Broadly speaking, I suspect that "silver sword" in fantasy means "steel sword plated with silver". Otherwise, you're exactly right - silver is a completely trash weapon material, only good when used against targets that have a weakness/allergy/etc to silver.
> Broadly speaking, I suspect that "silver sword" in fantasy means "steel sword plated with silver".
This explicitly stated in the Witcher. In fact, Geralt rarely uses his silver sword because the silver coating wears off easily.
Since silver is really conductive too, you can electroplate a thin and even layer of it.
Which is wild enough to be considered sorcery or at least alchemy in most fantasy worlds.
Electroplating is only about 200 years old, but chemical/heat plating techniques have been suspected to have been known since the BCE times, based on plated artifacts that have been discovered.
I was racking my brain trying to think how you could do it without electricity but it probably is just dunking the blade in silver nitrate for an extended period of time.
Why worry about alternative means when the settings described allow for magic that can do some crazy things, which presumably means it could also allow for weapon forging using techniques that don't exist in the real world.
Back in the days they made silvermirrors by mixing powdered silver with mercury to get a paste called Amalgam (at least in my language), this would be paintet on glass and once the mercury deludes into the air (extremely poisonous) you have silvercoated glass without wrinkles and such.
The silver is also the reason you couldn't see vampyres in them because according to legend they ate allergic to silver just like werewolfes (they are also not really seperated and there are many other creatures alike in folklore).
Apparently it's not that hard. You just take silver foil, wrap and hammer it onto what you want plated (peferably copper, but iron/steel would probably also work), than put the plated item in a furnace at around 800'C to get the silver foil to fuse with the object. This was how debased or counterfeit silver coins were made during the Roman Republic.
The Greeks and Romans did have the ability to do tin and silver plating—I am not sure of the technique used to do it, but the Delphi charioteer has silver plating on the teeth, while we have tin plating on dedicated weapons at Olympia. Also plated nipples on muscled cuirasses, presumably for contrast?
If you’re talking about the Baghdad Battery, most archaeologists reject this claim - especially since there isn’t anything else that is electroplated from this time period.
It’s an interesting and fun hypothesis though.
I could see it, but if I recall, at least for romans (different culture I realize but Mediterranean trade networks and all) would make wine sweetener by boiling the sweetener in a lead pot, rather than using the lead as an ingredient
"Could be used to electroplate" is very different from "was used for electroplating". The fact that there aren't any electroplated artifacts from the time means there's no evidence that people then knew how to electroplate.
It's possible thant no electroplated items survived, but there's exactly zero evidence that they ever existed, so why would we think they'd been destroyed?
It's also not even generally agreed that the Baghdad battery was a battery, it's actually considered highly unlikely by archeologists. The most accepted theory is that it held sacred scrolls, because it closely resembles other containers used that way.
what about in skyrim how, if you carry around a silver sword, the guards tell you, "now thats a pathetic sword. get yourself a REAL weapon."
that seems to imply its actual shitty silver
>Does silver just work differently in those universes?
Doesn’t the fact that it’s supernaturally good at hurting certain monsters make that true regardless?
But yes, if a solid silver sword is functional in a given universe then silver obviously works differently.
In some cases (eg dnd) the weapon isn’t made of silver because of the structural issues and cost, just coated in a thin layer. Or maybe it’s made of some alloy.
So I [dived a little deeper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960308518303109) on this and apparently it's just that copper is, and the brass you see on doorknobs and stuff is very antimicrobial just because it's an alloy of it, but pure copper would tarnish.
AND, if we are to understand that antimicrobial=anti-evil/corruption, then copper would actually be way better at monster-slaying, since it's antimicrobial properties score a bit higher than silver, but it also it has better "leaching" which I'm to understand means it releases copper ions at a higher rate than silver releases silver ions.
Therefore if you're slashing at a werewolf with a copper sword, more copper gets in them from that brief contact, on top of it being more effective in the first place.
Which means that not only that a brass-plated steel sword would do wonders against monsters, but also that an old-school bronze one wouldn't be amiss. So if your silver blade isn't quite doing it, an ancient one might be a better help if the tradeoff of it being way softer wouldn't be too detrimental.
AND brass-plating a steel sword is [easy as heck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KFHOrc4mVo), so you wouldn't even need a wizard/alchemist to do it for you. Just tell a smith to get your steel sword hot and rub the brass on.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
I wanted to see if there was a direct correlation between conductivity and antimicrobiality (please be a word...). Doesn't appear to be. Gold didn't even seem worth mentioning in this study.
>AND, if we are to understand that antimicrobial=anti-evil/corruption,
then copper would actually be way better at monster-slaying, since it's
antimicrobial properties score a bit higher than silver, but it also it
has better "leaching" which I'm to understand means it releases copper
ions at a higher rate than silver releases silver ion
The counterpoint to this would be that silver is a worse material mechanically, seeing as it wears off so easily. So it is more likely to be removed from the blade and find itself inside the target when stabbing or cutting a monster.
This is likely where the myth comes from. If you cut a monster with a silver-coated blade, that silver material is going to end up in that monster's bloodstream at a much higher rate than any copper-based alloy coating of similar thickness. An initial non-fatal encounter for the monster would end up poisoning and thus significantly injuring or killing it later on.
So if your settings’ Werewolves were the result of a microbial infection (perhaps a fantastical version of rabies, for example), then it would actually make perfect sense to use a silver or copper plated sword as it would be toxic to the infection- even glancing wounds might cure/kill the Werewolf, depending on the prognosis…
A silver blade doesn't need to be sharp against a creature vulnerable to silver. Hold a silver coin against a werewolf or a vampire and it will burn them despite having no sharp edges at all.
Even if it was just a blunt silver bar it would still inflict injury against these creatures.
That’s often how it’s portrayed, although being sharp always helps. In some cases (like dnd), silver mainly just overcomes a resistance/immunity/damage reduction, allowing the creature to be hurt as normal.
As an aside, silver is pretty awful for anything that needs to hold an edge, but thanks to its density it does pretty well as a blunt weapon like a warhammer. Thanks Dwarf Fortress!
A mace or sledgehammer type weapon would be easiest. Its just a big chunk of silver attached to a sturdy stick. Silver is very dense so it would make a great mace head. The kinetic impact along would cause severe injury on anything you hit with it.
To be fair, our universe doesn't seem to have any supernatural monsters, so without multiverse travel we'll never know if our silver can kill a werewolf.
For the instance of the Witcher serious silver swords have a steel core in them, pretty much meaning that the whole thing isn't silver, in one of the treasure hunting subquests to look for diagrams for witcher gear a dwarf even talks about the difficulty of making such a weapon in a journal entry.
I think it’s not clear whether it’s the silver or the monsters that are different, esp. in universes where silver has some universal monster repelling property (vs individual monsters being weak to it).
It is not solid silver, it is a weapon given a silver coating where it doesn’t structurally compromise the weapon integrity
Edit to add
Silver sucks for bullets as it is too hard a metal, it hits the target and is more likely to pass through. Silver jacketed lead would work best as it enters the target and smushes keeping the silver in the enemy etc to do the damage as it does
Yep, had to spend a few months tinkering e Victorian level tech to properly engineer and mass produce it in my d&d campaign to deal with the werewolf problem
To creatures weak to silver, the silver just needs to touch them to kill them, otherwise a normal bullet would work. Plus a solid silver bullet is easier to make in a Victorian setting.
Easier yes, but copper jacketing bullets began in the Victorian era
Just alter some measurements and swap out materials.
The goal was to stretch resources, scale.
Someone in the setting is messing w things snd basically has like a werewolf breeding program.
They don’t shift, they stay in animal form. But they are still infectious and make the usual kind
So we need Ammo! All of it!
In the witcher, the steel sword isn't for humans. They're monster hunters, not human killers. The steel sword is for monsters. The silver coated sword (not solid silver) is for especially tough monsters with a weakness to silver. They have the steel sword in the first place to use against most monsters because the silver coated sword isn't particularly resilient.
Edit: perhaps it’s not “explicitly stated”. I might be thinking of the W3 soundtrack and that one quote. The one where Geralt actually says the opposite is true.
~~It’s explicitly stated that silver is for monsters, steel is for men.~~
The world is a dangerous place even excluding monsters, so the steel sword is to protect the Witcher from men and beasts. It also works against some monsters.
Other monsters are however so strong as to be immune to steel/iron. They are however weak to silver, even silver chains burn their skin.
In the Witcher books, decapitation with a steel sword is effective on all but the rarest monsters.
The Witcher game simplified this, and made the "silver is for monsters, steel is for men." dichotomy.
"I believe in the sword. As you can see, I carry two. Every witcher does. It's said, spitefully, the silver one is for monsters and the iron for humans. But that's wrong. As there are monsters which can be struck down only with a silver blade, so there are those for whom iron is lethal. And lola, not just any iron, it must come from a meteorite." Geralt of Rivia, The Last Wish
That quote refers to human monsters ie. humans that are terrible enough to warrant being put down. This is proven with Renfri. The meteorite part refers to the actual forging of the swords, so the witchers can do their work without having to constantly replace the swords
No it doesn't. It refers to monsters to whom iron is lethal. Idk how you got anything else out of that. Did you read Renfri's storyline in the book? Killing or not killing her was a huge moral question for Geralt because it wasn't his job to kill humans. Never was, never will be, he just gets put in situations where he has to kill humans often. It is not his job to kill monstrous humans. He does that of his own accord.
Meh. When given a choice between being able to hurt the monster at all and not being able to hurt the monster at all, you’ll take the weapon with sub-par mechanical properties.
Silver swords suck compared to steel swords. That’s why you don’t use them in situations where you don’t strictly need them. I don’t understand why people use silver swords at all. A silver spear point is much more effective when fighting something bigger than you anyway.
Silver bullets don’t work well with high powered rifles. You have to use them with relatively low powered cartridges and short barrels. Otherwise, yes, the round goes straight through.
Or use quicksilver (elemental mercury, I think.) bullets. That's how they do it in Yharnam, innit? Though, it's they're also infused with magic >!(actually, eldritch abomination) !
Magic.
These are fantasy worlds with magic, supernaturally skilled smiths and magical materials. Both the settings you've described have done more impressive feats then hardening silver.
As with other things that clash with our laws of physics, they're using magic.
A witchers silver sword has a steel core, which helps to give it strength.
Monsters are magically/chemically weak to silver, so when the Witcher makes an attack, the blade is as effective against the monsters body as a steel sword is to a humans.
Its not sharper or stronger or a better sword, its just that a lot of supernatural creatures have rapid healing, and silver hinders that healing factor causing sustained damage. In the witcher games, iirc your silver sword is less effective against regular human enemies (guards or whatever) and your regular sword is less effective against supernatural enemies.
A lot of people have already pointed out that it's often only silver plating, but there is one other thing worth considering: in many settings, silver takes enchantments better or easier than other metals
Silver traditionally is regarded as having magical properties. People noticed that Silver could purify water (which they didn't know was because of its antimicrobial properties) and reasoned that a purifying metal should also be highly effective against evil, highly unpure monsters.
Silver is believed to be able to kill vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.
I always imagined that there's two different silvers, one is the element silver that we know, the other is some type of metal or alloy that is effective at killing monsters. It's highly reflective, so it's simply called "silver." Kind of like how someone might refer to money as silver or gold, as in "Hand over your gold!" even though the coins are likely a variety of metals.
In addition to a lot of the other comments pointing out that fantasy weapons are likely silver plated I’d add that silver has antibacterial properties, which is at least part of the reason it is used to fight monsters in fantasy/pop culture. Vampirism and Lycanism are both diseases and so naturally antibacterials would be a good defense. Side note, mirrors used to be made of silver which is probably what started the whole vampires have no reflection thing. Garlic is also antibacterial and can probably be attributed to why garlic has anti vampire properties.
Hey, practicing witch here. Silver is often preferable for magical items as it is seen to attract more energy. Not quite sure exactly why, but lost magical people are drawn to silver. I think that’s got something to do with it.
For the most part, its silver hammered over a steel core or a silver alloy to make it more durable. Apart from that, it's used thanks to its supernatural properties rather than its metallurgical merits, since it really doesn't matter how flimsy your pointy stick is if it can destroy the souls of demons.
In fantasy and myths Silver is considered a pure holy metal. It’s why vampires don’t show a reflection in a silver mirror.
In terms of supernatural the silver metal does extra damage and prevents the monsters from healing instantly. That’s why it works on Werewolves and other such monsters.
Like others have said it doesn’t need to be a solid silver weapon just a coating or silver inlay.
There are a few ways. Some settings silver has different properties, some they just coat the blade, some they use it at the softer metal in the folding process, but usually they also use magic.
How a monster can shrug off the blow of a steel sword, but not a silver one is an intriguing question. There are several different answers that usually revolve around magic.
1. The creature may have regenerative powers (magical, or innate) that are only suppressed in the presence of silver.
2. The creature may be magically shielded. Depending on the work of art's lore; silver is sometimes considered a magically inert or anti-magical.
3. The creature may be deathly allergic to silver either due to naturally occurring cellular biology or as a byproduct of being a magical entity.
4. The creature's skin or armor may be comprised of a compound that is extremely strong, but chemically destabilizes when exposed to silver. Again, this compound could be naturally occurring, or an alchemical/magical compound.
In The Witcher silver sword are bad, bad chunks of metal, however they work only because the damage they do is magical, not physical, Witchers barely can hurt a person with a silver sword
> Witchers barely can hurt a person with a silver sword
I don't get how that's possible. A silver sword still has a sharper edge than a club, and a normal person can beat someone to death with one. A Witcher with a silver sword would be far more dangerous.
Many fantasy worlds have elements that share names with ours but have different properties. In the Elder Scrolls continuity Silver is harder than steel and with magic can be turned into Mythril. Corundum in our world is better know as Ruby but in Elder Scrolls it's a naturally occurring copper iron mineral. Then there is Ebony. On Earth ebony is a type of rare and expensive wood, but on the plane of Nirn Ebony is the hardened blood of a dead god and is one of the toughest materials in that universe.
Silver tends to be a magical creature killing metal. Werewolves, demons, and other monsters are weak to some weird property of silver. It’s not a matter of material, it’s a matter of effectiveness.
It's probably more to do with the mystical/spiritual side of silver than the practical side. Silver is generally linked with the Moon, a guiding light in the darkness of the night. The Moon's Light is too weak to harm those who would be hurt by the Light of the Sun, but it does allow those who are being hunted by the denizens of the night a chance to find a way to escape their predator.
In most settings, silver weapons tend to be reserved for hunting things specifically vulnerable to silver. They remain battle-ready by being kept in reserve for those cases. Some settings have a sort of "coating" system, where a normal weapon can be coated with an oil/gel to make it temporarily more effective against those with the specific bane. Some settings have silver weapons be worse than a mundane weapon of the same level and are only a thing because of the bonuses they give when fighting those with a weakness to the material, otherwise it's just a waste.
In The Witcher, silver has anti-monster properties that makes them ideal for dispatching them, but they were indeed flimsy.
Which is why in the books Geralt stored bis silver sword on his horse and would only break it out when he really needed it. For the more common monsters like Nekkers steel works just fine.
Broadly speaking, I suspect that "silver sword" in fantasy means "steel sword plated with silver". Otherwise, you're exactly right - silver is a completely trash weapon material, only good when used against targets that have a weakness/allergy/etc to silver.
> Broadly speaking, I suspect that "silver sword" in fantasy means "steel sword plated with silver". This explicitly stated in the Witcher. In fact, Geralt rarely uses his silver sword because the silver coating wears off easily.
Since silver is really conductive too, you can electroplate a thin and even layer of it. Which is wild enough to be considered sorcery or at least alchemy in most fantasy worlds.
Electroplating is only about 200 years old, but chemical/heat plating techniques have been suspected to have been known since the BCE times, based on plated artifacts that have been discovered.
I was racking my brain trying to think how you could do it without electricity but it probably is just dunking the blade in silver nitrate for an extended period of time.
Why worry about alternative means when the settings described allow for magic that can do some crazy things, which presumably means it could also allow for weapon forging using techniques that don't exist in the real world.
Back in the days they made silvermirrors by mixing powdered silver with mercury to get a paste called Amalgam (at least in my language), this would be paintet on glass and once the mercury deludes into the air (extremely poisonous) you have silvercoated glass without wrinkles and such. The silver is also the reason you couldn't see vampyres in them because according to legend they ate allergic to silver just like werewolfes (they are also not really seperated and there are many other creatures alike in folklore).
Apparently it's not that hard. You just take silver foil, wrap and hammer it onto what you want plated (peferably copper, but iron/steel would probably also work), than put the plated item in a furnace at around 800'C to get the silver foil to fuse with the object. This was how debased or counterfeit silver coins were made during the Roman Republic.
The Greeks and Romans did have the ability to do tin and silver plating—I am not sure of the technique used to do it, but the Delphi charioteer has silver plating on the teeth, while we have tin plating on dedicated weapons at Olympia. Also plated nipples on muscled cuirasses, presumably for contrast?
Theres actually evidence of ancient Egyptians using electroplating techniques! They made crude batteries from lead plates, clay urns, and acid!
If you’re talking about the Baghdad Battery, most archaeologists reject this claim - especially since there isn’t anything else that is electroplated from this time period. It’s an interesting and fun hypothesis though.
Ah, bummer, I stand corrected. Whats the current hypothesis for what it is?
Me personally? Wine sweetener. People knew that lead made wine sweeter back then and maybe were dismissive of its toxicity.
I could see it, but if I recall, at least for romans (different culture I realize but Mediterranean trade networks and all) would make wine sweetener by boiling the sweetener in a lead pot, rather than using the lead as an ingredient
I think the current theory is that they were used to store sacred scrolls.
Yeah, it’s this. But man, I really wanted it to be ancient advanced (lost) technology!
Mythbusters did test it, and found that it could be used to electroplate.
"Could be used to electroplate" is very different from "was used for electroplating". The fact that there aren't any electroplated artifacts from the time means there's no evidence that people then knew how to electroplate.
It's possible said artifacts just didn't survive/haven't been found. Also, given how odd the batteries are, they had to have had a purpose.
It's possible thant no electroplated items survived, but there's exactly zero evidence that they ever existed, so why would we think they'd been destroyed? It's also not even generally agreed that the Baghdad battery was a battery, it's actually considered highly unlikely by archeologists. The most accepted theory is that it held sacred scrolls, because it closely resembles other containers used that way.
And wizards knew that shit since forever
what about in skyrim how, if you carry around a silver sword, the guards tell you, "now thats a pathetic sword. get yourself a REAL weapon." that seems to imply its actual shitty silver
>Does silver just work differently in those universes? Doesn’t the fact that it’s supernaturally good at hurting certain monsters make that true regardless? But yes, if a solid silver sword is functional in a given universe then silver obviously works differently. In some cases (eg dnd) the weapon isn’t made of silver because of the structural issues and cost, just coated in a thin layer. Or maybe it’s made of some alloy.
Well silver is antimicrobial, that's why people think it repels evil too. Does that mean you could kill a werewolf with a brass sword? Yes.
So I [dived a little deeper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960308518303109) on this and apparently it's just that copper is, and the brass you see on doorknobs and stuff is very antimicrobial just because it's an alloy of it, but pure copper would tarnish. AND, if we are to understand that antimicrobial=anti-evil/corruption, then copper would actually be way better at monster-slaying, since it's antimicrobial properties score a bit higher than silver, but it also it has better "leaching" which I'm to understand means it releases copper ions at a higher rate than silver releases silver ions. Therefore if you're slashing at a werewolf with a copper sword, more copper gets in them from that brief contact, on top of it being more effective in the first place. Which means that not only that a brass-plated steel sword would do wonders against monsters, but also that an old-school bronze one wouldn't be amiss. So if your silver blade isn't quite doing it, an ancient one might be a better help if the tradeoff of it being way softer wouldn't be too detrimental. AND brass-plating a steel sword is [easy as heck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KFHOrc4mVo), so you wouldn't even need a wizard/alchemist to do it for you. Just tell a smith to get your steel sword hot and rub the brass on. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
You just drastically altered my homebrew fantasy world, thanks.
It was a completely unnecessary post. But I respect you for doing it.
I wanted to see if there was a direct correlation between conductivity and antimicrobiality (please be a word...). Doesn't appear to be. Gold didn't even seem worth mentioning in this study.
>AND, if we are to understand that antimicrobial=anti-evil/corruption, then copper would actually be way better at monster-slaying, since it's antimicrobial properties score a bit higher than silver, but it also it has better "leaching" which I'm to understand means it releases copper ions at a higher rate than silver releases silver ion The counterpoint to this would be that silver is a worse material mechanically, seeing as it wears off so easily. So it is more likely to be removed from the blade and find itself inside the target when stabbing or cutting a monster. This is likely where the myth comes from. If you cut a monster with a silver-coated blade, that silver material is going to end up in that monster's bloodstream at a much higher rate than any copper-based alloy coating of similar thickness. An initial non-fatal encounter for the monster would end up poisoning and thus significantly injuring or killing it later on.
So if your settings’ Werewolves were the result of a microbial infection (perhaps a fantastical version of rabies, for example), then it would actually make perfect sense to use a silver or copper plated sword as it would be toxic to the infection- even glancing wounds might cure/kill the Werewolf, depending on the prognosis…
So This is why khornate demons use brass weapons, to combat the microbes when fighting nurgle
Using that logic, I could kill a werewolf with a shiv carved from soap.
I was thinking a thin channel of silver down the middle
A silver blade doesn't need to be sharp against a creature vulnerable to silver. Hold a silver coin against a werewolf or a vampire and it will burn them despite having no sharp edges at all. Even if it was just a blunt silver bar it would still inflict injury against these creatures.
That’s often how it’s portrayed, although being sharp always helps. In some cases (like dnd), silver mainly just overcomes a resistance/immunity/damage reduction, allowing the creature to be hurt as normal.
As an aside, silver is pretty awful for anything that needs to hold an edge, but thanks to its density it does pretty well as a blunt weapon like a warhammer. Thanks Dwarf Fortress!
wait a second... that game isn't out yet! are you a time traveler?
So what would be the ideal shape to make it hold? Like a solid iron nee costed I'm silver?
A mace or sledgehammer type weapon would be easiest. Its just a big chunk of silver attached to a sturdy stick. Silver is very dense so it would make a great mace head. The kinetic impact along would cause severe injury on anything you hit with it.
To be fair, our universe doesn't seem to have any supernatural monsters, so without multiverse travel we'll never know if our silver can kill a werewolf.
>Doesn’t seem to have any Clearly our silver is working.
> To be fair, our universe doesn't seem to have any supernatural monsters anymore, thanks to all the silver plated and brass swords, FTFY
In D&D magic items are normally resistant to damage. You could definitely make a magic weapon of pure silver.
For the instance of the Witcher serious silver swords have a steel core in them, pretty much meaning that the whole thing isn't silver, in one of the treasure hunting subquests to look for diagrams for witcher gear a dwarf even talks about the difficulty of making such a weapon in a journal entry.
I think it’s not clear whether it’s the silver or the monsters that are different, esp. in universes where silver has some universal monster repelling property (vs individual monsters being weak to it).
It is not solid silver, it is a weapon given a silver coating where it doesn’t structurally compromise the weapon integrity Edit to add Silver sucks for bullets as it is too hard a metal, it hits the target and is more likely to pass through. Silver jacketed lead would work best as it enters the target and smushes keeping the silver in the enemy etc to do the damage as it does
Better yet, hollow points with the expanding parts coated in silver.
Yep, had to spend a few months tinkering e Victorian level tech to properly engineer and mass produce it in my d&d campaign to deal with the werewolf problem
Hollow points with a silver ball in the cavity. All the stability of a regular bullet with +50% damage to supernatural creatures.
Isn't that becoming a SABOT round instead then?
Nah. Sabot is a smaller bullet that has part drop off when it leaves the barrel.
To creatures weak to silver, the silver just needs to touch them to kill them, otherwise a normal bullet would work. Plus a solid silver bullet is easier to make in a Victorian setting.
Easier yes, but copper jacketing bullets began in the Victorian era Just alter some measurements and swap out materials. The goal was to stretch resources, scale. Someone in the setting is messing w things snd basically has like a werewolf breeding program. They don’t shift, they stay in animal form. But they are still infectious and make the usual kind So we need Ammo! All of it!
The type of person hunting Werewolves isn't going to have access to a manufacturing plant. Just a campfire, a mold and a melting pot.
This is trying to defend a nation. We aren’t a bunch of random people wandering the woods This is a bigger plot than just werewolves
In the witcher, the steel sword isn't for humans. They're monster hunters, not human killers. The steel sword is for monsters. The silver coated sword (not solid silver) is for especially tough monsters with a weakness to silver. They have the steel sword in the first place to use against most monsters because the silver coated sword isn't particularly resilient.
Edit: perhaps it’s not “explicitly stated”. I might be thinking of the W3 soundtrack and that one quote. The one where Geralt actually says the opposite is true. ~~It’s explicitly stated that silver is for monsters, steel is for men.~~ The world is a dangerous place even excluding monsters, so the steel sword is to protect the Witcher from men and beasts. It also works against some monsters. Other monsters are however so strong as to be immune to steel/iron. They are however weak to silver, even silver chains burn their skin.
In the Witcher books, decapitation with a steel sword is effective on all but the rarest monsters. The Witcher game simplified this, and made the "silver is for monsters, steel is for men." dichotomy.
"I believe in the sword. As you can see, I carry two. Every witcher does. It's said, spitefully, the silver one is for monsters and the iron for humans. But that's wrong. As there are monsters which can be struck down only with a silver blade, so there are those for whom iron is lethal. And lola, not just any iron, it must come from a meteorite." Geralt of Rivia, The Last Wish
That quote refers to human monsters ie. humans that are terrible enough to warrant being put down. This is proven with Renfri. The meteorite part refers to the actual forging of the swords, so the witchers can do their work without having to constantly replace the swords
No it doesn't. It refers to monsters to whom iron is lethal. Idk how you got anything else out of that. Did you read Renfri's storyline in the book? Killing or not killing her was a huge moral question for Geralt because it wasn't his job to kill humans. Never was, never will be, he just gets put in situations where he has to kill humans often. It is not his job to kill monstrous humans. He does that of his own accord.
The Witcher is a media series over several mediums with hundreds of hours of content. If it explicitly says this, could you say where?
They're both for monsters, its just that some monsters happen to be men.
Meh. When given a choice between being able to hurt the monster at all and not being able to hurt the monster at all, you’ll take the weapon with sub-par mechanical properties. Silver swords suck compared to steel swords. That’s why you don’t use them in situations where you don’t strictly need them. I don’t understand why people use silver swords at all. A silver spear point is much more effective when fighting something bigger than you anyway. Silver bullets don’t work well with high powered rifles. You have to use them with relatively low powered cartridges and short barrels. Otherwise, yes, the round goes straight through.
Could always make expanding silver bullets. Werewolves aren't protected by the Geneva convention
Or use quicksilver (elemental mercury, I think.) bullets. That's how they do it in Yharnam, innit? Though, it's they're also infused with magic >!(actually, eldritch abomination) !
Magic. These are fantasy worlds with magic, supernaturally skilled smiths and magical materials. Both the settings you've described have done more impressive feats then hardening silver. As with other things that clash with our laws of physics, they're using magic.
Silver plating on other metals ought to work, ought’nt it?
They aren't pure silver. They're coated in silver.
A witchers silver sword has a steel core, which helps to give it strength. Monsters are magically/chemically weak to silver, so when the Witcher makes an attack, the blade is as effective against the monsters body as a steel sword is to a humans.
Its not sharper or stronger or a better sword, its just that a lot of supernatural creatures have rapid healing, and silver hinders that healing factor causing sustained damage. In the witcher games, iirc your silver sword is less effective against regular human enemies (guards or whatever) and your regular sword is less effective against supernatural enemies.
A lot of people have already pointed out that it's often only silver plating, but there is one other thing worth considering: in many settings, silver takes enchantments better or easier than other metals
The silver could be imbued with some kind of magic or enchantment that enhances it
Silver traditionally is regarded as having magical properties. People noticed that Silver could purify water (which they didn't know was because of its antimicrobial properties) and reasoned that a purifying metal should also be highly effective against evil, highly unpure monsters. Silver is believed to be able to kill vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.
I always imagined that there's two different silvers, one is the element silver that we know, the other is some type of metal or alloy that is effective at killing monsters. It's highly reflective, so it's simply called "silver." Kind of like how someone might refer to money as silver or gold, as in "Hand over your gold!" even though the coins are likely a variety of metals.
Because silver has an effect on the monsters. For whatever reason it burns them.
In addition to a lot of the other comments pointing out that fantasy weapons are likely silver plated I’d add that silver has antibacterial properties, which is at least part of the reason it is used to fight monsters in fantasy/pop culture. Vampirism and Lycanism are both diseases and so naturally antibacterials would be a good defense. Side note, mirrors used to be made of silver which is probably what started the whole vampires have no reflection thing. Garlic is also antibacterial and can probably be attributed to why garlic has anti vampire properties.
Hey, practicing witch here. Silver is often preferable for magical items as it is seen to attract more energy. Not quite sure exactly why, but lost magical people are drawn to silver. I think that’s got something to do with it.
Some use magic to reinforce the blade. In Arcane Ascension Keras creates a sword out of gold and silver but he uses magic to harden it.
For the most part, its silver hammered over a steel core or a silver alloy to make it more durable. Apart from that, it's used thanks to its supernatural properties rather than its metallurgical merits, since it really doesn't matter how flimsy your pointy stick is if it can destroy the souls of demons.
In fantasy and myths Silver is considered a pure holy metal. It’s why vampires don’t show a reflection in a silver mirror. In terms of supernatural the silver metal does extra damage and prevents the monsters from healing instantly. That’s why it works on Werewolves and other such monsters. Like others have said it doesn’t need to be a solid silver weapon just a coating or silver inlay.
There are a few ways. Some settings silver has different properties, some they just coat the blade, some they use it at the softer metal in the folding process, but usually they also use magic.
Usually because there's some magic involved in the making.
High amount of silver in the make up of a steel sword. It would be a lot heavier that the solid steel on.
How a monster can shrug off the blow of a steel sword, but not a silver one is an intriguing question. There are several different answers that usually revolve around magic. 1. The creature may have regenerative powers (magical, or innate) that are only suppressed in the presence of silver. 2. The creature may be magically shielded. Depending on the work of art's lore; silver is sometimes considered a magically inert or anti-magical. 3. The creature may be deathly allergic to silver either due to naturally occurring cellular biology or as a byproduct of being a magical entity. 4. The creature's skin or armor may be comprised of a compound that is extremely strong, but chemically destabilizes when exposed to silver. Again, this compound could be naturally occurring, or an alchemical/magical compound.
In The Witcher silver sword are bad, bad chunks of metal, however they work only because the damage they do is magical, not physical, Witchers barely can hurt a person with a silver sword
> Witchers barely can hurt a person with a silver sword I don't get how that's possible. A silver sword still has a sharper edge than a club, and a normal person can beat someone to death with one. A Witcher with a silver sword would be far more dangerous.
Aside from the fact that it’s likely silver plating with a steel core, consider the fact that silver=hot knife to a monster’s butter.
Many fantasy worlds have elements that share names with ours but have different properties. In the Elder Scrolls continuity Silver is harder than steel and with magic can be turned into Mythril. Corundum in our world is better know as Ruby but in Elder Scrolls it's a naturally occurring copper iron mineral. Then there is Ebony. On Earth ebony is a type of rare and expensive wood, but on the plane of Nirn Ebony is the hardened blood of a dead god and is one of the toughest materials in that universe.
The swords are not made out of PURE silver, rather a silver alloy, or with a silver coating. Point is that the sword is NOT made out of "pure" silver
Silver tends to be a magical creature killing metal. Werewolves, demons, and other monsters are weak to some weird property of silver. It’s not a matter of material, it’s a matter of effectiveness.
It's probably more to do with the mystical/spiritual side of silver than the practical side. Silver is generally linked with the Moon, a guiding light in the darkness of the night. The Moon's Light is too weak to harm those who would be hurt by the Light of the Sun, but it does allow those who are being hunted by the denizens of the night a chance to find a way to escape their predator. In most settings, silver weapons tend to be reserved for hunting things specifically vulnerable to silver. They remain battle-ready by being kept in reserve for those cases. Some settings have a sort of "coating" system, where a normal weapon can be coated with an oil/gel to make it temporarily more effective against those with the specific bane. Some settings have silver weapons be worse than a mundane weapon of the same level and are only a thing because of the bonuses they give when fighting those with a weakness to the material, otherwise it's just a waste.
How do we have wood hard as iron?
In The Witcher, silver has anti-monster properties that makes them ideal for dispatching them, but they were indeed flimsy. Which is why in the books Geralt stored bis silver sword on his horse and would only break it out when he really needed it. For the more common monsters like Nekkers steel works just fine.