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The mystery of the Helswath


Wanuska
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The design of the Swanchika is identical to the French Francisque double stylisée, a mythical axe used in 1940s Vichy Regime's coat of arms. Double stylisée means that a second cutting edge has been added.


462px-Informal_emblem_of_the_French_Stat


It is a symbol of power and punishment, as a reference to the lictores from the Roman Empire, who used to execute the sentences of the court, like death penalty and torture.


The francisque was a typical weapon from the Francs, the people who founded our glorious nation, and only elite soldiers were able to wield it.


There is a very famous short story in the French folklore involving Charlemagne using a francisque, called Le vase de Soissons.


Check it out here: https://en.wikipedia...ase_of_Soissons



The tomahawk is a weapon directly inspired from this axe, and the fasces or faisceau in french is still used in our Republic's coat of arms, the double stylisée being replaced in order to avoid the sad memories of the Vichy Regime, who collaborated with the Nazi under Maréchal Pétain's rule.



This is not the first Weapon related to early Franch history, two other weapons, Durendal and Hauteclaire are from the Chanson de Roland


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The tomahawk is a weapon directly inspired from this axe,

what? tomahawks were a continuation of an axe design native americans were making since before europeans showed up there, dude.

the mystery of the swanchika is the name, not the design; anyone with a weapons encyclopedia (o-or is that just me...?) can look in and find one that looks like it...

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what? tomahawks were a continuation of an axe design native americans were making since before europeans showed up there, dude.

the mystery of the swanchika is the name, not the design; anyone with a weapons encyclopedia (o-or is that just me...?) can look in and find one that looks like it...

I think he means that they visually resemble tomahawks in FE, because Native American tomahawks aren't double-bladed and don't look like FE tomahawks at all.

But yeah, doesn't solve the name problem

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problem is, there's really nothing of interest in helswath's design that tells us anything about it, let alone solves a mystery. there's a hell of a lot of fe axes with the same two-bladed shape as helswath, most of them ordinary as hell, so it's pretty hard to take something about its shape as insightful information on specific mythological inspirations

i mean at this point i'm happy to concede that neither name is the most meaningful thing in the world (would love to be proven wrong as i was with tinni) but chasing its shape is kind of futile

Edited by bookofholsety
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