Vincent's Hall of Blades

Overall Length: 32 7/8"
Blade Length: 24"
Blade Width: 2 1/4" @ base; 1 3/4" @ profile taper (7 1/2" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 3/4"
Guard Width: 3 3/8"W x 3 9/16"L
Pommel Dimensions: 1 9/16"L x 2 1/4"W

Now here's a sword I've wanted to do for a very long time, but I could never really figure out how I wanted to do it until somewhat recently. This is Calesvol, the Cornish name for Excalibur; or rather, the sword that would become Excalibur, Caledfwlch. I've long wanted to do a historically inspired Excalibur since most versions of the legend agree that King Arthur is from the 4th or 5th century; many also add onto this by giving him Roman ancestry. However, when it comes to Excalibur, it's almost always typically a medieval two-handed sword, something Roman if they're feeling "historically" inclined, or something fantasy-esque if they're feeling "historically" inclined, but don't want to bother doing the research or just want something they think looks cool. What most don't take into account is that, while Arthur could be Roman, Excalibur is pretty distinctly Welsh or generally Celtic; it's also supposed to be quite ancient and/or magical. With that in mind, I set out to design something that had its Celtic elements, but was still somewhat fantastical as I initially designed this for the SBG Fantasy Sword Design Contest. I decided against it once I finished it, however, and designed something else instead. The overall lines were inspired by bronze age Celtic blades with elements borrowed from swords such as the one used by Theoden in Lord of the Rings. That said, the guard was very heavily inspired by the Nightingale Blade from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as the eagle was a prominent symbol of Rome and it felt right to give it something related to Rome; it's also fairly reminiscent of the style of hilt found on the Tanum sword. The rest of the hilt, however, was directly inspired by the Celtic styled swords reproduced by Castle Keep Swords, a style that seems to have been fairly prevalent during the Iron Age. Altogether, I think everything came together rather nicely.



Overall Length: 32 7/8"
Blade Length: 28"
Blade Width: 1 1/8" @ base; 7/8" @ profile taper (2 3/4" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 5/8"
Guard Width: 8"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 7/8"D

Here's a real blast to the past. I first started using Inkscape for my designs September 20, 2011 and a mere two weeks later, on October 4th, I took up a rather ambitious challenge at a suggestion from Saito, which was to design a sidesword with a katana blade in shobu-zukuri profile. I'd already taken a stab at a greatsword-hilted katana and a viking-hilted katana, so I figured "why not?" Considering my inexperience at the time, the resulting sword wasn't bad, per se, but it could have been so much better. It became so much better in March of 2012 when I redesigned it into the sword you can see on this thread's second page. With that said, however, that redesign was a significant departure from what I'd originally attempted, having a full complex hilt as opposed to having only finger rings and knuckle bow in addition to the quillons. I came across that old design the other day and decided to take another, more proper, crack at designing it the way I originally did. I certainly think I succeeded. The blade is the same on both my Shobu Sidesword and my Shobu Smallsword, while the hilt was inspired by a stage combat sidesword I found online; I rather liked its simplicity alongside the cutouts in the guard. The scabbard also contains elements from those of both my previous Shobu designs: the chape from the Sidesword, and the Locket/Belt Hook from the Smallsword. I think it makes for a nice sense of continuity with the others and really makes them a family. As such, I call it the Shobu Spada Lato after the Spada da Lato, also called a sidesword.



Overall Length: 34"
Blade Length: 27"
Blade Width: 2" @ base; 1 9/16" @ profile taper (8" from tip); 3/8" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 3/8"
Guard Width: 2 1/2"
Pommel Dimensions: 2 5/16"L x 2"W

Now here's an interesting piece. When I started what would become this sword, I set out to design something much different; as in, two-handed, double-edge falchion with clip point different. However, no matter how much I struggled or finagled, I couldn't get it to look right and ended up scrapping it. But I still wanted to design something, partly because I had the itch and partly because I needed a third design for this batch. One thing I was trying to do with the other design was give it a blued blade, as that's something I so rarely do (outside my interpretations of the swords from Inheritance, I can point to a single design with a blued blade), so even though I scrapped the falchion design, I carried the blued blade over to the next, which I struck upon while just scouring my reference folders to see anything that tickled my fancy at the moment. What I ended up with was a Roman spatha with a curved blade, akin to an extra long sica. Despite just being something I bashed together out of curiosity, I really like how it came out, especially the hilt. The hilt is based on that of the Albion Decurio, a style I'm somewhat fond of, while the blade was based on the old Windlass Sica from HBO's Spartacus, a blade I've always enjoyed the lines of. The scabbard is just something simple inspired by recreations of Roman scabbards and mostly an afterthought to the whole thing, as my scabbards often are; still, I think it came out rather nicely. Since the spatha was typically a cavalry weapon in the Roman army, I decided to call this the Auxilia Equites.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

So, I've been working on my novel a bit, trying to get back in the swing of things; it's been slow going, as what I'd already written felt a little too info dump-y and I've been re-writing the same few sections for a couple years and am fairly stumped as to how to progress the plot without racing through it. I've got a few ideas at the moment, but nothing concrete. Anyway, I started describing my protagonist Vega's small collection of blades and decided that I wanted visual representations of his weapons. It was originally just for me, so I put them all into a single image, but figured my lurkers might like them, as well, so I gave them a bit of polish. I also designed a couple swords for a certain group in the story, which got their own images. With that said, this is probably going to be a bit longer than usual, so let's get started.



Vega's Shortsword
Overall Length: 32"
Blade Length: 24"
Blade Width: 1 1/4" @ base; 1" @ profile taper (3" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 5"
Guard Width: 1 1/2" x 1 1/2"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 1/2"L x 1 3/8"W

The very first sword posted in this thread, and one of the very first I ever designed, is Ithin, Vega's sword; however, he doesn't get Ithin until about midway through the story and I've never really had a single design for a sword that he would use prior. Before now, it was just whatever struck my fancy at the moment, but I figured I should give him something a bit more concrete. This shortsword is based on a (much nicer) antique Burmese dha I found on the net ages ago that I really liked the lines of. The nation it comes from, Arcinthia, is almost constantly at war with itself due to having something like a dozen clans that don't see eye-to-eye as each clan more or less has a fairly distinct culture of its own. The southernmost clans are akin to Southeast Asia, containing elements of Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam; this sword is meant to represent the general style found there, but is also intended to be a sword that, during peace, would be a reject whose only purpose is to be melted down for scrap. It was captured and found its way to Lucera, where Vega bought it for extremely cheap.

Vega's Long Knife
Overall Length: 18 5/8"
Blade Length: 14"
Blade Width: 1 1/2" @ base; 1 1/4" @ profile taper (3 1/2" from tip); 5/8" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/2"

Vega has always carried a long knife and it's one of the few weapons that hangs around throughout the entire story; I based it off a knife made by JT Palikko inspired by old Celtic designs, because it has such very nice lines to it. It was originally part of a matched pair, but the other half was lost shortly before the start of the story. It's just a simple knife made by a smith from Vega's hometown and it's just short enough for it be legal for him to carry in the capital city, so it's effectively his main weapon when he can't carry his shortsword.

Vega's Seax
Overall Length: 11"
Blade Length: 6"
Blade Width: 1 3/16" @ base; 7/8" @ profile taper (2 7/8" from tip); 9/16" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 4 7/8"

A simple little sax with a curved antler grip, the latter inspired by something I found on Etsy; it's just a little utility knife that I really only rendered, when I didn't render the small folding knife Vega also carries, is because Vega uses it to frame someone for murder early on in the story. That's about it.

Vega's Dolch
Overall Length: 15 13/16"
Blade Length: 11"
Blade Width: 1 1/2" @ base; 1 1/4" @ profile taper (4" from tip); 5/8" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 5/8"
Guard Width: 2 1/8"
Pommel Dimensions: 3/4"L x 2 1/8"W

Another piece from Vega's collection, he bought this off a traveling merchant a few months before the story because he liked the looks of it; it comes from Shukry, a northern country that I've roughly based on a few countries in Eastern Europe. He keeps it in his boot most of the time, but doesn't really use it often. Other than that, there's not much to say about it beyond the fact that the blade shape was inspired by a LARP piece, while the hilt is a combination of the Holbein style and the curved end caps found on certain styles of baselard, just with more emphasis given to their rounded shape.

Vega's Tomahawk
Overall Length: 21"
Edge Length: 4"
Head Width: 7 1/8"
Spike Length: 1 7/8"
Haft Length: 18 3/8"
Grip Length: 7 1/4"

Probably my favorite piece besides the long knife. Despite that, there's really not a whole lot to say about it, as it's a pretty standard tomahawk design, though the majority of the head comes from a separate piece than the back spike. The feather dangling from it is from a Byzantium eagle, a fictional species of eagle in my world that are fiercely territorial and famously known for their deep purple plumage; it's a small bit of decoration that I like and also plays a bit into Vega's relationships, as he managed to grab four feathers as a youth and gave three of them to a couple people he was very close to.

Vega's Throwing Knives
Overall Length: 5 1/8"
Blade Length: 4"
Blade Width: 3/4" @ base; 1 3/8" @ profile taper (3 3/8" from tip); 3/8" @ 1" from tip
Ring Outer Diameter: 1 1/4"
Ring Inner Diameter: 7/8"

These four little throwing daggers were heavily inspired by kunai as seen in anime like Naruto, though they obviously lack grips; they're meant purely to be thrown. I haven't decided yet if Vega's going to use them much, but he carries them nonetheless, and they serve an important reminder, as all four were practically dug out of his body early on in the story.

Vega's Leaf-Blade
Overall Length: 7"
Blade Length: 5 3/4"
Blade Width: 3/4" @ base; 1 3/4" @ belly; 1" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 2 1/4"

Of the designs in this set, this is the only one that didn't actually turn out the way I had planned; it was originally supposed to be quite a bit larger, with a 7" blade. The problem is Vega is meant to carry it strapped to the inside of his forearm, where it serves as a last ditch weapon (or in case he can't reach anything else in time) and, well, I gave Vega my height for convenience's sake and 7-8" is the maximum overall length I could comfortably wear on the inside of my forearm. So I had to shrink it down a fair bit. Luckily I didn't have to make it any narrower, so it retains its broad leaf shape that looks like it could do some damage. This one was also pulled from Vega's body at the start of the story, so he also carries it as a reminder, but it's also a bit more useful than the throwing knives.

Vega's Glaive
Overall Length: 66"
Blade Length: 28"
Blade Width: 2 1/4" @ base; 3 1/2" @ profile taper (9 3/8" from tip); 3 3/4" @ clip; 3/4" @ 1" from tip
Haft Length: 27 7/8"
Guard Width: 3"
Ring Outer Diameter: 3"
Ring Inner Diameter: 2 1/4"

Vega's glaive, which is 100% a fairly bog-standard Chinese pudao. Alongside the longbow (which Vega also has, but I didn't bother rendering), it's probably the most common weapon for Vega's people thanks to the relative nearness of Soriya, a country with a heavy Chinese influence. I chose the pudao because I like its proportions, but given the issue of carrying a sword in Lucera's capital, I'm still trying to figure out if it'll be of any use. I've got something planned for his longbow, but a polearm seems a lot more difficult to work into an urban setting.



Overall Length: 35 1/4"
Blade Length: 30"
Blade Width: 2 1/8" @ base; 1 1/2" @ profile taper (8" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/4"
Guard Width: 4"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 9/16"L x 2"W

Funny story, of these last two swords, this one was actually the second one I did, because the first one's hilt was giving me doubts; but after I had both mostly fully rendered, I was seized by some serious indecision, so I eventually decided on just using both, particularly as it made a sort of thematic sense. With that said, this is the standard sword of the Asra'shaer, an elite group of swordsmen-and-women from another part of Arcinthia, this time with more of a Middle Eastern feel to them; like I said, every clan is pretty culturally distinct and what better way to show it?

That said, this sword (both of them), caused quite a few headaches. I originally started out with a serpentine blade, borrowed from a type of Middle Eastern sword called a "nagan", which I mainly liked because it had a massively reinforced tip. I got it fully rendered, but when paired with the hilt, it just didn't sit right, so I tried a few others, such as the blade from the straight sword of Mehmed II or a long recurve blade much like a falcata, but neither worked; I also wanted to try a strongly triangular blade reminiscent of an Oakeshott Type XV, but with a complex spine and reinforced point, but I couldn't get it to look right, so I ended up with the blade above, which isn't all too different from what one might find on a choora/Khyber knife, with its exceptionally thin cross-section and thick T-shaped spine. I actually didn't want to end up with it, since it seems a few too many of the swords I use in my books are curved blades, but it's the only one that looked good enough to use. To make it a little more distinct, however, I added in the blade notch (cho/kaudi) found on kukri, albeit scaled up a bit.



Overall Length: 34 3/4"
Blade Length: 30"
Blade Width: 2 1/8" @ base; 1 1/2" @ profile taper (8" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/4"
Guard Width: 4"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 3/16"L x 2 5/8"W

As mentioned above, this is the hilt I started with and it's one I've been wanting to do something with for quite a long time now. It's called a "zafar takiyah" (spelling may vary, obviously), which loosely translates to "crutch of victory", and the specific example that I used as a basis is from the Mughal Empire in the 17th century. The hilt on the original is so heavy with koftgari that it's more gold than iron, which I frankly don't have the patience to even try and recreate. However, it looked a bit too flashy for my taste just leaving it plan gold, so I sought to mimic the effect of a different type of koftgari I've come across on the net that I really enjoy; rather than cover the entire hilt in gold, it only outlined the hilt and really made a nice contrast against the black iron.

When I couldn't decide between this hilt or the previous one, I came to the conclusion that I could just use both. While the other sword is the standard sword used by the members of the Asra'shaer, this one is the sword used by their leader who, during the events of the story, is a woman named Adilet. Beyond that, however, the two blades are identical, really only differing in the shape of their pommels, the knucklebow present on this one, and a few minor details like the langet shape and the crossguard finials.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

So... Long time no post. In more ways than one, since I haven't posted anything in a couple months; depression's really been taking a toll on me. At least I had a couple batches of books to help, including the third main entry in the Awaken Online series, a LitRPG series that I greatly enjoy and am now anxiously awaiting the fourth main entry after the third's cliffhanger. It helped me start clawing my way out of the funk I've found myself in. Anyway.



Overall Length: 43 3/4"
Blade Length: 33"
Blade Width: 1 3/8" @ base; 1 1/8" @ profile taper (4" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 8"
Guard Width: 4"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 1/4"L x 1 5/8"W

This is probably the single longest time I've sat on a design before posting it; this was pretty much the first thing I conceived when I got the idea for Sword & Sorcery and I first rendered it just over a week after I posted the Rock-Paper-Scissors weapons, so it's been almost 6 months from initial render to posting. The main reason is because of my habit of posting designs in batches of three and having nothing to accompany it, but another part was I wasn't all that happy with how it originally came out. I finally got around to correcting it yesterday. My initial conception for the sword was something that could be mistaken for a katana, but was really quite different. To that end, the hilt, color scheme and all, was inspired by the Longship Armory Mandate, though with an added grip ring because I like them. The blade was borrowed and modified from my Bastard design that I created for the SBG Design Contest last year, which was actually the main cause of my dissatisfaction with the sword, as the lines got kinda messed up in shortening it and I didn't catch it until afterwards. I also couldn't get the guard to render properly, so I went with a more Western crosspiece that I wasn't happy with, so when I went to fix the blade, I took another stab at the guard and it came out much nicer this time.

The sword is named after the Celtic Sword of Light, Claiomh Solais, which was said to blaze with light and, in tales where it appeared, often was the only thing capable of defeating the hero's foe. Gwyn, owner of this sword, will eventually become the King of Light because of his heavy use of sorcery during the war that forges what would become his kingdom. As an actual sword, it's a pretty good weapon, being forged from mythril (which is extra effective against undead and giants), but its primary purpose is as an amplifier. It triples its bearer's mana pool, triples their mana regeneration, and triples their theoretical dexterity, cutting casting times by two-thirds. For a mage of any kind, it's essentially the ultimate item, even if they actually lacked the stats to use it as a sword.




Overall Length: 19"
Blade Length: 14"
Blade Width: 3/4" @ hilt; 3" @ base; 1 1/2" @ profile taper (5" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3 1/4"
Guard Width: 2 1/2"
Pommel Dimensions: 3/4"L x 1 1/4"W

So after initially coming up with Sword & Sorcery, I came up with the idea for several sequels, all with cheesy titles; the second stars a young woman who becomes a Dwarf Cleric that utilizes healing spells to become Wolverine and is titled Sword & Sorcery 2: Dwarf Boogaloo. She's the eventual owner of Ukonvasara, though she actually prefers to use claw weapons to really complete the Wolverine style. The third, titled Sword & Sorcery: The Threequel, has a trio of protagonists, though only two are actually important. The third, incidentally, is the eventual owner of Kusanagi & Totsuka; because of that, I realized I needed unique weapons for the other two, which turned out to be quite difficult for a few reasons. I eventually decided on a dagger for the first, though it became a fair bit larger than I'd originally intended after coming across an African dagger/short sword in my reference folders that was similar to what I was planning on using; however, I greatly preferred the hilt from the first and so combined them into what you see above.

This is Carnwenhau, named for the dagger of King Arthur in the Welsh traditions; its name means "white hilt" and could allow the wielder to merge with the shadows. Story-wise, its owner is Subaru, a young man who gets roped into playing Sword & Sorcery by his friends and takes on the role of a Snow Elf Pyromancer, so he doesn't have the stats to use anything truly good, armor and weapon wise; thus a dagger that can hide him in the shadows on its own. In keeping with its name, its hilt is made of ivory with silver accents. The blade is also inlaid with silver to form the spell runes that allow it to activate its shadow manipulations, which include the simple merging and the complex shadow walking, a limited form of teleportation.



Overall Length: 72"
Head Dimensions: 43"L x 2 1/2"W (4" w/Spikes)
Top Spike Length: 4"
Grip Length: 20"
Ring Outer Diameter: 3"
Ring Inner Diameter: 2"

This one was probably the most difficult of the three, because I've never done this type of weapon before, but also because while I wanted a tetsubo, I was lost as to what I wanted it to look like until I stumbled on a weapon from the video game For Honor. I was contemplating a Chinese Wolf Fang Club, but I really preferred the proportions of a kanabo and the For Honor club combined the two quite nicely, so I took heavy inspiration from that. The purple wrap, loose end and all, was borrowed from my old Gae Dearg design; amusing, that, since naming this thing was an absolute pain the neck because I wanted a name from mythology like the previous two, but there are so few named clubs/hammers/maces that there wasn't much to choose from and I was contemplating combining two names, so it would have become Gae Luin (from Gae Assail, a spear that could be thrown and return at a command, and Luin of Celtchar, a spear with a pretty vicious reputation). In the end, the name I chose was Gridrvolr, named for a weapon mentioned in Norse mythology; it literally means "Gridr's staff" and was loaned to Thor by Gridr when he was without Mjolnir (interestingly, Gridr is mother to Vidar, one of the few Norse gods to survive Ragnarok and destined to slay Fenrir). I also thought the connection fitting, since I imagine a weapon of these dimensions, made entirely of solid iron, would probably weigh about 30-40lbs and be worthless as a weapon without inhuman levels of strength.

The owner of this is a young woman named Rem, one of the two who convinced Subaru to try Sword & Sorcery; much like Gwyn and my as yet unnamed Dwarf Cleric, Rem chose to play so she could be the opposite of what she is in real life: a classically demure lady with long, straight black hair, never raises her voice, etc. She's a modern day Yamato Nadeshiko, to use the Japanese term, which her father raised her to be intentionally after her mother left them. Being forced to be that, though, is extremely frustrating for her, so in Sword & Sorcery, she becomes a 6ft tall Oni Warrior that can absolutely trash whatever comes up against her; especially as Oni gain a bonus to Vitality (governs health pool), Resilience (governs physical defense), and Strength (governs physical strength, natch), as well as starting out with a max level Iron Skin skill (natural armor, for the win), though it does come at the cost of quartering all mana gains and effectively negating mana regen.

That's all for now, folks; ja mata.

Long time no update, folks; not so unusual these days, but it certainly is in this case, as I've actually been sitting on virtually all of these designs since October. They were prompted by a video Skallagrim posted about a week before wherein he redesigned the Daedric weapons from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; they're pretty notorious for being very high on the cliche fantasy sword scale and he attempted to make them more realistic. From a practical standpoint, his redesigns were pretty well done, but from an aesthetic standpoint, I personally found them to be almost as ugly as the originals, so I tried my hand at it... And hated what I came up with, so I shelved the thought for several days until a completely different, yet related thought forced its way into my head and I decided that if I was going to try again, I might as well go the whole hog and redesign all (or nearly all) of the weapons from Skyrim. Here's what I came up with.



Overall Length: 14"
Blade Length: 9"
Blade Width: 1 1/4" @ base; 1" @ profile taper (3 3/8" from tip); 1/2" @ 1" from tip
Grip Length: 3"
Guard Width: 1 3/4"
Pommel Dimensions: 1 5/8"D

Funnily enough, this weapon right here is the one that prompted my rather ambitious Weapons of Skyrim project, which I (shockingly) completed in a week. This is the Iron Dagger, one of the most basic weapons in Skyrim and so simple to forge that it's long been a joke in the gaming community about forging hundreds to level your smithing skills; since it costs all of 1 Iron Ingot and 1 Leather Strip, it's not hard to see why. The problem, for me, comes from the in-game model, which looks like this. While I could believe that a single iron ingot could provide enough material for the blade and fittings, where's the leather strip gone? And why is there a wood handle when the recipe doesn't list wood as a component? And for how simple it is to forge, that crosspiece is a fiddly little bit of forging (there's a video on Youtube of a guy forging one of these in real life and the guard honestly looked like the hardest part despite how easy he made it look). There's no way you're churning out hundreds of these, so I set out to change that.

Head Width: 8 1/8"