Enchanted Weapons, an Overview

Enchanted Weapons can be as varied as a fingerprint, and are most often created as expensive, once-off items. In contrast to enchanted armor with which there is some over-lap in the basic effects all users want, weapons tend to be highly specific. The best weapons are created through unique, irrepeatable processes. A weapon is more likely to combine all three forms of enchanting, and as weapons are smaller, much more effort has to be made in both creating a high starting capacity and ingraining as many effects as possible within the magics.

Standard Effects

Like armor, typical weapons will include the standard three: unbreaking, untarnishing, and stain resistance. Blades weapons will also typically include a "sharpness"-enhancing effect of some kind, while blunt ones uses any common varition on an "impact" effect.

Armor Bypass

Far and away the most common effects seen are those intended to bypass or circumvent armor. exo-elemental magics, and most commonly fire magic, are seen frequently. In this style of enchantment, when a weapon impacts a target, it releases a powerful burst of directional elemental magic.

A typical example of a very cheap, simple, and effective enchanted weapon would be an axe head enchanted with fire magic. Upon impact, the axe releases a powerful burst of heat and fire extending toward from the sharpened blade. If impacting regular unenchanted armor, this would be enough to cause severe or even fatal burns even from a relatively light tap.

Any sort of damaging energy can be used this way, which is why anti-magic effect6 are incorporated into most enchanted armor. This creates something of an arms race as weapons makers product more powerful effects while armorers invent more effective defenses.

The Sub Component Effect

One interesting aspect of enchanted weapons as opposed to armor is they tended not to be

Cost and Economics

Creating event a very simple enchanted weapon is a vary laborious and time-consuming art, such that even the most basic of swords costs a very large sum. An aspiring fighter on a budget could buy a very fine mundane sword for less than even a very cheap lightly enchanted weapon.

However, thanks to The Standard Three, the functional portions of a typical enchanted weapon last forever. During the mage wars, enchanted axeheads were churned out in such high quantities they began to be used as high-level currency. As such the secondary market became the most common way to get a real weapon, behind of course killing someone else and taking his.