Items · Melee Weapons · Campaign Defining
Ennui
All it takes for evil to triumph is for Ennui to convince good men to do nothing.
Type: Shortsword
Appearance: Ennui is a completely drab, mundane appearing weapon. Color seems to bleed away from Ennui, giving it a nimbus of grey, tepid 'light' around it.
Mundane Qualities: Ennui is famed for being a terrible weapon to actually use in combat. It is heavy, imbalanced, doesn't take a decent edge, and frequently gets snagged in clothing and armor.
Magical Qualities: Ennui cannot be broken save by besting the corrupted soul of the Seven Brave contained within. Ennui allows its owner great influence over those around them.
Long Term Effects of Ownership: Owner supports any course of inaction possible, without fail. When forced to act, the owner generally tries to act in the smallest, least powerful way possible.
Ennui slowly affects its owner's core philosophies, convincing them that inaction is always the best course of action. Patience, wisdom, and rational thought are all called upon to support the cries to do nothing, generally with great aplomb. Ennui is second only to Kingmaker in the strength it affords its owner to affect others- insidiously so.
By allowing inaction to become prevalent, Ennui seeks to allow the ambitions of the other evils present in the world to prosper. Armies are not stopped, injustices are ignored, and corruption is allowed to spread. Depression and good feelings batter those around Ennui's owner; depression from the brazen nihilism Ennui invokes, tempered by the assurances that nothing truly matters and one need do nothing to be okay.
Ennui seeks strong political owners, the better to allow its influence to spread far and wide. Ennui's owners, while not affected by the sloth they bring to others, are prevented from mustering the willpower necessary to rid themselves of the blade, usually by the blade's own designs.
Seven Brave: Sloth
Sloth has a few goals:
1: Do as little work possible to escape the blade.
2: By weakening mortal resistance to another of the Seven Brave, Ennui believes it can let another of the Seven Brave do the heavy lifting
3: Ennui seeks to spread inaction in the face of Evil
Ennui prefers a supportive role within the blades, always seeking to do as little as possible. Ennui, however, does possess strong intellect, and a capability for manipulation that is far more subtle than Arrogance is capable of.
Ennui: Relationship with the other swords
Ennui and WrathBringer generally have incompatible views on how to free themselves from the blades, although when they do manage to cooperate, the results are generally spectacular, bloody, and historic in scope. Ennui strongly despises how Wrathbringer advocates against inaction at all costs.
Ennui and Kingmaker also work exceedingly well together, although they also disagree on methods and tactics. Ennui is more than willing to allow Kingmaker to wear the pants, even if Kingmaker tends to try to get Ennui to do too much.
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Continue the path
Three more steps through the hall.
- Kingmaker by Ted Bound
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A weapon worthy of Mathom himself.
Very insidious.
I'd put it in the hands of a patron known and trusted by the players. Watch them try to figure out what's happening and how to fix it. In the course of figuring things out, they'd end up in some very sticky situations, such as when their patron decides that sacrificing them to a rival is the "easiest" way out of a longer conflict or when notifying them about some danger becomes too much work.
Hail the chosen weapon of Mathom (tomorrow, of course; we've much too much to do today)!
Sword of Mathom. Ha!!
Mmmm, so many different ways this ennui can be interpreted and used. Kudos.
Sweet.
This certainly could change the course of history in a campaign, properly placed.
3.5/5
Mathom immediately sprang to mind, but I see Cheka beat me to it by a couple of years.
Can't wait to see the rest of these uploaded! Good work Ted.
It will likely be a long time before I get around to finishing them- I'm elbows deep in a GURPS Secret Agents campaign and decided the citadel wasn't digging my session summaries enough to continue posting them here- I've taken my ball and gone home, so to speak.
Mathom willing, I might eventually get to the other Sinblades.
I like the interpersonal relationships the swords have. How do they communicate?
They likely have some kind of mindlink or telepathic connection that gets stronger the closer their haboring swords get in physical proximity.