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Spellbreaker (48)
Project: Family movie (“The Journey”)
Known as: No nicknames
Real name: Spellbreaker
Group affiliation: Patron
Physical description: Spellbreaker is a longsword and a pretty fancy one at that. His pommel matches Patron’s symbol: a tree with jewels for fruit. For Spellbreaker, the jewels are literal (amethyst). His handle is leather wrapped for grip, but the leather has been dyed to match the amethysts. His cross guard continues the three themes; worked as two branches with amethysts at each end. This blade always looks like highly polished silver and it has runes saying, “Any tapestry can be undone by pulling the right thread.” The blade neatly tapers down to an elegant point and his edges are razor sharp.
Personality: Spellbreaker is a magical, intelligent, talking sword. Not that his intelligence serves much purpose. He can’t act on his own (he can only be wielded), nor does he provide helpful battle advice. In fact, he’s a pacifist, and one of his greatest fears is that he might be used to run someone through (which he considers gross; the thought of it makes him want to vomit, if he could vomit). He enjoys singing (though he’s not particularly good at it) and always suspected that it was some sort of mistake that he ended up a knight’s sword instead of a minstrel’s instrument. Patron likes him – he reminds her not to take life too seriously. He is still very useful at disrupting magical effects and Patron cares a mace as well in case she needs something to, you know, actually harm someone.
Spellbreaker loves Patron as a sister and would sacrifice himself for her.
History: Spellbreaker is the creation of the greatest smith in the kingdom, named Smith. Smith Smith was a tad mad and when making magical items things often went a little wonky. This meant that Smith Smith occasionally created artifacts of superlative power and usefulness and other times made items with characteristics out of synch with their purpose. With Spellbreaker he managed to do both.
Spellbreaker is an amazing sword. As a longsword alone he is impressive – essentially indestructible with a perpetually razor-sharp edge. His ability to disrupt the results of any working of magic makes him incredibly useful in a magical kingdom. In many ways he is more shield than sword – deflecting and canceling magical attacks.
He is a pacifist who dreams of a singing career, however. He gets sickened by thoughts of hewing a limb or spilling guts and has fainted at the site of blood. Of course, his fainting is pretty undramatic, as it just means that he is quiet for a while. By the way, unconsciousness is one of the few times he’s not talking or singing.
He is happy enough to destroy a spell, cut a rope, and the like, however. In fact, he is a little insecure about his martial abilities, so he enjoys the praise he gets in these situations. He starts getting nervous when Patron uses him to parry another blade or hit someone with the flat of his blade. Patron tries to respect his concerns and carries a mace (and uses him as a shield) for when she has to get nasty.
Stepper and Spellbreaker do not get along. On the surface, they are like two bickering people who at their core really like and appreciate one another (except that the second part is not true).
Role in the narrative: Mostly comic relief, however since the Order uses magical weapons he is critical to protecting Patron.
Abilities: Spellbreaker would be a heck of a sword if he allowed himself to be used as one. Virtually no other weapon could destroy (or even nick) him and he is very sharp. Common or even well-crafted blades and shields could not stand before him in the hands of a skilled swordsperson (and Patron is exceptional). Unfortunately, he doesn’t approve of being used in such a way.
His usefulness to Patron comes from his ability to disrupt spell effects. Most magical effects are “woven” and he’s able to cut the “threads” holding the magic together. He doesn’t actually absorb or destroy the magic – he just undoes the purpose it’s been put to. He is no more dangerous to magical creatures than he is to any creature but he can stop spells in progress and end their effects. So a basilisk might turn someone to stone but Spellbreaker could set that person aright with a tap. If a mage sends a lightning bolt at Patron, Spellbreaker can disrupt it as so much static electricity, and so on.
Inspirations: There are several intelligent talking swords out there; probably the most famous is Elric’s Stormbringer. Though I didn’t think of it overtly, I think Spellbreaker is an homage parody of Stormbringer (they have very different personalities).
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