#weapons design

We don't have much from the text itself about the blade's design:

From the beginning I'd pictured something more of a sword length, perhaps a fantasy sword that could be in a whip mode. I LOVE a fantasy sword, especially a European style sword. But when I finally sat down to work on this thing I ran into a lot of problems.

See, I love researching stuff for historical accuracy. Obviously the blade was going to be fantastical since it could shapeshift but to still draw from clear sources. Only, uh, not getting into FBG's handling of Third City stuff too much- we have almost no existing blades from Mayan culture, or Mesoamerican culture at all. We have some of the art of the main weapon used, we have maybe one sacrificial Aztec knife. We're lacking a LOT. maybe I was not looking hard enough. I don't know.

(I found a couple scepter heads with figures on them exemplifying the Mayan association with Lightning, and I think that's neat and it does make me wonder if there's a relationship between that and making the Jaguar Blade Wailing with Hunger from SMEN 30 and What Might Be A Thunderbolt, buuuuut that might be giving FBG too much credit.)

So. What do we have. Well, we got the fact that the Mesoamerican cultures did have and use jade. Considering you are using Third City Relics in the construction of the Jaguar Blade, and Third City Relics are upgraded from Jade fragments (yeah I know it is a trade ingame shhh) that felt like a reasonable material to play with. We DO have Mayan art of jaguars which WERE significant in the Maya (and many Mesoamerican) cultures. So the jaguar didn't need to be lifelike and instead was styled closer to Mayan depiction in art. (just don't, uh, don't say it's totally accurate okay? wild variation and I have my own style.)

I drew a little bit from the Aztec sacrificial blade but I didn't want to start mixing the cultures too much, that felt.... bad. They are two distinct cultures from different periods and to treat them as just two things to pull from.... bad! But I liked the slight twine wrapping above the grip.

The blade itself was a fight of its own kind, I forced myself to learn how to draw five strand braids but I really liked the look of seven strand braids. While I presume the five strands represent the five wells.... seven is the Number. As for the length, I realized the game did say knife but while I considered a shorter blade (say, machete length), what can I say? I love a long fantasy sword.

Is it obsidian glass? no. Does it wrap like a cord of rope might? Maybe. Unclear as of yet. It might simply have a sheathe, or it might sit on the hip like a whip. I'm not sure yet! I stayed up too late last night getting this sorted out. Here's some other tests I did.

worth noting from this point that while MOST of the weapons are based in canon a lot of them come with headcanon stuff too- like some weapons I made up for the sake of the why not and also the materials of the ones based in canon often differ from what they are in the smp because a bunch of netherite would be boring.

also bows/crossbows are supposed to be present for some people on the list but I haven’t drawn them yet so clown kn me I guess—

sapnap- iron sword named “sapnaps schlong” (why did he name it that). it’s chipped from time and Sapnap just being battle hungry. out of my own little headcanon story- it’s probably (one of if not) the oldest sword(s) since the beginning of the smp. it also has scorch marks because sapnap the pyromaniac. was made by sapnap. enchanted with fire aspect.

dream- netherite axe named “nightmare” and diamond sword also named “nightmare”. Dream named many many things nightmare. nightmare sword is based of a claymore because haha funny. both made by Dream.

gogy- fancy diamond sword because I said so, also made by George and enchanted with fire aspect. the fire aspect was done by help of sapnap. the knife was made by Dream and gifted to george, but it’s more in quackitys possession of anything (he “borrows” it and george often lets him keep it for a short time because he doesn’t use it himself all too often.)

quackity- iron axe made by gogy and gifted to quackity because quackity kept steal his knife and george went “well if you need a weapon I’ll just make you one.” quackity took and kept it but also kept borrowing the knife anyway. also the axe was made before the whole butcher army fight technoblade with diamond axe thing, so the axe should *probably* have been diamond but I didn’t feel like changing it for whatever reason ahahah,,,,,,

karl jacobs- netherite sword, made by Karl with assist from sapnap. the sword isn’t used much.

fundy- one funky netherite dagger that I refer to as “the funky fundy knife”. the dagger is absolutely something I made up just because I thought it’d be silly (well mostly because I wanted to draw a sacrificial looking knife and figured fundy would be the best candidate for ownership.) diamond axe “axe body spray” both made by fundy.

schlatt- netherite sword named “shclatt.” enchanted with fire aspect and made by schlatt(probably,,,,,?) in fundys possession after schlatts death. stone sword made by schlatt but was out of use until after his death and is used by Glatt, also enchanted with fire aspect. schlatt knows fire enchantments well- but his base knowledge of it probably came from Phil some time long long ago.

wilbur soot/ghostbur- technically the same just in different times. the first iteration of it is pre-death (alivebur) it’s made of diamond and has been around since the beginning of l’manberg, it’s enchanted with fire aspect and was the sword used to kill wilbur. also the fire aspect was taught by Phil- it’s a bit shoddy due to the knowledge coming from memory but otherwise it’s alright. ghostbur iteration- more worn and torn as it gradually dropped in quality after wilbur died, the cloth thats tied to the pommel is all ripped and shit. there’s also probably dried blood still engrained in the handle- there’s definitely some stained in the fabric of the grip,,,,

tubbo- two swords. the iron one was made by tommy and used to belong to him up until his and wilburs exhile. in the rush to leave he’d left it in his old base and after a while tubbo found it. tubbo began carrying it around with him so whenever he saw tommy next he could give it to him, but when that time came around finally tommy had already gotten a replacement sword and let tubbo keep it. the diamond sword was made by tubbo (he and tommy had made the swords at around the same time actually, probably with Wilbur) and tubbo never lost it so he’s never needed a replacement.

technoblade- netherite sword named the “orphan obliterater” made by techno. the “axe of peace” was made by techno and was solely in his care until it was entrusted to tommy. tommys kept it since despite technos wishes to get it back.

tommy- diamond sword named “the big man sword” made by technoblade and given to tommy after tommys exhile in Logstedshire. netherite knife- made by tommy. only tommy is stupid enough to make a knife out of netherite.

philza- diamond sword with a name i refuse to write out again. why couldn’t it have just been named killza? anyway it’s diamond because the insta-kill sword phil spawns in for snapshot shenanigans is often just a diamond one. made by Phil and enchanted with fire aspect.

nihachu- diamond sword made by niki and enchanted with fire aspect, niki got the fire aspect from wilbur. she noticed the engravings on his sword and while he had limited knowledge he taught her how to do it too.

eret- netherite sword named “Ted’s wrath” made by eret.

skeppy- fairly old diamond sword with a big chip in its side. the chip didn’t break the sword enough for skeppy to deem he needed a new one and since it’s been there for so long it’s a bit of a hallmark.

bbh- netherite sword named “LANGUAGE.” the break in it is intentional and meant to mimic the break in skeppys sword.

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extra notes— all og members (except fundy) of l’manberg have bits of cloth tied to their swords that are the colors of the l’manberg flag. ex- wilbur, tubbo, and tommys original sword. tubbo and tommys are a bit modified though, as they also have cloth ties to incorporate each other’s colors.

Niki isnt an og of l’manberg but she has the ties too

l’manberg ties had two pieces- one solid read one and a grey one with bits of blue, white and yellow on it.

after erets betrayal he kept the red tie on his sword.

even after tommy enters the Logstedshire exhile and begins working with techno, tommy still adds green cloth ties on his weapons.

bad and skeppy have colored ties of the others respective color on their swords.

dream has two blue ties on the upper handle of his axe.

I have a design headcanon that the darker netherite is the stronger it is- fundys joke dagger is made of the strongest netherite to date. that’s very funny.

and also that netherite can sometimes have bits of gold in it- idk why I did that other than purple-gold mix go brrrr and netherite and gold are in the nether.

fuck wait I didn’t talk about enchantments— uhhhhhhhhh fire aspect is the only one I really have mean anything! I wanted enchantments to have engravings in the sword and fire aspect is the only one that made sense because putting carvings on a sword wouldn’t really make it faster,,,,

but my whole thing with fire aspect carvings is that it’s not knowledge everyone knows so it’s often passed down between people— such as Phil. Phil knows the cool guy shit- he taught it to wilbur who taught it to niki, and he taught it to schlatt at one point while schlatt hung around with Wilbur like a billion years ago.

sapnap just,,, *knows* because fire guy knows fire, and he taught george at some point for some reason.