Crippled Smith

Basic Information

The crippled smith is a mythic archetype consisting of a smith who is physically disabled in some way - normally lacking full use of his legs as exemplified by the Greek smith-god Hephaestus.

This has a variety of levels - not least the contrast between the physical strength expected of a smith and the disability.

Like most archetypes, this one is quite old, and is thought to derive from the bronze age where many ancient redsmiths were exposed to arsenic poisoning in the course of their work - either from natural contamination of their copper supply or direct use of arsenic to substitute for rare tin in the bronze making. Arsenic poisoning is know to cause nerve damage and loss of leg function can be a part of that.

Sources

Bibliography

1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

• Besides the redsmith crippled by arsenic, the crippled smith may also appear as a craftsman deliberately lamed to prevent him fleeing with his precious knowledge - perhaps an illustration of the burden of knowledge and the danger in making yourself irreplaceable.
  • The superior workmanship of such a smith may well be the lynchpin keeping a tyrant in power … or he may simply be prevented from forging some prophesied blade that can end the rule of a supernaturally powered master. Rescuing - or in the first case killing him - may be a key step in ending the BBEGs rule.