Ash Arrow

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A simple arrow tipped with ash wood, one of the few substances known to pierce the immortal flesh of a faerie and bring it to its knees.

The ash arrow is the mortal world's most reliable weapon against the fae, a piece of wood that carries the weight of centuries of fear and defiance. Crafted from ash trees that grow only south of the Wall, each arrow is a slow, careful work of art, seasoned for a year and shaped with iron tools to avoid contamination by faerie magic. A single ash arrow can fetch a small fortune in a border village, and a quiver of them is worth more than gold to a mortal lord.

Appearance

A slender shaft of pale, close-grained ash, typically fletched with grey goose feathers and tipped with a broadhead of cold iron or steel. The wood is often stained dark with preservative oils, and the fletching bound with sinew in a tight spiral. In the hands of a mortal hunter, it looks like any other arrow—but the fae know better.

Also known as: Ash-tipped arrow, Faerie bane shaft, Mortal's mercy, Ironwood arrow

What They Know

Ash wood is one of only three substances—along with cold iron and faebane—that can reliably wound or kill a faerie, whose flesh is otherwise impervious to mortal weapons.
During the War five hundred years ago, the mortal general Jurian is said to have felled a hundred fae with ash arrows before he was captured and his soul trapped in a ring.
After the Treaty, the fae High Lords ordered the burning of every ash grove north of the Wall, but the mortals preserved the trees in secret, hidden in deep forests and guarded by iron wards.
Crafting a true ash arrow requires the wood to be cut under a waning moon, seasoned for a full year without ever touching faerie magic, and fletched with feathers from a bird that has never eaten fae grain.
A single ash arrow was used by Feyre Archeron to kill the wolf that was the faerie Andras—an act that set in motion the breaking of the curse on the Spring Court.

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