Christopher R Taylor Posted March 17, 2017 Report Share Posted March 17, 2017 Someone on Reddit did a pretty cool analysis of taking the iron from the blood of one's enemies and forging a blade from it. The average man has 4 grams of iron in his blood. http://www.irondisorders.org/how-much-iron-is-in-the-body/ According to Wikipedia, the average British longsword was between 1.1 and 1.8 kg. We'll use 1.45, the median value. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longsword Also according to Wikipedia, the carbon content of steel is anywhere between .002% and 2.1%. Averaged, the carbon percentage of steel is 1.051%, though I doubt the percentage was anything approaching consistent (if anyone has better numbers for that please share). http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel So 1.45kg - (1.45kg * 1.051%) = 1.4347605kg of iron in the average longsword. At .004kg of iron in the average man, and assuming complete iron extraction from each corpse, forging a sword from blood-iron would have taken 358.69, or 359 dead men (far fewer than I expected, frankly). TL;DR: at 359 humans, it's one damn expensive sword to make. Which makes me thing of an entire run of Soul Blades a fantasy campaign could have. Forge the blade from the iron, quench it in the blood, burn bones to make steel, etc. The process bonds souls to the blade and allows the wielder to draw on their experiences and skills... at a cost. The blade also takes on some of their will and personality, which is hostile to the wielder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted March 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2017 Dang I thought this would spark interesting discussion :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanis Frey Posted March 23, 2017 Report Share Posted March 23, 2017 In the Far East, swordsmiths sometimes made ancestoral steel. They ground human bone to add into iron to produce steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted March 23, 2017 Report Share Posted March 23, 2017 I'm still Unstunning. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard Posted March 28, 2017 Report Share Posted March 28, 2017 Someone on Reddit did a pretty cool analysis of taking the iron from the blood of one's enemies and forging a blade from it. Which makes me thing of an entire run of Soul Blades a fantasy campaign could have. Forge the blade from the iron, quench it in the blood, burn bones to make steel, etc. The process bonds souls to the blade and allows the wielder to draw on their experiences and skills... at a cost. The blade also takes on some of their will and personality, which is hostile to the wielder. Sounds like some of the swords in the Sword-Dancer (by Jennifer Roberson) series. Good read by the way. At least they were several years ago. Haven't re-read them in a bit . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted March 28, 2017 Report Share Posted March 28, 2017 359 humans? Damn, I'd better get started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted March 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2017 I figured it would be a lot more people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 It might be. I don't think it'd be easy to fully drain a people. There will be some left in the container no matter what you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted April 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 Yeah and its not easy to full extract all iron, so maybe 50% more just to make up for that. Unless you use magic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knasser2 Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 This assumes that you manage to efficiently collect the blood. If we're talking battlefield enemies, you'll need many times that. So instead, I'm picturing vast arrays of sacrificial victims strung up with their throats slit to drain into long stone troughs. Imagine the PCs arriving into that chamber just as the Blood Sword has been forged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted April 1, 2017 Report Share Posted April 1, 2017 I think there's so much bound up in tissues other than blood that you'd want to use some kind of magical means to extract the iron. Myoglobin, for example, won't account for a trivial proportion of the iron in a body; less than the iron in haemoglobin, probably, but of a similar magnitude... And it's really hard even to get all the blood out by mundane methods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knasser2 Posted April 2, 2017 Report Share Posted April 2, 2017 I think there's so much bound up in tissues other than blood that you'd want to use some kind of magical means to extract the iron. Myoglobin, for example, won't account for a trivial proportion of the iron in a body; less than the iron in haemoglobin, probably, but of a similar magnitude... And it's really hard even to get all the blood out by mundane methods. Unless of course, you're Sir Ian McKellan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kesedrith Posted April 4, 2017 Report Share Posted April 4, 2017 I like the idea that such a sword would be desired by necromancers, as the true power would be that you could summon, and bind, the souls of the blood that went into its forging. Maybe I'm just sick and twisted in the head though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanis Frey Posted April 6, 2017 Report Share Posted April 6, 2017 I could see an Aztec like culture gathering the blood from the sacrifices to make iron weapons from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted April 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Maybe a people who have no natural iron resources in the ground... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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