Monsoon and Typhoon
The divine weapons of the Storm Queen, these enormously potent weapons are both the Source and the Destiny of the Shards of the Storm, the physical manifestations of the destructive capacity of the wind and rain.
(NOTE: These are NOT intended for PC consumption! They are things of legend, not of the present!)
Many are the tools of the gods as they contend with each other, my child, the iron tools and swords of man, the earth and wind of nature, and even the immortal celestials are but pawns in their great games. But have you ever wondered, mortal man, why they play these games? Why they ne'er appear, to take a direct hand in acquiring what they desire? Settle, young one, and ye shall learn.
In ancient days, of course, when man was newborn, and walked the world with coltish, staggering steps, so too did the Gods themselves walk amoung them, to guide those staggering steps. It was a time of bounty, of beauty, and before long at all, one of Sorrow.
For you see, mortal, it was in those days that the God of Desire fell to that one thing which can truely harm a God. Himself. Succumbing to the enthrallment of His own Aspect, He made war upon the other Gods, seeking their Power for Himself. And Desire and Greed and Lust and Paranoia and Madness of every kind became His weapons as He struck out at Them, and One by One, They fell before Him.
Now, certainly, did the Gods see that They must stand before their fellow God, and destroy Him, but None felt Themselves able to withstand His touch of Madness. None, but One Whom Was Already Mad. Descending, then, from the Sky which was Her home, the Storm Queen, the Chaotic Mistress of Destruction, to come upon a mortal soul, one with but the faintest traces of desire marking it. And She took it upon Herself as Her Avatar, woman and Goddess truely becoming One, a composite Being with the Will and Power of a God, and the Presence in the Here and Now of a Human. Thusly fortified, She knew exactly what She needed to do.
Reaching out into the Sky which was Her home, She drew forth two Blades, one from the Eternal Typhoon, one from the Eternal Monsoon. These, then, would be the Perfect Concentration of Her Destrictive Power. Varied are the accounts of Their shape, but all agree that They were perfect. No iron nor steel nor bronze were They, but forged were They of the Fiercest Winds, the Harshest Rains, the Brightest Lightning, and the Loudest Thunder, and when She struck with Them, it was all of these together that became Her weapon.
Thusly armed, The Storm Queen came upon the Mad Lord of Greed and Desire at the center of His power, and She made War upon Him. By the hundreds of Centuries, His worshippers melted before Her Wrath, one fell swing after another, and in the end, She forced Him to take up His own Sword, a great blade of gold and silver and jewels and all manner of things that man desires, and She forced Him to make War upon Her. For days, for weeks, for months, and even for years They made unceasing battle upon each Other, and Their blood and fury saturated the ground about Them, changing it forever. In the end, He fled before Her wrath, seeking His refuge in the null places where Nothing Exists.
And in the end too, Her weapons were scattered about the landscape, more than two dozen Shards of the Storm, and She left them, as She retreated to Her Home to heal the sorrowful wounds, Her Mortal Avatar left dead on the ground behind Her as She left. Looking upon Her, and upon the vast, shattered expanse, the Gods swore a vow. Never again would this occur, for if it did, all that They had created would surely be destroyed...
Magical Properties:
As much things of myth and legend as things of reality, Monsoon and Typhoon do not even have precise forms, though between the encounters of them, there are always certain consistancies. Always they are two, and always they are smaller bladed weapons, though exactly what kind of bladed weapon is often in debate. They have been described as the flat, broad blades, as wakazashis, as khukris, as every kind of short blade, and once, even as hatchets, but all agree that they are the most miraculous of weapons.
Their blades are made of all manners of the weather's destructive elements, of wind, of rain, of lightining and of ice, amalgated into a beautiful, rippling blade of power by the will of their Commanding Goddess. To be struck by them is to be struck by all of these things at once, but this is the least of the blade's power.
Unmeant for the hands of mortal man, Monsoon and Typhoon are each seperately, and even more so together, a direct channel to the power and mind of the Storm Queen. To wield both the blades together is to -be- the Goddess of the Storm, and mortal flesh and mind cannot possibly bear that touch for long. Though he has total control of wind and weather, so much as his will will allow, the swords will swiftly consume a mortal bearer, rending him, both body and soul, with wind and thunder and sleet and a dreadful, terrible power from within. In his final days, or even final hours, he will be as the Goddess Herself, uncaring in anything except the joy of excercising the power of the swords, enraptured by the sheer power that destroys him so painfully/pleasurefully.
Further, there exists the very likely possibility that She will feel Her power being used, with or without Her will, and She may come upon the Bearer of the Swords, and make Him into Her Avatar, even as she did so many years ago. Should this occur, the soul of the wielder is subsumed into the Goddess, and his body becomes a reflection of Her terrible beauty, for so long as she desires it. If She leaves the bearer, he will remember what She has done, but during this time, he will have no will nor voice of his own, as much a part of the Storm Queen as a human's finger is a part of him.
—
Uses: This is a background item, more than a thing that should be placed in a game as is. Hooks may include:
A villian seeking to reassemble them from the Shards of the Storm. The PCs must keep them out of his hands. - The PCs may have artifacts made from the Shards, and the villain may have up to one fully assembled blade during the encounters.
A PC must gather together all the Shards, and return the assembled weapons to the Storm Queen, to prepare for a threat against the divine realm.
Someone else has put the swords back together: The PCs must find a way to shatter them once again, so that the world is not consumed by their bearer.
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? Responses (14)
Wow. I love the backstory. Brilliantly done. Two thumbs up just for literary merit.
I like the idea of swords whose description changes with those describing it. It's like real life: myths change to suit the culture that tells them.
Very good but NOT for PC's to use.
No comment needed.
If one needs to learn more about this, please follow the Link.
:applause:
Well, you may as well register and that way become a member.
...Really, I should've made a comment about this a while ago.
So what I want to know, Mad Artificer that you are, is what are Her counterpart's weapons? The deep one, that you describe many moons ago?
Classic oldies but goodies must see the light of day (or moonlight) every now and again.
Shards of the Storm are a lot of fun.
Indeed - an awesome post I had not seen before.
Great job Siren!
i can see why its not for pc use they just point the swords at an oponent and the would be hit by a load of natural attacks
Well, the thing is, they're the weapons of a emGoddess/em They are the platonic ideal of everything destructive that the atmosphere itself can contain. They are also what they needed to be.
More, they are backstory and plot device to justify not themselves, but the shards. They are a legend told over flagons of ale and at the fireside while wind howls and the walls shake with the fury of the storm. They are the gleam of madness in a treasure hunter's eyes, the furious faith of the shaman of the sky spirits. Even shattered, they move the world. As Moonhunter mentions at the Shard entry, these are a campaign seed.
I gave them to a pc and you know what happened he didn't know how to use them and ended up in the clouds in a storm and got hit by lightning
Siren, why didn't you put bigger warning labels on them? Whhhhyyyyyyy?