They are there largely because of an Enemy Mine situation. There are two massive evil organizations that are warring to Take Over the World. One of them has taken over the United States of America from the inside, and the other have different nations under nations under their control (most notably Japan). The series is about a genetically-modified superhuman race called the Evolved. One organization wants to replace humanity with them, one wants to kill all the evolved and use their power to rule the world in an iron-fisted dictatorship. Neither of which is good for the people.
The Six Swords was thus formed as a coalition to prevent this from happening. Despite being the heroes here, they are on the whole a Hero with Bad Publicity, as most nations have declared them a terrorist organization (China is an exception — this is important). There are those who fear them and/or despise them, but just as many who cheer them on. Their symbol is a shield with six different swords crossed over it. Each sword represents a different organization, while the shield represent those part of the coalition that aren't a affiliated with the main six (basically volunteers).
As for the organization of women (I have yet to come up with a name yet, I'm considering "The Black Rain" but I'm not sure about it), they were originally serving one of the villainous organizations, but had a falling out with them when the latter decided that they outlived their usefulness. This being an Evil Versus Evil situation, they knew that even they couldn't fight them without support. As such, they joined in as part of The Six Swords because both them and the others needed each other's help to survive. It's Teeth-Clenched Teamwork at its finest, since they could've just as easily been fighting each other under a different circumstance. As much as they would loathe to admit it, having a Token Evil Teammate branch is useful because, as mentioned above, they can do the things that others wouldn't be willing to do by themselves.
In some of my fantasy stories there's no competition between medieval weapons and magic. Weapons such as swords and bows are just obsolete and no longer employed. Nobody marches in dense formations but small mobile 5-15 man squads armed with a range of weapons. Large walls are no longer used as they're far too easily destroyed.
As the setting progresses engagements begin to take place where soldiers fire on enemies from over the horizon. At a certain point in the timeline two soldiers can fight by throwing up massive waves of "seeker blades". Some of these attempt to collide with enemies at extreme speeds or explode on contact whilst others are point defence, seeking out and shooting down enemy seekers.
There's no distinction between technology and magic in my universe. What people refer to as magic is simply another set of natural laws to be studied and used in the creation of machines. There's no sense in ignoring these perfectly useful natural laws or excluding other natural phenomenon such as electromagnetism or strong nuclear force.
edited 1st Jun '16 7:46:06 PM by matti23
Question: So you know Hammer Bros? Would the idea of a "throwing hammer" be practical in real life?
Leviticus 19:34The problem with a throwing hammer is it is heavy. And throwing weapons need to be light, because they are your ammunition.
A throwing hammer for use in combat is essentially a rock with a handle. The handle could conceivably be used to improve the throw, but I'd have to throw a lot of Science! at it to be sure.
edited 2nd Jun '16 1:52:45 AM by war877
It also depends on how you define a hammer.
Ironically calling a throwing a hammer a rock on a handle is spot on for the original throwing hammer for sport use. They were pretty much that. A weight, usually rounded, affixed to a long wooden handle that was a spun around to toss. It became the modern hammer toss you see in the Olympics today that is the weight on the end of a cord of some sort with a handle.
In theory if you could launch those with any reliable accuracy they would quite likely ruin someone's day should they be struck by one. The men's hammer is 16lbs and have been thrown up to 200+ feet. I would imagine that one connecting even in armor would not be something you want to personally experience.
The problem though is that in terms of practicality it isn't a very practical weapon to throw. They require a fair bit of room and a good spot to lob them from.
edited 20th Jun '16 1:57:11 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?Another question: Spears can pierce bone, right? I expect that they'd be able to, but I'd like to make sure, since a character's called out for not realizing this.
edited 7th Jun '16 9:00:33 AM by Protagonist506
Leviticus 19:34Anything iron can do, copper can do better. Little known fact.
The reason a piercing weapon is unlikely to pierce bone, is that bone is usually convex in shape. Sharp, pointy objects will usually deflect, and go through softer adjacent tissue.
Now, I am no expert on putting holes in bone, but with the notable exception of a drill, I think just about anything will nick the bone or fracture the bone, unless it is going incredibly fast. If it is going incredibly fast, the hardness of the material doesn't really matter anymore.
If use an Olympic style hammer with a zhèntiānléi
attached, you'd certainly get a pretty awesome weapon.
edited 20th Jun '16 7:57:16 AM by Matm
In my world, orphans who don't already have a name are named by the orphanage that houses them. These names are almost always words, and if they don't get adopted than they don't have last names. This further adds to the Aerith and Bob dynamic. Some characters in my story with words for names include Roses, Monkey, Kid, Stone, Hammer etc.
What do you guys think of this idea?
Author.Got two factions, one represents Order and one is Chaos. Neither was supposed to be obviously good or bad and they were represented equally in the story. Team Order was not supposed to have any measures which were obviously good or bad, at most they would have laws and traits which are contentious or at most controversial, but in the end one could make a argument in their favor. Any suggestions for traits (laws, culture etc.) for Team Order? The order faction is still a democracy and does what it thinks is best.
edited 1st Aug '16 10:21:19 PM by zepv
I think you folks might appreciate this.
The primitive technology channel
A youtube channel where the guy uses stone age tech to build shelter, tools, pots, and other essentials. It is very time consuming and makes community home building make a lot more sense for the obvious reasons.
Makes a handy point of reference for how important tools are in general and just how labor intensive the by hand only process really is.
edited 2nd Aug '16 8:55:40 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?![]()
I think the answer there is very straightforward in part. All of them. Team order has all the laws. Of course they still try to do the right thing. Everyone does. Team chaos will be anarchists. They want to get rid of all the laws. Again, they are trying to do the right thing. They cannot understand how dangerous this is.
Is it make sense to use wands in lieu of actual sword hilts as magic source for use of magic knights? I intend shorter wands only allows magical effects on sword blades due to limited magic capacity while longer wands permits actual spell casting from the blades themselves for a future work of mine.
The one thing I worry about here is structural integrity; swords and the like are usually used for stabbing and chopping up dudes, which in general is kind of a high-impact business. The core of the wand would have to be rather strong so it could withstand the shock of numerous blows and deflections over the course of its life without shattering and leaving the knight with just a sword.

Their reason for belonging to the coalition could be Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work. The other members realize it's sometimes necessary to Shoot the Dog but would rather keep their own hands clean, so they tolerate this Token Evil Teammate despite the tensions they create.
Worldbuilding is fun, writing is a chore