Vahevia.com - Official Site
Lotus-Vane
The lotus-vane is a hefty, four-pronged weapon measuring around eleven-feet in length, and often favoured by those willing to sacrifice mobility for sheer power. Each of the vane’s four protrusions end in sharp points, narrow spearheads or barbed hooks… sometimes an assortment of all three. The weapon’s considerable mass makes it difficult to wield, but the unwieldy weight only enforces the prong’s penetration, using momentum to drive the protrusions deeply through a creature’s flesh and gearings alike. Because of this, lotus-vanes are respected and feared for being powerful, reliable weapons.

Use and techniques
With their burdensome weight, lotus-vanes are difficult to carry by weaker individuals. Smaller variants are often improvised for less athletic combatants, but these derivations often lack the traditional vane’s penetration. Regardless of their exact size or weight, all lotus-vanes are suited for straightforward, hacking techniques… making them ideal for penetrating heavily-armoured opponents. Against more agile and fast enemies, lotus-vanes are less effective, and offer little efficiency for blocking and parrying incoming attacks. Although the weapon’s four-prongs make it suited for catching an opponent’s weaponry, the lotus-vane’s weight makes intercepting attacks very difficult for many warriors.
While exceptional strength makes wielding a lotusvane easier, it certainly isn’t a prerequisite. Anybody strong enough to carry a military weapon can swing a lotusvane around in combat, regardless of their exact strength. Larger or heavier vanes are merely slower to wield; making them clumsier and more burdensome for weaker individuals. As such, lotusvanes vary considerably in their size and weight, scaled to better meet the needs of less athletic warriors. Selynah fashion lotusvanes of startling size for their military… each prong spanning the width of a small cottage, and requiring even the full strength of a hearty selynah to carry. These massive vanes are literally capable of punching straight through a heavily-armoured fortress’s walls, much as a digger’s tera-keya would plough through soil.

Composition
Reinforced iron is easily the most common material used for crafting lotusvanes, although wood and bamboo is a popular alternative for constructing lighter variations. Vanes built from such lighter materials must be reinforced with metal spearheads, lest the lotusvane’s wooden prongs splinter against the first creature it strikes. Nature wizards are believed to use budding saplings with four-branched growths to build organic lotusvanes… lashing a sharply-chiselled stone upon each of the sapling’s branches, tightly knotted with hempen cords.

A smaller, one-handed variant of the lotusvane has claimed increasing popularity over the years, mostly due to the ease-of-use it presents to both strong and weak warriors. To avoid confusion with the larger, heavier original, the one-handed lotusvane has been dubbed a variety of distinctive nicknames. The most commonly used are “Peasant’s Vane”, “Scout’s Lotusvane” and “Combat’s crowbar” (as a lotusvane’s sharp prongs make them ideal for prying apart locks, stuck doors, sealed windows, etc). While these one-handed variants barely possess even half the penetrating strength as their larger, deadlier originals, they are very easy to wield and excel at more mundane uses (such as scaling cliff-faces, mining stone, and prying open locks and doors). As such, the peasant’s vane possesses greater versatility then the true lotusvane, although is severely weaker.

Aside from the handle and weapon’s shaft, each of the lotus-vane’s prongs has been dubbed a name given by blacksmiths for easier distinction. The term “crossroads” refers collectively to all four of a lotus-vane’s prongs, while the short remainder of the shaft above the crossroads is known as a “head”. A lotus-vane’s head is generally left pointed or blunt, but some more elaborate designs bear what’re called “crowns”; a stylised rendition of a symbol or rune. These are primarily for cosmetic reasons only, but crowns are sometimes emblazoned to represent the owner’s homeland, or a particular smith’s craftsmanship. Common examples are starbursts, skulls, pitchforks, a clenched fist, or a tree. Blacksmiths wishing to have their work easily recognized often place their personal marks or signatures upon the lotusvane’s crown (personal names are usually emblazoned upon a vertical disk). Sometimes, the lotusvane’s crown is replaced with a sharp barb or spearhead, to supply a fifth-striking point fit for stabbing motions. Among adventurers, the terms ‘head’ and ‘crown’ are often used interchangeably (and incorrectly), mentioned only to specify the remainder of the lotusvane’s shaft above the crossroads.