Fantasy Chainsaws

 Bit of a weird project, but if you ever want to include some form of chainsaw in your fantasy games, at least one of these should fit the tone. Maybe that's just me! If you're doing full gonzo, go ahead and roll that wonderful d20.

1. Lotus Petal Saw

Softly shining, pink petals spin along an ornamented bar, conjured by a Blades of the Endless Wheel mantra.

Exactly this, by me

2. Thornwheel Blade

A great enchanted rose bush, grown by fairies to have a rotary thorned stem.

3. Jaguar Claw Macuahuitl

Empowered by a jaguar spirit, its many obsidian blades command incredible cutting power even when swung like a normal sword.

4. Necrospinner

A spinning weapon of animated bone, using fangs and teeth along the whirling edge.

5. Meatcutter

So named for cutting meat as well as itself being meat. The blade is comprised of sharp, hardened claws, and it spews its own blood when spinning.

6. Crystal Prismus

Enchanted weapon of polished stone and gems. Each tooth is a different kind of gem, and they can create a glinting rainbow of slicing power.

7. Brimstone Spinblade

Spewing hellfire when it spins, the heat of its flames can burn through steel as well as any warhammer punches through.

8. Starlight Spinner

An elven weapon of silver, hammered as fine as eggshells, with a radiant blade that captures the light of the stars.

9. Slimesaw

Somehow when spinning, the goopy edge of this blade cuts much faster than the slime can normally corrode.

10. Classical Sparksaw

Ancient spinning blade crafted of olive wood and bronze, spits blue sparks as it spins. Made by a brilliant inventor centuries ago.

Ancient Bladesaw, from Zelda

 

11. Trimerian Sawbeetle

The curious horns of this giant beetle can spin to cut through wood or, presumably other Trimerian creatures. They are carefully bound to be used as tools.

12. Winding Sharp-Frost

 Unnaturally hardened frost, spinning and cutting with a fractal edge.

13. Whipsaw

A bladed whip that can be activated to coil in an elongated shape, spinning to cut more effectively, in exchange for shorter reach.

14. Terracotta Blade

A living clay weapon that spins with razor sharp clay shards along a lengthened edge.

15. Runic Stormblade

Constructed of tin and pewter, by wizards. The runes etched into its surface conjure the vortex of a storm into its crackling, whirling edge of deep indigo lightning.

16. Gilded Relic Blade

Built of marble set with gold and finely cut gems, this spinning blade contains a warrior-saint's fighting hand bones, and radiates with divine cutting light.

17. Trimerian Wasps

Angry insects that have been specially bred and trained to fly in a long, rounded formation and devour anything they touch. This was the only formation in which they wouldn't turn back and attack whoever holds their hive.

Lasersaw, by Andrea Sibilla

18. Jade Dragon's Fang

Gifted by a divine being from an unearthly realm, it is surprisingly easy to carry.

19. Spectre's Wrath

 As ghostly mist whirls and spins, the hatred of the dead calls out in a hollow wail.

20. Splitting Organistrum

The powerful tune of this slow instrument projects a small aura of cutting sound near its neck when played properly.

Many of these were inspired with help from Gal Paladin on Discord!

On the nature of things: what they are and why

Stone is the basic form of existence. It is hardy, colorless, and heavy, generally unmoving when left to its own devices. Color is what turns stone into other things, granting it growth, motion, reaction and other things, often at the cost of its immutability. The four colors infused purely into stone cause it to become either natural fire (orange), ice which melts into water (green), lightning (indigo), or oil (yellow). The art of sorcery is generally the manipulation of these colors, not necessarily the elements themselves, and often the more purely distilled the color is the harder it becomes to truly control. Lightning is an exception here, as its indigo power is rarely ever diluted and so there is much knowledge on manipulating it in that purest form.

Material studies by Torsten Gunst

Dread illusionists, the arcane deceivers, manipulate the image without touching the material at its core, controlling the color without the 'stone' as it were. This power is profane and can only lead to ruin.

Where color determines the properties of a substance, spirit is the form of it. Most materials have no spirit, and can thus be reshaped freely without losing their properties (it has been discovered that almost everything does in fact have a spirit, though it is usually quite rudimentary. The spirit of crystal, for instance, may be that it persists only in hexagonal patterns, an extremely simple spiritual form). Plants have slightly more defined spirits, and animals even moreso. Most animal species share a spirit with their kin, including humans, though the soul has a strong tendency to impact the spiritual form.

A soul is simply a more advanced, particular extension of the spirit, which is so developed only in humans and other thinking beings. Because of the unique and advanced ways it can develope, generally no two souls are alike, and this can have an impact upon the prospective spirits, often turning a human spirit into that person's spirit, a subtle but important distinction for those who practice shifting arts. It may be noted that animals cannot be cursed, and this is a simple product of their having no soul; a curse is a wound upon the soul, as much as any cut or bruise upon the flesh. Minor curses can be healed with mild bed rest, as they are shallow cuts and scrapes on the soul. Deeper, more powerful curses require careful, lengthy processes of healing. The holy powers of saints utilize this process, pulling spiritual energy into their soul and tearing away bits of it in order to grant that energy to their allies, and more experienced saints can even learn to utilize these rends in their soul offensively, attacking the souls or even the flesh of enemies.

The summoning sisters by Antoine Collignon

Much study has been done with regards to silver and the functions of undeath. It is clear that the undead are similar to the living afflicted with a curse, as can be seen with vampires, who were long considered undead despite often suffering no death between humanity and monstrousness. It is now consensus that undead are given malformed souls that eat away their spirit, granting something that is almost life but often far more finite. On the other hand, many cases of immortality are reached through undeath, perhaps with souls that are reinforced using parts of the spirit, malforming the body but keeping the mind alive indefinitely? Regardless this is perverse and unnatural, and no further writing should be done upon the subject.

Similar to undead, artificial souls are created when a golem is animated. Imprinting the holy word upon a tool forms a unique embossing of the creator's soul upon the spirit of the tool, which must have originally been crafted with intent. Naturally occurring objects can be used as tools physically, but they have no spirit for it and reject the artificial soul. Because of this, some claim that golemology is a darker, more unnatural art than necromancy, and will one day destroy us all! This is preposterous, golems are quite useful and docile, and have never destroyed anyone when used properly. It is possible that a fusion of necromantic and golemary arts could yield a living golem, capable of creating more of its kind... but this strays too far from the known and established.

Household Golems by Ben Wanat

Of course these findings are irrefutably true and thoroughly proven through rigorous testing. Any wishing to dispute or disprove this work may find their way best to a tavern, where they shall engage in discourse with any drink of their choosing.