No one had relic weapons in FFXI. Other relic gear yes. But not the weapon. Each relic weapon is augmented with a weapon skill that was augmented with tier 3 skillchain property (i.e. Light or Dark). This allowed people to continue a Light or Dark skillchain one time further. Yet you never saw people using these skillchains. I recall one player I encountered spamming "Knights of the Round" every chance he/she got.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ca...:Relic_Weapons

That goes into detail about what's involved in obtaining relics.

http://www.ffxiah.com/relics

The number of people on FFXIAH who have been seen equipped with a relic.