Number of Alethi Shardblades

[brasidas]

Honestly, I was just wondering how many Shards Alethkar had. I can't seem to find a number anywhere.

[Master Silver]

This is from the wiki. Here is the link https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Shardblade

"Within his visions, Dalinar was shown roughly 300 Shardblades that were abandoned by members of two Radiant Orders. Dalinar estimated, at the time of the War of Reckoning, that there were less than 100 Shardblades in all of the world. Alethkar and Jah Keved own some twenty Shardblades each; the rest are spread amongst the weaker nations, including five Shardblades held by the Thaylen royal guards. Selay, and other kingdoms such as Herdaz, have only a single Shardblade apiece. Kharbranth^[4] and the Unkalaki people^[5] are not known to have any Shardblades."

 

What is interesting is that there maybe 200+ blades and plate buried somewhere. Or the Shin may have them. Meaning they had 9 honor blades + two-thirds of the worlds plates and blades. Minor Spoiler- We know how living spren feel about the dead-eyes as they call them, but the only way that would stop the humans from using such a huge resource would be if they got no new Knights Radiant because of it. 

[Aminar]

1 hour ago, Master Silver said:

This is from the wiki. Here is the link https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Shardblade

"Within his visions, Dalinar was shown roughly 300 Shardblades that were abandoned by members of two Radiant Orders. Dalinar estimated, at the time of the War of Reckoning, that there were less than 100 Shardblades in all of the world. Alethkar and Jah Keved own some twenty Shardblades each; the rest are spread amongst the weaker nations, including five Shardblades held by the Thaylen royal guards. Selay, and other kingdoms such as Herdaz, have only a single Shardblade apiece. Kharbranth^[4] and the Unkalaki people^[5] are not known to have any Shardblades."

 

What is interesting is that there maybe 200+ blades and plate buried somewhere. Or the Shin may have them. Meaning they had 9 honor blades + two-thirds of the worlds plates and blades. Minor Spoiler- We know how living spren feel about the dead-eyes as they call them, but the only way that would stop the humans from using such a huge resource would be if they got no new Knights Radiant because of it. 

Not to mention the number of world hoppers who would horde those or take them other places. 

[Karger]

22 minutes ago, Aminar said:

Not to mention the number of world hoppers who would horde those or take them other places. 

You can't worldhop with a shardblade(at least no one including Hoid knows how).

[Eternal Khol]

47 minutes ago, Karger said:

You can't worldhop with a shardblade(at least no one including Hoid knows how).

Isnt that only with living blades?

 

2 hours ago, brasidas said:

Honestly, I was just wondering how many Shards Alethkar had. I can't seem to find a number anywhere.

in WoK, kaladin tells rocks that Alethkar has “dozens of sets” if shard

Edited May 8, 2020 by Eternal Khol

[Karger]

4 minutes ago, Eternal Khol said:

Isnt that only with living blades?

We have no proof of that.

4 minutes ago, Eternal Khol said:

in WoK, kaladin tells rocks that Alethkar has “dozens of sets” if shards

I do not belive Kaladin specifies a number to Rock in their shardblade discussion.  He just notes that only two kingdoms the alethi and the vadens have any in significant numbers.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Karger

[Eternal Khol]

3 minutes ago, Karger said:

I do not belive Kaladin specifies a number to Rock in their shardblade discussion.  He just notes that only two kingdoms the alethi and the vadens have any in significant numbers.

““And have one set of Shards,” Kaladin said. “Alethkar has dozens.””

Edited May 8, 2020 by Eternal Khol

[Karger]

Just now, Eternal Khol said:

““And have one set of Shards,” Kaladin said. “Alethkar has dozens.”

I see.  Exaggeration.  Kaladin does not really have a good idea about this.

[Eternal Khol]

1 minute ago, Karger said:

I see.  Exaggeration.  Kaladin does not really have a good idea about this.

Thats why i got, Highprince Dalinar Kholins word on it

 

”The scout outside backed his horse up. There looked to be a good two hundred Shardbearers out there. Alethkar owned some twenty Blades, Jah Keved a similar number. If one added up all the rest in the world, there might be enough total to equal the two powerful Vorin kingdoms. That meant, so far as he knew, there were less than a hundred Blades in all of the world. And here he saw two hundred Shardbearers gathered in one army. It was mind-numbing.

[Aminar]

47 minutes ago, Karger said:

You can't worldhop with a shardblade(at least no one including Hoid knows how).

I'm not sure I buy that given we've seen what happens when a Shard bearer heads into the Cognitive realm. Seems like it would just be getting the spren to follow you on your trip to another planet's cognitive realm. And if I were worldhopping to Roshar I'd be stockpiling the things just to make sure nobody comes after me with one, even if that just meant hiding them away somewhere and letting them get covered in Crem, never to be found again. 

[NameIess]

1 minute ago, Aminar said:

I'm not sure I buy that given we've seen what happens when a Shard bearer heads into the Cognitive realm. Seems like it would just be getting the spren to follow you on your trip to another planet's cognitive realm. And if I were worldhopping to Roshar I'd be stockpiling the things just to make sure nobody comes after me with one, even if that just meant hiding them away somewhere and letting them get covered in Crem, never to be found again. 

The spren are connected to Roshar. They cannot leave unless you figure out the trick to it.

[Eternal Khol]

6 minutes ago, Aminar said:

I'm not sure I buy that given we've seen what happens when a Shard bearer heads into the Cognitive realm. Seems like it would just be getting the spren to follow you on your trip to another planet's cognitive realm. And if I were worldhopping to Roshar I'd be stockpiling the things just to make sure nobody comes after me with one, even if that just meant hiding them away somewhere and letting them get covered in Crem, never to be found again. 

Well anything is possible.

there are spren on Scadrial

the real question is, would your average person be able to figure it out?

 

Relevant WoB:

 

OrangeJedi (paraphrased)

Are there a significant number of Shardblades that have made it off Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Define significant.

OrangeJedi (paraphrased)

More than 1 / A number of them are that could come up later.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There is a connection between spren and Roshar that normally prevents spren, even dead ones, from leaving the planet. Note I said normally; do not imagine a large trade of Shardblades going off world.

Miscellaneous 2018 (Oct. 25, 2018)

Edited May 8, 2020 by Eternal Khol

[brasidas]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:27 PM, Master Silver said:

This is from the wiki. Here is the link https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Shardblade

"Within his visions, Dalinar was shown roughly 300 Shardblades that were abandoned by members of two Radiant Orders. Dalinar estimated, at the time of the War of Reckoning, that there were less than 100 Shardblades in all of the world. Alethkar and Jah Keved own some twenty Shardblades each; the rest are spread amongst the weaker nations, including five Shardblades held by the Thaylen royal guards. Selay, and other kingdoms such as Herdaz, have only a single Shardblade apiece. Kharbranth^[4] and the Unkalaki people^[5] are not known to have any Shardblades."

 

What is interesting is that there maybe 200+ blades and plate buried somewhere. Or the Shin may have them. Meaning they had 9 honor blades + two-thirds of the worlds plates and blades. Minor Spoiler- We know how living spren feel about the dead-eyes as they call them, but the only way that would stop the humans from using such a huge resource would be if they got no new Knights Radiant because of it. 

Something that I find interesting is that the Shardblades Dalinar was shown were only from two orders- out of nine who left. If the numbers are even anywhere close, there could be another 500+ sets of shards out there somewhere.

[SirNoSell]

On 5/20/2020 at 8:08 PM, brasidas said:

If the numbers are even anywhere close, there could be another 500+ sets of shards out there somewhere.

Not necessarily, plate can be completely destroyed for good. It's possible they could have been recovered and then subsequentially annihilated. Not sure about shardblades though, they might be fine.

[Could Be Fire]

On 5/8/2020 at 1:27 PM, Master Silver said:

This is from the wiki. Here is the link https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Shardblade

"Within his visions, Dalinar was shown roughly 300 Shardblades that were abandoned by members of two Radiant Orders. Dalinar estimated, at the time of the War of Reckoning, that there were less than 100 Shardblades in all of the world. Alethkar and Jah Keved own some twenty Shardblades each; the rest are spread amongst the weaker nations, including five Shardblades held by the Thaylen royal guards. Selay, and other kingdoms such as Herdaz, have only a single Shardblade apiece. Kharbranth^[4] and the Unkalaki people^[5] are not known to have any Shardblades."

 

What is interesting is that there maybe 200+ blades and plate buried somewhere. Or the Shin may have them. Meaning they had 9 honor blades + two-thirds of the worlds plates and blades. Minor Spoiler- We know how living spren feel about the dead-eyes as they call them, but the only way that would stop the humans from using such a huge resource would be if they got no new Knights Radiant because of it. 

As far as the Shin theory, this could also tie into why Shinovar has less spren. If they have a stockpile with hundreds of deadeyes it could certainly be creepy enough to scare off normal spren. 

Occum's razor says the Shin have them. They've got be somewhere on Roshar by the WoB and every other nation could not keep it on the DL. I can see a dozen or so being hidden in private hands (assassins like Liss etc.) but hundreds unaccounted for indicates a conspiracy. The super-secretive (no one even knows who their leaders are) extremely isolated nation who have hidden the other set of missing magical swords are the most likely option.

There's some on good theories on the forum about Shubreth and what the Shin have been doing since Recreance that support that. Also if you're a Shin leader is hiding hundreds of WMD swords than it would make sense to instill a major cultural taboo about weapon-wielding to prevent people from overthrowing you. 

My other two guesses are stockpiled in Anima to keep them away from humans (adding to why Anima is so locked down) or something totally wild we have no way of guessing 3 books into the series. Like there's a populated landmass on the Origin or the living Spren have hidden them under the ocean.

[Frustration]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:57 PM, Karger said:

You can't worldhop with a shardblade(at least no one including Hoid knows how).

Hoid does know, he gets to Scandrial on time for Era 2.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Frustration

[Could Be Fire]

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

Hoid does know, he gets to Scandrial on time for Era 2.

Do we know he brings the Cryptic with him? As opposed to just leaving them in Shadesmar and traveling without them.

I mean if anyone figures out a way to do it would be Hoid but technically I don't think it's confirmed. 

[Frustration]

3 minutes ago, Could Be Fire said:

Do we know he brings the Cryptic with him? As opposed to just leaving them in Shadesmar and traveling without them.

I mean if anyone figures out a way to do it would be Hoid but technically I don't think it's confirmed. 

Leaving the Spren would probably be a bad idea, who says the Spren can handle that? And Hoid is not wasting a good Spren.

[Aminar]

1 hour ago, Could Be Fire said:

As far as the Shin theory, this could also tie into why Shinovar has less spren. If they have a stockpile with hundreds of deadeyes it could certainly be creepy enough to scare off normal spren. 

Occum's razor says the Shin have them. They've got be somewhere on Roshar by the WoB and every other nation could not keep it on the DL. I can see a dozen or so being hidden in private hands (assassins like Liss etc.) but hundreds unaccounted for indicates a conspiracy. The super-secretive (no one even knows who their leaders are) extremely isolated nation who have hidden the other set of missing magical swords are the most likely option.

There's some on good theories on the forum about Shubreth and what the Shin have been doing since Recreance that support that. Also if you're a Shin leader is hiding hundreds of WMD swords than it would make sense to instill a major cultural taboo about weapon-wielding to prevent people from overthrowing you. 

My other two guesses are stockpiled in Anima to keep them away from humans (adding to why Anima is so locked down) or something totally wild we have no way of guessing 3 books into the series. Like there's a populated landmass on the Origin or the living Spren have hidden them under the ocean.

Occam's razor says that there's these giant High Storms that circle the planet coating everything in mud and that early on before they were cherished relics many many shardblade were lost to the Crem. Think about how coated in Crem the Shattered Plains are. There's probably hundreds of blades buried around the planet, many in places where floodwaters accumulates. Much easier to lose things than have them all stolen. 

Rule of Cool on the other hand, has them in a giant Stockpile where they will be used in a giant final battle Ala the Kandra and Atium. But well... Been there, done that. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Aminar

[Karger]

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

Leaving the Spren would probably be a bad idea, who says the Spren can handle that? And Hoid is not wasting a good Spren.

the reason Hoid is involved with team radiant is because he wants to learn how.  He does not know how yet.  He might come up with a stop gap measure.