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According to Dalinar's visions, Shardplates and Shardblades work differently in the "modern" era of Roshar than in the time of the Knights Radiant. Also there are a lot less shards in the world than there should be. Chapter 52 "Highway to the sun" page 730 Where did all the other blades go and why did the plate behave so differently? What if the plates and blades are made like fabrials,and are copies of the knights' equipment. Yes in that same chapter I quoted, people are picking up the Knights' blades and plate and fighting over them, but it doesn't show them using them. What happened to the missing equipment? What if it deteriorated without the Knights and their spren powering it? They could have copied the blades and plate. They copied surgebinder powers. Chapter 72 "Veristitalian" page 979 They didn't have those fabrials in the time of the Radiants. Chapter 62 "Right for Wrong" page 861 So the soulcasting fabrials must have been made later. They are close to making shards now. Maybe they made these copy shards in the past. If the shards are copies, then that could explain why they didn't feel right to Syl or Kaladin. It might also explain why windrunners in the past had shard plate, but Szeth could not use plate with his surgebinding powers. So what do you think?

I'm trying to track how many oaths each Knight Radiant has made, and what the benefits were at each point. In particular, at what point do Knight Radiants acquire shardblades, shardplate, and control of their powers? First, Shallan: To the best of my knowledge, we have never actually SEEN Shallan take the First Oath, ("Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.") However, we now know that Shallan possessed an active shardblade as a child, and that her spren, Pattern, was apparently present in a limited way when she was a child. I believe this indicates that Shallan must have spoken the First Oath as a child, and that her order, at least, recieves their shardblades after the First Oath. Shallan spoke a 'Truth' at the end of Way of Kings, which i believe counted as the Second Oath. The second oath seems to have granted her access to soulcasting, lightweaving, and absorbing stormlight. Shallan spoke another 'Truth' at the end of Word of Radiance: I THINK that counts as the Third Oath, but we haven't seen any special benefit of progressing that far. I would have thought that Knights Radiant would acquire Shard Plate by the time they speak the third oath, but apparently not. Second, Kaladin: Kaladin speaks the First Oath during Way of Kings. ("Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.") I'm working from memory, but i believe that speaking that oath seemed to give him more reliable access to stormlight, gravity, and adhesion. Kaladin spoke SOMETHING else during Way of Kings, but I'm not certain that it counted as an oath. "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves". this MIGHT be the second oath, but i don't recall Kaladin gaining any special powers when he spoke it. it's also very similiar to what WAS an oath at the end of Words of Radiance: "I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right." Either those two sentences together constitute the second oath, or they are the second and third oaths, respectively. Either way, Kaladin recieved HIS shardblade AFTER speaking the oath in WoR. this seems to imply that different orders recieve shardblades at different times. If Kaladin still has a third oath to speak, that would be the logical time for him to recieve shardplate. We don't know how many Oaths Renarin has spoken: so far, we only know that he can heal his eyesight, and can apparently communicate with his Spren. Dalinar has spoken two oaths at the end of WoR: It's implied that he MIGHT be due a shardblade after two oaths, but the Stormfather has refused to become one. Can anyone else comment on what milestones each of the knights radiant have reached at this point, and what benefits they recieved at each point? It's also possible that my notes could be incorrect, since I'm working from memory. Feel free to correct me.

So now we know what Shardblades (and maybe Plate too), actually are. You can take this one of two ways, as the Blade is the physical representation of the Oaths a Radiant takes, or the Blade is the actual body of a spren.... which raises an interesting debate for our heroes. They know the Blades that they've traditionally used are effectively corpses, whether of promises or spren it doesn't really matter. The symbolism behind those Blades is terrible, and using them is likely to anger any spren that cross over from Shadesmar. So... do the new KR allow Shardbearers to join their fight? Or do they insist that these people give up very powerful weapons in the name of Honor?

Alright, I still don't have the book with me, but being the spoiler-loving skaa that I am, I now know a lot of the new reveals and I'd like to share some of my thoughts. I'll probably add more stuff here later when I finally get to read the whole book.

I'm a slow reader. I really am. But I made... conclusions. I just got to where and reading about spanreeds got me thinking... What if you used the same kind of gemstone, but instead of linking it to two reeds, you linked it to a sword and a stick. To be more specific, a storming Shardblade. You could pick up your stick (while standing somewhere with a decent view of a battlefield, with moving room), and fight whole armies. Without even being too close to them all. Then again, there is the whole "invested VS invested" thing. May not work, idk.

So, Dalinar think-speaks that Alethkar has about 40 20 shardblades. House Kholin (at the time he thought about this) had three blades (Dalinar's, Adolin's, and Elhokar's). That leaves about 37 divided up between 9 highprindoms. That indicates that at least several highprindoms have a substantial number of shardblades. It does not appear that Sadeas has an appreciable number of blades. Yet Sadeas and Dalinar's highprincedoms are the two most powerful. How did Dalinar and Gavilar subdue the other highprinces with only three shardbearers? Prior to that, power in Alethkar was achieved on the blade of a sword. Surely a number of blades (and plate) would have been won during Dalinar and Gavilar's conquest of Alethkar. What happened to those blades? Why isn't there another highprincedom with substantial military might to rival Dalinar and Sadeas? Obviously not all blades are held by the highprince's family, but why are there then no other shardbearers which fight for house Kholin or Sadeas? I could well imagine that it would be undesirable to commit a man with only a blade to battle. It would be risky without the protection of plate. The blade could easily fall into Parshendi hands. Even so... Note: I know that Amaram who has a blade is subject to Sadeas, but this is a new blade which may not have been in Dalinar's count. Even so, there is no mention of anyone with a blade in Sadeas's forces. Edit: As per Meg's correction, Alethkar has about 20 blades.

Did the Heralds have Dawnshards or Honorblades, or are the 2 same? And why do people say that Szeth has an Honorblade?

I have made comments about a number of these details in other posts. So, I apologize if much of this is ideas you have heard from me already. But, I thought it was time to couch it in an independent and cohesive theory. Shardblades each have a gemstone in the pommel (or at least in some location; largely irrelevant for the present purpose). Fabrials are devices which gain extraordinary abilities via a spren captured in a gemstone fit in the fabrial. It is my contention that shardblades are a sort of god-fabrial. I suspect that rather than a simple spren being captured in the gemstone it is a piece of a Shard voluntarily splintered and placed or invested in the gemstone (or even, it may be the gemstone) for the express purpose of forming the shardblade. We have seen in WoR that the gemstones came after the Recreance to facilitate bonding Shardblades and that Shardblades are in fact spren. Spren are, however, splinters of Honor/Cultivation so they are in fact splinter's of Honor/Cultivation. I personally believe that the radiantblades and the Honorblades were formed by Honor (and perhaps with Cultivation as well). However, I believe that Szeth's blade is Odium's version of a shardblade. My basis for this belief is that the radiantblades are described as being massive and as being "designed to slay dark gods" (Hardcover, pg. 29). In contrast, Szeth's blade is described as smaller than normal shardblades (hardcover, pg. 25). As I see it, radiantblades are designed to fight great big nasty unnatural beasties (like thunderclasts) while Szeth's blade is designed to fight humans. We now know that sprenblades (as opposed to Honorblades) are able to shift in size and shape, but that the default form is a blade since they were patterned by the spren after the Honorblades. While it is not fully confirmed (to my knowledge at least. I have been out of the loop for the last few months and last I saw Brandon demurred rather than give a full confirmation), WoR screams that Szeth's blade is an Honorblade and almost certainly Jezrien's blade since Jezrien is the patron saint, as it were of the Windrunners which had the same skill set as Szeth did. I also believe that the reason Syl has such a strong aversion to shardblades is due to them being tainted, perhaps in events leading up to the Recreance or perhaps resulting from events immediately following the Recreance. I think it is not the swords themselves that are the source of her aversion, but rather the use to which the swords were put. Shardblades were designed and created to be used to defend humanity against the unnatural enemies they faced during the desolations. But after the last desolation, they have been been turned against ordinary humans. Something sacred, something containing a piece of a 'god' voluntarily sacrificed has been turned against the purpose it was designed for. I think this is hinted at by the following text: We now know that Syl hated the Shardblades because they are "dead" spren. They would be particularly abhorent to honorpren like Syl since they would be a visceral symbol of broken oaths. This is my prime theory on shardblades. While there is a certain zen aspect to requiring Odium to provide the weapons necessary to defeat his forces as, at least part of, his part of the Oathpact; How could Honor and Cultivation trust Odium to not create backdoors and weaknesses into the weapons he provided?

The theory I have here isn't too backed up, but I have a feeling I'm at least close. And the next feeling I get is that it's horrible. Anyway, I think that the reason Shardblades and Shardplate glow has something to do with spren. So far, the only people we've seen with glowing shardblade are/were the Knights Radiant, and as soon as they left their Plates and Blades, they lost their glow. And they also were no longer "owned" by the Knights, whom we know had Spren due to their Surgebinding capabilities. My guess is, if a Surgebinder holds a Blade and/or is wearing a set of Plate, it will glow again. So if Kaladin does end up with a Shardblade, it'll glow. I hope.

Okay this is probably a crazy theory and I may be off base but I have been thinking about this for days. What if Spren transformed into shardblades when needed? Like as the bond develops, the Nahel spren becomes more and more developed physically and eventually turns into the shardblade. The reason I came up with this is that Syl is becoming more entrenched in the physical world and Kal can actually feel her standing on his hand now. The 10 heartbeats for a blade to appear could account for the time it takes for a spren to pop over to the cognitive/spiritual(??) realm and transform into a blade and pop back into the physical realm. This would also explain the great betrayal of the KR to the spren. When the KRs laid down their swords, they were actually giving up their bond to their spren. That is why the spren screamed and would also explain why Syl doesn't like Dalinar's shardblade. It is essentially a comatose spren. Okay. I am at work so I can't cite passages to back up my theory but I thought I would hear what you all think. Feel free to blow massive holes into my theory.

I know WoR is just a few weeks away now but I just can't restrain myself from theorising on stuff! So here we go, I have been thinking for some time about the problem of the number of shardblades on Roshar. For those unaware, the main argument is that, in the Feverstone Keep vision, we see ~300 Radiants from 2 Orders (Windrunners and Stonewards) give up their plate & blades. Extrapolating over the 10 orders, this implies over 1000 blades overall. Dalinar states that they cannot be more than 100 known blades in all the world (an this is generous by his estimations). It is clear that there were, at one time, more sets of plate and blade than can be accounted for on modern Roshar. The most popular resolutions is that there is a cache of blades / plate hidden somewhere (probable Urithiru) awaiting discovery by the series protagonists. I would like to propose another solution. Theory: Blades and Plate sets originally crumbled to dust when the KR to whom they belonged died UNLESS they were deliberately given away (at which point they behave as we see them in the books). Obviously I have not textual evidence for this but I have some logical points to make: 1/ During the desolations in which the Radiants fought, presumably some of them died. It all they shardblades dropped when they did, then non radiant would surely have picked them up and continued fighting. I do not think that the Radiants could have controlled the spread of the blades among the populous unless this was not possible (due to the shards being destroyed on the Radiant's death). Then again, maybe this did happen and some of the modern blades are descended form instances like this. 2/ We have never seen in world, what happened to a shardblade (i.e. Radiant blade) when the original holder dies while carrying it. This is not much, I agree. 3/ I feel it is heavily implied that sets of blade and plate are intensely personal items tied to a persons soul. I think thematically it works quite well for the blade to follow that soul to the afterlife (unless it was given away freely). There is evidence for this in world as the Honorblades follow the Heralds to Damnation when they die. I agree these are quite flimsy, but I feel they suit the idea of the blades as tied to the soul and arising out of the Nahel Bond (both not proven yet). Plus the possibility of the blades and plate naturally being destroyed neatly solves the numbers issue. This could also be what Brandon was referring to when he said modern blades are 'different'. What do you all think?

There is so much information on Shardblades that is hard to keep track of what we know and don't know, so I will phrase this theory as more of a question and request for information. If I'm correct, we see only a couple scenes where someone is using a shardblade that we know to be their own. For sure the prologue, where the Heralds summon their blades and drive them into the ground. Possibly the Feverstone Keep scene where the KR summon their blades to drive them into the ground as well. Every other Shardblade that we see in the series is borrowed/stolen/passed-down or whatever. A popular theory seems to be that new blades will be created through the Nahel bond after a certain amount of Ideals. If not that, the only other alternative is that Honor (+friends?) gave every Shardblade to mankind and that is the set amount that exist in the world - making them all hand-me-downs. My follow up thought is based on some pretty weak evidence, but was just a theory for sport: We see the Heralds summon their blades in the prologue, and the process seems instant. We are in Kalak's mind, and he does not give any hint of waiting for 10 heartbeats which is present in every other POV summon. The KR also seem to summon their blades instantly, though there is really no telling whether or not they were waiting 10 beats beforehand. The Heralds piece would lead me to suggest that maybe Honorblades don't have to wait 10 beats (I don't like this theory because I think Szeth has one). The KR portion opens it to all Shardblades - assuming they were created for the individual KR, perhaps shard-weapons only require those beats if they are borrowed or handed down from the individual that created them. There would no longer be a Nahel bond to speed it up (or whatever the Heralds have as well), and I'm not sure what would be occurring during those 10 beats, but it feels like it would be patching through some sort of work around bond. Do we have an explanation for any of these details? I know the evidence is weak, but that isn't the point of this one.

I've just found this site and the cosmere. I had no idea. I've spent the last few days poking around this site and long story short my minds been blown and have alot of information I've been trying to sort out in my head. That being said I have a few theories of my own. Also a few questions hopfully I'm not rehashing things thats been done before. It seems alot of people are going with Eshoni, as the explorer mentioned on the cover of WoR. Personally I'm leaning toward Rysn. There is definatly somthing going on with her. She travels alot for trade and to places we only see through her. Then the whole scene of the soul of the greatshell saving her and giving her the larkin. I know the broken legs might hamper the whole exploring thing but she could heal and continue her travels. (speaking of the larkin, could that be the same type of creature darkness used to drain lift of her stormight?) Next topic, Honourblades and shardblades. Where to start. My first thought I want to put out there is about the one differnces between the blades when a herald dies his blade disapears, but when a shard bearer dies his blade appears for who ever wants to take it. I'm thinking along the lines that the honourblades are the origonals earned by the hearalds when they took the oathpact possibly given by honor himself. And shardblades are a fabrail type knock off created by man for the KR, Since fabrails have spren trapped inside when the user dies the blade can be used by anyone. Possibly in the making of a shard blade the spren trapped inside chooses to become a blade for one they choose worthy. That could be why Syl says Dalinar is better off without it because he didnt earn it and the spren inside did not choose him. I know theres no evidance for this but its just my idea. It could be Dalinar isnt meant for a blade but a shard hammer?!? I just thinking of when hes in that ditch beating away at the rocks and how it gave him claraity and time to think, sort of like Kaladin and his spear. Also a shardhammer seems to fit in with his order people are leaning to...stoneward i think it was. Well I've rambled enough for my first post but you can be sure it wont be my last. I hope I was able to get my ideas across like i want to. I'm not very good at putting my thoughts into words. Let the bashing begin!

I started typing this out in the "Where are the Honorblades" post in Stormlight Archive discussion, but I realized that most of my points contained info from the WoR readings. I've moved my post over here so we can stop hijacking the other thread So... there have been a lot of arguments against where the Shardblades might be. I don't think they're particularly valid. Here are some of the posts, spoilered for space saving: I think we're discounting too many possibilities out of hand, citing the current situation of Roshar as it it had always been like this. A lot of time has passed since the Recreance. First off, Dalinar says there are less than a hundred known blades on Roshar, and most of them seem to belong to kings, highprinces, or bodyguards. That leaves at least another hundred blades unaccounted assuming that only the Stonewards and Windrunners abandoned their blades. If the other Radiant Orders had similar numbers and abandoned blades as well, we're looking at about a thousand. Either way, we have between 100 and 900 blades unaccounted for. Either they're owned by people who don't advertise their existance, they're lost, or they're stored somewhere. I think we have evidence of both lost blades and plates, and of criminal or shadow elements owning them. Here's my count of non-highprince/king/bodyguard Shardblades. Conclusions are what I think based on the evidence: Exhibit A: The Parshendi The Parshendi owned multiple sets of blade and plate at the start of the Vengeance Pact. The Alethi have won several blades and plates in combat, and Eshonai states that they have a few left, so lets say we're looking at 6-12 blades and plates. Where did they come from? The Parshendi were "discovered" by the Alethi seven years prior to the Way of Kings. When Galivar was killed, the Parshendi made no effort to take his plate/blade, and we haven't heard about any other Parshendi attempts to take shards. They could have created the plates and blades, but they have a limited number and show no ability to make more, so I think this is unlikely. The simplest explanation is that they found the blades and plates. They could have found them in the wilderness, in the chasms in the Shattered Plains, in the buildings under the Shattered Plains, or anywhere else that they traveled prior to meeting the Alethi. Conclusion: Some blades were lost in remote but accessible locations. Exhibit B: Lyss Lyss is an assassin, and has a Shardblade. We don't know how she got it. I find it unlikely that this is a blade that exists in public knowledge since Jasnah says Lyss gouges out the eyes of her victims to hide her method of killing. Lyss doesn't seem to be a super special assassin, so I believe it is safe to assume that more people like her exist. Conclusion: Some blades are in the hands of people who do not want publicity, power, or prestige. Exhibit C: Darkness and the constables (steelhunt spoilers) Exhibit D: Shallan's Family Shallan has a Shardblade. Shallan's shardblade is the product of her greatest sin, and she killed her father, so it is theorized that the Shardblade was held by her father. Shallan's father was working with the Ghostbloods to make a bid to become a Highprince. House Davar was a minor house at the time, on the verge of bankruptcy, and a minor house does not own a Shardblade without becoming more powerful, wealthy and prestigious. The Ghostbloods provided House Davar with a soulcaster, so it's not a stretch to presume they also provided a Shardblade. In addition, Amaram thinks that the Ghostbloods are behind the attempt on his life by a Shardbearer, who is theorized to be Shallan's eldest brother. The Ghostbloods have therefore supplied a soulcaster, probably a shardblade, and possibly an additional full set of plate and blade to the Davar family. That's 1-4 priceless artifacts gambled on a minor family's bid for Highprincedom. I find it hard to believe that the Ghostbloods would take such a risk if they only had a few of these artifacts available. Conclusion: The Ghostbloods have multiple blades, plates, and soulcasters, or access to them if needed Verdict: At most half of all Shardblades are held by known entities. The rest must be somewhere. There are several possibilities that have at least one example or strong suggestion: In the hands of non-public figures (Lyss, confirmed) Lost, some found by Parshendi (unconfirmed, supposition) In the hands of organizations like the Ghostbloods (unconfirmed, highly suggested. Soulcaster is confirmed) In the hands of Heralds (confirmed if Darkness is Nalan; Darkness and his minions) -------- What do you think?

If I understand things correctly, such as that (we assume) Hoid travels through Shadesmar/the spiritual realm (they are the same, right?) to Hop around, and that (we assume) Shardblades, when not Physical, are Spiritual (in Shadesmar)… Does Hoid have the capability of accessing any Spiritual Shardblade in existence, whenever he enters Shadesmar? And Shallan as well, if she had the practice? If so, this brings up the question what would happen if Hoid is holding one as he leaves Shadesmar? Would it come with him? Would then the original(er-ish) owner just lose it, or be able to summon it away from Hoid? A question-theory. Because I am a noob and dont study the books. And I didnt see an idea like this.

Yes this about shardblades, but it's pretty heavy in realmantic theory and it relates to Mistborn, so I'm putting it in Cosmere theories. Before discussing my main theory, I want to take about the mechanics of shardblades. I don't know if this has been discussed else where, but for the sake of clarity, here's the idea that I've based the rest if my theory on. Shardblades cut things by affecting them in the Spiritual Realm. Essentially, it is just a really sharp blade in the Spiritual Realm that can cut most things also in that realm. So, when a shardbearer slices a rock in the Physical Realm, in the Spiritual the shardblade cuts the rocks spiritual essence in half, which, by realmantic voodoo, means the rocks physical aspect is seamlessly cut in two. With living things, its a bit more complecated. Basically if you cut someones arm with a shardblade, their spiritual arm is severed, resulting in the physical essentially dying. When someone is cut in a vital area (i.e. spine or face) their spiritual aspect stops working, so their physical body dies. (As a tangent, this would mean most forms of healing Investiture could not heal shardblade wounds, since, as I understand it, healing magic works by restoring the body to its ideal state. i.e. its spiritual aspect. Since the spiritual aspect is armless, tapping gold, if anything, would make your physical arms fall off). Things like shardplate (and hypothetically other invested items) are resistant because of the weird investiture-interference principle. That was longer than I thought it would be...Anyway, the main idea that I wanted to bring up is that if shardblades function essentially as I described above, then could you possibly use a sharblade to preform sort of spiritual surgery similar to Hemalurgy? Basically you would stab someone at a bindpoint and the shardblade severs whatever spiritual essence is there that Hemalurgy would steal. Hypothtically, if you hit just the bindpoint precisly enough, you would leave the person more or less intact. Since Hemalurgy is universal, it stands to reason that anything that can affect things spiritualy should be able to preform a similar function. Although, it wouldn't really be considered Hemalurgy because you can't steal anything, but say you wanted to non-lethally stop a Mistborn, you just slice out his Mistborn-sDNA, leaving him alive but without any powers. Whether this is feasible is another matter. For instance, you'd probably wan't a shardscalpel or something to get the precision needed to hit the bindpoints. This probably isn't something you could do with a normal, giant-sized shardblade, but I thought it sounded cool. Any thoughts on either half of this theory? Edit: Hmm...I misspelled 'shardblades' in the tags. Any idea how to fix that?

Pitching my first theory (of the crazy kind) here on 17thshard; let’s see how this goes. (Disclaimer 1: I’ve been through the forums and I don’t think this theory has been pitched before; I haven’t seen anything like this since the Seattle signing post, where I first saw the term Bondsmith) (Disclaimer 2: As we all know there is very little information on the 10 orders of Knights Radiant, the creation of Shardblade & Plate; and to be even more specific, all we know about Bondsmiths are the name, and the presumption that that is the name of Kalak’s Order. But hey, that’s why this is a loony theory! ) I propose that Shardblades (and therefore most likely, Shardplate) are created/generated/called-into-being initially by BondSmiths. Brandon has given to us (or confirmed) the names for 8 of the 10 orders, and given/confirmed the location of 7 of the 8. Bondsmith has to fit the position of either Kalak’s (builder/resolute), Ishar (pious/guiding) or Palah (learned/giving) order, and the predominant belief on this forum (which I share) is that Bondsmiths are in Kalak’s order, which… makes the most sense, given the options. So working off the assumption that Bondsmiths are in between Elsecallers and Stonewards, a few supporting points to this loony theory: 1) Transportation Surge. Shardblades are theorized to rest in the Spiritual realm until they are summoned. Summoning clearly involves some aspect of transportation from the Spiritual realm to the Physical realm (I have another loony theory where I propose that Elsecallers can summon things –and possibly beings/creatures- from or through Shadesmar/Cognitive realm that I may write up soon), and there needs to be some way in which the blades have some kind of connection (or bond, if you will) established between the 2 realms that allows them to travel back and forth when called and released. There needs to be another bond between the wielder of the blade and the blade itself (still need to read that book and series, someday). There also needs to be the disruption of the target-of-the-blade’s soul (maybe severs the connection of a being’s soul (spiritual) with their body (physical) or some other effect; I’m still working on this). All of this requires some type of interaction between the spiritual and the cognitive realms that Transportation may provide. It’s possible that Bondsmiths are able to invest the Blades with these types of attributes. 2) Surface Tension-like Surge. Shardplate has been shown to adjust adapt to the size of the person that wears it. It also fits seamlessly on the wearer, but allows a freedom of motion and agility to the wearer that normal, stiff armor doesn’t allow. It’s possible that the Bondsmith’s control over the Surface Tension-like force that Brandon described (allowing for things that are flexible to become rigid on command) plays a role in making Shardplate flexible for the wearer while still maintaining its structure and solidity. It’s also possible that when proper Knights Radiant are wearing the Plate, they are able to retract the helm and visor at will, as we saw in Dalinar’s flashback with the Knights in Starfall (although this has even less basis in what we know then the rest of my theory; just pure speculation on my part). Perhaps Bondsmiths are able to invest the Plate with these types of attributes. 3) Name of the Order. They are called Bondsmiths. The implication that they make tools, weapons or armor is kind of inherent in the name. Also that they forge some type of bond between things. Kelek has the attributes of Resolute and Builder. Who knows, he could have even shown the first Bondsmiths how to create the Shardblade and Shardplate. And to go even loonier with this theory, Kelek’s body focus are the nails, which by extension is the hands. One summons the Shardblades and they land in the summoner’s hands. Again, this is highly likely to be coincidental, but you never know, right? 4) Knights Radiant composition. If we accept that the Knights Radiant is a complete fighting force, it would make sense that there are different divisions and specialties among the Radiants. Some of the folks here have theorized that the Windrunners and Stonewards would be like shock troops, and that Palah’s order could be like medics, and that other orders would provide some type of direct combat or support role. Every army also needs specialists who focus on weapons and armament. It would be logical that a Knights Radiant Order would specialize in the creation and maintenance of the army’s primary offensive and defensive equipment. And possibly be able to cater those weapons to a specific fighting style or strength of each individual. Maybe that's why each Shardblade appears to be different; they are designed especially to the strengths and specifications of the weilder. So there we are; my first theory on 17thShard. Is it fairly unsubstantiated, with wild speculation and very little hard evidence? Sure. But is it possible? (And more importantly, did you have fun reading it?) I look forward to any feedback. I don’t know every theory that has been submitted and debunked out there, so it’s possible that a lot of this could be off, and I'd be happy to hear what does/doesn't work in this theory. But wouldn't it be cool if this was one more piece to the puzzle?

Ok, so I was thinking about invested objects we have seen in the Cosmere to try and find some commonalities in order to gain some insight into the construction and nature of Shardblades and Shardplate. The big headline invested objects we know of are: Nightblood Metalminds Hemalurgic Spikes Fabrials (modern) Making Invested ObjectsFirstly, we know how Nighblood, Metalminds, Spikes and Fabrials are made: Nightblood was a regular sword invested with a huge number of breaths (1000?) and given a Command. The breaths provide the investiture and the Command is the focus of Nalthian magic. Metalminds - The Feruchemist 'saves' an attribute into the appropriate metal for use later. The investiture comes from the Feruchemist and the focus is the metal. Hemalurgic Spikes – the appropriate metal is stabbed into (or through?) an individual with the appropriate power, in the correct location and therefore gets charged with the power. This can them be grafted onto the recipient by stabbing them with the spike (again on the correct location). The Investiture comes from the donor and the metal is again the focus. Fabrials (modern) – A spren is trapped in a gem that is cut in a certain way and mounted in a framework. The cut and type of gem determines the species spren that is trapped and the framework determines the final application of power available. In this case the Spren seems to be providing the investiture and focus seems to be the gemstone. (I am far less certain about this as the metal framework seem to have an impact on the application of the final fabrial). In all the cases above, the common theme is that they all began life as mundane objects, even if specific materials or shapes were required. This may seem obvious but I think it is worth noting. Invested Objects in ActionWhen we look at the various types of invested objects in use, there are also some general commonalities. Nightblood – Acts as a self aware sword and consumes breath from the wielder. In this case, I believe the Breath is acting as a power source for Nightblood’s abilities. Fabrials (modern) – Have a single function as defines by the makeup. IT is not explicitly stated I the book but I have always assumed that the gemstones in the fabrial must be infused for them to work. This would be consistent with our knowledge of how magic works on Roshar. Therefore the Stormlight is acting as a power source for the fabrial’s abilities. Metalminds – Returns stored attributes for use. No real power source here, I think, due to the end neutral nature of Feruchemy. You can only use what you store so there is no need for a power source. Spikes – Imbue recipient with power though spiking. Again no power source required since it is end negative. The maximum you could graft to the recipient is the total of what you stole from the donor. This is more shaky ground but I believe each end positive result requires an active power source to make the objects function as required. Shardblades and ShardplateSo now I come to the theory aspect of my post. First, I believe that both Plate and Blade are end positive as we do not see any diminishing qualities in either of these. Neither do thay seem to have a trade off of power with the holder / wearer. So looking at the above discussions I have come to the following conclusions. Plate / Blade started life as regular swords / armor and were invested afterwards making / forging. (Given the ornate nature of many blades, they may have been carved in wood and then soulcast into metal before being invested). Given this is it logical that different weapons could be invested in the same manner. So swords were merely a convention with the KR rather than a necessity of construction. By the same logic a ShardShield (along similar lines to Plate) would also be possible. Blades draw power / stormlight from somewhere*. Plate is clearly powered by stormlight in the form of gemstones (if it was powered differently in the past, I believe it still required a power source). I am not going to theorise about how this investiture occurs. Maybe one of the Surges / Orders we have not yet seen allows the constriction of the Blade / Plate. Maybe only a full KR is able to make them. Maybe a spren needs to sacrifice itself to make them. Maybe the Heralds made them. Maybe a wizard did it! The big question to answer this is: What is the focus of magic on Roshar? Either way I think the above are fairly logical conclusions Why do you guys think? (* I suppose a possible work around to this could be that the investiture of the blades makes it special abilities properties of the blade rather than abilities. However given that the Plate does not behave this way, I think it unlikely)

What happens if you hit someone with the flat of a shardblade? Or pommel strike them?

In WoK, we encounter three types of Shardblade: Honorblades - Owned by the Heralds who are bound by the Oathpact. Doesn't turn owners into Lighteyes. Disappears when owner dies. Seems to be permanently bound to the owner. Can be summoned from thin air. "Radiantblades" - Once owned by Knights Radiant. Now owned by a number of Lighteyes. Appears when owner dies, and can be taken by another person. Can be summoned from thin air. "Truthlessblades" - Found in Shinovar. Owned by Shin warriors who become Truthless and therefore honor-bound to follow the bearer of their Oathstone. These blades light their owners' eyes, but only while being held. Can be passed to another owner when the current owner dies. Can be summoned from thin air. These blades have a few things in common. For one, they can all be summoned. I'm assuming Honorblades also require ten heartbeats before appearing, just like the other two types. Also common among these blades are their magical cutting and killing abilities. Whatever else they might be, all Shardblades are deadly weapons. Here's the story behind the theory I'm about to discuss (in spoiler tags since it's not really necessary): So let's start. All things in Roshar have spren, which I believe are Cognitive entities on Roshar that have "wavefunctions" and that might (though not always) be visible. We've already seen spren that have something to do with one of the Shards: Honorspren, spren who are attracted to honorable people. Honorspren are special because they grant powers even without being "trapped" in a fabrial. The powers that Honorspren grant all have something to do with binding things together. My theory is about a spren for another Shard on Roshar: an Odiumspren. I think Odium has a Shardic Intent that is the opposite of Honor's. Simply put, Odiumspren would grant people the power to divide things. What magical entities have we seen on Roshar that can divide things very, very well? Why, Shardblades, of course. That's why I think all Shardblades (including Honorblades) are Odiumspren. *** start of wild, base-less speculation *** The ten heartbeats requirement is a clue. From Geranid the Ardent, we know that spren have quantum dynamic properties. I think Geranid's Interlude chapter was meant to show us that spren "wavefunctions" collapse in the Physical realm when certain measurements are made. For flamespren, just measuring the size already makes them stop changing size, shape, and luminosity. Counting ten heartbeats is another act of measurement, and combined with an intent to summon, I think this collapses the wavefunction of an Odiumspren bound to a person, making it appear in the Physical realm as a magic sword. Honorspren like Syl don't really make people more honorable, but instead reward honorable actions with power. Similarly, Shardblades/Odiumspren don't really make people more hateful or selfish, yet once a Shardbearer starts feeling odious emotions, killing suddenly becomes a lot easier. This "odium-based enhancement" is what Szeth experiences whenever he becomes particularly angry with an assassination target, and it's possibly connected to the Thrill felt by the Alethi in battle. I think Odiumspren feed on odium to boost Szeth's Lashing ability, the same way Syl feeds on Kaladin's honorable acts to boost his own Lashings. And it doesn't even have to be in sword form. Looking back at the assassination of King Hanavanar, Szeth was even more deadly when he started irrationally blaming the king for his own actions, even though he let go of his Shardblade mid-fight. I think the Odiumspren bound to him was still powering his hatred even in its non-collapsed form. One apparent difference between Shardblades and Honorspren is that Honorspren are sentient and humanoid while Shardblades are not. I'm speculating that the sentient (probably humanoid) part of Odiumspren only manifests in Shadesmar, and that it is this aspect of the Odiumspren that feeds on the odious thoughts of people. I believe we'll be seeing the "true" form of Odiumspren once the characters start travelling around Shadesmar in future books. Also, you know how the Heralds were tortured in between Desolations? I think I know who the torturers were: the true forms of their own Honorblades. *** end of wild, base-less speculation *** So, that's my theory. Later I would like to theorize further on why the Honorblades were thus named, why Szeth isn't a permanent Lighteyes, and why Hoid claims that Lighteyes have a "good reason" to rule. But first I want to see if my main theory contradicts what we already know from WoK or WoB. If there's a major flaw in the theory, please point it out right away. Edit: Since my speculations and arguments regarding this theory span multiple posts, and since some people gave interesting arguments against the theory, I guess I might as well link to those: Speculation: The nature of Voidbinding, Honorblades, the Oathpact, and the founding of the Knights Radiant Speculation: The history of the genetic Lighteyes effect, and why Szeth isn't Lighteyes Counter evidence: Szeth isn't bound to a spren Counter evidence: Different spren are either from Honor, Cultivation, or both Counter evidence: Amaram's Shardblade has a gem on its pommel Counter evidence: Shardblades don't always need ten heartbeats to appear Counter evidence: Brandon likes Shardblades A summary of things explained by the Shardblades are Odiumspren theory Further similarities between spren and Shardblades Edit: I still think that Shardblades could be spren, but since some people seem absolutely convinced that they must be Physical objects, I'm going to offer a compromise by proposing instead that Shardblades are objects powered by odiumspren (which would reside in the gemstone attached to them).

I saw this quote on Dragonmount: So this either means that Szeth didn't have a Shardblade or that Shardblades didn't used to have the "thou shalt not cut the living" specification. I'm leaning towards the latter, due to Szeth needing to take on a Shardbearer at the end of the road, which would have been slightly more impossible with a normal sword. Theories about Szeth's Truthless-ness and/or powers being tied to the sword also wouldn't work if it was a normal blade. I like that Brandon changed it. I wouldn't have fainted or anything if there had been gore, but it does provide a nice thematic resonance--stated outright several times in the book--in that Shardblades were never really meant to be used against people.