Masamune Shiro

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Biography

Masamune Shiro is the hero of many popular legends in Wao.

He became famous as the first known runesmith and unbeaten master of his profession.

During the 6th century and for many centuries later Wao's realm existed isolated from the rest of Assiah. The only interactions were minor trade agreements and defensive battles against neighbouring nations. During Masamune's liftetime Wao was in constant conflict with the Aerol Princedom. Thus it had developed a very martial culture and warriors were highly respected. Only smiths were even more notable beside the royal family itself. They had transformed the production of weapons into a complex act of art and their creations were famous as the best ones in Assiah. 

Masamune originated from a very proud smith-family and learned quickly from his father.

Eventually he became a very skilled master, possibly the best smith in Wao. He made weapons only for the richest warriors and Wao's nobility. But even then he was eager to improve his skills and to create even better weapons. 

It was probably in 617 when he met a magician from Ondora who tried to find savety in the small, neutral country. Wao didn't possess many magicians and the few ones were kept in the royal palace far away from the normal people. Masamune was impressed by the magician's skills and asked him to teach him about magic. The smithery master was very talented and had a natural sensibility for Mana. Later the magician continued his journey to the kingdom of Grave. Masamune stayed in Wao and tried to combine his new magical skills with his profession as smith. In the end his experiments resulted in the creation of the so called rune-smythery.

He found out that some Edeni runes were able to store Mana which could be formed into magical effects bound to the runes. Until his death in 631 because of illness, he was just able to create  

five magical swords. Each of them was incredibly powerful. Three of those swords vanished during history and there are innumerable rumours about their current whereabouts. The other two are in private possession of the waoi royal family but were given to a museum. No runesmith was ever able to create weapons as masterly as Masamune's works.