Daemonbane Armor: Despite the name, the pieces of armor in this set are not actually supernaturally effective against daemons. Daemonbane is simply a masterfully-forged set of greaves, vambraces, brigandine, an armored skirt, and a metal shoulder pad. They incorporate both modern and ancient armoring practices, modern materials combined with arcane enchantments and ancient rarities like dragon scale and bone. The pieces of armor can be worn separately if needed, and are all enchanted to be particularly resilient against heat and supernatural assaults. The set itself is very beautifully designed, as ornate as it is functional, and is James's usual choice of armor to take into battle against the most powerful of threats. As the daemonslayer vanquishes his enemies, the armor is continually improved, and decorated with trophies.
General Layout:
Chestpiece: The chest piece consists of a brigandine, made of an advanced slash-resistant composite fabric that is lined with overlapping metal plates within, near the upper body, and on the outside, several lengths of carved dragon bone form an external set of "ribs", serving in both decorative and protective fashion. Large flaps of of bone-studded dragon hide extends from the shoulders, and provides an anchor for the shoulder-pad, as well as guards for the otherwise exposed armpits.
Left Vambrace: The vambrace extends up to the elbow, but not past it. On the foreside is three separate thin strips of metal for flexibility and lightness, beaten into shape and custom-fitted for James, and riveted to the leather backing, while on the underside there is a mesh of enchanted silk and belts help keep the overall weight down and hold the vambrace in place. Four thin dragon bone rods run the length of the vambrace on the outside, providing additional reinforcement and decorum.
Right Vambrace: The vambrace extends up to the elbow, but not past it. On the foreside is three separate thin strips of metal for flexibility and lightness, beaten into shape and custom-fitted for James, and riveted to the leather backing, while on the underside there is a mesh of enchanted silk and belts help keep the overall weight down and hold the vambrace in place. Four thin dragon bone rods run the length of the vambrace on the outside, providing additional reinforcement and decorum.
Left Greave: The greave is cast from a single sheet of metal, attached to a leather lining. It has been custom fitted for James, and the knee guard is of separate design, multiple overlapping ceramic discs covered by an overlay of scaled dragon hide. In the front of the greave are lined three sets of shaped dragon bone with the center bone in the middle right over the shin, providing additional reinforcement and decorum.
Right Greave: The greave is cast from a single sheet of metal, attached to a leather lining. It has been custom fitted for James, and the knee guard is of separate design, multiple overlapping ceramic discs covered by an overlay of scaled dragon hide. In the front of the greave are lined three sets of shaped dragon bone with the center bone in the middle right over the shin, providing additional reinforcement and decorum.
Armored Skirt: In the skirt, a network of loose ceramic discs is sandwiched between the leather backing and a layer of scaled dragon hide, to create a beautiful and resilient, yet flexible pattern.
Left Shoulder Pad: The armor possesses a single shoulder pad, an elegant piece of shaped steel with a felt lining, the shoulder pad is light, and provides adequate protection while maintaining comfort and mobility. While it doesn't guard the armpit, the armor's chest piece does that.
James Special Physical Techniques
Fist/Elbow:
Swording Fist
Cross Dividing Mountain
One Inch End
Gigantic Pressure
Beast Killing Blow
Rising Iron
Reverberating Impacts
One Hit Kill
Waterfall Rush
Foot/Knee:
RED Kick
Hell's Hammer:
Heaven Breaking Fist
Hell Crashing Anvil
Twin Cloud Breaker
Spike Snap:
Narrow Spike
Second Spike
Second Snap
Demon Launcher
Crescent Fall:
Crescent Sweep
Half Moon Sweep
Moon Splitting Fall
Crescent Reversal
Grab/Body:
Crocodile Death Roll
Hawk Strike Reversal
Forged Shoulder
Heaven and Earth Throw:
Rising Earth
Falling Heaven
Cheolsam Force
Left Dragon Right Tiger
Flying Dragon
Crushing Dragon
Dragon Fist
Twisting Tiger
Clawing Tiger
Tiger Claw
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The Rending Blade:
A powerful longsword, the Rending Blade is of master-crafted design, measuring almost four feet of blade and pommmel. Six inches of sword where the base of the blade meets the hilt is blunt, allowing for half-sword techniques and the guard itself is fashioned in the shape of a pair of silver wings. The Rending Blade is crafted out of an unknown metal, and seems to resist all manner of damage and wear on the blade. When unsheathed, the longsword glows a dim blue with the power of its enchantments. The Blade is incapable of receiving empowerments or enchantments of any kind, in part due to its ability to cut through and dissipate any sort of energy shield or attack, be it from supernatural, or mortal origins thanks to the arcane energy field that surrounds the blade. While this energy field also renders it effective against supernatural or ethereal beings, is not as effective against more mundane defences like armor plating, reducing the Rending Blade to merely being a supernaturally resilient weapon.
The Rending Blade carries in itself fragments of the destroyed Chinese Jian White Reflection. Like its ancestor, both sides of the Rending Blade are carved with characters, albeit of a different language. When translated, the characters read: "What is the Terror of Death?" on one side, and "What is the Joy of Life?". When read aloud and answered with the appropriate rites by the sword's wielder, the sword responds by drawing upon the life energy of the weapon's wielder to dramatically increase the blade's cutting power. The blade's blue aura becomes even more distinctive, and when striking, the wielder can cast his or her life energy from the blade as an extra attack. This attack is most effective against supernatural opponents, disrupting their hold on the material dimension, and making them more vulnerable to banishment and other supernatural attacks. A mortal blow dealt while the foe's soul is weakened can effectively destroy the soul. For the attack to be truly effective however, the soul and thoughts of the wielder must be incorruptible. No doubts, no regrets, no failing in conviction, least the power of the soul-blast fail and be directed back at the wielder.
A powerful longsword, the Rending Blade is of master-crafted design, measuring almost four feet of blade and pommmel. Six inches of sword where the base of the blade meets the hilt is blunt, allowing for half-sword techniques and the guard itself is fashioned in the shape of a pair of silver wings. The Rending Blade is crafted out of an unknown metal, and seems to resist all manner of damage and wear on the blade. When unsheathed, the longsword glows a dim blue with the power of its enchantments. The Blade is incapable of receiving empowerments or enchantments of any kind, in part due to its ability to cut through and dissipate any sort of energy shield or attack, be it from supernatural, or mortal origins thanks to the arcane energy field that surrounds the blade. While this energy field also renders it effective against supernatural or ethereal beings, is not as effective against more mundane defences like armor plating, reducing the Rending Blade to merely being a supernaturally resilient weapon.
The Rending Blade carries in itself fragments of the destroyed Chinese Jian White Reflection. Like its ancestor, both sides of the Rending Blade are carved with characters, albeit of a different language. When translated, the characters read: "What is the Terror of Death?" on one side, and "What is the Joy of Life?". When read aloud and answered with the appropriate rites by the sword's wielder, the sword responds by drawing upon the life energy of the weapon's wielder to dramatically increase the blade's cutting power. The blade's blue aura becomes even more distinctive, and when striking, the wielder can cast his or her life energy from the blade as an extra attack. This attack is most effective against supernatural opponents, disrupting their hold on the material dimension, and making them more vulnerable to banishment and other supernatural attacks. A mortal blow dealt while the foe's soul is weakened can effectively destroy the soul. For the attack to be truly effective however, the soul and thoughts of the wielder must be incorruptible. No doubts, no regrets, no failing in conviction, least the power of the soul-blast fail and be directed back at the wielder.
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It had been a true test of time and patience.
To be honest, Hidemitsu did not know what to expect when dealing with Dwarven steel. It had been named such not simply for its Dwarven manufacture, but also its source. Dwarves were known to live deep within the mountains of whatever world they hailed from, and as such they have a very intimate connection with the stones and ores within. They knew where to find the hardest, most resilient of metals that could resist the rigors of intense heat, deep within the fiery hearts of their subterranean domains. In order to create the hardest of edges that wouldn't dent or bend when subjected to the stress of intense heat, Hidemitsu needed Dwarven steel.
The problem was that being so resilient when heated meant it was also incredible difficult to manipulate as opposed to the far more malleable tamahagane that he was used to. The fires of his forge could cause the steel to burn white-hot, but it still didn't seem to be enough to allow his hammer to shape it no matter how many times he pumped the fuigo. Dwarves did not have this difficulty since many of them tended to forge their weapons within the very hearts of the mountains they drew their ore from. They could heat their forges with molten lava rather than simple charcoal, reaching temperatures Hidemitsu could only dream of.
It was quite the predicament...at first.
Thankfully, the powdered red stone that James Eredas had provided him with had proven to be far more useful than anticipated. Not only did it provide the proper reagent to add elemental fortitude to his tempering clay, but he discovered that the powdered, almost salt-like substance augmented the fires of his forge simply by tossing in a handful. It was a rather precarious experiment that nearly burned down his forge and the workshop to boot. Setbacks were inevitable when it came down to experimentation.
Regardless, the discovery had allowed him to heat his forge to the temperature needed the manipulate the Dwarven steel. Once Hidemitsu had laminated the harder Dwarven edge steel with a softer tamahagane core and a skin steel of medium hardness, the resulting sunobe, the unformed sword, received the increased heat of the forge with little problem.
Hidemitsu had thought for a while on what he could do to make the sword unique. He wanted to give Eredas something that seemed familiar to him and his fighting style, yet something different in its own right. He already possessed a nodachi, so making him another one would be redundant and uninteresting. It was his nodachi that inspired Hidemitsu to shape the sunobe into the dimensions of a tachi in the typical koshi-zori fashion, where the curvature of the blade was deepest towards the hilt. James should have had experience using a nodachi, which given its large size meant that using it properly required one to utilize more than simply the hilt of the blade. James was probably used to supporting the back of the blade for certain techniques in order to gain better leverage and fight in close quarters. For that matter, some nodachi typically had much longer hilts for the sake of that leverage given the larger size of the sword, and the only thing separating it from working like a polearm was the fact that the majority of the weapon was bladed and thus unable to be gripped. Thus, Hidemitsu decided to give the relatively long 31 1/2 inch blade a 20 1/2-inch hilt, not only giving him enough grip to leverage the blade but also allowing the blade to function just as well with polearm techniques as it would sword techniques. Versatile, with a blade smaller than James' nodachi for better use in close quarters.
The mixture of yakiba-tsuchi, or tempering clay, that Hidemitsu used to temper the edge of the blade was made special for this task. He combined the elemental affinity of the powdered red stone with the special high-quality charcoal that James had provided, as well as other ingredients he used in his special blend. It was necessary in order to allow the Soshu school's high-temperature tempering techniques to function with the resilience of Dwarven steel. He patterned the tempering clay in a somewhat unique pattern, combining a wavy choji midare with a steep, pointed gunome with a few hints of tobiyaki, tempering spots that jump off the pattern. The end result was a flame-like hamon that fit the nature of the blade just as much as the nature of its user.
Hidemitsu remembered the hiss of the waters as he quenched the blade. Such a loud, piping noise as the room filled with steam. By the time it had cleared, he had noticed that all of the water in his quenching tub had evaporated. At first he had dreaded making some mistake, yet the blade seemed to be in good shape. In fact, it was still hot. Hidemitsu had to refill the quenching tub two more times before the blade could be fully quenched, and by the time he began polishing the blade, Hidemitsu finally saw how much this adventurous undertaking of his had paid off.
With the blade completed, Hidemitsu had then went about assembling the mountings for the blade. Surely a weapon that was so attuned to fire would need a hilt that could hold its own as well. Rather than using a cloth tsuka-ito and white ray skin like he would for normal blades, Hidemitsu had purchased leather procured from the fire beasts that roamed the elemental plane of fire. The red hide of the hellboar and blackened skin or the magma ray would do the trick nicely. It was yet another benefit of living in Sigil, where such fantastic materials were easily found with enough browsing through the Market Ward.
It was one of Hidemitsu's finest works, one that would bear his name proudly as Eredas used it against the terrible creatures that daemonhunters of his ilk faced. It was a blade born and tempered in raging flame much like its soon-to-be wielder, and as such had wholly earned its most fitting name.
The Rekka Hidemitsu.
To be honest, Hidemitsu did not know what to expect when dealing with Dwarven steel. It had been named such not simply for its Dwarven manufacture, but also its source. Dwarves were known to live deep within the mountains of whatever world they hailed from, and as such they have a very intimate connection with the stones and ores within. They knew where to find the hardest, most resilient of metals that could resist the rigors of intense heat, deep within the fiery hearts of their subterranean domains. In order to create the hardest of edges that wouldn't dent or bend when subjected to the stress of intense heat, Hidemitsu needed Dwarven steel.
The problem was that being so resilient when heated meant it was also incredible difficult to manipulate as opposed to the far more malleable tamahagane that he was used to. The fires of his forge could cause the steel to burn white-hot, but it still didn't seem to be enough to allow his hammer to shape it no matter how many times he pumped the fuigo. Dwarves did not have this difficulty since many of them tended to forge their weapons within the very hearts of the mountains they drew their ore from. They could heat their forges with molten lava rather than simple charcoal, reaching temperatures Hidemitsu could only dream of.
It was quite the predicament...at first.
Thankfully, the powdered red stone that James Eredas had provided him with had proven to be far more useful than anticipated. Not only did it provide the proper reagent to add elemental fortitude to his tempering clay, but he discovered that the powdered, almost salt-like substance augmented the fires of his forge simply by tossing in a handful. It was a rather precarious experiment that nearly burned down his forge and the workshop to boot. Setbacks were inevitable when it came down to experimentation.
Regardless, the discovery had allowed him to heat his forge to the temperature needed the manipulate the Dwarven steel. Once Hidemitsu had laminated the harder Dwarven edge steel with a softer tamahagane core and a skin steel of medium hardness, the resulting sunobe, the unformed sword, received the increased heat of the forge with little problem.
Hidemitsu had thought for a while on what he could do to make the sword unique. He wanted to give Eredas something that seemed familiar to him and his fighting style, yet something different in its own right. He already possessed a nodachi, so making him another one would be redundant and uninteresting. It was his nodachi that inspired Hidemitsu to shape the sunobe into the dimensions of a tachi in the typical koshi-zori fashion, where the curvature of the blade was deepest towards the hilt. James should have had experience using a nodachi, which given its large size meant that using it properly required one to utilize more than simply the hilt of the blade. James was probably used to supporting the back of the blade for certain techniques in order to gain better leverage and fight in close quarters. For that matter, some nodachi typically had much longer hilts for the sake of that leverage given the larger size of the sword, and the only thing separating it from working like a polearm was the fact that the majority of the weapon was bladed and thus unable to be gripped. Thus, Hidemitsu decided to give the relatively long 31 1/2 inch blade a 20 1/2-inch hilt, not only giving him enough grip to leverage the blade but also allowing the blade to function just as well with polearm techniques as it would sword techniques. Versatile, with a blade smaller than James' nodachi for better use in close quarters.
The mixture of yakiba-tsuchi, or tempering clay, that Hidemitsu used to temper the edge of the blade was made special for this task. He combined the elemental affinity of the powdered red stone with the special high-quality charcoal that James had provided, as well as other ingredients he used in his special blend. It was necessary in order to allow the Soshu school's high-temperature tempering techniques to function with the resilience of Dwarven steel. He patterned the tempering clay in a somewhat unique pattern, combining a wavy choji midare with a steep, pointed gunome with a few hints of tobiyaki, tempering spots that jump off the pattern. The end result was a flame-like hamon that fit the nature of the blade just as much as the nature of its user.
Hidemitsu remembered the hiss of the waters as he quenched the blade. Such a loud, piping noise as the room filled with steam. By the time it had cleared, he had noticed that all of the water in his quenching tub had evaporated. At first he had dreaded making some mistake, yet the blade seemed to be in good shape. In fact, it was still hot. Hidemitsu had to refill the quenching tub two more times before the blade could be fully quenched, and by the time he began polishing the blade, Hidemitsu finally saw how much this adventurous undertaking of his had paid off.
With the blade completed, Hidemitsu had then went about assembling the mountings for the blade. Surely a weapon that was so attuned to fire would need a hilt that could hold its own as well. Rather than using a cloth tsuka-ito and white ray skin like he would for normal blades, Hidemitsu had purchased leather procured from the fire beasts that roamed the elemental plane of fire. The red hide of the hellboar and blackened skin or the magma ray would do the trick nicely. It was yet another benefit of living in Sigil, where such fantastic materials were easily found with enough browsing through the Market Ward.
It was one of Hidemitsu's finest works, one that would bear his name proudly as Eredas used it against the terrible creatures that daemonhunters of his ilk faced. It was a blade born and tempered in raging flame much like its soon-to-be wielder, and as such had wholly earned its most fitting name.
The Rekka Hidemitsu.
Tachi/Wodao, Rekka Hidemitsu
This weapon was originally a tachi-type sword, crafted with a gentle koshi-zori shape, where the curvature of the blade was deepest towards the hilt. The weapon possesses a 31 1/2 inch long blade and a 20 1/2 inch hilt, allowing greater range of grip to leverage the blade, and also allowing James to perform polearm techniques as well as sword techniques. For the length of the hilt alone, it may also be classified as a wodao, the two types of swords being practically the same across different civilizations.
Forged from both dwarven steel and tamahagane by the master smith Hidemitsu, the weapon was created attuned to flame with the use of fire stones, and features a flame-like hamon, or pattern on its blade, appropriate for both the nature of the sword and that of its wielder.
The masterpiece weapon was fitted with a sheath and hilt created from the hide of the hellboar, and the blackened leather-like skin of the magma ray, fantastic creatures from the plane of fire.
In combat, the Rekka Hidemitsu acts differently from James's other swords. While James could charge all of his weapons with his sacred flame, the Hidemitsu seems to retain that fire, and amplify it naturally. As a result, James is unable to perform any of his usual flame sword techniques as easily, but one particular technique is enhanced beyond reckoning.
Kakkato Chigatana - Bloody Hot Blade
The sacred flame channeled through stays with the blade, becoming like a laser in its intensity, allowing James to cut through materials that normally could not be cut even with a stroke from another sword carrying the same technique.
