The Story of Magic’s Bane:

Long before the race of men came to Illantul, the mountain dwarves of Uhl sent word across the Shifting Sea to their western brethren of untold riches buried deep within their mountains.  Although all dwarves harbor a great distain for the open oceans, the lure of Uhl’s mountain riches overshadowed the dwarf’s fear of the sea crossing.  Loaded in two great wooden ships of their own design, hundreds of western dwarfs began the perilous voyage across the Shifting Sea.  Little did they know that a powerful dark mage, living in the castle at Bolandorr east of the dwarven cities of Uhl, had foreseen the crossing attempt in his seeing stones and vowed to stop the arrival of a new dwarven plague?  Using his dark spells to control the weather, the mage called a great storm upon the ships.  Failing to bring ruin to the ships, the mage summoned a sea dragon to his cause.  The beast took many lives and succeeded in the complete destruction of one of the dwarven vessels. Only two and twenty of the western dwarves survived the journey across the sea to join the clan in Uhl.  Vowing to never forget the crossing and the sacrifices of their kin, the dwarf’s forged a great axe in memory of their trials.  The renowned blade not only depicts images of this tale, but it is said to have the power to dispel all sorcery from having any effect upon the wielded of Magic’s Bane.     

Actual Design and Construction:

The axe head is a reclaimed high carbon steel head that I ground back to clean steel and shaped into its current form.  On one side I hand etched an image of the dwarven ship’s plight and the mage of Bolandorr controlling the weather.  The opposite side tells of the sea dragon he summoned and the many dwarven lives lost.  I formed and etched two identical steel belly plates which are attached to the ash handle with solid brass pins, just below the bottom of the blade.  The bottom seven inches of the handle is wrapped with deer hide to form a comfortable leather grip. Finally, the eye is covered with an etched steel plate and the bottom of the knob of the handle is covered with another steel plate etched with my maker’s mark.

Specifications:

Axe Head Length: 7 inches

Axe Head Width at widest point: 3.75 inches

Handle Length: 19.25 inches

Overall Axe length: 19.25 inches

Hand grip length: 7 inches

Overall Axe Weight: 2 lbs, 2.5 ounces