'Empty ashes of war, devoid of any memories of battle. Unable to apply any kind of affinity in their current state, but can be used by Smithing Master Hewg of the Roundtable Hold to recreate other ashes. Thus does the copy pass into becoming the genuine article.' Hewg is the Roundtable's smith, a chained, weather-stoned troll bound to the table by an oath he did not freely swear, who can hammer any weapon, copy any technique, and never speak of the prison he is in. He is the only person in the canon who can take an empty Ash of War and re-imprint it with the memory of a single warrior's technique. The canonical formulation is exact : the copy passes into becoming the genuine article.

'Whetstone with a cipher inscription, made to look like a small knifeblade. Allows the use of ashes of war at a site of grace to bestow new battle arts and affinities to armaments as skills. The battle arts of the Ashes of War remember the techniques of valiant warriors of the past.' His function is canonical memory-work. Each Ash the Tarnished applies to a weapon at a Site of Grace is a remembrance of a specific warrior's technique. Hewg's anvil is the realm's quietest archive : a smith chained to a chair, copying the past onto blank vessels for use by the present. The Tarnished may break Hewg's chains by completing Roderika's questline. He continues to smith afterward, the chain was not, in the end, what kept him there.

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Ash of WarLost Ashes of War

Empty ashes of war, devoid of any memories of battle. Unable to apply any kind of affinity in their current state, but can be used by Smithing Master Hewg of the Roundtable Hold to recreate other ashes. Thus does the copy pass into becoming the genuine article.

ItemWhetstone Knife (Ashes of War)

Whetstone with a cipher inscription, made to look like a small knifeblade. Allows the use of ashes of war at a site of grace to bestow new battle arts and affinities to armaments as skills. The battle arts of the Ashes of War remember the techniques of valiant warriors of the past.