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A couple of weeks ago I had a run-in with Brandon ans was able to ask him a question. I thought I would post it here so y'all can see it. Here is the paraphrased Arcanum style transcript: Here is what I got from this: There are (or could be) shardblades off of Roshar, but definitely not a large number of them. Most (if not all) of the "missing" shardblades are still on Roshar. Also we now have definite confirmation that it is hard to take a spen off world, but it is possible. I would love to hear what the rest of the shard thinks of this WoB.

So I've been wondering, what exactly would a radiant bonding an honorblade entail? For one, would a radiant actually be able to bond an honourblade in the first place? Yes they can hold it without the screams but does their bond with a spren interfere here. But if they could and were to do so, then presumably they would gain the ability to use the surges associated with that honorblade. Once they have done this, would they still face the issues Szeth did with Jezrien's honorblade? Where stormlight would leak more quickly and such? Or would those things be overcome by their status as a radiant and the powers which come with that. Further, if this were possible, then how many could one person bond? Would it be possible to have a Windrunner say who then bonds all the honorblades and becomes a mega radiant? Or would the bonds interfere and get all confused? I welcome any input.

We have seen shardbows , like the one Rock used to kill Amaram . This is nothing but a giant bow or perhaps even a Fabrial that requires massive strength to use it( like someone wearing shardplate.) However , this is not a true shardic weapon. I know they exist, Wyndle , Lift’s spren speaks of some spren that have turned themselves into Shardbow’s , although he doesn’t understand how they would string themselves . That got me to thinking what would be the mechanics behind it ? Could the spren produce ammo, and fire arrows that pierced armor and if it struck the spine or head of a victim Insta-kill the target? What if a world hopper from Scadrial came to Roshar and had a pistol . Could a Radiant copy that and command his spren to become a pistol ? Would the Radiant need bullets ? Or could the spren prosuce shardic ammo that does the same thing as a shard bow ? Fire shard. Bullets that pierce armor and don’t leave a mark on flesh . I really want to see a Shardbow at the very least , one that shoots shard arrows. In the Hands of someone like Teleb it would be devestating ! Imagine firing one arrow that goes thru 20 people killing or maiming every one that it touches. A wind runner with such a weapon would be a dangerous sniper from the air. Think about it he literally can’t miss if he lashes the arrow to your head. .how do you guys think the mechanics of a shard projectile weapon would work?

Hey, all! im a fairly new cosmerenaut, but since first discovering Sanderson this past December, I’ve dove right in headfirst. I’ve just finished my first re-read of the stormlight archives and have read everything else, save Elantris. I am now re-reading Arcanum Unbounded, and was struck suddenly by an idea. Investiture is inherently drawn to the shape of a sword or bladed weapon. Adonalsium himself may have been such a weapon, or at least on occasion took that form. Some points to support this theory: - Radiants, so far as we are absolutely sure, left their abandoned radiantspren only in the form of a blade. I originally assumed that some of the fancier old fabrials were once radiantspren, but now doubt it. - We have seen Nightblood and Azure’s sword as recreations of shardblades, but no comparable version of shardplate using Breaths. - In Secret History, when Kelsier is telling Preservation to stab Eland, we get the following quote: (Fuzz reached to his belt, and his hand shimmered. The knife appeared there. He looked down at it, the blade glistening. “Old friend…” he whispered at it.) - In Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell, Silence describes her dagger as the symbol of the religion devoted to the God Beyond. A religion known across the cosmere. I would like to propose that Adonalsium took the form of a Sword or Dagger, and that all Investiture, if gathered in a large enough magnitude, tends towards the same form. When adonalsium shattered, the investiture reformed into 16 more bladed weapons, including Preservation’s knife. These were the original forms of the shards’ power. As the vessels power diffused throughout the systems they were investing, the tendency to hold this shape may have diminished. Did I miss anything?

What are shardblades made of? I found interesting things relating to shard-things in the stormlight books and they are weird to say the least. The first interesting thing is that they are lighter than it seems they should be, and that is usually the first that comes to mind. My theory is that shard-things are made of alluminum because 1. it is too-light and 2. kaladin has tried to lash shardplate or blade and he cant affect it, the same way that allomantic pushes and pulls (along with emotional allomancy) cant affect alluminum or something covered in alluminum. my third reason is that either syl or pattern replied to their respective radiant that they "were limited" to the metal that makes up shardblades and plate because it "has a special connection to the bond". Alluminum has done weird things to magic systems for some reason. I would like to year all of your thoughts

I'm a little (very) new to this, so I hope I'm doing it right. Please correct me if I've made a mistake. So, I forget where, but at some point, it's mentioned that shard blades first cut and kill the cognitive body, the mind, and can then cut flesh. However, aren't all of the fused spren? Kaladin hears the men at Kholinar say that the fused fear Azure's shardblade, and he kills one as well, however, if the fused are permanently killed with a shardblade, how many were there originally? I assume this is not a correct idea, but how does the shardblade-spren actually work? Does the shardblade not kill spren on the cognitive side?

As I thought about Zahel, Azure, and Nightblood and their future roles in the stormlight archive it became increasingly obvious to me that Awakening would eventually take a bigger role in the story. Zahel is also known as Kalad the usurper former God-King of Hallandren and creator of an army of corpses encased in stone. Given that in roshar the dead are transformed into various metals it seems inevitable that Zahel will create another army. Ever since Nightblood appeared at the end of WoR the question of whether it would grant any abilities to it's weilder Has tantalized my mind. Azure came into Oathbringer wielding an awakened blade searching for Nightblood and let us know that Awakening was here to stay. So I set out to make a list of all the possible ways Awakening could interact with Rosharan magic. With awakening you take a piece of your soul called Breath and put it into an object with the right command giving it life. This Breath can be compared to spren, some of which are described as pieces of the gods. The eighth heightening of Breath has the ability of "Command breaking" I am speculating that this would allow you to alter the Intent on certain lesser spren similarly to San-want. In the cosmere it is hard to know for certain because only the God-kings have reached that heightening. So number 1. Creation of more shardblades. This is the easiest to speculate because the spren do express an interest awakened blades in Oathbringer. Number 2. Using breath instead of spren in fabrials. Number 3. Use of the eighth heightening to corrupt a spren possibly resulting in the ability to convert stormlight into breath. Similarly as Sja-anat corrupting Glys gave Renarin access to visions of the future and possibly voidbinding. Number 4. Using the eighth heightening to convert stormlight into breath. Number 5. Nightblood spren. This might be the most terrifying concept in the cosmere, spren who imitate the Ideal of Destroy Evil. Number 6. New forms for the Singers. I saw another thread mention this one, basically you put breath in a gemheart to create a new form or alter existing ones. It is worth noting that any magic system that replicates another will have some differences an example being the fused and the knights radiant. I feel there is more that can be done with Awakening and Surgebinding so If you think of anything I would be glad to read it.

So I have a theory. I'm guessing it's already out there though. I was thinking it would be really cool if Adolin's blade somehow revived through her bond with him. And maybe he could become a Knight Radiant through that. We do get to see that the blade doesn't seem dead. Just more brain dead. Do you guys think it could be revived in some way?

Just curious what people think about this. As far as I can remember, the Fused and the rest of Odium's forces fight with regular, mundane weapons. We also see them trying to get their hands on as many Shards as possible. While this could be a matter of simply disarming the humans, they seem to think those weapons would be very useful. Why don't Odium's forces have magical weapons of their own? Have we just not seen any yet, or are they limited from making them somehow? Can voidspren not become Shardblades because a Nahel-like bond is required? Or maybe that "ability" is something specifically related to Honor (+Cultivation?), which spren related to Odium are unable to do? If either of these were not the case, I'd think Odium would be commanding some of his Voidspren to serve as weapons. Maybe voidspren can't become Blades for whatever reason. Is there not some other way they could be making similar weapons? Invested weapons that are a more serious threat? Something to give Odium's forces an upper hand? Thoughts?

Adolin mentioned in WoK that Shardblades could cut hair or fingernails, which opens up a whole new world for unkempt, irreverent, and extremely lacking in caution Radiants, such as Lift.

From Dalinar's vision of the recreance, we learn there were a lot more shardblades in Roshar during the shadow days than in the time of the novels. Dalinar seemed to notice more shardblades being dropped in front of Feverstone Keep than there were in the whole world in his time. What happened to all of these shardblades? When I read this chapter in TWoKs I didn't think much about it. I figured the blades were destroyed from misuse or something. However, WoR gives us a lot more information on shardblades. They are the remains of spren. Spren bodies are not going to be worn away from misuse. I don't know that anything in the physically can hurt a spren. The only things that could are words. In this case, the pen is truly mightier than the sword. A sword can't cut a spren, but a pen can define and trap it. Still, spren bodies are not going to rust or decay. They can be caught in gemstones but that will not destroy them. As for shardblades, they can't be cut or damaged by anything. I know this sounds like my other point, but my other point was more of a focus on the spren themselves. Now, I am just referring to the blades. They remain sharp no matter what they cut. The only thing that can shape them are the blades themselves. So we can be sure no one can just gather up shardblades and melt them down or bash them into a pile of scrap metal. Even in battles with other shardbearers the shardplate is the only thing that can be damaged. The blades never are damaged. So it appears shardblades are indestructible. Then where are all the shardblades the Radiences discarded? Did Nale and his Skybreakers or perhaps the Shin gather them up and store them somewhere? Did the blades that didn't have a mind to connect to finally fade away? So what happened to all of these shardblades? What do you think?

So when a spren has progressed far enough in a bond with a human it's able to manifest in physical form as a shardblade. Nightblood is a spren who is in the form of a sword without being bonded to a human. Dose that mean that if he bonds with someone and progresses far enough he'll be able to turn into something more like other spren? And sorry if this has bin brought up already. There so many Nightblood posts.

Firstly, if indeed a dead spren/shardblade can be resurrected, it will be an entirely new thing. However, we know already that it is technically possible to do. Syl came back, but it was Kaladin who returned to his Oaths. The Radiant is dead and cannot do so now. So how would this happen? The Stormfather is not exactly a flexible being, and Tanavast was never much good at seeing into the future. Thoughts/theories that He wouldn't have thought of yet? Second, the man "broke his oath to kill it." This implies an action taken with a specific intent. I know we're all kings of reading too much into things, but this seems ... intentional. As for the reason why he wanted to kill it, you can see my signature for my personal theory, but the intent to kill was obviously there. Lastly, the spren is still there. It exists, and learns, though not quite the same as before. Could Dalinar possibly re-bond Oathbringer if it comes back to life? I feel like this is more than an informative exchange. I think we're going to see Oathbringer again. I mean, it's the name of the book. And I really think we're going to see it in regards to Dalinar. Maybe Amaram will try to kill him with Oathbringer and it will refuse to hurt him? Amaram brings it back to life and suddenly becomes a contender to Dalinar's authority? What are your ideas?

Why do Dead Shardblades always go into the wielders hands? They never seem to appear anywhere else. Couldn’t you just summon your blade in a position within a certain distance to your body, let it drop and kill someone, and then grab it or something.

Now that we have a description of the Sylblade and Glysblade, could you draw them? Pretty please?

Can allomancers (Iron and steel mistings or mistborn) push or pull on a shardblade or shardplate?

If a darkeyes bonds a Shardblade, turns lighteyed, and then somehow loses possession of the blade, would his eyes turn dark again? What if he becomes a KR and trades his dead blade for a live spren, do his eyes stay light all the time or *I've been mostly avoiding Oathbringer spoilers, but I couldn't resist reading that one chapter about his trip to Hearthstone. Ah need ma Kaladin fix!

I have a question for any of you pros out there who might know the answer. Can someone bond with multiple blades at once? Do honorblades turn your eyes light, and are there specific colours assigned to each order or something like that? Also where did we learn all the different orders of the Knight Radiants and all the different Heralds? I saw people talking about them but I couldn't find them anywhere in the book. There are probably other threads discussing this, but I couldn't find them so I thought I'd just ask it here

Time for my first theory topic of the Shard... would you believe that? So, there are those two scenes: First, Kaladin's vision while riding the Highstorm: The second one, is from Dalinar's vision (the Feverstone Keep one): We know, that after Recreance many Shardblades and Shardplates were missing. There were far more Knights Radiant than there are Shardblades and Shardplates used by humans now. My idea is this: there was a huge group of Radiants that left their blades thrust into the ground in an area that would be later known as Sea of Spears. The blades weren't found by anyone for hundreds of years and were covered with crem, just like the buildings on Shattered Plains. Now, they just look like "broken fingers of rock jutted above the water".

I suspect that when Radiants who have reached a certain degree of progress in the Nahel bond die, they go to Braize. Several points of evidence have led me to to suspect this: The Nahel bond was not designed by Honor, but was an attempt by the spren to imitate what Honor had given to the Heralds. In WoR chapter 87, Syl clarifies to Kaladin that the Nahel bond was specifically based on the Honorblades. The Prelude to the Stormlight Archive tells us that one of the conditions of the Oathpact is that the Heralds would return to Braize to be tortured if they died, and were expected to return willingly if they did not die during a Desolation. To abandon the Oathpact, they had to leave their Honorblades behind, willingly and intentionally giving them up. They did so by slamming the Blades into the stone ground. This suggests that the Honorblades was the basis of their connection to the Oathpact, and thereby to Braize. The coded passage from the Diagram found in the WoR Chapter 84 epigraph references "the secret that broke the Knights Radiant". Apparently there is such a secret, and obviously it would need to be a very significant one. When Dalinar observes the Recreance in his vision (WoK Chapter 52), he sees the Radiants slam their Blades into the stone ground, as the Heralds did, and as Dalinar does when he relinquishes Oathbringer to Sadeas. This is clearly how the Bond is broken, though why they needed to leave the Plate behind as well is unclear, mostly because we know so little about what Shardplate actually is and whether it has any connection at all to the Heralds (whom so far have never been shown wearing Plate of any kind). Nale believes, following Ishar, that when the proto-Radiants "naturally discover the greater power of the Oaths"..."without Honor to regulate this, there is a small chance that what comes next will allow the Voidbringers to again make the jump between worlds." (Edgedancer, Chapter 9) This suggests that the Radiants are connected in some way we do not yet understand to Braize, and could potentially (though by no means certainly) bring a Desolation the same way the Heralds do. Whether Ishar is correct in this belief or not is not yet known to us. To bring these points together, the Nahel bond is based on the Honorblades, and severed by the same means that the Heralds severed their ties to the Oathpact. Is it possible, then, that by copying the Honorblades, the Nahel spren inadvertently recreated the not-so-desirable aspect of the Honorblades that connects the Heralds to Braize? If so, it is possible that when Radiants die, their soul(?)/Cognitive shadow/non-material aspect goes to Braize, as the Heralds do, instead of going through the usual afterlife? This would be an extremely serious side-effect for the Nahel bond to have, and it's hard to imagine anyone, least of all the Radiants who were all broken people in some way, stoically accepting more-or-less-eternal torment after their death. As others have theorized, we already have reason to believe that the afterlife is messed up in some way on Roshar, but if the Radiants suddenly found out that they were more or less guaranteed to go to Damnation, that would go a long way toward explaining the Recreance.

So I've been wondering why the people of Roshar call Shardblades and plate it the way they do? The speak of having "shards", but I haven't found out why they do this. Who named them like this, and was this person aware of the Shards of Adonalsium? If the language from when the Knights Radiant is no longer around, then a word like Shardblade wouldn't be the same either. So it has to be a more modern word. Is it just a coincidence or is there an actual meaning to it related to the Shards, and if so, how?

Disclaimer: Everything that will soon follow might be completely wrong, but is still interesting. Do not base the foundation of everything you know upon what follows. This theory/speculation is based off of how Hemalurgy and shardblades affect the Spiritual Realm. Hemalurgy tinkers with sDNA, ripping out pieces and inserting them on other beings. Shardblades cut in the Spiritual Realm as well. So what if you could handle hemalurgic spikes and shardblades like a surgeon's tools? During the Shattering, we know that Adonalsium was broken into 16 shards. Each shard was a fragment of the original being. I am trying to draw a line connecting the Shards and the fragments of sDNA ripped out by Hemalurgy. Steel Inquisitors have additional sDNA added to them by the spikes, but each piece is too insignificant to affect the whole of the Inquisitor, unlike Shards, which are so powerful that they consume the Vessel. So, realizing this similarity, one could suppose that Hemalurgy acts somewhat like the Shattering. But Hemalurgy is directly tied to the Physical Realm as well, because the only thing guiding what portion of the Spiritweb is affected is the location on the victim's body where the spike is placed. Now, I bring in the concept of shardblades. Shardblades cut through the Spiritual Realm, which is why they kill living things they slice. As a blade, a shardblade is naturally more precise than a hammer or other crude instrument. Thus, when attempting to remove a specific piece of sDNA, one would use a shardblade, right? It is more precise and it does the job. However, the severed piece cannot be captured without a spike ready. The follow-up must be instant, not to lose the fragment. Of course, this process would be much easier if done in another realm. Through this process of slicing and spiking, sections of sDNA could be removed without fear of imprecision. Then, these pieces could be applied elsewhere using Hemalurgy. Please note any flaws or missing material.

Can shardblades cut through silver? Aluminum? Atium? Lerasium? A hemalurgic spike? A metalmind?

On Scadrial, the 'focus' or whatever for magic is metals. On Roshar, gems are magically significant instead. (HOA Spoiler) Since Shardblades are Splinters in physical form, why do they take the form of metal rather than gems - something like Diablo II "Crystal Swords"? It just occurred to me that they aren't - Shallan's sketches look just like regular (if large and fancy) metal swords. I had been envisioning them as blades formed from a single crystal.

If Honor has Honorblades, why don't Cultivation and Odium have their own blade variants, that grant access to the Old Magic or Voidbinding? Maybe even blades that combine Honor and Cultivation's power, giving one Surge and one "aspect" of Old Magic? Opinions, ideas, anyone?