A Chinese boy has made the discovery of a lifetime by stumbling across a 3,000-year-old bronze sword in a river in Jiangsu Province.
Eleven-year-old Yang Junxi says he touched the rusty weapon's tip while washing his hands in the Laozhoulin River, in Gaoyou County, the state news agency Xinhua reports. After pulling it out he took it home, where it quickly became a sensation for curious locals, before the family decided to send it to officials for examination. "Some people even offered high prices to buy the sword," Junxi's father Jinhai says. "But I felt it would be illegal to sell the relic."
Archaeologists have dated the 26cm (10in) weapon to either the Shang or Zhou dynasties - the dawn of Chinese civilisation - based on its material, size and shape. Lyu Zhiwei of the Gaoyou Cultural Relics Bureau says that while the sword appears to be of both decorative and practical use, its form suggests it was the status symbol of a civil official rather than a sword for fighting.
The authorities are now planning a major archaeological dig in the river, once part of a system of ancient waterways that developed into today's Grand Canal. Junxi and his father have been given a reward for handing in the relic.
Cool. Also I know I've been reading to much Earthdawn because I took one look at it and went "Purifier has been found!"
That's a reference that only Cat and Lys might get now that I think of it... All well.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
No, Purifier falls on my personal list of underwhelming thread items I would never both using. I suppose it has some appeal when you reach the point where you can trivially dump 13 600 LP on such a highly specialized weapon, but even then it's still lacking. For starters it's overpriced, being more a Warden than Master level item. Then the Horror Mark detection ability doesn't synergyze with the rest of the sword given the damage bonuses do not apply to Horror-tainted. It is also of questionable utility in and of itself because it requires Spellcasting to do it, and most Adepts with Spellcasting can detect the Horror Marks using Astral Sight anyway. Finally the capstone power demands I spend finite character resources on one time benefit, which is simply not happening. To make Purifier truly worthwhile I would drop it to Warden, leave the Horror Mark detection to a specialist in exchange for something else, and nerf the second Rank 6 power so that it doesn't cause permanent damage.
Lys is lily, or lilium.
The pretty flowers remind me of a song of elves.
