Twelve Swords of Power - Common Features

Common Features

The Swords were created by Vulcan at the behest of the other gods of The Book of 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 Fraktin. 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. Rather than giving the Sword to a mortal as a gift, as the others were, Vulcan gave Jord Townsaver as payment for his work, to someday pass to his own son.

However, Vulcan forged too well; the Swords' powers even worked on the gods themselves. This mistake came from the gods' misunderstanding of their own nature. In their arrogance, they never thought to wonder where they had come from. In fact, great as it was, their power was granted by the collective dreams of humanity. The Swords ultimately destroyed the gods: some directly by the Swords themselves, but most indirectly, by challenging their reputation for omnipotence and causing them to dissipate.

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)) The later printings are consistent with a description of wooden sword cases used to hold Woundhealer (white), by the Temple of Ardneh, and Soulcutter (black), by the Silver Queen.

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, most also serve as peerless conventional blades, due to their perfect balance, extreme sharpness, and indestructible nature.

There are four exceptions to these general rules. Woundhealer is incapable of causing injury, though its blade will cut anything but living flesh as well as any other Sword. Soulcutter lacks a distinguishing hilt symbol. Soulcutter's blade has no luster and was never used as a weapon, though both of these effects are likely psychological side effects of the Sword's dark power. Similarly, the Mindsword is described as being impossibly bright and shiny, potentially another psychological effect. Shieldbreaker is a peerless combat weapon, except when used against an unarmed opponent, in which case it is incapable of causing harm and even weakens its wielder.

Characters in the series at times speculate about the effects of holding two Swords at once. At least one person is known to have been knocked unconscious simply from holding two, without drawing on their powers. On the other hand, a number of characters wielded two at once with little adverse effect. Wizards who studied the Swords theorized that certain more "sensitive" personalities seem less able to resist the effects of wielding two Swords, and that some Swords seem to tolerate each other better than others. While dual-wielding, the wielder is described variously as feeling euphoric, or as if he/she were having an out-of-body experience.