*Jawdrop* Skilgannon makes his first solo challange and decides to take on Rand Al’Thor? A person who some, if not most of his fans argue can take on the creator… Nice.

Well, a little background on Skilgannon, because he’s no doubt a lesser known character. He was the general of a Naashanite army, the greatest swordsman of a nation that spanned most of the continent. His whole family had been renowned in the field of war, and most had been nothing short of superb with a sword. Skilgannon was the best of them, barring his own insane, reborn son (long story… but a good one) with even the most basic swords he was a good match for almost any man alive.

He was not armed with normal swords however. He carried with him the swords of night and day, two enchanted weapons of great power. They never needed sharpening, could cut through plate armour without slowing down and, if the attributes of other demonic weapons are to be considered, were capable of deflecting magic using the spirit of the demon within.

They also enchanced his already impressive physical prowess, making him faster, stronger and more aware of his surroundings.

On top of this, because a man like skilgannon is rarely easily described, his training was not purely of combat. He was trained in everything from tactics and fitness, to dance. everything he needed to become a great fighter and a great leader.

He is known as “the Damned” because he and his legion was responsible for the slaughter of an entire city of innocents under the orders of his leader, the true love of his life, who would soon after order him killed for leaving in disgrace.

He Originally died at the age of around seventy, leading a vastly outnumbered force into enemy lines to kill a king, surround by bodyguards. Skilgannon was old, slow, tired and had at the time severe health problems. He still won, though he died moments after.

Two thousand years later he was resurrected, along with his best friend, the even more dangerous in combat but far less rounded Druss the Legend, to fight someone known as the witch queen. He was once more in top physical condition, and with the experience of a literal lifetime he was more deadly than ever.

…I think I’ve mentioned everything pertinent here… Oh, barring notable achivements.

Killed the same man twice, a man who was his childhood idol and who was armed with the original demonically possessed weapons his were based on.

Repeatedly led vastly outnumbered armies, in once case a mere number of eight versus upwards of seventy, and triumphed.

Killed a large number of Joinings, magically enhanced meldings of man and beast. usually spawned from the more dangerous beasts, Bears, Panthers, Wolves, and often using more than one of each.

Personal survivor of over eighty duels, with or without his swords.

Stood up to a huge horde of angry villagers, led by the city militia. At first this sounds unimpressive, but at the time he was a preist, he was unarmded, and he managed to tkill three men in as many seconds, one with his own sword.

…Ok… Think I’m done here…

If we mean basic swordsmanship, Skilgannon wins. with the magic added it becomes much more perilous, depending on whether or not we allow demonic properties to be standard (as in, do we allow all demonically possessed weapons to have the same qualities, which so far they seem to)

Matapiojo, Admin, you two seem to be the resident experts on Rand, rebuttals?

Wait, its not his first solo match… and I participated heavily in the last one…

Must be going senile in my old age… ah well.

If it’s just swords The damned comes out victorius.

Shall we say that Rand can cast weaves that affect himself but not skillganon. its easy enough to accomodate.

Sipstrassi Stones, the source’s protection, dardarlion and the 30 (It has precedent)

It is a problem with magic users verse sword fighters. With both the combatants at full strength and with all abilties, skilgannon hugely outclassed.

“On top of that, Rand uses power-wrought swords, which have been observed to slice through the hardest armor “as if it were water.””

not a huge issue, Skilgannon wears leather armour, using the logic that if he’s too fast to hit, then he won’t need the extra protection.

Naashanite duels are performed with the bare minimum of protection. Generally combatants will each choose a weapon, be it sabre, longsword or the like, and then they strip off down to their undergarments, or at most a loose fitting robe. They are about skill, not who has the best equipment. The only time Skilgannon has been close to defeat in a match such as this, he was facing someone with weapons far greater than his own.

The enchantments on Skilgannons swords are not that well documented, so their effects on weave magic can only be guessed at. They cut through everything else with ease however, including enchantments.

I’m biased here, but I will say that Skilgannon is massively outclassed if this is a match where we don’t cripple Rand by slowing, if not outright disallowing, his magic.

And yet with just swords, I’m confident The match will play out the entire opposite direction.Rand has many skills, Skilgannon has one main one. He deals in death. No showboating, no hesitation, no regret. People get one chance, and if they ignore it, they die.

As for technicalities. Rand only has one sword and has lost his right hand, fighting against someone extremely skilled with two blades would make it a very hard fight indeed.

This match, swordsman-wise, seems to come down to one main factor.

Experience. Rand is very skilled in his series, but Skilgannons had literally two lifetimes in which to perfect his style.

On skill alone, Skilgannon takes this.

When given their respective famed swords, I’m leaning more towards Rand.

All holds barred match however, Rand laughs this one off and then, in a quirk of literary timing, goes insane through overuse of his powers.

Hooray for plot twists!

“Rand has cleansed the Taint on Saidin, the magical poison that causes him to gradually go mad. With that done, his magic no longer corrupts him, and thus, he can blast away to his heart’s content. The only limit on his powers now is that he’ll “burn out” if he draws too much of Saidin. With Callandor, however, that isn’t much of a problem. The amount of destruction he could wreak before burning himself out would be roughly equivalent to a complete orbital nuclear bombardment of the entire continent of Australia.”

Unless he has some serious mental deficiencies, he’s in danger of becoming a wholly uninteresting character, Its things like this that stopped me watching dragonball…

Having an ancient swordsmaster inside your head giving you hints is all well and good, but there’s a difference between knowing when to duck and having someone telling you to duck.

Its difficult to prove though. In the Books Skilgannon is in, the only really able swordsmen we see him take on are either related to him, or childhood heroes magically enhanced beyond mortals. Anyone else may well be a challenge to normal men, but Skilgannon just embarrases them before killing them.

“Rand still has some traces of the “Taint” inside him, which were not removed by the cleansing of Saidin because they had already infected him, though he is not actually mad. He isn’t stupid either. His strategies and political maneuvers actually indicate, in my mind, a very intelligent and cunning person. Still, I’d say that Rand is far from the idea of an invincible Gary Stu like, say, Eragon Shadeslayer or Richard Rahl.”

I don’t know Richard Rahl or Gary Stu….but i do know Eragon Shadelsayer well. And he is by no means invincible. The shade in book one would have killed him if not for Saphira dropping the heart of the mountain on him. Eragon has actually been made to look pretty pathetic….even after the elves infused him with power. His own brother still had him bested at every turn. Eragon has always relied on someone else to win his battles for him….Rand on the other hand is the closest to invincible i have ever seen. With almost a limitless power source…..it isn’t even a fair fight between him and Skilgannon (a mere mortal)

“This is getting a little off-topic, though . . .”

just look at how the Taki vs Kitana turned out.

and i agree. Eragon does come across as a complete incompetent. i don’t like the character anyways.

Nomination for Rand Al’thor.