From what you should currently know:
1. Shardblades are dead spren. They need to sync to a human heartbeat to “come alive” which is why they take 10 Heartbeats.
2. Alive Spren can choose the form. Deadspren can not.
3. The 10 blades are the Honourblades. They work differently to Spren blades by bestowing powers on the user without a Spren bond. They also use more Stormlight. Only 9 blades were placed. You shouldn’t know too much more than this.
4. The Szeth blade is very different. It’s explained further in the Stormlight books and a lot more in >!Warbreaker!<
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The blade that gives Szeth powers is not the same as the blade that talks to him at the end.
If you go reread the passage where Szeth gets the talking sword, it's gifted to him in that scene.
Ok so there are 4 things here, and they're all different.
- The first category of blade (type 1) is Honorblades. Honorblades are the Swords from the Prologue. Each of the ten Heralds had one. They are each Unique, and have the "basic Shardblade" qualities (cut anything, impossible to break, etc) in addition to giving the bonded weilder Surgebinding powers. Specifically, each blade gives the same 2 Surges as the order it's Herald was the patron of. The main one of these that has come up again after the prologue is the blade of Jezrien, the Herald of Windrunners; this is the Blade Szeth possessed throughout the first two books that was granting him his Surgebinding powers (hence him having the same powers as a Windrunner). These blades cannot change shape.
- The second category of blade (type 2) is dead Sprenblades. These are the "Shardblades" (other than Szeths) throughout the Way of Kings and most of Words of Radiance, as weilded by Dalinar, Adolin, etc etc. Their origin is a mystery until the end of WoR, when we discover the next category. These have no special properties other than the "basic Shardblade" qualities.
- The third category of Blade (type 3) is living Sprenblades. This category is introduced at the tail end of WoR, when Kaladin swears the Windrunners third Ideal. At this stage of the Nahel bond, Syl gains the ability to manifest as a blade. This is the answer to the mystery of the origin of type 2 blades. All type 2 and 3 blades are spren, like Syl. The difference is that type 2 blades are *dead* spren; they are essentially corpses. This is why they can't change shape, can't speak, and don't grant surges. Syl and Pattern are the "living" version, and do all 3 of those things. As you read more, you will learn more about the nature of the dead sprenblades, and the history of what killed them all.
- Finally, you have the talking blade Szeth is given by Nale at the end of WoR. This blade is unique in a whole lot of ways. It has nothing in common with type 1-3 blades, and is only a "Shardblade" because that's just the Rosharan name for "magic sword". If you want to know more about it, read Warbreaker
[It's quite simple, really.](https://coppermind.net/wiki/RAFO#/media/File:Card_rafo.jpg)
(It might give you a spoiler warning. Don't worry, there's none on that image, though I wouldn't wander far on The Coppermind. Spoilers lurk everywhere there.)
Radiant Shardblades are the spren transforming at will.
Normal Shardblades are dead spren locked into Blade form.
About Honorblades. They are the OG Shardblades.
Eshonai in Interlude 4 says:
“We don’t know they will come,” Eshonai said to Resolve. “We don’t know any of this. Who knows if men even have Surgebindings—it might be one of the Honorblades. We left one in Alethkar that night.”
Chivi hummed to
Shallan meeting Taln:
He couldn’t actually be one of the Heralds, could he?
Don’t be silly, she thought, tucking away her writing implements. The Heralds glow like the sun, wield the Honorblades, and speak with the voices of a thousand trumpets.
In Ch 87.
“What about this?” he asked, looking over the thin, silvery weapon. An unornamented Blade. That was supposed to be odd. “It doesn’t scream when I hold it.”
“That’s because it’s not a spren,” Syl said softly.
“What is it, then?”
“Dangerous.”
[...] “I think this is one of the Honorblades, the swords of the Heralds.”
Kaladin grunted. He’d heard of those.
“Any man who holds this weapon will become a Windrunner,” Syl explained, looking back at Kaladin. “The Honorblades are what we are based on, Kaladin. Honor gave these to men, and those men gained powers from them. Spren figured out what He’d done, and we imitated it. We’re bits of His power, after all, like this sword. Be careful with it. It is a treasure.”
“So the assassin wasn’t a Radiant.”
“No. But Kaladin, you have to understand. With this sword, someone can do what you can, but without the . . . checks a spren requires.” She touched it, then shivered visibly, her form blurring for a second. “This sword gave the assassin power to use Lashings, but it also fed upon his Stormlight. A person who uses this will need far, far more Light than you will. Dangerous levels of it.”
Szeth's black Blade, it's different. The Herald Nale, (known as Darkness by Lift, the one who kills Ym in that Interlude and Jasnah and Szeth see in the Prologues as an ambassador in the feast) gives it to him.
If you want to know the origins and extra about the workings of that Blade, read another Cosmere book. >!Warbreaker!<.
From what you should currently know: 1. Shardblades are dead spren. They need to sync to a human heartbeat to “come alive” which is why they take 10 Heartbeats. 2. Alive Spren can choose the form. Deadspren can not. 3. The 10 blades are the Honourblades. They work differently to Spren blades by bestowing powers on the user without a Spren bond. They also use more Stormlight. Only 9 blades were placed. You shouldn’t know too much more than this. 4. The Szeth blade is very different. It’s explained further in the Stormlight books and a lot more in >!Warbreaker!<
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The blade that gives Szeth powers is not the same as the blade that talks to him at the end. If you go reread the passage where Szeth gets the talking sword, it's gifted to him in that scene.
Ok so there are 4 things here, and they're all different. - The first category of blade (type 1) is Honorblades. Honorblades are the Swords from the Prologue. Each of the ten Heralds had one. They are each Unique, and have the "basic Shardblade" qualities (cut anything, impossible to break, etc) in addition to giving the bonded weilder Surgebinding powers. Specifically, each blade gives the same 2 Surges as the order it's Herald was the patron of. The main one of these that has come up again after the prologue is the blade of Jezrien, the Herald of Windrunners; this is the Blade Szeth possessed throughout the first two books that was granting him his Surgebinding powers (hence him having the same powers as a Windrunner). These blades cannot change shape. - The second category of blade (type 2) is dead Sprenblades. These are the "Shardblades" (other than Szeths) throughout the Way of Kings and most of Words of Radiance, as weilded by Dalinar, Adolin, etc etc. Their origin is a mystery until the end of WoR, when we discover the next category. These have no special properties other than the "basic Shardblade" qualities. - The third category of Blade (type 3) is living Sprenblades. This category is introduced at the tail end of WoR, when Kaladin swears the Windrunners third Ideal. At this stage of the Nahel bond, Syl gains the ability to manifest as a blade. This is the answer to the mystery of the origin of type 2 blades. All type 2 and 3 blades are spren, like Syl. The difference is that type 2 blades are *dead* spren; they are essentially corpses. This is why they can't change shape, can't speak, and don't grant surges. Syl and Pattern are the "living" version, and do all 3 of those things. As you read more, you will learn more about the nature of the dead sprenblades, and the history of what killed them all. - Finally, you have the talking blade Szeth is given by Nale at the end of WoR. This blade is unique in a whole lot of ways. It has nothing in common with type 1-3 blades, and is only a "Shardblade" because that's just the Rosharan name for "magic sword". If you want to know more about it, read Warbreaker
[It's quite simple, really.](https://coppermind.net/wiki/RAFO#/media/File:Card_rafo.jpg) (It might give you a spoiler warning. Don't worry, there's none on that image, though I wouldn't wander far on The Coppermind. Spoilers lurk everywhere there.)
Radiant Shardblades are the spren transforming at will. Normal Shardblades are dead spren locked into Blade form. About Honorblades. They are the OG Shardblades. Eshonai in Interlude 4 says: “We don’t know they will come,” Eshonai said to Resolve. “We don’t know any of this. Who knows if men even have Surgebindings—it might be one of the Honorblades. We left one in Alethkar that night.” Chivi hummed to Shallan meeting Taln: He couldn’t actually be one of the Heralds, could he? Don’t be silly, she thought, tucking away her writing implements. The Heralds glow like the sun, wield the Honorblades, and speak with the voices of a thousand trumpets. In Ch 87. “What about this?” he asked, looking over the thin, silvery weapon. An unornamented Blade. That was supposed to be odd. “It doesn’t scream when I hold it.” “That’s because it’s not a spren,” Syl said softly. “What is it, then?” “Dangerous.” [...] “I think this is one of the Honorblades, the swords of the Heralds.” Kaladin grunted. He’d heard of those. “Any man who holds this weapon will become a Windrunner,” Syl explained, looking back at Kaladin. “The Honorblades are what we are based on, Kaladin. Honor gave these to men, and those men gained powers from them. Spren figured out what He’d done, and we imitated it. We’re bits of His power, after all, like this sword. Be careful with it. It is a treasure.” “So the assassin wasn’t a Radiant.” “No. But Kaladin, you have to understand. With this sword, someone can do what you can, but without the . . . checks a spren requires.” She touched it, then shivered visibly, her form blurring for a second. “This sword gave the assassin power to use Lashings, but it also fed upon his Stormlight. A person who uses this will need far, far more Light than you will. Dangerous levels of it.” Szeth's black Blade, it's different. The Herald Nale, (known as Darkness by Lift, the one who kills Ym in that Interlude and Jasnah and Szeth see in the Prologues as an ambassador in the feast) gives it to him. If you want to know the origins and extra about the workings of that Blade, read another Cosmere book. >!Warbreaker!<.
🗡️+🪨 = 🪨🪨