The Glowing Aegis of the Zuma is a unique item, which means it's not just a +2 Prestige Large Shield. It's some badass thing of alien manufacture with its own backstory (unless it totally doesn't have a wiki page). When people hear the bards sing of the battles it's involved in (Or however that news is supposed to be spread), don't you think certain identifying attributes of this awesome asskicking device would be involved in it?
That said, could be and probably is just speculation. Who really knows? This thing totally came out of the blue for me, though I've only had an advy on Dwilight up until very recently and he's been more involved with his monster-huntin' pals than anything resembling politics. All I know is that unique items are like the Ashbringer or Sting or any other famous artifact from any number of settings; even the peasantry has some basic understanding of what they look like and what they do.
