Where are the extra Shardblades?

[hoser]

Welcome in from the lurking!

 

Hi all,

 

Here's how I see it. 

 

1) The KR were primarily a military order that was based in Urithiru.  It would make sense then, that their armory and primary garrison was located there.  Now, in most militaries, there are a certain number out on patrol/remote postings at a given time, while the majority are confined to garrison, especially in times of relative peace.  In Dalinar's vision, while there is a border skirmish going on, there is no reason to suspect that a larger war requiring a large deployment was taking place.

 

2) There is no reason why shardblades have to be permanently bonded to a user.  In fact we have seen two cases where they are specifically not: When Dalinar trades his blade to Sadeas, and the custom of renting plate/blades for duels.  This could mean that when KR weren't in the field they kept their armor and weapons stored in case they were needed.  (As pointed out, Mr. Sanderson said they were available to all the orders, even those that didn't generally use them.)

 

3) If the above 2 suppositions are true, it would stand to reason that most blades/plate were stored in Urithiru at the time of Recreance.  It's quite possible, then, that what Dalinar saw were the only KR in the field at the time.  The rest could just have easily left their armor and weapons in garrison and walked away.  Since no seems to know where Urithiru is/was, and it may have been largely inaccessible to the general population, I think that most blades/plate are still there, wherever that may be.  If you subtract the blades that are held and not known, and those that have been lost over the years (shipwrecks in deep water, etc), I think we can arrive pretty easily at the known number out there.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

*goes back to lurking*

The missing blades and armor could be in Urithiru as you say.  The Radiants clearly had a plan for the Recreance which could have involved depositing the weaponry in Urithiru. 

 

Some minor points follow:

• In the Starfalls episode we are told that the Knights don't actually live in Urithiru, but are scattered across Alethela. 
• Jasnah also tells Shallan that the Knights abandoned Urithiru before the Recreance. 

Assuming that the Knights were garrisoned in Urithiru seems to conflict with some of the little information we do have (although it is all uncertain).  Nonetheless, your conclusion that the bulk of them are stored in Urithiru certainly seems possible. 

[Swimmingly]

Possibly, they just hid them somewhere - the Purelake seems like a likely place. I'm sure some of the Radiants must have seen the sense in putting deadly weapons that can kill thousands where anybody could get them. It would be like leaving nukes for anyone to take. Though, to be fair, the "secret cache of ancient powerful weapons" is a little bit cliched.

[name_here]

There are several references in TWoK to suggest that shards are highly personal items:

 

1/ They are all unique - works of art even. I think probably tailor made for each individual.

 

I just now remembered: in the case of Shardplate this isn't actually true. Yes, each set in the modern era is decorated distinctively, but it's mentioned in the narration that the decorations and paint jobs have been added by the current owners. Dalinar's set is plain grey with no decorative attachments because he specifically decided not to customize it, not because he happened to get a boring one.