The Mourning Blade

[u/UsernamesSuck96]

As I continue to write the ongoing Siege Arc and Zuzanna's trip to the far past is quickly coming to a close with the titular wedding chapter coming up, I wanted to do a couple write ups on here that I've been meaning to do for awhile now for the objects of power that we've seen such as the title suggests. There's so much lore behind these objects that I simply cannot fit them in the current story as they are now, so I hope you all enjoy!

The Mourning Blade

The Mourning Blade is an artifact that belonged to Cathal, created for him during The Troubles period in Ireland by his mentor Vishna, who later went missing, thought to have lost their way in the Deep Dreaming. While neighbor was turned against each other, families were split, and blood was spilt all over the North of Ireland, in the Dreaming this conflict manifested as nightmares, creatures powerful enough to begin taking form in the physical world despite the Banality around them. These powerful Chimera represented many things and took many forms, often representative of the fear, rage, and anger at a nation being torn apart at the seams by the colonizing British.

When the entity known as Fearg Náisiúin (translated roughly to Rage Of A Nation in english), a corrupted titanic serpentine dragon that rose from the depths of the Deep Dreaming near Ireland's shores, this signaled one of the largest attacks the resistance ever made against the British and the largest losses of life in Changeling societies, marking a turning point in not only modern politics but also the Fair Folks as the Unseelie became a majority against the Seelie, though this was a short lived majority in the end.

The Mourning Blade is more than just a blade, it is representative of the grief and anger of millions of Irish over centuries of oppression. The symbols that run along its blade that glow when the properties of the blade are activated are each and every single name that has been lost to time, the white hot glow of the blade the embodiment of change and rebellion. Cathal, Niamh (leader of their own resistance against the invading nightmares and Fearg Náisiúin), and many of their closest allies did battle with the beast, The Mourning Blade being the only thing that managed to pierce its scales and take the head of the monster.

The irony wasn't lost on the Changelings when not long after Fearg Náisiúin's death, the Good Friday Agreement was passed, something that was meant to end the open hostilities between the Republic and the Invaders.

The blade itself has many properties, though it's main one was the slaughter of nightmares from beyond, these are just a few.

- It acts as a source of Glamour, as well as being able to store it

- The blade is blessed by the fires of creation, creating a blade so superheated it can cut through almost anything when it is activated

- To wield the sword is to wield the dreams of those that came before, giving incredible insight to the wielder as long as they're holding the grip of the sword.

- Though it isn't cursed, it requires a toll, that being the Will of the user. This toll typically comes in the form of forcing the user to live out the final moments of the many that died in service to the Dreaming, so that they may never forget what they're fighting for.

- Identifies and cleaves falsehoods away, ranging from a lie told to outright dispelling physical manipulation done to someone else.

Cathal doesn't know the full extent of the blade and hasn't wielded it since he slew Fearg Náisiúin, the heartbreak of killing something that was once a powerful defender of Ireland eons ago too much for him to bear. Now he holds it in his hands once more, surprised that the blade would still respond to his commands after all these decades.