What is a weapon, really? Good or evil, instrument of protection or destruction? And who is it in the end that sheds the enemy's blood — the blade or its master?

The possession of weapons in the Oriental Sands was strictly prohibited by decree of zafir Sargor II. Only zafir, the ruler of the khaganate, and his guards had the right to bear arms. For a commoner, owning a weapon was a terrible crime, punishable by death.

But the young lad pushed such thoughts to the back of his mind, as he tiptoed deeper into the treasury of the khaganate. The street urchin had never ventured this far before. He strutted proudly among the mountains of gold, running his grubby fingers along precious vases. It wasn't Elmir's first time here. He never took too much — just enough to survive. But somehow, he always found new reasons to come back again.

He continued to quietly sneak past the untold treasures until a sudden sound made him stop in his tracks. Following the noise, he hurried into the western chamber of the treasury and then stood stock still again, holding his breath and listening carefully. Ah — there it was again! He confidently went over to a small cabinet filled with rare textiles and carpets. At last! He finally saw what he only now understood he had been looking for this whole time: two long blades, engraved with beautiful gold and silver patterns. The swords had been calling to him in his dreams, beckoning him to come here again and again. Elmir grabbed both weapons and turned, only to stumble over a pile of armor and fall flat on his back. He momentarily stopped feeling his body, but after having regained consciousness, he had the uncanny sensation of somehow being split into four separate bodies, each with a life of its own. Everything his translucent copies saw and heard, he saw and heard too.

But his astonishment quickly turned into fear as the guards of Sargor II burst into the treasury to investigate the noise. Elmir's copies took up battle positions and began to fight off the intruders, Elmir himself perceiving everything simultaneously from four different points of view. Lacking any experience in sword fighting, the street urchin grabbed both blades with one hand and planned to make a quick getaway. But then, to the boy's great surprise, the blades magically merged together into an exquisite bow and quiver. An inner voice instructed Elmir on how to draw the bow, raise his elbow, and take aim. Within moments, Elmir and his duplicates safely slipped out of the treasury, leaving the guards lying motionless on the floor.

The boy, out of breath and completely bewildered, sought out shelter under the dilapidated roof of an abandoned house, trying to make sense of it all. And when he came to his senses, he realized that his copies had vanished like a dream into thin air. The next thing he knew, he heard a voice talking to him, clearly coming from his new magical weapon.

"Greetings, Elmir, the secret-born son of Tur Khazari! At last, we found you: the last heir to the throne, the final hope of the lineage destroyed by the heinous usurper, Sargor II!"

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" the boy cried out, his mind struggling to keep up with the constant surprises.

"We are the Blades of the Many Truths, the guardians of a secret known to our enemies."

The blades recounted the story of how the Khazari clan once came to the assistance of the titans, who bestowed upon them a legendary weapon in return; a weapon endowed not only with extraordinary power, but also with its own soul. They told of how Sargor II pledged allegiance to the Darkness in exchange for the Cold Fire, the only weapon capable of breaking and subjugating the will of all fifty living blades. Only the Blades of Truth managed to elude the hands of the king-killing imposter. All this time the blades had been searching, calling out for the heir of the Khazari lineage, to join with them in bringing retribution to the villain.

Everything the blades told Elmir resonated with his deepest intuitions, and he gratefully accepted his gift. And thus the grubby orphan turned out to be the illegitimate son of the khaganate's zafir, and took it upon himself to save his homeland and the legendary weapons of his ancestors. He managed to rescue more than three dozen of the blades, but the rest of them disappeared along with Sargor and his accomplices when they escaped. Elmir then joined the Guardians in order to cleanse the Dominion of the Darkness and save the weapons forged by the Light.