A Nord’s Best Friend
Every Nord needs a trusty companion on the battle field – a Mul Zun. Though most Nords are especially wary of the Daedra’s promises of power, I found myself tempted by Clavicus Vile to do whatever was necessary to keep the Rueful Axe for myself.
The Rueful Axe is one of the lesser known weapons from Skyrim, probably due to the choice you must make at the end of the quest “A Daedra’s Best Friend” to keep it. I chose the axe because it is the perfect weapon for a member of the companions – a two handed battleaxe depicting snarling werewolf heads, which inflicts stamina damage to those it strikes. It was originally gifted by Vile to Sebastian Lort, whose daughter suffered from lycanthropy.
“Tis a wicked axe you wield there, friend. That blade looks sharp enough to cut through a god.”
– Skyrim Hold Guard
What’s it Made Of?
The head of the axe is carved from two pieces of rigid insulation foam, which I glued together to create a 2′ x 2′ x 2″ starting piece. To create a pattern, I traced an in-game screen shot of the axe in Adobe Illustrator, and scaled it up to two feet wide. After transferring the pattern to the foam, each line of detail was etched with a Dremel, then carefully sanded by hand. The foam itself tends to crumble fairly easily if handled too roughly, so I filled in all the small pits with clay before coating with gesso and acrylic.
The handle of the axe is your standard broom handle from home depot. To make the exposed portions of the handle more authentic, I coated and sculpted wooden accents out of paper clay. I also added Worbla, fabric, and fur accents to finish off the look.
