Really poky gardens

[Telemecus]

I had an idea for my WIP, and I was hoping for some feedback on it.

In my main setting, a very militarized uber-magical city, there are two divisions of the military. One is a volunteer/draft horde of lightly trained and equipped citizen soldiers that essentially just guard the walls and gates, etc. The other division is made up of applicants that are very much above and beyond the scope of normal soldiers. They are responsible for their own training and equipment, and only serve when emergencies arise. They are essentially all "heroes worthy of legend." There are only about 150 of these people, drawn from the city population of several million. (the city tends to produce stronger and more magical children anyway, which is another story,so this is not an unreasonable number, I think.) The problem is, one of the conflicts in my story is that the great, powerful weapons usually wielded by these people are almost always broken when they die, due to the usually violent natures of their deaths, and a special bond that develops between magic and people when they are around each other long enough.

So if there is a constant supply of new heroes, and all the old weapons keep breaking, how do these people keep on getting these new powerful weapons? Forging seems boring, and it feels as though it would take a loooooooooooong time to make something of that caliber. I thought that maybe the city grows new weapons!

In a special grotto, where an ancient burial site is crossed by a deep underground lava flow, spells have been set up over generations to harness the excess bloodlust, valour, and energy that souls give off when they leave their bodies. When good and great people die, some of their soul bits that don't move on generally end up gravitating to this place. The energy and materials from the ground combine until one day, after it has been gestating for long enough, the weapon rises out of the ground, where dutiful attendants collect and clean it, until the person who it is destined for comes along to discover it.

Thoughts?

 

[Saigonnus]

Such a powerfully crafted weapon becoming suddenly vulnerable and being destroyed at the death of his owner/user is a bit odd, but I guess with the right reasoning it could work. Just because a hero dies violently doesn't mean the weapon would likewise be destroyed. What was your thinking along these lines that made it so appealing?

I recall from my gaming days the relationship between a paladin and his "holy avenger" (D&D terms). Basically for a non-paladin character, the sword functions as a normal blade without enchantments or abilities but in the hands of a paladin, they are exceptionally powerful with special abilities to combat evil.

Doing this would give the city the capability of keeping these powerful weapons around, and remove the need to forge them "on the fly" as it were as new heroes come around. They probably would not be usable by any run of the mill hero, except as a simple weapon, but one that could form a bond with the user over time, granting that character the special abilities. Maybe it judges the user by his traits, alignment, likes/dislikes, natural talents etc... so a weapon with flame powers would be more likely to bond with a character who is a pyromaniac than someone who has a natural affinity for water talents.

Whatever the case may be, having a "garden" for weapons could work, the spells lingering in the place and reinforced anually could serve as a very tempting target for enemies of the city who would see their foe's source of heroes suddenly evaporate with the destruction of said garden.

 

[Telemecus]

I wanted to make the weapons seem more alive than regular mundane weapons. These weapons are semi-concious, and symbiotic in nature. They latch on to a person with potential, and help them. When the person dies, so does the weapon, since it can't support itself at that point.
I also wanted to use this to take a poke at that old, One Hero, One Weapon cliche.

 

[Telemecus]

I wanted to make the weapons seem more alive than regular mundane weapons. These weapons are semi-concious, and symbiotic in nature. They latch on to a person with potential, and help them. When the person dies, so does the weapon, since it can't support itself at that point.
I also wanted to use this to take a poke at that old, One Hero, One Weapon cliche.

 

[Telemecus]

Sorry about the double post!

 

[Filk]

You've got a great idea here. It seems quite original too! It does lend itself to questions like how the new weapons are forged. Is it a thing of gods? What happens to the old, broken weapons? Are these new ones reforged manifestations of the broken ones? I can't seem to get past the weapons just appearing there. Could there be a ritual to imbue weapons with the power of this place?

This idea has tons of potential; hope some of these questions help you sort out the details.

 

[Telemecus]

Well...
I would say this would be a way that people have become enveloped in magic over time. Especially since the warrior parts of the soul are the ones producing the artifacts, I think that weapons growing underneath the ground, getting a little sharper, and a bit more dangerous every time a great person leaves the world, makes a bit of poetic-ish sense.
And, on a biological note, it makes sense for the preservation of the "magical weapon species." The weapons bond with certain people because they can tell, given the boost of power the weapon provides, that that person will become hero enough to help form even more weapons when they get shoved off the mortal coil. Parasitic reproduction of magical items!

 

[wordwalker]

One thing that might help: maybe only the worthy warrior can pull the weapon off the tree or wherever it grows, because it only comes loose when it bonds to him. When he dies, that bond can't sustain it anymore, and snap!

Edit: ooo, the trees feed off heroes' death and try to encourage more heroes too? That makes a complete life cycle.

By the way, I always recommend the series InuYasha here because in about the first 80 episodes (going by the anime's count) it touches on just about every type of plotline you can do with a magic weapon. Try it and see.

 

[ThinkerX]

Suggestion: instead of the weapons becoming broken ('dying') when their weilder perishes, have them become 'psychologically devastated' instead. "Harry the Hero was my one true weilder. None of these other saps measure up.' But day after day, year after year, would-be weilders do show up, and attempt to prove their worth to the weapon.

 

[Kahle]

This definitely reminds me of Mordeth's Shadar Logoth dagger from WoT and the element of uniqueness of a Jedi and their lightsaber, with a twist of the Soul Edge. It would seem appropriate to have the hero form some sort of spiritual/mental/physical bond with the weapon in a trial or forging process. An excellent occasion for infusing things with blood. When the lifeblood of the hero fails, the weapon crumbles, or fuses to the body of the hero. The bodies of the heroes are entombed in the chamber, and their souls dwell in the lava flow. When the time comes for a new weapon, the hero must take a budding crystal or ore fragment, submerge it into the lava, where melding of souls infuses the weapon seed with that consciousness, giving it is power and link to the heroes past. When the hero is ready/prepared, they must retrieve the grown/mature weapon from the lava.

 

[Saigonnus]

I wanted to make the weapons seem more alive than regular mundane weapons. These weapons are semi-concious, and symbiotic in nature. They latch on to a person with potential, and help them. When the person dies, so does the weapon, since it can't support itself at that point.
I also wanted to use this to take a poke at that old, One Hero, One Weapon cliche.

You still could have them be somewhat sentient... perhaps the "garden" is simply where they are forged, the natural "ambience" of the locale and the natural occurring "juju" in the metals or process used to forge them could cause it. As was suggested above, it could really work to keep the weapons around, but are only used every few decades; while the spirit within the sword recovers from the loss of the last hero to wield it and it finds another suitable.

It could give rise to those truly powerful weapons that have seen multiple owners; thus have more experience to impart to the latest user. Maybe the weapons even get a known reputation for being so awesomely intimidating that villains may actively seek out the "new" hero wielding the weapons before he has much experience using it; robbing the weapon of a user for however long it would take to recover again. This would likely mean the oldest weapons are probably the most powerful, you wouldn't have to forge them that often (a craftsman could take 10 years making one perfect) and heroes would always have weapons

Edit: Typo