Some of the lore and artifacts of the Triempery have yet to be visited. Their time simply hasn’t come just yet. One of these is the Gweroyen Sword, created at the end of the period known as the Exile and which played a major role in the Return—and after. It continues to do so in this series.
A fabled Highborn relic, the Gweroyen Sword is the sole remaining pre-Return weapon. Those known to have brandished it during Exile include the Leur, Amynas Malyrdys, and each of the Three.
Origin
Upon the slaying of malevolent god Vllyr by a Leur-Aryati alliance, the Aryati Hegeistate laid claim to the god’s remains, including the remnants of its supernatural skeleton and carapace. The Aryati fashioned the divine matter into nearly indestructible components and devices. Some of these components were designed for use in eternal machines; many devices became ceremonial blades and armaments to be used by the Hegemons.
The God-Slayer Sword that had dismantled Vllyr had been crafted in Îs by the Leur god-race and was wielded by the Aryati prince Amynas, a mortal. Amynas acquired immortality through this deed. The God-Slayer was later destroyed in the Devastation of the First Creation.
Survivors of the Devastation had sought refuge in a handful of the First Creation’s trans-dimensional pasts but were trapped there. Among them were Amynas and a lone Leur survivor, Lokenalys. Together they determined that a Second Creation had been achieved. Amynas and the Leur wrested a portal from control of the Aryati exiles and were able to reconfigure it to enter the Second Creation, not knowing what they would find. They found a viable new World and set upon the Return.
The Return of the People was opposed by the Aryati rulers of the Exiled, who preferred their dominion in the pasts. Their Hegemon, the Devaryati, wore a crown-device fashioned from Vllyr’s carapace and which possessed a malevolent remnant of the god’s being. To slay the Devaryati and his living crown, the Leur and Amynas needed to recreate the God-Slayer.
After they had given life to the Three, Amynas and Leur built the new weapon. They recovered a piece of Vllyr’s remains (tullun) from Sordan’s deep storerooms and blended their knowledge and talents—Aryati device-making and Leur omnificence—to weld lr (arcane crystal) technology to the tullun blade’s supernatural matter. The Leur instilled a portion of his immortality into the forging of this blade. Using the divine weapon, the wielder could draw upon and amplify the creative energy of Leur. Depending on the innate abilities of the wielder, that energy might be only a little (a mortal)—or that of the entire Creation (the Leur or one of the Three).
Because Amynas was the first to brandish the Sword (indeed, he is often portrayed with it in hand), historical records often call it the Sword of Amynas. When Amynas was disarmed by the Devaryati in the final battle of Olympos, the Sword was picked up by his son Amarantos—but not before the Leur had been mortally wounded. Amarantos used the Sword of Amynas to slay the Devaryati.
A legend exists which says Amynas recalled the Sword’s immortality to restore life to his fallen friend. According to this legend, the Sword ceased to be immortal though it continued to be arcane.
Post-Return History
Following the Return, the Sword of Amynas became the weapon of Ergeiron, one of the Three. The Promise of Iddolea was sworn by the clasping of Ergeiron’s hand and that of the Aryati Monemon Tisiphae upon its hilt. Ergeiron took as his wife Tisiphae’s daughter, Alethia, and the Sword passed to their son Telarion, first King of Essera, upon Ergeiron’s Transformation into the Wall Entity.
During the Gweroyen War in 2/0044, one year after the Wall Transformation, Telarion was slain and the Sword seized by his uncle, the Aryati Hegemon Braxaos, who took it with him to Iddolea as a trophy. The Sword was restored to the Highborn by Telarion’s daughter Philoumena, also taken captive by Braxaos and forcibly wed. Philoumena used the blade to slay Braxaos and took it with her when she fled.
Philoumena claimed the Sword as hers by right—of birth, conquest, and by her wielding of it—and the blade became known as the Gweroyen Sword, herald of war and symbol of strength. After the fall of Iddolea in 2/0050, Philoumena hung up her sword. She wed her cousin Deben II Sordaneon and brought the weapon as her sole dowry. It passed to her son Deben III Sordaneon and has remained a Sordaneon device.
Current
The Gweroyen Sword is considered a priceless and sacred artifact and has been ceremonial for over 1700 years. Its rumored power has not been displayed in public since Ergeiron used it to cut away the side of a mountain to build Stauberg’s first, defensive Wall. Philoumena Malyrdeonis was the last person to wield the Sword in battle and, because she possessed no Leur gifts, she did not deploy Leur powers. Though the Hierarch Dares I Sordaneon wore the Gweroyen Sword when leading an army in the First Ardaenan War, the weapon was not used. Tarlon Sordaneon's threat to wield the Gweroyen Sword against Ardaen during the Second War was instrumental in compelling Ardaen to accept peace, but again the weapon did not make an appearance. All recent appearances have been at the coronations of Sordan’s Hierarchs, where the Sword is bestowed in conjunction with the Sordan Coronal (also known as Derlon’s Crown).
When not being used for coronations or other ceremonial appearances, the Gweroyen Sword is kept in the Sordaneon Trove along with other Hierarchal treasures, devices, and artifacts.
Capabilities
Three large and several smaller green lr gems are set into the tullun body of the Sword. All green lr gems are of pre-Devastation manufacture and are therefore exceedingly rare. Those in the Gweroyen Sword were obtained from Sordan’s lost armory. Because of their purity and the Leur magic that went into the making of them, green gems connect most powerfully to other Leur creations—including the Creation itself.
The bonding of lr gems into the Sword’s supernatural matrix give the weapon unique abilities:
Can cut through any other substance, including other tullun objects
Collect ambient energy from its surroundings
Generate proximal subspaces to store energy collected in this way
Connect to Leur neural structures and be directed by them
Shape energy fields
Propel shaped energy against targets
Disperse energy outward to form shield/defensive fields
Direct the placement of energy shields
Place a remote field to secure an object in place and time
Serve as energy source to a wielder possessing Leur gifts
Other
The statue of Amynas in the Promise Fountain in Sordan’s Dekkora shows him holding aloft a faithful rendition of the Gweroyen Sword.
During the Labran Protectorate, an Esseran petition to remove the Gweroyen Sword from the Sordaneon Trove and return it to Malyrdeon possession for safekeeping was denied by the Highborn Council—and specifically by the Malyrdeons.
The Gweroyen Sword is sheathed by a similarly gem-patterned tullun scabbard. The scabbard is the only object through which the Sword cannot cut.
The Gweroyen Sword will appear in Book 5, The Walled City.
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