In my WIP Scalba of the Talanari, there's magic and there's mancy. Mancy is a craft that can be learned, like smithing or leatherworking, and is often learned alongside those skills in order to create enchanted objects. Magic is innate, drawn upon from either from the environment or inside oneself. In order to use magic one must be born with the ability. There are two main factions that use magic-- the starknights (who draw from outside, figuratively from the stars) and the shadowmages (who draw from inside, figuratively from their own shadows.) Both wield magic swords created using ironmancy. These swords are given magic powers from a stone that bonds with the forger of the sword. The stone is fixed to the hilt, appearing to be decorative but actually being the source of the sword's abilities-- abilities such as cutting through metal and guiding the hand of the wielder. Because the source is magical and not mantical, normal individuals cannot make such weapons, and therein lies a problem. The whole reason I gave the starknights magic swords is so they could pierce armor. But if that's the case, then in a fight with a normie, their sword should cut through the other person's sword. That means duels in this story make no sense. I really want to keep the armor-piercing thing because the armor belongs to the protagonist's father and I want the "scar" on the armor to remain when the protagonist takes it for himself. And also to make mages stand out, because magic swords.
It would be fine if they both had swords that were enchanted. I imagine they would cancel each other out. Maybe only the tip could pierce armour and the length would still be fine and not cut through regular swords. Side note, I read starknights as stark knights.
Yeah. Not sure how to change that. Even I read it as stark knights. I'm open to name suggestions. As for the sword thing... that does seem like the logical fix, but I feel like it cheapens the starknights' swords and makes the normal characters seem less impressive by comparison if they can just counter every magic with mancy.
The solution that leaps to mind: armor-piercing doesn't necessarily mean "capable of cutting through a sword". It just means you can pierce armor. And even with enchantments, that's probably going to be achieved by thrusting. Puncturing something along a narrow front is quite different from slicing right through it along a wide one. And if you're worried about a thrust punching through a normal sword's blade, I think getting that sort of hit on such a small moving target would be unlikely, but it could make for an interesting plot point during a fight.
Maybe star-knights or StarKnights? The Celestial forces, and then just call them Celestials? There are lots of things that could come into play to influence things. Do the stars need to be exposed? Perhaps they can't use it during the day, or not as well because the stars are there but not visible. Though I suppose the sun is a star :/ I think its a bit OP if they have these swords that can cut through anything. There need to be some limiters. Maybe they need to charge up or deplete energy/mana every time they use it. Or they need to channel their energy to the stone in order to fuel the sword. Maybe the sword will dull with each use or the stone will crack.
The star allusion is figurative. The starknights draw from their surroundings, whatever they are, as long as they’re in tune with the magic. Stars are external sources of light and the starknights heavy associate with light, hence the name. Shadowmages call themselves that because a shadow is a source of darkness created by oneself.
Perhaps your swords were built to combat other magies, rather than just people in general. If you want to not get shot by the sniper on the roof across the street, you can either shoot the sniper or hide. Perhaps your mages chose to have weapons made that can deal with other mage weapons.
In days of yore, iron was thought to cancel out magic. Perhaps if the human sword was created from a specific metal the magic sword could not pierce it. I just watched a program where they were talking about Tut's treasure, he had a knife that had been made out of a meteorite, they melted it down to make this blade. Since you have magic from stars what better to counter that magic with.
