Selina/Dreamshard

Dreamshard

Reaper Daiklave ****
Commitment 6
Speed +12 Accuracy +4 Damage +6L Defense +3 Rate 6 (With Jade Alchemy)
Requirements: Essence **** Dragon-Blooded Anima

History

Dreamshard was originally intended as a mere gift-take for a young Dragon-Blooded officer, slain during an untimely invasion by the Fair Folk in the mists of time before the Usurpation. More accurately, it was created out of the remains of the man's daiklave, twisted and melted in on itself by the powers of the Wyld. The wreck was brought back by the Lunar who arrived at his detachment's aid – too late as it were – and brought the corpses (of both man and blade) to his Solar mistress, who was struck by a fit of pique to restore the blade to some semblance of grandeur with the very energy that had ended her vassal's life. At that time, the Great Curse had as of yet not struck the Exalted with its full potency, and so the endeavor was motivated by something besides a megalomanical desire to leave her imprint on the man's life in as many ways as possible.

A hundred fae were sacrificed in screaming agony as the Twilight beat their essences into the ruin of jade and iron, condensed into one strand of gossamer at the very center of the reshaped blade. A single strand so perfect, so sublimely beautiful and at the same time so ravenous in the manner of its constituents, that the Solar could not bear to have the blade merely buried with a servant, no matter how loyal. Her own blade was superior, but after crafting the formerly unwieldy daiklave into a graceful, slim sword fit for even the most elegant parties on the Blessed Isle, decided to keep it. To her loyal officer's delayed funeral, went a lesser copy, crafted from only about twenty fae.

Try as she might, the Solar could not decide upon a name for the thin elegant sword. Hilt wrapped in seemingly-delicate Moonsilver wire, narrow blade's alloy a pedigree of three types of White, Black, and airy Blue Jade (originally, the daiklave had been only Black and White Jade), it defied all her attempts at a grandiose label. In the end, the woman simply named it 'Dreamshard', for the gossamer thread that ran its centerline defined it beyond all other things. The rapier-daiklave was but a shard of the collective dream of endless creation which fae embodied, yet it was something more as well. Dreamshard was the creation dream, and its inherent self-made antithesis. Fae feared its touch, for it unmade them according to the greatest measure of passion they stole from others. For the Fair Folk, such a death was agony beyond compare, a sweet kiss of pain that faded into grey as the dying grew closer. It was in this quality of that razor-thin strand of gossamer that the Solar was interested – all the rest was unremarkable to her rarified tastes. And so were her peers – art crafted from living fae became all the rage for a few decades after. Eventually, Dreamshard was forgotten as an idle curiosity, and not a hair was seen of the blade until Windia was ancient and its creator long dead.

As the rulers of the capital of Winlandia, the de Windia family naturally were able to secure it into their own family shortly after their creation. Because this weapon was found during the time of the seven tiger revolt against the new Scarlet Empress, the lack of widely available knowledge doomed it to languishing as a mere family weapon, at least until the first de Windia to have sufficient power in order to awaken it discovered what it could do. Thereafter, the family guarded it most jealously out of all its treasures. Occasionally, one of them was even able to use it fully, through either breeding with errant Dragon-Blooded, or ascension to the not-so-welcome status of Anathema.

Capabilities

"You've taken one step too close to me, Karan. From here I can touch you."

Dreamshard is, as its name suggests, a weapon that draws heavily both on the unconscious of the wielder and the victims of its bite. When it strikes a target, the wielder may choose which Virtues it feeds from. This gives the wielder both a measure of essence equal to the Virtue chosen, and a glimpse into the dreams the target has which are governed by that virtue. Waking and slumbering, the sword takes them all, but only once per strike. The wielder can later review the dreams, although she might gain no advantage from doing so, as they are without any context whatsoever, outside of their native content. It does double any Investigation roll to discern nature and personality of one so drank, however. Spirits may not hide from this attack either – Dreamshard pierces the shrouds between their world and Creation, reaching across the gulf to sip at their ebbing dreams.

More terrifying is the ability the Daiklave has to force the wearer’s nightmares upon her enemies. Made corrosive and biting essence, they sear a target at the wielder’s command, though the pain from so focusing and closely remembering her own nightmares drains and pains the sword’s mistress to an extent. This costs 10 motes and deals its mistress' Essence in Unsoakable, Undodgeable, Unparriable levels of aggravated damage upon her target, although one can ward himself against the physical influence of the Wyld.

Finally, Dreamshard is the Fair Folk's bane. No pure fae may touch it, and half-breeds who handle it feel distinctly uncomfortable, the feeling becoming more and more akin to blind, primal terror with every moment they hold the weapon. When a faerie is damaged by the weapon, they sense of their worse nightmares filtering into them, whether it be unchanging calcification, the feather-light rakings of Oblivion, servitude to the worst master they could imagine, the possibilities are endless and specific to the faerie. Whatever the end result, it may damage their conviction to oppose the wielder. Fair Folk attempt to strike at Dreamshard's wielder must suceed on a Valor roll every turn, and those struck by Dreamshard lose one dot of Virtue and its assossiated Grace(and give double the motes for Dreamshard's Virtue-draining power above) which may damage their ability to use their Glamour. Lost Virtue and Grace dots return at the rate of one per scene.