Shard Weapons

[Dawnshard]

I was just wondering if anyone else has noticed that there are no other radiant created weapons. I mean I understand that swords are useful but only swords? What about spears, lances, even real shard bows. Or even shard plate for horses. I am curious to see what others think about it. I mean many cultures have different systems of fighting and if you are fighting monsters for the sake of creation I would like more tactics that can be used against the void.

[Crysanja]

we do not realy know what creatures are fought in desolations.

 

 

if thouse creatures are not realy alive, then maybe you can only cut them into pices.

pricing them with spears, daggers, arrows will have close to no effect at all.

 

an axe would be kind of useless, because it does the same thing like a sword, it cuts, but mit much more force which is not required with shardblades.

 

crushing weapons like morningstars, fails... are not realy working, because a shardweapon would not be stoped(by a body) to crush anything.

 

 

so its all about cutting things.

 

 

if you cant kill them quickly like humans, you might not want to fight them in battle formations.

lets look at thouse greatshells - you think a phalanx of spears would be helpfull?

 

so you need weapons to swarm youre enemy, and or fight individualy.

 

 

lets look at a shardspear - how would it work?

is only the spearhead a shard? - then the spearhead would price the body,

until the shaft of the spear crashes into the body, as a blunt object.

this sounds very odd. kind of fighting with a blunt stick?

with that it would loose alot of the advantages of a shardblade.

 

 

ok if not only the spearhead is a shard, there is little difference to swords, except the length of the weapon.

with a long weapon, used for slashing(highest damage) enemies, you must be much more carefull not to hit youre allies.

im not sure how much damage you can do with just pricing strikes, but make sure no one touches the shaft?

im not sure how the shaft should work as shard and as grip.

 

 

about plate for horses - with unstopable weapons, its all about precision, quick evading/parrying(can you even parry weapons with shardblades?)

some Radiants have movement abilities, which would be hindered by horses.

 

idk if a horse is of much use fighting monsters. if it would rise with shardarmor it could so alot of harm.

if it runs - guess its like a car crashing into a croud of ppl.

 

so i would say animals with shardplate would require more control then possible.(vs the risk)

[Moist_von_Lipwig]

I think the reason we have only seen shardblades so far is because swords are probably one of the most versatile and efficient weapons when it comes to combat, It's likely that they were simply more popular. as Crysanja mentioned, blunt, crushing weapons like morning-stars and hammers wouldn't seem to gain much noticeable advantage from the properties of a shardweapon, besides being harder to break.

 

As for shardbows, I'm not sure how those would work. Is it just the bow that's a shardweapon? are the arrows shards as well? Although it is important to note that we have seen pseudo-shardbows in tWoK.

 

to answer your question though, there has apparently been WoB saying that shardbweapons can take forms besides swords, though I have not seen the quote myself. There is another thread that has discussed this topic to a degree.

 

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/5173-wild-speculation-kaladin-will-have-a-shardspear/

 

-Postmaster Lipwig

[Darkness]

now that we know shard blades can take other forms, I could definitely see shard arrows becoming a thing, but only with living shards. Of course, the user would have to will the spren to remain an arrow. It would be much more useful than I previously thought because the 10 heartbeat clause would not be in effect. You could just fire as soon as your spren returns from your previous shot.

Would that even work? Have we seen what happens when Kaladin lets go of weapon-Syl? Is it the same as with a normal shard blade?

Of course, this begs the question, why does Kaladin even have to be using Syl in the fight against Szeth? Why couldn't she just turn into a half-blade, half-spren, and fly around on her own to take out Szeth? It would be much easier if she didn't have to protect Kaladin at the same time. So I suppose it must not be possible for Nahel bound spren to remain in physical (weapon/shield/whatever shard) form if they aren't in direct contact with their shard bearer, or otherwise cognitively commanded to remain that way.

That actually makes me wonder why dead shards can remain if commanded to, and only when commanded to. What's going on there?

[Crysanja]

as you said we know much more now.

 

so the weapon can turn in whatever they want, but i allready saw a huge flaw.

 

 

in the fight with Szeth, Kaladin used Sly as a hammer at a time and hit Szeth.

if he had used Sly as a sword, then it would have been over.

 

so there are lot of possebilities, but  not all are advantages.

maybe the hammer would have  been better against shardplate idk, but here it was a mistake to use it.

 

 

about the proposed shard arrows.

 

 

i agree that they can be deadly, but maybe not a quick death.

for example maybe you hit one side of the lung, this wouldnt kill anyone.

ok it would be a huge disadvantage, but not deadly.

 

if you hit the intestins, sure he will die, but in days. same for the stomach.

And most other organs.

deadly would be the spine, heart, head, everywhere else a normal arrow would be more deadly.

there is no bloodloss with shardarrows i guess, so no bleeding out, or suffocation.

 

shard weapons without an edge to cut seem much less usefull.

[Kobold King]

I think the reason is simply that swords are way easier to plant into the ground than a bow, spear, or hammer would be. Remember that the Recreance did not take place on an active battlefield. It seems to have been a very deliberate, pre-meditated action.

[Fifth of Daybreak]

Unless I'm misunderstanding your original question, here is the WoB on the subject.
 

Q:  Why were all the shardblades swords when they can take on any weapon form they want? Would they all revert to swords when they die?

 

 A:  When they die they'd revert to the basic form which was a sword since they were patterned after honorblades

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

as you said we know much more now.

 

so the weapon can turn in whatever they want, but i allready saw a huge flaw.

 

 

in the fight with Szeth, Kaladin used Sly as a hammer at a time and hit Szeth.

if he had used Sly as a sword, then it would have been over.

 

so there are lot of possebilities, but  not all are advantages.

maybe the hammer would have  been better against shardplate idk, but here it was a mistake to use it.

 

 

 

We assume it was a mistake, but then again, Kaladin is running on magically fueled insinct, and this is one of the very few attacks to actually hit, and it was followed up by and immediate strike to the abdomen with a knife. I wouldn't say this is a mistake, it could be that the range was bad for a sword. There's a lot of variable here that we can't account for, and any successful hit in a fight like this isn't a mistake, especially since this will consume a portion of his stormlight to heal, and that works to Kaladin's advantage. We can't assume that he would've hit with a sword in the same way, it might even have been the shoulder that he had already damaged.

 

As far as other weapons, I can't wait to see Kaladin using a shard throwing knife. He already took out a shardbearer with a regular knife, think of the destruction he can cause with an unlimited amount of nigh-unstoppable magical throwing knifes.

 

Edit: I was being mind controlled by Observer, (Is that better  ?)

Edited April 17, 2014 by EMTrevor

[Observer]

I've wondered this for a long time, but we now have Word of Brandon on it all. There were plenty of other kinds of Shard weapons, Shardspears, shields, hammers, etc, but they were all based off of the Honorblades that Honor gave to the Heralds. When the spren died, they reverted to their most basic form, that of a blade.

 

EDIT: As usual, ninja'd before I can get quotes. Nice job EMT.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Observer

[Kasimir]

Darkness, on 17 Apr 2014 - 11:55 AM, said:

now that we know shard blades can take other forms, I could definitely see shard arrows becoming a thing, but only with living shards. Of course, the user would have to will the spren to remain an arrow. It would be much more useful than I previously thought because the 10 heartbeat clause would not be in effect. You could just fire as soon as your spren returns from your previous shot.

Would that even work? Have we seen what happens when Kaladin lets go of weapon-Syl? Is it the same as with a normal shard blade?

Of course, this begs the question, why does Kaladin even have to be using Syl in the fight against Szeth? Why couldn't she just turn into a half-blade, half-spren, and fly around on her own to take out Szeth? It would be much easier if she didn't have to protect Kaladin at the same time. So I suppose it must not be possible for Nahel bound spren to remain in physical (weapon/shield/whatever shard) form if they aren't in direct contact with their shard bearer, or otherwise cognitively commanded to remain that way.

That actually makes me wonder why dead shards can remain if commanded to, and only when commanded to. What's going on there?

My guess is that Syl flying around on her own simply wouldn't be as effective as Kaladin wielding her as a spear. He's the one with insanely good spear skills, and it seems that if Syl was in weapon form, she wouldn't be able to figure where she was going.

Yes, letting go of a sprenblade keeps it in weapon form. We see this with Shallan lending Patternblade to Kaladin to fight the chasmfiend. Even when Kaladin drops Pattern, he remains as the Patternblade, while Shallan is elsewhere using Illumination to trick the chasmfiend.