Need a Bad*ss sword.

[Wiggles2021]

My main character was raised by a smith, got his sword stolen, joined an army, and made himself a new one. But i want this new sword to be epic. ive looked around online, but does anybody have any good sword-ology, or any websited that show examples i could model this thing after. the only thing ive got so far is that is basically a bastard sword, but i want it to be more exciting then that.

 

[Queshire]

Eh, personally I say go the other way, a sword is a tool for killing people, it should be no more or no less then that. I'm thinking of Carrot's sword from Discworld, unmagical, slightly plain, but reeeeeeally good at cutting stuff up.

 

[Philip Overby]

Anders (who posted in the Research section about swords) would know a great deal about any sword you could probably dream up. He's very knowledgeable about the subject.

 

[ThinkerX]

I would make the comment that even though your character was raised by a smith, his knowledge of different sword types would still be limited by his culture and experience.

So...what sort of swords are used in his culture? (or among the enemies he encountered)

Because whatever type of sword he makes would be derived from his own experiences.

 

[Konstanz]

It depends on what kind of blacksmith raised him. Most of them just make standard weapons for footmen while others create masterpieces for the nobility. But even masterpieces look rather plain. Perhaps they have a nice engraving, a decorative pommel and crossguard and a nice wrap around the handle, but that's it. Fantasy swords you see in games like FF and WoW are often caricatures of swords and are too large, decorative, funny shaped to be practical on the battlefield. The first purpose of a sword will always remain killing, unless your character wants to join the army for parading around.

And like ThinkerX said, his knowledge of smithing would be limited to what he was taught and usually that's just standard blades or perhaps scimitars/katana's depending on the culture you're writing in.

 

[Ravana]

The zweihänder is good, if you want something large with the added bonus of an intimidating name. Of course, it would also pretty much presuppose the existence of German as a language in your world; otherwise, wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to call it that.

Problem is, for most "types" of sword in the world, the only major visual differences are: (1) whether they're straight or curved; (2) whether they're wielded with one or two hands; arguably (3) whether it's substantially thicker near the end than the base, though this can easily be viewed as a variation on a theme, too. All the pretty names in the world won't make a lot of difference to most readers–you tell them it's a tulwar, a shotel, a tachi or a klewang, they're gonna look it up and say "Oh, right, it's a scimitar."

There is, of course, potentially a lot more than that, once you get down to the details–whether there's one or two cutting edges (or one and a fraction), whether the blade tapers (in, out, neither), whether it has a point (and what type), what its cross-section is like, etc. A couple curve forward rather than backward. A couple have wavy blades. Variations on hilt, guard, pommels. But there's only so much you can change a sword's design and still have a sword. Change it too much and what you have is a handle with a few inches of jagged metal projecting from it, and an enemy with a big grin on his face.

ThinkerX has it pretty much right: what he makes is going to be what he's been raised to make–which is to say, it's going to be what everybody else uses. More importantly, it's going to be what he's been trained to use: he isn't going to be experimenting with forms, not while he's in the army. Nor will his commanders be likely to permit him to waste time and metal doing so… and that's assuming they don't simply hand him the weapon they want him to use in the first place. (Which, in most times and places, was as likely not to be a sword at all. Those were for important people, not blacksmiths.)

Now, if you want an intimidating-looking weapon, check out central African "throwing knives" (aka mambele or hungamunga, among other local names). I'm not entirely certain why they're even called that, apart from being sharp and being thrown. Probably lack of imagination on the part of the Euros.… Not the sort of thing I'd suggest for someone in the military, but maybe it'll inspire you. The Indonesian lajatang is pretty impressive, too, though it isn't a sword–closer to a poleaxe than anything else. Finally, there's the Chinese "hook sword," which is a sword… mostly.

 

[Anders Ämting]

My main character was raised by a smith, got his sword stolen, joined an army, and made himself a new one. But i want this new sword to be epic. ive looked around online, but does anybody have any good sword-ology, or any websited that show examples i could model this thing after. the only thing ive got so far is that is basically a bastard sword, but i want it to be more exciting then that.

I can recommend you several good sword related communities. But before that, it's probably best to start at the basics:

-What is the technology level in your setting? Iron age? High medieval? Renaissance?
-What types of armor do people generally carry, if any?
-Are shields common?
-What types of sword do people normally use? What type of sword is your MC trained to use? Did he fight people using different swords, which might have inspired him?

Eh, personally I say go the other way, a sword is a tool for killing people, it should be no more or no less then that. I'm thinking of Carrot's sword from Discworld, unmagical, slightly plain, but reeeeeeally good at cutting stuff up.

IIRC, Carrot once thrust his sword straight into a stone pillar, somehow leaving a perfectly sword-shaped hole. So, yeah.

The whole thing about it being normal was always meant as a parody: It's the only normal sword on the Disc, a place where magic is everywhere, making it completely unique. It's so normal it comes back from the other side and ends up abnormal.

Also, this is kind of a pet peeve of mine: Just because a sword is a tool for killing it doesn't mean it can't be an extraordinary tool for killing. There's a cliché you keep hearing these days, going something like: "It's not the sword that counts, it's the swordsman." While there's some truth to that, people tend to take it way too literally: No real warrior, no matter how skilled, is going to pass up a clearly superior weapon for the sake of "keeping it real."

I would make the comment that even though your character was raised by a smith, his knowledge of different sword types would still be limited by his culture and experience.

To be fair, though, he was a soldier. So assuming the guy who raised him was a bladesmith, this character will have knowledge both about making swords and using them. Not only will he know what works, but he'll understand why it works.

Also, knowing the trade secrets lets him talk to other people in the trade, like if he runs into a foreign smith during a campaign and they start trading handy advice, or if they work with mercenaries who use for example sabers instead of arming swords and they start discussing the pros and cons.

Over-all, that's a great place to start. You just need to give the character an open mind, some creativity and a healthy dose of common sense.

It depends on what kind of blacksmith raised him. Most of them just make standard weapons for footmen while others create masterpieces for the nobility. But even masterpieces look rather plain. Perhaps they have a nice engraving, a decorative pommel and crossguard and a nice wrap around the handle, but that's it. Fantasy swords you see in games like FF and WoW are often caricatures of swords and are too large, decorative, funny shaped to be practical on the battlefield. The first purpose of a sword will always remain killing, unless your character wants to join the army for parading around.

Actually, there have been plenty of absurdly decorative swords in history. A forum I know has a thread specifically dedicated to that subject.

See, rich people in ye olde times did like their bling and this was back when decorating a sword took serious skill, so it commanded more respect then it generally does today. Carrying a really pimped-out sword wasn't just an expression of gaudy taste, it was a way of showing off.

Plus, there is this modern mindset where swords should be plain, austere tools and that anyone who carries a decorate sword clearly demonstrates a critical priority of style over substance. A guy on another forum once made the interesting observation that even though historical reenactors tend to focus on upper-class personas, they will usually carry swords that are much too plain for someone of that standing, simply because they think decorate swords are somehow less respectful.

The reality, of course, is that anyone who could afford style could damn well afford substance as well, so those fancy swords were probably even better killing tools then the plain weapons of the commoners. And, again, no real swordsman in his right mind is going to pass up a masterwork blade just because it's too fancy.

That said, this character isn't even a professional craftsman with years of training - he's a soldier with some blacksmithing skills. To begin with, it's not the bladesmith that does the decorations or even the hilting: Each part of the sword had its own specialist and often you'd get in trouble with the guilds if you tried going into business making whole swords by yourself.

He's probably going to be more interested in functionality then bling anyway, so he'd be looking at metalurgy, forging and heat treating techniques, and blade geometry/mass distribution designed to optimize the sword's efficiency and eliminating shortcomings he might have noticed in the more common swords.

 

[Voydemain]

Sword, one of the great arts. When a blacksmith forms this tool it is more than just a dead piece of cold metal, it becomes alive like any other art piece.

It depends on what kind of blacksmith raised him.

I agree. There is much that can be learned about a something by knowing who crafted it. Was this a standard blacksmith? Did this blacksmith specialize with specific or rare metals? Does the character learn new tricks to blacksmith from the time he left his training to when he crafted his sword? Was the character inspired in some way to craft the sword a certain way?

Some ways a sword can be more than just a sword, depending on how much fantasy is in your story. A sword that can transform, consider Percy Jackson and how his sword could become a pen. A weapon is a person or a person can become a weapon, consider the anime Soul Eater. The sword is sentient, consider... a lot of fantasy stories. Such as the sword can choose its owner or can speak. Possibly only able to speak only to its owner. The sword is key, consider Kingdom Hearts. Actually, I feel like it has been done better than Kingdom Hearts somewhere. Other than the sword being a literal key. Anyways, hopes that helps.