House correspondences[]
Since there are allegedly seventeen Great Weapons, it might make sense that each Great House would have a weapon that corresponds to its own attributes. To the right, since the Great Weapons were made by the Serioli for use against the Lords of Judgment, it might be counterintuitive to think they would have paid any particular attention to the Houses of the Cycle. To the left, we might speculate that the Serioli became aware that the Cycle in some way protected the Empire and the Lords of Judgment, and took this into account while forging the weapons so as to be able to counteract that protection, or appropriate it for their own efforts — especially since it would appear that they desired to become Gods themselves.
- Godslayer could, for example, be the Great Weapon of the house of Jhereg. (i.e. A weapon made to assassinate gods, Jhereg are, among other things, assassins). It might also represent the house of Issola since it contains the soul of the one person who most epitomized that House.
- Iceflame could correspond to the Dzur, since it embodies the Power of Dzur Mountain. It could also maybe embody the house of Yendi--Ice is clear, Yendi's house color is clear. Also, much of Sethra Lavode's defense against the Jenoine is based on Yendi-like deception. (Especially during the Interregnum)
- Nightslayer could also claim title to the Great Weapon of the house of the Dzur, considering that its unsheathed presence is described as the "pure raw essence of the predator" (Dzur, p. 276) It could also be that of the Orca, as Orcas are known for their predatory nature.
- Pathfinder is more difficult to classify, but could embody the intellectual Athyra, or even the questing spirit of the Tiassa. The far-seeing attributes of the Hawk would also seem to be very appropriate.
The Orb[]
When comparing the power of the Great Weapons, the Imperial Orb is often mentioned. Does this mean that the Orb itself could be considered a Great Weapon?
- (CON) It does not seem to qualify on the merits that all known Great Weapons are Morganti, and we have seen no evidence of sentience from the Orb.
However...- (PRO) It bonds with its owner and protects his/her soul from harm.
- (PRO) It is easy to suppose that an object as powerful as the Orb could indeed destroy a soul if directed to.
- (CON) Still, it is known that the Orb was fashioned by Dragaerans for the Dragaeran Empire, not by the Serioli, who created the Great Weapons.
- (CON) It is suggested in Issola that the Great Weapons are the blurring of the line between "animate" and "inanimate," by means of Sorcery, whereas the Orb is clearly shown to be a construction of Trellanstone, and includes the Jenoine forging their own faux-Orb through a giant chunk of Trellanstone.
The weight of the available evidence seems to be against the Orb's being a Great Weapon.
Staff of Bölk[]
We know, from Brokedown Palace, that Bölk's blood alone was able to kill the Demon Goddess in Fenario — that is, remove an aspect of her deity. We might therefore speculate that whatever else Bölk was, given this quality of his blood, he in some way was a Great Weapon (albeit a rather large one, and more sapient than most of the other Great Weapons). We might further speculate, now that he has combined his essence with the Tree in the Staff that Miklós found and passed on to Vilmos, that Bölk retains this Great-Weapon-nature, and could theoretically be used as such against a God or Jenoine — presumably with his awareness and cooperation.
Against the argument that the Staff does not appear to have that field of soul-destruction associated with the other Great Weapons we know of, we might point out that Bölk in his horse form was very self-controlled, and refrained from attacking or harming anyone (save Sándor, once, in order to protect Miklós) besides the Demon Goddess, and might therefore extend his self-control in Staff form to hold in or nullify this field.
Other Candidates[]
There are few other weapons in any of the stories that are significant enough to garner special mention, or to be named. None of these appear to be great weapons, but there are few enough of them that it's easy to explain why each one likely isn't.
Állam[]
The royal sword of Fenario. It clearly is a very special sword (or was, until it was broken). It is difficult to say if an Easterner would be able to recognize a Great Weapon or not; but Állam is clearly not morganti, since the souls of Vilmos and Andor weren't destroyed when each was cut with the blade. It is, of course, possible for a Great Weapon to NOT destroy a soul if the bearer orders it not to, but László does not seem to be aware of doing this; indeed, he was more under the weapon's control than vice versa when Andor was maimed by it. Verdict: Probably not a Great Weapon.
Kieron's Greatsword[]
Kieron's Greatsword is certainly very special, however when it came to blows with Pathfinder during the last interlude of Dragon, it did not reveal the true Pathfinder, which DID happen when Blackwand got involved. There is also no evidence to suggest that this weapon is Morganti. Verdict: Not a Great Weapon, QED.
The Porker Poker[]
Not likely. Clearly not Morganti, or else the porker in question would not have survived. It would, however, be within the sense of humor of SKZB to jokingly make this a Great Weapon, just to throw us all off -- especially if it were the Teckla Great Weapon. Verdict: Not a Great Weapon.
Sword of the Faerie[]
This is the Morganti sword carried by Fenarr onto the plains of Pepperfield. However, it doesn't seem to have been anything more than that. Unfortunately, we know very little about it.
It is remotely possible that this sword may have been, in fact, the same Morganti weapon that turned out to be hiding Pathfinder, or was later used to hide Pathfinder. The hints that might imply this are as follows:
The sword ended up with Adron e'Kieron as part of the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of the Pepperfields. Adron then may have passed the sword on to Baritt, since we know that Adron and Baritt were friendly, due to the circumstances of the Yendi Conspiracy, and we also know that Baritt was a collector of Morganti weapons. Also, note that this sword's return to the Dragaeran Empire from the East coincided with Aliera's birth. This might be significant, given that Aliera felt that Pathfinder had been trying to find her. Additionally, consider that it may have been Verra (possibly while still allied with Bölk) who sent the sword to Fenario in the first place, just so that it could eventually wind up with Adron later.
- Verdict: Too little is known about the nature and fate of this weapon to make any conclusions.
Goodthunder[]
Mentioned in Reddit AMA [1]
Seventeen[]
Tradition says that there are seventeen Great Weapons, but how accurate this is unclear.
No one really knows for sure how many Great Weapons there are. Since they were created by the Serioli who predate the Dragaeran Houses, it's quite possible that there's no relationship at all, and no reason for seventeen to enter into it.
On the left, however, the number seventeen does not seem to be unique to just Dragaerans. The cycle (which the gods state predates even Dragaera itself) is based on the number 17. There are 17 days in a month, and 17² (289) days in a year. All of these predate even the Serioli, who are native to Dragaera. (See discussion.)
This is made more complicated by the fact that the Great Weapons do not seem to all exist at the same time. Some others (Godslayer and Pathfinder for example) have apparently come and gone and come back again. (Even this point is somewhat open to debate, however.) This makes it very difficult to get a proper inventory.
Special Abilities[]
Supposedly the Great Weapons love their wielders enough to have an irrevocable link to their soul, thus protecting them from most forms of death. An example of this is Pathfinder's actions to prevent Aliera being eaten by Mellar's Morganti weapon. However, even the enormous degree of protection provided by Great Weapons does sometimes fail, according to Sethra Lavode, especially when the bearer is attacked by surprise.
It is unknown whether this protection also extends to death by old age or other natural causes, but an interesting speculation is that perhaps bearers of Great Weapons are protected from those fates as well.
Sethra later reveals that the Great Weapons are strong links to Fate or Destiny (having trouble with the term, though), and Zungaron passes on (from her?) that they are a link to the "powers beyond the world". Sethra herself puts it as "a connection, if you will, to something that goes beyond this world". (Dzur p.80)
Souls[]
What if the Serioli created these weapons as Morganti weapons that, instead of destroying a soul every time, actually absorbed a particularly strong soul and then became Great Weapons?
In the Speculation:Drien page, it is suggested that maybe a part of Drien is in Pathfinder, which might explain the connection between it and Aliera. Also, in Issola, Vlad describes the distinctly "female" aura of Blackwand. We don't know who it is, but it does support that someone's soul is in Blackwand.
Iceflame could be anyone, but the most possible seems to be the first owner of Dzur Mountain, who, knowing the potential of the dagger, intentionally killed him/her-self and gave the dagger to his/her protege: Sethra Lavode. This would also explain why Iceflame seems to have such a strong connection to the mountain.
Alternately, while we know that Sethra is a wizard, we've never seen her staff. Perhaps rather than putting a part of her soul in a staff, she found a way to put a part of her soul in Iceflame itself. This may also have something to do with her apparent immortality.
As we know, Teldra was bound to Godslayer. Note, however, that Teldra was not "absorbed" or bound to the Morganti blade by default. When Vlad entered the sword via Spellbreaker, Teldra's soul was in tiny shreds that were becoming smaller and smaller: this was almost certainly meant to show that her soul was indeed in the process of being destroyed by the Morganti nature of the weapon. Then Vlad worked to reverse the process by his own will, and finally he used Spellbreaker to bind Teldra's soul in as whole a form as he could manage to the sword. Without Vlad's explicit efforts and Spellbreaker's power, the most probable effect would have been the usual soul-death caused by a Morganti weapon.