> The Sword Eventually Called Blackwand: it's not awake but it's aware enough
> to give M the warm fuzzies. So, is it like Godslayer at the end of Issola?
> There's a soul inside but not fully interactive?
> -- Sabia
Considering I have the three relevant tomes -- _Dragon_ (for Pathfinder), _Lord of Castle Black_ (for Blackwand), and _Issola_ (for Godslayer) -- near to hand, I would like to make some observations, deductions, and draw a logical conclusion or two. To summarize:
Godslayer was reassembled.
Pathfinder had to be reawakened.
Blackwand was simply waiting.
Let us examine Godslayer first.
In _Dragon_, an unnamed Serioli informs us that 'an attempt was made to destroy [Godslayer].' This, apparently, resulted in the main ability of Godslayer (to wit, to penetrate virtually any defense worth the name) being isolated in a chain of gold (or gold Phoenix stone) links, which wound up in the home of a certain Athyra wizard (Loraan by name). A few years down the road, a certain Easterner Jhereg assassin (Our Man Vlad) sneaks in, snags the chain, intercepts a few spells, and eventually names the thing Spellbreaker. (Nice simple name.) Another few years down the road, the aforementioned Vlad and Spellbreaker find themselves in a bit of a rumpus down the road at a place called the Lesser Sea of Chaos. At this time, a certain Issola Lady by the name of Teldra grabbed a particularly nasty Morganti dagger and stuck it into a Jenoine who just happened to be drawing on the aforementioned Sea.
This is where we should pause and make a few observations and assumptions. Morganti daggers, according to what Vlad has said he understands about how they work, treat the soul as a field of sorcerous energy, which they consume. Considering what might meant by 'strong' and 'weak' Morganti weapons, I -assume- that a 'strong' weapon has a 'big' appetite, and can devour soul after soul (or sorcerous field after sorcerous field) without burping, can 'bite in' if it makes only a little cut, that sort of thing. A 'weak' one, on the other hand, perhaps needs a critical or lethal blow to actually 'eat', and can't handle more than one or two souls/sorcerous fields before having to stop to digest. This assumption -- that a Morganti weapon, no matter its power, DOES have an upper end of some sort -- becomes significant.
So we have a very nasty (i.e. strong) Morganti dagger sticking into the lower back of a Jenoine (normally only vulnerable to Great Weapons) who happens to be linked to the immense supply of sorcerous energy known as Adron -- err, the Lesser Sea. I consider it possible -- even likely -- that the dagger was 'filled up', as it were, by its attempt to feast on the Jenoine's soul; as the Jenoine's 'field of sorcerous energy' was being directly supplemented by a much greater 'field of sorcerous energy', the dagger had all it could eat, and it couldn't eat no more. Thus, when it was thrust into the Issola Lady Teldra, it 'took' her soul, but did not completely destroy it (or disassociate, or whatever) immediately. This is what enabled Vlad to harness the great amount of power currently within the Morganti dagger, the personality remnants of Lady Teldra, and the slight sentience and sorcery-destroying capabilities of Spellbreaker and combine them into the recreation of the Great Weapon Godslayer.
Made Verra pretty nervous, too.
Pathfinder, on the other hand, was already assembled. Early on in _Dragon_, Morrolan makes the comment that Barritt did a lot of stuff he shouldn't have been able to do -- such as defying the Empire and making it stick. Morrolan further suggested that Barritt probably had a Great Weapon to help him out; this Great Weapon is, obviously, the weapon that a) Fornia had stolen, b) Sethra the Younger recovered at the Battle of Barritt's Wall, c) 'awoke' when it clashed with another Great Weapon, i.e. Blackwand, and d) is called Pathfinder, which Aliera e'Kieron now wields. Did Pathfinder need a 'soul' (i.e. Napper) and did Aliera need to 'assemble' it? Of course not; if she did, then Barritt never had a Great Weapon, because it hadn't been assembled.
Pathfinder needed to be reawakened, and no doubt needed to find Aliera; the Serioli in _Dragon_ says that the great weapon Pathfinder (okay, he uses a different name) would be found, and it's pretty clear that Aliera is Pathfinder's chosen/preferred partner. But nowhere does the Serioli say that Pathfinder had to be put back together, the way Godslayer did. ("Are you saying that I'm holding a Great Weapon?" 'Not yet.') So Pathfinder comes to Aliera, having been banged awake by Blackwand. An interesting question; when did Barritt put Pathfinder into the concealing sword, and put it to 'sleep'??
Blackwand, as the third example, is -very-clearly- whole and awake from the beginning. The text used by Paarfi to describe the reactions of the people around Morrolan when Blackwand is first drawn is, almost word for word, the same description used by Mssr. Taltos when he is exposed to Blackwand's unsheated presence. To wit, it is great fear, the sense of being hunted, the weapon just -dying- for a chance to bite deep into your soul. (Yum.) EVERYONE around Morrolan took at least a step back, even the Necromancer, when he first drew it. How could two different groups of people, seperated by hundreds of miles and years, have the -exact-same-reaction- to the exact same weapon unless the weapon in question was, essentially, identical in every respect? The Blackwand at the time of the Ninth (or Tenth) Battle of Dzur Mountain is the same Blackwand of the time of Vlad Taltos -- whole, hale, awake, and ready to cut up a few hundred people. Interestingly enough, the text that Paarfi uses in _Lord of Castle Black_ to describe the reaction of the Great Weapon's wielder (i.e. Morrolan) is likewise virtually identical to the description given by Vlad in relation to how it feels to wield Lady Teldra -- a rush of power and pleasure, a great feeling of well-being, etc. This again gives credence to the idea that Blackwand is 'assembled and awake', and was simply awaiting the touch of Morrolan's hand.
Considering those two pairs of 'coincidences', I might suspect Steve of cheating and re-using texts. Cough cough. But I'm sure he just put them in there to sustain canon. Not that he's ever gone through an effort to do that before ... ;)
So. Blackwand was simply waiting; Pathfinder needed to be awakened; Lady Teldra (aka Godslayer) needed to be 'reassembled'. There should, I expect, be little more dissention amongst the ranks of Mssr. Brust's fans in regards to these little items ...
Thomas Crain
aka Felix Eisen
aka The Wyrm Ouroboros