“A thousand woman slayers by my edge and point have died I am Need I am Need I am Need”. I love that part of the song

*Woman's Need calls me; As Woman's Need made me; Her Need I must answer; As my maker bade me.*

Some people seem to be very confused, Need is not a demonic sword. She’s a spirit-sword. In the universe of this song there are a number of different Planes of Existence. The lowest or “heaviest” of which is the Abyssal Plane, which is where Demons and the lessor Abyssal Elementals live. Demons are very powerful and intelligent, the Abyssal Elementals less so. “Above” the Abyssal Plane is the Elemental and Material Planes, and above those is the Aethreal Plane, which is where the gods and their servants live, and where good people go when they die unless they choose to be reborn. It’s basically Heaven. In between are the Elemental Planes and the Material Plane. The Material Plane is where humans live, and the Elemental Plane is where creatures like Fire or Earth elementals live. The creatures of the Abyssal Plane are “evil” in that the energies they require (and possibly even like) to remain in the material plane after being summoned are generated by pain and suffering. The Elemental and Material Plane creatures are neutral, and can choose to be good or evil, and the Aethreal Plane inhabitants are good (and likely “feed” off worship and spiritual purity). Need is from the Material Plane as she was a human woman, and she doesn’t feed off pain and suffering like a demon either. So she is not a demon. Most demons or Abyssal creatures don’t posses people or objects in-universe in any case. And anyway, just because something can possess a person that doesn’t mean it’s a demon. In our universe The Holy Spirit can possess people and that’s an aspect of the Christian God. Anyway, I’d argue what Need is doing is not possession. She’s just using her bearer’s body as an extension of her own. In Foundation the Companion Dallen does the same thing on a smaller scale to teach Mags how to ride and make some Companion-hair bootstraps and such for his friends, and in the OwlFlight series a dyheli (which is not a spirit at all) does the same thing to a scouting party to free them from the control of a Cold Drake. It’s basically a form of mind-control that is usually used in a benign or helpful way.

I like how the chorus slowly gets more an more intense

Story of Need is touched on in the story but some is just hinted at and not said out right. The exact timing of the forging of Need is unknown. The location of the temple location and country is unknown.. All we know it was far in the past, in an ancient temple. The high priestess was mage-smith. In fact the temple was of women who knew both magic and fighting. The tyrant king raids the temple, raping and killing many (if not all) of her disciples. I think she was gone at the time, as when she finds her dead students, the priestess swears vengeance. She then forges a magical sword to be used to help with her quest= to avenge the assault on helpless women and to fight against the men who would harm women. This explains the urge that would overcome Kethry when she uses the sword, it would literally drive the wielder to help women in need. Sometimes it would also sense if a woman needed help, driving the wielder to the area in need. Another aspect of Need is if the woman is a sorceress that knows little or nothing about fighting, it helps out in that area. If its the opposite, woman is a fighter and knows nothing about magic, I believe it helps out a little then but that wasn't really shown much like the fighting skills were, so I may be wrong about that. One thing not stated clearly in the song is the final step that in forging the sword that the priestess performed was to quench the blade … in her own blood. That was the step that is hinted at in the line about her disciple finding her broken and bloodied body. She literally took the hot metal rod and rammed it into her own body. THIS is why the sword has a personality - it is the soul of that high priestess that resides in the blade. What is not said about the blade beyond that discple finding it, is how was it completed. I've watched a lot of videos on sword making and quenching isn't the final step in making the sword. After the forging then they need to grind it to an edge and make the handle. Its possible that she stabbed herself in the tempering, so possible she had grinded the edge then but there would be no handle at that point. Either way, the sword wasn't complete. So two possibilities= 1- the disciple finished the blade. 2- the Goddess that blessed it is the one that finished it, meaning that once the Priestess 'quenched it in her own blood' the goddess then transformed it into a finished piece. Since this is set in a world where the gods often have a hand in mortal affairs (depending on what gods and their moods) then that is possible.

i listen to this song a lot, i love how it's not being sexist, but also it's about a sword that hates men.

3:00 I can’t get enough of the way they say “Woman” singular to refer to all women. Like how “Man” often means “mankind”. Acting as if “Man” means only all men, as if men and women are separate species or something is incredibly cool to me for some reason.

This is EXACTLY how I imagine her voice 🤣👌

Thank you for this. I love it.

Juanita Carlson is quite the performer-met her several times powerful voice

Is there a connection between this and the fact that “Need” is the translation of one of the norse runes? I think the rune is called Nauðiz. This whole song gives me norse vibes. I’m pretty sure in norse mythology every weapon has a name, and I think maybe a soul (admittedly I got that soul idea from the Magnus Chase books, so I’m not completely sure if it’s totally accurate). Plus she said “sky stone” which made me think of a rune stone (though I don’t know what the word “sky” would refer to). Maybe etching the rune of need into the sword and putting her soul into the blade made it so that the sword would make itself appear only to women in need. Without the rune context, the sword being named “need” is slightly strange. But I’m probably just being weird.

Kinda sad, but powerful. nice

she was bonded to a mage and later on to the mage's granddaughter who became a herold after she became that i suppose Need found a new barer for her

My god your pseudo !!! Savitar the surfing god !! I know where THAT come from !!! My god i can't believe it !!

Make it look like nature’s crafting Fear and greed will drive them on Bite your tongue to keep from laughing

Thank for the repost sir.

Ye town fair went WILD when she dropped this bard tune!

Excalibur

any place to buy this album as a digital download?

⚔️ 👌

The ancestors would have been drinking mede to this

Long live the celtic genes

So the blade only answers to “women unafraid”? Isn’t that sort of counterproductive? I bet it was at least counterproductive. I will have to look these stories up.

I am a might disappointed in this blade. Karsite Priestess are evil lasses yet Need cannot be used against her.

We need this sword today. Maybe then our rights as women would be heard

I love this song. It is probably the only song about demonic weapons.

Nice song but, I'm about to rain on the fans parade. Need was a demon blade. It took possession of the body of her wielder, by her own admission. Herself admits she did that. What she omits i can surmise. The blade was made for vengeance after all, by a suicide that was crazy already.

Sexist sword. Charming.