I feel they need to be updated. Instead of focusing on just the pk aspects, as they tend to, they should be more fun, interesting and easily accessible. the use of these artifacts should come with cool emotes, an artifact that grants recall could actually show a big bird swoop in and whisk the user away. so it creates an atmosphere for not only the user but those that witness it. an artifact that does teleport could suck the user into a tiny black-hole and where they end-up it would show them reappearing in much the same fashion.
One relic, when made usable, could actually turn into a Golem at the command of the one that called it forth. (level 30 charmie that does little more than carry a limited number of items and provides emotes... however, if you possess its usable counterpart, when you use that artifact you can transfer your conscious mind to the Golem... for a duration limited only by what physical harm is brought to your body... such as hunger, thirst or being attacked... or destruction of the golem.)
I haven't really focused on specific applications, but these relics should retain their form when they're turned into artifacts... a relic bowl, when made an atrifact (given limited magical properties) would remain a bowl but when filled with water like a container, could allow the user to "scry" a specific person. (Scry: this spell enables the user to look upon others at a distance.) which the bowl slowly becomes cloudy, as the user concentrates on an individual that is known to them, the clouds will slowly part to reveal aforementioned person.
I'm always a bit scatterbrained so, this might be a poor example of what I'm trying to convey... hopefully you'll get the gist.