Legendary Swords of the Realm

The most recognized sword of The Realm was the preferred weapon of the noble families of The House of Hart for millennia. Althoug glys means “swift” in Iowyd (High Wyddic), it is not the true origin of the common name for the sword. “Glissknife” comes from translations from the wyddic languages; it was called the gwyderbás or ‘death-glass’ in Draechi (High Wyddic) or the cleygwydor or ‘glass-sword’ in the Low Wyddic of the Hartians. "Glass sword" lead to an absurd but lasting speculation that the first wyddans used swords of obsidian from their now-sunken homeland. But "glass sword" and "death glass" likely have their origin in the blade once having been known for being polished to an extreme and long lasting sheen in the style of elvish blades. The elves were known for using terrifying and gleaming blades, fast and difficult to see in battle. Stories from Age of Sorcery in Dumnonia (that are still told in the Mabon Valley today) recount ancient mythic battles where the high elves always vanquished their foes with the sun in zenith and with the warriors of Caer Sidi casting blinding reflections by using blades that were otherwise as invisible as polished glass. Byddic cyn e temlo cyn i cayweld! "Feel an elf's anger before you see it!" was a High Wyddic phrase warning against the mythical wrath of the elves.

The shape of the glissknife is clearly of high elvish influence though it is unknown if this influence came from associations between humans and elves in the time of Caer Sidi or if the shape was copied from the manuscripts of elves discovered by wyddans returning in The Realm after the fall of Caer Sidi.

The glissknife's use by Iowyd speakers is confirmed as far back as the 12th Century B.E. where the the sword makes an appearance in the Cleddig Tapestries of the City of Dumnonia. Here several glissknives appear sheathed in the hilts of warriors sailing back to The Realm from across the Western Sea. No matter how far back the wyddans' use of the glissknife goes, certainly further back than the formation of The House of Hart, probably further back than the founding of Dumnonia and maybe as far back as the Sylvan Age, the glissknife is easily the most ancient surviving blade design in Realmic history.

Known more by their shapes today than their iron, true glissknives in the time of Dumnonia were forged of The Silver of Glarseach: an alloy of Iron and Drachtite with various sources of carbon added to make the alloy lighter in the hand and capable of holding a long-lasting and glass-like sheen.

A glissknife is used with deadly accuracy by sword masters familiar with the ancient elvish style of combat. The subtle downcasting curve of the glissknife is its most elvish architecture allowing it to be used as a thrusting or cutting weapon when held in an elvish-style grip allowing the user to flip the blade up or down without changing the hand position from prone to supine. The subtle concavity of the cutting side is used by a trained fighter to easily disarm an opponent or even remove their entire offending hand. Some who still hold ancient grievances against the cruel elves of Caer Sidi say the concavity of the blade was a throat-cutting feature used to dispatch thousands of captive combatants without the elves having to overtire their gracile hands.

The wolftooth is a feared and coveted blade that came with the Hákarla, an Ikkerik people of The Old North. One of the finest crafted blades ever seen, swords like this first encountered in the Realm were thought to be magical. Made of an unfathomably high quality steel with a pattern welded core and welded-on hardened cutting edges, an Ikkerik vúlfbert was a technological marvel quite unlike anything ever crafted in the Realm. It was not known how the Ikkerik produced blooms of such high quality steel or where they acquired them for swords like this. Lightweight yet strong, a vúlfbert always kept its sharp edge and was almost magically supple. It could be used to stab or hack into a wooden shield, bend to an extreme angle in order wrench the shield out of an opponent’s hand and then snap back into perfect alignment for a killing strike.

These famous blades always bore the elaborate dragon knotwork of the Old North, a signature of the craftsperson who forged it and the history of the family it belonged to. Much has been learned about the lineages of the Old North from the engravings on the blades that came out of its provinces.

From Trollvordur traditionally came the largest swords, from Gyddjudal the most elaborately decorated. The swords of Tanggi always bore the fylgya of the Raven of Oddinri. Tigh Bru Hahn, Bridger of Lands, who first came to The Realm and founded the House of Hákkarl, carried a great wolftooth by the name of Ísbrjótur. The sword was rumored to be blessed by Freyggi himself, god of clan Vílisridda. The warrior who carried Ísbrjótur was deemed undefeatable. None now know where Tigh Bru Hahn's blade lies or who bears it but it was not consumed with the body of the Great Jarl in his sea-fire after his death.

Each wolftooth possesses a personal name and a bearing name. Ísbrjótur was the sword’s bearing name, though it is likely only Tigh Bru Hahn knew its personal name. A vúlfbert was considered far more than just an heirloom, it was considered an actual member of a family: a living, breathing, feeling entity of forged steel! Indeed, the carbon used to temper the blade’s iron was harvested from the ritually charred bones of a warrior in a family’s line. These swords were ‘rested’, ‘fed’, ‘healed’ and were even privileged to ‘drink’ before their jarl in certain celebrations. Insulting a warrior’s sword was akin to insulting her sister or her father and would be asking for death.

The vúlfbert was primarily a cutting sword often used in an Ikkerik shield wall. The blade was hacked or stabbed into an enemy line to pull down a shield or wrench the item out of the hand of a foe, while a sister or brother next to the wielder would stab into the undefended hole with a long spear called a höfuddspjót or head spear. In a duel however, the blade was known to be capable of shattering inferior weapons and even cutting through inferior armor. From the haunted barrow of an early Ikkerik Jarl by the title Sigurvegari, it was seen upon the exhumation and exorcism of his remains that he fell in battle just as the old stories told, by having been clove through both his calves in one great strike… and through greaves of Ikkerik steel! The goddis performing the ritual at his 300 year old grave knew this because the angle of this single strike carried through both the unfortunate Sigurvegari’s separated calves. “Old King Hobbletop” was an Ikkerik monster of the woods who hobbled around on bloody stumps. He was invented by parents to keep their young children from entering the woods alone, but the story was based on poor old Sigurvegari and a mortal encounter with a wolftooth sword!