Shardblades

A Shardblade is a powerful magical weapon. A Blade can also be used to cut spheres. People who possess a Shardblade are called Shardbearers; they are each soul-bound to their Blades until death, or until each Blade is willingly relinquished. A Shardbearer is able to summon their blade by concentrating on it and waiting for the count of ten heartbeats, the blade then forms from mist in their hand.

Shardblades were devised as imitations of the The Honourblades, which were created by Honour for the The Heralds to imbue them with Surgebinding skills. The Spren on Roshar saw what Honour had done and eventually came up with a way to grant those same Surgebinding powers to people by forming a Nahel bond with them. These people bound to the Spren came to be known as Knights Radiant. At some point in the development of the bond, the spren itself becomes the Shardblade when needed. When the Radiants betrayed their Oaths, the Spren died and became the Blades used on Roshar today.

Shardblades are generally associated with Shardplate; a suit of armor that completes the set.

Item type

Weapon, Melee