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Magical Weapon

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Humans have been using weapons since before we even became Homo sapiens, and as such they are deeply ingrained into culture and mythology. However, while many have been very effective, few real-world weapons would allow someone to take on an entire army by themselves, slay a monster the size of a skyscraper, or banish a demon from this world forever. To do that, you would need powerful magic or a far more powerful weapon. Or, you could have them both in one convenient package. A Magical Weapon (sometimes called an enchanted weapon) is a weapon that has magical properties, which usually fall into the two basic categories of doing something unusual, or doing normal things really well, though obviously these can coexist.

Being Older Than Dirtnote  and nigh-Omnipresent in Fantasy and Mythology, there are many possible properties of these weapons, many qualifying as tropes on their own. Common properties and subtropes include:

    open/close all folders 

     Having a mind/morality of its own 

     Having elemental/holy/unholy powers  

     Being summoned or created instantly 

     Having special properties under certain conditions or against certain targets 

     Being a really good normal weapon 

     Cutting things that can't normally be cut 

     Protecting its wielder 

     Affecting/channeling the powers of the wielder 

     Being highly adaptable 

     Other miscellaneous effects include 

     They are often made of something unusual 

     Common Origins include 

     They sometimes but not always require a power source, such as 

     These weapons will also likely be 

Sister Trope to Enhanced Archaic Weapon, an old weapon enhanced with new technology, though they can overlap if the magic is newer than the original weapon. May involve Magic by Any Other Name, especially in non-fantasy Video Games that still want the player to have interesting weapons.

Note: As there are many subtropes, examples should either not fit neatly into just one of them, or be a general overview of enchanted weapons in a work.

Examples

    open/close all folders 

     Anime and Manga 
  • Outlaw Star: "Caster" is a term that refers to a user of mana. In antique times of the series timeline, there were magic users as well as special weapons created to shoot magic as if it were bullets (called "Caster shells") that were able to nullify, block and even destroy other magic. In the actual era, these weapons are considered antique and scarce, being few people in the universe who still keep or use them. Gene Starwind and one of the MacDougall brothers are the only characters who wield them, with Gene using his Caster Gun effectively against the Tao Magic of the Kei Pirate Guild.
  • Gokudō: Gokudo is an Anti-Hero adventurer who's all but heroic, but then found a djinn who helps him to get a magical sword that throws fire as a beam and comes back to him if it disappears, since the sword makes a bond to him.

    Card Games 
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Equip spell cards are magic cards which often take the form of weapons such as swords, axes and guns. They usually serve as attack and defense point boosters but can also have other more useful effects such as allowing a monster to attack more than once, preventing them from being destroyed, or changing control of the equipped monster.

     Comic Books 
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Diana's iconic Lasso of Truth is a mystical weapon with the ability to compel people to tell the truth. It can also extend in length, dispel illusions and undo mind control.
    • The Wonder Girls, Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark, also have magic lassos of their own. Donna's can mind control people while Cassie's summon lightning.
    • In Red Hood and the Outlaws, Artemis acquires the Bow of Ra, a magical bow created by the god Ra as a gift to the champion of the Bana-Mighdall Amazons.
    • Other magical weapons wielded by the Wonder family include Diana's Hephaestus Sword which can shave atoms, the Gauntlet of Atlas which can increase a user's strength tenfold and Artemis's massive axe of divine nature called Mistress.

     Fan Works 
  • Metro: Commentary on a stab wound in the first part:
    "I can't see that the epigenetic reactivation, or 'induced burnout' as you called it, helped make the situation much better. I do accept that the treatment may have lowered the risk from whatever toxins or enchantments that could have been on the blade... but still, here we are."

     Films — Live-Action 
  • Hellboy (2004):
    • The Spear of Longinus is said to make its wielder invincible, and to have caused Hitler's power to grow tenfold when he acquired it during his rise to power.
    • In Hellboy II: The Golden Army Prince Nuada's spear is a Telescoping Spear, and when Hellboy is stabbed with it its tip breaks off and proves almost impossible to remove, moving towards Hellboy's heart every time Abe tries to remove it. The spear also grows a new tip as soon as the old one is removed.
  • Holy Flame of the Martial World: There are two swords known as the Holy flames; there's both a yin and a yang variant, which can only be used by a woman and man respectively. Those with qi can tap into the magic power of the weapons, simply launching them at their opponents, shooting lasers, or even using them as a platform to crush their enemies or fly around on if the two wielders are together.

     Literature 
  • Discworld, being a parody of all things fantasy, features a large number of magical weapons with a wide variety of properties, but perhaps its most interesting case is an inversion: Carrot's sword is so non-magical that it's more real than anything else on the Disc, and thus can cut through almost anything.
  • The Cosmere features a number of these in its various worlds.
    • Nightblood, which appears in both Mistborn and The Storm Light Archive, will instantly vaporize anyone it hits, desires to destroy evil without particular knowing what evil is, and drains the life of both its victims and its wielder, though it can be fed with Stormlight while on Roshar.
    • The Shardblades of Roshar can be Summoned to Hand out of thin air, can cut through any non-living matter instantly, and directly attack the souls of those they are used against, killing anyone they hit in the head or chest, regardless of whether the wound would be lethal for a normal weapon. While normal ones are made from the souls of dead spren, radiant spren also possess the power to transform into any necessary shape.
    • The Honorblades have the same properties of shardblades note  except that they also grant their wielders radiant powers. Both Honorblades and living shardblades can be used as keys to the Oathgates
  • Fighting Fantasy: In the main setting, certain types of entity can only be harmed by magical weapons, so you occasionally get "magic swords" which don't have any powers beyond being generically magic. In Vault of the Vampire, you could get one as a second best if you were severely lacking in hit points and unwilling to undergo the Blood Magic ritual that got you the Sword of Plot Advancement.
  • Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest:
    • Magical weapons are so commonplace, the National Questing Bureau does public tours for an entire warehouse full of them.
    • Troy's sword has supernatural sharpness, if held with both hands with both feet on the ground it protects him from harm, and tapping the blade three times on the ground summons an elemental spirit that obeys one command, but only once a day.
    • Helen's wand is an "unharnessed battery of magic" that can do anything as long as it neither harms or heals another person.
  • Njal's Saga: Gunnar has a magic Halberd that made its wielder invincible. He took it from a pirate who was invincible until the halberd got stuck in the boom of the ship.
  • Tolkien's Legendarium
    • Elvish swords glow blue, but only in the presence of orcs or goblins.
    • The swords found in the barrow downs after the Hobbits' imprisonment there in The Fellowship of the Ring were forged in old Arnor, and seem to have some enchantment which allow Merry to wound the Witch King of Angmar with it and thus allow Eowyn to finish him off.
    • The Children of Húrin: Anglachel/Gurthang was a black sword made of Thunderbolt Iron that on top of being abnormally strong and able to resist the potent acid of a dragon's blood also possessed some degree of sentience, enjoying fighting evil, and briefly talked to Turin before his suicide, promising to kill him quickly and drink his blood so that it could forget being used to kill its master Beleg.
  • Villains by Necessity: Truelight is a longsword Prince Fenwick owns which lets off its own light and can also sense evil.
  • Of Fire and Stars:
    • Cas is killed with a white arrow which unerringly struck him from a very long distance and is difficult to spot because it has an enchantment on it.
    • Zumordan weapons also have enchantments that a person with an Affinity can sense simply by touching them, and show to others with a specific Magical Gesture.
  • Daughter of the Sun:
    • Orsina's sword is enchanted to light up when she triggers this with a prayer.
    • Aelia is seeking the Unbinding Stone, which despite this name is really a dagger which can free her from being trapped in a human body.
  • The Afterward: Kalanthe's hair spike is deadly to anyone but her who touches it because of its magic.
  • Enchanted Forest Chronicles: The Sword of the Kings is able to aid in casting spells or undo them, along with absording and attracting magic in general.
  • Tales of the Pack: The knife that Lexie got from her mother turns out to have several powers. She can tell if a person is a werewolf through looking at their reflection in the blade, make werewolves change forms by cutting them (aside from full-bloods as they don't shift) and keep her from turning on full moons as usual.

     Mythology and Religion 
  • Celtic Mythology:
    • Cú Chulainn wielded a spear made out of a sea monster's bone called the Gae Bolg that when thrust into an enemy grew 30 points out of its one point, invariably killing its target and also requiring its wielder to cut it out of their enemies corpse to retrieve it.
    • Lúin of Celtchar was a lance with a burning head that had to be quenched in a cauldron of blood/venom (depending on the story) or else it would burn straight through its own shaft. If it was thrust at a man, it could kill him without touching him and would kill 9 men when thrown, and was guaranteed to kill a king/royal/chieftain.
  • Classical Mythology:
    • Zeus's lightning bolts were treated as actual weapons handcrafted by Cyclopes in Hephaestus's forge.
  • Mesopotamian Mythology: The Mesopotamian god Ninurta had a mace named Sharur that could fly and talk.
  • Norse Mythology:
    • Thor's hammer Mjolnir was the original Thunder Hammer, could never miss when thrown, was indestructible, would return to the wielder's hand by itself, and could be shrunk down and worn as a necklace.
    • Odin's spear Gungnir could never miss when thrown and would pierce any target and never break, though it does not seem to have stopped Fenrir, who killed Odin at Ragnarok.

     Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Ubiquitous in most settings, the most common varieties simply applying a bonus to attack and damage rolls made with such weapons.
  • Warhammer:
    • While unable to draw on the winds of magic naturally, dwarfs can cast spells by enchanting objects with Runic Magic. Common runes burn out after a single use, while "master" runes last indefinitely. With the decline of the dwarf civilization, many powerful runes have become a form of Lost Technology, and runesmiths can dedicate their entire (considerable) lives to reverse-engineering the esoteric rituals involved. Many fabled magic weapons of the human Empire, such as Ghal Maraz and the Runefangs, are powered by dwarf rune magic.
    • The forces of Chaos are the other prolific wielders of magical weapons, with chaotic weapons either developing magical properties through exposure to magic or simply being formed wholesale in the Realm of Chaos. Daemonsmiths can even bind living daemons into objects, creating especially powerful (and sapient) daemon-weapons for favored champions of the Dark Gods. All of these weapons also exist in Warhammer 40,000, where they can take the form of guns, chain-swords, and other technologically-advanced items.

     Video Games 
  • Dead Cells has a number of magical weapons, most interesting Serenade, a talking flying sword that can wield itself or be wielded by you. Most oddly, it marks enemies for a critical hit after hitting them, which is only triggered by using the weapon in its other mode.
  • The Elder Scrolls has a few types:
    • Standard enchanted weapons, which are just normal physical weapons infused with magic
    • Daedric artifacts, which are actually daedra locked permanently into the shape of a weapon (or other item). There are also Aedric Weapons, but it is unclear exactly how they were made.
    • There are also Bound Weapons, which temporarily summon a daedra in the form of a powerful weapon.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Keyblades can open any lock with a touch, open portals between dimensions or close them, and can be used to channel magic.
  • Minecraft: Enchanting, the process where players grant special properties to tools and weapons at the cost of experience points and lapis lazuli, is a major gameplay feature. Enchanted weapons are an important part of the late game, and can include such things as swords that set their targets on fire, bows that never run out of arrows, tridents that return to the player's hand when thrown or which call down lightning where they land, and weapons that deal increased damage against specific enemy types.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: The Monado is a Situational Sword that can pierce the armor of a Mechon, but will pass harmlessly through anyone from the Bionis. It's also very choosy about its wielders, with Dunban being able to wield it but crippled by its long term use and Shulk being the only mortal who can wield it safely and access its true powers, which include a combo platter of opening up its already long blade to reveal a variable-length Laser Blade BFS, casting a shield to block enemy abilities, making allies more agile so they can dodge attacks, making allies able to also damage Mechon, seeing the future, and sealing enemies' auras.

     Western Animation 

Alternative Title(s): Enchanted Weapon

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