Solsúval, the Torch of Hope

"Is that—?" Nes let out a gasp at the sight of the long blade as it slid clean from the long and ornate sheath pinned to the king's hip.
Rymhûl let out a short, nigh audible sigh as the tip of the blade came clean from the sheath and settled comfortably in his hand. "Yes."

 

Cloaked in Mystery

The Emberblade, Solsúval(CC: "torch of hope"), is the King's Blade. Long and elegant, yet wickedly sharp in its design, it has been the king's faithful weapon for centuries. Touched only by the king and his most trusted guards, it spends most of its time locked away in the king's personal vaults, where it is kept safe but always near at hand.   Many master thieves have talked and contemplated about trying to take the sword from the vault, but every one of them eventually give up due to the fact that to try is a guaranteed death-sentence.  

Glimmers Like the Dawn

Not many outside of the king and The Emberknights know what this blade looks like. Glimpses of it are usually only seen during battles and when the king and his personal guard ride out on diplomatic missions.   Forged three centuries ago by master smiths reveling in the freedom that came from the defeat of The Sorcerer Queen, these same smiths went all out to forge the most magnificent blade for the man who lead the rebellion against the tyrantess.   Solsúval is a magnificent sword exactly four feet in length from pommel to tip. Made of moon-steel, its double-edged blade is dark, almost black in colour, and polished to an almost mirror-like shine. Its fuller, the ridge down the center of both sides of the blade, reaches down halfway and is made of homlak fashioned to invoke the look of reaching flames.   The cross guard of the sword is also made of moon-steel, forged to look like an 'X' from the side with two arms reaching down towards the blade to help catch opponents' swords and two reaching up to guard the hand of the wielder. The cross-guard is decorated with engraved phoenix feathers and cypress boughs.   The grip of the sword is reinforced with rich maple wood and wrapped in black leather, providing a good and comfortable grip. And the pommel of the sword is fashioned by a perfect ruby sphere secured in a filigreed moon-steel cage. There are a few more gemstones on the sword—rubies, citrines, and topaz—decorating the phoenix feathers of the cross-guard.   ((image of sword to come))  

The Gathering Saga of the Blade

The Moon-steel

They crafted the blade from the purest of Moon-steel, obtained through a treacherous journey to Húra Génna in hopes of trading for some of the precious material—no other metal compared and no other would do.   To their dismay, Tol-Aughú, King of the Húmentari refused to give them any, happy to sit upon the naturally-occurring moon-steel in the depths of his volcano like a greedy dragon. They left the volcano, heads hung in disappointment, and were nearly taken out by a massive black Dragon and its friends as they came to harass the king of the fire elementals.   They ran for their lives, yet before they were able to go far, they were halted in their steps by the sudden appearance of a gorgeous woman, shimmering like a mirage in the heat of the flames of her fiery dress. With only a few words, she presented to them a large piece of moon-steel, more than enough to forge the sword they had planned. Along with it, she gave them a few of the black dragon's scales and urged them to leave as fast as they could. The dragons weren't there to harm them, she told them, but they couldn't be sure to not accidentally knock stone down upon them. They had come to help her keep the king distracted while she snuck out to give them the moon-steel.   The smiths didn't question this wonderous gift—there was no time to and they wanted to get as far away from Aughú before he noticed that they were absconding with his "treasure". So they scampered away, their rushed and clumsy steps muffled by the crashing of rocks and roaring of dragons.  

The Homlak

Next, some of the smiths travelled to The Scar, where they braved the sands and storms and strange phenomena that plagued the land. Every smith managed to survive this treacherous place, arriving at the ancient Southernmost Mine, located at the impact center around the same time the others were treating with Tol-Aughú at the volcano.   A sandstorm raged, threatening to choke them or fry them with static lightning, but they needed to descend into the mine anyway in order to reach the homlak—an impact-glass related to shock-quartz—they needed. Near the bottom, they made camp and rested for the first time in days... not knowing that they had found themselves in the presence of a passive danger that would change their lives forever.   When they returned to the newly-renamed Thím Gûthuwal, their skin was burned and scarred in places from the light of the sun, and their eyes glowed an eerie yellow. But they had the homlak.  

Black Leather

When it came to the black leather that they needed for the grip of the sword, it was relatively simple to procure compared to everything else. The king of Beht'adur, King Eilohadur, learned of the smith's plans to forge the new king a sword, and wishing to reclaim the friendly relations his kingdom once had with Súvalonädír, the kingdom that existed before the Sorcerer Queen took over and renamed it Aktigar, he sent the finest black leather crafted by his people's leatherworkers.