I need some help coming up with a mark for a forge. Like, the mark the forge would put on every piece made there, sort of like an artist's signature or a copyright kind of thing, a "this weapon was made at this forge" thing. A little backstory: My story takes place in a medieval European-like fantasy world. Way, way back in the day, a group of explorers from another land arrived via magic portal, and were stranded there. (Don't have details why, it's not important at this point anyway.) Said explorers were carrying various pieces of weapons and armor, forged in their homeland. Due to the magic in their homeland (which is quite different from the magic in the current land) their stuff is much much better quality. Fast forward a few generations, all the original explorers have interbred with the people native to the land, and their amazing-quality weapons and armor have been passed down within their families. The fact that these weapons and armor came from another land has been forgotten. The current people only know that all the weapons with this certain mark on them are great quality and usually owned by noble families and passed down within the families. No one knows what forge they were made at, and they have taken to calling it the Lost Forge. So. What I need help with is coming up with a description of the mark used by the Lost Forge (aka, the forge from the forgotten homeland), or just ideas to help me flesh it out myself. I need it completely foreign-looking, (The current land is quite European-like) maybe with some weird writing on it. I dunno. I'm blanking here. Anyone have any suggestions? Here's the bit from my novel where it comes up: “I think she recognized my dagger or something.” Kaelie pulled out the dragon dagger. Elodie’s delicate brows arched. “That is beautiful. May I see it?” Kaelie handed it to her. “This is...really exquisite. It would have cost a fortune. You do not get this level of craftsmanship from just any forge.” Elodie brought it closer to her face, examining it minutely. “Yes, as I thought.” “What?” “See here, this little mark?” She pointed to a tiny engraved shape on the underside of the dragon wings. Kaelie squinted at it. It looked like ?????. “What is that?” “That,” Elodie said, “is the mark of the Lost Forge. It is so old that no one knows where it was or who the blacksmiths were. No one is really certain of what the mark even is. It almost seems as if it is from another language. We call it the Lost Forge because all information about it is just...gone. But every piece with that mark is masterfully crafted and very old. You cannot buy pieces from the Lost Forge--they are all family heirlooms, passed down through the generations, and until now, I thought they all belonged to Valarian noble families. I know, because my mother has a short sword that has been in my family for ages.”
Why describe it in any further detail than what you have? It allows the reader's imagination to fill in how it should look. Its mystery could be revisited later in the story, perhaps when you find a companion blade/piece? The only two which bear the same mark?
