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From what little I've seen the master smiths who crafted the best of the Katanas and Wakazashis were also master swordmen, or at least skilled in their use. The MA is also modified a bit in Rifts to actually include the ability to forge a rune blade version at 12th level. Should there be skill in the forging of swords (not necessarily magical blades mind you, although that would be in keeping with such ritual blade forging) for such a character, particularly a mid or high level master? This would seem to be in keeping with the MA particularly in forging their own blades (perhaps even being a possible part of clearing their apprenticeship as a Zanji student).

Nightmask wrote:From what little I've seen the master smiths who crafted the best of the Katanas and Wakazashis were also master swordmen, or at least skilled in their use. The MA is also modified a bit in Rifts to actually include the ability to forge a rune blade version at 12th level. Should there be skill in the forging of swords (not necessarily magical blades mind you, although that would be in keeping with such ritual blade forging) for such a character, particularly a mid or high level master? This would seem to be in keeping with the MA particularly in forging their own blades (perhaps even being a possible part of clearing their apprenticeship as a Zanji student).

I can see master swordsmen being able to become master swordsmiths, but I don't see master swordsmen being required to become master swordsmiths.

Sgt Anjay wrote:

Nightmask wrote:From what little I've seen the master smiths who crafted the best of the Katanas and Wakazashis were also master swordmen, or at least skilled in their use. The MA is also modified a bit in Rifts to actually include the ability to forge a rune blade version at 12th level. Should there be skill in the forging of swords (not necessarily magical blades mind you, although that would be in keeping with such ritual blade forging) for such a character, particularly a mid or high level master? This would seem to be in keeping with the MA particularly in forging their own blades (perhaps even being a possible part of clearing their apprenticeship as a Zanji student).

I can see master swordsmen being able to become master swordsmiths, but I don't see master swordsmen being required to become master swordsmiths.

That is however exactly the case with the Zanji master as seen in Rifts: Japan, it's listed as part of the MA that at 12th level they've learned enough to craft rune swords, so somewhere in that they are all expected to learn to be master swordsmiths. As the variant that is one of the few MA to survive into 'modern' times in Rifts Earth it suggests one could expect it to end up being a natural extension of the MA that could be applied even to Ninjas and Superspies.

Actually, I wouldn't consider a development that occurred after an apocalypse which massively changed the structure of reality to be indicative of a requirement for the art hundreds of years earlier. In other words, swordmasters who have to become swordsmiths may be a product of what they had to live through in the Great Cataclysm and its aftermath, not something that came from the art's origins. It may be that with the lack of civilization, if you wanted special swords of your own to practice your art you would at least eventually need to be able to make them, such that the two abilities over hundreds of years became synonymous. That set of circumstances has no bearing on the present, however. So regardless of what may happen in the future, I can't think of a sword martial art requiring one to become a sword smith from the past or in the present, which is what would be applicable.