The
Blackrazor was one of the
magical artifacts you found in the old
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adventure module,
White Plume Mountain. From what I understand, it is pretty clearly modeled after
Stormbringer, the
evil black soulsucking sword in
Michael Moorcock's
Elric series of novels.
Back when I was playing
D&D in
junior high, none of us had read the Elric
novels and had to borrow modules from the
richer players during our
lunch breaks, so we didn't know
squat about any
literary implications of our
gaming--nor did we care! All we knew was that there was something called a Blackrazor that was solid
black,
wicked sharp, and the merest
cut was all it needed to
suck someone's
soul out, leaving a bubbling pile of
protoplasm on the
dungeon floor. Up against a
Red Dragon? Cut it on its foot, reduce it to
protoplasm, grab all the
treasure. Pestered by
orcs?
Slice and dice, reduce 'em to
protoplasm, grab all the
treasure. Small
children in the road? Cut 'em on the arm, reduce 'em to
protoplasm, grab all the
treasure. (Everyone in our games was loaded down with
gold and powerful
magic items. It's a
requirement for junior high
D&Ders.) Even though it was supposed to be a
unique artifact, everyone in the party soon carried one around. Even though
magic users weren't supposed to carry
swords, ours did anyway (and almost quit casting
spells, so powerful was the lure of the Razor). Even though it was supposed to be a weapon of pure, unadulterated
Evil, our
Lawful Good cleric lugged one around--and smote everything in his path, whether
ghoul,
moppet, kindly
ally, or
fluffy bunny. We were
underage,
hormonal, picked-upon
geeks, our
veins pulsing with a
dangerous mix of
testosterone and
seminal fluid. We couldn't beat the
jocks. We couldn't talk to the
cheerleaders. We could just barely impress the
teachers. But by God, we could
slaughter an
army of
ogres in six seconds flat, thanks to our
bad-ass, solid-black, wicked-sharp, soul-devouring Swords of Infinite Chaotic Evil, GODDAMMIT!Most of this writeup had nothing to do with the
Blackrazor. Sue me for reminiscing.
Oooh, a +20 Editorial War Hammer of Softlink Slaying! Gotta git me one of those...