Other Swords

The Twelve Swords of Power, Swords of Power, or swords featured in the epic Fred Saberhagen sci-fi/fantasy series, Books of the Swords. They are the central focus of the novels, and are often considered unique characters themselves. more...

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Common Features

The Swords were created by Vulcan at the behest of the other gods of the Books of the Swords universe. They intended to use the Swords to play a game, pitting nations of mortals against one another, to relieve their boredom. By making the Swords and scattering them throughout the land, the gods hoped to derive amusement as men and women sought them out and lorded power over each other.

Vulcan forged the Swords in the Ludus Mountains, in the hinterlands of the domain of Duke Fratkin. He conscripted mortal men from the nearby village of Treefall as assistants. Starting with meteoric iron and a powerful earth-fire, Vulcan completed each Sword by quenching it in human blood, sacrificing his unwilling assistants one by one. Only one man survived the forging process, the smith Jord, who lost one arm to the quenching process. While the gods intended for Jord to be gifted with a Sword, Vulcan instead gave him the Sword as payment for his services. Jord was given Townsaver, which became the first of the mysterious Swords revealed to humanity, to someday pass to his own son.

However, Vulcan forged too well; the Swords' powers worked as well on the gods themselves as on mortals.

The Swords are all physically identical in design. Each Sword has a bright, double-edged blade a meter long, that is a centimeter at its thickest, and has a simple black hilt with straight crossbar. The steel of the blade is mottled, with a subtle translucent pattern that seems to extend to impossible depths. The hilt is an unknown black material, hard but also comfortable. The Swords are all surgically sharp and resistant to all forms of damage. They never rust, dull, tarnish, or soil. Only the Sword Shieldbreaker can damage or destroy a Sword.

The overall construction of the blade is described as simple and elegant, not ornate or flashy, despite the illustrations featured on some of the paperback copies of the book covers. The first printing of the hardback Book of Swords bears an approximate image of the Swords' appearance. (Compare the originals (800k image) to the paperbacks (60kb image)) Whether the inaccurate cover illustrations are the result of poor research on the artist's part or some other motivation is unclear. The later printings are consistent with a description of a wooden swordcase used to hold one of the Swords.

A Sword can only be distinguished from its companions by a unique white symbol etched into one side of its hilt. In addition to each Sword's magical properties, all can also serve as peerless conventional blades, due to their perfect balance, extreme sharpness, and indestructible nature.

Read more at Wikipedia.org