item power is determined:

• x) A direct "difficulty of monster -> fancyful aura" relation is unlikely due to wormsleeves and worm bracelets being more fancy than items from GMs and other big monsters. (Note that mother worm was coded by an admin, meaning her items didn't have to follow the same rules as items on other monsters)
• a) Wizards get points which they can spend on the power of items on a mob depending on how powerful the mob is, and maybe also how many blockers or quests lead up to the mob. In that case, the aura might depend on how many points were spent on the item.
• b) Highest stat = Power of the item
• c) Total stats = Power of the item

a, b and c are rather hard to distinguish since items with higher maxstat usually have more total stats too, and assuming a rising costs system for buying an item's abilities with points, they would cost more points too. Maybe direct comparison of items can help figure out which one it really is.

Examples of the auras you might see on items:

Aura	Info	Examples
->Aura<-	Cursed Item
(Aura)	No stats?, possible abilities	golden monocle
-(Aura)-	Random drop armor, very low stats	spiked brooch
-<Aura>-	Basic Armor, Guild items, low increase in stats	short armbands
-<(Aura)>-	Low Armor, minor increase in stats	wool stockings
-<-(Aura)->-	Medium Armor, decent stats	null cap, ruby circlet, leather pads
-<*(Aura)*>-	Great Armor, greatly increases in stats	silk scarf, amulet of the sea, asa's tunic
-<-<*<Aura>*>->-	Exceptional Armor, vast increases in stats	wormsleeves, worm bracelets

(This list is most likely not complete, feel free to add to it)

Races that can see magic: Argus, Atomy, Changeling, Devil, Dragon, Elf, Goblin, Gremlin, Hephestian, Leprechaun, Mummy, Selkie, Shadow, Suula, Titan, Troll, and Uruk