Saturday, April 25, 2020

10,000 Magical Pipe Tomahawks

The raven's beak.  The kusarigama.  The atlatl.  The three-section staff.  History is full of incredibly cool weapons.

But what if I told you that the coolest weapon of all time was invented right here in America?  Simply put, the pipe tomahawk is the only weapon in history that you can also smoke out of.  

Tobacco goes in that bowl opposite the head.  Your mouth goes over a little hole at the bottom of the haft.
Tomahawks were developed by the Algonquians, and served both as weapons and general-purpose tools.  They were originally made of wood (most commonly hickory) and stone.  Europeans adopted the design and started making them out of iron and steel, with heads often modeled after naval boarding axes.

Eventually, European and American artisans developed the pipe tomahawk, which featured a hollowed-out haft and a poll (the counterweight opposite the head) which was hollowed out to act as a pipe bowl.  These were traded with Native Americans or given as diplomatic gifts.

Because the tobacco pipe was often a symbol of peace and diplomacy among Native Americans, pipe tomahawks represented the duality of war and peace, and were symbolic of the choice faced by people who encountered strangers of a foreign culture.  Whether they succeeded in promoting racial harmony is...questionable, let's say.

Interestingly, this same symbolism became a common motif in American culture, and can be seen in the Seal of the President of the United States, which features an eagle holding both an olive branch and a bundle of arrows.

The eagle is facing the olive branch, symbolizing the allegedly peace-loving nature of the American presidency.

Native Americans did eventually start producing pipe tomahawks themselves, of course.  However as far as I've been able to find out, it seems like they only started doing so after the days of the Wild West were over, meaning native-produced pipe tomahawks probably never saw combat usage.

As a weapon with peaceful symbolism and dual uses, pipe tomahawks present interesting potential as magical items.

Each tomahawk produced by the following generator has the base stats of a normal hand axe (d6 in most systems), and can be thrown.  Each one has two magical effects– one "weapon" enchantment, and one "pipe" enchantment.

Each pipe enchantment requires the user to smoke a psychoactive compound out of the tomahawk– tobacco will do, but cloves won't.  The user experiences all the normal effects of the drug in addition to the effects of the enchantment.  The effects of the "pipe" enchantment last as long as listed, or as long as the drug lasts– whichever is shorter.  If a duration isn't listed, it's as long as the drug lasts. 

All of the names in this generator, both of individuals and tribes/clans/organizations, are made up.




This generator was made using this translator by Meandering Banter.  Further instructions on using it can be found on this page.  

2 comments:

  1. Fun fact, the seal of the United States is actually modular. When we are at peace, the Eagle's head faces the Olive Branch. When we are at War, the seals are all replaced with ones where the Eagle's head faces the arrows.

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    1. I don't think that's actually true, and it would be really impractical to implement. I do recall Winston Churchill once quipping that the head should be on a swivel like that, but it never actually happened as far as I know. Can you actually link to some images of the seal with the eagle facing the arrows?

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