Some color-exercises: copying screenshots of the movie Gladiator, just for the sheer cinematographic joy of it. Hopefully I will learn something about color and composition in the process.

Different hilts.

Originally, the idea was to create a cutting edge using a strand of plasma arcs along the edge of the sword scroll. However, that seemed sort of overkill as fencing is more about pure finesse, finding the cracks in your opponent's armor and striking them precisely, rather than slicing someone in half with a viking broadsword.

The finished concept instead used a coil of metal similar to nichrome, the stuff that toasts your bread in the morning, glowing hot enough (about 1400 degrees Celcius) to cause serious cauterized scars, or even death.

And there we are: the rapier in action.

Couple of hours' worth of  sketching. Not in any way related to the London 2150AD project. I think...

So how do these groups settle their differences? Car-jousting? Fast-paced games of chess? Well, first of all, to gain satisfaction and restore/defend one's honor one needs to be willing to risk something, something serious, like bodily harm, or even death. Some form of violence seems to be the only real way to go.

Drawing on the rich history of dueling with rapiers, full of finesse and finely tuned badassery, I figured there had to be some way to compress the otherwise bulky sword into a more compact and elegant object. A rolled-up sheet of memory material would be able to elongate at will into a thin needle, and its internal circuitry would be able to form super-heated plasma to provide an edge to the coiled cone. Bulletproof body armor wont help you here - lose this duel and, if you're lucky, you'll be left with your life, and some cauterized scars.

Quick visualization sketch of the early rapier concept in action.