Went to "list of mythical weapons" on Wikipedia and it was the only one I saw that looked generic enough. I was hoping someone here could name the concept with a generic English word I am overlooking, though, since I don't necessarily want to tie my story up with Indian mythology. Actually, my story happens in a place where neither the English nor Hindi language could possibly exist, so maybe that's no big deal.

As for what I'm thinking of... imagine a team of snipers with suppressed rifles went back in time to a primitive society and just started picking off blondes from the treeline until all the blond-headed people were either dead or had shaved their heads. The survivors can see that their friends have been physically murdered and maybe they even find bullets.

If the people have language they might attribute the snipers' actions to their gods, who apparently have big problems with blonde hair. What is an English synonym for the word they might use to describe the weapons doing the smiting?