ArtifactCreationExamples/ThreeMythicSwords

Creating a Mythic Artifact

The Beginning

Come up with a cool image, a neat power, or a name. This is essential for you to have a cool Artifact; there is no such thing as a boring daiklave. If the Artifact is for a specific person, then it's fun to pick up aspects of the character... and probably a good idea (you never saw a Dawn Caste wearing a pink jade Dragon's Tear Tiara, did you?)

Example 1

Magma Blossom, the weapon of Shattering Hibiscus, a Blasphemous Caste Infernal.

Example 2

A weapon that strikes at not only the target, but every man of his blood.

Example 3

A weapon that trails lacy ribbons of silfer leaf in the air.

Once you've gotten the first bit, finish out the other half. Magma Blossom sounds like a fierce, frightening Tainted Orichalcum blade that glows and burns as though it were made of molten gold, so it does a whole lot of damage and is unusually difficult to defend against; nothing too dramatic there. The ancestor-killing blade can be recognized by its distinctive appearance - rather than having a solid blade, it is a gust of glittering sand twisted into a sword's shape, taken from the great hourglass that measured time long before the clocks of Heaven's dome were built. We will call it Blood Of My Brothers. The third weapon will simply be a moonsilver daiklave with good SFX; we'll call it Evening's Bright Passing.

The Myth

A mythic weapon is incomplete without a myth. Come up with a story or two to throw out when the weapon comes up in play.

Long ago, Magma Blossom was called Radiant Lily, and was the weapon of an ancient warrior whose name is forgotten. It is known only that he travelled into the Endless Desert to do war upon the Primordials, and never returned.

Blood Of My Brothers was forged with the power of a storm serpent, very recently, by a Twilight Caste seeking vengeance upon a Dragon-Blooded family for executing his own adopted family, who harbored him after his Exaltation. A Gold Faction functionary secretly aided him in this, though he is unaware of it.

The Lunar known as Ten Thousand Larks discovered Evening's Bright Passing while she was in search of the famed Flying Silver Dream.

The Digits

Okay, now for the hard part, coming up with the numbers. Refer to ArtifactCreationErrata for this. These weapons are presented with their 5MM bonuses applied:

• Magma Blossom is three-point daiklave. We'll use the two-point baseline numbers, plus two Level 2 powers: it will double the damage of attacks after soak, and it will raise the difficulty to parry it by 3.
  • The numbers: +4 Spd, +4 Acc, +6L Dam, +2 Def, Min Str •••, 5 Commitment
• Blood Of My Brothers is a five-dot weapon with baseline stats; for each HL it deals to the primary target (after soak), one generation (in each direction) of his direct blood relations all take 1 unsoakable lethal HL of damage. If there are fewer surviving generations than the scope of this effect, for every 2 extra generations it does 1 extra HL of damage. It kills Extras outright instead of damaging them.
  • The numbers: +3 Spd, +3 Acc, +5L Dam, +2 Def, Min Str •••, 5 Commitment
• Evening's Bright Passing is a baseline weapon. A three-dot version has this special power: it permits the Lunar to control moonsilver with his mind; in the presence of a biggish piece of moonsilver, he may use one of his actions to lash out with it as if with a natural attack (claws, teeth, whatever), substituting Perception for Strength and Wits for Dexterity.
  • The numbers: +3 Spd, +5 Acc, +5L Dam, +2 Def, Min Str •••, 5 Commitment

The 5MM

Every Artifact weapon needs to account for being made of the Five Magical Materials (except for special, serious exceptions like Blood Of My Brothers.) For your convenience, I've reproduced the bonuses that they provide below. For range, the smaller number is the bonus for thrown weapons, the larger for bows.

• Orichalcum:
  • Melee: +1 Spd, +1 Acc, +1 Dam
  • Ranged: +1 Acc, +1 Dam, +50/+10yds Range
• Moonsilver:
  • Melee: +2 Acc
  • Ranged: +1 Acc +100/20yds Range
• Jade:
  • Melee: +3 Spd
  • Ranged: +1 Rate +50/10yds Range
• Starmetal:
  • Melee: +2 Dam
  • Ranged: +2 Dam
• Soulsteel:
  • Melee: +1 Acc, drains (wielder's permanent Essence) in motes from target and consumes them, on each damaging hit.
  • Ranged: +2 Acc
• The Taint: For Infernals. Tainted weapons of any of the 5MM exist; they have the normal cost for Infernals to attune, twice that for Exalts of the untainted material, and three times for other Exalts.

Comments

What's the special power of the three-dot version of Evening's Bright Passing? And is Blood Of My Brothers made from cosmic sand or from a Storm Serpent? - Quendalon (in pedantic mode)

Cosmic sand provides the substance; the storm serpent is the impetus for its motion. The other bit was oversight; it's fixed. - FourWillowsWeeping