So, I was cooking last night and while I was cutting vegetables, using my handy-dandy santoku knife, I wondered what 'santoku' meant. Wiki-fu revealed it meant 'three-virtues', referring to the fact it could be used to slice, dice and cut (though, I don't understand the difference...). This got me to thinking, what if someone made a weapon which rewarded the wielder for extolling the seven saintly virtues? Below is my first attempt at the weapon. Note it is designed for 2e, pre-2.5 lethality fix.
Captain Hesperus
So, too little? Too much?The Seven-Virtues Sword (Artifact *****)
In the latter part of the First Age, many of the Celestial Exalted had succumbed to hubris and debased activities, thanks to the poisonous effects of the Neverborn's Great Curse. With each successive generation, the Solars, Lunars and Sidereals became more corrupt and apt to acting out their deranged and destructive passions. One young Solar, recently Exalted, was repulsed by the depravity of his elders and peers and, fearing that their evil attributes would corrupt him, he sought out exemplars of virtuousness among the mortal populations of Creation. These people, he persuaded to give their lives to the creation of a powerful artifact weapon, and, after almost two years of dedicated preparation, he sacrificed the seven virtuous mortals. He quenched the super-heated metal in the combined blood and completed his weapon. It was only once he had completed, did he discover that the weapon would not cleave to him. In its reflection, he saw that all the sins he'd reviled in his fellows, he had visited upon his mortal sacrifices in his preparations to sacrifice them. With a nod and a sigh, he reversed the blade and drove it through his own chest.
Since then, the blade has moved throughout Creation, following its own, unknowable destiny. It has been wielded by warriors, mages and savants all, mortal and Exalted. Strangely, it does not care whether it is wielded for good or evil ends, only that the seven virtues are extolled in its wielder. Each person who possessed it used it for momentous ends, only for it to move on afterwards, whether the wielder wanted or not. Sometimes it was stolen from a treasure cache, snatched from a fallen warrior on a battlefield, or lost in storms at sea or beneath avalanches. But inevitably, it finds its way back into the hands of another wielder, one who meets its strongly defined sense of virtuousness.
The Seven-Virtues Sword is an Orchalcum Reaper Daiklave, with all the statistics of a weapon of that Magical Material, its blade tinged red with the blood of the innocents lost in its construction. However, it has a number of additional bonuses based upon the sacrifices that went into its construction. Each bonus is a gift from the blade to the wielder for each virtue they adhere to. Should the wielder no longer adhere to a specific virtue, then the bonus is lost until such time that they make proper amends to the spirit of the blade. this process is described below.
- The Gift of Humility: In accepting that they are no better and no worse than any other person, the wielder gains the Gift of Humility. This gift reduces the weapon's attunement cost to 0 motes, but the weapon still counts as attuned to the wielder due to the harmonization process. By this gift, even mortals may attune to the sword, even without an Essence pool.
- The Gift of Abstinence: By denying themselves all the pleasurable things that distract them from their duty, the wielder gains the Gift of Abstinence. This gift increases the weapon's Speed by +1.
- The Gift of Patience: By understanding that rash thought leads to rash action, the wielder gains the Gift of Patience. This gift increases the weapon's Accuracy by +2.
- The Gift of Kindness: In knowing that when death is at hand, the swift death is the kindest, the wielder gains the Gift of Kindness. This gift increases the weapon's Damage by +2.
- The Gift of Generosity: By putting themselves out for the benefit of others without thought of recompense, the wielder gains the Gift of Generosity. This gift increases the weapon's Defense by +2.
- The Gift of Chastity: By refraining from sexual thoughts and impulses, the wielder gains the Gift of Chastity. This gift increases the weapon's Rate by +2.
- The Gift of Diligence: In acceptance of their duty to protect and uplift others, the wielder gains the Gift of Diligence. This gift grants the wielder a combo-like effect involving the Charms Surprise Anticipation Technique, Call The Blade and Flawless Mirror Discipline. The wielder counts as having all the prerequisites and minimum Ability and Essence traits, for all aspects of these Charms. All Essence costs of the combo are met by the blade and the Gift of Diligence.
Losing and Regaining Gifts
The Seven-Virtue Sword is unyielding to the unworthy. It measures all who bear it through the mirror of its own flawless virtue and reviles those who fall short. Should the attuned wielder breach one of the virtues, then the associated Gift is instantly revoked. Should all the virtues be breached, the weapon will immediately sever all ties to the attuned wielder and will resist all attempts by that person to re-attune, as if it were attuned to another person. However, should the wielder seek to atone for the lapse of specific virtues before all the gifts are lost, then the sword may accept the penance and re-invoke the Gift. To regain gifts in this manner, the wielder must become so like the virtue, that they are almost the embodiment of it for a number of days equal to their highest Virtue. For instance, a breach of Generosity might require the wielder to permanently gift others items of value they possess, buy fine food and drink for the poor, donate anonymously to charities or acts of that nature. The ST adjudicates what actions meet the required virtue, counting them towards the penance.
A breach of the virtue of Chastity only be re-invoked after three weeks of chaste living.
Captain Hesperus