[LordofTheFallen]

worrywort, on 12 July 2011 - 09:42 PM, said:

SE has done a pretty good job of not making too big a deal out of magic swords and stuff, but they're in there, and there's bound to be some ancient types we haven't much seen.

Magic Swords:
Dragnipur.
Karsa's sword with the two souls in it.
All T'lan Imass swords.
Hust swords.
Tavore's Otataral sword (not magic but still)
Stormrider's swords.
Silchas Ruin's swords.
Gudd's sword.
Greymane's sword.
Stormy's Imass Sword.
Bloodwood swords.

And Stuff:
Kalam's daggers.
Gruntle's orcs.
Toc's arrows.
Tavore's dagger from Mael.
Scabandari's dagger. (that stabs Silchas.)
Wandwielder's lightning wands.

It seems that everyone who doesn't have the power to shoot lightning from their fingertips has some kind of special weapon.

[Ceda Cicero]

LordofTheFallen, on 13 July 2011 - 12:32 AM, said:

worrywort, on 12 July 2011 - 09:42 PM, said:

SE has done a pretty good job of not making too big a deal out of magic swords and stuff, but they're in there, and there's bound to be some ancient types we haven't much seen.

Magic Swords:
Dragnipur.
Karsa's sword with the two souls in it.
All T'lan Imass swords.
Hust swords.
Tavore's Otataral sword (not magic but still)
Stormrider's swords.
Silchas Ruin's swords.
Gudd's sword.
Greymane's sword.
Stormy's Imass Sword.
Bloodwood swords.

And Stuff:
Kalam's daggers.
Gruntle's orcs.
Toc's arrows.
Tavore's dagger from Mael.
Scabandari's dagger. (that stabs Silchas.)
Wandwielder's lightning wands.

It seems that everyone who doesn't have the power to shoot lightning from their fingertips has some kind of special weapon.

I think that by trying to debunk worrywort's point you inadvertently established it for him. He said SE doesn't make a big deal out of them. The fact that they're everywhere, that his world is completely inundated with them, means they're not really a huge deal, and thus Gudd having some kinda sentient magical sword that's ancient in origin (ala Hust) wouldn't be at all outside the realm out of possibility.

SE has magic swords arrows knives cocks splattered all over the world, but none of them - with the arguable exception of Dragnipur and, at times, Karsa's sword- are overly "plot tokeny" in the traditional sense. They're commonplace (Kalam gets his daggers from a random merchant in 7C IIRC) and should be expected around every corner. This is in contrast to, say, George RR Martin (yeah yeah sorry, that's just where my head's at with the series just wrapping up and just finishing book 5) where there are 5-6 "magical" objects that are central to the series, or WoT where all the big plot tokens like Callandor et al are key to unraveling the mysteries of the story.

I digress, and I'm sufficiently off topic.

[HoosierDaddy]

I think Ceda Cicero has a good point here. Magic users and intervening gods are extremely comonplace, thus weapons with magic imbued into them are are also extremely common place.

Dragnipur
Brood's Hammer
Stonewielder
Vengeance

These seem to be the only ones that receive actual build-up to them. The rest of the ones you've listed are in parts of huge groups of swords that either entire races seem to use or aren't weapons so much as deux ex machinas (Mael's dagger is just a regular dagger that opens a connection to him).

[worry]

Yah, CC got what I meant. There's a few very special swords and there's magic swords aplenty, but SE doesn't treat them like Tolkien did the One Ring or Terry Brooks treats the Sword of Shannara. So the existence of a magic sword among the Stormriders that is passed along to Ruthan Gudd isn't earth-shattering so much as it is a nice gift. The Stormriders' armory is probably full of them though. HD is right about the exceptions, as far as I can remember.

[LordofTheFallen]

So you were more leaning towards "special" swords rather than general magic swords? Thay makes more sense. Though is still seems that every main character has a "special" weapon that is instrumental to the plot.

Rake has Dragnipur, which he uses to relocate the gate inside it to Black Coral.
Brood has his Hammer, which he was just about to use to wake Burn and destroy the planet.
Karsa has his sword, which he uses kill Fener, thus mortalizing Olar Ethil who is then killed by a magic arrow that always flies true and can break any wards.
Traveller has Vengence which he uses to defend the Throne of Darkness(?) and kill Rake (I know he suicided)
Tavore has her sword which draws Korabas so that she might be recaptured.
Greymane has Stoneweilder, which he uses to bring down the Stormwall.
Skinner has his invincible armor, which kinda makes up for his normal sword and lands him the spot of King in the HoC.
Yedan Derryg Defends Kharkanas with a Hust sword which just so happens to be able to kill eleint and Hounds of Light.
Silchas (who may also have hust swords) kills the 5-6 toblakai gods before they can kill everyone else, and overall goes on to help keep Korabas alive.. And then also gets some other sword from ST?

So basically there are 9ish "special weapons" that are instrumental to the plot. And I admit that Silchas and Tavore could potentially get knocked from this list, but others like Yedan, who just happened to have a ancient, long lost Hust sword? If it wasn't for these weapons, what happened in the story wouldn't have happened, other than Brood, who really made no difference.

[HoosierDaddy]

You seem to be mistaking some of the swords specialty with their wielder's badassness. Hust blades were common back in the day, Silchas' swords were just old Letherii swords imbued with magic (poorly), Skinner has aspected armor, yes but he isn't King of Chains because of that. Shadowthrone imbued the hust blade for Silchas, etc.

Dragnipur
Brood's Hammer
Stonewielder
Vengeance

Those are special. One of the Seven Cities champions was aspected at the last second, so that isn't all that special as well, Skinner was a badass before ever having that and he doesn't even serve Ardata, lol.

[LordofTheFallen]

With the exception of Silchas ( it was infact just a poorly made sword) all others still stand. Hust swords are auto-blocking, there is a paragraph where Yedan is describing getting pulled around by the sword. He has skill certainly, but when that fails him (exhaustion) the sword still continues to fight of it's own accord. And the fact he still has one when all others have been lost is quite convenient.

As for skinner, yes he is badass but he would have been long dead along with all his brethren if it weren't for his armor. (His fight with Dassem) So that played a crucial part in his continued existance.

I will admit that the four weapons above are the most important and special (I wouldn't have included Karsa's at all until that thing with Fener) but the others I mentioned were definately swords/weapons of power, and they definately had a crucial part of the plot.

[HoosierDaddy]

There was an entire Hust legion. There aren't so many around now, yes, but they aren't like the four above.

As for Skinner's brethren all being dead... not quite. And, we must make some amends for the fact that Dassem is a god, but really, that armor doesn't make him special. It's not why he's King of Chains. It gives him no power, just makes him harder to kill.

If we were to put these on classic RPG + attribute/skills/whatever, the four above would be + alot (over 9000!), while the rest of them are your +1 offense/defense/ etc.

This thread has gone to de-rail station, been hijacked by derailers and is now heading towards the cliff of doom at light speed, lol.

[LordofTheFallen]

Ok, ok. I understand that the fours weapons above are the almighty ones which will deliver ass kicking on an unimaginable scale wherever they go.
But what I was talking about was how every freakin main character found himself in possession of some item or weapon that would change the entire fate of the world if he hadn't been holding it at that second.
I mean Gryllen would have killed off half the main characters if, lo and behold, a conch shell hadn't been slipped into Fids bag despite the fact that the Spiritwalker had only like an hour to make it. These things just appear all throughout the books and routinely save the heroes asses.

But enough about that, we must find more about this dog!