Crafting Motif 66: Silver Dawn Style

Contents
As I wait (oh, so impatiently) for permission to enact my plan for the final eradication of all lycanthropes, I find my mind turning to the history of our glorious order, its heritage and traditions. I shall try to describe our traditional arms and armor as briefly and clearly as possible for the benefit of future werewolf hunters. By the gleam of silver shall we slay!

AXES

The brazen blades of Silver Dawn axes have hewn many a werewolf asunder, and may their butchery ever continue! We wield a simple but effective single-bladed axe with a long, curved edge, its haft chased with silver, our favorite ornamentation.

BELTS

A Silver Dawn warrior's belt looks like a simple leather affair designed to hold up its wearer's gear and weaponry, but it's actually far less mundane than it appears. For each Silver Dawn belt is crafted of tanned werewolf-hide, butchered from the beast's inner leg to get pieces of proper length. Strewth!

BOOTS

The footwear of the Order of the Silver Dawn are always warriors' sabatons of heavy hide and plate, the better to protect the feet of our beast-slayers as they put the boot into wounded lycanthropes. "That's right!" we shout. "Give it another!"

BOWS

The elegant bows of our Silver Dawn archers send their winged darts arcing into the pelts and soft underbellies of the horrid abominations we are sworn to slay. Our greatest archer, the legendary Sir Brancas, once drove his arrows through the eyes of nine werewolves in succession. Oh, to have been there to see it!

CHEST PIECES

The Silver Dawn cuirass is constructed of overlapping bands of heavy leather, thick but flexible, for we must be nimble when contending with our fierce and feral enemies. Woe betide the werewolf who tries his teeth on the boiled leather of a Silver Dawn chest piece!

DAGGERS

A Silver Dawn's dagger is a short but sturdy stabbing blade with two edges and a silvered crosspiece for parrying. A warrior keeps one always at their belt for delivering the coup de grace to a mortally wounded man-beast—usually right in its abominable guts!

GLOVES

Many martial traditions prefer gauntlets that protect the hand and forearm but leave the fingers and thumb bare, the better to grip their weaponry—but their opponents aren't lycanthropes, whose bite brings a curse. For this reason all Silver Dawn gauntlets are full-fingered, even with light armor, as we dare not fight with bare skin exposed.

HELMETS

In most cases we Silver Dawn stalwarts wear helms that cover the entire head, for the same reason we wear full gauntlets: we dare not show exposed skin in combat with beasts whose bite brings a curse. We prefer headgear of tough, boiled leather—werewolf hide, if we can get enough of it!

LEG GREAVES

Werewolves: it's always said that they go for the throat, but we who fight them know they're just as likely to target the legs, as that's how their wild cousins bring down their prey. And that's why we spare no expense on Silver Dawn greaves, making them strong, durable, and of overlapping layers.

MACES

Silver Dawn's mace is a thing of terrible beauty, topped with a heavy brazen ball studded with two dozen silvered spikes. As you can imagine, a werewolf's skull that has been battered with one of these lovelies is barely recognizable!

SHIELDS

Silver Dawn shields are tall, oblong affairs crafted of durable hardwood, thin but dense, and all but impervious to the claws and fangs of our atrocious opponents, may the Divines ever aid us in striking them down! From behind these shields we hammer those bestial monsters with abandon.

SHOULDER ARMOR

To strike fear into the cowardly hearts of our wicked foes, the Silver Dawn warriors wear on their shoulders, not stiff pauldrons or shoulder cops, but instead the pelts and severed heads of wolves and man-wolves, their eyes replaced by silver spheres. For by the gleam of silver shall we slay!

STAVES

A Silver Dawn spell staff is surmounted with golden wings of victory unfurled around a finial bearing the silvered image of a severed wolf's-head. How I love to watch one of our staves glow with refulgent death before spitting its message of destruction at some wretched lycanthrope!

SWORDS

The swords of the Order of the Silver Dawn are straight, strong, and double-edged, like the pack-slaughtering knights who wield them. There's nothing like watching a howling man-beast go down under the flashing blades of half a dozen Silver Dawn warriors. Glorious!