Shardblade and the flying buzzsaw of death (thanks Kelsier)

[DoctaDajman]

I had this vision and thought... someone with access to a shardblade also ends up with steel and iron allomancy. They summon their shardblade into the world and clip some metal clips onto the sword in multiple different spots. They will the sword to stay in the world and start pushing and pulling. 

If they had the control over allomancy that Kelsier shows with his fight against the inquisitors they could spin the shardblade quite rapidly... and then have the ability to allow it to return to the cognitive realm or resummon it back to their hand, pull on the clips back to themselves and start the process over again if ever they needed to. 

The picture in my mind is a totally telekinetic figher with a ranged soul severing sword of death.  

Any thoughts are welcome. 

 

Edit: 

On second thought... the gemstone in the hilt of a shardblade is able to stay connected to the blade when summoned and let go of. What mechanics work that and would they remain the same if you were to set in some metal studs or something?  

I am now hooked on the idea that the gemstone exists... were all shardblades made with the gemstones already fixed to them?  I was under the impression they were added afterwords. 

I know WoB says the shardblade itself can't be pushed on but what of metal fixtures added "after market".  

Edited February 26, 2025 by DoctaDajman

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, DoctaDajman said:

were all shardblades made with the gemstones already fixed to them?  I was under the impression they were added afterwords. 

Gemstones were added years after the Recreance and that is how Deadeye Shardblades can be Summoned and Released.

Basically, a gemstone is set into the Pommel and, using Intent, the bearer Invests some of their own Innate Investiture over the Bonding period into the Gemstone to forge a Connection to the Shardblade (which is why summoning a blade is linked to Heartbeats - the bearer is loaning some of their life to the Shard to Summon it back into the Physical Realm). That's also why a Surgebinder cannot breath in the light of a Bonding Gem (investiture resists investiture).

[DoctaDajman]

3 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Gemstones were added years after the Recreance and that is how Deadeye Shardblades can be Summoned and Released.

Basically, a gemstone is set into the Pommel and, using Intent, the bearer Invests some of their own Innate Investiture over the Bonding period into the Gemstone to forge a Connection to the Shardblade (which is why summoning a blade is linked to Heartbeats - the bearer is loaning some of their life to the Shard to Summon it back into the Physical Realm). That's also why a Surgebinder cannot breath in the light of a Bonding Gem (investiture resists investiture).

Yeah this was my understanding as well. 

I guess from here my question is, are the gems fastened on with metallic fittings other than the shardblades original materials?  If so those should be available for pushing unless they all just happen to be made of aluminum... 

And since the material to fit the gem onto the blade as well as the gems itself move into and out of existance with the summoning of the shardblade then wouldnt you be able to adhere other metal along the blade in the same method to adhere the fittings for the gem granting you the ability to push and pull on different anchors along the weapon period?  

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

I guess from here my question is, are the gems fastened on with metallic fittings other than the shardblades original materials?

No, the Shardblade itself changes to accept a Gem, just as a Shardblade will adapt itself over time to its wielder.

Spoiler

WoR Ch 67:

Quote

He frowned. “That’s important?”

“Yes. If this is true, it means the Blades aren’t powered by the stones. Credit goes to Rushu, who asked why a Shardblade can be summoned and dismissed even if its gemstone has gone dun. We had no answers, and she spent the last few weeks in contact with Kharbranth, using one of those new information stations. She came up with a scrap from several decades after the Recreance which talks about men learning to summon and dismiss Blades by adding gemstones to them, an accident of ornamentation it seems.”

He frowned as they passed a shalebark outcropping where a gardener was working late, carefully filing away and humming to himself. The sun had set; Salas had just risen in the east.

“If this is true,” Navani said, sounding happy, “we’re back to knowing absolutely nothing about how Shardblades were crafted.”

“I don’t see why that’s a breakthrough at all.”

She smiled, patting him on the arm. “Imagine you had spent the last five years believing an enemy had been following Dialectur’s War as a model for tactics, but then heard it reported they instead had never heard of the treatise.”

“Ah . . .”

“We had been assuming that somehow, the strength and lightness of the Blades was a fabrial construct powered by the gemstone,” Navani said. “This might not be the case. It seems the gemstone’s purpose is only used in initially bonding the Blade—something that the Radiants didn’t need to do.”

“Wait. They didn’t?”

“Not if this fragment is correct. The implication is that the Radiants could always dismiss and summon Blades—but for a time the ability was lost. It was only recovered when someone added a gemstone to his Blade. The fragment says the weapons actually shifted shape to adopt the stones, but I’m not certain if I trust that.

Quote

Adontis

I've always wondered, how do you determine where the line between "Word of Brandon" and "Read and Find Out" is? Has it ever caused issues where you've said something, but later that thing changed when it went into a book making your first statement now false?

Thanks so much for writing as much as you do, I'm looking forward to all your upcoming books, keep up the great work!

Brandon Sanderson

Boy, this one is an art, not a science.

I've several times said something that I later decided to change in a book. I've always got this idea in the back of my head that the books are canon, and things I say at signing aren't 100% canon. This is part because of a habit I have of falling back on things I decided years ago, then revised in notes after I realized they didn't work. My off-the-cuff instinct is still to go with what I had in my head for years, even when it's no longer canon.

An example of this are Shardblades. In the first draft of TWoK in 2002, I had the mechanics of the weapons work in a specific way. (If you wanted to steal one from someone, you knock off the bonding gemstone, and it breaks the bond.) I later decided it was more dramatic if you couldn't steal a Shardblade that way--you had to kill the person or force them to relinquish the bond. It worked far better.

But in Oathbringer, Peter had to remind me of that change, as I just kind of nonchalantly wrote into a scene a comment about knocking off a gemstone to steal a Shardblade. These things leak back in, as you might expect for a series I've been working on for some twenty years now--with lore being revised all along.

So...short answer...yes, I've contradicted myself a number of times. I try very, very hard to let the books be the canon however. So you can default to them.

As for what I answer and what I RAFO...it depends on how much I want to reveal at the moment, if I'm trying to preserve specific surprises, or if I just want people to focus on other things at the moment. Like I said, art and not science.

damenleeturks

In WoR, Navani muses to Dalinar about how the gemstones in the Blades could be the focus that allows the bond with the Blade to exist. If this theory is correct, it would follow that someone could damage that gemstone and thus be able to steal the Blade with it then having no intact bonding mechanism, right?

I guess I'm having trouble seeing how the example you describe isn't possible.

Peter Ahlstrom

The gemstone is needed to create the bond and operate the bond's functions. If you remove the gemstone, the person the sword is bonded to can't summon it or dismiss it to mist. But neither can anyone else. If they eventually pop another gemstone in and try to bond it themselves, they will fail, and the original person can then resummon their Blade. The bond is with the dead spren of the Blade, not with the gemstone. The stone facilitates the bond.

So, you can haul around a de-gemstoned Blade with you all the time and successfully steal it that way. But this makes it very easy to steal back. You'd have to kill the holder of the bond in order to rebond it. Which is no different from usual.

And in general, if you can get close enough to a Shardbearer to steal their Blade, you are also close enough to kill them anyway.

Phantine

So that scene where Dalinar crushes the gemstone and hands the Shardblade over, he's also doing some sort of mystical de-bonding?

Or is it just 'if you WANT to give it up, you gave it up'?

Peter Ahlstrom

Yes, if you want to give it up, you gave it up.

Phantine

If nobody is currently bonded to it, does the attuning still take a week?

Otherwise it seems weird people would figure out putting a gemstone in hilt lets you summon it, since nothing would happen without a week of bonding time.

ricree

Not that weird. One of the books (WoK, I think) mentions that many years passed before the gemstone bonding was discovered. Shardblades were still really valuable, though, and even more vulnerable to theft, so it makes sense that people would have kept them close at hand long enough for the bonding process.

Other than that, all you need is someone to accidentally decorate the blade correctly, which is something that took a long time to happen, but was probably bound to happen eventually considering how key infused gemstones are to the world.

Peter Ahlstrom

Well said.

/r/fantasy AMA 2017 (Feb. 10, 2017)

 

Hope that helps.

[DoctaDajman]

3 hours ago, Treamayne said:

No, the Shardblade itself changes to accept a Gem, just as a Shardblade will adapt itself over time to its wielder.

  Hide contents

WoR Ch 67:

 

Hope that helps.

So do you think a person bonded to a shardblade could will its shape into one that would accommodate some sort of studded anchors in the hilt or blade?  Like a nut and bolt type of deal?  Or even simply wrapping the handle with some metal underneath the wrap to be able to push and pull on?  

And where does the line get drawn that any.metal fixtures put on in this way may turn to mist and be summoned back with the blade or will they fall as a heap to the ground?  Does the gem itself identify as a part of the blade and thus become immune to invested arts so any metallic fixtures that are capable of turning to mist and being summoned back would also suffer the same becoming immune to the push?  

[Trusk'our he/him]

12 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Gemstones were added years after the Recreance and that is how Deadeye Shardblades can be Summoned and Released.

Basically, a gemstone is set into the Pommel and, using Intent, the bearer Invests some of their own Innate Investiture over the Bonding period into the Gemstone to forge a Connection to the Shardblade (which is why summoning a blade is linked to Heartbeats - the bearer is loaning some of their life to the Shard to Summon it back into the Physical Realm). That's also why a Surgebinder cannot breath in the light of a Bonding Gem (investiture resists investiture).

You know, given that the Gemstones meld to and can be summoned along with the Blade, I wonder if a Feruchemist could attach Metalminds to a Blade they bonded.

Then they could have a summonable Metalmind any time they needed on top of a Shardblade. 

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

13 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

On second thought... the gemstone in the hilt of a shardblade is able to stay connected to the blade when summoned and let go of. What mechanics work that and would they remain the same if you were to set in some metal studs or something?  

The theme of today seems to be simple concepts I've never really thought about. How does a gemstone disappear and reappear with a deadeye blade? Where does the gemstone go? Is there a representation of it in the CR? What exactly are gemstones that they can do that, because iirc, they often are dun when summoned or dismissed?

[DoctaDajman]

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

You know, given that the Gemstones meld to and can be summoned along with the Blade, I wonder if a Feruchemist could attach Metalminds to a Blade they bonded.

Then they could have a summonable Metalmind any time they needed on top of a Shardblade. 

I would also be curious if a twinborn could push and pull on their own metalminds easier than metal invested with other investiture. 

2 hours ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

The theme of today seems to be simple concepts I've never really thought about. How does a gemstone disappear and reappear with a deadeye blade? Where does the gemstone go? Is there a representation of it in the CR? What exactly are gemstones that they can do that, because iirc, they often are dun when summoned or dismissed?

That is a big question I have here. 

At one point I thought that adding some sort of metal along the blade (like a clamp to act as an anchor) would allow more control over pushes and pulls... which it probably would. 

But... as a blade fuzzes what would happen when the clamp hits the target?  Would the clamp be a hard stop on that blades momentum and ability to be pushed?  

Maybe the best spots to put anchors are in the handle... or even a larger counter weighted handel that clamps over the handle with different pushing points. 

Knowing that steel and iron sight can differentiate between metal types you could place a totally different metal type at the very bottom of the handle and pull specifically on that so that the blade comes back to you hilt first every time... which would be so cinematic. 

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

4 minutes ago, DoctaDajman said:

I would also be curious if a twinborn could push and pull on their own metalminds easier than metal invested with other investiture. 

That is a big question I have here. 

At one point I thought that adding some sort of metal along the blade (like a clamp to act as an anchor) would allow more control over pushes and pulls... which it probably would. 

But... as a blade fuzzes what would happen when the clamp hits the target?  Would the clamp be a hard stop on that blades momentum and ability to be pushed?  

Maybe the best spots to put anchors are in the handle... or even a larger counter weighted handel that clamps over the handle with different pushing points. 

Knowing that steel and iron sight can differentiate between metal types you could place a totally different metal type at the very bottom of the handle and pull specifically on that so that the blade comes back to you hilt first every time... which would be so cinematic. 

Furthering that line of thought, if you mount steel and iron onto a blade, does that become part of the blade? You've talked about removing and reapplying the metal, but could the metal be summoned and dismissed along with the blade?

If it can, I really hope the spren show back up in the Cr with some eyebrows, ears, lips pierced. Get some tougher looking spren in the CR  <--That's mostly a joke.

[DoctaDajman]

45 minutes ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

Furthering that line of thought, if you mount steel and iron onto a blade, does that become part of the blade? You've talked about removing and reapplying the metal, but could the metal be summoned and dismissed along with the blade?

If it can, I really hope the spren show back up in the Cr with some eyebrows, ears, lips pierced. Get some tougher looking spren in the CR  <--That's mostly a joke.

Yeah I would love to see how the gemstone or other fixtures may appear in the cognitive realm... if they are attached and part of the deadeye. 

 

If the metal fixtures don't fuzz with the Blade do they fall off as it fuzzes or do they become resistance disallowing the blade to pass entirely through objects?  

Im thinking perhaps metal on a clamp of some kind to act as a lever system for pushing and pulling would be the best at the handle and away from the blade itself. The handle would meet the resistance it normally would while letting the blade spin freely through the air cutting all but the thickest cheese wheels.  

Still given the option to resummon would be perfect but a big anchor at the base of the hilt would allow you to pull it back stopping the spin.... and catch it handle first with ease. 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

5 hours ago, Trusk&#x27;our said:

5 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

And where does the line get drawn that any.metal fixtures put on in this way may turn to mist and be summoned back with the blade or will they fall as a heap to the ground?

You know, given that the Gemstones meld to and can be summoned along with the Blade, I wonder if a Feruchemist could attach Metalminds to a Blade they bonded.

Then they could have a summonable Metalmind any time they needed on top of a Shardblade. 

Furthering that line of thought, if you mount steel and iron onto a blade, does that become part of the blade? You've talked about removing and reapplying the metal, but could the metal be summoned and dismissed along with the blade?

No, anything else affixed will not remain with the blade. WoB:

Spoiler

Liar_of_partinel

Are shardblades uniform metal, or do they have different colors on the handle/hilt or whatever? Could you paint a shardblade and have it retain the paint when disappearing/reappearing?

Brandon Sanderson

A Blade won't retain ornaments when dismissed, I'm afraid, including coloration. HOWEVER, they could be made to change colors when alive, and even their texture. So many Blades in the world have multiple tones, and the grip tends to be of a different texture. They're uniform metal, but don't always feel/look like it.

General Reddit 2020 (June 30, 2020)

What's not in the WoB is (informed speculation) this is likely because for it to dismiss and summon with the blade you would have to have it become part of the Spiritual and Cognitive Identity of the blade. Since the Blade is a Spren (Deadeye or not) if this could even happen, only they could make that happen. The Gemstone stays with the blade when dismissed because the Bonding Process makes it part of both the Wielder and the Blade (as the Connection between them) and that bond is only restoring a nomal function of a Living Shardblade. The Spiritual nature of a Deadeye wants to be Dismissed and Summoned as it did when alive - so them Polestone is more readily incorporated because it's a (very small) type of Healing for the Deadeye. 

That's something that external ornamentation would not have. 

I would not say it is impossible, but it is unlikely that you could waken a Deadeye to Maya levels and get them to accept ornamentation as an essential part of their Ideneity (and even that might not work). Alternatively (though also unlikely) find a metallic method of creating the Bond instead of a Polestone (maybe a DuraluminMind) - but then you will staill have the problem of pushing or pulling invested metal (even if not quite as resistant as the Shardblade itself). 

[DoctaDajman]

15 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

No, anything else affixed will not remain with the blade. WoB:

  Hide contents

Liar_of_partinel

Are shardblades uniform metal, or do they have different colors on the handle/hilt or whatever? Could you paint a shardblade and have it retain the paint when disappearing/reappearing?

Brandon Sanderson

A Blade won't retain ornaments when dismissed, I'm afraid, including coloration. HOWEVER, they could be made to change colors when alive, and even their texture. So many Blades in the world have multiple tones, and the grip tends to be of a different texture. They're uniform metal, but don't always feel/look like it.

General Reddit 2020 (June 30, 2020)

What's not in the WoB is (informed speculation) this is likely because for it to dismiss and summon with the blade you would have to have it become part of the Spiritual and Cognitive Identity of the blade. Since the Blade is a Spren (Deadeye or not) if this could even happen, only they could make that happen. The Gemstone stays with the blade when dismissed because the Bonding Process makes it part of both the Wielder and the Blade (as the Connection between them) and that bond is only restoring a nomal function of a Living Shardblade. The Spiritual nature of a Deadeye wants to be Dismissed and Summoned as it did when alive - so them Polestone is more readily incorporated because it's a (very small) type of Healing for the Deadeye. 

That's something that external ornamentation would not have. 

I would not say it is impossible, but it is unlikely that you could waken a Deadeye to Maya levels and get them to accept ornamentation as an essential part of their Ideneity (and even that might not work). Alternatively (though also unlikely) find a metallic method of creating the Bond instead of a Polestone (maybe a DuraluminMind) - but then you will staill have the problem of pushing or pulling invested metal (even if not quite as resistant as the Shardblade itself). 

Would it be easier to push on a filled metalmind that belonged to the twinborn than a filled metalmind that was not theirs?  

I wonder why allomamcers in TFE times never put together they fact that some of their terrisman wore jewelry that couldn't be pushed and sensed. 

If someone could push or pull on their own metalminds then perhaps that would be the best way to bond it and make it work. Otherwise it will just need to be done before hand attaching some device with a bunch of sperate metal anchors on it to hold the blade and allow it to be pushed. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

27 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

No, anything else affixed will not remain with the blade. WoB:

  Hide contents

Liar_of_partinel

Are shardblades uniform metal, or do they have different colors on the handle/hilt or whatever? Could you paint a shardblade and have it retain the paint when disappearing/reappearing?

Brandon Sanderson

A Blade won't retain ornaments when dismissed, I'm afraid, including coloration. HOWEVER, they could be made to change colors when alive, and even their texture. So many Blades in the world have multiple tones, and the grip tends to be of a different texture. They're uniform metal, but don't always feel/look like it.

General Reddit 2020 (June 30, 2020)

What's not in the WoB is (informed speculation) this is likely because for it to dismiss and summon with the blade you would have to have it become part of the Spiritual and Cognitive Identity of the blade. Since the Blade is a Spren (Deadeye or not) if this could even happen, only they could make that happen. The Gemstone stays with the blade when dismissed because the Bonding Process makes it part of both the Wielder and the Blade (as the Connection between them) and that bond is only restoring a nomal function of a Living Shardblade. The Spiritual nature of a Deadeye wants to be Dismissed and Summoned as it did when alive - so them Polestone is more readily incorporated because it's a (very small) type of Healing for the Deadeye. 

That's something that external ornamentation would not have. 

I would not say it is impossible, but it is unlikely that you could waken a Deadeye to Maya levels and get them to accept ornamentation as an essential part of their Ideneity (and even that might not work). Alternatively (though also unlikely) find a metallic method of creating the Bond instead of a Polestone (maybe a DuraluminMind) - but then you will staill have the problem of pushing or pulling invested metal (even if not quite as resistant as the Shardblade itself). 

Seems like a fair conclusion.

If, perhaps, your Metalmind's Identity isn't enough to stick to the Blade, maybe a Hemalurgic spike could be molded to it? 

It's an actual addition to the Spren's Spiritweb, so adding it like you do a Polestone might be a functional way to boost your Blade.

17 minutes ago, DoctaDajman said:

Would it be easier to push on a filled metalmind that belonged to the twinborn than a filled metalmind that was not theirs?  

I know the idea was discussed somewhere before, but I think the general conclusion was no, it probably doesn't work that way.

I'd have to rummage around and look again though. I think it was on a thread talking about how Identity was the real interference between Investitures?

20 minutes ago, DoctaDajman said:

I wonder why allomamcers in TFE times never put together they fact that some of their terrisman wore jewelry that couldn't be pushed and sensed. 

Honestly, I think it's most likely a minor worldbuilding hole.

Atium can be Pushed on despite being highly Invested, as Brandon hadn't yet envisioned how Invested objects would resist Steelpushing yet.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/314-salt-lake-city-signing/#e8929

Chaos

Is atium Invested?

Brandon Sanderson

Is atium Invested? Atium is Investiture distilled into the Physical Realm, right? So is electricity electric? Or is it--

Chaos

Well I think the question Sharders had was if it's Invested, how can people Push and Pull on it. That was the struggle.

Brandon Sanderson

Atium breaks a lot of rules, in the same way that you will see other things break rules. Atium plays weirdly. When you get distilled Investiture, you're starting like-- My kind of rule for myself is it's kind of like when you start going on the quantum level, the rules just start playing weirdly. Because it's like, what Realm does atium exist in-- is another thing. Because-- Pure Investiture like that is like a mini black hole, right? It's like existing in three Realms at once. Kind of, and things like that... There's lots of weirdness.

The writerly answer is there is lots of weirdness because when I built atium, I didn't have the rest of the cosmere built, right? And so it breaks a lot of rules that I later set up that everything else has to follow, right? So the writerly answer is we just have to accept that atium and lerasium and some of these other distilled Investiture things are going to play very weirdly with the magic systems. But that's okay. Nightblood will too, and some of these things that were built even after the cosmere was coming together.

 

[Duxredux he/him]

I could be wrong, but the OP idea seems several orders of magnitude harder than what Kelsier pulled off in his fight against the Inquisitor for the simple reason that Kelsier only used this spinning technique as a defensive barrier, not as a mobile weapon. He made a cloud of objects to pummel Bendal, but didn't try that spinning trick again. Even if he did, I expect it to be much harder to pull off with a Shardblade.

For starters, the Shardblade will block Steel and Iron lines as easily as trying the same stunt with an Aluminum greatsword. The Blade may even sever those lines as they appear in the Spiritual Realm, whatever that means (WoB below). I assume Kel's stunt was something along the lines of throw a pole out with a vertical orientation, Push hard on one end at same time Pull on the other to get it spinning without horizontal displacement. Once spinning, then Push/Pull on the center of mass which would be the natural pivot point to move them into position without disrupting the spin. I suspect this is something that would be substantially harder with a Shardblade as you would need to deliberately target metal mounted at the pivot point rather than simply not concentrating on the ends, even if it accommodated metal studs at key points.

WoB:

Spoiler

Oneyespike (paraphrased)

Can a Shardblade interrupt iron or steel lines?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

*after mulling it over a bit, he was very interested in this question* "It would be theoretically possible, because steel lines manifest themselves on the Spiritual Realm. Also, there are other things that can cut/interfere with steel lines."

Shadows of Self Denver signing (Oct. 6, 2015)

Kel's random metal poles are easier for the stunt as well as they have a uniform shape and generally uniform distribution of mass. The aerodynamics of both ends will be fairly similar and the axis of rotation will be in the center. A Shardblade might have unusual ornamentation, artistic shapes, odd curves, asymmetric mass distribution, off-center center of mass and pivot point, and in general will have much, much different aerodynamic characteristics between the blade and the handle. I expect it to be much harder to get it into a stable spin, period, compared to a random pole from a cage.

If you want a 6 foot long greatsword to resemble a buzzsaw, it would have to be spinning ridiculously fast, and you would need to be constantly moving above or below it to help it maintain lift as it moves. We do see Wax put up a constant directional Push even without a valid anchor in the direction to preemptively deflect gunfire, but a bullet Pushed orthogonally is a different matter from intermittently having the weight of a Shardblade be a valid anchor as the metal clips swing in and out from behind the body of the Shardblade repeatedly jarring you.

I'm fine if someone sees this differently but I'm imagining this blade spinning in the same axis as the cutting edge, the obvious direction for this stunt. From that orientation the metal anchor points constantly visible would only be what protrudes past the profile of the weapon, which as others have noticed may interfere with the cutting action of the blade. From any position not perfectly in line with the plane of rotation, I'm not seeing a way to impart any more rotational speed on the ends without it twisting and wobbling violently, nor can I think of a simple way to smoothly change the plane of rotation once established. If this is done with a dead Blade, you would have to be very skilled to have this spinning Blade in the air for longer than a couple seconds to offset the 10 second summon cool down while you are in close proximity to whirling death. I think it could be done with years, decades, or centuries of practice, but to me it sounds hard, particularly if you care at all about collateral damage.

 

As for this:

19 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

I wonder why allomamcers in TFE times never put together they fact that some of their terrisman wore jewelry that couldn't be pushed and sensed. 

I can think of three reasons. First, it has to be an exceptionally full Metalmind to no longer be sensed as we see in some of Wax's investigations in Era 2. We see him casually him Pushing Wayne onto a roof in AoL by his Goldminds. He could still sense that incredibly full unkeyed Goldmind they recovered from Lady Kelesina in BoM, albeit fairly, with the Bands themselves the only Metalmind not piercing someone he completely failed to identify as a Metalmind. Marsh failed to distinguish the bag holding Sazed's rings from a bag of clips and Pushes them into Sazed, who heals with the Goldmind embedded in his gut.

Second, metal piercings couldn't be Pushed or Pulled on except by the most powerful, so the Terris cultural piercings would have flown entirely under the radar. This is one reason Wax in later years had surgery done to make his Ironminds into piercings. 

Third reason is that in Era 1, noble fashion often had jewelry that was painted wood to look like metal as a safer mimicry of TLR's own style. There was a ready-made alibi that the Terris stewards who had jewelry that couldn't be pushed simply were wearing painted wood as both a safety precaution and a way to make their house appear wealthier than they were.

Edited February 27, 2025 by Duxredux

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

19 hours ago, Treamayne said:

The Gemstone stays with the blade when dismissed because the Bonding Process makes it part of both the Wielder and the Blade (as the Connection between them) and that bond is only restoring a nomal function of a Living Shardblade. The Spiritual nature of a Deadeye wants to be Dismissed and Summoned as it did when alive - so them Polestone is more readily incorporated because it's a (very small) type of Healing for the Deadeye. 

Not super important, but with the WoB you shared and this...that would mean that after the Recreance, people would have been trying to find ways to decorate the Shardblades they ended up with, because they would have known that they could be different colors, shapes, textures, etc. I like to imagine a lot of failed attempts until somebody somewhere put a gemstone on it and inadvertently figured out how to bond the dead blade. I probably should have realized that a long time ago, but I didn't and it's cool to have a more fleshed out understanding of how that went down. 

[Treamayne]

1 minute ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

Not super important, but with the WoB you shared and this...that would mean that after the Recreance, people would have been trying to find ways to decorate the Shardblades they ended up with, because they would have known that they could be different colors, shapes, textures, etc. I like to imagine a lot of failed attempts until somebody somewhere put a gemstone on it and inadvertently figured out how to bond the dead blade. I probably should have realized that a long time ago, but I didn't and it's cool to have a more fleshed out understanding of how that went down. 

It was basically stated that way by Navani in WoR: 

Spoiler

WoR Ch 67:

Quote

He frowned. “That’s important?”

“Yes. If this is true, it means the Blades aren’t powered by the stones. Credit goes to Rushu, who asked why a Shardblade can be summoned and dismissed even if its gemstone has gone dun. We had no answers, and she spent the last few weeks in contact with Kharbranth, using one of those new information stations. She came up with a scrap from several decades after the Recreance which talks about men learning to summon and dismiss Blades by adding gemstones to them, an accident of ornamentation it seems.”

He frowned as they passed a shalebark outcropping where a gardener was working late, carefully filing away and humming to himself. The sun had set; Salas had just risen in the east.

“If this is true,” Navani said, sounding happy, “we’re back to knowing absolutely nothing about how Shardblades were crafted.”

“I don’t see why that’s a breakthrough at all.”

She smiled, patting him on the arm. “Imagine you had spent the last five years believing an enemy had been following Dialectur’s War as a model for tactics, but then heard it reported they instead had never heard of the treatise.”

“Ah . . .”

“We had been assuming that somehow, the strength and lightness of the Blades was a fabrial construct powered by the gemstone,” Navani said. “This might not be the case. It seems the gemstone’s purpose is only used in initially bonding the Blade—something that the Radiants didn’t need to do.”

“Wait. They didn’t?”

“Not if this fragment is correct. The implication is that the Radiants could always dismiss and summon Blades—but for a time the ability was lost. It was only recovered when someone added a gemstone to his Blade. The fragment says the weapons actually shifted shape to adopt the stones, but I’m not certain if I trust that.

 

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

7 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

It was basically stated that way by Navani in WoR: 

  Reveal hidden contents

WoR Ch 67:

 

Ahhh, I vaguely was remembering that, but now that I've read the quote, I was focusing on the wrong parts of that passage at the time and I suppose.