The High Elf Prince Tyrion wielding the magical sword Sunfang, which draws upon the potent magical fire of Aqshy; as depicted for Total War: Warhammer II.
Sunfang (Lacelothrai in Eltharin) was the famed magical sword created by the High Elf Archmage Caledor Dragontamer during the Great Catastrophe for the first Phoenix King Aenarion the Defender that was infused with the fiery power of Aqshy. Lost for millennia, it was recovered in the jungles of Lustria by the High Elf twins Tyrion and Teclis.[1a]
History[]
Origins[]
At the beginning of the Great Catastrophe, when Chaos first entered the mortal world following the destruction of the Old Ones' Polar Gates, the Elven archmage Caledor Dragontamer travelled to the Shrine of Vaul on Ulthuan to begin making weapons for the princes. Aided by the high priest of Vaul, Caledor forged the magical sword Sunfang using knowledge that the Elves no longer possess.[1a]
Upon presenting the weapon to the newly crowned first Phoenix King, Aenarion immediately adopted it as his weapon of choice. Wielding it along with the Shield of Averlorn, Aenarion beat back the Daemons of Chaos who had flooded into the mortal world in victory after victory. For a short time, there was peace in the world as the Daemons retreated to recover and regroup. Almost unexpectedly, the Daemons struck out once more and Aenarion's wife, the Everqueen Astarielle, was killed and his children Morelion and Yvraine lost.[1a]
A depiction of the hilt of Sunfang
Driven by grief, Aenarion gave the sword to Furion, one of his most trusted lieutenants, and then ventured north to claim the Sword of Khaine. Sunfang would be used for the remainder of the war against Chaos by Furion, who passed it on to his descendants in the centuries that followed.[2b]
The Witch King Malekith long coveted the blade, with his customary hunger for all the possessions of his father. Yet Furion's family refused to gift it to him in the time before the Sundering and the exile of the Dark Elves. Over the course of time, agents of the Witch King made many attempts to acquire the blade, and always failed.[2b]
Loss of Sunfang[]
Yet, in the end, Nathanis, the last descendant of Furion, sailed with Sunfang for the Old World on a trading trip, where both he and the sword gained fame and legend.[2b]
He visited the forest of the Wood Elves, and fought alongside Wardancers and backwoods archers, eventually making his way down to Tilea and the Border Princes, and then on to Estalia. The High Elf would die there but his sword would be taken up by a Human, or so the tales told.[2b]
Sunfang was passed from father to son down the fast, fleeting generations that maked the lives of all Men. The power of the blade made its possessors heroes and mighty champions among the Men of the Old World. It had not brought them luck, though, as John Argentes, the last bearer, became a landless, wandering mercenary.[2b]
The trail of the sword became lost for a time, after Argentes set sail from Estalia aboard an explorer's ship bound for the uttermost west. The Marienburger Leiber had been the ship's captain, and it had never returned to its home port. By sheer chance, however, rumours of Captain Leiber washing up in the Norscan colony of Skeggi on the continent of Lustria in the New World drew the attention of the Asur twin brothers Teclis and Tyrion.[2b]
Indeed, a trade captain of House Emeraldsea had spotted Leiber, and informed the two princes, as they had spent years hunting for the legendary Sunfang. This was in part due to Tyrion's need for such a weapon to face the inevitable return of the Slaaneshi Keeper of Secrets N'Kari.[2b]
For Teclis, however, the blade represented hope for some means of aiding their father Arathion in the restoration of the Dragon Armour of Aenarion. The young mage reasoned that the magic of the two heirlooms would reveal clues to the armour's restoration, as they had both been forged in Vaul's Anvil by Caledor Dragontamer.[2b]
Despite being a long shot, the twins followed up on the rumour, taking a High Elf trading clipper to the coast of Lustria. From there they found another rumour about a Human who possessed a fiery sword who had vanished within the interior, searching for the gold of lost Slann temple-cities.[2b]
Eventually, Teclis and Tyrion found Captain Leiber, who had witnessed Argentes' disappearance into the temple of Zultec, and been the sole survivor. After spending months lost in the jungle, the Marienburger brought word of Argentes' loss, staggering out of the jungle half mad with hunger, thirst and fever.[2b]
Leiber had spent further months making a map to Zultec, whilst seeking to tempt others with tales of treasure big enough to fire the imagination of a hundred pirate kings. He would agree to guide the twin Asur to Zultec in return for gold and their protection. Together, the three of them would organise the expedition into the green hell that was the Lustrian jungle.[2b]
Rediscovery in Lustria[]
Said-expedition's warriors and guards were comprised mostly of Norscans from Skeggi, with their thralls acting as porters. Few of the Humans would last long in the jungle, most of them either dying or vanishing. Some died from fevers that not even Teclis' medicines could cure, others from sabre-toothed jaguars the size of horses. Between these, piranha lizards, Pygmy attacks, bloodwasps and plants whose leaves drank blood on contact with the skin, only a handful would survive.[2a]
This handful would decrease even further after the expedition was ambushed by Chameleon Skinks, Tyrion himself narrowly dodging -- and then catching -- an obsidian-tipped dart covered in black ooze.[2c]
Surviving the ambush, the expedition eventually found Zultec, the ancient Lizardmen settlement seemingly devoid of occupants. Even Tyrion could sense an evil presence within the air, a form of corruption whose focal point Teclis narrowed to the central ziggurat, alongside the radiant aura of what could only be Sunfang.[2d]
Complications only continued to arise when they penetrated the inner workings of the temple. Lieber and the remaining Men grew more and more on edge, especially whenever the twins conversed in their native tongue, or Teclis used visible forms of magic.[2d]
Whilst Tyrion did his best to maintain morale, Teclis was able to navigate through the maze of twisting corridors till they reached a reinforced wall. Witchsight revealed it as a secret door wreathed in a web of magical energy. Untying one knot would open the door, yet the web gave Teclis pause, suspicious of both the power flowing from the turnkey, and the circumstances of how John Argentes could have gotten Sunfang this far into the temple, and behind such a well-warded door.[2d]
Impatient, and needing to prove himself after the ambush earlier that day, Teclis forced open the door. Beyond lay a chamber filled with dozens of well-preserved, Human corpses, as well as gold that lay strewn about. But most distinct of all was the sword that lay gripped by the hilt in Argente's long-dead hands.[2d]
Teclis realised his mistake when Leiber and the Humans raced forward to claim the gold. No sooner had they than the air of the tomb shimmered. Ghosts in the silhouette of Skinks possessed the dead, vanishing like poison gas being breathed into the lungs of the cadavers. As the ghosts struggled to puppet bodies too different from their own, others took to the mummified remains of other Lizardmen that lay in the dark of the tomb.[2d]
Unable to cast spells due to wards in the chamber, Teclis watched as Tyrion raced in to fight off the growing horde of zombies. Teclis was dumbfounded, his knowledge of the Slann condemning necromancy despite what he saw. The mage quickly directed his twin to claim Sunfang from the now reanimated corpse of Argentes, telling him the sword would burn Undead.[2d]
After nearly having his throat torn out by Argente's dead hands, Tyrion tore Sunfang from him. And as the corpse hissed like a serpent with the Estalian's grey tongue, Tyrion set it aflame. Tyrion noted how the blade felt like a living thing in his hands, how he could feel the blazing heat coming off it despite the sword's metal neither softening nor breaking from the flame's intensity. The flaming zombie reeled away, and thus caused the rest of the dead's clothing and flesh to ignite, leaving themselves open to the Asur 's onslaught. Only after both Tyrion and the Humans retreated out of the warded chamber did Teclis incinerate the growing zombie horde.[2e]
Return to Ulthuan[]
Upon returning to Skeggi and saying their farewells to Leiber and the others, the High Elf twins found Captain Joyelle awaiting them at the docks. She would be the one to tell them that the Everqueen was dead, and that House Emeraldsea needed them back in Lothern. The sight of Sunfang, however, removed all sorrow from the Eagle of Lothern's crew, the blade a sign of hope in such troubled times.[2f]
During a week at sea, Teclis nearly set fire to Tyrion's cabin after accidentally triggering the magic of Sunfang. It wouldn't be until they reached Lothern that the mage tried further examinations.[2g]
The sword would be immediately brought to the twins' father Arathion, whom had moved back into the family townhouse with all his research materials. At first, Teclis would find all the hardship worthwhile upon seeing his father so animated with joy. More than once, however, the mage saw his father seem manic, almost frightfully so.[2h]
Upon hearing that Tyrion would be taking the sword with him to a tournament in Avelorn, Arathion grew irritable, as that meant both he and Teclis had but a single night to examine the blade.[2h]
Initial tests began with Teclis inscribing a magic circle with chalk around Sunfang in the basement laboratory, inscribing runes around the edges, making signs of Isha and Hoeth and numerous minor Elven deities of knowledge. Relaxing as he began to chant, his heartbeat slowed and his breathing deepened, his soul hanging loosely within his body. And so he inspected the sword's aura.[2h]
Through this ritual, Teclis was able to confirm Arathion's assertions that Aenarion had wielded the sword, had fought with it, had killed with it, had trusted his life with it. Sunfang was a weapon intended to be wielded by a hero, one touched by the power of the gods. Teclis, however, was unsure that even Tyrion could ever wield its full power. Not for lack of heroism, but because he had never passed through the Flame of Asuryan as their ancestor had.[2h]
Having touched the Flame with his own magic -- back during N'Kari's siege on Asuryan's Shrine in XI, 10, Teclis could sense resonances of the Flame of Asuryan within the blade of Sunfang. Most likely these were simply traces of the fact that Aenarion had handled it. There had been a direct link between the first Phoenix King and Sunfang.[2h]
Beneath all of these were echoes of another personality, one of more interest to Teclis. The presence belonged to one infinitely sadder, wiser and far less bold, the first of the true Elven archmages, Caledor Dragontamer. He too had handled the blade, and he had done so before Aenarion. The spellwork flowing through it was his.[2h]
Later Use[]
Claiming it as his own, Tyrion later wielded Sunfang to great use, first using it to defend the Everqueen Alarielle as they ran from the Dark Elves during the Great War Against Chaos in 2302 IC, then during the Battle of Finuval Plain which shattered the Dark Elven invasion of Ulthuan during that great conflict. Wherever Tyrion goes Sunfang gleams bright in his hands, perhaps recognising the blood of Aenarion that flow in the High Elf prince's veins.[2a]
Properties[]
Sunfang as rendered for Total War: Warhammer II.
The blade of Sunfang is four feet long and burns with the power of the sun, essentially serving as a direct conduit to the magical Wind of Aqshy. It has enchantments that make it so that the sword will never become dull, amid much more miraculous things.[1a]
Indeed, if a new bearer holds onto Sunfang, the blade glistens, glowing as if flames were trapped within. The weapon's weight and balance adjusts as one wields it, almost as if the sword itself were a living thing. Such enchantments are but a part of a complex web of magic pinned in place by the runes found on the blade. Even without the benefits of witchsight, Sunfang leaves a faintly visible, glowing trail.[2g]
At the blade's heart, Caledor Dragontamer trapped one of the Elemental spirits of the volcano of Vaul's Anvil. It burns in there, its life force powering the sword. By contacting the spirit, saying the word of power, said-magic can be unleashed as a torrent of flame from the blade's tip. It is unwise to do so too often, however, as it risks over-drawing the Elemental's life force, thereby unraveling all the magic within Sunfang. Teclis likened this to an Elf losing a lot of blood, and so the blade takes time to recover its stength.[2g]
The aura of Sunfang shows its age. It is an artefact of the ancient time when mortals as mighty as the gods walked the earth. It was made when magic flowed much more strongly through the mortal world. One can tell from the brutal strength of the spells -- so difficult to replicate in the present era -- that magic had been more abundant when Sunfang had been forged. The world had been a fundamentally different place.[2h]
Remnants of the Maker[]
Magic, by its nature, is always personal. Because of this, an observer can learn much about a given wizard by what they see in their spellcasting. Caledor Dragontamer's work in forging the sword was meticulous -- the runes on the blade had been inscribed with care, and the flows of Aqshy through them were still bound as tightly in the present as they were the day the sword was forged. Dragontamer had been strong-willed. No one could have bound one of the Elemental spirits of Vaul's Anvil without being so.[2h]
The archmage had not been at all artistic. The magic was utilitarian. There was none of the florid scribblings of trace energies that many mages used to leave their own mark on spells and artefacts. The Elf that had made this sword had been grimly determined to create the most powerful weapon he could for his friend, Aenarion. He had not been concerned with imprinting his own personality upon it.[2h]
And, of course, that single-minded determination had left the strongest mark possible. From this, Teclis had gained a sense of Caledor Dragontamer as though he were standing in the same room with him, of the indomitable will, the desperate courage, the despair.[2h]
Caledor had not been a warrior. He had never wanted to fight. It was not in his nature. He had been driven to it. He had been a maker and crafter where Aenarion had been a destroyer. Caledor had made even this sword with great reluctance, but having been driven to it he had made it to the best of his abilities. He had put all his genius into the creation of something whose purpose he despised.[2h]
In Teclis' mind, the Elven race lived in the shadow of titans, lived in the world that destiny-cursed pair of heroes had created. Sunfang was like the whole history of his people. It bore the stamp of Aenarion and Caledor. Through his conjuring of the Great Vortex, Caledor Dragontamer had shaped their land in the same way Aenarion had shaped their people. The whole island-continent of Ulthuan was part of his vast geomantic design. The sheer scope of the mind that could do this -- plan and execute the most powerful spell in the history of the mortal world in the midst of fighting the greatest war ever -- was dazzling to Teclis. It was the same Elf who had forged Sunfang that had forged the continent the High Elves now called home.[2h]
The mortal world had been fundamentally different when the sword had been made, and Caledor Dragontamer had been the one who altered it when he created the Great Vortex. And so it would be that from studying the pattern and grasping its essential nature that Teclis gleaned the knowledge to one day forge his own blade. One that was, if not as powerful as Sunfang, than at least of a similar level of sophistication.[2h]
Trivia[]
A Games Workshop subsidiary, Warp Artefacts, intended to release a replica model of Sunfang in May/June of 2005. The blade would have been 40.5" in length, with acid-etched runes and real stones set in the hilt and pommel. For unknown reasons, the replica never shipped. [3a]