Bromo_Sapien Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 What metal are Shardblades (and Honorblades, for that matter) made of? If they were made out of an allomantic metal, what would happen if someone shaved off a slice and burned it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 DeTess she/her Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 (edited) Bromo-Sapien, have you read the entirety of Words of Radiance? If you haven't, I'd quit this thread until you have, as the answer to your question involves some major spoilers. Spoiler So, since shard-blades are actually the physical manifestation of Spren, I wouldn't say the blades are made from metal in an allomantic sense. It might appear like metal, but it is actually part of a semi-living being, so I very much doubt it can be burned. Edited October 7, 2016 by randuir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 The Sovereign Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 Idea-ium? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Spoolofwhool Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 Sprenblades are made from solidified investiture of spren, whatever that is, we don't really know for sure, but most spren are a mix of Honor and Cultivation's investiture so the metal is probably of both of their investiture. Honorblades are probably made from the solidified investiture of Honor directly. As such, they're both more than likely unique metals and would be allomantically inert. Also, in any case, even if they are an allomantic metal, they're extremely invested so it would be hard to burn them, to the point of allomantic inertness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Bromo_Sapien Posted October 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 49 minutes ago, randuir said: Bromo-Sapien, have you read the entirety of Words of Radiance? If you haven't, I'd quit this thread until you have, as the answer to your question involves some major spoilers. Reveal hidden contents So, since shard-blades are actually the physical manifestation of Spren, I wouldn't say the blades are made from metal in an allomantic sense. It might appear like metal, but it is actually part of a semi-living being, so I very much doubt it can be burned. I'm fully caught up on all Cosmere works. I always though of the whole "Shardblades are dead spren" thing more as "the soul/magic of the Shardblade (i.e. can cut through anything except another Shardmaterial and can be summoned at will) comes from the 'magic' of dead spren" rather than "the physical form of the blade is the same material as a dead spren". Then again, I probably conceptualize spren as more incorporeal than they probably are. I think of them more as little sentient balls of energy than physical beings, almost like Navi from Legend of Zelda. I realize that is probably not accurate, but eh. 25 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said: Sprenblades are made from solidified investiture of spren, whatever that is, we don't really know for sure, but most spren are a mix of Honor and Cultivation's investiture so the metal is probably of both of their investiture. Honorblades are probably made from the solidified investiture of Honor directly. As such, they're both more than likely unique metals and would be allomantically inert. Also, in any case, even if they are an allomantic metal, they're extremely invested so it would be hard to burn them, to the point of allomantic inertness. Have we gotten a WoB that you can't burn heavily invested metals? If so, how are atium and lerasium not considered "extremely invested" when they are literally the power of two Shards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Dunkum he/him Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 1 hour ago, Bromo_Sapien said: Have we gotten a WoB that you can't burn heavily invested metals? If so, how are atium and lerasium not considered "extremely invested" when they are literally the power of two Shards? Atium and Lerasium could be exceptions because those shards are associated with scadrial, so their metals are built into the magic systems. not sure I entirely believe that, because we have the case of Trellium from Bands of Mourning being used hemalurgically, but it is a possibility. As far as I know we have no knowledge of whether or not you could burn a shardblade. we do have a WoB which suggests that you could theoretically move them with allomantic steel or iron, if you could put enough power into it, so they are probably metal enough for that purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Spoolofwhool Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 2 hours ago, Bromo_Sapien said: Have we gotten a WoB that you can't burn heavily invested metals? If so, how are atium and lerasium not considered "extremely invested" when they are literally the power of two Shards? It's not that you can't burn them per se, it's more along the general rules of investiture interfering with investiture, with burning metals following that. I can't find a WoB which explicitly says so, but I have some which implicitly say so. The second one is the main reasoning. Spoiler Quote QUESTION If an Allomancer ate a Forged metal, what happens? BRANDON SANDERSON There is going to be some Investiture in that Forged metal, but it's not going to be keyed the right way, so it'd be like eating a metalmind... If you're asking if the metal was Forged into a different type of metal, the Forgery will take and it will believe and... that's going to get really weird. I have not considered that. That's a “let me think about it.” [Pause] My instincts say that it's going to work like the metal it's become long enough to burn for a few minutes, and then that's going to break the Forgery, and it's going to snap out of it and become the other metal. That’s my instinct, but I’ll have to think about it further. (on second thoughts) It's going to be really hard to burn a metal that's Invested like that. The magics don't mix real well. KURKISTAN Eh, you can burn metalminds. BRANDON SANDERSON Yeah, you can, but it’s from the same “magic set”, right? So... [Source] Quote KAYMYTH OK, so in the signing line, I asked the question about chromium vs a Compounder with both invested and uninvested metals in both their stomach and piercings. BRANDON SANDERSON 1) Yes, the piercings will get burned off. (I bet that seeing that happen would look downright weird.) 2) The noninvested metals go before the invested ones. He said that because invested metals are harder to effect, it takes a little extra time and effort to get them to burn off. So a Leecher trying to clean out a Compounder would have to get a good grip and hang on for a few seconds. 3) Chromium burns about as quickly as duralumin, so if you're trying to burn off a lot of metals, it is possible to run out of chromium before your target is clean. This would probably only be an issue when dealing with larger pieces (like jewelry) rather than your standard metal-flakes-in-the-stomach deal. FOOTNOTE Sorry I don't have exact quotes, but there was a line and no easy way to take notes. But what it boils down to is this [Source] The thing is that atium and lerasium by themselves are not considered invested, by the general use of the term. Saying an object is invested means that it is containing kinetic investiture within it, or moving through it, such as a feruchemical charge, breath, stormlight, Dor things, etc. What atium and lerasium are is condensed investiture. Investiture in physical form, like everything else physical. They don't actually have kinetic investiture in them, so they are considered invested. As such, they can be burned with regular effort. Lerasium or atium metalminds on the other hand will require some effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 soyperson Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 12 hours ago, Bromo_Sapien said: What metal are Shardblades (and Honorblades, for that matter) made of? If they were made out of an allomantic metal, what would happen if someone shaved off a slice and burned it? Shardblades are probably at least partially invested, and thus impossible to burn. At least, so I would assume. Excellent question, though. Upvote for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Spoolofwhool Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 14 minutes ago, bleeder said: Shardblades are probably at least partially invested, and thus impossible to burn. At least, so I would assume. Being somewhat invested wouldn't stop an object from being burn. After all, metalminds are invested but they can be burned. It's just that shardblades are so invested that they would be nigh-impossible to burn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Dunkum he/him Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 1 minute ago, Spoolofwhool said: Being somewhat invested wouldn't stop an object from being burn. After all, metalminds are invested but they can be burned. It's just that shardblades are so invested that they would be nigh-impossible to burn. the WoB quoted above seems to suggest that mixing magic types makes it harder too, but I am curious if you could burn a shardblade that was keyed to yourself (presumably a living spren that is bonded with you, I guess?) if that might not have an effect like burning your own metalmind, in some way. so for example if that worked, a windrunner burning their own spren (in shardblade form) might get a burst of allomantic investiture keyed to the force of gravity somehow, i.e. might be able to use the gravity surge allomantically... this is all pure conjecture at this point, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Yata he/him Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 This WoB explicy some of your doubt (just replace Odium with Trell and Raysium with Trellium): Quote SHADOWSABER223 () If Odium were lured to Scadrial, would his physical body turn into a burnable metal? If so, could Harmony create an Odium-metal legion of Mistings to consume and burn it? Would that weaken him sufficiently enough to be killed or destroyed? BRANDON SANDERSON The difficulty here is, again, one of Identity. People born on Scadrial have an Identity tied to it and its magic. Odium would have to do certain things to make them able to use a magic he fuels. He has done these things on Roshar, so it's not impossible for him to manage it on Scadrial. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Darkness Ascendant he/him Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 53 minutes ago, Yata said: This WoB explicy some of your doubt (just replace Odium with Trell and Raysium with Trellium): Aye, it would just take a couple of thousand years of hard investment on Odium/Trell's part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Yata he/him Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 1 hour ago, Darkness Ascendant said: Aye, it would just take a couple of thousand years of hard investment on Odium/Trell's part. well Odium made whatever He did quite fast as we know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Weltall Posted November 4, 2016 Report Share Posted November 4, 2016 On 10/7/2016 at 7:54 PM, Darkness Ascendant said: Hemalurgy is special. It was an ancient Yolen magic I think, and Ati modelled Hemalurgy on the old form. Do we have WoB on this one? Because everything Brandon has said so far tells us that Shards don't consciously create their magic systems, but that they're the result of interactions between a given Shard, the world they invest their power in, 'Realmantic interactions' and sometimes genetics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 soyperson Posted November 4, 2016 Report Share Posted November 4, 2016 1 hour ago, Weltall said: Do we have WoB on this one? Because everything Brandon has said so far tells us that Shards don't consciously create their magic systems, but that they're the result of interactions between a given Shard, the world they invest their power in, 'Realmantic interactions' and sometimes gene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-1 Darkness Ascendant he/him Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 5 hours ago, Dunkum said: Atium and Lerasium could be exceptions because those shards are associated with scadrial, so their metals are built into the magic systems. not sure I entirely believe that, because we have the case of Trellium from Bands of Mourning being used hemalurgically, but it is a possibility. As far as I know we have no knowledge of whether or not you could burn a shardblade. we do have a WoB which suggests that you could theoretically move them with allomantic steel or iron, if you could put enough power into it, so they are probably metal enough for that purpose. Hemalurgy is special. It was an ancient Yolen magic I think, and Ati modelled Hemalurgy on the old form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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What metal are Shardblades (and Honorblades, for that matter) made of? If they were made out of an allomantic metal, what would happen if someone shaved off a slice and burned it?
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