Why does Shardplate Shatter but Shardblades don't? (Spoilers for the Stormlight Archive)

[dstokes7]

So far as I can tell, both Shardplate and Shardblades are made of splinters of Honor (spren), which would mean they are probably both made out of the same metal, Honor's god metal (Tanavastium?). If that's the case, I would think both would have the same physical properties. Yet Shardplate shatters when pounded two or three times in the same spot, while Shardblades can be whacked against other Shardblades and Shardplate repeatedly for hours on end without taking even a nick (unless used against Nightblood or anti-light, of course) and never need to be reconstituted with Stormlight like Plate does. Why is that?

It could be argued that Shardblades are made of a single spren while Shardplate is a composite of multiple spren, theoretically making Shardplate more divisable. But as I understand it, each individual piece of armor in a suit of Shardplate is made up of one spren, and the books describe individual pieces of Shardplate shattering, not pieces seperating from other pieces. That would imply that each individual piece of Shardplate should be just as resilient as a Shardblade.

It could also be argued that Shardblades are constantly renewed with power from the Spiritual Realm, but we learn in WaT that living Plate is as well. Even if dead Plate is cut off from the power of the Spiritual Realm, wouldn't dead blades be the same?

So why is Shardplate less resilient and durable than Shardblades?

Edited October 3, 2025 by dstokes7

[Treamayne]

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3 minutes ago, dstokes7 said:

So far as I can tell, both Shardplate and Shardblades are made of splinters of Honor (spren), which would mean they are probably both made out of the same metal, Honor's god metal (Tanavastium?).

Both assumptions here are not correct. Shardblades are an Alloy of Godmetals from Honor and Cultivation. Shard Plate is solid physical investiture of Plate Spren pulled into the Physical Realm - but normal spren are not Splinters like the sapient True Spren are - so it is metallic investiture, but not a GodMetal. WoBs:

Spoiler

Quote

Argent (paraphrased)

Is Cultivation's Shardholder still alive.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Good question, what do you think?

Argent (paraphrased)

I want to say, but that's based on my knowledge before I read Lift's interlude from Words of Radiance. Now I am leaning towards no. Based on that interlude, it looks like spren have essence from both Honor and Cultivation. It's almost like they exist in a spectrum, on one end of which is Honor, and on the other - Cultivation; so there are spren that are, for the lack of better example, 90% Honor and 10% Cultivation, and there are spren that are 15% Honor and 85% Cultivation.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That's a very astute observation!

Argent (paraphrased)

And since we know that Honor is Splintered, then it might be the case that Cultivation is also Splintered, and their Splinters form the spren.

Footnote: Brandon has previously stated that Cultivation's Vessel is in fact alive.
Steelheart Chicago signing (Oct. 5, 2013)  

Quote

<edited for length and relevance>

Questioner

The question kind of rooted because, Wyndle in the short story is always saying that he’s a cultivationspren, he doesn’t like [...]. I kind of got the idea that each order had a different Shard.

Brandon Sanderson

That is a good thing to think, but that is not how it is. Some of them self-identify more in certain ways. Syl is an honorspren, that’s what they call a honorspren, they self-identify as the closest to Honor. Is that true? Well, I don’t know. For instance, you might talk to different spren, who are like, no, highspren are like “We’re the ones most like Honor. We are the ones that keep oaths the best. Those honorspren will let their people break their oaths if they think it’s for a good cause. That’s not Honor-like.” There would be disagreement.

Questioner

Are you saying that the spren’s view of themself influences how they work?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh yeah, and humans’ view of them because spren are pieces of Investiture who have gained sapience, or sentience for the smaller spren, through human perception of those forces. For instance, whether or not Kaladin is keeping an oath is up to what Syl and Kaladin think is keeping that oath. It is not related to capital-T Truth, what is actually keeping the oath. Two windrunners can disagree on whether an oath has been kept or not.

Boskone 54 (Feb. 18, 2017)

Quote

Argent (paraphrased)

Are honorspren Splinters, or do they hold Splinters?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Honorspren would be termed Splinters.

Steelheart Chicago signing (Oct. 5, 2013)

 

Quote

 

Questioner

Are Cognitive elements like spren and seons only present on physical planes on worlds where Shards have been [Splintered]?

Brandon Sanderson

No. But it does require <Cognitive *inaudible*>. Alternately the Shard would have to give up pieces of their power for that. But it doesn't have to be that they were [Splintered] by someone. Seons existed on, sorry, spren existed on Roshar before the Shattering of Adonalsium. Not as many.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

 

 

Hope that helps

[Trusk'our he/him]

On 10/3/2025 at 9:59 AM, dstokes7 said:

So far as I can tell, both Shardplate and Shardblades are made of splinters of Honor (spren), which would mean they are probably both made out of the same metal, Honor's god metal (Tanavastium?). If that's the case, I would think both would have the same physical properties. Yet Shardplate shatters when pounded two or three times in the same spot, while Shardblades can be whacked against other Shardblades and Shardplate repeatedly for hours on end without taking even a nick (unless used against Nightblood or anti-light, of course) and never need to be reconstituted with Stormlight like Plate does. Why is that?

It could be argued that Shardblades are made of a single spren while Shardplate is a composite of multiple spren, theoretically making Shardplate more divisable. But as I understand it, each individual piece of armor in a suit of Shardplate is made up of one spren, and the books describe individual pieces of Shardplate shattering, not pieces seperating from other pieces. That would imply that each individual piece of Shardplate should be just as resilient as a Shardblade.

It could also be argued that Shardblades are constantly renewed with power from the Spiritual Realm, but we learn in WaT that living Plate is as well. Even if dead Plate is cut off from the power of the Spiritual Realm, wouldn't dead blades be the same?

So why is Shardplate less resilient and durable than Shardblades?

My two clips are that there are two primary reasons for Shardblades being more durable than Plate.

First, it does seem that Blades are slightly more Invested than Plate, most likely giving them an edge.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/217-salt-lake-city-signing/#e7299

Questioner

I've got a list of various Cosmere bits of metal and I was wondering if you would rank them from like one to ten or just easy to difficult on how hard it would be to steelpush on them. So with one being just a regular coin, ten being like when the Lord Ruler was moving bits of glass on the floor, so like metal inside a person's body.

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on how strong the Investiture in them is.

Questioner

Is that gonna be the answer for all of these?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably!

Questioner

How about a spike charged with Hemalurgy?

Brandon Sanderson

A spike charged with Hemalurgy... that depends on...

Questioner

Not in a person.

Brandon Sanderson

Depends on how strong, yeah, a spike is moderately, (in the realm of these kinds of things) moderately easy to push on because a spike does not rip off very much Investiture. Only enough to short circuit the soul, and less it over time. I would put that at the bottom, with the top being very hard, to be one of the easier things.

Questioner

How about a metalmind that is full?

Brandon Sanderson

That is full? That is going to be middle of the realm of the, yeah. Generally easier than, for instance, a Shardblade which is going to be very hard.

Questioner #2

A Shardblade is [inaudible] actually metal? [metal]-ish?

Brandon Sanderson

Ish. Is Lerasium a metal? Yeah.

Questioner

So that'd be the same for Shardplate too?

Brandon Sanderson

Shardplate and Blade are very hard. Blade is probably gonna be a little harder.

<snipped for relevance>

Secondly, I think the real biggest reason is really that the Plate's Investiture is routed into physical enhancements rather than its own protection.

A Shardblade only has to give it a super keen edge and resist damage, while Plate increases the strength and speed of the user a lot. 

Pewterarms have a very quick burning metal because it's so costly to use- and they're only increasing strength by like twice their standard level (not including some other enhancements like dexterity, speed, or health) while Plate gives you just ridiculous amounts.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/291-twg-posts/#e7820

Brandon Sanderson

The longest lasting of the Allomantic metals is actually copper, which is used by Smokers to hide Allomancy. Tin is second, however. Steel and Iron are actually rather quick, but since they're generally used in bursts, it's hard to notice. Both brass and zinc are medium, as is bronze. Pewter burns the fastest of the basic eight, though atium and gold both burn faster than it does.

In my mind, it's related to how much 'work' the metal has to do. That's why pewter, steel, and iron burn so quickly. A lot of weight and power is getting thrown around, while copper only has to do something simple. However, I never really set any of these things hard-fast.

And, only atium is really all that rare. Because of the value of the metals, the noble houses expended a lot of resources finding and exploiting mines to produce the metals. This resulted in a slightly higher value for most of them as opposed to our world, but not really noticeably so, because Allomancers really don't need that much metal. Even fast burning metals, like pewter, are generally only swallowed in very small amounts. (i.e. A small bit goes a long way.)

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/9-calamity-philadelphia-signing/#e7674

Sandastron

I’m very curious about pewter. How much Feruchemical pewter, steel, and gold would you have to take in in order to be equal to burning pewter and flaring.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh…um, okay. So you wanna...ok, let’s back this up. So you wanna know feruchemically what would it take to match burning?

Sandastron

Yes.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay. So burning pewter, I kind of imagine...roughly doubling. Roughly.

Sandastron

Double your strength?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. But without the muscle mass change, it’s a magical boost. So because of that it has some pretty dramatic effects, like when Vin jumps and things like that.

Sandastron

So it’s only a double, so would flaring it bring it any higher?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. Flaring would go higher.

Sandastron

Would it be like triple?

Brandon Sanderson

Maybe like triple.

Sandastron

Maybe like tripling...that’s fascinating. So I always thought normal burning would triple it and flaring would quadruple.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah I always felt kind of double. You won’t see people burning pewter and lifting a car.

Sandastron

Right, exactly.

Brandon Sanderson

You see people burning pewter and delivering a really solid punch.

Sandastron

Gotcha, thank you. That is fascinating…and would it be about doubling speed and healing ability?

Brandon Sanderson

I haven’t worked out the numbers on that exactly. I have an instinct that says that burning pewter, healing goes a bit faster but I have to look in the books and see what we’ve done in the past and then kind of canonize it.

I feel like Plate (seeming to) not actively using up its Stormlight unless regenerating is also important, as to me passive Investiture uses feel like they should be less powerful, though more sustainable. Apply that to Pewterarms actually using up their reserves while Plate seems to just keep going unless cracked, and I think Plate's enhancements just become more expensive to grant.

[nehalem]

Could there be a really simple explanation.

Shardblades are formed from one spren.  So if it shattered that would be really bad for that spren I imagine.

Whereas shardplate is formed from many spren.  And is therefore inherently more easily divisible.

[alder24]

Both Shardblades and Shardplates are made out of Tanavastium-Koravellium alloy, not pure Honor’s god metal, but this isn’t important here at all (@Treamayne where did you get that Shardplates are not god metals like Shardblades are and that Lesser Spren are not Splinters?). What’s more important is that both True Spren and Lesser Spren are Splinters of Honor and Cultivation, yet True Spren are sapient and vastly more invested than an individual Lesser Spren making up a section of a Shardplate. As a whole a Shardblade is only slightly more invested than an entire Shardplate, but an individual section of a Shardplate is way less invested than a Shardblade, because a Shardplate is made out of dozens of Lesser Spren and a Shardblade is just one single True Spren. And that’s the primary reason why a Shardplate breaks, but a Shardblade doesn't. 

To break a god metal manifested from a spren, you would need something significantly more invested than that spren. A Shardblade is one of the most invested objects in Cosmere and all Shardblades are invested at the similar level, so they won’t break each other. There is only one thing in Cosmere that’s way more invested than a Shardblade - Nightblood. That’s why only Nightblood can chip off a Shardblade. And that’s why a Shardblade can break pieces of a Shardplate as each piece can’t compete with the investiture level of a Shardblade. A single Windspren isn’t nearly as invested as a Honorspren.

I also think that hitting a physical form of a Lesser Spren will disrupt their Connection to the Physical Realm. It was shown and explained in OB and RoW that cutting a Spren with a Shardblade, disrupts their form, dissolves it, but it doesn’t kill a Spren - they will take some time and reform later. I think Spren might have the same vulnerability even as a Shardplate. Hitting them enough time will physically disrupt their form, weaken their Connection, forcing them to break and reform some time later. True Spren have a much stronger Connection to the Physical Realm, so they don’t break like this. However, this is purely my speculations, not something we know for sure, so take it with a grain of salt.

19 hours ago, dstokes7 said:

It could also be argued that Shardblades are constantly renewed with power from the Spiritual Realm, but we learn in WaT that living Plate is as well. Even if dead Plate is cut off from the power of the Spiritual Realm, wouldn't dead blades be the same?

Both Shardblades and Shardplate, dead or alive, are Spren manifested in the Physical Ream, their investiture becoming god metals. They don't draw power from the Spiritual Realm, they are their soul manifested physically.

 

Spoiler

FireyWoodedHill

Is Shardplate made of the same material as Shardblades? Is there a difference in material between a "dead" Shardblade and a living one?

Brandon Sanderson

You can generally look at all three as being the same material.

Skyward Pre-Release AMA (Oct. 12, 2018)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

I've got a list of various Cosmere bits of metal and I was wondering if you would rank them from like one to ten or just easy to difficult on how hard it would be to steelpush on them. So with one being just a regular coin, ten being like when the Lord Ruler was moving bits of glass on the floor, so like metal inside a person's body.

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on how strong the Investiture in them is.

[...]

Questioner

How about a metalmind that is full?

Brandon Sanderson

That is full? That is going to be middle of the realm of the, yeah. Generally easier than, for instance, a Shardblade which is going to be very hard.

Questioner #2

A Shardblade is [inaudible] actually metal? [metal]-ish?

Brandon Sanderson

Ish. Is Lerasium a metal? Yeah.

Questioner

So that'd be the same for Shardplate too?

Brandon Sanderson

Shardplate and Blade are very hard. Blade is probably gonna be a little harder.

[...]

Salt Lake City signing (March 29, 2014)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

If something is heavily Invested, it's harder for a Shardblade to go through it, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Kind of. It depends on the kind of Investiture and things that are going on. But yes. If you want to block a Shardblade... Like a metalmind would be a good thing to use to fight a Shardblade.

Questioner

A person with a lot of Breath, like the God-King, would you be able to chop them with a Shardblade or no?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to get very tricky on that, so I'll RAFO that for now. Let's just say that there are things. For instance, a Shardblade excising someone who's been Hemalurgically spiked is a theoretical possibility. 

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Both Shardblades and Shardplates are made out of Tanavastium-Koravellium alloy, not pure Honor’s god metal, but this isn’t important here at all (@Treamayne where did you get that Shardplates are not god metals like Shardblades are and that Lesser Spren are not Splinters?). What’s more important is that both True Spren and Lesser Spren are Splinters of Honor and Cultivation, yet True Spren are sapient and vastly more invested than an individual Lesser Spren making up a section of a Shardplate.

What makes you think they are "Tanavastium-Koravellium alloy"? The WoB can just as easily mean that "Investiture in solid metallic form" and does not necessarily mean your interpretation. Windspren, for example, pre-date the Shattering (and therefore Honor or Cultivation even being on Roshar). All investiture is assigned to a Shard at the Shattering, but they could be a mix of 3+ other investitures, you could be right and they are a similar alloy, they could be anything - we don't have enough data.

All we really know for certain is that it is not a Sapient Splinter in Solid Physical Matter form like a Shardblade. Anything beyond that is a theory - possible but not confirmed. All investiture may belong to one or more Shards, but not all investiture are Splinters - and that was my point. 

Hope that helps. 

Edited October 4, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[alder24]

7 hours ago, Treamayne said:

What makes you think they are "Tanavastium-Koravellium alloy"? The WoB can just as easily mean that "Investiture in solid metallic form" and does not necessarily mean your interpretation.

Because WoBs state Shardblades are basically the same alloy, no matter how spren are invested and that Shardplates are made out of the same material as Shardblades (in my first post) - Shardblades are god metal, thus Shardplates have to be the same god metal as well, otherwise they wouldn't be the same material. Not "Investiture in solid metallic form," which I understand as something like steel, not a god metal. 

Spoiler

Alpharho

The metal of Shardblades. Cultivationspren versus honorspren, for example. Are they different metals?

Brandon Sanderson

No, but good question.

Alpharho

Are all orders the same alloy, essentially?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. There's a little asterisk on there, but not in the way you're asking... You could call those all the same alloy. Because the mixture to different spren is different, I think that you could argue that each one is its own alloy.

Alpharho

So, different proportions of tanavastium?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but it doesn't quite work that way with these magics, right? I'm going to say that's up to the individual cosmerologist who is in the world, the arcanist, defining it. You would be able to find enough differences to legitimately call them different alloys if you wanted to.

Alpharho

Would you say different ratios of the same two metals?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. They are not going to have a third one in them, if that's what you're asking. But it doesn't quite work that way. Like, if you were going to take brass, you could measure the exact percentage. In this case, it is a thing; it's not like you could divide it up and split them apart, because they are a thing. And that thing would be called one thing.

Alpharho

But you won't say what that thing is called?

Brandon Sanderson

No, I won't say what that thing is called. But I think you and the 17th Sharders and folks that are dividing them would prefer to call them ten different things, and I think their nomenclature would be relevant.

Skyward Denver signing (Nov. 15, 2018)

 

7 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Windspren, for example, pre-date the Shattering (and therefore Honor or Cultivation even being on Roshar). All investiture is assigned to a Shard at the Shattering, but they could be a mix of 3+ other investitures, you could be right and they are a similar alloy, they could be anything - we don't have enough data.

I believe there are enough WoBs on this matter to say we know for certain that Shardplate and Shardblade alloys are the same. They do predate the Shattering, but Roshar was already strongly associated with Cultivation and presumably Honor as well. Over all those thousands of years those other investitures would slowly fade and got replaced by Honor and Cultivation's investitures as they were the ones investing in Roshar, not other Shards. Radiant platespren are almost as strongly associated with Honor and Cultivation as True Spren, iirc they even call those Lesser spren cousins. Even if there is a tiny bit of Autonomy or Endowment in them, we can safely ignore that and the god metal they are forming is the same as the True Spren. 

Spoiler

Chaos

So, at the Forbidden Planet signing you said that when Adonalsium was Shattered, all Investiture in the cosmere was associated to one of the Shards... So, what happened with Adonalsium's spren on Roshar? Were those associated to Honor and Cultivation? What happened with them?

Brandon Sanderson

So they were very-- They were already associated to certain parts of Adonalsium and they went with those associations. There's a lot of Cultivation in all of the spren, particularly the natural spren.

Footnote: Chaos is referencing this exchange.
Salt Lake City signing (Dec. 16, 2017)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

Is there a specific Shard that most of the spren come from?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of the spren are going to be related to a combination of Honor and Cultivation, weighted certain directions for certain types of spren. But the spren are mostly both of them. 

Questioner

Are they considered Splinters?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you could call spren Splinters if you wanted to. They work in the same way as a Splinter, so yeah.

LTUE 2020 (Feb. 15, 2020)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

Abstract concepts, have representations in Shadesmar. Fear, whatever. So, now we are going into complete nerd-land. I'm a programmer. the things that I program, the programs that I make, to me they are discrete things that kind of come alive. So the question is-- The first part of the question would those have a representation in Shadesmar?

Brandon Sanderson

So here's the thing. A lot of people have to collectively start doing this for it to come alive. And it's not just any abstract concept, it is an abstract concept related to the Shards that are there and Investiture actually actively coming to life bearing that sort of personality and attribute. So that's-- you see things relating to human emotions, you can see things related to nature, because of Cultivation, you see a lot of things relating to how people interact with one another, from Honor. So the answer to that is that seems-- That's not really what spren are doing, but programmingspren you could see something coming from

Questioner

Programmingspren, but not a spren for a specific program.

Brandon Sanderson

Unlikely, yeah to have a spren for a specific program. There are some really weird spren, that are different. So it's not impossible, but it's not likely either.

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

 

[dstokes7]

On 10/4/2025 at 5:26 AM, alder24 said:

To break a god metal manifested from a spren, you would need something significantly more invested than that spren. A Shardblade is one of the most invested objects in Cosmere and all Shardblades are invested at the similar level, so they won’t break each other. There is only one thing in Cosmere that’s way more invested than a Shardblade - Nightblood. That’s why only Nightblood can chip off a Shardblade. And that’s why a Shardblade can break pieces of a Shardplate as each piece can’t compete with the investiture level of a Shardblade. A single Windspren isn’t nearly as invested as a Honorspren.

I suspect you are correct about Honorspren being more invested than Windspren, but I think the assumption that an invested object can only be broken by another, more invested object is incorrect. If that were the case, it would mean Shardplate could ONLY be broken by a Shardblade since it is the only thing on Roshar more invested. But that's not true. In Way of Kings, it is revealed that Shardplate can be shattered by heavy infantry wielding mundane, mortal war hammers (hence the tactic of toppling a shardbearer with nets or ropes then pounding on them repeatedly to break the shell and kill them), as can the stones the Parshendi try slinging at Dalinar during a plateau assult. Plus, even falling from a great enough height onto the ordinary stone ground can break Plate and kill the Shardbearer inside. So clearly Shardplate can be shattered just as easily with uninvested weapons as with invested ones. Though, I do admit that Shardplate might be more resistant to mundane weapons than to Shardblades, since it seems to take quite a few more hits with a hammer to break plate than it does with a Blade, so you might be onto something there.

[dstokes7]

18 hours ago, nehalem said:

Shardblades are formed from one spren.  So if it shattered that would be really bad for that spren I imagine.

Whereas shardplate is formed from many spren.  And is therefore inherently more easily divisible.

As I mentioned in my first post, while it is true that a suit of Shardplate is made of many spren, each individual piece of Plate within the suit is made of one spren each. I imagine that the windspren that makes up Kaladin's breastplate feels just as indivisible as any other spren. You are right that the whole suit is more divisible because it's made of multiple spren, but each piece of plate within it isn't. 

On 10/3/2025 at 9:59 AM, dstokes7 said:

It could be argued that Shardblades are made of a single spren while Shardplate is a composite of multiple spren, theoretically making Shardplate more divisable. But as I understand it, each individual piece of armor in a suit of Shardplate is made up of one spren, and the books describe individual pieces of Shardplate shattering, not pieces seperating from other pieces. That would imply that each individual piece of Shardplate should be just as resilient as a Shardblade.

 

[Creation he/him]

I believe that shardplate is made of many spren, but also each part of the plate is made of more than one spren. 

Quote

Q: “Is Shardplate made up of spren?”
Brandon: “Yes. Shardplate is composed of many lesser spren, and they group together to form the various pieces of armor.”

This is how dead shardplate re-forms not in parts, but slowly and gradually. This is also how it shatters despite being a godmetal alloy. And, as  "nehalem" stated, shardblade is a single spren, making it harder to pull apart unlike the many spren holding themselves together. 

Edited October 20, 2025 by Garzryp
I forgot to talk about shardblades