Swordtember: Orc Raider siege falchion

 Orc Raider siege falchion

Siege Falchion: These massive, thick-bladed swords are an ungainly combination of a lance, an axe, and a falchion. Orc worg riders can skewer slow foes with the point of the blade in a charge, or they can use the edge-shaped blade to make short work of wooden structures favored by the exploratory armies invading the Orc steppe.

Finding out Orc raiders did siege damage in Warcraft 3 was fairly disappointing. You’d think a blade longer than a human would make quick work of a footman, but the blade moves too slowly, apparently. Those raiders were great for just wrecking an enemy's expansion base.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Swordtember: The Sword of Truth and Justice

Swordtember: The Sword of Truth and Justice

The Sword of Truth and Justice: When the blue-white Mirran sword strikes, it sends a pulse of power to an ally and then amplifies all the magical boons and banes impacting everyone nearby. 

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

How to support me:

Ko-fi: Donations and Digital shop

Patreon: Sustaining support and Digital shop 

Red Bubble: Buy a sticker or magnet

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Swordtember: The Sword of War and Peace

The Sword of War and Peace

The Sword of War and Peace: When the red-white Mirran sword strikes, it burns its victims and heals its wielder.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

I don’t think I’m going to draw anything new for Swordtember, but I have some unposted swords to share with the world.

How to support me:

Ko-fi: Donations and Digital shop

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: A small needle with a big story.

 A small needle with a big story.

Picori Blade: The blade that seals the bound chest was given to a legendary hero of men by the Picori in ages past. It was used to banish a great evil and seal its monsters and demons into the bound chest, ushering in an age of peace. The blade remained in the bound chest until Vaati destroyed it to open the bound chest in his search for ultimate power. Link only ever sees the intact Picori blade during his adventures in the Minish Cap.

Paw Thorn is the name given to this needle, famously wielded by the equally brave and foolish Marai Spicerack. The Spicerack family had always been menaced by Buterscotch, the mouser and resident cat of the house. Instead of stealth and subtlety, as is the way of the Borrower, Marai chose speed and pain, undertaking a campaign of terror that eventually saw Butterscotch bring dead mice to the spicerack as an offering of surrender.

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The Picori are a great reminder that your fantasy world can have a nearly invisible race of Borrower-inspired little folk that can be dropped in whenever you need them to be.

Need some seeds stolen out of a pouch? The little folk.

Need an object to have moved since you put it down? The little folk.

Need an entire temple complex to be hidden neatly within a local fountain? The little folk.

Take this as your sign to add Borrowers or Picori or Little Folk or whatever to your world today.

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: The blade that was shattered is forged anew.

The blade that was broken is forged anew.

Broken Picori Blade: The Picori Blade sealed Vaati within the bound chest, but it was broken when Vaati escaped his imprisonment. Link is given the broken blade and the task of restoring its former power by King Daltus. Link my gather the elemental essences to first reforge the broken blade into the White Sword and eventually the Four Sword.

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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It's not the best Narsil and Andúril fan art, but it is mine.

It is impossible to state how much of an impact The Lord of the Rings films had on my life. I was 10, I liked all sorts of kid stuff, and then this serious fantasy epic appeared on the big screen, and something clicked. After that, I was hooked on fantasy. I was a reluctant reader, but I’d read fantasy. I played with fantasy toys. I went searching for fantasy video games, and I found Morrowind and WarCraft 3, and the rest is history.

How to support me:

Ko-fi: Donations and Digital shop

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: The sword of a warlord

 The sword of a warlord

Smith’s Sword: This sword was forged to be the prize of the sword-fighting competition held during the Picori festival, which was ultimately interrupted by Vaati’s evil schemes. Link is given the sword by his grandfather, the greatest Hylian smith, and tasked to take it to the King. We covered the Smith’s sword as a functional item at the start of this set. This represents the smith’s sword as a quest item. 

After the empire abandoned the Isles, warlords began to carve the land into small feuding fiefdoms. A particularly well-provisioned warlord, known for carrying the sword of an imperial governor, established a small but bountiful fief during the chaotic post-imperial years. It was from that strong core that the young warlord would steadily expand their sphere of influence until they controlled enough of the Isles to be considered its first true king.

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King Arthur was almost assuredly not a real person in the way we think of him. While the Arthur we all imagine is probably a myth, there may have been a charismatic and influential leader in Britain in the post-Roman period who was known for his amazing sword and the forging of a fledgling British kingdom.

Maybe that leader used an awe-inspiring Roman Spatha that was cast using a stone mold and polished to a mirror sheen. It might take the magic out of the story a little bit, but I personally love seeing the mundane, plausible side of mythic tales. It makes the mythic tales all that much more grand.

How to support me:

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: The Sacred Blade

 

The Sacred Blade

Four Sword: Recovering the fourth and final element of Wind and infusing that power into the White Sword restores the blades true power, transforming it into the Four Sword. This blade allows Link to create three total copies of himself and has the sacred power to banish evil.

The power of the sacred blade has been sealing back a prime evil for so long that its true purpose has been all but forgotten. Weakening with every fourth draw of the blade, the four-thousand four-hundred and forty-four seals are destined to fail. Pray the hero who now takes up this blade is ready, for in their hasty defense of the light they have begun to release the dark. 

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The Four Sword is my favorite sacred blade from the Zelda timelines. The Master Sword is iconic, but it just doesn’t top the Four Sword, especially the title screen sword shown when you boot up The Minish Cap.

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: The Vorpal Blade

The Minish Cap: The Vorpal Blade

White Sword with three elements: By infusing the white sword with the additional element of water, Link enhances the white sword further. With the power of earth, fire, and water the white sword is more powerful and it can summon up an additional copy of Link when slashed in a circle about a place of power. 

With a snicker-snack this blade cuts through almost anything and slays even the most fearsome beast in one stroke. What if the blade is just an ordinary blade and the scabbard magically put a lethal edge on any blade sheathed for  a night and a day? Imagine what a well placed assassins could do with a vorpal butter knife or a keen edged icicle. 

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I will always look at vorpal weapons with nostalgia. My first DnD character was a human fighter who wielded a keen vorpal mercurial greatsword and was focused solely on criting as much as possible. That fighter was dominated by an aboleth and beheaded the monk my friend was playing. 

I also looked to the vorpal blade in the Fables comic series for inspiration when thinking up this simple blade.

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Minish Cap: A feline bravo’s dueling blades

A feline bravo’s dueling blades

 

 

 White Sword with two elements: Link earns this blade by infusing the element of fire into the White Sword. This blade contains the elemental power of earth and now fire. The weapon is more powerful with the new element and Link can make an additional copy of himself using the blade’s magic.

The famous fencing cat is said to have traded two of its nine lives in exchange for these blades. The cat’s reckless disregard for danger makes many think they must still have all the other seven left. The cat dodges any questions, saying, “ I have my first life and my last life and that is all I need.”

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Puss in Boots is a character I was introduced to by Shrek. I was shocked that he existed as a fairy tale and wasn’t invented whole cloth as a marketing ploy.

The dagger is marked with a 1 and the sword a 9. I was originally going to do Alpha and Omega, but that seemed too cliche. Also, omega is a pretty cool symbol, but alpha is not.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Minish Cap: Excalibur, blade of kings

 Excalibur, blade of kings

White Sword: The white sword is the reforged Picori Blade that was broken when Vaati escaped his prison and loosed demons upon Hyrule. When Link eventually has the sword reforged, it has lost some of its power. The white sword is a fine blade, but Link my journey to gather the four essences to reinfuse the blade with its true power to vanquish evil.

Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur, was a gift from the Lady of the Lake. Arthur sought this sword to replace the sword he pulled from the stone and eventually broke in a duel. While the sword is most famous, the scabbard of Excalibur magically closes all wounds inflicted on its bearer, and losing the scabbard is what ultimately spells Arthur’s doom.

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There is a subset of swords in this set because swords are so important in the many fairy tales and folk tales that inspired me when drawing. Most of the swords have a companion scabbard that can be equally or even more magical and important than its sword.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Minish Cap: Forge Master’s tools

 Forge Master’s tools

Smith’s Sword: This sword was forged by Link’s grandfather to be the grand prize awarded to the winner of the Picori Festival Tournament. Instead, the sword is given to Link by King Daltus at the outset of Link’s quest to save Princess Zelda from the Dark Sorceror Vaati.

These tools have been used by the Forge Master ever since the people were forced into hiding on the Night of Great Sadness. Even with these new humble tools the Armor forges fine arms and armor for the people to use in their fight for survival. Hopefully, with the help of the master-crafted arms, the people can one day retake their homes and step out from the shadow of extinction.

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This is the freshest of references. I’m just now getting around to watching The Mandalorian and I really enjoy the Armorer as both outfitter and mentor.

This is the beginning of the set of items based on the Minish Cap. The theme for the set was fairy tales, so there are a lot of classical medieval objects connected to stories throughout the set. The various stories of a smith forging or nailing the devil onto something give us the hammer and tongs item you see here.

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph