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Phegn
Pronunciation: “Fain” (rhymes with pain)
Plural: “Phegns”

Phegns are brutal smashing instruments primarily used by miners, architects, and other professions tasked in manual labour. As with many mundane tools that’ve been adopted for combative purposes over time, so too has the phegn’s crushing force made it as much an efficient weapon as a utensil. While tera-keya are generally suited for penetrating rocks without risking damage to nearby debris, phegn are apt for clearing away collapsed entrances, ploughing through rubble, and smashing open stuck surfaces.

The phegn’s basic structure is vaguely similar to the elbow-rake’s; a pair of parallel shafts supported by a horizontal grip that’s held lengthways across a user’s forearm. Further down the phegn’s shafts are a pair of rectangular stone wedges, balanced upon a shaft lashed crossways over the shafts. The phegn is swung similar to a shaki, using both the weapon’s crushing ends to break apart rocks and shatter a victim’s bones. A phegn’s heads are typically built from strongly-reinforced granite, but metal plating often caps the weapon’s weights to add both impact and durability. It is believed the phegn was first developed to bear two separate heads because each head would gradually wear down after prolonged use.

Use and techniques
Phegns are simplistic and straightforward weapons; one need only possess enough strength to lift the heavy weapon in combat. The phegn’s cumbersome mass places a strain on a user’s arms, so only particularly athletic warriors can comfortably use the phegn on the battlefield. Many warriors trained in dual-wielding weaponry pair the phegn with an elbow-rake, using the lightweight weapon to deflect or distract opponents while landing smashing blows with the phegn gripped in the other hand.

Composition
A phegn’s shafts and handle are generally composed of wood, with firmly-knotted cords binding the stone wedges tightly to the striking formation. Lightweight materials, such as wood, bamboo or bone, are the most frequently used for fashioning a phegn’s shafts and handle… in addition to being very cheap to repair and maintain, they greatly reduce the weapon’s already cumbersome weight. Both wedges are comprised of solid granite, which are often clad with iron plating for enhanced durability. Smashing away through debris will eventually wear down a wedge composed of stone, so reinforced metal coverings ensure a longer duration. A phegn’s handle is traditionally wrapped in a leather covering or cloth padding, to reduce chafing a user’s hands.

Phegns constructed for combative purposes, or for ploughing through exceptionally dense materials are often built entirely from solid iron, making the wedges far stronger then those chiselled from granite. Unsurprisingly, these phegns are more expensive and extremely heavy, far beyond the carrying capacity of the average labourer. But while the phegn is significantly harder to carry, there are few creatures whose bones could hold together under a single, well-placed blow from a metal phegn’s impact. Additionally, a cluster of spikes or barbed spearheads are welded to the wedge’s surface, to augment the phegn’s crushing force with lethal penetration.