Shardblade

Shardblade is a legendary magical weapon in the Cosmere, most notably within Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series. It is one of the defining weapons of the Knights Radiant, paired with Shardplate. Shardblades are ancient swords forged from investiture by the Knights Radiant during Roshar’s distant past. They bond to a mortal wielder and can be summoned or dismissed at will, often through a connection to a spren.

A Shardblade’s primary property is its cutting power. The blade can slice through nearly any material and is capable of delivering lethal injuries with exceptional speed. The edge is extraordinarily sharp, and in practice, a strike from a Shardblade is typically fatal for the target. The weapon’s power is tied to a bond with the wielder and, in some cases, to the spren embedded within or associated with the blade.

Shardblades come in two broad varieties. Living blades contain a spren within them and can be semi-sentient, sometimes speaking or showing personality and loyalty. These blades may form a deeper bond with their wielder. Dead blades lack such sentience but retain their formidable cutting ability.

In modern Roshar, Shardblades are rare and highly valued artifacts, linked to the ancient orders of Radiants and the era of the Desolations. Their acquisition and custody, as well as the ethics of their use, are subjects of lore, study, and occasional political tension within the wider Cosmere.