>>5662886>Futuristic swordstrying to find pictures and concepts of these actually quite difficult. I think it is because the artistic imagination is somewhat saturated and overwhelmed by either 1/ lightsaber (see Star Wars smothering all other space opera comments previously) 2/ cyberpunk katanas etc. I think the Armoured Core mech swords (especially the Grind Blade, the laser crescent / sickle shaped Moonlight too) are pretty original, but not for humans. There are also 40k chainswords, I don't really think of them as swords though
For Dune type settings you can go a bit primitive / ethnic-looking, but I think given how weird Frank Herbert was (look, he made a tooth an assasination weapon) and also how obsessed with ethnographic language and detail he accumulated, I would probably expect a more bizarre grotesque design, like those mambele, trumbash, kpinga etc. hooked ritual African throwing swords I posted previously.
A real world impractical oddity design that might also fit the lore would be something like the Ballistic Knife (I think it might be in some Call Of Duty, but I have not played the latest releases). I think spring-loaded or mechanically winding / kinetic release weapons fit well in Dune
