Where are all the Shardblades?

If you’ve read The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, then you know all about Shardblades. They’re massive, six foot long super swords that can cut through nearly anything. They’re also incredibly rare… or are they…? You see, there’s evidence that there should be thousands of Shardblades on Roshar, but the vast majority seem to have gone missing. In this video we’ll explore some theories about where they are now.
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Artist Attribution:
Isaac Stewart - Cosmere Constellation, Dawnshard and Edgedancer covers
Michael Whelan - TWoK, WoR, OB, and RoW covers, Lasting Integrity
Ben McSweeney - Edgedancer cover, Honorspren Sketch
roshar.17thshard.com - various maps
Victoria Eng - Most of the Shardblade art
sfaira - Person in Shardplate
dnavenom - Stonewards and Windrunners
scrapchap - Shardbearer on Ryshadium
Ziraelart - Dalinar
Caio Santos - The Recreance
FateUBW Anime - Abandoned Swords
evanteuteberg - Maya deadeye before and after
Steve Argyle - Knights Radiant Orders
Eccos - Blended Inkspren
Anders Johansson - Deadeye Maya
carlos_pozo02 - Deadeye Radiant Spren
karrahe - Adolin
Magali Villeneuve - Pailiah, Kalak
Karla Ortiz - Nale, Chanarach
Dan dos Santos - Ishar
Esther Schrader - Nale
Ralf Melevo - Axies
Shuravf - Axies, Sleepless
LaMaery - Sleepless
LLSN_ART - Nikli the Sleepless
Grace Oris - Aharietiam
Antti Hakosaari - Abandoned Honorblades
Marianne Eie - Szeth, Shardblades
Adam J. Marin - Shinovar
conjchamberlain - Rysn and Vstim
jessichenliu - Rysn and Vstim
ariirf - Shardbearer summoning Blade
Dragontrill - Vstim
If I missed any artists, please reach out and let me know.
Stock Images and stock footage from Mixkit, vecteezy, pixabay, unsplash and pngwing
Sources Used:
The Stormlight Archive books 1-4 + novellas
coppermind.net
Music Used:
Relaxing Green Nature (slowed version) by David Fesliyan
Elven Forest by David Renda (Fesliyan Studios)

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

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[@triplebog]

I feel like there is a mystery that I either came up with or read somewhere and then forgot that involvs the "origin" of highstorms on roshar. I don't remember all of my evidence. But something about linking the natannattan's legends of radiants/shardbearers coming from across the sea, with that one myth of the king who goes to the origin and discovers a whole civilization. I'll have to see if i can find my notes somewhere and post again with the more detailed theory.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That sounds interesting!

[@grega7614]

What buff do you get when you swear the 5th ideal? The 3rd gets you a blade, the 4th gets you plate. The way Brandon usually does this kind of stuff, it seems like the 5th ideal would be the biggest step-change in your power level, but I don't even know what kind of buff that would be available, would be as visually impressive as the 3rd or 4th ideal, and would be fitting w/ the theme of the rest of the books.

[@parkermm]

⁠@@triplebogWith Adonalsium being involved in some way with the creation of Roshar, I almost wonder if the origin is a perpendicularity that predated the shattering

[@511tossthedice]

I never picked up that the guards weren't carrying weapons... really puts more weight into the Shinovar theory.

[@tonykuriger573]

They could be, as Kaladin put it, "punchy guys."

[@peridotscoutelijahmoore9182]

One thing I've always wondered is how many, if any, shardblades/soulcasters have been taken off planet

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That's a great question!

[@justfriendly7676]

That would be an interesting theory. The only issue is that we know stormlight cannot go offworld due to its investiture signature being tied to Roshar. With Spren being invested beings, it could be that this is the same case for them as well, which means their corpses probably could not leave either. Though we don't know for sure. However (spoilers for Sunlit Man below), Auxillary is a spren who went with Sigizil offworld. However, this did happen after some event on Roshar that altered them both. Still, the scadrian who he speaks to later on asks of Sigizil is oathbound, or has spoken oaths (I forget the precise wording). He denies this and claims he is free. This has a number of implications, but in regards to this, it could be possible for spren and shards to leave the planet OR some event is going to happen soon that allows for invested beings to leave their home system.

[@borealwood]

The important thing to note here is that the only reliable way to worldhop as of this point in the timeline is via the Cognitive Realm, meaning that any shardblades would have to be led off in spren form. The shardbearer likely would have had to been one of the ones leaving Roshar.

[@rigatoni311]

That’s a good question! But I think it’s safe to say that in this point in the timeline, the answer would most likely be 0 considering they are formed of investiture tied to Roshar, and some of the most Cosmere-aware and oldest beings in the Cosmere (the heralds, fused, Kelsier) have failed to figure this out. But Vasher, Vivenna, and Nightblood are a big exception to this! So who knows, maybe Vasher used to do some blade-dealing

[@jonathanbauer2988]

@@justfriendly7676 We know their corpses can go off world because of sunlit man right? The armor coming with

[@willowytale]

love love love the concept of a herald being a loot pinata. you stab them with antistormlight and 400 gigantic swords spill out

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Lol "Loot pinata" is a great term for it 😂

[@chrisjoyal7176]

@@ExploringTheCosmere like in Ready Player One, when the one player gets killed and all his collected loot just pours out into a huge growing mass. could you imagine like a thousand shardblades pouring out of a guy and cutting/killing people as the pile grew? yikers

[@PagemanX]

Lasting Integrity is located where Tukar is on physical plane, those deadeyes Adolin sees are all Ishar shardbeares, Ishar the immortal god-king has been gathering and experimenting with spren since the recreance.

[@Bzhydack]

And Ishar and Shin are cooperating to some point. Maybe both theories are connected?

[@Ghost-Toast819]

I am only a part of a few comunities but all of them have one thing in common. the community likes the stuff so much that the creators of the content can barely keep ahead of the community as they discover secrets long before intended

[@StormRinger47]

If the shin have thousands of shardblades, there'd be no better time for Sando to tell us that then in Szeth's book. Wow. I love this damn series.

[@switchprocontrollersplatoo7240]

I never realized that if a deadeye exists, then it’s bonded. But it makes sense!!

[@rigatoni311]

The only potential issue with this theory is Shallan’s old Spren, Testament. Shallan used her as a blade and then immediately dismissed her and broke the bond after killer her mother, and yet Testament still appears in Shadesmar in book 4 and seems to have been under the care of her old living spren friend, implying that she’s not being dragged around by a bond. Either Testament is a special case or we just don’t know enough about deadeyes

[@switchprocontrollersplatoo7240]

@@rigatoni311 shallan still holds the testament blade

[@rigatoni311]

@@switchprocontrollersplatoo7240 That may be right, and it does seem like Shallan’s may be a specific case. But isn’t breaking your oath what breaks the spren bond and creates a deadeyes in the first place? How could Shallan break her oath and bond but still potentially summon deadeye-Testament? Unless are you thinking dead blades keep their old bonds until either the human dies or someone comes along and straps a gemstone to it and overwrites the bond? (Just thinking out loud here! Not saying you’re wrong)

[@switchprocontrollersplatoo7240]

@@rigatoni311 that is a good question. She just uses testament as a normal deadeye blade, but it’s never described if it has a gem or more. But I think the situation is similar to what nomad’s situation is with aux, even though the reason aux is Kindof dead is different. so I believe the bond sticks even though oaths have been broken. That makes sense to me

[@rigatoni311]

​@@switchprocontrollersplatoo7240 Wait - are you saying she's actually used Testament as a blade since killing her mother? I thought this was all hypothetical, she's never used Testament as a blade "onscreen" in any of the books or WoBs since killing her mom.

[@TheBeccabus]

THANK YOU! I have been wondering this for ages, but I don't hear much of this in theories. I'm sort of concerned that someone is going to show up with a whole army of shardbearers.

[@nealginsberg]

Also note that those deadeyes near Last Integrity would have a physical realm location of Tukar which is controlled by Ishar. We see in RoW, Ishar was in Shinovar to get his honorblade. Perhaps he also recruited all of those possible shinovar shard bearers???

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Maybe! That would be pretty wild if he had an army of Shin shardbearers haha

[@dookieshoe2905]

I never thought about the fact that all those blades that aren't bonded wouldn't be able to manifest in Shadesmar but it is so obvious now that I hear it. So the first Dead Eye wouldn't have manifested until that first gemstone was placed on the pommel and bonded. I alwasy wondered where all these Dead Eyes were so it makes sense there wouldn't be a very large number of them roaming Shadesmar. I love that idea of some Shard collector dying and a bunch of them just piling up around their dead body. XD

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That was the most confusing part of making this video, trying to determine if un-bonded Blades result in deadeyes in Shadesmar. There are some conflicting sources. We see in Rhythm of War that deadeyes evaporate into mist when they are summoned, but in this WoB: wob.coppermind.net/events/498/#e15647 Brandon makes it sound like half the deadeyes in Shadesmar have had their Shadblades lost to time, implying that the spren can be in both deadeye form and Shardblade form simultaneously lol. Then in this other WoB: wob.coppermind.net/events/332/#e9490 he says they disappear from Shadesmar when summoned, mostly. Then there is also the question of did every Radiant leave behind Shardblades, or only the ones that were at the high enough ideal to summon a Blade lol. I could almost make a whole other video just about these confusing parts of the mystery haha.

[@jacobyullman5005]

@@ExploringTheCosmere Just a thought, but what if Deadeyes who remain unbonded for long enough naturally return to Shadesmar eventually? That could also explain why many blades seem to have gone missing, if a Deadeye can only exist in one form at a time (true form in Shadesmar or blade form in the physical realm) then it could be that many of the Deadeyes in Shadesmar are unbonded, and cannot form a new bond because their presence in Shadesmar means that no blade is present in the physical realm for someone to bond with?

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

​@@jacobyullman5005 I'm not sure if they would transition back into Shadesmar after being left in Blade form because this WoB makes it seem like all the abandoned Shardblades stayed in the Physical Realm: wob.coppermind.net/events/369/#e11683

[@jacobyullman5005]

@@ExploringTheCosmere Had to come back to this vid after checking out some of the preview chapters for WaT. Seems like I might've been on the right track about the blades returning to Shadesmar after they've been unbonded for long enough. Though it seems that they vanish from the physical realm when people forget about them/stop thinking about them.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

@@jacobyullman5005 Yep! I'm glad we got a definitive answer on that.

[@ElijahDawkins-yb1uc]

They're all in Shadesmar. When a Blade is lost and then forgotten, it eventually (probably hundreds of years, but we've got thousands) returns to Shadesmar, and is lost from the Physical Realm forever.

[@megablasters5]

Read it right after watching this video lol

[@cosmereinminiature]

Love the Shin shardeblade army. Great video! We’ll see if we get more clues in the next book.

[@NemisCassander]

Another point in favor of Shinovar having SOMETHING very powerful... Szeth says that when he, as Truthless, dies, Stone Shamans would come and take his Honorblade back to Shinovar. And Szeth doesn't seem to think that the Stone Shamans would have any trouble with taking the Honorblade away from whoever has it. That's highly suggestive. Another small point. I know the deadeyes around Lasting Integrity took roughly 2 weeks to assemble, but it should be noted, I think, that Lasting Integrity is actually pretty close to Shinovar.

[@worldofskylands]

Lasting Integrity is on the coast of Tukar, where Ishar was in the physical realm during the events of RoW.

[@luka2784]

I love this theory. My question is what about the plate. In dalinars vision all the radiants had both plate and blade, which suggests there were a significant number at the time who were at least 4th ideal. Of course it’s possible that the shin did the same thing with plate, but it seems a lot harder to hide hundreds to thousands of massive suits or armour than swords that can be hidden in shades mar.

[@maggie2556]

This is a good question-it's interesting that Shardplate can still be found in the physical realm at all. My assumption would have been that the Plate removed by the Radiants simply dispersed into the lesser spren that formed it without killing them, but why wouldn't that have happened all the time? The Fourth Ideal is said to be a small minority of Radiants, so there would be less Plate than Blade, but at these scales, that doesn't really matter. Even if suits were lost to time like Blades, they can't be bonded and hidden by an individual, and as you said, they're much harder for a nation to hide. If Shinovar had been hoarding Blades and not Plate, Plate would still be comparatively very common, which it isn't. That being said, we don't know the numbers. Are there eightyish known sets of Shardplate? Forty? Six hundred? Note that a Radiant spren can only become a deadeye after a certain amount of oaths, which is usually after the Blade is acquired. Maybe the Plate can appear after the Fourth Ideal, but only be killed after the Fifth. That would narrow our prospects a lot. Maybe enough to handwave the numbers. So... I dunno.

[@jettrooper101]

@@maggie2556 I always got the impression plate was more common than blades. Like I remember situations where there were fights/battles with people that only have plate, but it seems anyone with plate has a blade. I definietly could be wrong though

[@johnhightshoe996]

As much as Brandon plans everything out he has also shown a massive ability to listen to his fans and even if he didn’t plan the Shin to have been collecting them I could absolutely see him changing things to incorporate it and give the fans credit afterwards.

[@someweeb4110]

Great video man! Awesome Shinovar theory

[@writingman1089]

Why does this make so much sense

[@Dylan-oh1li]

I have a thought.... from the recent SA5 preview (where they talk about BAM was hidden), i think perhaps the Blades may have somehow gotten to where BAM was hidden. If you know you know

[@ryanratchford2530]

Brandon has explained that over 3,000 years most shardblades have been lost and covered by crem. Though same is true for plates-if not more because it’s far easier to steal a blade off of a dead body than plate. Though i don’t think that explains why shard plate appears to be more common or at least as common as shardblades (by how the books present them in world) We don’t have a number of how many plates there are though, but you’d assume it’s the same if not more than the 100 blades. SPOILERS for all Stormlight Books We know shard plate comes from the 4th oath whereas blades come from 2nd oath & that the higher the oaths then the fewer knights there are per level. So blades should be a lot more common than plate. But nearly every character we see who has a blade also has plate. But several have plate (like Sadeas) but desperately want a blade. Even the king has armour & blade but also like 4-ish spare blades her gives out for training.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That's a really good point! There really shouldn't be that many sets of Shardplate. So, it seems there are a lot less Shardblades than there should be, and way more Shardplate than there should be... Interesting.

[@joeulmer9760]

Shard plate can be regrown from any piece as long as have stormlight to do it first

[@crazyscotsman9327]

@@joeulmer9760 And to add onto that. I would absolutely steal a piece even a single piece from a dead shardbearer even if I couldn't get to the blade because of x,y or z reason. Because Plate is just better (in a battlefield context.) And I can also see if the theory that the Shin captured the majority of blades being the truth that the Shin wanted the blades more then plate, so they left the rest of the world with more plate then blades.

[@joshualoiacono5488]

Love this theory! Can’t wait for wind and truth…

[@Parmandur]

Oh, theybway he snickered on that RAFO, the Shin definitely have a ginormous stockpile of Shardblades. Now, what if those Spen get Enlightened...? Thousands of Shin bizarro-Radiants who were trained with Honoeblades...?

[@prestonc9059]

Well, now we kinda now

[@chazz30000]

I know it's not how it works but I find the idea funny that some of the shardblades are lost to the centre of the planet - think about it, they can effortlessly cut through any dead matter and they are affected by gravity - what if there was a series of inexperienced shardbearers that just dropped their blades point first who then ended up sinking towards centrenter of the planet

[@X24453]

When you said about a country gathering them up, I'd immediately thought about the ghostbloods. Seems like something he'd do.

[@uiiiiitoll4878]

They have only been around for about 300 years, I don't think that is enough time to collect the shards without someone noticing

[@griszrox]

When I've read RoW I though the shardblades may belong to Tukar's army. The deadeyes gathered around everlasting integrity which is quite close to Tukar in material realm, the nation is very militaristic too and has a BONDSMITH as their leader.

[@alexkidpaum6331]

Interesting 🤔 Rall Elorim could also have a link, since we know practically nothing of it

[@theelucidator3481]

Its worth pointing out that even with 2000 honor spren bonded not all of their knights would have progressed far enough in their ideals to have a blade. With your concervative numbers for the bonded spren it probably rounds out to a similar number of shard blades to your estimate.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Yep, that's a great point. Here's a note I made when researching this video: // Note: This shows there were around 2,000 honorspren that bonded humans before the Recreance, and we only saw a few hundred Windrunners max during Dalinar’s Feverstone Keep vision. All of the ones we saw had full shardplate, meaning they were at least at the fourth ideal. A lot of the other Windrunners would have surely been at the third ideal by that point, meaning they would have had a shardblade. So there is potentially 1,000 or more shardblades left behind by just a single order I probably should have mentioned that in the video lol.

[@Stormblessed72]

Shinavar was able to keep the knowledge of the honorblades and what they can do a secret for over 4k years. My money is they're also hoarding dead shardblades as well

[@C._Bradford]

The new cosmere RPG has adventure set in shinovar written by brandon. I think there is a good chance it will be relevant to this question.

[@HeadCannon19]

I mean we know from the Honorblades that the Shin are very capable of keeping things like this secret. Now of course thousands of Shardbearers is a bigger secret that will be harder to keep, but combined with all of the other evidence I really like the theory that the Shin have been stockpiling them. Hopefully we get an answer in WAT when we finally spend a significant amount of time in Shinovar. I mean when you take this alongside the whole storyline with Adolin, Maya, Ba-Ado-Mishram, and restoring deadeyes, we might see these thousands of Shardblades turn into thousands of non-dead Spren that are capable of bonding new Radiants

[@johnny2003]

This shin theory would 100% be a mirror of the Aiel invasion of wetlanders in wheel of time. The real purpose of the Aiel invasion was to fulfill a prophecy of the dragon reborn. That’s why they just went back to the wasteland the first time.

[@davidhamilton676]

I feel like there have been some hints that this might be optimistic. I think there are way more wind runners than else callers, for example. In modern roshar, there are like 100 windrunners and 1 elsecaller. There is maybe...a dozen truthwatchers? there was a comment somewhere once that there was many stonewards, so I'll go with that. Overall, I don't see any reason to assume that the windrunners are representative of the numbers at all. I think they may have been, with the stonewards, one of the most numerous order. I bet there was more like 2000 max.

[@Conduit23]

That laffo before the RAFO sure is telling 👀

[@jamesguthrie7421]

i dont think that anyone can be bonded to multiple shard blades. Nale appears to be an example, but his is instead bonded to a shardblade and his Honorblade. Honorblades do not have spren and are therefore are very different. Elhokar bonded a shardblade, and also possessed, but was not bonded to the blade of Galivar. when he died, only one shardblade appeared. if he could bond both, he would have.

[@anmingtou256]

The Sleepless are bonding all the shardblades, each individual Dysian Aimian cremling is wielding a shardblade until all you see is a Dysian shaped shardblade porcupine.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I love it! 🤣

[@randomusernameCallin]

We know family care for the dead eyes so I wonder if they are able to slowly get them back?

[@johnny2003]

This shin theory would 100% be a mirror of the Aiel invasion of wetlanders in wheel of time. The stated purpose of the Aiel was to punish the Cairhien for cutting the tree. The real purpose of the Aiel invasion was to fulfill a prophecy of the dragon reborn being born in the wetlands to an Aiel mother. That’s why they just went back to the east the first time.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That's a good point! I remember reading a WoB about the design of the Shin culture originally being heavily influenced by the Aiel culture

[@roninbelle804]

Who's your favorite shard blade?😊

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Deadeye Blade: Oathbringer Living Blade: Jasnah's Ivoryblade What's yours?

[@roninbelle804]

Windle with the voice of Kate Reading

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

@@roninbelle804 Wyndle is my favorite chair gardener lol. "Mistress!"

[@hockey1973]

The problem with the guards having shardblades, is if the guards (who are a lower class) decide to rebel. . . no one could stop them, so why give the lowest class the most powerful weapons?

[@Bzhydack]

They are conditioned to full obedience, and there are also 9 men with not just blades, but also powers. Enough to stop rebels from killing goverment (Stone Shamans). Also, seems like they are not wearing armor, they will be easy target for anything ranged.

[@SomethingCatchy2_]

I bet they are just chilling in the spiritual realm

[@mechannelidkwhy]

Why are there no spren in the prelude? Is it a narratove/storytelling choice or were there actual no visible spren?

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I hadn't realized that, I'll have to look into that one! You're talking about the Aharietium scene when the Heralds are abandoning their honorblades, right?

[@mechannelidkwhy]

@@ExploringTheCosmere Yes! No spren are mentioned till the prologue. We do have a dalinar vision of the abandoning of the Oathpact and it makes a specific note that he sees a "single" painspren. (Not sure if it is relevant though because visions don't actually take place in that time period and physical location) So is it for some reason that there are less spren back then? Is it because of lower human populations? Did the imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram change lesser spren some how the way it affected true spren? Or is it simply that the prelude is an absolute deluge of information and there is not an easy way to introduce the concept of spren in a smooth way until the prologue?

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That's super intriguing!

[@Warriormon87]

Dang you are almost certainly correct. Dang.

[@AtiAlive]

calling it rn this theory is correct and book 5 will confirm it

[@silvertongue.242_99]

I been thinking shinovar have a bunch of shard blades in there place in secret

[@TheKoty222]

Babe wake up a new video dropped

[@chikodusty]

Feverstone Keep is definitely in Herdaz.

[@garrettstockwell2694]

Welp...spoilers for the first few chapters of Wind and Truth.

[@Kezzic]

What about the Ghostbloods?

[@mtandazomoyo7840]

Great theory!

[@zodlord5669]

good

[@crow457]

The problem with this theory is that it is impossible to imprison a shard bearer so how do the shin control these slaves

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

They have a very honor based culture. We see this through Szeth's perspective. He does a lot of horrible things simply because someone holding his oathstone tells him to. He could easily disobey and choose not to do those things, but he does them anyway because of his honor to his culture's beliefs. The warriors of Shinovar also have stones and are owned by people. So, they could be controlled the same way Szeth was. They definitely have the ability to rebel, but their honor to their culture is what prevents it.

[@AtiAlive]

i think this theory is correct

[@cpozo3306]

5:20 dude that's my drawing xDDD i got jumpscared by my own art lmao

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That's awesome haha! Great art by the way!

[@karth_vader]

Wouldn't it be possible for someone to carry an unbounded blade to the cognitive realm and just leave the deadeye there or would it need the bond to be able to transport like shardplate?

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That's a great question! I don't know if the oath gates would let them go through or not. Maybe a perpendicularity would.

[@macmay3042]

You seem to be making the leap that every Lost Radiant left behind a Blade. Kaladin didn't leave Syl as a Blade when he broke his Oath, so at the very least, prolly no Knight at less than the Third ideal could even have left a Blade. Fifth Ideal Radiant seem vanishingly rare, so let's leave that aside for now. Each successive Ideal is harder and harder to achieve, so it feels reasonable to expect that there will be fewer and fewer members at each Ideal. Which is to say, at any one time, the most Radiants will be at the First Ideal, and there will be fewer and fewer as you go up. This means the two largest groups of each Order won't have access to Blades, so far less than half of all Radiants could even potentially leave behind a dead sprenblade. We're already down to much, much less than 3,000. Potentially as low as 1,000 but let's just say 1,500 for now. Then the second thing to consider is... would they all be left as Blades? The first thing to recognize is, the Recreance vision isn't real, that's not how it happened. We learn in Way of Kings from Honor that some of the visions hadn't happened yet by the time he made this record and died. Since Dalinar says every vision features the Radiants, that means the Recreance has to be the chronologically last vision (unless one is about just skybreakers I guess) so it must be one of the fake ones. So, that whole thing was just a big metaphor Honor put together, he wasn't re-creating actual events. So even though we know it happened, in some fashion, there's no reason to think every Radiant pulled out their Blade and snapped their oaths. Also what does that even mean? How do you, as an action you can trigger, just suddenly decide to stop caring about the most important thing to you? I don't get how that's even possible. Anyway, my point is, we don't actually have a reason to think that every Radiant of at least the 3rd Ideal would have left behind a dead sprenblade. Maybe the vast majority of spren just fell back into the cognitive realm as deadeyes that can't be summoned. Cuz, that might require them to have their Blade in hand at the time, and why would they bother? Maybe there was just a couple of hundred Radiants who could possibly summon a Blade, who happened to have theirs out in the moment they finally lost faith. ...No, we DEFINITELY don't know that every Deadeye *must be* a blade that is bonded. Just because that's one behavior a deadeye has been shown to exhibit doesn't in any way show that it's the only way a deadeye can exist. Why would it be?

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Valid points! A lot of what you bring up was in my original script, but I took out a whole section to try and keep the video as streamlined as possible. I’ll explain what I learned in my research. I did consider that maybe only Radiants at a high enough ideal could leave behind blades. I was originally going to factor that into the estimate and assume that only a third of the Radiants were at the high enough ideal (making the number 2,000). The ideal that gives a Radiant access to their Blade varies by order: wob.coppermind.net/events/221/#e7873 so some will likely get it at lower ideals than the 3rd, and some at higher ones. I also pondered whether a Radiant would have to summon their blade before breaking abandoning their oaths to leave behind a Shardblade, but I saw this WoB: wob.coppermind.net/events/161/#e6997 which in my opinion makes it sound like a spren would turn into a Shardblade whether she was summoned or not if Kaladin suddenly broke his oaths. As for whether Honor was alive during the Recreance, he was, for the most part anyway: wob.coppermind.net/events/171/#e8144 I also thought a lot about whether Spren would simply go back to the Cognitive Realm if they weren’t summoned, and the main thing pointing toward that being possible was, like you said, when Kaladin almost broke his oaths and Syl seemingly slipped back into the Cognitive Realm, or close to it at least. But that was over a relatively long period of time, Kaladin didn’t just break his oaths in the heat of the moment like the Radiants in the Recreance did: wob.coppermind.net/events/458/#e14834. I think since the spren had made the transition to the Physical Realm, and the oaths were broke in the heat of the moment, they would be stuck in the Physical Realm, likely as blades. That’s my head cannon atm anyway lol. The reason I think deadeyes only exist in Shadesmar when they are dismissed is because of this WoB: wob.coppermind.net/events/332/#e9490. He says they mostly disappear when summoned, maybe they leave behind a sphere in their place? I’m not really sure though. But yeah, this is all speculation, we won’t know for sure until Brandon writes it in a published book. So who knows if any of what I typed is true or not lol. Thanks for bringing up these points though, because they are things that have been on my mind too haha.

[@macmay3042]

@@ExploringTheCosmere Ehhh... for the "guaranteed she'd be a Blade", it feels like you're hanging an awful lot on a paraphrased WoB that doesn't say that. Whether Honor was "still alive" or not during the Recreance is irrelevant; he says in the Visions themselves that at least some of them are fabrications he made to convey a point, and they hadn't yet happened at the time he made the Visions as a record. So even if he did end up lasting longer than that, we still know that this isn't a record of a historical event. As for "he didn't break his oaths in the heat of the moment like the Knights did"... that is, again, paraphrased. You're trying to put a lot of emphasis on exact words, when we know these aren't the exact words. And while his Oaths were weakening for a couple of days, the "break" happened in one moment when she tried to force the powers to function when the bond was too weak to support it. So, it seems like yes, his did happen like the people of the Recreance, where the revelation weakened the bond and then in one "moment" it snapped. And, again... Syl was as fully in the physical realm as she could be, as any spren pre-Recreance was. And when her oath was broken, she was sent back to the cognitive. The evidence you've provided could indicate that there's a chance it was different for the others... but it absolutely does not prove, therefore it has to be exactly this thing. That can be your head!canon if you want... I just think you should make it more clear in your video that this is something you've chosen to believe. I think you give the impression to viewers that this has some factual basis. And that final WoB... I'm scratching my head how you get "every deadeyes is a blade" from that. It seems to be that you think it was an assumed premise of the question, so since Brandon answered the question, that means he's confirming the assumed premise? I disagree with both parts of that. Argent was just asking what happens when a deadeyes gets summoned. No part of Brandon's answer, or the question, addresses the topic of "is every deadeyes associated with a Blade".

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I don't think kaladin fully broke his oaths: wob.coppermind.net/events/364/#e11533 I ended the video by saying it's all speculation until Brandon publishes definite answers, sorry if it didn't come off that way. I have to write the script in a way to keep the viewer engaged with the video. I appreciate your feedback though! I'll try to improve my future videos

[@realbenactually]

Shardblades can’t cut cheese.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

True 😂 cheese is very powerful

[@peytonbrennan614]

You can’t just be ignoring Bondsmiths in your calculations. How do we know that the storm father and his radiant didn’t eat thousands of shard blades. He must’ve been very hungry before breaking their bond.

[@F.O.R.]

That is not the proper use of the phrase "begs the question."

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I never knew I was using it wrong, thanks for pointing that out!

[@scroletyper8286]

I think ur right about shin. PS reply to R.A.F.O. with W.A.I.W.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I've never heard the W.A.I.W. acronym... does it stand for Write and I Will? Lol

[@cpozo3306]

i think there are less than you thought, you didn't consider that not every radiant would be at 3rd ideal, and their spren would just "get lost" like syl did for a while

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Yeah maybe so. Different orders get their blades at different ideals. Let's say one third of them were at a high enough ideal, that would still be ~2,000 Shardblades

[@TheBlueJamie]

@@ExploringTheCosmere I think even that isn't conservative enough, knowing that there are hundreds of windrunners now in Rhythm of War, yet I believe only three people had reached the third ideal? It's true they get their blades at different ideals, but also each ideal varies in difficulty between orders.

[@mms7151]

@@TheBlueJamieThere’s definitely way more than just three windrunners of the third Ideal. We know most of OG bridge 4 have gone off to have their own squires so that means they probably got to the 3rd already. Even members like Huio, Lyn, and a lot from bridge 13. The reason why most of the other windrunner squires only remained squires was because of a lack of honor spren

[@TheBlueJamie]

@@mms7151 You're right, there's actually about 50 apparently

[@triplebog]

it's a crime that this channel isn't bigger. Best cosmere theory channel I've found.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Thank you! I really appreciate your kind words!

[@Ryan-rq6dx]

That shin theory makes a lot of sense..... a scary amount of sense

[@AIartificalIntellige]

I have a little theory that Shinovar is to the Stonewards what Alethkar are to the Windrunners. In the latter, martial competence whether on or off the battlefield is celebrated and praised most as those who need to help people must be capable of defending themselves and those they swore to protect(Kings, Knights, Officials). While the former, martial competence is seen as the lowest calling and those who embrace it face social rejection. They know it's necessary but choose to validate them anymore than the bare minimum.This is more in line with soldiers and is actually kind of meta when you consider how vets are treated based solely on their occupation. If the theory of the invasions for shards is true, that could mean that they seek to take on the 'burden' of the shards hence why they hoard them?

[@VallelYuln]

I find the Shinovar theory very convincing! Not sure how many shardblades Nale had gathered, cuz he seems to have a few. He gave one to Helarand to kill Amaram with after all

[@IamHattman]

For all we know he could have been getting them from the Shin. He could be WHY the Shin have gathered them for that matter.

[@MistbornTaylor]

This video is wonderful, I can't believe I never made these connecitons.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@brandonwisenbaker769]

In dawnshard it mentions soulcasters are also a form of shardblades

[@macmay3042]

...What?

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I forgot about that! I think it's about time for me to do a re-read haha

[@joeulmer9760]

Spren they are spren same as a shard blade is not from blades specifically

[@macmay3042]

@@joeulmer9760 Yeah, soulcasters are made from spren. Do we know that means they're Radiant spren? All ancient fabrials were made out of spren. Instead of trapping spren in gems, they convinced the spren to manifest as metal.

[@eleishar18]

@@ExploringTheCosmere You didn't, they aren't form of shardblades. Soulcasters come from Aimia, and were created by making spren partially come into Realm of Matter, if You look/go into Shademar, You can see spren that is a soulcaster's source. As I just finished re-reading of the whole series (twice in a row), I'm sure I'm right.

[@barrydias3755]

Shardblade theory, every shardblade could be customized to the radiant as seen by the various different shapes and sizes. Then Kaladin and his shardspear. What if the missing shardblades/spren were not actually blades. They use soulcasters to transform rock into food and other materials using stormlight. What if the soul casters were actually the deadeyed spren.

[@sdflsdlfkjgh6637]

But we find out in rythm of war that SPOILERS - Soulcasters are spren who voluntarily change into soulcasters, which is why the sibling does not have a problem with then i believe.

[@AlfaEcho]

Another Point speaking for the Shin theory: In the first interlude in The Way of Kings, Szeth thinks to himself that "he [...] couldn't be ordered to give up his Blade", which would be be a weird provision to have if the truthless used normal weapons, but makes a lot of sense if the Shin want to keep the weapons in their control

[@TheBlueJamie]

We know Szeth used Jezrien's Honorblade, and that most of the honorblades are in Shinovar, unless I'm misinterpreting what you're saying.

[@AlfaEcho]

@@TheBlueJamie yeah, I thought all of the Shin guards are referred to as truthless (and that the 2 restrictions of what Szeth can be commanded to do would apply to all of them), but I think that was a mistake on my part. So it's not really evidence for the theory, but rather explanation of how the Shin guards act IF the theory is true

[@TheBlueJamie]

@@AlfaEcho Nah it would seem as though if you are to say that the desolations and radiants are coming back, you are named Truthless. There's definitely more to it to be revealed but I don't think it's what all guards are called.

[@AlfaEcho]

@@TheBlueJamie yeah something about raising a false alarm. My original comment is based on a mistake

[@patrickwycoff9382]

I want there to be a shard blade graveyard they find in urithiru that they could find

[@BNidoking]

Very interesting. That laugh though :D

[@isaiahdebuck4097]

I wonder if the shin can hear the screams of the dead spren, thus being a punishment

[@yaakovs6135]

I hope this is true and we find this out in wind and truth

[@ctom42]

I like the Shinovar theory, but I do think you've overlooked one possability. A good deal of the shardblades may have been returned to the cognitive realm. We see that when a blade is brought into shadesmar it just manifests as a deadeye, the exact same as other deadeyes. The deadeyes we see in the book might not all be bonded, some of them might just reside in shadesmar completely.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That would be pretty interesting. The Oathgates weren't working after the Recreance so they would have had to be be brought into Shadesmar using a perpendicularity. That would be quite the feat to lug a bunch of Shardblades up to the perpendicularity in the Horneater Peaks haha but definitely could have happened

[@ctom42]

@@ExploringTheCosmere Yeah there is certainly a question of who would be bringing them there, and one of the Heralds we haven't learned much about yet could be a good potential guess. In particular I feel like the deadeyes that showed up at Lasting Integrity near the end of RoW have a good chance to be once that are just residing in Shadesmar. IIRC they made a point about there being more of them than were known to be bonded, so unless the Shin blades are laregely unbonded I think shadesmar ones makes a lot of sense. Especially since they wandered in one by one over time, I feel like if they all came from Shinovar they would have arrived closer to the same time as a group.

[@crazyscotsman9327]

I always thought the missing blades would be in Shinovar or held by the Skybreakers as a way to entice new recruits and reward followers who weren't able to become Radiants themselves. The Shin did after all hold the Honorblades. I could see Kalach, or Nael giving them the mission to gather as many Shardblades as possible at some point. Nael because he's bonkers but that's besides the point.

[@justingold9240]

I have done some pondering on this subject, though at the time I assumed there were a lot less shard blades, I didn't go through the book thoroughly so I assumed only a couple hundred, but your 6000 number sounds closer to right. At the time I figured 3 first was that they were lost, like to the sea or mountain passes, etc. like you said. Second was secret shardbearers, I didn't think about someone just hoarding a lot of them, but more as a decent number of single people ending up with a shardblade secretly for one reason or another. A good example of this from the books is the female assassin that yasna hires, very few people know she has a shard blade and I could easily be convinced that there are dozens of people like her. The third explanation and I am a bit surprised you didn't talk about it is otherworlders stealing shardblades and bringing them to other worlds. While the amount of direct evidence we have for any shardblades taken off world I don't think it is zero, for one nightblood was almost certainly based off shardblades, so either the sages (I think that is what they were called) went to roshar or a shardblade came to them. Even discounting the sages the amount of direct cosmere aware people we have seen in this time period is very low so it is possible a lot of otherworlders have shardblades. Given how excited the scadrians were to find a shard holder in sunlit man maybe not, but there is a LOT of room for speculation. I felt that these 3 combined explained the lack of shardblades pretty good, but if the number is in the thousands instead of the hundreds then I don't think it explains it anymore. I do really like your theory about the Shin, and I think there is a good chance it could be right. I haven't read many of the early released chapters but I know that Seth and Kal go to shinovar and likely spend a lot of book 5 there so there is def a LOT of room for Seth and Kal to learn a couple big secrets like these. I just had the thought so wanted to include it, wouldn't Seth have known and told Dalinar about the hoard of shardblades owned by the shin? But I think it could easily be explained away similar to when Seth almost didn't tell nivani about the anti-void light sphere, though tbh this explanation still sounds a bit weak, but could be the truth.

[@Jo-Heike]

I don't know about you, but Shinovar is hardly unassuming, having possessed most of the Herald's Swords.

[@jonathanschaefer9848]

The Shinovar theory is cool. But not all the deadeyes need to be bonded right? Because couldn’t the deadeyes in shadesmar have been brought there through a perpendicularity? That might be some secret holy mission of an immortal or a nation (more likely an immortal and/or sleepless I guess since the only perpendicularity we know about is in the Peaks and that nation does not have any shardblades and wants them for pretty regular reasons.)

[@sugasheeze]

The “this idea sounds wacky at first” after mentioning Shinovar made me laugh out loud because it immediately made me think that that’s exactly what happened. We already know those dudes are hoarding the other type of blade of honor, ofc they’d be hoarding these too.

[@hyperionhelios190]

If the dead eyes have to be at the shadesmar coordinates of their shardbearer in the physical realm, does that mean there was a huge gathering of shardbearers (shin) on roshar during Adolin's trial?

[@KevinHorecka]

I 99% believe it's the Shin. Makes the most sense in the world and for the narrative.

[@ArtSnob101]

We dont know how far each one of these radiants were in their oaths so it might be much less than what you stated.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

That's true. Even if only a fraction left behind blades, let's say a third, that would still be ~2,000 blades, way more than are currently known about

[@WinstonHunt]

Your number is probably off because either in the book or Sanderson himself has said that Stoneward was the largest order calling them the infantry. While honorspen were the special forces units.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I think the information your referring to came from "The Ten Orders of Knights Radiant" videos on Brandon's channel. Those released after I made this video, so yeah the numbers might be off. If there were even more Stonewards than Windrunners, then that means there are proabably a lot _more_ shardblades missing than I accounted for. Windrunners for sure had ~2,000 members according to Amuna in RoW, so the Stonewards would have had at least that many.

[@danielt8919]

Could be the dragon. There's a WOB saying there is a dragon on Roshar.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

There's another WoB where Brandon tells us the identity of the Roshar dragon. Here it is if you want to know: wob.coppermind.net/events/452/#e14564

[@Cuttingedgehero]

*Spoiler* I was thinking about this the other day and instead of researching it myself I figured we could all just pick this apart. Now that we know Kaladin’s armor is made of a bunch of Wind Spren are there also Deadeyes for shardplate?

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

I don't _think_ there would be Deadeyes for plate because the spren they are made from aren't sentient like the Radiant spren

[@Cuttingedgehero]

@@ExploringTheCosmere I was thinking that as well. I am curious if becoming an armor spren causes an elevation to something closer to the honor spren. Since they’re cousins perhaps this is an ascendant transformation for them. Just wild conjecture really.

[@FddcbhFfg]

Its confirmed by Szeth that Shin people are the guardians of Honorblades, two were regained by Herolds, Moash is using Windrunner blade and Talns blade was swapped by Wit/Dalinar, rest is still in Shinovar

[@QuesoLibre]

Are the shin not down to 6 Honor blades? Windrunner Skybreaker Stoneward And bondsmith are all in the wild. Unless Talns blade was somehow recovered

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

You're right, I forgot about Ishar taking his blade back

[@QuesoLibre]

@@ExploringTheCosmere hey there you go! Excellent video! Keep up the great work!

[@Pyrausta85]

You mean the shin are down to six honorblades.

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

They started with nine because Taln had his on Braize. Szeth lost his bringing it to eight, Nale took his back bringing it to seven. Which one am I forgetting?

[@Pyrausta85]

@@ExploringTheCosmere the one that Ishar took back

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Oh yeah! Thanks for reminding me!

[@Pyrausta85]

@@ExploringTheCosmere no problem.I just got finished with book four so it’s still fresh in my mind

[@lempollo6430]

Nice video mate, love the last theory about the Shin!

[@ExploringTheCosmere]

Thanks!