Magic Weapons of the HMS Apollyon

The Following Classes of Strange Weapon and Armor Materials are used on the Apollyon.  Most are the product of a specific culture or time period, but all have their advantages over regular steel or bronze.

Frogling/Shamnistic Weapons

Ancestral Hex – Frogling shaman sometimes carry weapons, rods or staves that allow attacks directly at the target’s ancestral spirits and prior existence.  Damage by this weapon is visible as a certain fading or de-materilization of the target.

Gris Gris– Sets of gris gris, talismans, fetishes and poppets that can be compelled to attack opponents either through the projection of a swarm of small spirits (most often animal spirits) or, more crudely, actual physical poppets, fetishes or carvings that bite, burrow into or claw at the target. These animate figures are occasionally fixed to a shaft or carved from a blade and will bite, scratch and grapple those the weapons strike.Totemic armor can also be manufactured with the gris gris warping the paths of bullets and blades.

Living Weapons

Devil Forged – Weapons and armor of all varieties, forged  from tormented souls or lesser ranking devils, these weapons are generally alive in some sense and often appear sickeningly organic – though they are not.  They are capable of a wide variety of diabolic powers, and almost all drink the souls of their victims and wielders.

Fleshcrafted – Made by the Merrowmen, weapons grown from borrowed or farmed living tissue. Swords or clubs made out a living jawbone like material and set with teeth are common, but weapons that grab, entangle, inject, exude poison, burrow or shoot spines are all within the Merrowmen's ability.

Sanguinary - Some enchantment creates weapons and armor that feed on the blood of the living.  Blades that will almost instantly siphon the blood out of anyone they cut, and armor that feeds off the wearer to increase its strength both fall into this category.  Rare Sanguinary weapons are made of the blood of powerful otherworldy creatures and often contain many of their donor's powers or even conciousness.

Technological Weapons

Hydraulic -  Weapons, especially impact weapons for boiler mail suits are sometimes made with hydraulic or gyroscopic assistance technology that can better punch through armor by amplifying the wielder's own swings.  These weapons are slow however and generally disfavored for unarmored combat.

Voltaic -  A normal weapon connected to a voltaic battery that will discharge a powerful electrical bolt into anyone struck by it.  These weapons have advantages over metal armor, as a conductive surface will not stop the weapon's powerful discharge even if it stops the blade.  Voltaic technology has also been used to create short ranged cannons, and even weapons formed almost entirely from electrical fields.

Mechanical - Complex machines powered by clockworks and small magical or chemical engines, the most common form of mechanical weapons is to set a blade with teeth capable of rapidly spinning or oscillating.  Such weapons will chew through light armor and flesh with great effect.  Armor can also benefit from mechanical augmentation, usually to increase the strength of the wearer and allow heavier protective plating.  This powered armor is commonly known as boiler mail.  Mechanical weapons, except those of the finest quality, require almost constant maintenance and as therefore disfavored by Scavengers.

Vulcanite -Weapons and armor made from some sort of polymer or rubber known only to the Black Gang and treated with magics and chemicals for extraordinary strength while remaining somewhat plastic.  Light armor of this kind is as strong as steel while Vulcanite bow staves are highly sought after and can propel arrows and bolts far more effectively than bone, metal or even rare wooden weapons.  Vulcanite is found only in a shiny black, but experts say this is an affectation of its manufacturers rather than a material necessity.  Vulcanite armor also provides excellent protection against electrical attack.

Cermicast - A most ancient and powerful form of weaponry, from the original marine and steward armories aboard the ship or ground down from fragments of ancient marine power armor.  The weapons remain pure white, with, sometimes with glowing cyan glyphs of power and are generally in the form of maces and flails, presumably for riot work.

Eldritch

Null - forged from cursed red steel and prayed over long by Brine Brother mystics weapons and null weapons and armor are notable for their incredibly chaotic nature, antithetical to the ordered intrusion into the world that is magic.  Null armor will render its wearer immune to magical effects, while null weapons both disrupt magic and drain magic from those they strike.  More powerful null weapons may also drain life-force, and disrupt the fabric of the rational universe, transforming and pulling apart the reality of those around them.

Void - A class of deadly weapons created by Icthyothropes amidship, while null weapons are just beacons for existing chaos power, void weapons actually split the order of reality and call to the entities that live within the void beyond.  When a void bullet explodes a portal is opened and indescribable horrors, sacred to the Fishmen crawl through rending and devouring.

Elemental - Weapons containing one or more elemental spirits are another favorite of the Frogling cryptocracy.  These weapons vary depending on the elemental spirit trapped within, from normal looking to armors of flame, ice or living water.

Sea Blessed – Another form of elemental weapon, though unique in that they sometimes form independently in the cold haunted waters of the Apollyon, reliant on the power of water to inflict harm.  Often these items appear to be regular equipment that has been submerged for many years – corroded, barnacle encrusted and covered in dripping weeds to the point of being almost unrecognizable.  Rarely weapons made entirely out of elemental water have been found, holding their shape despite a fluid appearance. The damage inflicted by these weapons is usually freezing, though some poison, desiccate or drown their targets.

Necromantic

Clotted Rust - Weapons made of rotted necromantic filth, these blades are stronger than they look and have the unique ability of rotting or decaying anything they strike.  The damage these do to the living is great, and they will destroy most weapons and armor they come in contact with, causing hundreds of years of corrosion and decay in moments.

Haunted - Weapons strengthened with sorcery and spirits of the dead. The simpler forms of these weapons are actual undead limbs, or abominable constructions of bones which can grasp and entangle as well as injure, often strengthened with metal grafting or armoring. More fel weapons are "haunted" and possessed with bloodthirsty spirits.

Phantom - It may be possible for a weapon to die, especially a storied weapon infused with the souls of its wielders and victims. It may also be possible for the ghosts of warriors to manifest armed and armored, and to remain after dissipated in these phantom weapons.  Phantom weapons are distinct from haunted weapons as they have no physical manifestation, and are purely an apparition.  They ignore non-magical armor and can cut through ghost stuff as easily as the souls of living victims.