Axe of Ten-Thousand Strokes

Practice makes permanent

The axe-head glints in the summer sun. I see her felling Kava plants, harvesting the two thousand shoots to which she is entitled. I am shocked to see hundreds of Kava shoots already neatly divided on the ground. What magic is this, that cuts through the steel-grass like an oar through water?

— Lieutenant Iris of Port Nora

The Axe of Ten-Thousand Strokes is a legendary axe forged approximately seven hundred years in the past by a grandmaster smith. With a history of continuous care and use throughout its existence, it serves as an excellent demonstration of the most modest magic: Habitus.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Further inspection revealed the axe in question to be an ordinary axe, made at a standard forge. Voltammetry established the tool as 712 years old, and historical records show it was made as a gift for the Azmar family by a grandmaster smith. Attempts to explain the axe through conventional means failed, and it was sent to the magical institutes for study.

— Iris' preliminary report

The axe is made of completely mundane materials. The head is double-bitted, and made of work-hardened bronze. The handle of the axe is made up of the lightweight Kava Wood, and surprisingly has not rotted away with seven centuries of use.
The main driver of its action is invisible: it is the intent itself, which has accumulated with such use. The intent has flowed into the axe, and by now, it is honed in on its purpose of chopping wood.

Manufacturing process

The process of manufacturing the axe was well-recorded. The axe was made through conventional, alpha bronze forging techniques. The bronze was cast, and then hammered into its desired shape. A handle was added of kava wood.
Next, the longest, seven-hundred and twelve year part of the process was done. The first bearer of the axe is said to have chopped down just forty-five shoots of kava with the axe: one for each year of her existence. However, her descendants used the axe in a more utilitarian manner, chopping tens of thousands of trees down: however many they could get in their quota.
By the time it passed to its last true wielder, the axe would have gone through well over ten thousand strokes: perhaps closer to one million strokes. The exact number is lost to history. After Sara Azmar-Laning's lease of the axe to science, the Azmar-Laning family ceremonially chops down and splits one kava shoot every year.

Significance

What, have you the patience to craft a tool like the Axe of Ten-Thousand Strokes?

— Common saying

The Axe of Ten-Thousand Strokes has become a profound cultural icon of the Pestrib, who place great value on patient tenacity. The axe, under study, was made just like any other axe; yet it is stronger and sharper than any steel axe of this day. Many use it, as well as the kava plant, as parables on how a grown halora should behave.

Item type

Tool

Related Technologies

• Bronzeworking

Related ethnicities

• Pestrib

Owning Organization

Baiqiang Union

Rarity

Unique tool

Weight

2.5 kg

Base Price

Not on market

Raw materials & Components

• One-meter kava wood rod (standardized)
• Ten kilograms of chalcocite ore (used to make copper)
• Two kilograms of tin additive (used to turn copper into bronze)
• 712 years of continuous use

Notable Users

Note: all names of the Brown Halora are unpronouncable by humankind, so these names have been assigned by human historians.

Larissa Azmar of Linsent (Larissa of Azmar of Linsent Tribe) was the original bearer of the Axe of Ten Thousand Strokes. Cherished as a present made for her by grandmaster smith Nathan Dunan of Linsent, Larissa used that axe solely for her job as a woodsman. The axe was not noted for its properties, but Larissa was praised for achieving the pinnacle of woodsmanship.
The axe began to be passed down through the generations from mother to daughter in the Azmar clan. However, all of Natalie Azmar of Linsent's children were male, and so she passed the axe down to her eldest child, Aldrin, and told him to gift it to his wife in marriage. Aldrin gave the axe to Catherine Laning of Pestrib, moving his trade to Port Nora.
Two generations later, the axe passed to its final holder, Sara Azmar-Laning of Pestrib. Sara was a scientist by profession, and therefore did not use the axe as much as her ancestors. Eventually, her good friend, Iris, watched her chop kava wood, and immediately recognized skill alone could not explain the actions of the axe. Sara leased the axe to magic research agencies to further the study of its science.