How did you get your daiklave?

[heroicantagonist]

We've all seen or heard the generic "I found it in my tomb" story. What creative and different ways have you justified your characters' possession of magical weapons and armor?

One of my favorites that I remember reading on one of the old forums involved a wandering exalt who happened upon a slain behemoth with the weapon that killed it lodged in its long-decayed corpse; the wanderer claimed the weapon as his own. Sort of like an old spin on the Sword in the Stone-type stories.

One of the most simple ones that I've used involves starting the character with Summoning the Loyal Steel and subconsciously calling the weapon to hand during the character's exaltation backstory. It kind of bends the rules a little bit, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this one.

So what's your story?

[hippokrene]

A) No daiklave
B) Stole from dragon-blood she murdered.

[Valles]

Hmmm. Bounteous Joy did find hers in the tomb of one of her past lives, but it was the life of her soul, not her Exaltation, and deliberately enchanted to 'attract' her. Gavrane Anyala had hers made for her by her mentor, Leviathan. Copper Rashi's is a warstrider grand daiklave that she was helping guard, and has absolutely no connection to her last life at all. Precious's, similarly, was looted from a kingdom that'd defaulted on the payments owed the mercenary company she was part of decades before she Exalted, and had been carried by one of the unit's Dragonblooded until that point. Gentle Feather is the Girl With The Orichalcum Fists, and doesn't need any other weapons. Hapac Sisa has an artifact crossbow, but I don't know where she got it, since it's a let's-not-gimp-ourselves-on-the-ground tool rather than something more reflective of her character. Bayushi Mikasa, as a transparent port of a Rokugan character, was granted hers from the depths of her family's considerable arsenal. And Mokkou Tau and Onakishi would both use mundane weapons at the start of play.

My active Battles is on an Epic Quest to recover a particular Rapierklave, and the GM tossed her a grave-goods version during a ghost story episode in the meantime. Sirin the No Moon has razor claws Tattooed into her fingers, Cynis Sokim the Changing Moon straight-up looted his gear, and Ishi Singing-Tide the Full Moon called in some favors to have an artifact harpoon made.

[Lucil]

One character of mine started with Craftsman Needs No Tools. She made a short daiklave while looking for her circlemates.

[Sidmen]

Not a daiklave, exactly, because I've never cared about any of my daiklaves.

But, I once played an immortal (ageless and impossible to kill) amnesiac (every 100 or so years he forgot everything he'd done) who bore the Blade of Regret. It was a blunt crystal sword created from the collected tears of his previous life (stalagmite style) - which spent five decades in seclusion after some unmentioned (and forgotten) tragedy.

[The Wizard of Oz]

I haven't had any magical weapons for years... actually I'm not sure if I've ever had magical weapons on any character except a Lunar with tattoo smashfists.

But good idea for a thread: I like to see magical weapons having some actual meaning to characters, rather than just something they "found in their tomb" because it gives stat bonuses.

One PC I played alongside had a soulsteel daiklaive made of her husband. I think he'd been captured by Deathlords or something (I can't remember exactly, it was ages and ages ago) and soul-forged into a daiklaive. She was trying to find a way to get his ghost out of it so he could be freed to reincarnate. Failing that, she decided she'd have to throw him into the Well of the Void. At least he wouldn't be suffering eternally then.

[Paradigm]

My current character, Kazim al-Qurai is a state administrator that exalted as an eclipse while pulling a coup to kill the previous king and replace him. Since then he's become sort of a First-Among-Equals in an alliance of roughly a dozen other kings. Kazim got his artifact weapon a few months into the story, when his circle was exploring an old manse that was rumored to be powering the enormous sandstorm that if removed would give us the opportunity to invade an otherwise undefended border of the nation we were at war with. After defeating a rogue god who had taken control of the manse, we found out that the manse was actually only designed to amplify the power of an ancient artifact weapon: Searing of the Sand-Courts, an artifact grand reaper daiklaive with evocations for manipulating sand.

This is the only character of mine that didn't start with an artifact through his backstory, and I'm infinitely more fond of this one than any other artifact I've had

[hippokrene]

I disagree with the implication that finding something in a tomb is meaningless or cliche.

The idea of descending to the underworld to bring back something of value has mythological resonance. Sure, not everyone is interested in bringing symbolism into their game, but some of us enjoy that sort of thing.

[Sidmen]

I disagree with the implication that finding something in a tomb is meaningless or cliche.

The idea of descending to the underworld to bring back something of value has mythological resonance. Sure, not everyone is interested in bringing symbolism into their game, but some of us enjoy that sort of thing.

Yet... it is a cliche. At least within Exalted circles, "Found it in my tomb" for artifact arms and armor is the standard "I don't want to put any work into this" response.

[TSk]

Well, it was found in a tomb, sort of, but not by me. My daiklave, Rainshadow, was returned to me by a lesser elemental dragon out of friendship and in gratitude for some assistance I’d been able to render his court. He'd called in quite a few favors to find its resting place. It was a magnificent blade, one my predecessor wielded for eight hundred years when she’d carried my exaltation. In her hands, it’d been almost as much a legend among Lunars as she herself. Just holding it brought back so many memories.

...Which is why I had to break it in front of him.

That scream of betrayal in the voice of its least god will be ringing in my ears for a long time to come, I’m sure. It was such a tragic waste. The courtiers were horrified. I was horrified, really. Such a fine weapon. But it was Rain Lily’s weapon. And destroying it was necessary.

I sacrificed the remains to Luna. Since then, the Pact has finally stopped referring to me as the successor of Bright Eyes Rain Lily. It’s Lotus now.

[heroicantagonist]

Two points of clarification:

1. I thought "How did you get your daiklave?" was a pretty evocative name for a thread and not to be taken literally, so tell us about your Artifact armor, shield, spear, grand shellcaster, smashfist, whatever.

2. When I called out "I found it in my tomb" as a story I didn't want to see, I added a qualifier to it: I was referring to the generic version that is often literally no more than "I found it in my tomb." If you delved into an ancient tomb and contended with traps, bound demons, sorcerous puzzles, horrifying throwback memories, or things of that nature, we should hear that story too!

Here's another really simple one from a friend of mine: we were playing in a game with a house rule such that all Exalted used Solar XP/BP costs for most everything, including Essence, so my buddy made a Lunar with Essence 4 and Sleeping Bear Method (and some fun play on backstory to make it all work, but that's outside the scope of this thread). He was fully decked out in Moonsilver plate, with an Artifact sword and shield. The Artifacts were created by his Twilight lover in the First Age and he literally had never been separated from his panoply since.

[Nocte ex Mortis]

Not a daiklave, exactly, because I've never cared about any of my daiklaves.

But, I once played an immortal (ageless and impossible to kill) amnesiac (every 100 or so years he forgot everything he'd done) who bore the Blade of Regret. It was a blunt crystal sword created from the collected tears of his previous life (stalagmite style) - which spent five decades in seclusion after some unmentioned (and forgotten) tragedy.

Ah! Ah! Ah! The Nameless One!

Okay, the last character I played (Which, amusingly, is also the FIRST character I played in Exalted) found his Dire Lance, Bitter Rain, in the home of a Dynast he had been hired to assassinate. Along with said Dire Lance, he also ran into one of the other players, who had been hired to rob the joint. Hijinks ensued.

[chalicier]

I'm guessing "took it off a dead Dynast" is pretty much in the same frequency range as "got it out of mah tomb", isn't it?

I mean, there's so many of the fuckers, and they're all bedecked out in shiny things, it'd be a crime not to!

[FromBeyond]

There I was in the middle of the market and that charming old man had a discount, see?...

[Coranis]

My first daiklave was a Chiaroscuran glass sword given to my mortal character by his king. After being chosen as a Zenith he found an ancient dragon king which took him as a disciple (the dragon king thanks to a gemstone of immortality was the Warden of a terrible monster imprisoned under our kingdom) and made that sword a true daiklave using crystal-manipulating techniques.