#77 The Knifemakers' Baths

Age: 300 Years

Hidden or Lost?: Hidden

History: To the outside world, the true test of a master bladesmith is how great of a knife they can forge, but to the secret powers of the world, the mark of a true bladesmith’s prowess can only be read in their scars.

The Knifemakers are an elite society of expert bladesmiths who have been passing down the secrets of metalcraft since ancient times, treating the forging of a blade as a mystical experience, and producing supernatural results. From the society’s beginnings in secret meetings among the world’s greatest blacksmiths, The Knifemakers have grown into an ultra elite cabal of weapon crafters and secret keepers.

Their stronghold and hidden forge are located at a site known as, The Knifemakers’ Baths. On its face this historic bathhouse welcomes prospective clients, who can meet discreetly with Knifemakers to request commissions or even more ‘hands-on’ blade work. The central pool, known as ‘The Quench’ is a general area where Knifemakers take meetings with outsiders, and expose their scars, allowing them to read each others’ raised skin like a history. Many Knifemakers are covered in razor-thin lines of bleached skin where the impossibly sharp blades they create have sliced them, or thick undulating welts from broad gashes earned in combat.

The Knifemakers preach that to truly understand the blade, one must experience a forging of their own, and most Knifemaker Initiates get their first scars during the trials held in the hidden wings of the Baths. This gauntlet of perilous challenges include such tests of strength and will as wading through an acid bath, risking the very skin on their bones during The Grinding, and making their way up the Ladder of Razors.

Should an Initiate survive The Forging and become a true Knifemaker, they will be shown the Secret Smelts and the True Hardening, techniques that allow them to forge edged blades with extraordinary properties, including indestructibility, flame emission, molecular carving, or fluid state to name a few. Or they can simply access the incredible armory of fantastic weapons created by their forebears for inspiration.

But the first blade any Knifemaker makes is a simple, perfect Short Knife that they carry with them forever after, a symbol of membership. To lose this symbol of humility and skill would mean banishment from the Knifemakers’ Baths. To be cut away completely.

1. Lobby

2. Scarred Lockers

3. Unmarked Lockers

4. The Quench

5. Bodyforge

6. The Ice Bath

7. Damascus Mists

8. Acid Baths

9. The Hammer Blows

10. The Grinding Wheels

11. Ladder of Razors

12. Forge of One Knife

13. Knifemaker’s Lounge

14. Sharpening Stones

15. The First Metal

16. Knifemaker’s Library

17. Armory of Simple Cuts

18. Diagram of the Trueblade