So what exactly are halfshards

[InstantWalrus]

So i was reading the coppermind on halfshards and its very unclear to me what they actually are.

 

(being an audiobook listener its not easy to go to the source, and im not due for another reread for at least a couple of months )

 

I always imagined them as shields that could stop a shardblade. But the coppermind makes it sound like they could be armour, just huge bulky not strength enhancing armour.

 

Im also wandering what sort of fabrial they are. Afaik fabrials tend to use simillar powers to the surgebindings to produce a similar effect. But i cant think of a surgebinding that could stop a shardblade, and if there is one directly that has some serious implications for the combat effectiveness of the KR using such a surge.

 

Granted i doubt KR ever really fought other people with shardblades, so the ability to use your innate power to block one isnt super useful unless of course the voidbringers had their own shardblade equivalents (i mean back in the day, we know the parshendi use/d shards more recently).

 

I cant remember any mention of voidbringers with shardblades, but if theyre spren fueled i dont see why they couldnt have dark shards or something. Captured evil twisted spren forced into sword form then killed/preserved/trapped in it (would be kinda cool imo).

 

so yeah half shardsw, what are they? Shields? Armour? And a KR with the ability to block a shardblade without parrying would be one bad chull -> take a hit on the chest shrug it off and riposte while your enemy is shocked and off balance.

[Oudeis he/him]

Well, first, let me clear up something with fabrials (that I believe, anyway).

 

There are two broad categories of fabrial. One is the modern fabrial, which according to the ars arcanum comes in five types. They enhance, they decrease, they move in unison or opposition, or they alert. However we've also had a fabrial clock mentioned which doesn't fit any of these categories.

 

These fabrials seem to operate on a principle of trapping a spren, feeding it stormlight, and producing an effect. Heater fabrials, for example, feed stormlight into a spren (presumably a firespren? Are there heatspren?) and then it produces heat. Spanreeds use Stormlight to move in unison when the settings are adjusted properly.

 

The sort of fabrials you seem to mention are the ones I call ancient fabrials. It doesn't seem as though their powers can be replicated. The most prevalent of these is the Soulcaster. Both in Dalinar's vision at at the end of Words of Radiance, we see a Regrowth fabrial. These seem to imitate the Surges, and I would be surprised if they turn out to actually be the same thing. I suspect they operate on wildly different principles. Jasnah says that Navani is capable of fixing a misaligned Soulcaster, but I don't believe they can be produced from scratch, or presumably more people would have them, and Jasnah would be able to claim she'd simply made hers, instead of making up a story about finding it somewhere.

 

So, to get back to your actual point. A half-shard is a type of modern fabrial. A spren in trapped and fed stormlight, and this somehow produces super-strong material, typically in the shape of a shield. They have been shown capable of holding off the strike of a Shardblade. It's unclear if this is because there actually are things hard enough a Shardblade cannot cut them, or if they simply become so Invested that they can resist a Shardblade. Or, if a third, as-yet-unproposed principle is at work.

 

In theory, there's nothing to prevent you from using this type of fabrial on a suit of armor and making it impenetrable to a Shardblade; however, as has been pointed out, it would not by default grant the strength to wear itself the way Plate does.

[DreamEternal]

Well, I will try to adress all your points:

1. What are half-shards:

Realy hard metal. Steel reinforced by a fabrial that makes it more durable, to be exact. It can block shardblades not (only?) because of how hard it is, but because it is invested, and magic interferes with magic.

2.Fabrials:

You got it wrong. Modern fabrials don't imitate surges, the ancient fabrials like soulcasters did it, but the secret of their creation was lost, and possibly worked under different principles.

Modern fabrials work by feeding stormlight to a trapped lesser spren to enhace or diminish the attribute linked to that spren, like heat or pain or hardness, or to link it to another gemstone, like spanreds.

EDIT: ninja-ed!

Edited July 11, 2015 by CognitivePulsePattern

[Guest]

I wonder what effect the Half-Shard Fabrial would have if you applied it directly to a person instead of a piece of metal.

[InstantWalrus]

Oh yeah i forgot it was only the old fabrials that replicated surgebindings.

 

Shame it seems you could do some awesome stuff with surgebinding that some fabrials do. For example span reeds, if they were based on a surge that linked two objects together so they moved at the same time, that would be a useful surge power to use. Link two swords together so they attack in tandem.

 

So my understanding of  shardblades is rudimentary. I get confused by the rules of what they can and cannot cut. So Dalinar can just slice through rock with the blade or other inanimate materials and it functions like a lightsaber. But with living materials like people it cuts through the soul but does it pass through the flesh or does it have to cut the flesh like a normal sword. I ask because i remember a lot of the chasmfiends fights they have to smash through the shell with hammers and then kill the chasm fiend before it can be lightsabered with the shardblade. However in shardbearer fights it seems to me like the shardblades are described as simply passing through the bodies of people severing the souls and burning out the eyes. I always imagined a corpse left behind after being killed by a shardblade would have no visible wounds other than the eyes. But im guessing they are actually cut as if by a regular sword.

 

So half shards, maybe they work by imbueing the shield/armour with a fake spren soul. So the trapped spren acts as a soul for the half shard making the material "alive" and because of this the shardblade cant lightsaber through it and instead tries to cut it.

 

I wonder if the same technology could be used to build shardbearer prisons. In the books they say they dont imprison shardbearers, its let them off or kill them. Because they could never be contained in a conventional prison (i have my doubts, im sure you could be creative and tie up a shardbearer so that even if he summons his sword hes not in a position to cut himself loose... can a shardblade cut its own wielder? I mean a dead sprenblade, a live shardblade can probably choose not too)

[Oudeis he/him]

I think you're a little confused... people use hammers on Chasmfiend Pupae when they don't have Shardblades to use. Also, the outer layer is a sort of chitin that basically acts as a rock and can be cut by a blade as though it were not alive. So, people will use Shardblades to cut off the chitin so that they can line up a strike that will cut through major organs of the pupa, killing it, so that then they can cut the flesh with the Shardblade, and get at the gemheart.

 

When a regular human dies to a shardblade, his body will not have a sword wound (from that specific strike). His clothing will, any jewelry he might have been wearing, the wall behind him. But his only physical wound will be the burned eyes.

[InstantWalrus]

oh thats where i was getting confused... i remember now. The shardblades simply pass strait through living material rather than cutting it like they did rock, hence the need to kill the chasmfiend/break its shell before they could be carved up with the shardblade to harvest the gemheart.

 

My bad its been a while since i read the book. That reread might be warranted sooner than expected.

 

So what about shardplate. Can it be cut once it runs out of stormlight or does it retain its armour qualities just not the enhanced strength?

 

I hope we see more halfshards and shardbows in the books. I like the idea of non spren artifabrial weapons. They always seemed like throwaway mentions in the books.

[kaellok he/him]

The Ars Arcanum says that the Halfshards are 'augmented' fabrials, with a sheet of metal that has been made stronger.  Personally, I think that they're made of aluminum (or at least outer layer is.)  We know that aluminum has weird properties with Investiture as a whole, and it's plausible that aluminum serves as the <thing they put over the Shardblades when training with them so that people don't kill everyone on accident just by training.>

 

It's unclear how effective a Halfshard is at blocking the strike of a Shardblade.  Plate is resistant to the blows, capable of absorbing several before failing; so, they cannot be said to be immune or proof.  We have no similar data-set to compare a Halfshard to.  For instance, it would be very interesting if it could resist Shardblade strikes indefinitely.  I'd also be interested in the difference between a Sprenblade and a Shardblade attacking it; would a living spren be more, or less, effective?

 

Regardless, to the last point in your 3rd post, I very much doubt that these non-spren artifabrial weapons are throwaway mentions.  They're not the focus, perhaps, but an integral part of what's going on.  And we've had a few different Interludes where exploring the spren was their only focus.  Sanderson is very deliberate with his world-building, so I'd bet you my own, real-life money that the artifabrial weapons will play significant (if non-focused) roles in the coming books.

[Oudeis he/him]

it's plausible that aluminum serves as the <thing they put over the Shardblades when training with them so that people don't kill everyone on accident just by training.>

I do not believe it is plausible.

 

Per the loan shark, people know what aluminum is. It can only be Soulcast and it's rare, but not unheard of. People recognize it on sight.

 

Compare to the, we don't know what this stuff is Safeshard material. If it were just aluminum... wouldn't people know it was just aluminum?

 

If I made a cage of the Safeshard stuff and tricked Syl into it, would she be trapped?

[kaellok he/him]

I do not believe it is plausible.

 

Per the loan shark, people know what aluminum is. It can only be Soulcast and it's rare, but not unheard of. People recognize it on sight.

 

Compare to the, we don't know what this stuff is Safeshard material. If it were just aluminum... wouldn't people know it was just aluminum?

 

If I made a cage of the Safeshard stuff and tricked Syl into it, would she be trapped?

I don't remember this from the book, but it's now making me think that I've read something similar before on the forums.  So, bleh.

[DreamEternal]

I don't remember this from the book, but it's now making me think that I've read something similar before on the forums. So, bleh.

Shallan's necklace was made of aluminium, and it was very expensive. It is stated that it could only be obtained by soulcasting.

[StormyAngel he/him]

Well Shardblades are spren right? So the Half-Shards can probably only block them because they're augmented by a trapped spren.

 

I'm not sure how far spread it is but I once heard a theory that shardplate is made up of spren. If that's true, then it make sense to me that a shield tied to a spren (even if it is imprisoned) could block a shardblade. The artifabrians accidently imitated shardplate.

[Voidus]

Well Shardblades are spren right? So the Half-Shards can probably only block them because they're augmented by a trapped spren.

 

I'm not sure how far spread it is but I once heard a theory that shardplate is made up of spren. If that's true, then it make sense to me that a shield tied to a spren (even if it is imprisoned) could block a shardblade. The artifabrians accidently imitated shardplate.

I doubt it's that simple or it wouldn't have taken so long to develop them. That they specifically use fabrials that enhance Durability makes it particularly unlikely.

[Oudeis he/him]

Well Shardblades are spren right? So the Half-Shards can probably only block them because they're augmented by a trapped spren.

 

I would be surprised if no one has ever noticed that any fabrial blocks Shardblades.

[InstantWalrus]

I would be surprised if no one has ever noticed that any fabrial blocks Shardblades.

 

well with someone swinging a shardblade at you i doubt your first instinct is to try to parry with your spanreed.

[Oudeis he/him]

Well Lin Davar didn't try to "block" Balat's thrust with his Soulcaster...

[InstantWalrus]

Well Lin Davar didn't try to "block" Balat's thrust with his Soulcaster...

Thats very true

 

Im still not buying that the halfshard fabrials simply enhance durability/hardness of the materials theyre made out of. There are only 5 things i know of that can stop a shardblade: shardplate, halfshards, shardblades, honourblades and the safety sheaths (snigger).

 

I wonder if the safety sheaths for shardblades are made from a special material or are a simmilar fabrial to the half shards. The lack of a gem makes me thing its the material (i like the alluminium theory, also it makes me laugh. tin foil hats for the win.) Are any of the ancient fabrials that we know of gemless?

 

So far it seems its magic (investiture) that stops the shardblade as opposed to anything else. However people leaking stormlight who are full of investiture do not. I wonder if a spren can be directly cut with a shardblade (or rather a deadblade as i doubt a living sprenblade would be willing to cut another innocent spren).

 

I have to say since in the books we've found out what shardblades really are, they've become far less interesting. I like me some fabrials.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Don't forget the Oathgate locks aren't affected either and I thought Half-Shards only proved mildy effective against Shardblades (well Honourblade in this case) I need to re-read that Szeth scene again.

[natc]

Well they can take that hit. Probably not for very long, but better than getting magically cut in half.

[Shardcellist]

I don't have time to post the actual quotes, but we have a decent amount of information on these half-shards. As previously mentioned, the Ars Arcanum describes them fabrial-wise.

Also read the Interlude 9 where Szeth

kills the king of Jah Keved. The king and his guards use the half-shards; the metal is strengthened by the Stormlight to the point where it can block a Shardblade, but after two hits it "shatters" under the strain.