The Gilded Lion Ironworks
Oregoth in southwest Rhiassa is about as small as a village as you’ll find traveling across the Realms. It is a mining community, set up to take advantage of the rich iron deposits in the surrounding hills with miners living both permanently and seasonally in common houses and ferrier workshops where the forges never have a chance to cool.
These Ironworks are the origin of Rhiassan Steel, a weapon smithing material used across the entire Realms for adventure’s armaments.
Rhiassa provides these materials to the Realms in the hopes of giving all adventures access to affordable and quality weapon making materials, to help improve the aesthetic of swords across the community, and to assure that we don’t have to compromise on the safety standards that we have vetted throughout our many years of existence.
Please take a look at our product lines below.
(The Rhiassa Tube)
Rhiassan Black Steel was the first product that The Gilded Lion Ironworks brought to the Realms. The goal of creating this blade material was to help address the shortage in more traditional weapon making materials by providing a custom manufactured option that still met our minimum standards and also had a new and unique look to it.
The most notable aspect of Rhiassan Black Steel is the cross-sectional shape. This design was meant to allow the construction of swords that looked more traditional, with a wide flattened area on two sides of the blade and a more edge-like shape on the others. The weapons made with Rhiassan Black Steel give the impression of being epic and larger than life.
(The Rhiassa Tube (W))
Rhiassan White Steel is a product meant to directly replace the traditional blade materials that we have used for decades which are becoming more and more scarce over time. White steel is custom manufactured to have a 5/8” wall thickness and accommodate a 1/2” core.
While a relatively new product, initial testing indicates that White Steel is equal or superior in quality than the currently available traditional materials that meet that 5/8” minimum wall thickness. We look forward to gathering the long-term qualitative data that will come from this blade material getting used a lot more frequently in the years to come.
Precision is an important factor in all of our design elements at The Gilded Lion Ironworks. If precision is important to you too, you should consider how using blade components that are cut exactly to specifications can make your weapon crafting both easier and more exact.
We can cut blade tip materials as pictured to whatever dimensions you require, accommodating whatever blade and core materials you are using in your smithing. We can also take on mass production jobs in case you have a lot of people making weapons or just have to restock your entire armory. Reach out to Sir Aeston to place your order for whatever blade components you need.
Lioncast hilts are a product line of ready-made handle parts for crafting swords. Our offerings include quillons (cross guards) and pommels of different sizes and styles.
Each piece is laser-cut out of two pieces of 1/2” EVA foam which are meant to be glued together over the weapon core material that you are using to make hilt parts that are 1” wide overall. The groove left in the middle assumes the core you are using will be 1/2” in diameter. It’s been specially designed with a texture that will create a snug fit and accommodate adhesive to make an extremely robust connection with the core of the weapon.
Below you can see our standard quillons and pommels. Quillons are about six inches wide and pommels are roughly an inch wide depending on their style. We are happy to take on custom work for an additional charge. Speak to Sir Aeston for further details or to arrange for larger orders.
Below you can see the process for building a Lioncast Hilt into the construction of weapon and how the core material fits into the groove in the center of the hilt's two halves.
Lioncast Hilts also make tsuba-style guards for Tang Huanese swords. These are cut out of a single piece of 1/2" EVA foam and are roughly three inches in diameter. Our standard designs are below. Like our traditional quillons, we can custom design tsubas for an additional charge.
Lioncast filigree is a custom service that creates embellishments to add to your weapons, most often useful for weapons that are being coated with a high-detail material such as spray-rubber and latex. Adding these designs to a sword blade or a shield surface will elevate the quality of your armament in a very significant way.
Because of our precision cutting method, your design is delivered to you with perfect fidelity. We can create stunning levels of detail. All Lioncast Filigree is made to order, there is no standard stock that is created, but think about having your heraldry or other decoration made to add to your weapons. Contact Sir Aeston with questions or to arrange an order.
❦ Pocket Pike Kits and Queen of Hearts ❦
Gilded Lion Ironworks has undertaken an initiative to help improve the safety and durability of pikes across the Realms with a specific emphasis on making sure that pikes used at Queen of Hearts are as safe as reasonably possible at an event where team combat is the emphasis.
A Pocket Pike Kit is a set of pike construction components that, when put together properly, will result in a pike that is much safer to use in combat than is currently required by the minimum Omnibus requirements. These components are precision-cut using the same techniques as the other Gilded Lion Ironworks products.
Below is a schematic showing how the Pocket Pike Kit is assembled.
Apart from the bamboo core and the pipe insulation foam, the Pocket Pike Kit comes with all of the components that you need in order to upgrade your pike to this new standard or to build a new one. The pre-cut foam pieces make assembly both efficient and exact.
This kit will be provided at cost for anyone who wants to use it to create or upgrade one of their pikes, we are not seeking to make a profit on it.
Notably, with this kit, you will receive the following sticker.
Building or upgrading your pike with an unmodified Gilded Lion Ironworks Pocket Pike Kit will give you the right to place this sticker somewhere near the base of the foam on your weapon. This sticker is a marshaling tool that will be used by combat marshals for Queen of Hearts going forward.
Starting next year at Queen of Hearts XXX pikes used must conform to the higher safety standards achieved by the Gilded Lion Ironworks Pocket Pike Kit. It would be nice if pikers could try to achieve this goal by this summer's Queen of Hearts XXIX but we know that it is too close to reasonably require it of everyone.
This does NOT REQUIRE that you specifically use our kit to upgrade your pike. As long as you are reaching or exceeding the standards specified in this article you can create all your own components and then ask for your pike to be inspected to acquire one of the above stickers.
We know that the increased amount of and intensity of combat at Queen of Hearts leads to greater injuries overall, even if everyone is doing their best to be careful. The close quarters, fatigue, and emotions can combine in unfortunate ways. This elevated pike standard is an attempt at increasing overall safety with very little appreciable downside other than some labor and material costs.