History Main / AncestralWeapon

* ''Film/ThroughBlackSpruce'': Will has his grandfather's rifle, who fought using it during World War Two, which he threatens Marius' gang when they come to confront him. Later he shoots Marcus with it too.

* In the [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa manga adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', Link uses his grandfather's sword for most of the first volume, and he later receives another sword from his ancestor Raven.

* The [[KatanasAreJustBetter Dragon Sword]] wielded by [[HighlyVisibleNinja Ryu Hayabusa]] is an ancient sword handed down by generations in the Dragon Lineage and the Hayabusa Clan. It is also mentioned in both the NES and the UsefulNotes/XBox series that Ryu got the blade directly from his father.

* In the ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Three Houses]]'' fanfic ''Fanfic/YoullGetNoAnswersFromTheBlueSeaStar'', the Heroes’ Relics are absent, but the Sword of the Creator remains in an altered form. It's no longer simply a sword; instead it's equal parts weapon and tool, one [[spoiler:used by Sothis in her creative activities thousands of years ago.]] Only those [[spoiler:linked to her]] can activate it.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'': From the ''Book of Exalted Deeds'', the Ancestral Relic feat allows even non-magic users (as long as good-aligned) to enchant an item by sacrificing wealth and praying over it; however said item needs to have belonged to a family member or revered mentor. Not solely apply to weapons, with the exception of the Anointed Knight PrestigeClass, whose ancestral weapon can be further increased in power as they level up through alchemical secrets.

* In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' the Ancestral Relic feat and Anointed Knight prestige class allow a character with an ancestral weapon to increase its power as they level up.

** Dawn, the Ancestral Weapon of House Dayne. It stands out from the crowd by being ThunderboltIron rather than Valyrian steel. Whoever currently holds the sword is known as 'The Sword of Morning'. Dawn also stands out because the Daynes don't automatically give the sword to the oldest son like the other houses do; instead, the entire house decides who is most worthy of it, and will withhold the blade if they don't think there is a suitable son to wield it yet.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', even a common jade [[{{BFS}} daiklave]] can be a legendary sword passed down through a Dragon-Blooded family line since the First Age.

*** Heroes' Relics are a group of weapons once wielded by the 10 Elites, heroes of Fódlan's distant past, and passed down through their noble bloodlines to their descendants. Each of the main characters gains a Relic during the course of the story, and several supporting characters descended from one of the heroes gain one as well. While ''anyone'' can wield a Relic, regardless of blood or possession of a Crest (special powers inherited by a few of the heroes’ descendants), doing so with a unit without the particular Crest inherited from the weapon’s original wielder (or at least a Crest in general, though they still miss out on the Relic's unique [[LimitBreak Combat Art]]) results in gameplay-crippling stat drops, self-inflicted damage after a round of combat, and in extreme cases, [[spoiler:horrific transformation into a grotesque monster.]] The Relics are in fact [[spoiler:the bones of slain [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Nabateans]] forged into weapons, with the Crest Stones within them being their hearts. The Elites gained their Crests from drinking their corresponding Nabatean's blood and thus the ability to use these weapons, with it being implied that the Relics are on some level ''still alive'' and thus their...violent response to being wielded by someone they don't accept.]]
*** The Sacred Weapons are a similar set of weapons once mainly wielded by the Four Saints, another set of heroes from Fódlan's distant past, though some of them have Crests tied to the Elites as well, and similarly passed down through their noble bloodlines to their descendants. While anyone can similarly use a Sacred Weapon without possessing its corresponding Crest, only those with them can bring out their full benefit such as [[LimitBreak Combat Art]] or a HealingFactor. On the other hand, these lack the more horrific side-effects of misusing a Relic [[spoiler:likely because the Sacred Weapons truly are just weapons, albeit blessed with the power of the particular Nabatean whose Crest is linked with it, hence why the Saints (who are all Nabateans) used them exclusively rather than the stolen bones of their slaughtered kin.]]

** Sausage's uncle Capitán Santana owns a sword that is said to [[YourSoulIsMine hold the souls of everyone he has killed]], and he intends to pass it on to Sausage himself when he's "ready for it". [[spoiler:Sausage is led to it on Day 125 just before Water's wedding by the sword's Whispers, and proceeds to become BrainwashedAndCrazy while in possession of the sword until the finale.]]

* The Sword of Martin the Warrior from ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'', held in Redwall Abbey and given to its champion.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'':

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' frequently has ancestral HumongousMecha; House Kurita is most explicit about this sort of thing, 'Mechs being passed down from one warrior to another much like swords were passed from father to son in a line of samurai, but many 'Mechs have histories that can be traced back decades or even centuries. In one scenario from an early gamebook, a pair of Mackies from the original production run, [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece the first Mechs ever designed]] and roughly ''six hundred years'' old, are powered up to fight the Black Widow Company. Most such mechs usually acquit themselves with great distinction. The passing-down of mechs gradually fades away (but never disappears) as the Inner Sphere rebuilds its factories and infrastructure after the [[ForeverWar 300 years of total warfare]] deescalates and LostTechnology from before the wars is discovered.

** Similarly, Ron Weasley starts out with a wand that belonged to his older brother Charlie. After it's irreparably damaged in a run-in with a whomping willow, he gets his own wand from Ollivander's.

** And then there's his InvisibilityCloak. [[spoiler: A literal ancestral item as it dates back to the 13th century to the time of the Peverells and it has been passed from father to son over the generations.]]
** The resurrection stone is also one of these from [[spoiler:one of the other Peverell brothers. He’s the one that Voldemort was related to. In the flashback, his grandfather says as much but Harry doesn’t understand what it means at that point]].

** In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'' Clary gets Heosphorus (dawn-bringer), one of two swords her father commissioned that was specifically meant to be an Ancestral weapon for the Morgensern family. Her brother Sebastion/Jonathan has the other one named Phaesphorus (light-bringer). [[spoiler:Heosphorus eventually gets destroyed after Clary uses it to kill her brother.]]

* In the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' series, Valyrian steel swords (the knowledge of making it has been lost) are passed down through the lines of noble houses. These heirlooms are so important that even the most impoverished noble houses will not sell them. Tywin Lannister spent years trying to purchase one from another house since the Lannisters' sword Brightroar was lost at sea long ago. Too bad houses would rather sell their daughters than sell their swords. [[spoiler: After he gains possession of the Stark's Valyrian greatsword he has it melted down and reforged into two new swords for his son and grandson.]]

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', the Heroes' Relics are a group of weapons once wielded by the 10 Elites and Four Saints, heroes of Fódlan's distant past, and passed down through their noble bloodlines to their descendants. Each of the main characters gains a Relic during the course of the story, and several supporting characters descended from one of the heroes gain one as well. While ''anyone'' can wield a Relic, regardless of blood or possession of a Crest (special powers inherited by a few of the heroes’ descendants), doing so with a unit without the particular Crest inherited from the weapon’s original wielder results in gameplay-crippling stat drops, self-inflicted damage after a round of combat, and in extreme cases, [[spoiler:horrific transformation into a grotesque monster.]]

* In ''WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'', they directly say in the description for [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/oodoov.htm Oodoov]] that certain examples of this creature are passed down as family heirlooms. Of course, given that the creature's power to absorb pain tends to turn the user into TheBerserker, surviving long enough to pass it on is easier said than done.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'': Several of the rare Blades are passed down through family lines, especially royalty. Of course, since the Blades are people, this means they usually end up acting like just another family member. Brighid and Aegaeon are passed down through the royal line of Mor Ardain, while Pandoria is passed from the kings of Tantal to their sons. Brighid is bonded to Mòrag and Aegaeon to the Emperor, [[spoiler:though Mòrag ends up with Aegaeon after the Emperor [[NotQuiteDead temporarily dies]]]]. Zeke is Pandoria's rightful inheritor, but he stole her when he was running away from home, which complicates matters slightly.

* Both Raijin and Fujin Swords in ''Manga/{{Yaiba}}'', together with many others, are really old weapons from the past.

** The Gardeners had [[BladeOnAStick Otherbane]], the weapon of the Gardener Kings, taken to Horn Hill in the aftermath of the Field of Fire. The Tarlys find it and give it to Willas, solidifying his hold over the Reach.