The Sword of Kahless
K'Tesh's Klingon Recipe Pages

 

Classification: Weapons
Subdivision: Bat'leth

The Sword of Kahless

Sword of Kahless

The Origin of the Bat'leth | The Sword of Kahless | Prop Sizing Info | Sizing Your Bat'leth

Lost for over 1000 years. Forged in a Volcano, twisted by the hands of the first Emperor of the Klingon People. Used to care a statue of Kahless' beloved and to skin the serpent of Zol. "More sacred than the torch of gheqaq, more revered than Seybaq's Armor, and more coveted than the Emperor's crown." The Sword of Kahless.

This Weapon is displayed in many ancient tapestries and carvings. The basic appearance of the weapon is crude, yet graceful and sleek at the same time. Etched with the tears of Kahless himself, the tines on the outside have ancient text telling all who its owner was. (Sideline Note: In reality, the writing is the old style Mandel system and on the left [looking at the trefoil] it says "dragon", and on the right it says "bear bear". No doubt the nicknames of the fellows that constructed the prop for the show. Who knows? The great entity doesn't cooperate in that regard.)

At the risk of committing heresy, I must bring to light some of the facts about this wonderful weapon. In everything Kahless spoke, there were lessons to his people. The Age of Kahless was the Klingon renaissance or the taH _ meaning to endure or go on. Kahless was bring a new age to his people, an age where they would be kings rather than servants to a tyrant, where honor was the supreme tenet and honor meant doing things for yourself.

The origin of the bat'leth tells us (See "The Origin of the Bat'leth" by Lt. Kael Mang) that the original bat'leths were the skeletal weapons of the Shadow-fish. I, too subscribe to this belief, so much in fact that I believe for a period of about 200 years the main weapon of the Klingon people was a bone bat'leth. Metal bat'leths weren't constructed until after the Sword of Kahless.

Kahless tells us he dipped a lock of his hair into a volcano and forged the sword from it. Your first thoughts as a young Klingon when you hear this are... baQa'! But later you learn that Kahless had great ideas; why would this story sound like such targ wretch? Primarily it's because the volcanoes we learn about in our schooling are simply molten rock volcanoes. You have to take a sciences track at academy to learn of the ore volcanoes that our Homeworld is blessed with. An ore volcano contains precious ores in molten form - ores of quality like iron, terminium, titanium, and the precious weapon metal: Qelinium.

A neutral substance can be dipped into a stream of molten ore, and coated with the substance. If an individual were to continue dipping that object into the stream, they could collect quite a sum of the element. Later that element can be heated and worked into another form. Now, obviously, hair would vaporize against molten Qelinium, but that wasn't the point of the illustration. Kahless was telling his people to gather this metal so that it could be formed into weapons that would crush bone.

It was an illustration telling his people to move into the new era, leave the bones behind, and master the elements the Homeworld has given us.

Now, Kahless no more forged that sword himself than he dipped his hair into that ore volcano. His armorer, a friend and confidant (great ancestor of my father's master) constructed the weapon, heating the metal in a rock bread furnace. Kahless directed his armorer to design the new sword similar, yet different from the bone swords his people were using now. He wanted still to lead them in a different direction, moving from the customary shape of the Shadow-fish skeleton, yet still taking advantage of its natural offensive and defensive capacity.

The result was the shape we see in the ancient art now, similar, yet different to the Shadow-fish armament. Its mottled appearance, the black and silver swirls in the surface, result from a crude blending of two prominent ores, Iron and Qelinium. The process was obviously not as refined as it is now (via transporter technology), so the two elements had to be heated and twisted with a hammer hundreds of times (this process is called "folding") until a rather crude form of molecular bonding (called "forge welding") takes place.

My metallurgical studies have found that many cultures used this process in their early metal working stages. The terrans call the resulting product "wootz steel" and later "Damascus Steel" (for the city blades made this way were discovered in during a great holy conquest they called the "Crusades"). Kahless' armorer used this process to make his sword, the first metal bat'leth in Klingon history.

Kahless' teachings were adopted by his people. Metal bat'leths were constructed, battles were fought against those not wishing to change from the old ways, and the Klingon people found that metal weapons were most proficient for conquest. Eventually, even the ghintaq spear was constructed in metal, replacing the hand carved wooden spears.

Approximately one thousand years ago, a space faring race of beings known only as the Hurq (one from outside) plundered the Homeworld. In the process, many of the artifacts were taken as prizes. It was during this time that the sword of Kahless disappeared from sight. There are rumors that the sword returned to the volcano of its creation. Others rumor that Kahless' spirit called the sword to him so that he may return with it. Mostly though, we believe that it was taken by the Hurq.

A legendary but honorable quest was always the search for the Sword of Kahless. There have been hundreds of quests, but none have yielded the sword. Physically lost forever, its spirit, like that of its master, will live with us forever-and so will metal bat'leths.

Tactical Advantages:

    More Linear edge; large defensive area; longer reach over standard bat'leth; Psychological impact vs. Klingon opponents.

Tactical Disadvantages:

    Heavy; cumbersome; made in the old way not as reliable as modern alloys.

*Note:

    Though several bat'leths have been made in honor of this design, none capture the exact spirit or image of the original. Most bat'leths are constructed in the Shadow-fish design out of respect for the Sword of Kahless.

Final Notes:

    It has been said that one who possesses the real Sword of Kahless could become Emperor. I sincerely doubt this is true. In the teachings of Kahless we have learned that Klingons follow honor and the man that displays it best, not a sword. It was not the sword that forged the empire; it was Kahless.
-QeyneH, 1996

 

K'Tesh's Note:

    There may be some biases in fact on volcanoes of molten elements, the Jovian moon Io is believed to have volcanoes of molten sulfur.

 

The Origin of the Bat'leth | The Sword of Kahless | Prop Sizing Info | Sizing Your Bat'leth

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