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Mythology of Wizardry

An illustration of three dragons interlocked around a sphere. Source: Box art of Wizardry Gaiden IV.

Last updated: 2025-08-13
Original source: Mythology of Wizardry originally hosted by GameStudio in 2001.
Author: Raindare

I (raindare) am in the process of translating Mythology of Wizardry, a series of blurbs on the origins of Wizardry items, monsters and features from a Japanese perspective.

I have included snippets of the original Japanese text where relevant for context, as well as my own comments, which can be found in square brackets beginning with my name. That said, any references to "I" in the text itself refer to the original author.


A.P. Arrow - Ａ．Ｐ．アロー (Item)

A type of arrow that appears in BCF (Bane of the Cosmic Forge).

A.P. appears to be an abbreviation for Armour Piercing. This means "piercing armour (｢鎧を貫く｣)". An armour-piercing arrow is made to be thin with a deep point, and can penetrate thick armour. This arrow greatly increases to-hit rather than damage, and has no other special effects, so it can truly be said to specialize in piercing armour [raindare: because armour makes you harder to hit by increasing AC in these games].

There are also armour piercing bullets, called ｢徹甲弾｣ in Japanese, and armour-piercing projectiles, called ｢徹甲弾｣ in Japanese. The latter refers to cannonballs. These terms almost always refer to projectiles that use kinetic energy and do not explode.

Previously, it was written here that A.P. Arrow meant "Alternating Possession Arrow," because I could not find anything no matter how hard I looked it up, but thanks to wizard-sama and teralin-sama's help, I was able to correct this.


Blades of Aesir - 氷の刃 - Ice Blade (Item)

The strongest axe that appears in Bane of the Cosmic Forge. It also appears in CDS (Crusaders of the Dark Savant). It's inferred that it is an axe because it uses the Axes skill.

When you look up ｢氷の刃｣, it appears to be a B-movie thriller. However, this name is actually invented whole-cloth for the Japanese version because the weapon gives cold resistance and casts cold magic when used.

Aesir is read as ｢エーシル｣ (e-shiru), and in English can be read as ｢エーシア｣ (e-shia) or various other pronunciations. It is the plural form of Aes, and refers to the divine rotagonists of Norse mythology such as Odin.

However, it doesn't appear that the Aesir use weapons of this type. Cold is not actually associated with the Aesir, but with the inhabitants of Niflheim (｢ニヴルヘイム｣).


Blarney Stone - ブラーニーの石 (Item)

One of several stones appearing in KOD (The Knight of Diamonds).

In Cork, Ireland, there is an old castle called Blarney Castle. There is an urban legend that if you kiss the Blarney Stone, the stone atop this castle, you will become more eloquent and skilled. I have never visited Blarney Castle, so I don't know the stone's size or shape, but it seems likely it is too big to carry [raindare: while in Wizardry, since it's an inventory item, you evidently can carry it]. "Kiss the blarney stone" has become an idiom in English, so it's fairly likely that many people do not actually know about Blarney Castle. In Wizardry itself, using the item gives +1 Luck and has a 75% chance to destroy it.


Bushido Blade - 武士道ブレード (Item)

A katana that appears in BCF (Bane of the Cosmic Forge) and its relatives. In the Super Famicom version, it was rendered as ｢武士道の刀｣ ("Bushido Katana"). However, I think ｢武士道ブレード｣ ("Bushido Blade") is better. The reason is explained below.

In terms of naming something Bushido Blade specifically, I can only think that it was named after the movie The Bushido Blade (｢武士道ブレード｣) from 1979. I don't remember the movie very well, but I believe that in it, the actor Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997) commits seppuku over the theft of the titular Bushido Blade.

Also in BCF, there are two other weapons called the Dragon Slayer (｢ドラゴン・スレイヤー｣) and the Beastmaster (｢ビーストマスター｣). They clearly form a set. This is because Dragonslayer is the title of a 1981 movie, and The Beastmaster (｢ミラクルマスター七つの大冒険｣) is a 1982 movie. Their release dates are so close together that there's no way they aren't a set. It's also unclear why a dragon-killing weapon would appear in BCF otherwise, since you never really fight any dragons.

As for the Beastmaster, the fact that it causes sleep on hit is probably a dodgy adaptation of part of the movie's plot. Incidentally, it was called "Miracle Master" in Japanese, which was the result of how it was distributed, and The Beastmaster is probably a more appropriate title.

In addition, BCF may have taken the name of the sword Excaliber from the movie Excalibur (1981), and the Kabuto (｢兜｣, Japanese for "helmet") from 兜 KABUTO (1990). However, these associations aren't as nearly certain as the three mentioned above.


Incidentally, the same name was used for the PlayStation game Bushido Blade (｢ブシドーブレード｣) in 1997. This name is probably lifted from the same movie, but the content is completely unrelated to the movie, so it's likely that they just chose it because the name has a fitting atmosphere.

In fact, the name "Bushido Blade" is one that's touched the hearts of Japanese players everywhere. It's possibly because of the combination of "bushido" to mean "Japanese," when that's a word we rarely ever use, combined with the foreign katakana word "Blade," that gives us a sense of "this is trying to be Japanese, and it's wrong." It's for that reason, that this name is iconic, that I think Bushido Katana loses out to Bushido Blade.

To be continued…