The Soul Calibur is the complete opposite and the nemesis of the Soul Edge. Its creation started out from Soul Edge and that’s why we just had to tell the origins of Soul Edge. The two share the same existence with Soul Edge being much older. There would have been no Soul Calibur if Soul Edge failed to exist.
In the world of Soul Calibur, an era came wherein there were a lot of wars, killing, and bloodshed. During this time, one particular sword gained an evil consciousness.
At first, there was nothing special about the sword. It was just like any ordinary one. However, as it was used in endless battle and bloodshed for many generations, and it became corrupted and it even became sentient.
A point came where the sword became so powerful that it was able to corrupt and control whoever wielded it. Whoever wielded the sword would become thirsty. Fortunately, everyone realized that the blade was cursed. The evil sword gained the name Soul Edge.
So, what really is the Soul Calibur?
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The Origin of Soul Calibur
While we could directly dive into the specifics of the sword, it is important to note that Soul Calibur is from a game franchise of the same name, Soul Calibur. To be more specific, Soul Calibur is a fighting game.
This means that while we do get to see and use the sword in a battle, the sword’s full capabilities are really only shown in the story’s cutscenes.
Regardless, we’ve done the research for you and you can expect to learn everything about the Soul Calibur in this article.
To begin, the Soul Calibur was brought into existence ironically after the Soul Edge was nullified by a powerful hero-king named Algol. Unlike everyone else who can get corrupted by the sword, Algol was immune to its power of corruption.
In other words, he was able to wield the sword without suffering any direct consequences. We mention this because while the sword may be powerless against Algol, there were those around him that felt the need prove themselves near the sword.
With not only the desire to prove his strength but also a feeling of jealousy towards his father’s achievement, Algol’s son tried to wield the sword and got corrupted in the process. In turn, Algol had no choice but to kill or be killed.
After killing his son, Algol wanted to put an end to the evil sword. He was able to purify some shards of the sword and vowed to create a new one from the purified shards with equal strength but opposite in nature.
With the help of the best sage in the land, they were able to create the new spirit sword, Soul Calibur. However, for the ritual to be successful, it came at a price. The Soul Calibur was born only after Algol sacrificed himself to complete the ritual.
Soul Calibur was born but there was a huge problem. The sword was of similar nature to Soul Edge, evil. This was because Algol who sacrificed himself to create the sword had an incredible thirst for power.
This problem was solved as the tribe who was tasked with safekeeping the Soul Calibur kept on purifying the sword until it became a holy weapon. As the guardians of the sword lived in secrecy, they passed on the sword from generation to generation secretly as well to combat the Soul Edge and stop it from wreaking havoc.
What Does the Soul Calibur Sword Look Like?
What’s interesting about the Soul Calibur is that much like Soul Edge, it can take on many forms. Seemingly, it transforms based on a character’s personality or fighting style. Through many generations, different warriors have had the chance to wield Soul Calibur.
With each one, Soul Calibur took on a different appearance. The first appearance of the Soul Calibur was that of a Chinese sword having a thin blade. It wasn’t stated at first that it was actually the Soul Calibur.
Before the sword revealed itself as the Soul Calibur, it had the name Krita-Yuga. In the form of a Chinese sword, it had a straight double-edged blade. It was a simple single-handed sword with a tassel ribbon at its hilt.
The sword appeared during 1586 AD and the wielder of the Krita-Yuga was Xianghua. When Xianghua fought with Inferno, the sword then transformed and revealed itself as the Soul Calibur.
With its new form, the chinese sword turned into a completely different sword with twin blades and intricate designs. It had runes etched where the two blades meet and its guard came in the form of intertwining wings.
The wings housed an orb in between them which had a blue colored base that transitioned to the grip. Its pommel had a small skull design that seemed to be on another bigger type of skull with its eye sockets glowing blue.
In Soul Calibur 4, the Soul Calibur sword had a crystalline and ice-like design with a glowing blue orb at the center of its blade and handle. This was when Siegfried wielded the sword.
When Patroklos wielded the Soul Calibur, it once again changed its form. From a more crystalline appearance, it changed back to a more standard-looking single handed sword but still with a lot of intricate details.
The guard comes in the form of a face and an orb is still in the middle of it just right about the face-like design. It has runes running across its blade and the whole sword has a cold blue color.
There are what seemed to be spiraling vein details along the grip, going to its pummel. When the resolve of Patroklos became stronger, the Soul Calibur also formed a sheath. Like the sword, the sheath also has some runes along the top side of its body.
What Are the Abilities of the Soul Calibur?
Regeneration – While the Soul Calibur is not as offensive as Soul Edge in nature, it has the ability to heal both its wielder and itself. This is a crucial ability as facing something as powerful as Soul Edge could mean death.
Something that heals the wielder of the Soul Calibur helps to assure that the user can live on after a battle with the cursed sword.
Shapeshift – As mentioned earlier, the Soul Calibur can shapeshift into any weapon. Sometimes, it could even transform into two weapons instead of just one. Like the case of Cervantes and Patroklos, Soul Calibur transformed into two swords and a sword and a sheath respectively.
Can Read the Mind and Soul of the Wielder – The Soul Calibur doesn’t just change its shape randomly. How it changes its shape depends on what it has learned from its wielder. Based on the user’s personality, fighting style, and other factors, the Soul Calibur transforms into the most ideal weapon for its wielder.
Unbreakable through Traditional Means – Like the Soul Edge, no ordinary weapon can destroy or damage the Soul Calibur. Only Soul Calibur can destroy Soul Edge and only Soul Edge can destroy Soul Calibur.
While Sophitia was able to destroy one of Cervantes’ Soul Edge swords, her weapon can’t really be classified as ordinary as it was given to her by Hephaestus.
Sentient – The Soul Calibur is in fact sentient. A consciousness resides within the sword and the sword is actually a female. The Spirit and will of Soul Calibur is Elysium. She was the antagonist and final boss in Soul Calibur V.
Who Was Able to Wield the Soul Calibur?
Xianghua – As mentioned earlier, Soul Calibur first appeared as the Krita-Yuga, the chinese blade wielded by Xianghua. While no one knew that the Krita-Yuga was in fact the Soul Calibur, the Krita-Yuga was still actually highly valued as it was one of the three treasures of Ling-Sheng Su Temple.
There’s a deep history as to how Xianghua acquired the Krita-Yuga but to make the story short, the sword was a keepsake weapon of her mother.
Xianghua was an imperial guard and ironically, she was sent out on a mission to acquire the Soul Edge as she was told that it could help her country rise back up as it was going through a very hard time.
However, she quickly learned from Kilik that Soul Edge was actually evil. In turn, she accompanied Kilik on his adventure of destroying the cursed weapon. Upon encountering Inferno, her sword, Krita-Yuga transformed into the Soul Calibur.
She used it to defeat Inferno and destroy the Soul Edge shattering it to many pieces. Unfortunately, the Soul Calibur was engulfed in a portal created by Soul Edge. The Soul Calibur was then never again seen.
Siegfried – After the defeat of Cervantes, wielder of the Soul Edge, Siegfried took Soul Edge because of its power. He wanted the power for himself but ended up causing a cataclysmic event that had everyone killing each other.
As the Soul Edge took over him, he became Nightmare. He was freed after Xianghua destroyed the Soul Edge but was once again dominated by the evil presence of his alter personality, Nightmare.
He was once again liberated from Nightmare’s control when Raphael stabbed Soul Edge in the eye. This also caused Soul Calibur to resurface and Siegfried used the Soul Calibur to finally completely destroy Soul Edge.
However, instead of destroying Soul Edge, the two swords merged forming the Soul Embrace.
Zasalamel – Zasalamel is actually an ancient because of his ability to become immortal in some way. While his body is mortal, his soul is immortal. Whenever he dies, his soul just transfers to another body retaining all his knowledge, memories and skills.
Zasalamel was actually part of the tribe entrusted to guard Soul Calibur. Because it was against the belief of his tribe for them to use or even touch Soul Calibur, he wasn’t able to.
However, to make a point that Soul Calibur could actually be used for the greater good and because he was too tempted, he wielded it but what happened next didn’t end well for him. In the end, the tribe’s people broke his arms. This led him to learn and master the art of reincarnation.
Being an immortal, he already had seen a lot of things. He was able to get close to Soul Calibur and because of his boredom of being an immortal, he was even able to wield Soul Edge too, to feel its power and see if the cursed sword could finally end his life. Alas, it did not.
Patroklos – Son of Sophitia, Patroklos made it his personal mission to find and rescue his sister who has been kept captive by a malfested with a ring blade. He also made it his mission to avenge his mother who was killed by a group of malfested.
Upon his first meeting with Siegfried, he was instantly offered the Soul Calibur and was asked to fight him. Patroklos winning the fight against Siegfried proved that he was worthy of the sword and was told that he would be the new master of it.
Siegfried did not choose Patroklos, the Soul Calibur was the one that chose Patroklos. With the Soul Calibur, he continued on with his personal mission of vanquishing the malfested, rescuing his sister, avenging his mother and also put a stop to Soul Edge.
Soul Calibur Compared to Other Fighting Games
Unlike most other fighting games, Soul Calibur actually had an excellent story to go along its game style. It’s one of the most successful and unique fighting games and is continually being developed.
Soul Calibur is a reboot to the whole story and we just can’t wait for what will happen next between Soul Calibur, Soul Edge and all the characters of the game franchise. The spirit sword, Soul Calibur and her brother, Soul Edge have both become very iconic weapons.
If these swords were real, which of the two would you choose? Would you give your soul for Soul Edge or fight for the greater good with the Soul Calibur? We hope you learned something new about the spirit sword in this article and if you have, please do share this with your friends so they may also know more about the iconic Soul Calibur from the legendary game franchise, Soul Calibur.