back to Famous Weapons

Cardboard Tube

Also See: Cardboard Tube Samurai

The Cardboard Tube first appeared in 3,456, during The Wandering Age. Wielded by the Cardboard Tube Samurai, it had the somewhat illogical power to damage things severely despite having a circular cross-section (i.e. no edge) and being apparently made of flimsy cardboard. The Samurai used it throughout his years-long struggle against evil and The Shadow Lord. The Tube was last seen with the Samurai himself, as ascended Mt Wang in pursuit of the Shadow Lord in 3,467. Its fate, like the Samurai's, is unknown.

The Tube's origins are mysterious. There are some mentions in the canon lore of "Early Period" Battal of a warrior who visited High Elemenstation to ask for the help of Harbinger Portent in creating a weapon. This story has created interesting speculation as to the origin of the tube's power. The story goes that this warrior approached the Elemenstation carrying only an unidentified "piece of trash", which he used to kill the guards who attempted to deny him entry. Portent, impressed by the warrior's resolve, granted his request in an unusual way - he used his powers to restore the object (at that point damaged and battered) to an ideal form and fortify it with a destructive power most immense. The Elemenstors, usually a quite literate and well-spoken folk, were so dumbfounded by the power of the new weapon that they could say of it only that it "cut stuff real good". Because there are few other heroes in Epic Legends of the Hierarchs lore known to possess truly strange, unconventional weapons, it has been argued that this tale best fits the legend of the Cardboard Tube Samurai. On the other hand, there is also the fact that Harbinger Portent lived some twelve thousand years after the Tube was first seen, and the fact that High Elemenstation is not a place.

Critics violently disagree over the nature of the Tube and its symbolic status throughout the various tales in which it appears. The primary question in this disagreement runs thusly: is the Tube phallic or yonic? Adherents of pragmatism suggest that the sword is, in fact, both, and in this way attempt to prove that "The Tube is Civilization."

Similar weapons

In 16,567, inspired by the Cardboard Tube Samurai's story, Forge-King Gragnakas remade the Cardboard Tube as The Cardboard Tube of Unusual Sharpness and Popularity, the forty-eighth of his 100 Swords of Sepathok. While an impressive weapon, this new tube paled in beauty and power to the original. Due to time travel on the part of Verdant Anuerism, this weapon may have been one of the swords to be thrust back in time to appear in the The Magic Sword Kings Period - nearly three thousand years before the original Cardboard Tube was made. A few people suggest this implies that the Cardboard Tube and The Cardboard Tube of Unusual Sharpness and Popularity are the same weapon, but the evidence is strongly against this.

A more popular (and likely) theory holds that The Parchment Cylinder seen during The Elemenstor Cycle is the original Cardboard Tube.

See Cylinder and Tube Theories for more on this.