[Giants] Weapon - Cindercrown Edict (Patreon)

Written in Giant along this weapon's haft is the following: "The Firewrought Empire is unyielding. All are laid bare before the ever-ashen Cinder Queen Izara. Long may she reign."

———

Cindercrown Edict

Weapon (Light Hammer), Very Rare (Requires Attunement)

You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. It has the following properties.

Forge's Guide. You have proficiency with Smith's Tools.

Runic Order. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you choose up to three allies and carve a faint glowing rune onto their equipment. As a Bonus Action, you can issue a command to one ally within 30 feet of you that has this rune and can hear you. That ally can immediately take their Reaction to invoke their rune and either move up to their Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks or make one weapon attack. If the ally chooses to attack and hits, they deal an extra 1d8 Fire damage. A rune vanishes when invoked or when you finish a Long Rest.

Firewrought Law. When you hit a creature with this weapon, you can cast Command on it, magically branding it with a blazing rune (no action required). The creature automatically fails this spell's saving throw, but it may choose to take 3d8 Fire damage instead of following your issued command. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.

—

Giants Wake. This weapon gains the following improvements while your size is larger than Medium:

Large. The range of the Runic Order property becomes 60 feet and the damage of the Firewrought Law property becomes 4d8.

Huge or Gargantuan. The range of the Runic Order property becomes 120 feet and the damage of the Firewrought Law property becomes 5d8.

———

DESIGN COMMENTARY

This weapon is the signature item of the Fire Giants, so it's thematically designed around smithing, branding, and runecarving. The lore for fire giants in this universe, briefly touched on in the description, is that they're led by an Empress/Cinder Queen in a highly martial and artisanal society. It's a very common trope for fire giants or fire societies, which I kept mainly because I didn't want to deviate too far from "official" law so that this weapon is more setting-agnostic.

Power-wise, its +2 weapon stats starts and brings it up to the Rare, No Attunement. The Runic Order property generally equates to three extra attacks (roughly equal to ~33 damage per day), with a small bonus to the attack, bringing it up to Very Rare. The Firewrought Law property can be boiled down to an extra 3d8 damage, bringing it up to Very Rare, Attunement. Of note, Firewrought Law is a unique and fun property with lots of potential uses, but have enough wiggle room for GMs to shut down if the command is unreasonable. Cool!

Visually, the weapon is a simple smithing hammer. The runic design for my Fire Giants draw on East Asian logography (though the runes themselves are not real characters—sort of). The hammer head makes use of kintsugi, which is visually appropriate to the runes though not technically appropriate to its function. The filigree above the grip also draws from those cultural influences. Finally, the flames add dynamism and a red palette to balance the yellows and blues.