Honorblade Chip (ROW SPOILERS)

[Epicdaf]

SPOILERS for ROW! If you haven't read it please come back when you do. 
With that out of the way, I have an interesting question. 
When Nightblood chipped Ishar's Honorblade in ROW, we never saw what happened to that chip. 
Theoretically speaking, assuming you'd be able to find it and not slice your fingers, what would happen in the following scenarios:
1) Allomantically burning it with Lerasium (Brandon said you might be able to do this)?
2) Using it as a Hemalurgic Spike?
3) Using it as a metal mind? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

[Entr0pic He/him]

An honor blade couldn’t be burned by a mistborn due to the lack of connection to honor. If they had a duralumin spike, maybe

It’s to invested to become a hemalurgic spike. It’s like trying to fill a full cup with more water. You also can’t turn it into a metalmind for the same reason.

[Terrisman]

I think the better question is if you would be able to use it to get Bondsmith powers 

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Epicdaf said:

I'd love to hear your thoughts

The only WoB we have on this that I found:

Spoiler

NeedsToShutUp

What would happen if Hoid tried to burn the shard that came off Ishar's Honorblade?

Brandon Sanderson

If you were able to get a hold of that piece and burn it, it would act like burning... You would be burning a very pure form of a God Metal, and those have some very interesting effects. RAFO.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 3 (Dec. 16, 2021)

 

[alder24]

A tip for you. You don't have to worry about spoiling RoW, it's long after its release and it doesn't fall under spoiler policy (unlike WaT).

20 hours ago, Epicdaf said:

1) Allomantically burning it with Lerasium (Brandon said you might be able to do this)?

It's possible, an Alomancer can even burn it without Lerasium because it's a pure god metal. Burning Tanavastium-Lerasium alloy might grant you powers of Surgebinding. However, we don't know this for sure, w e know that alloying Lerasium with other god metals can grant you other invested arts (like Sand Mastery from Bavadinium-Lerasium alloy).

20 hours ago, Epicdaf said:

2) Using it as a Hemalurgic Spike?

It's unliving god metal, it should be able to hold a charge unlike living Shardblades.

20 hours ago, Epicdaf said:

3) Using it as a metal mind? 

Should work, it's a pure god metal, it would work just like Atium or Lerasium do.

The main difference between this chip and Shardblades is that Shardblades are alive, they do not count as metals anymore because there is a living spren "attached" to that Shardblade. This makes them impossible to burn and too full to be used as a Hemalurgic spike oe a metalmind. The chip from Ishar's Honorblade is not alive, it's pure Tanavastium and it should behave just like Atium or Lerasium.

Spoiler

Stormlightning

If Hoid was to get his hands on "bavadinium", could he alloy it with lerasium and get sand mastery?

Brandon Sanderson

This is theoretically possible.

FanX 2018 (Sept. 6, 2018)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

What would happen if a person from Scadrial were to try to burn a manifested metal from Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

So you're meaning they're in Shadesmar, they manifest it, and they try to burn it, right?

Questioner

Say a Spren of a Radiant manifests as a bead of metal instead of a Shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson

You're not going to be able to burn that if it's something that's coming from a spren, because that's not going to be treated as a metal in your body. Like, those are God Metals, and that one is actually alive and awake and it's just not gonna work. There are ways, though, that you could make that work. So it's totally possible, but you're gonna need something that's not an alive spren that's manifest like that. You're gonna need some way to get access to some tanavastium or something like that that's not, like, some living being.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

Can a Shardblade, dead or alive, become a Hemalurgic spike?

Brandon Sanderson

It's already too strongly Invested for this. It couldn't hold anymore charge.

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

Can Shardblades, dead or alive, be used as Hemalurgic spikes? And if attempted, what would the result be?

Brandon Sanderson

Technically yes, but in practicality no.

To use something as a Hemalurgic spike, it basically just needs to be able to already have a charge of Investiture, or be able to adopt one. Technically, Shardblades are made from a god metal. You could do this. But the Blade is gonna be big and unwieldy, and the form it’s in right now, it’s going to slice the soul rather than rip pieces off. You would have to jump through a bunch of hoops that wouldn’t be worth it in order to use one.

It would basically mean that you’d have to separate the metal of the Shardblade from the concept of a Shardblade itself, is what’s going on there.

Waterstones RoW Release Event (Nov. 18, 2020)

 

[Epicdaf]

@Terrisman Excellent question. 

Interesting answers.
I'm very curious to see what that RAFO will be when a character is able to burn or ingest a highly invested metal. 

Thank you so much for the tips @alder24

 

 

[+robardin he/him]

There's a more basic question, actually. The Honorblade was chipped after it was used to block a swing from Szeth wielding Nightblood, resulting in a "burst of power" with a "shock wave" that "sent both men sprawling backward".

And it was then that Ishar's Honorblade flew free from his hand, bounced, stuck halfway into the ground, and showed "a chip in its unearthly steel".

The Blade was now slightly notched, but that doesn't mean a sizeable piece of metal was knocked off of it to land on the ground... This is Nightblood! That Investiture could have been CONSUMED!

OTOH, if Brandon himself answered a question about Allomantically burning that very chip by saying, "If you were able to get a hold of that piece", ... I guess that means "that piece" did in fact come off of it.

[Terrisman]

6 minutes ago, robardin said:

OTOH, if Brandon himself answered a question about Allomantically burning that very chip by saying, "If you were able to get a hold of that piece", ... I guess that means "that piece" did in fact come off of it.

He often answers questions as if your assumptions were true even if they were not

[+robardin he/him]

6 hours ago, Terrisman said:

He often answers questions as if your assumptions were true even if they were not

Innnnteresting...

I know he's RAFO'ed some questions and full-on shut down some other ones, had not considered the "I'll play along" answer without a preface amounting to that

[Treamayne]

11 hours ago, Terrisman said:

He often answers questions as if your assumptions were true even if they were not

 

5 hours ago, robardin said:

Innnnteresting...

I know he's RAFO'ed some questions and full-on shut down some other ones, had not considered the "I'll play along" answer without a preface amounting to that

Those WoBs are less about assumptions than they are verbal linguistics. Examples (some he mentions "playing along", some not - both for comparison):

Spoiler

Quote

Questioner

I have a question about Iyatil, can you tell me what world she is from originally.

Brandon Sanderson

Originally? That is a question i can dodge pretty easily im afraid. Iyatil is not from a world you have seen.

Shadows of Self Portland signing (Oct. 10, 2015)

Quote

Questioner

Who was the first Feruchemist?

Brandon Sanderson

Who was the first Feruchemist? I don't have their name written down. It's fairly ancient of date.

Questioner

Were they born or were they created?

Brandon Sanderson

The first Feruchemist, were they born or created? Both. I don't see those two as mutually exclusive. See how good I am at dodging questions, now? I've been dealing with the Wheel of Time fans long enough. They've really whipped me into shape for dodging questions.

Salt Lake City signing 2012 (Nov. 6, 2012)

Two parter where he later acknowledges dodging a question based on wording:

Quote

Quote

sufficientlyadvanced

It says that it's dangerous to travel to Shadesmar on Sel. Why?

Brandon Sanderson

It has to do with the Dor and the lack of an entity controlling much of the power Odium left in his wake on Sel.

Phantine

Woah, that's interesting. I had no idea Odium left little bits of his power on Sel... I guess it kinda makes sense for evil monks to be powered by pure hate, though.

Brandon Sanderson

Odium did not leave his power behind, one should note. He left several other powers which are now, to a large extent, mindless...

Windrunner

If you wouldn't mind answering, does Roshar have a similar problem, with Honor being Splintered?

Brandon Sanderson

No, Roshar does not have the same problem. There are some differences going on. One reason being that the spren are far more extensive on Roshar, and provide something of a "release valve." The seons and the skaze on Sel are not numerous enough to fulfill a similar function. Though, of course, that's only one part of the puzzle. Raw power is dangerous.

It's one reason everyone should be thankful Kelsier was around on Scadrial.

General Reddit 2013 (March 11, 2013)

Questioner

Saying that, "Odium did not leave his power behind on Sel. He left several other powers which are now, to a large extent, mindless." So, is another power- did he have some kind of *inaudible* under control or--

Brandon Sanderson

So I dodged that one very easily. I was talking about Dominion and Devotion, which he could have taken up and left behind. It technically answered the question. That was the answer. I even said on a tape later on "I wiggled out of that one real well," but they didn't know how I wiggled out of it. When they said "Did he leave behind any powers?" Those are the powers he left behind.

Questioner

But they weren't his powers?

Brandon Sanderson

No, but they were-- As soon as he killed them, he could have had them, right? So it definitely gave me wiggle room.

Footnote: The initial quote is referencing this WoB
Skyward Denver signing (Nov. 15, 2018)

 

Hope that helps

Edited April 3, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG