Soul Sword

The Soul Sword is not an item you craft. It is a soul that grows with you. Every sword rolls its own identity when it is bound, reveals its skill tree as you play, and grows in the direction you lead it. It becomes epic through moments (rituals, trials, its awakening), not through bigger numbers.

How it begins

Three fragments of an old sword lie in loot chests:

• the Hilt in desert temples and dungeons
• the Guard in bastions
• the Blade in ancient cities

At the Soul Altar the binding ritual joins them into your sword. It costs 10 levels, and you give up 3 hearts for 20 minutes. At the peak of the ritual the sword hovers over the altar and asks for its name.

One of a kind

Each sword rolls its own:

• Trait: Bloodthirsty, Patient, Restless or Proud. It changes how the sword gains strength, which tasks it prefers and how it speaks.
• Signature ability: a legendary power only this sword has. It reveals itself stage by stage and awakens at the last stage.
• Soul tree: a fixed frame with random contents, steered by how you fight.

Souls and aspects

Kills with the sword give soul essence in aspects: Ember (blazes, magma cubes, ghasts), Decay (the undead) and Void (endermen, shulkers). The dominant aspect colours the blade and shapes the tree. Farming does not pay: the same mob over and over, spawners, and kills that others did for you give little or nothing.

Five stages, five trials

The sword levels from 1 to 50 and earns one point per level for its tree. At levels 10, 20, 30 and 40 it waits for its awakening trial:

The trials follow Minecraft's own bosses, so the sword never outruns your progress. Its base damage ends around Netherite +1. Its strength comes from abilities that cost something.

Abilities and resonance

Full hits, kills and hits taken charge resonance. Every unlocked active ability sits on a wheel: hold V to choose one, and press right-click or R to cast it. Keystones are strong, and each comes with a catch. Rerolling the tree costs Soul Splinters, an item bound to your sword that stays with you when you die.

Runes instead of enchantments

The sword refuses enchanting tables and books. Craft a Rune Blank from amethyst and lapis, and forge it into one of 12 runes at the Rune Forge: Loot, Wisdom, Sharpness, Sweep, Resonance, Ember, Decay, Void and more, each in three tiers. You set them into the sword's slots at the Soul Altar. A jobless villager at the Rune Forge becomes a Rune Smith, who trades blanks and tier I runes.

Tasks, quests and a story

• The sword offers three tasks at a time, and you take two: hunts, exploration, survival, offerings.
• Marked foes carry affixes and drop their reward.
• Memories tell the story of the sword's former bearer, one per stage. The last one gives the sword its true name.
• On some nights a lost soul appears and asks for one last wish.
• Soul Echo calls the ghost of the last soul your sword took, to fight beside you for a while.

A voice of its own

The sword whispers in broken runes at first. Its words grow clearer with every stage and the more it knows you. It reacts to much of what you do, but rarely, so every remark counts.

Feels like Minecraft

• its own advancement tab, statistics and subtitled sounds
• a name from the anvil becomes its name
• Write down the chronicle turns its story into a book
• JEI support is optional

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.20.1, Forge 47.4 or newer
• EmberLib 0.4.17 or newer (required)
• JEI 15.56 or newer (optional)
• Install it on the server and on every client.