Shardweapons/spren metal

[Ink]

From WoR and OB, we know that spren appear in the physical world as a form of metal, usually weapons, but can be other things. I.E. Lift’s Wyndlefork. I was wondering, could they become more flexible weapons, whips, maces, bowstring (If that’s what shardbows are, and not the bow itself) a side thing too. Could they be Allomantically burned? Used as Hemalurgic spikes? What are things that spren metal could do?

[RShara]

I think that if it can be made from metal, a spren can turn into it. A whip might need too much flexibility, but a mace should work. I'm not sure about a bowstring, though that doesn't seem very useful.

The metal is technically a god metal, so I don't think an Allomancer could burn it unless their spiritweb was Connected and coded in the right way. Hemalurgic spikes would be really really hard, because investiture resists investiture, and the metal is already heavily invested with a different type of power than Hemalurgy.

 

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Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I also got confirmed that the metal that spren turn into is god metal.

Footnote: Unspecified question by yulerule.
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word_thief

What would happen if a Mistborn ingested the metal of a Shardblade/plate?

Brandon Sanderson

A shardblade is invested. A Mistborn isn't likely to have a tie to that type of Investiture. So probably nothing would happen…

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[King Cole]

A bow string wouldn't work, mostly because it wouldn't flex enough

[Weltall]

Wyndle mentions spren that became bows in Edgedancer and his recollection is that they became the bow and the Radiant had to carry string and arrows separately. We also have evidence that they can indeed take the form of hammers (and if they can do that, a mace shouldn't be a problem either) so they should be able to take the form of just about any weapon the Radiant can envision, within certain size limitations and the understanding that the weapon can't contain multiple parts. Brandon has said that a spren could transform into two weapons, or a weapon with two conected pieces, but this would require splitting the soul of the spren and they wouldn't like that at all.

As RShara mentioned, Shardblades are heavily Invested to the point that the can be thought of as 'full' and you can't stuff any more Investiture into them, so using them as hemalurgic spikes is a non-starter. Not to mention that since they cut the soul, you'd have issues actually ripping off the bit of soul you're trying to spike intact rather than damaging it. And the metal of a Shardblade can't be burned by an allomancer normally, the same as any non-Scadrian godmetal. To make them viable, the allomancer would have to either create the necessary Connection to the foreign Shard or the Shard itself would have to do something to make it work.

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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.

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[ScavellTane]

Metal fibre cables  for bowstring with shardplate strength to draw?

[Bigmikey357]

I doubt that anyone has asked this, but can the spren coat an existing weapon that they normally would be unable to form? A whip for example. I envision a plain leather whip, the spren spreads over it like quicksilver, the weapon maintains its flexibility while also making it impossible to cut.