Four Swords: The quintessential blade from Four Swords.

The quintessential blade from Four Swords.

Five Sword: We officially explored the Four Sword last week, but I drew five versions of the completed blade. Each has a different rune in the hilt of the blade and glows in a unique color. These colors and runes are intended to represent the four classical western elements as well as a fifth element of spirit, represented in the set with the triforce symbol.

In times of great need the bearer of this blade can call forth four elemental infused copies of themself by holding the sword aloft in salutation to the goddesses and then making a great circular slash through the air. With five heroes when there were one before, few challenges remain insurmountable. After the threat has been vanquished the copies must return to the blade until summoned again. 

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I always have an idea for a campaign, or at least a series of one-shots, where the players are all different copies of the single hero that used the Four Sword, but then somehow lost it before they could rejoin. Now the players journey to find the four Four Swords so that they might be able to become whole again.

A fun twist on this idea could be if one of the copies didn’t want to join back together. The villain of this campaign would be a copy of the same hero that would need to be conquered without being killed so that they could all rejoin again. Maybe each copy hero is actually one aspect of the whole hero which gives a reason why each of the player characters is different. This is effectively Inside Out if there was a more active antagonist.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to run an entire game centered on the Four Sword/Five Sword, the sword could simply be a high-tier artifact that gives the bearer the ability to make phantom copies of themself as if using mirror image.

These could also just be a set of five swords. One with power over one of the five elements. The fifth essence, or quintessence, could be a secret element that must be discovered.

I think a lot about games I’d like to run but probably never will. Many of these ideas work their way into whatever game I’m running at the time or whatever section of my homebrew I am fleshing out, but you can get inspired by these ideas and run with them.

Next week is Valentine’s Day so I will be posting something drawn to note that day instead of our normal Zelda based content. You can expect the collected set of item cards for Four Swords to come out the week after that.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph