Magic Swords in Fantasy

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-07-18 06:16am

The Sword of Mana from Seiken Densetsu is the strongest sword I've ever heard of. If you can use it, you are god. You can do anything at all that you like.

Post by **Edi** » 2003-07-18 06:37am

Keevan_Colton wrote:Stormbringer

Destroy nations, mess up the multiverse, kill your friends, be granted strength and power.....its all good.....

Of course, its better to say its the black blade that has these powers...Stormbringer is only a single incarnation of it.....

Yep, Stormbringer was a rather ninny blade compared to the Cold Sword Erekose wielded in the ice world, as the Cold Sword happened to be the whole sword. Haven't read Wheel of Time, but I'd say the Black Blade's full incarnations (such as the Cold Sword) take the title for raw power, though Excalibur is impressive too.

Edi

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-07-18 04:38pm

Edi wrote:Haven't read Wheel of Time, but I'd say the Black Blade's full incarnations (such as the Cold Sword) take the title for raw power, though Excalibur is impressive too.

Edi

Depends on who's weilding it and what they do. Balefire produced via Callandor would cause the destruction of time and space, essentially unraveling reality.

Not to mention it's very easy to just blast a city out of existence, smash an army or fuck up the planet royally.

Dizzy D · Post by **Dizzy D** » 2003-07-18 04:50pm

Wayfinder mentioned in Marvel's Earth X/Universe X, a sword embedded in a star that created the Microverse.

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2003-07-18 08:24pm

LadyTevar wrote: However I would also like to include Woman's Need as one of the best swords in fantasy, especially after the reason for some of her odd properties became known. "Woman's Need calls me, as Woman's Need made me. Her Need I will answer, as my Maker bade me" For the first 4 books Mercedes Lackey features 'Need' in, the sword has a slight curse: It draws the weilder to protect, save, or revenge any woman harmed or killed by a male. There is no way to fight this complusion. The 5th book explains why, and reveals more powers the sword can use.

I really like need as well but in power level seems less than many of the others listed.

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2003-07-18 10:16pm

Stormbringer wrote: Only while you're actively holding it. So you'd better not drop that sword.

Can he be disarmed?

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2003-07-18 10:18pm

SirNitram wrote:Godsbane was pretty cool, even if it wasn't all it appeared(Could revealing this even count as a spoiler anymore?).

I'd include my own creation, Smiter, but it's not published, so probably don't count.

I have created a bunch of magic sword on my website but in most games, something like "Stormbringer" or "Wolvesbane" are simply too powerful for the game.

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2003-07-18 10:20pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote: Now, for raw power give me the Spear of Destiny...

What are it's powers?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-07-18 10:23pm

What ever you wishfor, you just need to keep it, sheathed or it destroys things, brings on ruin etc, to the land if not the whole what ever. Strangely, it's side effects are not present if wielded by a woman (who has never "slept with a man"_

Edit I grants you what ever your personal ambition is if you are a man, but exacts a terriable price. The only known way to stop it from ravaging the earth, is to either keep it with the holy grail, or to let it rest in the care of a virgin woman.

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2003-07-19 08:51am

The Yosemite Bear wrote:What ever you wishfor, you just need to keep it, sheathed or it destroys things, brings on ruin etc, to the land if not the whole what ever. Strangely, it's side effects are not present if wielded by a woman (who has never "slept with a man"_

Edit I grants you what ever your personal ambition is if you are a man, but exacts a terriable price. The only known way to stop it from ravaging the earth, is to either keep it with the holy grail, or to let it rest in the care of a virgin woman.

What myth or fantasy series did you read this material from. My understanding from Myth is that the Spear of Destiny is suppose to be the spear that stabbed Jesus Christ during the crucifiction. I also understand that Hilter actually looked for the spear.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-07-19 11:50am

Arthurian Myths and Stories of Charlemane, it's tied to the grail myth.

Basically the Fisher King (The Moor Knight) who kept the grail also had the Spear of destiny, His whole kingdom was constantly dying, and the only way he was able to forestall the destruction was to leave the weapon in the hands of a maid.

Strangely Percival and Galahad had no problems with it.... (Of course percival just happens to be a woman with a man's body) (No, that's how he described himself, which is also why he was the only knight of the round table that was a virgin.)

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-07-19 12:49pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:Arthurian Myths and Stories of Charlemane, it's tied to the grail myth.

Basically the Fisher King (The Moor Knight) who kept the grail also had the Spear of destiny, His whole kingdom was constantly dying, and the only way he was able to forestall the destruction was to leave the weapon in the hands of a maid.

Strangely Percival and Galahad had no problems with it.... (Of course percival just happens to be a woman with a man's body) (No, that's how he described himself, which is also why he was the only knight of the round table that was a virgin.)

Galahad was a virgin, too. In fact, he died to protect his innocence. The story, thus, sort of makes sense as to why they could both pick up the spear.

FOG3 · Post by **FOG3** » 2003-07-19 03:05pm

DarkSword from the books by Margaret Weis. It sucks the magic from other things.

Otherwise I'd say Soulcutter or Shieldbraker. Shieldbrakers is the best of the twelve in a fight but Soulcutter makes anyone in its sphere of influence cease to care.

Not uber swords but quite effective.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-07-20 02:08am

Although Galahad was married, he just never consummated the marriage, Bsically he married a girl who had been raped by an evil knight.

The Drunkard Kid · Post by **The Drunkard Kid** » 2003-07-21 11:06am

Stormbringer wrote: Depends on who's weilding it and what they do. Balefire produced via Callandor would cause the destruction of time and space, essentially unraveling reality.

Well, to a point, anyway. I really doubt even Rand with Callandor could singlehandedly screw up the pattern in one shot, now that it's had 3000 years to recover from the damage done to it in the War of Power. Back then, many cities apparently got balefired out of existence, and the pattern nearly unravelled from the accumulated damage. Maybe Rand could one-shot his universe's time and space continuum if he used his uber-sa'angreal, especially if he linked with a woman who was channeling from the complementing sa'angeral.

OT: Is it just me, or does Rand seem to be written less powerfully than he was back in book 3 or so? Back then, he was barely able to control or access his powers (male channelers' powers grow in spurts), but he was talking about casually tearing a mountain down to crush invading Trollocs and Myrrdrall...

As for the most powerful swords I can think of:

The Sword of Riva, from the Belgariad. It's got the Orb of Aldur embedded in it's pommel (IIRC), and is so strong that the user can accidentally rearrange the stars if his mind wanders.

The Sword of Superman, from the seventies (or was it eighties?). When the rightful owner (3 guesses as to who it is, and if it takes you more than 1, you are no longer legally allowed to breed) holds it, they gain omnipotence, pure and simple. They *might* be below the Presence (DCU's God), but it wouldn't be by much.

The Koukai Gyoku from Flame of Recca also gets an honorable mention for sheer effective nastiness. It's power is the ability to erase it's target from existence.

SPOILERS FOR THE TENDOU JIGOKU ARCS IN FLAME OF RECCA

It doesn't cut (in fact, it looks like a mettalic version of a toy lightsaber), it doesn't smash, it doesn't wound. Anything hit by it simply ceases to exist. The drawback though, is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction: no matter what it is that the user erases, they will lose something of equal value to themselves. The only person we ever see use it accidentally erased his mother and his voice many years ago. It does have some limitations, since when he used it to erase Kagerou's immortality curse, it worked, but it shattered without taking anything from him in return. OTOH, Kagerou's curse has been consistently shown to be very high level and has shattered a madagou (the elemental weapons in Flame of Recca) that was used to try and find a cure for it.

END SPOILER

The Sword of Light, or Hikari no Ken, also known as the Gorun Nova, from Slayers. Not only is it an uber-lightsaber in it's true form (it's also got a detatchable blade, for when Gourry doesn't need to reveal it's power), it can also fire beams of energy equivalent to a small nuke (IIRC), and can absorb, amplify and redirect magical attacks at least equivalent to the Dragu Slave. It's amplification aspect also allows a user to magnify their magical power, to the point where they can cast the highest level magic, the Giga Slave, while somewhat drained, though admittedly, Lina has an ungodly large magical reservoire in the first place.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-07-21 04:59pm

The Drunkard Kid wrote:Well, to a point, anyway. I really doubt even Rand with Callandor could singlehandedly screw up the pattern in one shot, now that it's had 3000 years to recover from the damage done to it in the War of Power. Back then, many cities apparently got balefired out of existence, and the pattern nearly unravelled from the accumulated damage. Maybe Rand could one-shot his universe's time and space continuum if he used his uber-sa'angreal, especially if he linked with a woman who was channeling from the complementing sa'angeral.

Actually, Moraine was indeed afraid he'd do just that with Callandor. It might not be one blast, but he could easily unravel the pattern in short order. Remember, this would be all at once and a lot farther back that is typical of War of Power balefire. He could indeed unravel the patter with one stroke, certainly with any sustained effort.

The Drunkard Kid wrote:OT: Is it just me, or does Rand seem to be written less powerfully than he was back in book 3 or so? Back then, he was barely able to control or access his powers (male channelers' powers grow in spurts), but he was talking about casually tearing a mountain down to crush invading Trollocs and Myrrdrall...

Wasn't that also when he was powertripping after/while using Callandor? The fact he gets a megolmaniacal power trip while using that makes little sense.

And he's as powerful, if not more so. It's just his attention is focused on the Foresaken and the Seanchan against whom that's not so much of an option.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-07-22 04:22am

LadyTevar wrote:However I would also like to include Woman's Need as one of the best swords in fantasy, especially after the reason for some of her odd properties became known. "Woman's Need calls me, as Woman's Need made me. Her Need I will answer, as my Maker bade me" For the first 4 books Mercedes Lackey features 'Need' in, the sword has a slight curse: It draws the weilder to protect, save, or revenge any woman harmed or killed by a male. There is no way to fight this complusion. The 5th book explains why, and reveals more powers the sword can use.

But is "Woman's Need" particularly powerful compared to other magical swords?

As for other magical swords - what about the Daemonswords from Warhammer?? They have Greater Daemons bound inside them.

And I must mention a certain sword, even though it's from the lyrics of an obscure metal band from Yorkshire:

The Shadow-Sword.....

Featured in the band Bal-Sagoth's songs about the Hyperborean King and his battles against the forces of The Outer Darkness, this sword was once used by an immortal shaman in a battle against another immortal sorcerer, the evil Lord Angsaar, but somehow after Angsaar's defeat the immortal's soul was encased inside the Shadow-Sword.

Anyhow, the wielder of the Shadow-Sword can call upon the immortal's soul for assistance.... and in some cases even use the sword's already impressive magical abilities to become one with the immortal's soul trapped inside the sword - thus turning the wielder into a magnificent demigod...

The Drunkard Kid · Post by **The Drunkard Kid** » 2003-07-23 12:14pm

Stormbringer wrote:
The Drunkard Kid wrote:Well, to a point, anyway. I really doubt even Rand with Callandor could singlehandedly screw up the pattern in one shot, now that it's had 3000 years to recover from the damage done to it in the War of Power. Back then, many cities apparently got balefired out of existence, and the pattern nearly unravelled from the accumulated damage. Maybe Rand could one-shot his universe's time and space continuum if he used his uber-sa'angreal, especially if he linked with a woman who was channeling from the complementing sa'angeral.

Actually, Moraine was indeed afraid he'd do just that with Callandor. It might not be one blast, but he could easily unravel the pattern in short order. Remember, this would be all at once and a lot farther back that is typical of War of Power balefire. He could indeed unravel the patter with one stroke, certainly with any sustained effort.

I thought she was more concerned about him burning himself out when he used Callandor, and was warning him against balefire because it does damage to the pattern and shouldn't be used except as an absolute last ditch effort (and against the Forsaken, but she couldn't know that), cause at Rand's level, the damage would be much stronger than she could manage. One wonders why the Dark One doesn't tell his minions to use balefire all the time, considering his goal happens to be unravelling the pattern and shattering the wheel of time (I actually agree with the latter portion, and no, this isn't meant as a critique of Jordan's works).

The Drunkard Kid wrote:OT: Is it just me, or does Rand seem to be written less powerfully than he was back in book 3 or so? Back then, he was barely able to control or access his powers (male channelers' powers grow in spurts), but he was talking about casually tearing a mountain down to crush invading Trollocs and Myrrdrall...
Wasn't that also when he was powertripping after/while using Callandor? The fact he gets a megolmaniacal power trip while using that makes little sense.

And he's as powerful, if not more so. It's just his attention is focused on the Foresaken and the Seanchan against whom that's not so much of an option.

I think you're thinking about the scene at the beginning of book four, where he thought that, with Callandor, he could use the weave he used in that battle to kill all the shadowspawn in the world, though it would kill him to do so. I was talking about at the start of book three, before he left to find Callandor. He ends up doing nothing but lighting the battlefield, because the only other thing he could think of (and that he was going to do before he realized what would happen to his allies if he did it) was to tear down the mountain on the shadowspawn...

The Drunkard Kid · Post by **The Drunkard Kid** » 2003-07-23 03:07pm

And from the T-800 vs. Wolverine thread, the Odinsword. Gotta love a god-king's weapon which can cause the universe to blow up if it's unsheathed (at least, I think that's the Odinsword). And isn't Surtur's Twilight Sword an Infinity Guantlet-esque weapon?

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-07-23 05:38pm

I thought she was more concerned about him burning himself out when he used Callandor, and was warning him against balefire because it does damage to the pattern and shouldn't be used except as an absolute last ditch effort (and against the Forsaken, but she couldn't know that), cause at Rand's level, the damage would be much stronger than she could manage. One wonders why the Dark One doesn't tell his minions to use balefire all the time, considering his goal happens to be unravelling the pattern and shattering the wheel of time (I actually agree with the latter portion, and no, this isn't meant as a critique of Jordan's works).

I think actually, that's all wrapped up in her worries. Certainly all of them are things to worry about and Rand certainly gives her reason enough.

I always thought that the Dark One wanted, not to ruin the Pattern but to remake it in his image or design.

I think you're thinking about the scene at the beginning of book four, where he thought that, with Callandor, he could use the weave he used in that battle to kill all the shadowspawn in the world, though it would kill him to do so. I was talking about at the start of book three, before he left to find Callandor. He ends up doing nothing but lighting the battlefield, because the only other thing he could think of (and that he was going to do before he realized what would happen to his allies if he did it) was to tear down the mountain on the shadowspawn...

Okay. Actually, I think that he's as powerful. It's just he's used the finer control rather than relying solely on mass destruction. Remember how nasty it can get in some of the large scale battles and the havoc he wreaks. He might not always go nuts but he's capable of astonishing destruction.

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-07-27 09:50pm

I remember one called The Golden Sword of Dragonwalk (or The Golden Sword for short) from a book of the same name. Its power was that anyone who held it would instantly become the ultimate swordsman in the world. The book was about a 14-year-old (IIRC) who found it and went around slaying dragons and evil knights.