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again-and-then · 12 days ago

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A Breakdown of Angelic Weapons

Because Vivzie hasn't made and likely won't make a concrete magic system and I read too many high fantasy books. My personal thoughts and headcanons about Angelic weapons, written mostly for my own fanfiction: Pride, Envy, Wrath, but anyone can use the ideas.

Angelic weapons are the primary tools of Heaven's armies and are valued due to the following properties:

the ability to rend the souls of immortal beings (passed on mortal souls such and Winners or Sinners, Demons and Angels) and bring about final death**

The ability to bypass most basic forms of magical defenses such as the invulnerability that Exorcists normally possess against attacks from Sinners.

The fact that any wound left by an angelic blade takes significantly longer to heal, even for beings with advanced regenerative abilities.

The abilities of angelic weapons come from the fact that wherever they cut the body, the weapon leaves an equivalent wound on the soul and causes damage far greater than mere flesh wounds. This is also believed to be the reason that such wounds leave scars that take years or decades to fade even on creatures with naturally potent Regeneration.

**While these weapons seem to deal final death to angels and demons, it seems that the natural willpower of human souls allows them to partially persist after ‘final death’. However, only fragments of the soul remain with little to no consciousness behind it. It is believed these broken souls have infused into the rings of Hell and are the cause of the many watching eyes seen throughout Hell. There is currently no known way for a soul to be restored after this fate.

How are these effects achieved: The ability to damage a living soul directly is due to the weapon being infused with holy energy at the time of its forging, this being drawn from the ambient energy given off an Angel's soul. Being infused with the nature of a soul at creation effectively allows it to become a weaponized extension of the soul to its user.

Drawbacks of Angelic Weaponry: While angelic weapons are typically superior to conventional weaponry in most respects, there are some slight drawbacks to their use:

They are not indestructible. Many people who get their hands on an angelic blade think they have found an unbreakable super weapon and become overconfident, leading to their own demise. While more durable, even the finest blessed steel will dull and lose its edge after extended use, needing to be sharpened and maintained like any other weapon.

This is the reason Exorcists drop weapons during exterminations, as the weapon tends to start losing its edge after a few dozen kills and becomes little more than a blunt instrument. Adam, being lazy, reasoned that carrying damaged weapons back to heaven would be dead weight, thus it would be better to leave them behind so Sinners can use them to kill each other… This logic backfired.

Due to the nature of the weapon, it draws a very small amount of energy from the user’s soul over the period of its use in combat. Very small, but notable. A person fighting with an angelic blade might exhaust themselves 3-5% faster than a person fighting with a mundane sword of the same design. This can vary due to the innate power of a person’s soul. For more powerful individuals such as Overlords and higher order Angels and Demons this drain is so small as to be negligible.

Availability and cost. While these weapons are easy to make and stockpile in Heaven, they are not so easy to procure in Hell and virtually unheard of in the mortal realm (it is theorized that legendary weapons of myth were merely angelic weapons that somehow made their way to mortal hands.) There are no ways for demons to make their own and the infernal magic given off by demon souls cannot recreate the soul rending effects of holy magic. Even with the supply to be found after Exterminations, Carmilla Carmine has cornered the market on the gathering and selling of holy arms which she tends to keep at prohibitively expensive prices.

Melee vs Ranged Weaponry:

The majority of angelic weapons to be found will be melee weapons simply due to the fact that they are easier to produce and the simple fact that they are the preferred tools of the Exorcist army. Exterminations have long been seen as an entertaining sport by the Exorcists and flying down to stab people is generally more fun than picking them off at range.

Ranged angelic weapons can exist and are used frequently but they have additional drawbacks. Primarily, the fact that for bows and guns both the ammunition and the items themselves need to be made using angelic steel. The reasons are unclear, but trying to pair angelic and mundane items tends to backfire. For example, an angelic arrow being strung on a mundane bow might cause the string to snap or an angelic gun trying to fire mundane bullets will misfire. This tends to press their use heavily against the previously discussed cost and availability drawback. While Exorcists can afford to waste a bunch of arrows, even Overlords wouldn’t dare waste holy bullets.

The topic of ‘Power’:

Not all angelic weapons are created equal and in the next section we will discuss the variations of their make and how each type varies in power. Before we do, one should clarify what ‘power’ means in this context, as it can be a nebulous concept without context. While the standard issue angelic weapon is only marginally sharper and more durable than mundane steel aside, more magically infused variants manifest further benefits. Primarily, increases in power result in greater strike force, penetrative ability vs both mundane and magical protections, and greater damage to the soul. To visualize that last point, imagine an angelic blade cutting a person and therefore their soul as a sharp knife cutting into a sheet of fabric. Now, to visualize a more powerful angelic weapon cutting into the soul, think of the effects on the fabric if the blade had been heated until it was glowing red. Greater heat will burn the fabric and cause far more damage than the mere cut itself.

Types of Angelic weapons: The varieties of Angelic weapons can be most easily broken down by their method of creation and the material being used. The most common varieties are the following:

Blessed Steel: the most common variation one may encounter and the primary tool of the Exorcist army. Made using an alloy of Steel and Silver that requires holy magic to create. Their appearance is usually Silver or white with a soft glow and generally feels cold to the touch. These are to be considered the most basic, standard weapons.

Holy Aurum: a much rarer variation made from an alloy of Silver, Steel, and Gold. Aurum angelic weapons are much more magically dense and offer both greater power and lower energy drain, being generally superior to Blessed Steel in all categories. Unfortunately, the process required to create and infuse the alloy is far longer and more taxing, thus Aurum weapons are generally only made on rare occasions to denote positions of authority, such as Lute’s sword. It is incredibly rare that any of these make it into Hell and royal Demon houses will typically trade fortunes in order to secure them as status symbols. They have a fully gold appearance, a brighter glow, and are often described as giving off a slight warmth.

Carmine Pattern: The Overlord Carmilla Carmine has found a rather unique method of melting down holy weapons and reforging them into improved versions. They can be identified by the glowing silvery patterns that cover their surface, which while this seems to be decorative, the designs serve an important function. The glowing designs help to circulate holy energy throughout the weapon more effectively, increasing the natural power of the weapon by a small degree. They are unfortunately not as effective as Aurum weapons but a noted improvement over standard blessed steel. Carmine also seems to be able to imbue the holy metal into many varieties of objects to create unique weapons such as Husk's playing cards or her own Angelic ballet shoes.

Relic Weapons: Do note that this is pure fanfiction territory, more so than anything else so far which is more or less canon+creative license but Relic Weapons are a concept I created for my own story that you can use in your own writing if you feel inspired.

Relic weapons are the ultimate form of angelic weaponry, greater than all other variations by orders of magnitude. The difference between a standard angelic weapon and an angelic relic is the difference between a butter knife and a high powered chainsaw. The name was given to them due to the fact that the majority of relic weapons were made thousands of years ago, used in the war started by Lucifer’s Fall (if there was an angelic rebellion in you fic, if not then they are just fucking old). Relic weapons are vanishingly rare, likely only held by the Archangels and possibly Lucifer and the other Sins, with any others being locked away tightly in the deepest parts of Heaven’s armory, but its possible that a handful of others could be floating around. All Angelic relics are made of Holy Aurum, though their creation takes far longer, much more magic and very specific rituals. The resulting weapons are not only far more powerful, but manifest several unique features:

Relic weapons form a unique bond with their user that allows the wielder to summon and dismiss the weapon at will, recall it from any distance, and sense the direction of the weapon if it has been separated from them. Due to the ability to recall the weapon at will, they are virtually impossible to steal. The only way to break someone’s bond to an angelic relic is to kill them or through very long rituals where the user must willingly part with the weapon.

Near weightlessness. Angelic relics, when held by their bonded user, weigh next to nothing, making them very easy to use. Even massive and impractical weapons are as light as any dagger. When touched by someone not bonded to them, they become as heavy as a normal weapon of their size if not slightly denser.

External force generation. The bond allows the user to tap into their own soul and draw energy that the weapon can amplify massively and direct outwards. A relic bow might be able to create arrows of pure light, or a blade will be able to make sweeping arcs of holy energy as it is cut through the air. Doing this does tend to be rather draining, especially if the user is not already blessed with a powerful soul such as an Overlord, Royal Demon, or High Ranking Angel and can result in exhaustion if not used carefully.

Enchantments. Relic weapons can be inscribed with enchantments during their creation that allow for additional abilities or even the ability to recreate magical spells. An example of this would be Adam’s guitar which has the ability to alter its form (changing from a guitar to an axe) and its size at the will of the user.

It should be noted that Angelic relics also possess an additional property that is much harder to understand. While the weapons are not sentient, they do tend to possess a kind of… will. Its not as if the weapon will fly off and do its own thing or talk to you, but Relics do have a habit of subtly acting in ways that no normal weapon should. This can manifest in the surface temperature of the weapon seeming to change in response to its bonded user’s emotions or attempts to bond with the weapon failing seemingly because the weapon ‘rejects’ the person. Sometimes a relic can even cause rituals to break the bond to fail. In extremely rare cases, if the user tries to use the weapon in a way that is extremely antithetical to the purpose of the relic’s creation, then it can become as heavy as lead and practically unmovable but this is probably about the most extreme example of the weapon’s will and almost never happens.

…

And… yeah, that's my thoughts on Holy Weapons. Did I need to do this? No. not even a little. Use the ideas or don’t, rewrite everything if you feel like it, I’m not your dad.

#pew au #pride envy wrath #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel fanfic #Hazbin hotel headcanon #hazbin hotel theory #the author rambles #hazbin hotel thoughts #angelic weapons #I was possessed to write this

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