Shard weapons

[soulcastJam he/him]

Why do we only have shardblades found?  It seems strange that all the knights would prefer a blade as opposed to a spear/hammer/flail etc.  I also think it unlikely that they were required to keep their weapon in the form of a blade as a sort of uniform because it is so limiting.  So why a blade?

 

My suggested answer is that upon the death of the spren through the breaking of the Nahel bond the shardblades reverted to a sword as their basic state since they were based on the honorblades.  I could go into some pretended spren psychology that combines the trauma of their death and feeling used with references to Aiel beliefs about swords having no purpose but to kill... but I won't.

[Blightsong he/him]

Yup, we know tgat it is because they are based on Honorblades, so they revert back to blade form. This has been confirmed, nice guess though.

[soulcastJam he/him]

Oh, well...  A very small pat on the back for me then. 

[Stormgate he/him]

Besides, have you ever tried to sever the soul of a Voidbringer with a hammer? I don't think war hammers have claws.

[Rasarr she/her]

Besides, have you ever tried to sever the soul of a Voidbringer with a hammer? I don't think war hammers have claws.

 

Uhm, actually, all warhammers have claws or other sharp ends. They've been designed to pierce armour, not crush it. The idea of warhammer looking like a giant, well, hammer, comes mostly from fantasy games and books.

[kenod]

Also, just smash the soul right out of the body .

[Stormgate he/him]

Either way, a Shardshovel would be more effective than a war hammer.

[Cortez he/him]

Uhm, actually, all warhammers have claws or other sharp ends. They've been designed to pierce armour, not crush it. The idea of warhammer looking like a giant, well, hammer, comes mostly from fantasy games and books.

 

Actually they're designed to do both. Crush the joints so the enemy can't move properly and then stick a spike through it.

 

The main reason fantasy warhammers can't work is the weight, not the crushing style attack, no normal human would be able to wield them properly (seriously try swinging a sledge hammer about in one hand, you'll be lucky if you don't snap your wrist by trying to reverse direction).

[DreamEternal]

The main reason fantasy warhammers can't work is the weight, not the crushing style attack, no normal human would be able to wield them properly (seriously try swinging a sledge hammer about in one hand, you'll be lucky if you don't snap your wrist by trying to reverse direction).

Eh, it is not impossible if you keep a flow to your movements. The problem is that you'd be too tired to fight much, much sooner than your foe, specially if ypu were wearing heavy armor. And you should be wearing heavy armor, as swinging a sledgehammer is going to leave you very open to counter attacks if said foe avoids your strike. Which is likely, since sledgehammers aren't know by speed or precision.

[Weltall]

Which is one cool thing about these books. One of the reasons Shardblades exist (real world-wise) is that Brandon wanted to justify the ginormous swords seen in fantasy art, RPGs and the like, hence everything about the setting that goes towards them and the massive creatures they're designed to be used against. And the same thing works to justify oversized hammers since people with Shardplate but no Blade actually can use something that heavy without tiring or worrying too much about opening themselves to attack..

 

Next up, Navani invents the 'Shardcannon' by finding a spren that replicates the effects of Division and we start seeing tropes from FPS games. BFG=Big Fabrial Gun?

[kenod]

Snipers with shard ammo (the spren kind, not the fabrial version). You could basically shoot right through multiple targets.

[C. James-Mayer he/him]

JordanCon Q&A Session:

Q: So, why is it that there are only dead swords?

A: That’s a good question that will be answered in the future.

 

Seems like there is more to just 'the default state'.