When drawn from it's enchanted glass scabbard, the ancient blood contained within begins to form the blade of a sword, and resumes its liquid form as it is sheathed again, the hilt locked to the scabbard by living metal which constricts around it until willed to release by its master.

The Hereditor is a blood ooze which has served as a method of testing the blood of potential kings of Eldht-Khan, to see if they possess the blood of the Ravenmane clan, or might suffice in the absence of the lineage. When young Geovor of El ventured to the Hereditor's cavern to undertake the trial of blood, the ancient ooze proposed that he take a part of it with him back to the Material Plane when he left, so that the Hereditor might continue its existence after the final descendant of El took the throne. Upon Geovor's agreement, the blood ooze poured some of itself into a strange glass vial, fastened to what appeared to be a sword scabbard, and instructed the young man to pour out the blood onto the earth of his kingdom, along with some rare metals and gemstones.

Once the ritual was performed, the metals and earth combined with the blood to form the hilt of a bastard sword, and as Geovor drew it from the ground, the remainder of the pooled blood took the form of a great blade-- sharp as obsidian and hard as adamantine. This was the new sword of the old kings; the Hereditor's blade.