AonDor Mini-Shardblade

[Wandering Shade]

Given that AonDor (and all the Selish arts) have been described as a "programming language" for magic, you should in theory be able to create a Shardblade using AonDor (if we're going by the definition of Shardblade as a highly Invested weapon) and I think I've figured out a method. It's probably not the only method, but this is one I thought of.

So, we've seen how Elantrians can create metal plates with an Aon inscribed on them to create the effect without having to draw it out themselves. They use that for lighting and transportation around the city. We also know that you can create AonDor "equations" which use different Aons as modifiers to create a more specific effect. What's stopping someone from combining those things and then putting it on a sword?

My idea here is to forge a normal steel sword, probably a little oversized in terms of width to make space for the Aons, and then inscribe an Aon equation onto the flat of the blade. Then, when wielded by an Elantrian, they could push AonDor into the sword, and activate the Aons. The specific ones I would have inscribed on the blade are probably Deo, Dio, maybe Eda and Ela, Iir, Rao, and probably others purely as modifiers. The point of it all would be to enhance the sword with power, increasing it's cutting capacity and durability. The result would be similar to a Shardblade, if not as powerful. A mini-Shardblade if you will.

Tell me what you guys think about this idea, if you think it would work or not, and maybe an easier way to make an AonDor Shardblade if you can think of one!

Edited April 21, 2022 by Wandering Shade

[Quantus]

I like it.  You'd want to include some realmic Aons to let it cut Spiritually the way a Shardblade does, on top of extreme durability Investment.  Mimicking the transport Summoning would likely be trickier, and might require a pre-programmed Storage location.  

[Stormlight Spoilers]

Spoiler

An enhanced chunk of metal probably would not provide any sapience the way the spren of a living shardblade does, or even like Nightblood (described in WOB as a 3rd generation Shardblade and a Robot Spren).  To do that you'd most likely need a Seon or Skaze as your starting point and from there create an enhanced Physical Form for them to inhabit.  I'd be interest to see how the specific Aon within the Seon would affect its behavior as a shardblade.  

 

[Wandering Shade]

I wasn't aiming to replicate the every single aspect of Rosharan Shardblades, but it would definitely be possible. A preprogrammed storage location (probably a safe or vault in Elantris) and then letting it teleport back to your hand when you write a specific set of Aons, maybe have that set inscribed onto another plate that you carry with you? I honestly don't think it would be an issue to not include the summoning, but the spiritual cutting would probably not be too much of a challenge for a master of AonDor. But for some reason I'm convinced that if you just shove enough Investiture into a weapon, it will end up doing damage on the Spiritual as well as Physical, even if that's not the Intent. I could be wrong tho.

[Stormlight Spoilers]

Spoiler

As I said, I wasn't aiming to make a full replication of Rosharan Shardblades. But, your idea of making a sword like this act as a place for a Seon to "inhabit" is really cool and would bring it closer to a 2nd Generation Shardblade. You'd probably want the Seon Deo for this to work as intended, but I wonder what a Seon like Daa or Ehe would do to this Aonic Shardblade. It's also entirely possible that you could "program" a personality into the Shardblade without a Seon and end up with a result like Nightblood.

 

[Quantus]

8 minutes ago, Wandering Shade said:

 But for some reason I'm convinced that if you just shove enough Investiture into a weapon, it will end up doing damage on the Spiritual as well as Physical, even if that's not the Intent. I could be wrong tho.

I dont think so, otherwise any shard piece of godmetal including plate would have that sort of innate realmic trait. 

[Mistborn]

Spoiler

Atium spikes werent unheard of but as I understand it still required the Hemalurgic Intent to pierce the realms, the same way as a any mundane metal in the metallic arts. 

 

[Wandering Shade]

1 minute ago, Quantus said:

I dont think so, otherwise any shard piece of godmetal including plate would have that sort of innate realmic trait. 

[Mistborn]

  Reveal hidden contents

Atium spikes werent unheard of but as I understand it still required the Hemalurgic Intent to pierce the realms, the same way as a any mundane metal in the metallic arts. 

 

Fair enough.

[Quantus]

11 minutes ago, Wandering Shade said:

Fair enough.

Also as a datapoint: 

Spoiler

Nightblood required a Command,

rather than just being the storage medium for the investiture.  But Seons/Skaze should be able to provide that part of the Intent equation, and as you say it's entirely possible that a properly manipulated Dor could gain sapience just like

Spoiler

Nightblood and spren/Skaze/seon's themselves.  

 

[Underwater_Worldhopper]

On 4/21/2022 at 8:02 PM, Quantus said:

I dont think so, otherwise any shard piece of godmetal including plate would have that sort of innate realmic trait. 

[Mistborn]

  Hide contents

Atium spikes werent unheard of but as I understand it still required the Hemalurgic Intent to pierce the realms, the same way as a any mundane metal in the metallic arts. 

 

Not all God Metals are that Invested, I think @Wandering Shade is right here. A lot of Investiture in a weapon should turn it into a Shardblade, Intent or no Intent.

On 4/21/2022 at 7:27 PM, Quantus said:

I like it.  You'd want to include some realmic Aons to let it cut Spiritually the way a Shardblade does, on top of extreme durability Investment.  Mimicking the transport Summoning would likely be trickier, and might require a pre-programmed Storage location.  

[Stormlight Spoilers]

  Hide contents

An enhanced chunk of metal probably would not provide any sapience the way the spren of a living shardblade does, or even like Nightblood (described in WOB as a 3rd generation Shardblade and a Robot Spren).  To do that you'd most likely need a Seon or Skaze as your starting point and from there create an enhanced Physical Form for them to inhabit.  I'd be interest to see how the specific Aon within the Seon would affect its behavior as a shardblade.  

 

 

On 4/21/2022 at 7:50 PM, Wandering Shade said:

I wasn't aiming to replicate the every single aspect of Rosharan Shardblades, but it would definitely be possible. A preprogrammed storage location (probably a safe or vault in Elantris) and then letting it teleport back to your hand when you write a specific set of Aons, maybe have that set inscribed onto another plate that you carry with you? I honestly don't think it would be an issue to not include the summoning, but the spiritual cutting would probably not be too much of a challenge for a master of AonDor. But for some reason I'm convinced that if you just shove enough Investiture into a weapon, it will end up doing damage on the Spiritual as well as Physical, even if that's not the Intent. I could be wrong tho.

[Stormlight Spoilers]

  Hide contents

As I said, I wasn't aiming to make a full replication of Rosharan Shardblades. But, your idea of making a sword like this act as a place for a Seon to "inhabit" is really cool and would bring it closer to a 2nd Generation Shardblade. You'd probably want the Seon Deo for this to work as intended, but I wonder what a Seon like Daa or Ehe would do to this Aonic Shardblade. It's also entirely possible that you could "program" a personality into the Shardblade without a Seon and end up with a result like Nightblood.

 

 

On 4/21/2022 at 7:50 PM, Wandering Shade said:

I wasn't aiming to replicate the every single aspect of Rosharan Shardblades, but it would definitely be possible. A preprogrammed storage location (probably a safe or vault in Elantris) and then letting it teleport back to your hand when you write a specific set of Aons, maybe have that set inscribed onto another plate that you carry with you? I honestly don't think it would be an issue to not include the summoning, but the spiritual cutting would probably not be too much of a challenge for a master of AonDor. But for some reason I'm convinced that if you just shove enough Investiture into a weapon, it will end up doing damage on the Spiritual as well as Physical, even if that's not the Intent. I could be wrong tho.

[Stormlight Spoilers]

  Hide contents

As I said, I wasn't aiming to make a full replication of Rosharan Shardblades. But, your idea of making a sword like this act as a place for a Seon to "inhabit" is really cool and would bring it closer to a 2nd Generation Shardblade. You'd probably want the Seon Deo for this to work as intended, but I wonder what a Seon like Daa or Ehe would do to this Aonic Shardblade. It's also entirely possible that you could "program" a personality into the Shardblade without a Seon and end up with a result like Nightblood.

 

Regarding the original post, you could totally create a Shardblade that way, and probably make a much more enhanced version of one by just continuing to add Aonic modifiers to them. A Shardblade that can shoot lasers? A Sharblade that can not only cut on all three Realms but also Leech other forms of Investiture at a touch? A copy of Nightblood? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. However, if you just want a regular Shardblade, all you would need is a bonded Seon and the Connection Aon. Connect the Seon to the Physical Realm (or alternatively pull it into the Physical Realm through some other Connection shenanigans), and bam, you now have a shapeshifting Shardblade exactly like one from Roshar, only made of Aonium (Devotion's God Metal). Ditto for Skaze and a Skaium/Skaiium Shardblade, though we don't know what kind of bonds they form if at all, so it might prove harder or at least less obvious how to pull them into the PR.

WoBs:

Quote

paperstones

Could a seon or a skaze turn into some sort of Shardblade on their home planet?

Brandon Sanderson

That is theoretically possible.  They work under the same fundamentals but they would need to have something to pull them more into the Physical Realm.  

Words of Radiance Omaha signing (March 13, 2014)

Quote

Questioner

[Spren] are used to Invest a lot of things, fabrials, they turn into Shardblades. Are we ever going to see something similar with the seons, from Sel?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, they are basically the same thing. They're a little more formalized, a little more structured but they are basically the exact same thing so yes. Some of the things you see spren doing seons are capable of, some things that seons do spren will be capable of.

Shadows of Self release party (Oct. 5, 2015)

 

[Argenti]

2 hours ago, Underwater_Worldhopper said:

Not all God Metals are that Invested, I think @Wandering Shade is right here. A lot of Investiture in a weapon should turn it into a Shardblade, Intent or no Intent.

On 4/21/2022 at 2:27 PM, Quantus said:

No. Shardblades (At least the cutting part) requires sentience. Not to say you couldn't make a shardblade like weapon via Aons, but thats using the magic, not by virtue of being a shardblade.

In this thread it is discussed in more detail.

2 hours ago, Underwater_Worldhopper said:

Regarding the original post, you could totally create a Shardblade that way, and probably make a much more enhanced version of one by just continuing to add Aonic modifiers to them. A Shardblade that can shoot lasers? A Sharblade that can not only cut on all three Realms but also Leech other forms of Investiture at a touch? A copy of Nightblood? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. However, if you just want a regular Shardblade, all you would need is a bonded Seon and the Connection Aon. Connect the Seon to the Physical Realm (or alternatively pull it into the Physical Realm through some other Connection shenanigans), and bam, you now have a shapeshifting Shardblade exactly like one from Roshar, only made of Aonium (Devotion's God Metal). Ditto for Skaze and a Skaium/Skaiium Shardblade, though we don't know what kind of bonds they form if at all, so it might prove harder or at least less obvious how to pull them into the PR.

 

Yeah pretty much