Grady Brandt wrote: > Isn't part of diplomacy knowing when to threaten? Diplomatically, of > course. Maybe we'll see the effect confined to just a few people, or > perhaps just a small radius. Everyone in 5 feet will know Vlad's > carrying a horrifically powerful Morganti blade, instead of everyone > in the building. > The purpose of the blade is *not* to terrify people. Maybe it will do so as a side effect - but not all Great Weapons do this. We don't even know that ordinary folk will recognize it as a GW - remember that an (is it a spoiler to call him this?) assassin welds it. Sure Vera recognized its powers (at least those relevant to her) - but she's not ordinary folk and she was watching it in use against here powerful enemies. Also - we don't know what kinds of powers it has over folk. It did some side magic as a healer - but that was during an extraordinary situation - not only was it being created, but it was being used to a maximum against ultimate enemies. Maybe that moves it to an extra heightened level. Maybe without extraordinary targets, it becomes more dormant. It is built from 3 components. A powerful Morganti dagger, a skilled Yendi, and a tool that Vlad had been learning more and more about for years - but was certainly not close to learning everything about. My guess is that this GW will be better than most at Spell Breaking. I also guess that Vlad won't know much of what this weapon does for some time to come - Which would easily fit into whatever long range plans Steve has for the series. We're way too far from the end of the series for Vlad to become a Superman. There are several paths that Steve could take to keep this from happening - we'll get a good idea when the next book is out - but he won't tell us everything.