Kings Have Forsaken Entire Kingdoms to Possess One

[Bill]

Rune weapons are kind of ubiquitous across Palladium's settings as being super-powerful magic weapons. The reality described in their write-ups seems a bit less desirable than a kingdom though. So, since we can't really change this cornerstone of Palladium's Megaverse, what can we say about governing a kingdom that makes it less desirable than an indestructible magic sword?

[Killer Cyborg]

Paperwork.

[eliakon]

Assume that the kings wanted the epic Weapons of Legend. Mindprancer, Frost Foil, Foolkiller, Castlerake and others of their ilk sound like something worth a bit more than a couple million gold. And it doesn't say that they have to be BIG kingdoms. Some of the 'kingdoms' in palladium are pretty small, tens or hundreds of square miles in size with a few thousand people....that is not nearly as much to give up....

[glitterboy2098]

i suspect few go after such weapons intending to give up their kingdom to get it... rather the search for and acquisition of said items end up involving so many resources, so much conflict, and so much time, that their kingdoms loss is a side effect of their obsession with finding the item. that they kick off wars and turn allies into enemies in their efforts to find the clues against all obstacles, that their attention to the search is so much that they fail to manage the internal affairs of their kingdom, leading to unrest, famine, plague, etc. that once they have found the item (or know where t go to get it) ambitious rivals from within the nobility/merchants/generals/higher ranks of their kingdom decide that this is the perfect time to kick off their coup/civil war/succession.. either to prevent their ruler from getting immense power, or to grab that power for themselves..

[The Dark Elf]

Probably some even more powerful ones from the Time of a Thousand Magicks that have never been heard of since (coincidentally ofc)....

[zerombr]

I know exactly what you mean. Most of them are on the scale of 'ehhh' to 'nice'. I'd sell a rune weapon to an alchemist and use the money to make ubersword of doom or something I guess.

of course if I were the king, I'd use the rune weapon to reconquer the kingdom...

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

Rune weapons don't complain that the taxes are too high. Rune weapons don't come begging for a handout when the crops fail.
in short, a rune weapon is like a hot young new girlfriend. All fun, games, and awesomeness with none of the complaining, emasculating, or pain in the arsery of your fat, tired, old ex-girlfriend (kingdom).

[The Beast]

Personally, with the exception of Castlerake, I'm not impressed by them that much.

[Glistam]

Our last G.M. worked hard to imbue each Rune Weapon we came across with a compelling and interesting personality. It made them all quite awesome and very unique. Being able to converse with a being from ages past, who had been used throughout the ages, was an amazing benefit to the Rune Weapon not usually listed in the stats.

[Arakash]

I think you can take a lot of inspiration from the violent and chaotic history of ancient politics in our world. This is a world entirely without the fantasy aspects of other systems, but has still had huge amounts of violence and chaos in (especially ancient)politics.

Running Nations and actual Kingdoms(Hereditary Monarchies) especially can be a very risky business.

On a Personal level this means you are constantly at risk of being manipulated or outright murdered. Also the stress and morally ambiguous choices required to maintain the position against vicious plots and intrigue can take a serious toll.
For a Kingdom based on a hereditary monarchy it also takes a personal toll on the family of the Ruler. It often corrupts or puts in danger everyone around the ruler, especially their children.

On a Nationwide level, there is a lot of risk involved in actually holding onto what you have. You may lose it to dangers you cannot predict beforehand, many of which will be from inside your actual nation and perhaps even your friends. Even in a non-fantasy world, it is a dangerous business.

So i can see the attraction of wanting to trade all of this in for a single item.
That said, I'm not sure that's exactly what you were thinking when you asked the question .

[MaxxSterling]

In that type of setting, for a ruler, the only one worthwhile is Castlerake, the other ones, would be easily offset by my GAURDS!!!!

[eliakon]

I think one thing that is often overlooked is that the kings are probably not looking for a 'generic' rune weapon. Not even one of the 'run of the mill' Greatest Rune weapons. I suspect that they are looking for the Unique named ones. Things like a Deathkiss or a Mindprancer. A Phsicode or Bloodrazor. Things of legendary power with mighty, unique abilities. If you look at the descriptions of the unique weapons in the books you will find weapons there that may well be worth a mere kingdom or two.

[Slight001]

If a ruler wants to ensure his enemies are aware of his strength he needs not only a powerful weapon, but one with a storied past he exploit.

[glitterboy2098]

looking at middle earth..

Denethor, steward of Gondor, desired the one ring so much (because of his belief that it could be used as a weapon against mordor) that he lost his favored son, drove his other son into suicidal action, and nearly lost his kingdom due to failure to properly employ the weapons they had already. (though in the end, it was desire to keep 'his' kingdom from the true heir that led to it's biggest danger)

Sauron, in his drive to recover the one ring, kicked off a series of events that led to his own downfall.. basically by ticking off every other kingdom and revealing how important the ring is to them.

in the earlier ages, you have multiple civil wars within the Noldor elves as the son's of Feanor fought over who would possess the silmarils.. which on its own would be just stupid, if not for the fact that they did so while also fighting Morgoth.. leading to the tragic loss of those kingdoms in the great war. after wards, any time a silmaril was recovered by someone else, the sons of feanor would pretty much attack anyone to get it.. kicking off tons of wars which usually ended badly for the sons of feanor.. it only ended when two of the sons wound up taking the silmarils to inaccessible places, and the 3rd being placed into the sky as the star of Eärendil..

from tolkien also you had the arkenstone, which drove dwarves mad from greed, lured a dragon to Erebor, and nearly lost the dwarves a newly liberated kingdom (all of which was just amplified greatly in the movie version.. )

[random_username]

Kings Have Forsaken Entire Kingdoms to Possess One

"The" Black Sword of Styphon (PF D&Gp232).

[Smlawrence8]

I think the problem is that you are looking at it from a book point of view. Instead try to think of it as if you were there. You hear these amazing stories about a hero/villian and all the destruction he caused with his sword TERROR OF THE RUBBERIZED. The stories get exagerated and even things that he did with his own ability become wrapped up in his rubber sword. Eventually the myth and legend grow so big that the ruler KNOWS it can help him do X. So he begins to search for the weapon. Soon he begins to get more and more involved in his search. Eventually it becomes an all consuming desire to have this weapon.

This is how something becomes a weapon that someone would forsake their whole kingdom

[Alrik Vas]

Pretty much. Glitterboy's explanation using Middle Earth as an example also encapsulates it pretty well.

[Shadow Wyrm]

I have yet to see a rune weapon worth giving up even a small kingdom for. If I could make my own, what would I need kingdom for.

[Glistam]

My last Rifts G.M. made some pretty insane rune weapons. I could see kings forsaking kingdoms for some of these. While on my phone I can't even search for and find some of the weirdest ones from that campaign but they all had unique and fleshed out backstories and personalities.