# Sword Magic



## fete67 (Nov 25, 2011)

I recently began creating a tribe of barbarians in a story, and i wanted to make them have magic involving their swords. In my world I have arcane magic, which includes magic that is studied and blood magic. I have no divine magic although deities can grant certain powers to their worshipers. I do not want the barbarians to study for their magic and I do not want them to be sorcerers (except maybe a few random barbarians). Does any one have an idea how to accomplish this?


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## Phoenix (Nov 25, 2011)

Maybe they dip their blades in blood before battle? Their savages so maybe their special attribute is when their blood pressure sky rockets they have super-human strength. Make it a natural solution that way they don't have to study.


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## fete67 (Nov 25, 2011)

That sounds very interesting because my world is based on everything has magic in it. I was also thinking something like runes on the blades but that would limit what each blade could do. I would also have to solve how they know the runes without studying. Does anyone have any ideas for runes?


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 26, 2011)

They don't all have to study; maybe there's an old lorekeeper in each tribe/village who's responsible for keeping track of the runes and inscribing them, or teaching the few basic runes that are needed to each warrior. They don't necessarily need a _lot_ of teaching, but maybe part of their warrior training when they're young is to learn the Five Blood Runes, which is something that only takes a day or two, and then (like all martial arts) you practice with it a lot. Or maybe there's no lorekeeper guy at all, it's just something that's passed down from warrior to warrior (a mentor-student relationship).


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## Phoenix (Nov 26, 2011)

Also maybe they use some weird magical earth-metal for their blades? That would give them some magic, and put them over a little bit on their opponents. Is their anywhere I can hear more of your story? Barbarians interest me.


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## Grizzly Bear (Nov 27, 2011)

Perhaps you might want to consider a wooden blade that has been repeatedly wiped down with blood until the magic between the blade and blood create a sword that is stronger than steel? You could give the wood a name like Bloodwort and the inherent properties in the wood do not begin to manifest themselves until there is enough blood soaked into the wood to activate them.

The idea would be that a loremaster would have to begin the process after the new owner has shaped his, or her blade. By involving both then the properties they are looking for would have a better chance to manifest itself. I can't remember the name of the book but one author used the blood oil from a tree to harden and activate his swords. The oil was very difficult to harvest and only a warrior that could prove their mettle, prove they were worthy, could harvest it.


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## ThinkerX (Nov 27, 2011)

> I recently began creating a tribe of barbarians in a story, and i wanted to make them have magic involving their swords. In my world I have arcane magic, which includes magic that is studied and blood magic. I have no divine magic although deities can grant certain powers to their worshipers. I do not want the barbarians to study for their magic and I do not want them to be sorcerers (except maybe a few random barbarians). Does any one have an idea how to accomplish this?



Rune Magic.  The master smiths for these tribes jealously guard knowledge of a handful of potent runes that can be pounded right into the blade during its forging.  The Rune has to be drawn exactly right, and the smiths will do this only for the quality weapons.  Even a top notch smith is not going to know how to inscribe more than three or four Runes.

Tolkien alluded to something similiar for the origin of certain of the magical swords in 'Lord of the Rings'.  A smith or two in Martins 'Song of Ice and Fire' use spells in the course of their work.

Here in the real world, the Norse (Vikings) were big on Runes, which were worked onto everything from drinking cups to shields to swords.  Magic and smithing were also linked in the medivial mindset, to an extent.


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## Devor (Nov 28, 2011)

Skip the runes, keep the blood.  I think runes have been done to death, and unless you want to take the time to do it really well, it wouldn't feel new to me.  Or barbaric, as runes are often used by civilized societies in many stories.  Are these barbarians a tertiary group?  You might not have the time to make the runes distinctive and right.

Maybe the blood has to be mixed with a mixture of oils and other magical elements before it can add magic to the sword, which will give you a ritual priesthood devoted to its preparation.  It would also keep people from doing it themselves.  Victims in war could be pulled off the battlefield and drained of their blood just after the fight, or human sacrifices kept specifically for the purpose of building up their magical reservoir.  And depending on your story, you might be able to find plotpoints based on the rare substances they're adding to the blood.

Just a quick thought.


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## SeverinR (Nov 28, 2011)

Since my D&D days, I have always considered the ultimate evil sword enchantment would have to be forged in blood.
Red hot hardened blade instantly cooled by the blood of a human. (Probably by impaling the blade into the victim while alive.)
Even more evil make it the traditional virgin sacrifice for that extra powerful evil.  I guess the ultimate evil if you have them, would to be cool the sword in a unicorn, or with unicorn blood.

For barbarians, they might use blood from an animal, making the blade thirst for blood of any kind.

I am not sure how to enchant a sword without a mage, unless they call on a diety to enchant their weapons.

Have not used this yet, but will probably use this someday.


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## Seth son of Tom (Nov 28, 2011)

what if they had conquered a place where the swords had been forged with magic already in them


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## fete67 (Nov 28, 2011)

I'm definitely feeling the oil or blood idea. Blood is a little to "evil" idea for me because the barbarian tribe is neutral. They are territorial, they reside in a small patch of hill lands. Centuries before the tribe was once part of a large kingdom but they fled when a cult of wizards destroyed the realm and turned it into the "Dead Lands". Their weaponry could have come from that era but I'm not sure how they would get new weapons so I might do the oil and some sort of ritual.


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## Devor (Nov 28, 2011)

fete67 said:


> I'm definitely feeling the oil or blood idea. Blood is a little to "evil" idea for me because the barbarian tribe is neutral. They are territorial, they reside in a small patch of hill lands. Centuries before the tribe was once part of a large kingdom but they fled when a cult of wizards destroyed the realm and turned it into the "Dead Lands". Their weaponry could have come from that era but I'm not sure how they would get new weapons so I might do the oil and some sort of ritual.



I'm glad you've found what you were looking for.

Blood doesn't have to be evil.  Maybe the blood of a recently deceased elder is used in some way, so that it becomes a form of ancestor worship.


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## Steerpike (Nov 28, 2011)

Steven Erikson did something similar to what some have suggested in this thread. His character Karsa Olong had a "bloodwood" sword, and something called "blood-oil" is rubbed into the sword, subsequently hardening and lending it strength. The blood-oil is used for other surfaces as well. I thought it was a pretty cool idea.


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## Devor (Nov 28, 2011)

Steerpike said:


> Steven Erikson did something similar to what some have suggested in this thread. His character Karsa Olong had a "bloodwood" sword, and something called "blood-oil" is rubbed into the sword, subsequently hardening and lending it strength. The blood-oil is used for other surfaces as well. I thought it was a pretty cool idea.



 . . . . . . . drats.

One of these days I'm going to have to post a list of all my ideas and ask which ones have been used elsewhere.  I don't think I have the courage, though.  I probably won't be able to stomach the response.


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## Steerpike (Nov 28, 2011)

Devor said:


> . . . . . . . drats.
> 
> One of these days I'm going to have to post a list of all my ideas and ask which ones have been used elsewhere.  I don't think I have the courage, though.  I probably won't be able to stomach the response.



There is so much out there that I think we'll find many of our ideas in existence, in some form or other. But I believe you can continue to use those ideas to good effect. For all we know, someone did the blood-oil/wood idea before Erikson. There is always room from the skilled artist to take what exists in the art and make it her own.


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## Phoenix (Nov 28, 2011)

I think the Barbarians should keep to the blood. Its crude, just like their culture. I liked the blood sacrifice idea though.


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## fete67 (Nov 28, 2011)

I had the barbarians forced out of their homeland centuries before, so maybe they brought their secret oils with them or something. I'm becoming opposed to the use of blood because it does seem evil and that's not the road I want to take with them.


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## Legendary Sidekick (Nov 28, 2011)

Did you know that the traditional way to forge a katana is almost a lost art? Every step in the process from the chemical composition of the metal to the temperature of the forge to the length of time of the smelting process to the decoration and presentation of the sword is precise.

I don't know if something like that^ could work as a (rare?) method of creating sword magic (or magic swords?), but it's the first thing I thought of that didn't involve a friend, foe or beast having to die.


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## Hans (Nov 30, 2011)

SeverinR said:


> Red hot hardened blade instantly cooled by the blood of a human. (Probably by impaling the blade into the victim while alive.)


That actually happened in reality. In times before the process of steel hardening was discovered you can imagine the legends that come from this event. When the people discover the sword was actually harder and kept its sharpness longer after the glowing execution.


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## AlexanderKira (Nov 30, 2011)

The blood thing sounds kind of interesting, but what you keep stressing is that they're not crude and evil. I like the using of the Elder's blood as an ancestral ceremony, but using blood does seem a little crude. I can't really think of anything good right now, so I don't know why I'm posting, but my advice is to try and get something that seems crude to the outside world, like blood I guess, and make it ceremonial and honored to the barbarians. Because the term barbarians really a term that means uncivilized to the people that named them, like the Romans called the Germanic tribes barbarians because they didn't live they way they did. So these people that call them barbarians, it would depend on how they live, what they considered barbaric. So these people could be really sophisticated, but the "civilized" people hate them because they don't do what they do. Aha, don't know where I was going with this.


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## Stranger (Nov 30, 2011)

Hmm. What do your Barbarians do with their dead? If they burn honoured warriors in a bonfire, they could perhaps use the ashes to imbue swords with magical powers. It would be a limited resource, obviously, and maybe only certain warriors' ashes would be powerful enough to be used on weapons. Or the Barbarians could have a funerary ritual that makes them powerful. It would be a great insult for a Barbarian to be denied proper death rites in that case.


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## SeverinR (Dec 5, 2011)

Hans said:


> That actually happened in reality. In times before the process of steel hardening was discovered you can imagine the legends that come from this event. When the people discover the sword was actually harder and kept its sharpness longer after the glowing execution.



Does not suprise me.


As others have said, blood does not have to be evil.  The sword draws blood every time it is used.  Killing a human just for the sword would be evil.  But using the blood of a fresh killed animal would not be evil.
Traditionally blood magic is evil, but explain to the reader why this one isn't.

in my world: One magic uses blood from the caster, it is not evil, it is magic to attract a loyal pet(D&D's find familiar spell)
the blood shows the attracted animal the caster will sacrifice for them. (and a meat eater might be attracted by the smell)


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## fete67 (Dec 6, 2011)

Hmm I like the ashes idea, like have a family sword that is imbued with your family's ashes after every wielder dies.


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## Reaver (Dec 6, 2011)

Perhaps the barbarian's swords can be inhabited by the spirit of an ancestor?  Possibly increasing their strength and skill, warning them of impending danger...the possibilities are endless.


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## Grizzly Bear (Dec 7, 2011)

*Blood vs Runes*

I am working on a series where my hero / heroine has to assemble & re-assemble a sword made from multiple blades; 3 pairs total. Each sword balances out the other in the pair.

The swords were made using a combination of magic from either a Dwarf (fire), Gnome (arcane or undead), Elf (Earth), Giants (frost or water), Human (air / time), runes from makers as well as the ancient runes of a specific dragon clan PLUS a drop of Dragon's blood sealed by by the dragon to the blade. Each blade alone would have allowed the user to gain a significant advantage, but combined with a blade created by the gods it is the only thing that can destroy a goddess.

The Dragon's blood causes the Runes on the blade to come alive when used by the Chosen One. They also call out to one person, and only one person. No one else can wield the sword.

That idea might work for you as well.


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## Matthew Bishop (Dec 7, 2011)

There are certain cultures that, historically, have relied on unusually decadent or decorative swords for combat, believing that the sword absorbs the power of a vanquished enemy. The power can be spiritual, religious, physical, mental-- it depends on the culture and the time period. In some cases soldiers would use certain items-- even something like a feather-- that could absorb and retain this power. It is an interesting idea. It only pertains to important soldiers, of course, as this sort of weapon takes a lot more effort to create, and the number of weapons is generally more important, even if a society does firmly believe in the absorbing power of certain swords.

I have heard of other weapons being believed to have had similar powers, but it is usually swords, for some reason or another.


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## S.T. Ockenner (Dec 2, 2020)

I agree with the people saying that they should dip them in their dead family member's  blood. It wouldn't be evil at all since the person was already dead.


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## Saigonnus (Dec 3, 2020)

Something druidic or shamanic could work too for the scenario, depends of course how you are depicting barbarians in your story. Energy of stone might be infused into the blade for added strength, or wood for added flexibility. In volcanic places, the energy of the lava can be used to make blades that burn as they cut. Arctic tribes might trade their frost blades for something more useful for them. I can see the possibilities being nearly endless.


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