Raven's Talon (Conaxa u Ranu)
The Raven (í Ranu) was the protagonist of a series of novels published in Borea around the 2200s in the 4th era. The books themselves never enjoyed great popularity due to the controversial topic of a woman running away from home to avoid getting married off. At the time, women had little to no rights in Borea, which is why the protagonist shrouded herself in a cloak and mask, hiding her true identity while living the life of an outlaw.
Few people know that these novels were based in part on a true story which lead to the founding of the Sisters of the Red Shroud, an order of women defying the laws of men, from which the all-female mercenary organizations known as Sisters of the Sword and Daughters of Steel were eventually formed.
The Raven was known to wield an unusual sword forged specifically for her. While it is unknown how the sword actually looked, this is how the books describe it: a single-edged sword with a 60 centimeters long blade forged from pattern-welded steel and a flare towards the tip. The guard is reminescent if a bird, one wing pointing forward, the other back, displaying the triskel on both sides. The grip is made from charred, blackened wood with a pommel shaped like a raven's head. The latter was an especially difficult feat as at the time there was no furnace in Borea that was able to actually melt steel. As such, steel could only be forged, not cast.
"Crafting both, the guard and the pommel, should leave poor Berno of Rífrénagox with nightmares for years to come. His craft's tradition of blackforging would not allow the use of any metal other than steel to be made into a weapon, lest he would invite the curse of brittleness. Such was the belief among his people. Yet, how would one work steel, a metal that could not be cast, into such delicate forms? Surely, even the sorcerer craftsmen at the Academy of Sorcery in Septentris would struggle to achieve such a feat."
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I made this for Skallagrim's first weapon design contest a while back but, for some reason, never posted it. The design didn't even make it to the honorable mentions and I was never really satisfied with it. Now I decided to adjust it a bit and finally post it.
I tried to do a pattern-welded... pattern again. I think it looks better than last time. Material works better this time, doesn't look as paper-y. The narrow clean stripe at the edge also makes a lot of difference.
The original had flat areas at the sides of the blade with a fuller and an inscription. I removed those. The blade now has a triangular cross section. Looks cleaner and probably cuts better, too.
This is the only render I have of the original version. As you can see, I removed one segment of the guard. It was too massive and thus would have certainly been too heavy.
The blade went through various iterations before the final design.