Warshard Warrior Dedication Feat 12

Source Pathfinder #219: Lord of the Trinity Star

When you became infused with a shard of the god of war, you knew in your gut that your destiny would be one for the ages—yet you may not, at first, know the exact way such a destiny would play out. If you still carry the warshard that empowered you, you might carry it as a token or wear it as jewelry—if indeed it's not simply embedded into your body. Regardless, the warshard itself no longer has any intrinsic power of its own, and even if you toss the warshard aside, its gifts do not leave you, nor can another benefit from them. If you throw the warshard away or lose it, your destiny remains unaltered; you have, in effect, become the warshard itself. This power manifests through a weapon you wield.

When you make your daily preparations, choose one weapon in your possession in which you have at least expert proficiency. That weapon becomes your warshard weapon until you choose a different weapon in your possession during another of your daily preparations. You can choose a mundane nonmagical weapon, a weapon with magical runes, one made of an unusual material, or even a specific magic weapon such as a storm flash or a bloodletting kukri, but not an intelligent weapon or an artifact like the bastard sword Serithtial or one of the seven swords of sin. While you don't lose access to your warshard warrior feats if your warshard weapon is taken from you or destroyed, note that several of this destiny's feats require you to be wielding your warshard weapon. You can etch or remove runes from a warshard weapon normally. You can have only one warshard weapon at a time.

Your gain the Mythic Strike feat, but you can only use it with your warshard weapon. Whenever you make a Strike with your warshard weapon at mythic proficiency, you double the amount of additional damage you deal with the weapon specialization class feature. When you make Crafting checks to Repair your warshard weapon, your treat your proficiency rank in Crafting as legendary for determining how many Hit Points you restore to the item; in addition, if your Crafting result is a critical failure, you get a failure instead. You also gain the Call Warshard Weapon action.

Rare

From the earliest days of civilization, many heroes became associated with their legendary weapons. These brave adventurers, who faced many mythic challenges in their time, eventually moved on to the afterlife, for such is the way of mortality. While their mortal remains were consumed by cremation, interment, or the natural process of decay, the magical weapons they left behind suffered no such deterioration. These artifacts and relics would often later be taken up by new heroes, and thus the cycle would repeat.

When shards of Gorum's body rained down upon the world during the Godsrain, this cycle transformed. Known today as warshards, the divine remnants of Gorum's physical form quickly became highly sought-after treasures wherever they fell. As one might expect from fragments shed from the body of war god, these shards became invaluable components for the forging of new weapons or the bolstering of existing ones.

But what of those rare cases where a warshard, however small, strikes the body of a hero? What of those rare cases where a physical embodiment of the dead god of war becomes absorbed into the soul of a mortal? In these astonishing instances, a new type of hero can arise, one who doesn't shed their mortal shell in death but instead continues their legacy in the form of the weapon they wielded.

These so-called warshard warriors bear or once bore a piece of the divine metal that fell during the Godsrain. It might have been shaped into crude-looking armor or carried as a makeshift shield, or it might simply adorn that hero's clothing. It could even have pierced their flesh and left its influence behind, transforming into an unremarkable fragment of slag. Regardless of the manner of infusion, these warshards impart both fortitude and purpose to the affected warriors. For most, the shard unifies both the wielder and weapon, elevating the pairing when the tide of battle rises. For others, the shard enables an even more perfect union, blending the essence of both until they become one, the weapon forever holding the spirit of the warshard warrior.

Among those few who combined with their weapons to become one unique intelligent item, the soul of Yrrelin (malicious male serpentfolk lich 21) now resides within his scythe Villainy. He now seeks to behead Golarion's greatest heroes, one after another, in a zealous push to "bring all life closer to the headless god, Ydersius." Those who hold the blade are overcome by the wickedness of its former master and aren't in control of their own actions.

For good or ill, the skybound slaughter of Gorum threw the world into a new age of heroes, villains, and mythic artifacts. Most warriors who received the war god's blessing knew right away the spark of partnership between them and the weapon that was once merely regarded as a tool of their trade. The more time spent wielding the weapon, the greater its magical abilities and the greater the warrior's understanding of its singular nature. In the end, few can say how powerful the bond between a weapon and its warshard warrior will grow.

Destiny Definitions
This destiny revolves around a concept that is summarized below. Warshard Weapon: This is a specific weapon you have chosen to infuse your destiny into during your daily preparations. Most warshard warrior feats work best when coupled with a warshard weapon. You can only have one warshard weapon at a time. A warshard weapon gains the mythic trait.

Destiny Definitions

This destiny revolves around a concept that is summarized below.

Warshard Weapon: This is a specific weapon you have chosen to infuse your destiny into during your daily preparations. Most warshard warrior feats work best when coupled with a warshard weapon. You can only have one warshard weapon at a time. A warshard weapon gains the mythic trait.

How Did You Become A Warshard Warrior?
When a PC chooses the warshard warrior destiny, they must decide how they encountered the warshard in question. In the Revenge of the Runelords Adventure Path, the Godsrain is still a relatively recent event, and so it could be that a PC was struck by a tiny fragment as it fell during the event, or perhaps they were infused after touching a fallen shard they discovered. The nature and flavor of this infusion don't need to have any bearing on the character's subsequent feat choices as they gain levels nor on the type of weapon they choose to bond with. In time, as the Godsrain is separated from the present by generations, it's possible for a hero in the future to become a warshard warrior much in the same way a sorcerer gains their magical power—through a supernatural legacy handed down from ancestors—but for the purposes of this campaign, a PC should have a more direct link to the original warshard. They might even wear the fragment as a token or have it embedded harmlessly but impressively in their flesh.

How Did You Become A Warshard Warrior?

When a PC chooses the warshard warrior destiny, they must decide how they encountered the warshard in question. In the Revenge of the Runelords Adventure Path, the Godsrain is still a relatively recent event, and so it could be that a PC was struck by a tiny fragment as it fell during the event, or perhaps they were infused after touching a fallen shard they discovered. The nature and flavor of this infusion don't need to have any bearing on the character's subsequent feat choices as they gain levels nor on the type of weapon they choose to bond with.

In time, as the Godsrain is separated from the present by generations, it's possible for a hero in the future to become a warshard warrior much in the same way a sorcerer gains their magical power—through a supernatural legacy handed down from ancestors—but for the purposes of this campaign, a PC should have a more direct link to the original warshard. They might even wear the fragment as a token or have it embedded harmlessly but impressively in their flesh.