Per 
The Saint Sword
Arond-kesh, A Gift from the Seven, The Damsel made of Bronze and Iron
Conspectus
The Saint Sword is an old sapient and sentient relic of the Stargazers, those who give their blood to their lonely godly protector. After a raid in an MC&D’s associates exchange, one of the Hand’s members1 was bound to her, turning them into the Sword’s custodian. Her2 sainthood is a strange and long lost fact, as she was forgotten by history and books before became this powerful artifact that no one knows how to deal with.
- A.D. & Л, neophytes of the Hand.
Illustration
Her sword form.
Knowledge
Traits: The Saint Sword is a metamorphic entity that generally appears in her sword form, which looks like a Shamshir Shikargar.3 Her hilt and guard are made of beryllium bronze and her blade is made of cold iron.4,5
In her automaton form, she becomes a 5 feet tall cold ironwoman jeweled with pinkish gemstones6 for eyes and navel and adorned with some beryllium bronze props. Her punches and kicks keep a sword’s slashing and piercing characteristics. Her speed and strength are above average and she doesn’t seem to fatigate.
This statue is a depiction of her, we could not make her transform.
Both automaton and weapon forms are very resilient to physical damage and can self restore from denting, scratches and cuts after a while.
She is thaumaturgically linked to a custodian that shares her wisdom and memories by a telepathic link. She also demonstrated sapience and sentience through telepathic conversation with her host. Also, the Saint Sword is a kind of a warfare database, retaining and sharing previous and current custodians’ skills that are useful to her cause, including languages, codes7, strategies, martial arts, weapon dexterity (including firearms), and some war-related memories. She doesn’t keep any memory of thaumaturgical abilities.
Nature: The Sword will usually remain in sword form while in the presence of a living protégé. While in this state, she is almost an ordinary item, except for her powers of sharing and learning war skills, restoration and telepathy.
She changes her nature in the situation that the custodian is being attacked while off guard.8 The Saint Sword will act in the defense of her keeper. The protective nature will not activate if the owner is threatened by something that the Sword does not consider harmful enough. The list of things that the weapon will ignore includes almost any non-humanoid and accidental deaths. If the custodian is killed by any of these “non-threatening” things, she will keep guard of their remains in her automaton form all the time.
The Sword is not a very reliable entity. Her morality is considered “Trial” by Z.S. standards. There are two ways of becoming the custodian to the Saint Sword:
- Killing her actual custodian.
- Overcoming her in battle if there is no living custodian.
History & Associated Parties: The most antique scripture of the Children of Dust9 about her were present in books of ancient history of the Stargazers’ Empire, citing her as a kind of Saint (thus Saint Sword) or gift either given by Rakmou-leusan10 or other Koru-teusa11. She was largely disputed between Stargazing warriors, who tried to show their power to their gods. It ended when the war between Stargazers and the Daeva,12,13 beggined: the Sword was probably transferred to a Daeva warrior and vanished for a long time.
The last known custodian to the Sword before she came into the possession of the Hand was the Archduchess a group of Habsburg Family descendants that lived in a vault under Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. While trying to steal an artifact from the mutant bluebloods, a group of seven Hand’s members had to combat the leading monster, the previous blade user. When the creature was defeated, the individual that had made the last attack received the Sword as his own.
Approach: Never try to confront her custodian alone. She is a thousands of years old sword with expertise in war whose only directive is protecting her keeper. As both share dexterities, such as weapon proficiency, martial arts, and conceiving fast strategy, the owner will also be a pain in the ass challenging adversary.14
Observations & Stories
The books about the Saint Sword only exist in the depths of the Wanderer’s Library. At the bookshelves known by the Serpent’s Hand, just a few books about the Sword were found. None of our comrades could read the old Ortothan glyphs, so the custodian of the sword had to translate it alone.
The shooting star then fell from the sky, turning into a sword and the sword turning into a woman. As she made her way to the ground, the men asked:
“Who is that damsel made of bronze and iron?”
And from the clouds, the voice of the Seven15 replied the men, proclaiming the good news:
We send you our hunting knife and our apostle. She’s the Saint Sword.
The men were amazed by that holy present. In humility, they responded:
“Oh, Grace! Why do we deserve this prestigious gift”?
Because you gave us your blood in good faith. You defended our name and respected the rituals. The Earth deserves this protector. But don’t be foolish! As we, the Sword craves for blood.
The men looked confused as the Seven spoke.
“So should we start giving our blood for the Saint Sword and not to you, Divinity?”
And thus, the Seven rejoined:
The blood that we want is that of the devoted, the humble, and the faithful. The Sword craves for the blood of the heretics, she’s your protection. But fail to give her the nourishment that she needs, fail to protect the name of the Holy Seven, fail to defend your beliefs from the evil and she will become the worst of your nightmares and the deadliest of the enemies.
The Book of the Bloody Law, translated by A.D.
Albeit sapient and sentient, the Sword isn’t capable of forming phrases by herself. Her communication with the custodian is by showing visions, images, and memories of old stewards. The custodian can describe the scene as he is living it. Thaumaturgic aura is expressed by the Sword every time she shows stored memories, probably affecting the host senses. Trying to understand her real history, some attempts to question her were made. Below are some of the instances of this effort.
QUESTION: Do you remember how you were forged?
A vision of a medieval knight custodian fencing with an enemy inside a castle. While they fight, they break a mirror in the room. The swordsmen look at the mirror. For some reason, there is a focus on the fact that the mirror broke into seven pieces.
A fast image of a shooting star.
A parachutist custodian falling to the ground. As they land, the vision ends.
QUESTION: What is your oldest memory?
The Sword is in the hands of a man. He walks within a room where two other men look over a map. They speak with each other in Earthen Ortothan royal dialect. They talk about the invasion of “demons” in their frontiers, commanded by the “mother demon”. They also talk about the sword, calling it “one of the gifts of the Seven”. They plan a strategy against the demons.
The vision flashes. Now they are at a battlefield. The same custodian is fighting the demons.16 The warrior uses the sword to fight some of the enemies. As he finishes one of them by piercing their nude chest with the blade, they start running towards a dying friend that screams.
When he is at the friend's side, comforting the fallen one, the sword disappears from his side and he looks back. He looks back and sees a metallic lady that had just kicked an opponent's slender headless body. The head is falling to the ground. The custodian blinks and the automaton turns back into her Sword form, now being wielded by him again.
QUESTION: You remember how you got in the hands of your previous custodian?
The swordsman now is a woman. She is raiding the Habsburg’s vault with four other people. They see themselves as “vampire hunters”. As they invade the royal vessel, the deformed things are having a mascarade. The smell is putrid, the flashlights aren’t enough to light the dark environment and the music of the party is deafening.
As they were waiting for the group, the monsters jump in their direction. The Sword’s user quickly rushes in the direction of the ghouls, beheading and piercing their bodies as she runs. Other members of her gang fight with silver bullets and low-level thaumaturgy. Too confident, the custodian has one of her arms bitten and ripped off by the jaws of one of the creatures.
Perceiving her pain, the freaks pile over her as she screams. Under the beasts, she sees some of them being thrown away by a gargantuan, obese woman, the Archduchess. The leading member of the hellions takes the Sword’s protegé as the huntress was just a drumstick, devouring her with a single bite.
QUESTION: Are you trustworthy?
In this vision, the custodian is a male Child of the Night.1718 He is running across a giant bridge that connects two ivory-white towers. Tree-like airships battle against butterfly-winged people above the swordsmonkeyman.
While rushing, the sword flees his hand and he looks in the direction it flew. A fae man on the bridge defends himself from the punch of a woman of iron and bronze. The collision between his sword and the fist of the Saint Sword humanoid form creates a metallic sound. The elf retreats as the sword return to her protegé in weapon form.
The vision blinks and now the same custodian fights against the same fairy warrior from before. Their swords clash in an endless battle. The cuts that the adversary suffers rapidly develop necrosis as an effect of the cold iron in his body. The host of the Saint Sword feels great pain in his chest. He was defeated. The vision blinks again and now the custodian is the elven man, who looks as his rival falls to the ground, dead.
QUESTION: What is your main Goal?
The protegé runs in a battlefield covered in blood, bones, and flash. Enemies rush against the keeper’s troops, mounting animals created by fleshcrafting of their victims' corpses. The man, commanding his soldiers, points the Saint Sword forward and starts running in the direction of his opositors.
White pillars resembling ribs, covered in putrid fat and muscles, sprout from the earth, killing some of the custodian’s men and caging others. Wrathful, he jumps in the direction of the first flesh-horse and its rider, transpassassing the knight’s heart with the holy weapon. The victim falls while its construct comes apart, piece by piece.
The blade’s host continues to rapidly kill every opponent that jumps in his direction, inhuman in his anger. This continues till he perceives that he is the last man standing in a huge field full of corpses. Noticing no enemy or ally is alive, the lonely survivor falls to his knees and starts crying.
Entries by Л, translated from the visions of A.D.
We discovered interesting things about Old Ortothan Glyphs. The rune for Sword does not have plural or singular, so maybe there are more of her around. The word for Saint is also the word for “Thaumaturgic” or “Ritualistic”.
A text came to us about the Sword19 achieving “apotheosis” when “the Sword spilled enough blood”. It makes sense that she being thaumaturgic and having custodians one after another is simply her directive to end the ritual. It also matches Stargazers’ thaumaturgic nature, as they prefer long ceremonies to any easy-to-make lightning bolt.
Left: Old Ortothan "Arond-kesh", Right: Modern Ortothan "Arokesh".
The last and funniest of our analyses was that the glyphs and the sound of the Sword name in Ortothan, Arond-kesh, are similar to the word “Arokesh”, modern Ortothan for “ wrongful proselyte”, those who convert from the Ortothan religions to other faiths.
Doubt
What were you doing in the vaults of the Habsburg family? -1
My apprentices and I were looking for ancient alchemistic relics that the Habsburg stole for themselves. -Π
It sounds suspicious coming from you, Π. This has something to do with your mother? -2
The Sword is as bloodthirsty as the Daeva. As a faithful follower of the Church of the Second Hytoth, I can say to you that this artifact is a traitor of the Ortothan society, an unreliable entity that will betray us all when the time comes. Beware, my colleagues. -3
Don’t be dramatic. As long as the custodian is protected by the Hand, the sword will not betray us, will she? -1
As long as we protect the custodian. -Π
Even so, she literally showed a vision of a battle of thousands where only one guy survived and said that it was her goal. This entity is dangerous! -4
Well, she also showed more than one vision where her custodian was defeated. There are ways to contain her. -Л
”Contain”? You’re talking like a Jailor, child. -3
So… it’s only me that hasn't understood her reply about her origin? -4
The Apotheosis of one is only achieved by Catharsis. One does not exist without the other. But where do the sins of the one go after they become divine themself? They become shades of the past, savage and untamed.
As they were purifying themselves, the exodus caravan saw the Darkstar forming from their misdeeds, growing as strong as possible. But even the personified peccancy was not then the scorn that was coming for them in the new land. So their leaders turned the Darkstar into tools and divided them, sending them to earthen places where they could obtain their own Catharsis.
That’s a text from one of the Ortothan oldest books. Maybe she is one of these “tools”, so there is her background. -2
So how many tools are there? -1
Π could create a weapon like this with his hoplomancy.2021 I seriously suspect about the veracity of their Saint Sword -5
I’m saddened by the idea that someone thinks that I or one of my students was capable of creating such a hoax. I’m a member of the Hand, I cherish the truth and the free knowledge. -Π
So, again, what were you doing in the Habsburg’s vault? -1
