Snow Flower

**Snow Flower** (*Hangul*: 설화; *transliteration*: Seol-Hwa) is the name of Jin Mu-Won's sword that was created from a meteorite that fell on the village of Sacred Mountain and retrieved by Hwang-Cheol following the massacre of the villagers by men from the Broken Fists Sect.

## Appearance

Upon a first glance, the sword known as Snow Flower appears rather unremarkable when sheathed. The sword consists of a brass guard with a simple pattern with a short pommel of a similar composition. The grip is made of cloth that is wrapped around the handle of the sword that allows the user to be able to comfortably maintain a firm grip while in the middle of combat.

The sword sheath is a straight black scabbard and its minimalist form does not allow for it to be tied to a sword belt nor does it consist of a set of suspension rings. However, the sword sheath can be kept in the sash wrapped around the user's tonic allowing them to quickly unsheathe the sword or even use the scabbard itself as a bludgeoning weapon against weaker opponents. An example of the utility of the scabbard as a weapon is the beating Mu-Won gave to Myeong Ryu-San after the latter refused to return the poison pouch he stole from Tang Gi-Mun.

The true splendor of Snow Flower is seen when the sword is unsheathed and examined in closer detail. The sword blade has a double edge with a purple hue that gives the sword a violet color. Both edges on the sword also have a sword pattern that is similar to the hamon found in Japanese katanas that allow the sword edge to retain its sharpness without losing its resilience. Etched on the sword fuller in close proximity to the guard is the Hanja (雪花) and is written vertically as the sword tip is faced upwards.

## History

Snow Flower first originated as a meteorite that fell on the village of Sacred Mountain many years ago leaving behind a large crater. The villagers at the time thought it was a star that fell from the heavens and the **Respected Shamaness**, who was the leader of the village, dubbed it the **Sacred Rock** and began to worship it.

In order to safeguard the prosperity and safety of her people, the Respected Shamaness isolated herself from the rest of the village in order to devote her time into making prayers and providing offerings for the Sacred Rock.

It was during one of her periods of isolation when martial artists from the Broken Fists Sect entered the village and began massacring every male resident while rounding up the females. When the Respected Shamaness became aware of this she approached the leader in charge and demanded that he and his men cease their actions, only to be immediately incapacitated and dragged along with the rest of the women deep within the mountain cavern beyond where the Sacred Rock was located.

When the Head Shamaness regained consciousness, she saw corpses of women whose bodies were hung as they were being bleed dry as the leader responsible entered the pool of blood to begin a ritual. Before she herself was cut down, she swore that she will exact her revenge for her people and cursed them for all of eternity even if she became a spirit. Her will and feelings of vengeance were so strong, that her spirit became imbued onto the Sacred Rock.

Sometime after the massacre of Sacred Mountain, a caravan of merchants from the White Dragon Merchant Troupe came upon the ruins of the village and one of the bodyguards, Hwang-Cheol, found the Sacred Rock still on its pedestal where the Head Shamaness used to pray to it. Hwang then retrieved the meteorite and took it with him back to the Northern Heavenly Sect while making a supply for its lone resident and captive, Jin Mu-Won. Following the battle between Seo Geum-Hyang and Tae Mu-Kang that reduced the Northern Heavenly Sect into ruins, Mu-Won took the meteorite from the rubble as he and Hwang evacuated the site before members of the Central Heavenly Alliance's Xingning branch apprehended them.

During his 7 year stay in the Sorrow Mountains, Mu-Won spent 2 years attempting to forge a sword from the ore he extracted from the black meteorite but had difficulty in having it accept his will. Eventually, he was able to get to a stage where the final process required the sword edges to be sharpened but the weapon's resistance began to grind away the whetstone. Suddenly, a spirit of a woman appeared while Mu-Won was too busy grinding at the sword when he detected its hidden presence, reminding him of Eun Ha-Seol, before abruptly fading away into the sword. He was able to finally finishing sharpening the sword and gave it the name Snow Flower as its beauty was reminiscent of Ha-Seol.

During Jin Mu-won escape from the Central Heavenly Alliance, Snow Flower was damaged during the battle with Jeok-Yeob of the Nine Skies due to Jin Mu-won overlooking the blade's maintenance. Around a year later, Jin Mu-won repaired the blade with the help of Bang Seo-Wol.

## Capabilities

As a weapon, Snow Flower is categorized as a Bewitched Blade as a result of the spirit and will of the Head Shamaness tainting the meteorite following the massacre of the village of Sacred Mountain. As such, it's overflowing with an abundance of sinister qi that threatens to consume Mu-Won if not handled properly and thus require him to have a strong enough will to overcome the pressure coming from the weapon.

While Snow Flower can pose some risks to him if its will isn't kept in check, it will nonetheless act in response to any threats to him and response accordingly. One such means that Snow Flower employs is the process of hijacking the will of an opponent by alluring them to its presence and fully possess them once they come into physical contact with the sword, even if it's sheathed. The opponent can then comply with any demands Mu-Won has and makes them extremely susceptible to interrogation for information and will remain under that state until the opponent collides with an outside physical force that removes the possession effect. This is only of the few instances the effects of sinister qi can be witnessed by an inanimate object.

An ability of the sword is that the spirit is able to physically manifest itself and provide support to Mu-Won in the event that he is incapacitated during combat as a defensive mechanism until he is able to continue the fight. Furthermore, Snow Flower can also physically restrain an opponent and force them to be immobile, giving Mu-Won the opportunity to deliver multiple unanswered attacks and can be overcome by sheer brute force.

Lastly, Snow Flower acts as the funnel through which Mu-Won is able to utilize his martial art, Gathering of Ten Thousand Shadows, through its combat moves via the Shadowed Blade of the End. As the blacksmith who created Snow Flower he is able to use the weapon with deadly effect, ranging from using the flat side of the blade to knock out multiple opponents to outright eviscerating them by merely drawing it out from its sheath. Snow Flower has shown a great degree of durability by withstanding attacks that can level entire landscapes without any visible damage appearing on it while also having been used to break weapons and armor plates used by opponents Mu-Won has faced.

## Trivia

* Snow Flower is a reference to Eun Ha-Seol's beauty, as the Hangul '설' meaning 'snow' is derived from Ha-Seol's name while '화' signifies 'beauty' or 'flower'.
* Interestingly, the Hangul '화' is used for Korean name of Mount Hua which is pronounced 'Hwa' in Korean.
* The Hanja (雪花) that is written on the sword are the Chinese characters that directly translates to Snow Flower.