Ghyll:Horreld blade

To most Ghyllians, there is but one Horreld Blade. The name is synonymous with the legendary Avazian heroine, Busco. Her sword was reputedly immune to the magnetic effects of the Justice Device, but as with many fabled Avazian artifacts its construction is never described. Artwork featuring Busco depicts the blade variously as a crudely worked tree branch (in Alarius' “Defender”), a glowing yellow weapon (generally in pieces from the Dreamy period), or as a long, curved, metal sword typical of Harandraffian times.

In fact, the archetypal swords of the Harandraffian period were known as horreld blades. This meaning became prevalent in the lexicon of the time and the original Avazian Horreld Blade was all but forgotten.

The single-edged Harandraffian swords were of triangular cross-section. They were very long (between 6.3 and 7.5 nanits long including the hilt), and curved with a radius of approximately 3 nanits. These swords were popularized by Eixis Anos and her authoritative publication Quarters of Horreld Fencing.

As the use of metal armour increased, the horreld blade's effectiveness on the battlefield diminished. Standard sword designs morphed into shorter, double-edged straight weapons, such as those used by Swordwielders in the Tarkherk Corps.

On the topic of the Corps, after Commandant Elder's embarrassing incident at the Battle of Umbo Moor, he went on record to say that his “White Lady” had carried a “great big shiny golden sword”, rather reminiscent of the Dreamy portrayal of the original Horreld Blade.

The noble art of horreld fencing was dropped from the tri-annual Dagger games in -33 EC, relegated to make room for more easily digested, spurious “sports” like hoopkah and Bindlett Ball.