Empty City Press

First depicted in Origins-Marionette, Chalum's weapon is an ornate warclub modeled from the real-world Fijian sali.  Wood, especially wood of worth, is an extremely rare commodity in the wastes; most of the desert tribes use stolen steel weapons from the city or weapons of bone or stone.  Thus, only warriors of great distinction carry warclubs of hardwood, and very often but a few of these weapons are held collectively by a given tribe.  While the individual style varies from tribe to tribe, the cultural weight of such a weapon is largely homogeneous.  More than simply tools of war, such weapons carry the history of a tribe's exploits and glories.  As each bearer expires, the new owner invariably adds his/her ancestor's name to the weapon's own, carrying the accumulated deeds of generations.  The most storied of these weapons have names so long it is said that it would require from sunset to sunrise to speak the weapon's full name.  Adversaries' names are never added to the dynasty, so should an enemy take the weapon as trophy, the weapon again becomes nameless.  Chalum often hangs trophies from the weapon's handle, and many of these are quite gruesome: ears, teeth, jawbones and the like.