BOULEVARD Magazine No.4 December 2013 | Page 69

Bat’leth (Star Trek serial) Klingons, sons and daughters of Kahless the Unforgettable, to this very day tell their children the legend of how the first bat’leth (‘the sword of honor’ in Klingon) was created. The legend says that Kahless the Unforgettable, after killing his cowardly brother Morath, dipped a lock of his hair into the Kri’stak Volcano, shaped it into a blade and quenched it into the lake of Lursor. With that first bat’leth Kahless killed the tyrant Molor, conquered the Fek’Ihri, skinned the serpent of Xol and carved a statue of his beloved lady Lukara. Bat’leth is a scimitar-shaped weapon with two hilts along the dull edge of the blade. It is traditionally made from reinforced baakonite and, together with the other Klingon cold weapons, represents the necessary part of the training in the Klingon martial art of mok’bara. Qa’pla! Harlequin’s Kiss (Warhammer 40k Universe) Harlequins are a strange lot, even compared to their brothers, the Eldars, which are a strange lot themselves. It is said they are one of the rare who are acquainted with the whereabouts of the Black Library; they consider Cegorach, the Laughing God, the sole surviver of the deicide in the Eldar pantheon, who precisely due to his nature takes nothing seriously, which saved him from corruption and decadence and finally gave birth to Slanesh. However, what we are here most interested in is the brutal weapon which the Harlequin call brathu-angau (‘kiss of doom’ in Eldar), known throughout the galaxy as ‘The Harlequin’s Kiss’. The Harlequin’s Kiss looks like a sharpened pipe, mounted onto a Harlequin’s wrist. In close combat, a Harlequin would stick the pipe into the most exposed spot of the opponent’s armor. The pipe instantly ejects monofilament wire over 100 meters in length which, if pierces through the armor, penetrates the body of the warrior, too, lashing violently around his organs until his insides are turned into stew. Ouch. 69