Katana

The katana was a type of sword used in some lands of Kara-Tur. Thanks to its normally exceptional design and craftsmanship, the katana was renowned as one of the best-quality non-magical swords around.

Description
The blade of the katana was slightly curved, with a single-edged blade on the outside of the curve and tipped with a chisel point. With quality metal and forging, the blade could be ground until it was sharp as a razor. Properly crafted, the blade had both flexibility and strength while being light and well balanced. Its total length was around and it weighed.

Moreover, patterns, prayers, or lineages of one's family might be etched on the blade, with additional adornment added to the guard, hilt and scabbard alike, making the whole weapon quite beautiful.

Tactics
Being a rather large weapon, a katana had to be wielded two-handed by humans and others of their size. Special training (or giant size) was required to wielded it one-handed.

Some samurai even wielded their katana and wakizashi together in a two-weapon fighting style, with one each hand. In a technique called iaijutsu, samurai could learn to draw a katana or wakizashi and slash at an enemy all in a single smooth action.

Manufacture & Cost
The skills required to craft a katana were rare and prized. A weaponsmith spent many hours in the work and took special care in forging the blade and ensuring it had the proper temper, and in assembling the complete weapon. The whole process could take a month. If it was a weapon of quality, it took an extra two months in finishing, after which it was taken to a temple for the priests there to give it a name. Some notable swordsmiths who made katanas were the mystic Chigatta and Hiroyasu Ohta.

A katana's value varied widely, according to the craftsmanship, artistry, and the history and significance of the individual sword. The cost could be as low as 50 gp for an average sword including scabbard to 100 gp to as much as 300 or 400 gp for a masterwork example.

Variants
The boku-toh was a wooden imitation katana used for training purposes. It had a safer blunt edge, but was a decent bludgeoning weapon if swung hard enough. It cost 6 yuan.

Reputation
A samurai warrior was obliged to be skilled in the katana. To a samurai, their personal katana was no simple sword, but aspect of the honor of both themselves and their family. It could be used no-one else; to unsheathe it or even just touch the scabbard without permission might be seen an insult. Nearly as valued was a samurai's wakizashi; the two were typically carried as a pair called a daisho, meaning "long and short". Together, these marked a samurai's status, and it could be a crime for non-samurai to carry a daisho.

Individual katanas typically had their own distinct names, based on any illustrious battles they had been wielded in.

A particular katana could be a cherished family heirloom, passed down through the generations. If it was lost, family members might quest to recover it and castigate the culprits to alleviate their own shame. A number of samurai even died to retrieve the katana of their family.

The katana was known as the finest sword ever made to the peoples of the Western Heartlands.

History
The design of the katana evolved steadily over time from more ordinary swords.

Lands
The custom of samurai wielding the daisho of katana and wakizashi was unique to the lands of Wa and Kozakura in Kara-Tur. The swords—wielded separately—were common in these lands and across Kara-Tur.

However, the swords had spread as far as Faerûn in the mid–14 century DR, in the hands of Shou expatriates traveling the Golden Way through Thesk and the Bushido mercenaries. Karsel'lyn Lylyl-Lytherraias, a drow cleric of Eilistraee wielded a katana while on Evermeet.

Magic
A katana (or longsword) of a certain value must be shattered on a stone as a material component for the spell sword of darkness to be cast.

Notable Katanas

 * Celestial Fury, crafted by the mystic Chigatta and bearing the soul of a dragon
 * Corthala Family Blade
 * The Lost Sword, the last work of master Wanese swordsmith Hiroyasu Ohta
 * Shichi's katana, sword of the monk Shichi No Ken
 * Harmony Sword, heirloom of the Tanomitsu family
 * Crimson Katana, the prized weapon of General Ito Tadashiro
 * Lightning-Stroke Blade, the lost sword of Hidegari Iegusa of Wa