Iddawc’s forging and binding began as an attempt to make a spirit into a source of power and ended with the creation of a weapon that could not be unmade. Drosta Paracelsus later explained that he had fashioned the blade and helped the spirit within it transform, making his own vanity and the pursuit of power the roots of an enduring danger.

Discovery and Forging

The Cruithne discovered the being that would become Iddawc deep in the mines. They did not understand its capabilities until many had been killed; a Druidecht warned them, but Drosta admits that he was foolish to see the spirit as something valuable to trap. He devised a plan, and the Arch-Rike approved the price. Drosta does not disclose what that price was, saying only that it would be unseemly.

The plan did not simply imprison the spirit. As Drosta later acknowledged, he and his people helped it transform. The blade he made became a spirit weapon, with a spirit hosted inside it and named Iddawc. Drosta calls the result an evil thing brought into existence through vanity and pride: an effort to create a weapon that could conquer death.

Power and Limits

Iddawc serves only one master at a time. It seeks a powerful person and subverts that person; when its master dies, it looks for another. Its blade can sever a life with a single cut, and Drosta describes it as possessing power over death. The weapon’s hunger is therefore not a fixed allegiance but a continuing threat: possession gives it a route to influence, while a master’s death only begins the search again.

The weapon cannot be destroyed. Drosta says it will persist until its term of service ends, a span far beyond his lifetime or even a dozen lifetimes. It was bound for ten generations, and only the second generation had begun. Because destruction was impossible, hiding and safeguarding it were the remaining ways to keep it from claiming further victims.

Commission and Concealment

The Arch-Rike commissioned Iddawc for the Quiet Kishion, his most feared protector, but the weapon was never used in that role. Tyrus of Kenatos arranged for it to be stolen and hidden from the world, specifically to prevent it from claiming more victims. The theft did not resolve the danger: Iddawc remained intact, capable of seeking a master, and in need of continued protection.

Drosta’s account to Annon takes place as the group is approaching a gateway to Mirrowen. He identifies the blade Annon carries as the Iddawc he made, then explains its history and insists that Annon understand both its nature and the risk of treating it as an ordinary weapon. The revelation turns the blade from an unexplained possession into the surviving consequence of a failed attempt at spirit-binding.

Responsibility and Significance

Drosta presents Iddawc’s creation as both a personal failure and an institutional one. The Arch-Rike authorized the price, and the Cruithne’s craft contributed to the creation of the Paracelsus Order; Drosta nevertheless names his own pride as the decisive mistake. His later work to repair the harm done to the spirits of Mirrowen gives his confession a clear consequence: he has become an adversary of the practice he helped establish.

Iddawc embodies the contradiction at the heart of the attempt to master death. Its makers sought power over mortality, but produced a weapon that kills, seeks successive masters, and cannot be destroyed for generations. The only remedy Drosta can offer is restraint: recognize the spirit within the blade, do not mistake its power for safe service, and keep it hidden.