The Billion Blade

Here we scribe the story of the greatest creation of all the smiths in history and all those great Artisans to come. Through all time, there has never been such a blade, and its rarity will never be matched. Some call it luck, others fate, and maybe all are correct, for the blade is truly a one in a billion. Forged from the horn of the only beast ever taken past the Desolate gate, the sword took years to create. The other materials harvested from the Desolate beast were nearly unworkable, but the Artisans forged them nevertheless, spending hundreds of diamond tools, thousands of hours to create unrivaled weapons. The horn, however, was not given to such Artisans, but an apprentice. 

Many now believe it was a practical joke. The boy Artisan was unliked by his master and given the unworkable material in jest.

“Build a sword,” the master said, and the boy did.

The masters of the guild knew such a task was impossible, yet the boy began. Hundreds of attempts to chisel away the horn into a blade’s shape, thousands of tries at heating, tempering, placing an edge. It was years of the boy’s life, so many that his peers began to think him mad. His fellow apprentices turned to workers, then to masters by the time the boy was still throwing himself at the sword. 

“Stop with that blade,” his master said. “You will never get anywhere.”

Oh, but the boy did not care. Never had someone tried at a material like this, and never would someone try again.

After thousands of failures, a fateful day came. The master wrote a note to his brother, an Artisan working in the West.

The boy still tries at that blade. I’d say it’s one in a thousand he shapes it right. One in a thousand he heats it right and one in a thousand he tempers it right. It’d be one in a billion he finishes that sword.

And thus, the sword was finished. Luck came, and history was forged. The day came when a boy turned from apprentice to a master and made for Sikan Burima the greatest sword to grace Iris.

— Speaker Record, written OCY 3451