Blood Sword (gamebook series)
The Battlepits of Krarth cover art
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| Author | Oliver Johnson and Dave Morris |
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| Illustrator | Russ Nicholson |
| Cover artist | Russ Nicholson |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Knight Books |
| Published | 1987-88 |
| Media type | |
| No. of books | 5 |
Blood Sword is a series of gamebooks created by Oliver Johnson and Dave Morris and published by Knight Books in the late 1980s. The books were illustrated by Russ Nicholson and the maps supplied by Geoff Wingate. It was set in the invented fantasy world of "Legend", the authors' own fantasy world, which was the setting for their Dragon Warriors role playing game too.
The world of Legend has noticeable parallels with Earth in the late 10th century AD, with strong elements of Christian, Greek, Roman, Norsemen and Arabian mythology. Crusaders of the 'True Faith' (an analogue of Christianity) have defeated the Ta'ashim people (an analogue of Islam) and conquered the Outremer. As the timeline approaches 1000 AD, Millennialist fever grips many.
After emerging victorious from the Battlepits of Krarth (book 1), where a deadly contest is held every thirteen months, you - a hero (or a group of heroes) belonging to the True Faith - are involved in a bloody battle against a pack of werewolves (book 2). Having defeated the pack, you receive a jeweled scabbard from a dying harpist - it's the scabbard of the Sword of Life, dubbed Blood Sword in popular folklore.
You will need to find the missing parts of the sword - first the hilt, then the blade - in order to slay the coming True Magi, who were killed in the Blasting - a major cataclysm - six hundred years ago, and now want to rule the world on their return. Only the Blood Sword, the bane of the undead, can stop them. So you travel to the northern land of Wyrd, where the Warlock-King guards the hilt from inside his Palace of Eternal Dusk. Then your journey takes you south (book 3), to Crescentium - the main port of the Outremer. There you will find several allies - among whom the assassin leader Hasan-i-Sabbah - who will help you find the blade. But your old enemy Aiken - a Yamatese warrior, known in the lands of the West by the name of Icon the Ungodly - will eventually find you, and after you defeat him for the second time Icon falls down to Sheol, the realm of the dead, taking the Blood Sword with him.
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Wikipedia