An Otataral sword was the designated weapon carried by the Empress' Imperial Adjunct which enabled the bearer to negate sorcery. Its blade had a rusty red appearance due to its Otataral core.[1] The characteristics of Otataral were well known in Seven Cities but less so elsewhere.[2]
Such swords were often kept in scabbards made of iron and bronze to neutralise their effects until the blade was drawn.[3]
In Gardens of the Moon[]
Lorn, as Adjunct, carried an Otataral longsword. Possibly the sword itself or her long association with it gave her the ability to know the patterns of sorcery and the pattern of the minds that used it.[4][5]
When Lorn was carrying the Finnest of the Jaghut Tyrant Raest, the sword deadened its aura though not completely which is why Tool advised her not to carry it for too long.[6]
Captain Ganoes Paran, who was present when Lorn died, collected her Otataral sword. He told Oponn that the blade would not be used to do their dirty work.[7]
Paran thought that it was possibly that his heightened sensitivity to magic was due to wearing the otataral blade[8]
In House of Chains[]
Lorn's successor as Imperial Adjunct, Tavore Paran, also carried an Otataral sword, scabbarded at her belt, as sign of her office and imperial title.[9] She kept the sword in a long stone box sealed with wax at times, to stop its characteristics interfering, for example with messengers expected to arrive by Warren.[10] Tavore drew the sword to disperse the whirlwind preventing her 14th Army from entering Raraku.[11]
In The Bonehunters[]
Paran was still carrying the sword he took off Lorn, albeit reluctantly. He told the Jaghut Ganath that he mostly kept it buried by the back wall of Coll's estate in Darujhistan. He eventually gave it to the mage Karpolan Demesand of the Trygalle Trade Guild as payment for services rendered. As had been agreed with Paran, the sword was then broken up, achieved by one of the shareholders pounding it with a mace, after which Paran collected a piece of the shards about the length of his index finger and not much wider.[12][13] Paran later used the shard to impale the hand of the goddess Poliel so she was pinned to the world and unable to escape from the Deragoth.[14]
During Tavore's retreat from Malaz City, her Otataral blade meant that the Claw could not employ the usual sorcery in their ambushes against her.[15]
In The Crippled God[]
Sinn was unable to reach the Adjunct with her mind due to the Otataral sword acting as a barrier.[16]
The Shield Anvil of the Perish Grey Helms, Tanakalian, omitted to mention to the Forkrul Assail that the commander of a force approaching through the Glass Desert was wielding an Otataral sword. As the sword prevented the Forkrul Assail from sensing anything, they had been totally unaware of the possibility even of someone approaching from that direction until Tanakalian mentioned them in passing.[17]
At the barrow, where the Bonehunter marines and heavies were about to make their last stand, Fiddler observed that Tavore's sword seemed to be 'awake' and Banaschar whispered that it 'shall summon'. Tavore then plunged her sword into the ground.[18]
Author comments[]
When asked what an otataral sword looked like, Steven Erikson said he saw "them as pretty plain, like the narrower examples of Norse swords. Nothing fancy."[19]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.276
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.277
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 10
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 1, UK MMPB p.28
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.270/271
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 18, UK MMPB p.554
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 23, UK MMPB p.679
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Epilogue, UK MMPB p.701
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 5, UK MMPB p.279
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 11, UK MMPB p.499
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.720
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 10, UK MMPB p.528
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, UK MMPB p.622/623
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 15
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 23, UK MMPB p.1108
- ↑ The Crippled God, Chapter 3, UK HB p.72
- ↑ The Crippled God, Chapter 21, UK HB p.649
- ↑ The Crippled God, Chapter 24, UK HB p.792
- ↑ Reddit Ask Me Anything session July 2022