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More days, more swords ~~~
11. Blooded (“royal”)
Many kingdoms, such as Avren, Rechiv, and the Swan Kingdom, award those of their royal house with Blooded swords, from slim rapiers for courtly souls to broad bastard blades for royal warlords.
All bear inscriptions naming their bearer, and pull blood from the very pores of any not of the line who dare to wield it; but, if a single droplet be deliberately placed upon a Blood blade, it will indicate whether that one is of any sort of royal line.
12. Stone-Sword (“antique”)
Sometimes, when foundations are dug deep, or a mine expanded, or a new dungeon burrowed into the earth, one or more swords are found embedded in the stone. Strange stony swords, of middling size; sturdy blades like hexagonal prisms, with simple hilts.
No one has an answer yet, and the gods refuse to explain; but the swords take enchanting well, and absorb blows meant for their wielder. Some give hazy visions of a strange fern-forested land.
13. Finality (“glass”)
A sword of finality is a lovely sight: perfectly balanced, often etched with a dedication or oath — and worked entirely from one piece of gleaming, perfectly transparent glass.
Its frightful edge causes any struck to bleed freely unless treated swiftly; but there is always a 2-in-6 chance to break. The name comes from the decision to commit — one terrible blow that trebles the injury, bleeding the wielder as well from the cataclysmic shards.
14. Starglass (“futuristic”)
So-called starglass swords are exceedingly rare, all known examples stemming from one exploration by the Swan Knight and their companions through a metallic dungeon deep in the Rorolit Forest.
These swords, at rest, are a black ceramic hilt mounting a stiff “wire” of a glassy, unbreakable substance. At will it flares to life: a blade’s outline in burning light of many colours , the “flat” intangible and yet gleaming and capable of parrying.
15. Gigante (“oversized”)
There are greatswords, and then there are so-called gigante swords, the length of a claymore but easily three or more times the width. One needs unusual strength to wield it, but it deals twice the injury of a lesser blade and grants a bonus to strike any who has already been wounded.
Tales say the first gigante was forged for a merc whose brazen horns and towering height marked a titanic heritage, but glory-hounds throughout Nifasan covet them.
16. Godgift (“divine”)
It’s rare to find a godgift blade; these swords are not forged, but granted to a faithful one by a deity as a blessing or a tool for a divinely ordained mission. All godgifts have a numinousness clinging to them.
A godgift grants a boon pertinent to the faith: turning water to honey or blood to ice, carving through stone, etc. Anathema are maimed if they touch the sword; others who find a lost blade may be pressed to accept a lost soul’s mission.
17. Kin-crypt (“ancestral”)
Despite its ominous common name, a kin-crypt sword does not contain the remains of one’s kin. What these weapons do hold is the memories, knowledge and sometimes physical skills that former bearers chose to pass to their descendants.
A bearer may impart five memories or dreams and either a body of knowledge or physically learned skill. Accessing one of these familial echoes takes a minute’s meditation. If one is not kin, the blade is mundane.
18. Eternal (“inhabited”)
Many fear the end. Of those, most simply die; some pursue undeath or some esoteric state.
Then there are those who choose the embrace of cold sharp steel.
An Eternal is a once-mortal soul bound into a sword. They may communicate; dreams, mindspeech, ecstasy and goading pain, all known. A wych may share magic, a courtier political wiles, a warrior skill at arms. And any may place a geas to bring one closer to the Eternal’s own goals or ethos.
19. Paragon (“elemental”)
A swordsmith will only forge one paragon in their life. These are the exemplars of the form; exquisite in balance, edge, weight, silhouette. The pinnacle to which all other blades are compared.
The essence of “sword”.
A paragon is a wonder. It parts flesh like water and steel like flesh; it can sever the wind, sunder speech, cleave oaths. A blessed weapon by very nature, anathema to corruption and entropy. Like calls to like, blade to blade.
20. Bonewalk (“osseous”)
A bonewalk is an odd-looking sword; whether a cunning marquetry of closely-fitted shards or carved from a single bone, they are heavy in cross-section and duller than a metal blade.
No matter. A razor edge isn’t needed as long as the bonewalk draws any blood at all. And then, one of two things: the sword expands in an unfolding jigsaw to become a skeletal servant, or it leaves a shard in the victim to change their bones into a new bonewalk.
11. Blooded (“royal”)
Many kingdoms, such as Avren, Rechiv, and the Swan Kingdom, award those of their royal house with Blooded swords, from slim rapiers for courtly souls to broad bastard blades for royal warlords.
All bear inscriptions naming their bearer, and pull blood from the very pores of any not of the line who dare to wield it; but, if a single droplet be deliberately placed upon a Blood blade, it will indicate whether that one is of any sort of royal line.
12. Stone-Sword (“antique”)
Sometimes, when foundations are dug deep, or a mine expanded, or a new dungeon burrowed into the earth, one or more swords are found embedded in the stone. Strange stony swords, of middling size; sturdy blades like hexagonal prisms, with simple hilts.
No one has an answer yet, and the gods refuse to explain; but the swords take enchanting well, and absorb blows meant for their wielder. Some give hazy visions of a strange fern-forested land.
13. Finality (“glass”)
A sword of finality is a lovely sight: perfectly balanced, often etched with a dedication or oath — and worked entirely from one piece of gleaming, perfectly transparent glass.
Its frightful edge causes any struck to bleed freely unless treated swiftly; but there is always a 2-in-6 chance to break. The name comes from the decision to commit — one terrible blow that trebles the injury, bleeding the wielder as well from the cataclysmic shards.
14. Starglass (“futuristic”)
So-called starglass swords are exceedingly rare, all known examples stemming from one exploration by the Swan Knight and their companions through a metallic dungeon deep in the Rorolit Forest.
These swords, at rest, are a black ceramic hilt mounting a stiff “wire” of a glassy, unbreakable substance. At will it flares to life: a blade’s outline in burning light of many colours , the “flat” intangible and yet gleaming and capable of parrying.
15. Gigante (“oversized”)
There are greatswords, and then there are so-called gigante swords, the length of a claymore but easily three or more times the width. One needs unusual strength to wield it, but it deals twice the injury of a lesser blade and grants a bonus to strike any who has already been wounded.
Tales say the first gigante was forged for a merc whose brazen horns and towering height marked a titanic heritage, but glory-hounds throughout Nifasan covet them.
16. Godgift (“divine”)
It’s rare to find a godgift blade; these swords are not forged, but granted to a faithful one by a deity as a blessing or a tool for a divinely ordained mission. All godgifts have a numinousness clinging to them.
A godgift grants a boon pertinent to the faith: turning water to honey or blood to ice, carving through stone, etc. Anathema are maimed if they touch the sword; others who find a lost blade may be pressed to accept a lost soul’s mission.
17. Kin-crypt (“ancestral”)
Despite its ominous common name, a kin-crypt sword does not contain the remains of one’s kin. What these weapons do hold is the memories, knowledge and sometimes physical skills that former bearers chose to pass to their descendants.
A bearer may impart five memories or dreams and either a body of knowledge or physically learned skill. Accessing one of these familial echoes takes a minute’s meditation. If one is not kin, the blade is mundane.
18. Eternal (“inhabited”)
Many fear the end. Of those, most simply die; some pursue undeath or some esoteric state.
Then there are those who choose the embrace of cold sharp steel.
An Eternal is a once-mortal soul bound into a sword. They may communicate; dreams, mindspeech, ecstasy and goading pain, all known. A wych may share magic, a courtier political wiles, a warrior skill at arms. And any may place a geas to bring one closer to the Eternal’s own goals or ethos.
19. Paragon (“elemental”)
A swordsmith will only forge one paragon in their life. These are the exemplars of the form; exquisite in balance, edge, weight, silhouette. The pinnacle to which all other blades are compared.
The essence of “sword”.
A paragon is a wonder. It parts flesh like water and steel like flesh; it can sever the wind, sunder speech, cleave oaths. A blessed weapon by very nature, anathema to corruption and entropy. Like calls to like, blade to blade.
20. Bonewalk (“osseous”)
A bonewalk is an odd-looking sword; whether a cunning marquetry of closely-fitted shards or carved from a single bone, they are heavy in cross-section and duller than a metal blade.
No matter. A razor edge isn’t needed as long as the bonewalk draws any blood at all. And then, one of two things: the sword expands in an unfolding jigsaw to become a skeletal servant, or it leaves a shard in the victim to change their bones into a new bonewalk.
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