Many times, when it comes to legendary weapons, the only thing you have to worry about is the dude swinging the weapon himself. But what about those weapons that go way beyond that and actually impact the world around them? Soul Edge here, for example, released the Evil Seed in the late 16th century, creating what are known as the Malfested: infected beings suffering from physical and mental corruption, becoming what amounts to monsters. And that's before you even get into its primary "feed on all souls" gimmick it compels its users to follow.
Are there any other such weapons that impact things on a grand scale such as that?Or we could make this thread about Soul Calibur.
>>44154063
Holy Lance, Spear of Longinus, Spear of Destiny. You get the gist. The legend goes that one who possess it has fate of the world in his hands. Whatever that means.
>>44154114
That is rather vague, yes.
You want to basically treat the weapon as its own inanimate character. Sure people pick it up and use it, but it's what they end up doing with it. The weapon may as well be treated as alive for all intents and purposes, it has an agenda or a calling and it inevitably compels its bearer to fight in conflicts that the weapon wants. A Saints Mace will always find its way into the hand of a Paladin or a Crusading Hero and it'll appear in the biggest battles against the blackest of Evils. A Dagger of Evil will be drenched in the blood of kings, bishops and generals. It's easy to find, perhaps too easy for it changes hands with every moon until one with the strength to retain it takes hold.
>>44154746
That's still just a weapon possessed by one dude; it just so happens to be passed around to multiple people or somehow always appears in the biggest battles. It compels a character to action, but it doesn't feel like a weapon that impacts the world merely by existing (barring the implications of the Assassin's Dagger you mentioned).
>>44154800
Absolutely, but I only gave limited examples. The Weapon is absolutely the star of the show, a character in its own right and people fight and die to obtain it.
A simple Hammer is the foundation of any city that has lasted for a thousand years. The Hammer travels about, inconspicuous but always present. It may be in a blacksmiths satchel one day and in a Masons shed the next, an Adventurer may find it fallen off the back of a wagon. But eventually, this Hammer will strike the Earth and a city arises about it in time. Scholars bicker and fight endlessly over this simple tool and bankrollers finance Expeditions to obtain the Hammer, that they may build a city that will immortalise them and their family name. But at the end of the day, it's just a hammer.
>>44155006
So every time you sledge someone in the head with the Hammer, a new town arrives two weeks later?
>>44154063
Weapons and souls seem to have a link in the Dark Souls series. Every single man who wielded the greatsword of Artorias was left handed, because its original wielder was. Either every reincarnation of his soul stumbled across his weapon at some point, or the weapon altered the wielder to be more like Artorias.
Also, ancient souls such as Gwyn's and The Witch's can be used to forge duplicates of weapons that were lost/destroyed millennia ago, even though the smith had never seen, or even heard of the original.
Also, the whole thing of weapons being forged directly from the soul of a great being.
>>44155810
I don't think so, it's a masons hammer. It'll crush a skull as well as any other, but its true calling is Civillisation.
>>44154063
I remember playing a game where we found a bow that used to belong to a mighty warlord... unfortunately it held his soul, and would slowly take over the wielder. This really sucked, because my archer didn't have much resistance to mental stuff, and it worked by rewriting their memories until it had reconstructed the warlord's mind. Also by making them remember everything about the rest of the party in a negative light, until they'd either leave or start fights.
>>44157515
And you kept using the bow because.....?
>>44154114
Well Charles the Great did forge his sword from a piece of the spearhead...
>>44157568
Because the effects are subtle and I had no idea IC. Even OOC, it took a bit to realize why our GM was occasionally correcting things that I remembered from older sessions, because hey, it was a while back.
>>44154063
>Are there any other such weapons that impact things on a grand scale such as that?
So you just want a powerful non-combat effect? Just go with whatever comes to your head.
What's important for legendary weapons is not their effect, it's the story behind them.
The Book of Prophecy from Avalon Code did some funky things with the world.
Its previous owner gave some of his subordinates invincibility; until the current owner undid that trait, those invincible enemies couldn't be harmed by anything.
It can also remove problems in the "codes" of people; Fana's incurable disease needed a specific code arrangement to be written out.
>>44157893
>it's the story behind them
There has to be some reason why the weapon is such a big deal as it is.
>>44157893
Image if a weapon compelled everyone in Line of Sight from it, to subtly do what it wanted.
From the very basic "this is a good idea", to nudges to get people aligned with the idea over their insecurity. And even reinforcing their understanding of that idea.
