The Sword of the Prophet is a unique sword of Antiterra, given by an angel (or by “the Madis”), that binds its bearer with a geas and is carried “to go and bring down” the Fever.
| Type | Artifact (sword) |
| Spanish entry | Espada del Profeta |
Description
“The sword looks pure and clean. It is clean like steel, you see? Iridescent.” It shows no stain or rust despite use. On the blade is what reads as “a sign of death”. Unlike the sword Harrison Solar wears, it is no mark of office but a killing weapon. It has given light in combat, and some call its touch holy. Of Antiterra’s many swords (sold by the dozen in Constantinople), it is the only one that imposes conduct on its bearer.
Geas and use
“It is my sword. Yes. It is true. Because the angel gave it to me.” The sword “has a geas that, regarding going and doing something, and he is willing to do it”, and some connection with the angel persists. The geas shows as a compulsion: “I carry the sword and drive it into the ground”, at certain places.
Salvestro, lacking an executioner, “has himself used the sword to finish off some dishonest noble”. When a bearer falls, the sword stays by the body and another takes it up, as beside the body of the Grand Master.
Conflicting accounts
- One tradition holds it was the angel’s gift; another, “the sword the Madis gave him”. Whether these are one giver is unresolved.
- “The head had already been cut off by the razor-sharp sword of Ariel”, severing Barbatos’s neck. Some identify that blade with this one; others count them apart.
Distinct swords
Kept separate unless a fact joins them: the Solar Sword; the Sword of Auron, sacrificed to prevent a war in Antiterra; the Sword of the Three Threads; the sword of light drawn by Maleika; La Pluma’s blade “Bringing Back the Dreams”, cruel to aberrations; Foe Victim; and an unidentified sword among the artifacts of the Lighthouse. The Templars, by contrast, fight with common iron.
Open questions
- Who the Madis is, and whether the name garbles a known figure, is unknown.
- What the geas commands, what the sign of death is, and what planting the blade marks are not recorded.
- Why this sword can bring down the Fever is not explained.
- The bearer is never named with the sword.