History
Yu Buqun was a Duke, General, and brother to the first Emperor of the Yu Dynasty, Yu Zhen. Yu Buqun was a man with many talents, incredible knowledge, and was well versed in the art of war as well as academics, gaining him the reputation of the Wise Scimitar. However, he was incredibly ambitious, greedy, and a petty man.
Prior the rise of the Yu Dynasty, Yu Buqun aided his brother Yu Zhen when leading the rebellion against the corrupt Xiao Dynasty. The more the world praised Yu Zhen as a great hero of their time, the more Yu Buqun became bitter as he was stuck in his brother’s shadow. When the rebellion was a success and the Yu Dynasty was established, Yu Buqun became even more resentful once his brother claimed the throne as Emperor. Although he was given a high rank of Duke with his own plot of land, it was not enough to fill in the gap of Yu Buqun’s jealous heart.
During the Unification Campaign led by Yu Zhen, Yu Buqun secretly collected riches, treasures, and holy relics from the different nations and stashed them in a hidden vault. Although he had many loyal men and women to help him, even using connections he gained during the rise of the Yu Dynasty, he was a man full of paranoia. Once the treasure was safely stored, he would execute his allies or leave the workers to die while being trapped inside his own vault. Yu Buqun had the desire, a plan, to use this fortune to overthrow Yu Zhen at the right time and claim the throne as his. Unfortunately, he was an overcautious man.
Unfortunately, Yu Buqun was an overly cautious man. Every move he makes, he thinks 10 times ahead, and covers all potential loopholes, minimizes his own losses and maximizes his benefits. Whenever he did have a plan, he always had second thoughts in fear of failure and being executed for treason and rebellion. He had to be 100% sure of victory. Due to this bad habit of his, he kept delaying his actions, becoming older and older. Soon he started to have lapses of memory loss from his old age. In fear of losing the secrets of his own treasure vault, he commissioned sword makers to create a collection of six artistic swords. Each sword he would incorporate an elaborate poem of 42 verses that resemble a prayer to the gods, when secretly he made and divided pieces of a map to store them inside through magic coding.
They were known as the Swords of 42 Verses. Yu Buqun made an excuse; he created them as a gift to six of his most loyal guardians and protectors, sword brothers, sisters, and bodyguards who served him since the Jieyuan Unification to now. He lied to them that: "So long as you, or your descendants, bear this sword in ownership, my family will forever support your livelihoods for the services and heroism of your deeds." This was to avoid telling them the true intent of being a treasure map, to keep them from hunting one another to collect them, and gave them the illusion the swords were a badge of authority when they retire or pass on to their descendants.
In reality, he secretly told his closest advisor and long time friend, to deliver the truth to Yu Buqun's descendants when they become old enough and Yu Zhen has passed away. If Yu Buqun cannot take the throne, he will make sure his own blood will complete that dream for him.
After Yu Buqun's passing, the Six Guardians each went their own ways while protecting the pieces of the map unknowingly. Despite such an elaborate plan, there were some flaws Yu Buqun did not foresee. Since his departure, his many wives often quarreled over who would be head of the house, to the point where they tried to poison or kill each other. In order to gain his family inheritance, many of his own children died at a young age. The only sons and daughter he had survived - one was mentally disabled for the rest of their life while the other left the family to become a vagabond. Yu Buqun's confidant had no choice but to acquire an apprentice and train him. Once he told the apprentice of the secret, the apprentice slayed his master and ran off looking for the treasure.
As time and history moves on, one thing happens after another. The families of the Six Guardians continued to protect the Swords of 42 Verses as instructed by the original guardians before their passing. Alas, children gambled their fortune away, along with the sword; evil sects overpowered the family, wiping them out, and taking the sword as their own treasure; one guardian family being hunted for embezzling imperial funds, and so on. All that preparation, planning, and paranoia ruined Yu Buqun's plan to take over the throne. The Swords of 42 Verses were then scattered across the lands in time, becoming no more than legends, antiques, or even objects of worship.
Present Days
The Swords of 42 Verses is usually recognized as a 'masterpiece' art made by the great poet Yu Buqun of the Yu Imperial Family, often sought after by collectors. Some sects and martial schools believe the sword possessed hidden powers to enhance one's martial arts, the 42 poetic verses making up a legendary manual of some sort, thus they often fought over it. There are even cults who believe the sword is the gateway to the divine, or a remnant of an evil god waiting to be revived, and thus are worshiped or even protected by religious orders. There are even those radical enough to use this sword as a symbol of rebellion, to bring back the Yu Dynasty or those who wield the blade claiming they are the surviving bloodline of the Yu Dynasty.
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