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The First Tsurugi Reforged

The First Tsurugi is a legendary daiklave of the First Age, reputedly reforged seven times by the hand of an ancient Full Moon in service to his Solar mate. Most savants misspeak when they believe mistakenly that the First Tsurugi is one sword, however. The truth of the matter is that the First Tsurugi is no less than six blades, all portioned out and reforged from a grand daiklave so vast and puissant that even its original owner could wield the blade only in his terrifying beastman shape.

The seven epic verses detailing the story behind this mighty weapon's forging and eventual loss are now only poorly-translated fragments in this benighted Age. However, prose versions of the tale still survive in different incarnations through the various corners of Creation; a cautionary fable of hubris and demon-worship in the Blessed Isle, a heartbreaking story of loyalty rewarded by death in the far South, and a romantic bed-tale of a silver-clad knight coming to a golden princess' rescue in the forests of the East.

Through all those various fragments, kernels of truth can be winnowed and strung together to form the original tale of the First Tsurugi and its two owners, plainspoken as it may be.

The First Tsurugi was forged by Fenrir First-Tooth under Autocthon's watchful Eye in the days when the Exalted were new upon the face of Creation. It was Fenrir who, with teeth of moonsilver, claimed the sword-hand of a Primordial while the newborn Exalts battled the things that would become the Yozis. While his massive blade never did taste the heart's blood of one of those beings, its edge remembered the savor of those beings inimical to Creation, and was forever flavored thus.

It so happened that Fenrir was hunting alone in the woods, as was his usual wont, in the great peace that followed the birth of the First Age. He stalked none and slew none under Sun's warm light, merely content to run with wolf-feet through the boles striped with the morning dawn. As the shadows shortened and then lengthened, he stopped at a stream to quench his thirst and found himself not alone.

Sitting alone on a mossy bounder on the opposite bank of the stream was the Solar poet and sorceress Eidhi, student of Brigid, the Mother of Spells. Ink smudged her white hands and reams of fine silk paper were strewn, crumpled at her feet. It had been that she had sought the same solitude he had been looking for so as to pen a wedding verse which voice had eluded her for days. The birthing of the verse had so far been long and difficult, and her anger and frustration had grown as the words eluded her, but now she sat triumphant, having penned what would be later used as the sacred marriage vows of anyone wedded by both the priests of Sol Invictus and ever-changing Luna.

Wordlessly Fenrir crossed the stream to sit down at Eidhi's feet, and listened as she spoke her verse, the stream gurgling gently in counterpoint to her sweet voice. She in turn reached down and ran her inkstained fingers through his hair as the last rays of Sun and the first rays of Moon shone down upon them. While their vows were later solemnized by the Hierophant of the Deliberative himself, they had considered themselves married at that very moment, their unspoken promises and eager consummation witnessed by the gods who had Exalted them, the faint stars of the Maidens, and the elements of the Dragons themselves.

It so happened that Eidhi preferred to go into battle unarmed and unarmored, trusting to her Essence and her sorceries to keep her from harm and slay her foes. This, Fenrir thought, was unacceptable. He would not countenance the love of his life harmed, even slightly, by some foeman's stray arrow or sword. Nevertheless his duties in her name often took him far away from her, and he did not trust her honor guard of Terrestrial Exalts to defend her with the same ferocity he would.

Thus he took to his sacred forge hidden in the wilds and reforged his mighty daiklave seven times in flames kindled from lightning caught in the far South and fueled with perfect anthracite coals traded from the Mountain Folk and the dusts of stars, rubies and diamonds. Chanting powerful sorceries, he infused each hammer-blow with powerful runes of protection and the tiniest portions of his own soul.

The wealth of moonsilver the First Tsurugi had been forged from was now carefully portioned out into six separate daiklaves, augmented with traces of exotic substances and the other three of the Four Magical Materials. Each blade was named as it was quenched in a mixture of sap from sacred trees in the East, water from the Uttermost West and Fenrir's own blood, his Essence lending the moonsilver strength and flexibility.

Each of the six daiklaves was carefully forged, hammered and peened to either be wielded separately or reassembled and wielded in the form of a grand daiklave resembling the original First Tsurugi before its sevenfold reforging. The final forge-sorcery he enacted was to reforge all six swords assembled in a flame kindled from the Sun and Moon's mingled rays, harmonizing its Essence flows to a Solar or Lunar anima and reinforcing the powerful runes of protection he had worked into it.

When he returned to his beloved wife, he presented her with the First Tsurugi Reforged, to guard her from harm in his absence. At a command the six blades would spring apart and circle about their wielder, turning aside sword and arrow. At another command, the six swords Half Moon's Smile, No Moon's Tear, Waxing Moon's Guard, Waning Moon's Thrust, Full Moon's Edge and Moonsilver Heart would drive themselves magically towards chosen foes, attacking on their own. Thus, Eidhi would be protected by Fenrir's puissance and might even if he were not physically present.

This tale has a sorrowful ending, however. Fenrir First-Tooth refused to leave his wife Eidhi Sun-Singer during the Ursupation. With fang and claw he fought the armored masses of Dragonblooded troops while she countered the fell magics of the Chosen of Saturn. Eventually, however, ill-aspected astrology and the tides of Terrestrial Exalts wore him down, and he fell mortally wounded before his love and life. In despair and anguish, Eidhi unleashed the full might of the First Tsurugi Reforged, slaying a full Circle of Sidereal Exalts but leaving herself wide open for the essence-reinforced weapons of the reinforcement troops.

Out of sad respect the Solar and Lunar were buried together in a grand tomb, together in death as in life, with many of their treasures and belongings placed with them as grave goods. However, out of fear of what the First Tsurugi Reforged could do in the wrong hands, the Sidereals and Terrestrials disassembled the mighty blade and hid the separate daiklaves in the five corners of Creation, where they await the hand of their rightful owner and reunion with their forge-mates.

The essence of Fenrir First-Tooth has since then been reborn time and again, seeking the lost Eidhi Sun-Singer, but to this day none of his incarnations has succeeded in finding his Solar wife, or the pieces of the First Tsurugi Reforged.

Half Moon's Smile and No Moon's Tear

These paired, single-edged short daiklaves resemble mirror-imaged butterfly knives at first glance, each forged of bright moonsilver with a locking black jade grip and guard that fold back over onto the non-cutting back edge of each blade. When the grips fold out and lock into place, the long hafts and short broad blades of the daiklaves give them a certain resemblance to the heavy machetes used to clear heavy undergrowth with.

Belying their seemingly heavy and brutal appearance is their swift and graceful handling. Fenrir First-Tooth forged the daiklaves to balance well and rest far back in the hand, as a good dueling weapon will. Furthermore the Half Moon's Smile and No Moon's Tear are light and easy to wield once attuned to their wielder's anima, for he foresaw his wife's lack of martial training and sought to craft her a weapon she could easily use.

Each of the short daiklaves bears the simple maker's mark of Fenrir First-Tooth, and each daiklave's name is etched in Lunar script set parallel to the cutting edge of the blade beneath a stylized engraving of the phase of the moon it was named for - Luna's profile bearing a pearl-toothed grin for Half Moon's Smile and Luna's shadowed face with a single amethyst teardrop for No Moon's Tear. Each daiklave bears a single Hearthstone socket on the outer side of its grip/handguard assembly above the blade-name and maker's mark - one on the right for Half Moon's Smile, and one on the left for No Moon's Tear.

Artifact • each
Paired short daiklaves
Statistics: +3 spd, +4 acc, +4L, +1 def, rate 6
Minimums: Str 1
Commitment: 3 each (moonsilver)

Other powers of Half Moon's Smile and No Moon's Tear:

• Harmony of Sun and Moon. Reforged to harmonize their essence flows to the animas of Fenrir First-Tooth and his wife, Eidhi Sun-Singer, these daiklaves may be attuned to by either Solars or Lunars for normal cost.
• Tears (or Teeth) of the Silver Lady. The bearer of Half Moon's Smile or No Moon's Tear may expend 4 motes to have either short daiklave weep venomous tears or sprout venomous fangs for a single attack. Treat the daiklave as having been coated in arrow frog venom (Exalted core pg 243) for that one attack.
• Sevenfold Forging of the Essence Matrix. When attuned to as a pair, reduce the commitment for both daiklaves from six motes to four motes.

Waxing Moon's Guard and Waning Moon's Thrust

These two daiklaves are mirror-twins of each other, their hand-wide blades milled to a degree of accuracy no longer seen in the Age of Sorrows. The main cutting edge of each daiklave is straight-edged, meant for neat slicing kata The reverse edges are cunningly studded with mechanical-looking starmetal teeth leading up[ to a cutaway near the grip. This saw-blade edge was intended for use on poorly-armored foes, where the teeth would quickly rend flesh off bone, but it also made both daiklaves lighter and easier to handle.

Both Waxing Moon's Guard and Waning Moon's Thrust were designed so reversing between the straight edge and saw-edge of the weapon would be as simple as shifting one's grip. The lack of a crossguard for either weapon ensured that there would be nothing to catch on clothing or an opponent's parrying weapon when such a maneuver was performed.

As with all his other work, Fenrir First-Tooth signed each blade with his mon. The names of the paired daiklaves are inscribed parallel to the straight edge of the blades. Above each name in Lunar script is Luna's face in a three-quarter profile, emerald-eyed and looking to the right for Waxing Moon's Guard, and sapphire-eyed and looking to the left for Waning Moon's Thrust. Each of these daiklaves has a hearthstone setting inset in a cutout in the blade - it appears as a round cutout in the moonsilver between Fenrir's mon and the blade-name when no Hearthstone has been set in it.

Artifact •• each
Paired daiklaves
+7 spd, +3 acc, +6L, +2 def, rate 5
Minimums: Str 3
Commitment: 5 motes each (moonsilver)

Other powers of Waxing Moon's Guard and Waning Moon's Thrust:

• Harmony of Sun and Moon. Reforged to harmonize their essence flows to the animas of Fenrir First-Tooth and his wife, Eidhi Sun-Singer, these daiklaves may be attuned to by either Solars or Lunars for normal cost.
• Rending Teeth of the Wolf. At the beginning of his turn, the wielder of either daiklave may declare that he is reversing his grip on either blade so as to present the saw-edged teeth forward. In which case, the daiklave held in reverse-grip deals +8L damage, but the target's lethal soak from armor is doubled before applying damage.
• Sevenfold Forging of the Essence Matrix. When attuned to as a pair, reduce the commitment for both daiklaves from ten motes to eight motes.

Full Moon's Edge

Full Moon's Edge is the most unusual of the six swords that makes up the First Tsurugi Reforged. Hollow-bladed, it is little more than a palm-width sleeve of softer, flexible moonsilver hammered around a cutting edge of infinitely sharp adamant. The hollowed, split grip of this daiklave is set in the back edge of this blade with a cutout for its wielder's hand.

Incredibly light and easy to wield for its size and breadth, the Full Moon's Edge was employed generally to wound opponents before they could present a credible defense, or any kind of an offense. Its incredibly sharp adamant cutting edge could be honed further through Essence, shearing through armor as though it were soft silk.

Due to the unusual construction of the Full Moon's Edge, Fenrir First-Tooth was unable to place a Hearthstone socket in this weapon. Instead, Luna's pale face stares triumphant from both sides of the blade above the engraving proclaiming its name, her eyes and circlet inlaid diamonds of various cuts and hue. She is crowned with the simple mon that was the maker's mark of Fenrir First-Tooth.

Artifact ••
Reaper daiklave
Statistics: +9 spd, +4 acc, +4L, def +1, rate 4
Minimums: Str 2, Dex 3
Commitment: 4 motes (moonsilver)

Other Powers of the Full Moon's Edge:

• Harmony of Sun and Moon. Reforged to harmonize its essence flows to the animas of Fenrir First-Tooth and his wife, Eidhi Sun-Singer, this daiklave may be attuned to by either Solars or Lunars for normal cost.
• Plate-Rending Keenness. The daiklave's wielder may spend 3 motes to make the Full Moon's Edge do piercing damage for a single attack. Treat the target's lethal soak from armor as half its true value when damage is applied.

Moonsilver Heart

This grand daiklave is something of a skeleton blade, the core around which the First Tsurugi Reforged is assembled. Nevertheless, it is still a lethal weapon forged by a master Lunar craftsman, and is not to be underestimated or ignored. A pair of long moonsilver blades are married to a core and handguard of orichalcum-strengthened steel. The core of the blade extends past the handguard to form an oversize grip, which is wrapped with strips cut from the hide of slain behemoth.

On twisting the grip clockwise both blades slide away from each other to form a complex split-sword, increasing the breadth and parrying area of the daiklave itself. The handguard expands outward to accomodate the widened array of both moonsilver blades and to protect its owner further. Completing the twist causes the split blade to collapse upon itself again and locks the crossguard open. It is in this configuration that the First Tsurugi Reforged begins to be assembled from its component daiklaves

Fenrir First-Tooth signed his name on one edge of the sword, and inscribed the blade's name on the other. Framing the Old Realm script he used to name this blade (instead of Lunar script) are a pair of buff-topped, faceted hearts cut from exquisite red rubies. Due to the mechanics involved in this sword's construction interfering with necessary essence flows, there are no Hearthstone sockets in this daiklave.

Artifact •••
Grand daiklave
+10 spd, +2 acc, +12L -1 def, rate 3
Minimums: Str 3
Commitment: 8 motes (moonsilver)

Other Powers of the Moonsilver Heart

• Harmony of Sun and Moon. Reforged to harmonize its essence flows to the animas of Fenrir First-Tooth and his wife, Eidhi Sun-Singer, this daiklave may be attuned to by either Solars or Lunars for normal cost.
• Blossoming Shield of Moonsilver At the beginning of his turn, the daiklave's wielder may announce that he is shifting the daiklave to its open-bladed, more defensive mode. Subtract 2L from damage and 2 from speed. The daiklave now has a defense bonus of +1. The Blossoming Shield of Moonsilver may not be deployed while the wielder is assembling or has assembled the blade into the First Tsurugi Reforged.

The First Tsurugi Reforged

Fenrir First-Tooth's masterwork has sadly never been seen in its true form since his death in the Ursupation. Were the six component daiklaves to be collected and attuned to by the same Exalt, their true magic begins to work itself. Each sword vibrates with a distinct harmonic tone, calling out to its forge-brothers, and the Exalt that holds the set of blades finds that he is instinctively guided to reassemble the legendary daiklave from its component parts.

Assembling the daiklave takes an action per component sword. Disassembling it takes a similar time except in circumstances detailed below (see sidebar of additional powers).

Fully assembled the First Tsurugi Reformed is statted as follows:

Artifact N/A
Grand daiklave
+10 spd, +2 acc, +13L, +1 def, rate 5
Minimums: Str 3, Dex 3
Commitment: 12 motes (moonsilver)

Other powers of the First Tsurugi Reforged:

• Harmony of Sun and Moon. Reforged to harmonize its essence flows to the animas of Fenrir First-Tooth and his wife, Eidhi Sun-Singer, this daiklave may be attuned to by either Solars or Lunars for normal cost.
• Superlative Forging of the Essence Matrix. When all the blades are together, attuning to the set as a whole costs only 12 motes, and no more. Should any one of the daiklaves become unattuned from the set, however, the attument costs return in full. Should the owner not have enough free Essence in his pool to commit to the weapon, the daiklaves each become uncommitted starting with the Full Moon's Edge and working its way through the phases of the moon (full, waxing, half, waning, no-moon) until their wielder's essence pool can accommodate any of the daiklaves left, or until all that is left is the Moonsilver Heart. Moreover, all of the separate hearthstone settings resonate as though part of the same weapon, and thus the wielder of the First Tsurugi Reforged has access to the powers of each hearthstone socketed in each of its component daiklaves.
• Six Brothers Forged From One Each of the daiklaves adds to the strengths of the others when assembled. Compile the statistics of the First Tsurugi Reforged as thus: Add to the statline of the grand daiklave +1 damage if the Full Moon's Edge is coupled to the Moonsilver Heart, +1 defense each for the Waxing Moon's Guard and the Waning Moon's Thrust, and +1 rate each for the Half Moon's Smile and the No Moon's Tear. The above statline for the weapon assumes all the six swords assembled together.
• Unity of Razor Minds As long as the respective daiklaves are housed in the assembly of the First Tsurugi Reforged, the wielder may use any of their additional powers (Tears of the Silver Lady, Rending Teeth of the Wolf, Plate-Rending Keenness) for their respective mote costs. The only additional power explicitly not allowed for use with the First Tsurugi Reforged is Blossoming Shield of Moonsilver, as already detailed in that power's explanation
• Intervention of Moonsilver and Steel. The wielder of First Tsurugi Reforged may spend 5 motes to reflexively eject any one of the daiklaves in the assembly save for Moonsilver Heart. Subtract the bonus of the ejected daiklave from the First Tsurugi Reforged's statline. Said daiklave may be caught and wielded in its wielder's off hand (should he be strong - or large - enough, remember that the First Tsurugi Reforged is a grand daiklave). Wielders seeking to wield more than one of the component daiklaves at the same time as the First Tsurugi Reforged had better have a damned good stunt OR some way of sprouting multiple arms. The wielder may also stunt to use the blade ejection as either a parry or a ranged throw attack, at which the range of the blade is his Essence in yards.
• Remembrance of Foes Long Vanquished. The First Tsurugi was employed in the defeat of several Primordial fetiches. Some of them simply became weaker versions of themselves and rebuilt their forms into the now-extant Yozis. Others fell into what became the Underworld and became the Neverborn. When all six blades are attuned together as in Superlative Forging of the Essence Matrix, the moonsilver used to forge the First Tsurugi Reforged remembers its battles against those foes whose destinies surpassed or lay outside of of the weave of Creation and hungers to shed more blood. When the all the six component daiklaves of the First Tsurugi Reforged are attuned to the same Exalt, the moonsilver blades emit a resonance inimical to creatures outside of Fate, and deals aggravated damage to such entities.
• Dance of the Four Magical Materials. An Exalt attuned to all the component swords of the First Tsurugi Reforged may wield one (or two) of the daiklaves and set the rest to protecting him from harm for the duration of combat. With the expenditure of 10 motes and 1 willpower, each of the daiklaves will dance in the air about their wielder. This provides the Exalt with 1 free parry action per turn, rolled with his Dex+Melee+appropriate specialties, per daiklave freed to dance about him. These parries are not splittable. Obviously, the daiklave (or daiklaves) the wielder is currently using manually does not get a free parry action.
• Bladewind of the Razored Host. This is considered to be the First Tsurugi Reforged's most fearsome abillity, the most powerful of its magics and the reason it was disassembled and hidden in the five corners of Creation. On his initiative the wielder of the First Tsurugi Reborn may spend 10 motes and 1 willpower to command the component daiklaves to spring apart and attack targets within their Essence in yards of them. The Exalt may roll six attacks (at full dice pool) against the same target, or divide them up as he sees fit. These attacks are not splittable. The target (or targets) of this ability may attempt to dodge or parry the attacks coming at them if they have actions. Dodges and parries versus the Bladewind of the Razored Host are made at a difficulty to the First Tsurugi Reforged's wielder's Essence.

It takes the daiklaves a full round to return to their owner after all their attacks, successful or not, are done, but chances are once this ability is invoked there isn't anyone left for the First Tsurugi Reforged's wielder to deal with, anyway.

• Back to [[[MelWong]]]'s artifacts.

Comments

I came up with this daiklave after watching FFVII: Advent Children and reading this excellent analysis of the way Cloud's First Tsurugi assembles and disassembles. After some thought I decided to ratchet this up from a Level 5 to a N/A artifact. [[[MelWong]]]

Awesome work! Having seen Advent Children myself, I toyed with the notion of statting up the First Tsurugi (although my version had each of the six blades being a different material) but having seen this... I don't think I could do it better. Bravo. --[[[DarkPhoenix]]]

Well, this came about mostly because I was idly wondering how one could stat up a Lvl 5 daiklave in a campaign, and then kind of running away with the idea. Eating a sugary wedding cake topper for my anniversary probably didn't help. For some reason if you freeze a carrot cake for a year the cream cheese icing turns to milk solids + pure sugar. I had to do something with the excess energy, so I statted this thing up. - [[[MelWong]]]