Blades of The Traveler

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Wednesday, May 08, 2013, 09:01 (4005 days ago) @ ncsuDuncan
edited by Ragashingo, Wednesday, May 08, 2013, 09:15

A Blade of the Traveler is not one specific weapon, rather the term refers to any bladed weapon that has been specifically designed, or merely modified, to absorb and pool the strange energies given off by The Traveler. A Blade can be anything from a pocket knife to a broadsword, the only requirement is that it have some small piece of The Traveler within it. Many older Blades simply have a tiny piece of the Traveler's white outer shell embedded in them, while newer Blades are forged, in part, with minuscule amounts of The Traveler melted down and mixed in with the rest of their alloy.

Every Guardian is required to carry at least one Blade, especially Titans. There are things out there, beyond The City's walls, that cannot be easily killed with bullets or lasers, or bombs. Some, apparently, cannot be killed at all, at least by traditional methods. Warlocks and Hunters have the ability to direct The Traveler's energy, without the need for ammunition which can be heavy, bulky, and is often in short supply. Titans, however, have no such ability. Efforts in imbuing special rounds with materials from The Traveler were successful, but were considered highly wasteful. As large as it is, Humanity is careful not to assume The Traveler is an unlimited resource. Firing unrecoverable bits of The Traveler at enemies just wouldn't do. Then there was the issue limited availability. A Titan out of special rounds could find himself defenseless at the worst time.

Blades of The Traveler, in addition to pooling The Traveler's energy, and releasing them to devastating effect, are demonstrability lighter, stronger, and sharper than the same weapon of purely traditional design. Science, like with many things related to The Traveler, has no explanation for these unique properties. Even so, the Blades have proven to be highly useful to the Guardian's dual mission of defense and exploration.

Also, they glow.

Blades with a piece of The Traveler glow wherever that piece was embedded. Blades with Traveler alloy added to their composition shimmer slightly, as if thousands of tiny stars are trying to shine through the Blade's metal. Neither glows brightly enough to attract attention or light your way down a dark corridor, but the effect is noticeable upon close inspection.

It occurred to me, after reading ZackDark's tale of Roger the Hunter, that I was writing my short story based replies while stuck in something resembling Halo's military scifi world. I'd dutifully changed the names and locations to fit in with what we know of Destiny, but for the most part there were no or very few mythic elements in my stories. I think the mythic in mythic scifi is one of the things that will set Destiny apart from Halo and so I was failing to accurately explore Destiny's world. This weapon, and accompanying story, yet to come, is my attempt to correct that, and to knock my storytelling more in line with what I hope and expect Destiny to be.