Appearance:
When the sword is unsheathed, it looks like a broken sword with only the sword handle left. The sword handle is made of ivory but dyed the colour of ink. There are some faded carvings on the handle but they are too faded for any observer or even the owner/wielder to make out what they are exactly.
Special Property:
In reality, the sword does have a blade. It is just invisible to naked eyes.
Benefit:
Since the blade is invisible to naked eyes, the wielder of the Shadow Bearer will have a substantial advantage of surprise over unfamiliar opponents in combat.
Drawback:
Its special property makes it exceedingly awkward to train with and use initially, not to mention that not everyone will be able to successfully master it.
Lore:
Shadow Bearer was crafted by the swordsmith Bokram Ironsong who wanted to see the effect of channeling the essence of light and shadow in equal proportions into the sword crafting process. In actual fact, he discarded the blade as a failure initially. However, out of an impulse, he kept it on a side table and played with the strange handle for days. Then, he accidentally nicked himself on the invisible blade one day and that was how the sword came to be named.
It was not clear how the sword passed out of his hands and the current whereabouts of this weapon is unknown.
Twist:
Unbeknownst to the world, there was another force at work behind the creation of Shadow Bearer: the essence of shadow that was used to craft the blade. Bokram thought of it as a common ingredient but he did not know that it was partly sentient and left a small imprint of shadow upon whomever touches it and then all other objects or beings that the ‘imprinted’ touches. As such, the Shadow Bearer is actually a sword of both light and shadow but has more leaning towards shadow.
Author’s notes: the name and its special property was taken straight from one of the Ten Top Swords in ancient China. This sub has been sitting as an idle idea too long and I’m just pushing it out now to clear up some space.
Don't fear the Light!
Light elementals, Light Societies, Magical flashlights, lanterns that tell jokes, illuminated books and swords that shine like the sun.
Experience Points rewarded for every Light quest submission during the time frame with 150xp to the first place winner and 100xp going to second.
Let there be Light!!
Translation of the Origin Story of the Shadow Bearer in Chinese:
Once upon a time in the Spring and Autumn Period in ancient China, in a pine forest situated in a remote area of the feudal kingdom of Wei, just before dawn broke, a pair of hands holding a sword with an invisible blade slowly raised up. Even though only the sword handle can be seen by naked eyes, the blade nevertheless cast a vague shadow on the northern wall that only lasted until dawn broke.
At the moment when day and night changed over, however, the vague shadow of the blade appeared again. The pair of hands holding the sword made an elegant sweep towards a tall pine tree on the side. A light sound of Cha could be heard, the pine tree shook a little but appeared unchanged. Yet, it was only a moment that the top of the whole tree slowly fell down amidst a gentle breeze, displaying the passage of time prominently with its growth rings.
The sky became darker and the blade turned invisible again. Silence fell down upon the world. Reputedly the Shadow Bearer was owned by the renowned Wei sword collector Kong Zhou.
The Story of the Shadow Bearer and its Twin Sword Possessing Light:
It is said that the swords Shadow Bearer and Possessing Light are twins. The renowned sword collector Kong Zhou had only heard of the name of Possessing Light but had never seen it in real life. After he acquired the Shadow Bearer, he noticed one day that the character Shadow engraved onto the blade looked a little loose. He pressed hard on it but it did not respond. Then he pulled hard on the spot and the sword hilt broke into two, exposing a short section of another hilt. He took hold of the hilt and pulled the hidden blade out. He could feel it being drawn out but could not see anything. He lightly brushed his hand against the invisible blade; a string of blood slowly trickled down to the floor, he did not even realise he had been cut. In a dark corner of the room, he was finally able to glimpse the blade. Yet, whenever light touched the blade, it turned invisible again. He swung the blade towards afar and the hilt shook violently. Accompanied by a loud bang, a hole was cut out of the wall one chi and further away (or more than 2.3m away) by the energy from the sword being swung. This hidden invisible blade within Shadow Bearer was the blade Possessing Light.
edited
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