That Sword in the Skull

There’s something special to gear that have a story of their own to tell – weapons especially so, and to my knowledge few weapon types have as many personal stories revolve around them as swords. From Excalibur to the Star Wars Lightsabers, there’s just something about swords that seems to captivate to the point where they seem to be almost made of the stuff of legends.

While Hani Foonmall wields a very plain-looking sword – I always thought of it as whatever Hani managed to get her hands on with proper weight, balance and the ability to hold an edge; with Nhani Moonfall I’ve long experimented around with various moon-adorned or otherwise special swords because it better suits her. Hani is plain and unassuming, Nhani is a bloody icon. She has a radiance to her, part of that is making her look the part.

So when I first came across someone swinging Quel’delar, my reaction could very well be described as “..want.”

Not counting the two something weeks it took me to gather the 17 thousand or so I paid for the hilt, the resulting quest line was interesting and held as much mundane as it held epic. Not to spoil too much for what few people there might be that are still waiting to see it first hand.. seeing the isle of Quel’danas being in the progress of being restored post Burning Crusade was a very unusual sight, and I almost felt sorry about not getting to see it like that again. I understand why Blizzard doesn’t want to cut people off from content, but it was good to see an epilogue of sorts in atleast one matter – see a situation where raids don’t just continue infinitely but a situation where things actually do die and the world actually can move on.

Of course, there was the quest itself, and doing it as a Night elf – an emissary of the Temple at that – felt like I was taking the first stumbling steps to reforge more than merely a sword.

Of course, the story doesn’t quite end there and this post is actually just a tad late as I obtained the sword as early as almost a month ago. The funny thing was.. I spent a whole lot of time thinking about which version of the sword I actually wanted; none of them were itemized for tanking, so for a long time I had my eyes set on one of the two-hander versions, notably the Might of the Faithful (strength/haste) one. A friend of mine kept making a strong argument for why I should pick the one-hander, but I figured I was already set for that with how threat wasn’t an issue, tanking weapons kept me more durable and I hated the look of the two-hand axe I had for my secondary Arms spec.

So I got the sword, enchanted it, and.. was immediately greeted by a sensation that it wasn’t… well.. right. I’d spent the whole quest feeling that the moment I’d put on the sword it’d immediately fit into the whole look, so it took me completely by surprise when it didn’t. It found myself with an overpowering feeilng that I should’ve picked the one-hander. I’m not entirely sure why – possibly how the quest text exclaimed the sword molds itself around the strengths of the wielder, or how my mental image of Nhani has become so firmly attached to the tank concept that I couldn’t picture her primary look withuot a shield.. For whatever reason, when the feeling hadn’t gone away when I woke up the next morning, I made a ticket, humbly asking for it swapped.

A day later, Might of the Faithful was gone, and I had Cunning of the Shadows in my mailbox. Much love to the Blizzard GM team.

What really struck me was how I noticed the difference right off. Conventional wisdom – as far as I know – says that warriors should use fast one-handers when tanking to burn rage through heroic strike and cleave faster. In what I can only describe as a defiant streak, Quel’delar seemed determined to tell conventional wisdom where to stick it and suddenly handed me the ability to overpower the threat output of my Yelnenu Death Knight co-tank. I had an absolute blast the first raid night after obtaining Quel’delar, because I went from very much backup tank to being able to take and hold the lead. Though perhaps not the most cooperative approach, it was definitely empowering.

I absolutely love this sword to bits, now. While there are a whole lot of people running around with a whole lot of Quel’delars, this one is her sword – no one else can wield it ’til her passing. Moreover, it feels like I’m actually capable of doing some level of damage with it, and occasionally my Death Knight co-tank will exclaim things such as how whenever she sees warrior tanks complain about lack of area threat in the future she’ll just tell them to get a slow weapon. It looks iconic, it feels powerful and has a certain elven feel to it, while looking a whole lot more stylish and nimble than the Quel’serrar.

Of course, for a minor nitpick, I sometimes do boggle at the name. It’s consistently refered to as “The Sister Blade”, and yet the name doesn’t seem to fit that. Quel’serrar is called “The High Blade”, and we know the Quel’ prefix from the Quel’dorei – the Highborne. That said, we have seen the ‘delar suffix before – Lok’delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers, and Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers. So what does that make Quel’delar? The High of the Ancient Keepers?

I know I’m just nitpicking, of course, nevermind overanalyzing something that Blizzard likely just picked because it sounded good. On the other hand, sometimes I can’t help but wonder if they aren’t simply tripping over their own lore, much like with the Draenei.