Pattern Swords

RPGPundit · June 18, 2008, 11:55:54 PM

Ok, we've got Greyswandir, Werewindle, and Bley's Golden Sword.

Are there any others in the canon? Any others that might be pattern swords?

Why would these three princes in particular (Corwin, Brand, and Bleys) have them, and no one else? What is the connection to each other?

RPGPundit

Crimson · June 19, 2008, 01:31:42 PM

Well, Corwin is the 'hero' so he has the day blade. Brand is the 'antagonist' so he has the night blade (or was it referred to as the moon blade? I can't remember). Bley's is the neutral party in the middle. I think that Bleys' sword was gold only because he was the flashy show-off prince.

I've always imagined it that it was a play on roles. The good, the bad and the indifferent.

nomad · June 19, 2008, 01:45:46 PM

Quote from: Crimson;217573Well, Corwin is the 'hero' so he has the day blade. Brand is the 'antagonist' so he has the night blade (or was it referred to as the moon blade? I can't remember). Bley's is the neutral party in the middle. I think that Bleys' sword was gold only because he was the flashy show-off prince.

I've always imagined it that it was a play on roles. The good, the bad and the indifferent.

Actually, Grayswandir(Corwin) is the Night Blade; Werewindle(Brand) is the Day Blade. Based on the short stories, the Pattern Blades were Spikards.

Crimson · June 19, 2008, 03:51:16 PM

Oh! Right. I always get those backwards.

Nihilistic Mind · June 19, 2008, 08:40:13 PM

I know it may not be canon, but I usually give Oberon's sword similarities with Pattern Sword, if not make it a Pattern Sword outright.

Can someone point out the passage in Zelazny's work that brings up Bleys' sword as a potential pattern sword? I'm not questioning it (I usually rule for him to have one as well) but I forget where it is suggested...

RPGPundit · June 19, 2008, 08:53:37 PM

Do the short stories (which, believe it or not I never read (aside from the Salesman's Tale)) suggest why or how Corwin and Brand ended up with their respective swords?

RPGPundit

Trevelyan · June 20, 2008, 10:08:59 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;217699Do the short stories (which, believe it or not I never read (aside from the Salesman's Tale)) suggest why or how Corwin and Brand ended up with their respective swords?

RPGPundit

Nope, although they do provide a bit more background (the whole spikard thing).

Given the impications that the swords may have been in some way the inspiration for the actual design of the pattern, you might assume that those swords, and perhaps any otrs like them, were kept by Oberon following the creation of the pattern. We know that Corwin and Brand were both frequent favourites of their fathr, and it's not hard to imagine that he was also fond of Bleys (the smarmy bugger had everyone eating out of his hand). Oberon may have made a gift of those swords to his favoured sons as both a sign of affection and a deliberate snub to the kids like Eric who never got one.

Alternatively, it might be the case that all of the older sons of Oberon received such a sword until he ran out, so younger children like Random didn't receive one, but Benedict, Eric, Corwin, Bleys and Brand all did. This would leave several such swords apparently unaccounted for.

RPGPundit · June 20, 2008, 12:59:42 PM

I guess that's possible; Eric did have a silver saber, didn't he?

RPGPundit

Rel Fexive · June 21, 2008, 08:58:50 PM

I believe Bleys' sword is at one point described as having a tracery of the Pattern on it.

Uncle Twitchy · June 23, 2008, 01:10:23 PM

Yes, as mentioned in the original post.

Nihilistic Mind · June 23, 2008, 01:33:38 PM

Alright, I'll go look it up... I thought you guys knew everything by heart and could reference page numbers, no less!

I'll report results a bit later when I found where it's mentioned.

jibbajibba · June 23, 2008, 05:20:10 PM

I have always assumes that there are 3 pattern sword as there are 3 patterns... Amber, Tir and Rebma . Amber woudl be Werewindle, Tir would be Greyswandir, Bley's sword ought to come from Rebma.

In my games I nearly always introduce pattern swords as a theme and dish them out to favoured PCs / NPCs I usually have 8 but then I tend to have 8 shadows adjacent to the Primal Pattern.
Each one another aspect Night, Day, Truth, Magic, Despire , Hope etc etc

Then I might through in a master blade described on the Primal Pattern, you know one blade to rule them all and in the darkness bind them

Seanchai · June 23, 2008, 05:39:27 PM

I don't remember the pattern swords. What do they do, other than saw through tin cans and remain sharp enough for tomatoes?

Seanchai

Nihilistic Mind · June 23, 2008, 06:05:18 PM

Quote from: Seanchai;218703I don't remember the pattern swords. What do they do, other than saw through tin cans and remain sharp enough for tomatoes?

Seanchai

That and catching Chaosian blood on fire. Chaos creatures are allergic to Pattern, so as far as we know that's all they do.

The fact that they once were spikards adds a lot of speculative material to the mix, as in that they can potentially accomplish things a standard spikard could. Other than their spikard origin and Pattern bearing killing potential of chaosians, the books and short stories don't go into further detail.

Oh, and they can travel through Shadow and can be reached by trump (I believe Rinaldo reached Werewindle via his father Brand's trump...), so it may imply sentience of some sort...

Trevelyan · June 24, 2008, 07:48:36 AM

Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;218709That and catching Chaosian blood on fire. Chaos creatures are allergic to Pattern, so as far as we know that's all they do.

The second series with Merlin strongly suggests that chaos blood is naturally prone to flaming whether cut with a pattern blade or otherwise. It's possible that this effect is dependant on a degree of agitation, which Greyswandir might provide, but chaos blood can flame quite happily if you cut a chaosite with a blunt pen knife.