Something sharp and pretty Item in Shards | World Anvil
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Something sharp and pretty

Is it a magic staff?   Is it an axe?   Is it a... hair accesory?    
Well, yes.

This tool—or weapon, if you prefer—is one of the many items formed by Shards in this this world.   As many things born from the kind of lost those shards came from, this ghost is a double edged weapon that can give great power and overwhelming despair to those who believe they need to cling to it. It's too much to be controlled by anyone, and it tends to end up in the hands of people who are not used to control anything -not even themselves- no matter how much the wish they could do precisely that.   Not many did that though. At least one of the previous granters tried, and there is a myth about it causing the death of another, but more often than not it was held by powerless people, most of which had been unable to renounce to it's supposed benefits even after hurting themselves or someone else.   Gael has high hopes on the current owner, which is kind of unexpected. Of course the Granter would trust her to the point of letting her gamble with her life and the safety of everyone around her, but one would think that the Security administrator would have tried harder to keep that thing in the vault. It was his idea to put it there, after all, and a thief is not exactly the best person to entrust with something so dangerous.   I trust their judgement, though. And so far she has use it well and seldom.
 

Origin

Have you heard the story of the puppet that wanted to be a real boy?   Imagine that he has to live his whole life tied and controled by the strings.
Always aware of what little of the world he can see, not knowing what else is out there because nobody tells him. He sits on a shelf, and doesn't quite understands what it means to be bought.   He wants to be a real boy, a concept that he identifies with but can only withness from his place in the stage, where he sings and dances and does some trivial tricks that make real boys happy. He likes to make others happy, and is hurt when they laugh of him. He feels lonely between shows, and thinks about how life could be.   Days pile up. Laughs pile up. The puppeter gains expertise, so the tricks get more complicated and the real boys love the show, they love the puppet, but they don't care that their laughs hurt its feelings, because, it's a puppet, if it had feelings it would be proud to provide an expectacle, that's its purpose, right?   Right.   The puppet doesn't know that, of course. It doesn't feel pride but it's not hurt either. As a puppet it doesn't know or feel thing. It certainly doesn't make plans or promises, let alone efforts, to become a real boy.   Those absurd ideas (as well as any possible potential) of being something that it isn't, are now lost.
  Now, I have never heard of a world where puppets are alive, but there are plenty were real, alive people's strings are pulled by their peers. Their opportunities are restricted by an stablished rule or by the will of someone that somehow has power over them.   They are assigned a role, and told over and over that there is nothing else in the world. And more often than not, they end up giving up. The emptyness will forever be in their hearts, ready to turn into shame, fear, resentment, or even something that resembles love but makes them hurt themselves to bring joy to someone that doesn't really know them.   Meanwhile, the shards of what they once aspired to be but never were, are now here, ready to be shaped into a source of power; they don't care about potential heroes or leaders, they are attracted by those resembling their source: the hopeless and the defeated.   This staff was formed only by some of the shards of a single loss, so we can infere that the person who suffer it was the kind to care for others, but also prone to sucumb to rage and become violent in the face of failure. A combination that tends to cause the worst effects guided by the best intentions.   It's unknown what happened with the other shards related to this loss, but they were probably turned into the magic energy that gave the axe its more powerful attributes.   The shards resonated with the inner struggle of a person who couldn't get her wish granted, long before the Company's foundation. She was looking for a weapon or source of power that allowed her to fight for the position that was hers by birthright but for which she has never been instructed, and that was what the shards become for her.   She was stopped from taking the weapon into her world, which wasn't particularly difficult because she wasn't able to control its power... She and the granter who took the staff from her barely survived the effects of the magic it summoned.
Subtype/Model
Vengeful Weapon
Item type
Magical
Current Holder
Subtype / Model
Rarity
Unique.
Creator
Soa's rightful heir

Ghost Details

Clasification
Ns-in23
Nature
Altruistic. Violent.
Physical Manifestation
It can be an effective weapon and a usually inconvenient tool, or channel dangerous magic. In any scenary is hard to control and has a tendency to sabotage its wielder.
 
Dimensions
Variable
Weight
Variable

Uses

  It channels the energy of it's wieldiers emotions to change its dimentions, remain sharp and reasonably light, and to cast dangerous magic.   As an axe, is more useful to hurt than it is as a tool. As a staff, it only works to use some forms of magic, usually the most violent and aggressive ones. The idea of wearing it like a hairpin is a new one, implemented by eydeamt when she stole it from the vault.


Cover image: Original Image by Eduin

Comments

Author's Notes

This item was meant to answer the prompt Weak but when it was done I... felt that it fit Chaos a bit better.
— February 2024


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