Celestial Fury

Celestial Fury was a powerful magical and sentient katana from a nation in Kara-Tur.It is unknown where in Kara-Tur the sword originated; Wa and Kozakura are two likely candidates. Originally designed to slay a powerful and mysterious dragon, it ended up housing its spirit. It possessed a number of inherent powers centered around storms and lightning.
==Description==
A weapon of superb craftsmanship, Celestial Fury had a flexible yet unbreakable blade that was honed to razor sharpness. Its hilt was wrapped in leather, granting it a comfortable grip, and a large pearl was mounted in the jaws of a dragon's head on the pommel.The text simply says it has "a huge pearl fixed at its end", which is presumed to refer to the pommel. However, the accompanying art in Dragon #181 shows the pearl at the end of the scabbard, and a dragon's head for a pommel. The art in Encyclopaedia Magical shows a pommel with a dragon's head with a pearl in its jaws. The blade shone a pale violet hue and snapped with electricity whenever drawn, illuminating an area in diameter. Inscribed on the blade were magical characters meaning "celestial fury". The katana's sheath was made from the hide of a dragon with slate-gray scales that flashed incessantly in hues of blue, silver, and violet.
==Powers==
Celestial Fury was a magical +3 katana.
The katana could only be handled by individuals of chaotic nature, and it regularly shocked anyone else who even touched it. To chaotic beings, the sword granted immunity to all forms of lightning, natural and magical, and protected them and their belongings from wetness due to adverse weather such as fog, rain, and storms, but not being submerged in water.
Upon drawing the blade, the scabbard burst with both thunder and lightning. The wielder was immune to these effects, but others caught within risked being blinded for up to four minutes and deafened for up to a dozen minutes if they could not resist the magic, while precautions such as looking away or blocking one's ears helped them resist.
Moreover, while Celestial Fury was drawn, the weather grew inclement across a area centered on the blade, regardless of local weather conditions. This storm gathering was similar to a shukenja's control weather, but only ever made the weather worse: winds strengthened, clouds increased, precipitation grew, though temperature was unchanged. It could not be dispelled, but could be blocked by an anti-magic shell.
Upon landing any blow, the blade created booming thunder again. Though not quite as loud as when it was drawn, it could stun an opponent for a minute.
If the wielder chose before attacking, a strike from Celestial Fury could deliver a shocking blow to their victim This could be done thrice a day. On a hit, it dealt intense electrical damage, but even on a miss, if the target wore metal armor, the electricity could arc to them and harm them half as much. Otherwise, the attempt was wasted.
Once per day, the wielder of Celestial Fury could make a lightning strike, unleashing a lightning bolt at a target up to .
Finally, the sword granted the wielder the power of flight for up to four hours per day.
===Personality===
Bearing the spirit of the dragon, it was a sentient weapon of chaotic nature and it communicated with its wielder via semi-empathy. Its thoughts and desires focused on gratuitous displays of power and causing bad weather. Beyond this, Celestial Fury desired revenge on the descendants of Hoshi Katahiroi and the craftsman Chigatta, those responsible for its death and loss of freedom.
==History==
Some time before the mid–14 century DR,The date is unknown; this is only "many years ago" from a presumed setting date of 1357 DR. The Faerûnian calendar is used in the absence of any other. a province was devastated by severe tempests and lightning strikes that ignited fires. The respected shukenja advisors to the province's daimyo quickly divined that this weather was not natural, but the work of a mighty dragon of a type never encountered before, dubbed "Celestial Fury". Some thought it arose from the primal chaos of a time before Kara-Tur's creation, others that it was a modern abomination.
The daimyo, Hoshi Katahiroi, wished the dragon dead to spare his province more devastation. Thus he commissioned a reclusive weaponsmith and master of mystic arts named Chigatta to forge for him a weapon that could destroy the dragon's spirit as well as its body. Chigatta created a katana, more fine than anyone could've imagined, and gave it the name of the dragon it was meant to slay, Celestial Fury.
The sword was imbued with the power of flight and so Hoshi took to the skies to hunt the dragon through the storm clouds. For days, a dragon's roars and a man's shouts echoed across the skies, and lightning flashed through the nights. Finally, Hoshi was victorious, slaying the dragon's body and trapping its spirit inside his sword. The two Celestial Furies became one and the sword's order was imposed on the dragon's chaos.
To celebrate his triumph, and cement the dragon's defeat, Hoshi then asked Chigatta to craft a scabbard from the dragon's hide and to embed the dragon's magical pearl in the hilt.
Unfortunately, while Hoshi was a great warrior, he was weak of will and the dragon's spirit possessed him. Under the dragon's control, Hoshi killed first Chigatta, and then himself. The blade disappeared shortly afterward, probably abandoned by Hoshi's grief-stricken family, and was presumed to have had many owners in the years after.
==Appendix==
===Background===
This Celestial Fury first appeared in Dragon #181's "Bazaar of the Bizarre" article. A katana of the same name and similar powers, but different story, appeared in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, likely due to something lost in adaptation. These are treated as separate swords for clarity.
===See Also===
* Celestial Fury
===Notes===
===References===
Category:Katanas
Category:Swords
Category:Blades
Category:Melee weapons
Category:Weapons
Category:Magic blades
Category:Magic swords
Category:Magic weapons
Category:Plus-3 items
Category:Sentient items
Category:Magic items
Category:Human items
Category:Items from Kara-Tur
Category:Items from Toril
Category:30000-39999 gold pieces