Twelve Swords of Power - Farslayer

Farslayer is also called the Sword of Vengeance. It has a series of concentric circles in the form of a bullseye or target engraved upon its hilt.

Farslayer's verse in The Song of Swords describes its power as follows:

Farslayer howls across the world

For thy heart, for thy heart, who hast wronged me!

Vengeance is his who casts the blade

Yet he will in the end no triumph see.

Farslayer is relatively straightforward in operation. The possessor must simply swing the blade around and think of the person whom they wish to kill, then release the sword. It is customary for the wielder to chant the second line of the Swords verse, "For thy heart...", as above, while they are spinning the Blade. This appears to be unnecessary for the proper function of Farslayer.

After launching, the Sword flies from the hand of its master, creating a shrieking rainbow-colored streak through the sky, terminating in the heart of the intended target. Nothing can be done to hide from Farslayer. The sword is intelligent enough to know exactly how to kill its target: for example, pitted against a demon, Farslayer attempted to attack the demon's projected form, but when this failed, it sailed far away to destroy that demon's life instead. Even the gods are not immune: in the Second Book of Swords, Baron Doon killed the god Hermes with it. Farslayer will phase through any substance that is placed between it and its target. Assassinations have taken place with the target in houses, fortified castles, even in caves hundreds of feet under ground. Distance from the target is also no obstacle. Only Shieldbreaker offers sure defense from the Sword of Vengeance, destroying the incoming blade as it attacks. Woundhealer does not prevent Farslayer from impaling its target, but it does ensure that the victim survives and that the wound heals. Some characters theorized that Doomgiver might present a defense, but this was never attempted in the series.

Once Farslayer reaches its target, it remains there. Typically, the deceased is surrounded by friends with thoughts of vengeance, and who are the new owners of Farslayer. This major drawback makes employing Farslayer a risky proposition. The sequence is played out in The Fourth Book of Lost Swords: Farslayer's Story, where two feuding families throw the Sword back and forth over the course of one evening, eventually resorting to family tree records so they can identify surviving targets, until one of the few survivors finally took the Sword and fled rather than using it.