Items · Melee Weapons · Magical
Gomeral Sword
A sword with a bitter history and a dark stigma
Full Item Description
A Gomeral Sword is considered a primitive type of sword as it lacks a protective crossguard. Instead, the blade flares significantly wider than the haft of the sword. The tang of the blade is wide, close to three inches, and being intended for single handed use, the blade itself is only 26 inches in length. The large flat tang of the blade offers a good surface for decorative etchings, and many Gomeral swords boast family crests, mottos, and other devices of symbolism and primitive heraldry.
History
Gomeral Swords are primitive forbearers of the modern short sword. The design saw it's heyday some decades ago when this type of weapon was the official armament of the Kings Guard of the city-state of Gomeral, hence the common name. The King's Guard, trained to fight not in fields of battle, but in the halls and chambers of a castle preferred the smaller weapon, and officially carried a pair of these swords. The Gomeral technique was difficult to master, as it required alternating a sword to block and a sword to attack with. This meant that only a small number of soldiers gained the skill needed to join the elite King's guard.
The City-State of Gomeral suffered a number of calamities that all lead to a coup against the King and his court. Several hundred peasants along with a double handful of rebels stormed the castle and attempted to capture the king. Such an uprising would have easily been crushed by the skilled warriors of the King's Guard but there was a rotten core in the king's elite. Because of slights real and imagined, the King's Guard turned on the King and he was slain by one of his own guards.
Already a primitive weapon that remained only in common use because of the King's Guard, the Gomeral Sword suddenly became a very unpopular weapon. Those who carried it were seen as sympathizing with the traitorous kingslayers and their commoner uprising. Most regular folk of militaristic bent (adventurers, mercenaries, militias) discarded their Gomeral blades and replaced them with more modern short swords. Those who did support the King's Guard would eventually find their way to the gaol, the hangman's noose, or feel their life's blood gush out onto a thirsty field of battle. Some six months after the coup, the King's Guard was routed by royal forces from the next city state and almost all were hung. Those who survived scattered to the winds and went into hiding.
Magic/Cursed Properties
Having been a popular weapon for approximately 8 generations of warriors, there were a large number of Gomeral swords in circulation. With the King's Guard using said type, there are a disproportionately high number of masterwork Gomeral Swords as well as enchanted and magically unique versions of the weapon. After the backlash against the treacherous guard, the mundane Gomeral swords were broken, or recycled to make new swords or plowshares. The more expensive magical versions and unique versions were much more likely to be wrapped in a cloth and forgotten in a cellar or hidden away than be destroyed.
To find such a sword is almost a guarantee of a high quality, or even magical weapon. Unfortunately this comes at a cost. Even years later, the Gomeral sword is still strongly associated with regicide, treason, and murder.
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The sort of weapon that goes down very badly anywhere near nobility.
...and precisely the sort of weapon today's uninformed adventurers would pick up somewhere, and carry it happily for having a high-quality (or magical) sword.
I have a feeling MoonHunter will praise this 'common' item highly - allow me to praise it until then. :)
Good work!
I like it! A blade, magical or otherwise, that comes with a stigma. nice detail too!
Nice backstory (which is probably the place I'd go with adventures if I had the occasion to use it), but I'm left asking myself, why? Why are these swords still associated with regicide? After all the swords are of ancient design, and their heyday was decades ago (20+ years ago). Do the swords still entice their owners into such acts of rebellion?
Overall a good solid submission, just needs some polish (in my opinion).
Mark
Good premise, though I second Black Jack. If these swords fell out of use decades ago, I wonder if any of the younger generation would recognize them at all. Perhaps they will only carry a stigma around the old or the wealthy.
The name Gomeral makes me think of gnomes and gums in no particular order:) Otherwise this is a pretty nifty post and I love city states. Good work.
The stigma is very specific to the setting, but the idea could be adjusted easily enough.
Basically a small Falchion, or almost a machete type weapon from the sounds of it.
It does introduce the concept of a weapon/device type being tainted by a pivotal event - like the Tank in your cosmic era, or the Hindenburg. This could be used to help control the use of a specific weapon type that is *broken* in your game system of choice.