SwordOfTheUnconqueredLight

Sword of the Unconquered Light - by Fifth

Artifact: 5

Statistics: +8 Speed, +2 Accuracy, +8 Lethal, +0 Defense, Unlimited Rate

Commitment: 10 motes

Attunement: Special

The Sword of the Unconquered Light was forged by one of the greatest Solar smiths in the first age. Formed after the War on the Primordials, the sword is a testament to the powers of the Unconquered Sun, and to his champions, the Solar Exalted. The sword was lost during the Usurpatation when its wielder was struck down by his betrayers, but the sword was useless in their hands, and it was buried with its last owner.

The hilt of the sword is forged from pure orichalcum, with each of the symbols of the solar castes engraved upon it. The blade of the sword is nothing less than the light of the Unconquered Sun woven into the shape of a Reaver Daiklave. The sword stands nearly 7 feet from hilt to point. The edge of the blade is formed of several different colors of light woven together into an edge so sharp that it can cut anything short of itself. The sword has only this one edge; the other side of the sword doesn't really exist, as the light woven into the edge bleeds off into the air, giving only a hint of a shape. If the Sword is currently unattuned, only the hilt exist; the blade will only spring into existence when a Solar attunes himself to it.

The sword can only be attuned by Solars, period. The Sword's primary color is the associated color of the Solar currently attuned to it (Dawn: Saffron, Lavender, Zenight: Blue, Gold, Twilight: Orange, Night: Violet, Eclipse: Silver). The sword is accented by the other colors, and the Solar's caste mark on the hilt glows brightly with their associated color(s). The Sword is also even more closely attuned then normal to the wielder?s essence, and the higher the essence rating of the attuned character, the brighter and more defined the blade gets. At ST discretion, at essence ratings of 7+ this can cause penalties and blindness if the Sword is stared at directly; the exact rolls and results are left up to the ST. The Exalt can dampen this at will, but it requires concentration, and the Sword will always be at least as bright the character?s anima banner at 8-10 motes.

System: The Sword of the Unconquered Light counts as a Reaver Daiklave. The blade can cut anything; the Five Magical Materials, sound, water; if it exists, it can be cut by this blade. This has the following mechanical effects:

In combat: The sword is still parryable (albeit at a +1 difficulty penalty), as only the edge of the blade is so extraordinarily sharp. However, a weapon that attempts to parry the Sword and does not succeed is destroyed as it is cut in half. Furthermore, as the Sword simply passes through the offending weapon, successes on a failed parry do not reduce the damage normally. The Sword can be dodged normally (and successes on dodges decrease damage and reduce the amount of successes needed for a parry). If the attempted parry was unarmed, then the sword cuts off whatever part of the body was used. This does no extra damage. In addition, if the Sword successfully parries any weapon, that weapon is destroyed, as the edge of the Sword cuts through it. If the sword successfully parries an unarmed attack, the Sword does lethal damage equal to the extra successes on the parry, and cuts off a dramatically appropriate amount of attacking limb. If the sword is used in conjunction with a perfect defense, the amount of damage the sword deals is equal the wielder's permanent Essence.

In addition to its normal damage, the Sword automatically destroys the armor (if any) of its target if that armor soaks any damage the Sword deals.

The above abilities do not fully work on artifacts rated 5 or NSwordOfTheUnconqueredLight/A. The Sword does not automatically destroy these; instead, the Sword deals unsoakable Aggravated damage to these items equal to the wielder?s permanent Essence with each blow. The wielder still gains all other benefits (such as ignoring successes on a failed parry). In addition, level 5 and NSwordOfTheUnconqueredLight/A artifacts rendered useless by this are not fully destroyed, and they may be repaired by a sufficiently skilled craftsman. Any applicable powers also fail if the opponents uses a perfect defense. For example, if the sword is unsuccessfully parried and then perfectly dodged, the parrying weapon is still destroyed; however, if some unlikely martial arts perfect defense stops the sword, then the martial artists' hands would be unharmed. If the opponent uses a perfect soak defense they take no damage, but anything blocking the sword would still be damaged.

The Sword cuts no matter how hard it is pressed, so if used carefully, it can do some excellent detail work in crafting situations, or as an extremely sharp(but clumsy) surgical tool. The Sword CANNOT do Bashing damage (even with charms); the edge is too sharp.

Against undead, Abyssals, Deathlords, and the like, the Exalt's minimum damage (Equal to his permanent Essence trait) is Aggravated.

The Sword cannot be hidden by anything short of encasing it completely (or deattuneing it). Anything short of this causes the wielder to automatically botches all attempts at stealth. This cannot be hidden by charms or sorcery.

Comments

I like this artifact but:\\ If the sword parries an unarmed attack, the Sword does lethal damage equal to the extra successes on the parry, and cuts off a dramatically appropriate amount of attacking limb.\\ What happens if the attack is parried with a perfect defense?\\ -VelZiliuse\\ \\ That... is an interesting question. I think I'll have it be similar to the effects when against artifacts of level 5 or NSwordOfTheUnconqueredLight/A; it will do the character's essence in damage. Thanks for pointing that out; I hadn't even thought of that situation. -Fifth

You're welcome ^_^\\ Anyway ... isn't it a little too powerful? I mean a character with a combo like:\\ "Heavenly Guardian Defense + Solar Counter Attack + Excellent Strike + One weapon, two blows" Will probably kill anybody without a Level 5 artifact or a very high dodge pool.\\ The first parry destroys the weapon (automaticly), the first attack destroy the armor and the last just kill the opponent. -VelZiliuse

I just came across this.

WTF? "You can't parry this weapon, it hates you. You can't do bashing with this weapon, it hates everyone else." This this is a perfect attack on a stick. Pas cool. - willows

As much fun as high level artifact weapons are, they really shouldn't ever see play. At Artifact 5, it's just hard to even conceptualize fitting that much power into a mere sword, no matter what it is crafted of. It's fun to theorize, but I have trouble even imagining characters lugging Art4 swords. At Art5 I start thinking pocket nukes and gems which call down beams of energy reminiscent of satellite-based particle cannons, not mere human weaponry. Also, the ability to cut through anything? What about swords of similar durability? -Anything- include a -lot- of stuff. Besides, Exalted is certainly a game of one-upsmanship, eventually the sword that cuts through anything will meet the shield that cannot be cut, so make sure your godlike weapons have their flaws. Even Achilles has his heel. -- DODurden

Velviliuse: yes, it is a very powerful combination. Remember, however, that the sword has nothing against dodge. Lot's of Exalt's have very high dodge pools, especially since PC came out. And if someone successfully parries the sword, nothing happens; the weapon is untouched. It's only if you succeed with an attack that all the bad negative effects come into play. So yes... if someone who only parries goes up against this, they will most likely die. But anyone with dual defenses or any sort of perfect defense can easily beat the person with this sword; also, remember that poor man's perfects such as Impeding the Flow work as well.

willows: You can parry it. Only at +1 difficulty, and you really, really don't want to fail. Also, I wasn't trying to make this thing a super-killer. I had the idea, thought up the "cut anything" rule, and all of the powers are just extensions of that. The "bashing only" is a weakness I built into it.

DODurden: I agree, it was difficult to comceptualize a level 5 Artifact Sword. However, I based my power-level on the fact that Level 5 Artifacts should be World-Shaking. And this thing, due to sheer combat prowess, is.

I did try to balance this sword with the fact that it is, beyond all possible doubts, a massivly blatant Anathema weapon. If you unsheath this thing, it is visible for miles. You can't hide it; you can't ambush people with it. It makes it very easy for people (*cough*Sidereals*cough*) to track you down, and when they do, it makes it very easy to keep track of you. Now, the sword is damn powerful, but I don't think it's overpowered when considering other level 5s; if anything, I would say it's slightly weak for one. -Fifth

I wrote some more, clarifying on perfect defenses when used against the sword. -Fifth

The description of HGD says that parrying an attack from a godling or demon prince will destroy non-magical weapons, implying that artifacts weapons would be okay, and if a Daiklave's fine after you use it to HGD the Elemental Dragon of Fire's breath or Ligier's shiny green third circle demon fist of death or the Five Metal Shrike's anime deaht beam (tm) then it should be okay after parrying an attack from a level 5 artifact. As for artifact breaking in general, sure, a terrestrial circle spell can fix any broken artifacts by the next scene, but the sword is still essentially an uber version Attunement-Shattering Block (which costs willpower, needs a combo to be used in the same round as other charms, needs a roll to succeed, and if the target reflexively spends a few motes, it doesn't do anything), while the dismembering effect is pretty much a superior version of Limb-Immobilizing Method (which is a simple charm, does no damage and wears off without the need for powerful healing charms). Something more reasonable would be to only let it chop through mundane weapons and armor and dismember mortals. As for artifacts and exalted, I'm thinking it'd be more reasonable for it to ignore half the soak of artifact armor, and have its damage converted to aggravated after soak against exalts instead of dismembering them outright. - GordonMichael

Okay, I misread the description, the stuff in italics is based on a misreading of the weapon description. - GM

Ah, now Piercing makes perfect sense, and Aggravated damage is something to truly fear. Few weapons can do it, but an artifact 5 one might be worth of it. Good changes. It's awfully tempting to make a weapons that makes the Unconquered Sun's weapons look like a pointy stick, but that's in the realm of Artifact: NSwordOfTheUnconqueredLight/A -- DODurden

GordonMichael: Making those changes would necessitate making this a level 4 artifact, though. As written, the sword is very powerful, as it should be; it's a level 5 artifact. It's world-shaking. Look at Daiklave of Conquest; that has insane stats, a better version of the Dawn's anima power, a persistant dice subtractor, and it enhances your army just as well as some high Essence Solar charms do. As it is written, this sword is an excellent fighter's weapon, and very well might win some fights for the wielder. But it's not overpowering to the point where the wielder can't very, very easily die from someone who either just gets a bit lucky with the dice, or plays conservatively and has some form of semi-perfect defense available at all times. -Fifth

Okay, you've got a point there, that would be roughly in line with a level 4 artifact, but the Sword of the Unconquered Light, as written, can slice right through the Dakilave of Conquest, or a Royal Warstrider, or HGD. Okay, Flying Silver Dream does a lot more damage than a normal Daiklave and it's level 4, so you can increase the damage to 13 or 14, increase the accuracy slightly, add piercing, make it penetrate hardness and make the light from the sword so blindingly bright that it gives all the opponents in visual range a -2 or -3 dice pool penalty (a lighter penalty than the Daiklave of Conquest to compensate for the Sword of the Unconquered Light's piercing and superior combat statistics), if that's not enough, you can make the sword add the wielder's Valour or Conviction to the minimum damage. By the way, is there any canon information on how many health levels artifacts have? I'm thinking if the sword inflicts the minimum damage on any artifact it touches (while, any artifact that isn't being used to HGD the blow), it would be more balanced. Anyway, I'm hoping Savant and Sorcerer clarifies the guidelines for level 4 and 5 artifacts, the only three canon level 5 weapons are pretty powerful, while all the canon level 5 artifact armor is pretty much junk. - GordonMichael

The screwups in this one are now italicised as well. - GM

How does it slice through HGD? The "slice through" effect only occurs on a failed parry. A successful parry for any reason, including a perfect, will stop the blade completely. A normal parry that gains enough successess will stop it just as easily.

You have a point about how many health levels. I pretty much figure any ST is going to have different thoughts on that, but my assumption when writing that is that it would take an Essence 5 Exalt at least 4 blows to knock out through a Artifact 5 sword, and at least 7-8 to kill off level 5 armor. And those would be repairable, of course. I wrote a bit more in that. -Fifth

Whoah, I can't believe I misread that part of the weapon description so badly, I'm thinking that I was half-asleep when I made the first comment, and I was just going from memory for the second one. Anyway, I thought the description said that it it's parried with a perfect defense and a level 5 artifact, it still damages the user and their weapon. As for damaging artifacts, I'm thinking artifacts of level 1-4 should use the artifact 5 rules rather than being cleaved in two like mundane equip. As for the thing about dismembering someone who fails an unarmed parry attempt, or dimembering someone if you parry their unarmed attack, I'm thinking it should just inflict the minimum damage against exalts. - GordonMichael

Aye. I've been thinking about it, and I think a rewrite of the whole mechanic is necessary. But how does this sound as a rough draft? I'm trying to cut down the power slightly with killing artifacts, but keep it still as a very powerful offensive tool.

"The sword is still parryable (albeit at a +1 difficulty penalty), as only the edge of the blade is so extraordinarily sharp. However, a mortal weapon that attempts to parry the Sword and fails is destroyed as it is cut in half. Artifact weapons are more resistant to this effect, but they will also fall with a number of hits equal to their Artifact rating. Note that this does not destroy them, only render them useless; an additional attack is required to actually destroy the artifact fully. Artifacts rated NSwordOfTheUnconqueredLight/A are especially resistant, but even they are not immune; they require 10 hits to disable, and an additional 10 to destroy completely.

Furthermore, successes on a failed parry do not reduce the damage normally. The Sword can still be dodged normally (and successes on dodges decrease damage and reduce the amount of successes needed for a parry). If the attempted parry was unarmed, then the sword cuts off whatever part of the body was used; this does no extra damage. In addition, if the Sword successfully parries any weapon, that weapon is destroyed, as the edge of the Sword cuts through it. This follows the same rules as weapons parrying the sword (see above). If the sword successfully parries an unarmed attack, the Sword does lethal damage equal to the extra successes on the parry and cuts off a dramatically appropriate amount of attacking limb. If the sword is used in conjunction with a perfect defense, the amount of damage the sword deals is equal the wielder's permanent Essence." -Fifth

While depending on how much 'dramatically appropriate' is, it could be okay. If we're talking about a finger and a dice pool penalty, the weapon's fine. If we're talking about chopping off a limb, then I think you should either require as many extra successes on the attack / parry attempt as the opponent's permanent essence. Either that or let it sever limbs like it does now, but put a note saying that the cut is so clean that if the severed limb is held to the stump within the character's stamina in rounds, it can be re-attached by charms as easily as healing a lethal wound (if you can surgically re-attatch a cleanly severed limb half an hour after it gets chopped off IRL then magically reattaching a cleanly severed limb less than a minute after it gets chopped off should be possible in Exalted, especially since Body Regeneration Prana and Fivefold Wound-Absorbing Method can completely regrow lost limbs instead of just re-attaching the originals). - GM

My intent with "Dramatically appropriate" was to put it in the ST's hands. "Dramatically" means, IMO, that it should fit the story. If "Dramatically" means in some case that the limb is not chopped off, that's what the sword should do. -Fifth

Yeah, yeah, I see where you're going with this. There's situations where it's not appropriate for a solar to just chop right through a martial artist, and other situations where it is.

Aye. I would also allow, as an ST, a MA or Brawling character to stunt to not lose a limb in that situation. Stunts break all rules, including this one; if the MAist describes his parry as clapping his hands on either side of the sword, I would rule that he wouldn't have a chance of losing a hand, for example. -Fifth