As I said in an earlier extra, Jack's primary close combat weapon was originally supposed to be a sword. Then he got to the old woman's cottage and I wondered, 'okay, so where's he supposed to get one in the middle of the woods at the home of somebody who doesn't use one? Even had Kenjiro's nodachi not been destroyed in his final battle, she'd hardly be willing to part with it.
That left me two options, of which a quarterstaff is the most reasonable for an unskilled (relatively) weaponsmith to create with the tools at hand. Still a daunting task, make no mistake.
I'm not sure how much whittling any of my readers have done, but shaping a 7' ash staff with what was essentially a pocket knife with a very uncomfortable handle is an arduous procedure. It's little wonder he got a good bit of his own blood into the wood. On the other hand, Leatherman Waves have a decent file on them, and that would no doubt have made smoothing the rough edges somewhat easier.
As to the evolution of FoeSmite...
Given the above realization, the notion that he'd be armed with a staff came pretty early. Strangely, from there to it being insanely powerful was a pretty rapid journey, skipping right by the idea that he might pick up a sword (The Jaeger Drop Sword hadn't made an appearance yet) somewhere along the way to his destination.
As early as the first month or so after the idea occurred to me to write an isekai, both its name and its power level had reached 9000! Or, 128, to be more accurate. The real evolution involved how it came to be so. That took over a year, and I'm sorry, but I can't put the whole of it here and now, as the story of FoeSmite doesn't end with book 1.
Stage 1 had him carving the staff and by some power of his innate mana, empowering it. That didn't last long.
Stage 2 had both the Galbradia females combining their power into a naming spell (given that named objects always have more power than unnamed ones), with some of Jack's will and mana leeching into the spell, and Tiarraluna fumbling when it came time to give it a cool and powerful name. This stage was pernicious. FoeSmite became an it, a he, or a she, depending on where my head canon was at any given time. At one point, all three existed simultaneously in the same version of the manuscript. I just couldn't decide where the personality was coming from.
Stage 3 added that 4th will. The one Mohrdrand mentions in chapter 9. At this point, the nature of the staff began to change. While everybody else continued to call the staff it, Roasaluna called it 'she'. At this point, FoeSmite's true nature was another one of Rosaluna's secrets that I know you all love so much.
Stage 4 required some backfilling as FoeSmite's complete character manifested, both within the current story and going forward. I added a few clarifications, a few hints. This all happened well before I started uploading the story. While it doesn't look like some folks caught it, FoeSmite is one of the main reasons Rosaluna is angry at Jack. There are hints as to FoeSmite's true nature going all the way back to chapter 3 or 4, but they're subtle.
Stage 5 is the whole flattery thing. FoeSmite isn't exactly weak to flattery. FoeSmite is weak to certain types of flattery coming from certain people. Millie was always going to be able to hold the staff safely due to her special traits.
Jack, may see it as simple weakness to flattery, but he, like all of my other characters, is not all seeing, all knowing. He makes mistakes. He's wrong from time to time. More often than he'd like to admit, in all likelihood.
Same with Mohrdrand, same with the Galbradias. The narrator is reliable. The characters see the world from their own perspectives, through their own experiences, and frequently get things wrong.
Mohrdrand's exact words were, “I would wager, that in all the world, only yourself, Button here, and perhaps Rosaluna are able to so much as touch it without injury, regardless of rank or class."
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"I would wager," not, "it is an absolute fact that, in all the world...."
A very educated guess, but not a writ from on high. Much as Rosaluna is confident that one is either gifted or ungifted, but never both. And yet, Luciandro tells Jack that he knows from his own personal experience that this is not so. But that's straying into another topic.
FoeSmite is weak to whatever FoeSmite decides to be weak to, within the bounds of the enchantments built into it. It's unlikely that anybody but those who've already evidenced the ability to touch it unscathed will be able to repeat the trick, but not impossible. There is much of the story yet unwritten.
And we arrive at the final evolution of FoeSmite, whose true name is very long and contains many parts, most of which are not perceptible to humans. Her very few human friends in the past, one of whom was Rosaluna Galbradia, have called her Renee. While her true name has not yet been revealed, Millie provides the final hints as to what she is in chapter 42 when she tries to talk to Juniper about the green lady.
So, let's recap. Jack went into a magical forest and cut down an ash tree. This act really torqued off the old woman, who hollered at him about spirits and such.
He carved parts of the tree's trunk into a staff, a sword, and a dagger, getting his blood mixed into the process.
He trained both himself and the staff, sword, and dagger with extensive concentration and time, reciting the actions aloud as he performed them.
He was holding it when it was enchanted by his companion with the aid of the most powerful enchantress on the continent in an unusual manner that has still not been completely explained. He was going through a significant emotional event at the time, and without realizing he was doing so, imbued quite a bit of his own mana and will into the staff, partially directing the path of the enchantment to create the foeshatter enchantment. In the process, he forged some sort of bond with the staff.
Rosaluna, as she's preparing to cast, regrets what she's about to do to her old friend, who is obviously not Jack, as she seems willing to sacrifice him in order to save Tiarraluna.
Tiarraluna, in a moment of brain freeze, names the staff FoeSmite because she can't think of anything better. (The name is deliberately lame, but, honestly, it's kind of grown on me)
Soon after being enchanted, the staff calls to him, for the first, and presumably the last time (at least in book 1) to save him from death. This is the only time during book 1 that it doesn't try to clock him on the way in.
Mohrdrand, when examining and appraising the staff senses a fourth presence in the magic of the enchantment.
The staff feels angry. While Jack can call it, and it will return, it seems to be aiming at him, as if to strike.
The angrier he gets, the angrier the staff gets, even being caught up in the cold rage status effect. As though their spirits are entwined.
It can not only return, it can change direction in mid air to do so.
It is able to shift mana back into Jack, keeping him from passing into death for some considerable while.
While he's presumably in that grey area between life and death, he awakens someplace he doesn't recognize, in the company of a naked green girl, who's obviously angry at him and calls him, among other things, tree killer.
Millie, a girl who, while seemingly ungifted, can see and converse with spirits, sees, converses with, and is able to hold FoeSmite without injury. She tells how the green lady is angry with Jack because he murdered her, but also saved her. She hates him, but she kept him alive. That she can't talk to him unless he's really riled up, but that then, he doesn't listen to her (like maybe when he's enraged and torturing a bandit?).
And she seems jealous of Tiarraluna for some reason. The green lady is obviously conflicted, but also quite obviously FoeSmite in some form or other.
Millie further describes Jack's fight against the bandits with descriptions of the green lady dashing about the station; she’d seen the green lady helping him do it, flashing from place to place, changing the course of what was left to her of her tree, returning it to him when he called.
Now for some Greek mythology. Specifically, Meliae, or Meliads. They were tree nymphs, specific to the ash trees. What many people might consider Dryads, although dryads are specific to oaks. Meliae were the nurses of the infant Zeus.
And here we are. Hopefully, at this point, it's clear who and what FoeSmite really is. The question remains, what will she become?
A note as to her alignment. That's more tricky. As a nature spirit, I'd think she's spent most of her existence as chaotic neutral, by the old standard. Given her recent acquaintances, I'm of the opinion that she's swinging that neutral slowly towards good. Hopefully Jack will be a good influence. When he's not under the influence of Cold Rage or Grim Resolve, at least.
FoeSmite's story is not remotely over. More of it will be revealed, going forward, both her capabilities and more of her history.