Author's note

Well, we just left this act off in Taminarda's workshop. Seems like an excellent time to go over the details of some of the fey weapons that have been mentioned in the story so far, as well as one that actually hasn't come up yet. I've had the details on these weapons bouncing around in my head for a while now, seemed like something some readers might want to know about though.

Also, more content edited in as of 4/23/20. Specifically, spears of the great tree.

Fey weapons and metallurgy.

The fey primarily employ gnomes in their metal working as gnome steel is the best metal known to exist, particularly that which is made with the power from the leaves of the great tree. This particular type of gnome steel has the additional benefit of being an excellent conduit for receiving any kind of magic, enchantment, or elemental energy which is infused into it.

Due to the resistance against the earth element, weapons made from wind steel can only be crafted by the traditional human methods of metal working by heating the metal and hammering it into the proper shape. It cannot be molded by the magic of a gnome as any other metal could. This makes weapons made from wind steel the most highly coveted items in the world, and in human societies they would sell for exorbitant amounts of gold.

One of the primary ways in which gnome steel is used is in adding air type mana to it in order to make wind steel.

Wind steel

Wind steel is created by taking ingots of gnome steel and placing them at the top of the great tree of the fey capital where they are able to absorb the air elemental energy radiating around the great fairies and fey dragons. It takes 10 years for the steel to absorb and effectively incorporate a sufficient amount of the energy to become wind steel.

Wind steel has the primary benefit of weighing only around a quarter the weight of the normal gnome steel while preserving all it’s strength. However, this is not the primary reason why this steel is so favored by the fey.

The second benefit of wind steel is that the air elemental energy within it resists the effects of earth elemental spells. This is a necessity when dealing with the dark-elf demons which occasionally employ deep gnome slave mages in their combat. It is suicide to face a deep gnome while wielding or wearing any piece of metal as metal is part of the earth. The magic of the deep gnomes is capable of turning any such item against it’s owner. As such, wind steel is the only substance which would allow metal weapons to be taken into combat against the demons which the fey have to face.

There are several weapons made from wind steel which the fey use, however there are three general classes of weapon which are the most prominently seen. Imp sweepers, Arla slayers, and Fairy swords. The wind steel is also occasionally used for a powerful spear known as the spear of the great tree.

Imp sweeper

Imp sweepers are the primary weapon wielded by members of the war committee. These weapons take the form of absurdly large swords or sword staves. The standard for an imp sweeper is to be as long as the wielder is tall, including the handle. The blade is double edged and approximately a foot in width for the sake of structural integrity, and the blade tapers down it’s length.

Due to the enormous size of the weapon, even the natural weight reduction that is a property of wind steel is too heavy, and so there is an enchantment on it for further weight reduction in order to make it usable. This eats into around a third of the weapon’s capacity to hold an enchantment, but further enchantment is still possible.

As the name implies, the primary reason for the weapon’s large design is to combat swarms of imps flying through the air. The long blade with the high cutting ratio allows the creatures to be fought most effectively, but the reach is also highly useful when fighting most other kinds of enemies as well.

Alra slayers

Alra slayers are swords designed and engineered to combat one of the more frightening types of demons seen in the fey forests, the Alra Une. While the Alra slayer is similar to the Imp sweeper in that they are both large swords, there are several key design differences between them.

One difference is that the Alra slayer is a single-edged blade with a lot more body to it. This is needed to cut through the thick vines of the Alra Une. This added material causes the weight of the blade to increase significantly, thus also adding the need for an increased strength in the weight reduction enchantment. Nearly all the blade’s enchantment capacity is used just to reduce it’s weight to a manageable level. However, additional specialization in the blade’s design is required in order to allow it to maintain it’s cutting capability with such a low overall mass for the amount of material.

There are two more design differences to increase the ability to get a good strong cut to chop through the vines of an Alra Une. One is that the handle of the sword-designed Alra slayers protrudes into the blade portion, turning the lower portion of the blade into something of a hand guard in effect. This allows for swinging techniques which resemble the swinging of a splitting maul.

Another key difference is that the tip of the Alra slayer is actually not made from wind steel. It is made from regular gnome steel. As this weapon is primarily meant to be used in the forest to fight against the surface dwelling Alra Unes, the risk of encountering deep gnomes while wielding this weapon is relatively low. However, the added weight at the end of the blade allows it to chop at the vines more effectively.

These weapons are considered the symbols of an elven village, and they are the reason why every village tends to be founded by an elven magus. These weapons are a requirement for a village to survive on it’s own, but they are a more specialized and highly engineered weapon than even those wielded by the war committee. They are generally only granted to a magus who has contributed a significant meritorious deed to the fey court.

Fairy Swords

Fairy swords are wielded by regular fairies in the war and defense committees, and is their standard issue weapon. They are usually about twice the size of the wielder and made completely from wind steel much like the imp sweeper. However, they are single edged blades and are honed to a razor edge.

The angle of these blade’s cutting edges are more acute than a kitchen knife, rendering them unfit for clashing against metal, bone, or stone. The primary use of these weapons is to take advantage of the fairy’s high flight speed and maneuverability, allowing them to fly past their target and drag the extremely sharp edge over the target’s flesh.

The fairies have the strength necessary to wield a wind-steel made weapon of this size without the need for weight reduction enchantments, and as such most of the enchantments placed on these weapons is in order to increase the durability and prevent the dulling of this extremely sharp blade.

It is often said that the only viable defense against a swarm of fairies wielding these vicious weapons is a good wide-area fire spell.

Spear of the great tree

Special powerful spears are occasionally crafted from the great tree and capped with wind steel for the business ends. However, it is the shaft of the spear where more of the attention is spent for these weapons. Before the wood for the spear shaft is provided by the great tree, they infuse a nature spirit into that part of the wood. This enables anyone capable of using the green word to have the spear change it's shape.

The spear is made from a large amount of hyper-compressed wood that is more dense than an equivalent amount of lead, and requires great strength to even lift. This is to provide the spear with enough physical material to extend it's length and maintain it's integrity. It can safely extend up to 4 times it's initial length safely without putting it at risk of having the shaft snap, and can extend up to 8 times it's length while putting it at some risk.

The wood of the shaft is alive, and must be kept alive by being constantly fed spirit energy. If the weapon dies, it becomes nothing more than an unusually heavy spear and loses the ability to extend. Due to the fact that the creation of these weapons requires the great tree to give up a part of it's wood and infuse it with a nature spirit, they are very rarely made and only given to the very most trusted and proven responsible individuals among the fey. However, those who have them are in possession of a truly powerful and versatile weapon.

Author's note

So, that's the particulars on the standard fey weapons. After learning a lot about medieval weapons, I came to the conclusion that thinking about fantasy weapons in terms of what weapon matches the race is usually not the most realistic approach. So, instead, I considered the enemies they would be facing and engineered these weapons toward fighting their enemies. This is why all the fey weapons, which one would normally think would be fine an elegant rapiers or something of the like, turned into gigantic meat cleavers that completely go against the standard image. That's just what turned out to be the most effective weapons considering the enemies they are facing.

On a different note, thanks to some feedback from a reader who really seemed to know what they were talking about in terms of writing and editing, I have decided that I am going to create a version of this story that cuts out all the alternate POV chapters and has Aerien's POV as the only one featured. At the same time, I will also create a separate companion to the new series that is only the alternate POV chapters. This seems like the most reasonable and simplest solution to the exact things several people have been complaining about.

This series you are reading right now, though, will stay the same. This is my rough draft and my mind simply will not work well in terms of getting the story written if I do such a thing to myself during this phase of the writing process. I will continue to write this one as I like. This divided version of the story will be it's own thing separate from this one. I am presently unsure if I will be posting these divided versions to Scribble Hub or if I will just be attempting to get them published officially.