Blood and/or soul sucking weapons

At first, I thought this was about characters that use weapons that suck the souls of their victims. Interesting to see this reversed. The former tends to give me Too Edgy vibes, though I do not doubt there is an execution of the idea that is great.

As for sucking the soul or blood of the wielder, the blood aspect seems fraught with peril. It'd take a balance of tone for me to accept it, or otherwise the blood would seem gratuitous, and I'd be afraid of it ending up in the hand of a character whose inner monologue would make people roll their eyes.

Soul sucking? I'd accept that if the would built a good definition of what souls are and aren't in this world, and what the cost of the sucking entails. If it's left open ended, then it'd seem like a weapon trying to be edgy again. Though, who can fault a sword for trying to be edgy? >.>

Uhh, yes, anyways. Costs to magic are always a way to give dramatic tension. I wouldn't go so far as saying "magic without cost is boring" as there is something to be said for using magic as a powerfantasy for the reader while maintaining tension elsewhere in the story.

Nah, don't misunderstand the blood thing. Like, a sword that quietly made someone more and more anemic, so they get pale and shakey and weak, and might accidentally kill themselves after a battle? Alright, I'm interested. But the more black the protagonist is wearing while he laments about his dead parents or something while wielding a blade that drinks his own blood ... then I get worried that the protagonist we're suppose to think is so cool is merely just out of touch.

The soul thing is fine, too. I've seen a lot of magic systems that use a generic mental energy, and that's great. With a soul, it'd be like ... is it a finite resource? Like, you only have so much soul you're born with, and if you use it up, your immortal soul becomes oblivion? Or is it more like a self healing or replenishing resource? Are souls otherwise invulnerable, or under other supernatural threats? If you lose your soul, is your body otherwise normal, or do you become like a zombie, or become an empty vessel that other entities can steal?

Things like that are what I would be after. The closer it is to world building, and the farther from a Heavy Metal* throw away lyric, the better.

*I'd be down for reading a Heavy Metal influenced universe any day of the week, with good world building and appealing characters.

Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné series features the type example of the soul-sucking sword, Stormbringer, & spends volumes exploring the cost it demands. If you're interested in this trope, these books are required reading.

I like this idea! I thought at first that you meant it feeds on the blood and/or soul of others, and I immediately thought of Warlocks in WoW getting soul shards from dying enemies to use in spells. (which, while a cool idea, was VERY ANNOYING in the game I have to say.) But feeding off of the wielder is cool in a whole other way.

If the weapon feeds off your soul, you'd have to define what it looks like when a soul is weakened. Does it change who you are? Turn you into evil? Take away your memories? Is there maybe a way to replenish the loss of soul, or does it sort of regenerate on its own if the sword isn't used? Or is it just gone forever? I love the idea of a way to feed your soul and take away from it. How you define those terms would drastically change the tone and message of the novel.

benbenberi said:

Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné series features the type example of the soul-sucking sword, Stormbringer, & spends volumes exploring the cost it demands. If you're interested in this trope, these books are required reading.

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Seconded!

BLOOD AND SOULS FOR ARIOCH!

blackcat777 said:

Maybe consuming/sucking isn't the right word. Maybe the blade just needs to be covered in the wielder's own blood to shine. Maybe the bigger and badder the entity being battled, the more the wielder has to feed the sword...

I am toying with blood-based magic, where any presence of blood can supplant the life force of the person with said magic. So no one can run around stabbing willy-nilly...

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I've seen something sort of similar in the anime Blood+. The protag's blood happened to be the secret to killing these vampire-esque creatures (if I'm remembering it correctly), so she uses a sword coated in her own blood to fight them.

blackcat777 said:

Something else that was on the back of my mind lately was sentient swords. What if the consciousness in the sword was unreliable (99% of the time) and gave ruinous advice?

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I think I got one of these playing D&D once. Some cursed sword that kept claiming innocent people were really the bad guys. Then I had to keep rolling willpower saving throws to not go on murdering rampages. The moral of the story: beware of weapons claimed in the Underdark.

I do like the idea of magic/magical weapons having a cost to use them. I have been letting an idea stew for a few weeks that involves a magic system that only certain women can use, but in order to use the power the siren(witch/sorceress) drains the life-force of nearby men, causing them to age rapidly while simultaneously attracting more men to them, like moths to flames. Still not sure if the stakes of magic using are personal enough to really be considered a cost of the system, but that's why it's percolating instead of in my WIP.

If you do go with blood, I'd recommend lots of research into what consistent blood loss actually does to a person, physically. I love writing about blood magic, but it is very, very easy to slip into eye rolling territory with how much blood a character is actually losing (I may or may not have fallen into this trap, you can prove nothing). It can be a great way to mine drama/conflict or just engage with some handy world building if you deal with how the characters handle using their body as a resource.

Either way, I recommend getting specific on what it is the character is losing, how it affects them, and what benefits they gain. At least if you want the weapon to be a central part of the narrative. I've seen a couple of instances where I felt like blood-consuming weapon/armor wasn't fully explored and I always feel like that's wasted story potential. But that's a personal thing.

I wonder if you did the sentient weapon thing, could you play with how the weapon feels about using it's wielder as a power source? What if they actually liked their wielder and were actually more afraid for their wielder's life/sanity? Like it's the middle of the battle and the wielder is about to pull a massive heroic sacrifice and the weapon is like "Nope, not gonna kill you. New plan please." I dunno, could be interesting.

PyriteFool said:

I wonder if you did the sentient weapon thing, could you play with how the weapon feels about using it's wielder as a power source? What if they actually liked their wielder and were actually more afraid for their wielder's life/sanity? Like it's the middle of the battle and the wielder is about to pull a massive heroic sacrifice and the weapon is like "Nope, not gonna kill you. New plan please." I dunno, could be interesting.

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This story needs written! I would eat up a story including a POV of the sentient-magical-vampire weapon. If it doesn't happen by the next Sisyphus story exchange this will be my prompt.

I can already see the banter and arguing between a headstrong protagonist knight errant, and his pragmatic sword with the ability to veto his magic. Good character concept

It's a very common trope, rampant throughout fantasy lit and video games, for soul-stealing weaponry. For blood-stealing weaponry, however, the real world invented that long ago and has more examples across cultures. "Blood grooves" in blades encourage bleed out from stabbing injuries to shorten the amount of time it takes to end lives in combat, even from relatively minor-seeming wounds. What Hollywood calls "just a flesh wound" we would call a trip to the emergency room from which we might not survive!

blackcat777 said:

Definitely a fun idea. I would personally be more drawn to writing a douchebag sword, though.

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There's any other kind?

blackcat777 said:

Definitely a fun idea. I would personally be more drawn to writing a douchebag sword, though.

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For some reason this made me picture a female protag expertly wielding a a misogynistic sword that talks like Gaston.

badducky said:

"Blood grooves" in blades encourage bleed out from stabbing injuries to shorten the amount of time it takes to end lives in combat, even from relatively minor-seeming wounds. What Hollywood calls "just a flesh wound" we would call a trip to the emergency room from which we might not survive!

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I was about to reply to this, but Blackcat777 got there first, with almost the exact same wording. So, I'll just second what he said. Grooves are for weight, and nothing more sinister than that.

Justobuddies said:

For some reason this made me picture a female protag expertly wielding a a misogynistic sword that talks like Gaston.

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Noooo one stabs like Gaston
No one jabs like Gaston!
In a dueling match, no one goes for the back like Gaston

I like the idea of a soul-sucking weapon that sucks the soul of the wielder. I think there is a cost in taking lives (animal, monster, person, etc) and even if you are doing it to protect yourself, there is a mental cost to the killer. And having the weapon wielder have to decide if a death is worth the cost on his soul is a good plot line. It would also cause the protagonist to be more clever, and find solutions out of some problems that doesn't include just slaughtering everyone.