Arran Posted October 1, 2013 Report Share Posted October 1, 2013 I've been wondering about this a while. I believe it was mentioned somewhere in TWoK (can't remember where) that "the Parshendi had Shardbearers – not many, but some," or words to that effect. What kind of number would that represent to an Alethi whose kingdom has twenty Shardbearers? And there's now at least two fewer Parshendi Shardbearers then there were at the beginning of the war, given that we know Dalinar killed two. Of course, it could be that, for whatever reason, the Parshendi have revealed to the Alethi only part of the number of Shardbearers among their ranks. Also, the Parshendi apparently send only "full" Shardbearers (meaning warriors bearing both Shardplate and Shardblade) into battle, given that we know Sadeas had battled Parshendi Shardbearers several times and always had to retreat because he lacked a Shardblade. This could a sign that there's a common agreement among the Parshendi that warriors worthy of being Shardbearers should receive both kinds of Shards, which is IMO possible given their cooperative way of fighting and willingness to sacrifice themselves, or that Shardbearers bearing only Plate or Blade are kept from battle. But for the purpose of this thread, I'd like to focus what we know for a certainty given the number of Parshendi Shardbearers, and speculate from that point. My own completely subjective estimate is that the Alethi might have encountered 6-8 Parshendi Shardbearers since the start of the war, of which there are 3-6 left after the losses they've taken at the hands of Dalinar and the rest of the Alethi. What's your estimates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodfalcon he/him Posted October 1, 2013 Report Share Posted October 1, 2013 I think that is a reasonable assumption considering what we know. I thought I remembered a similar quote about the Parshendi having not many Shardearers, but it really is an unusual quote. Wasn't the number of Parshendi in general pretty mysterious throughout the book? I'm not sure how anyone could know how many Shardbearers they would have. Hell, there are a few humans with Shardblades that have stayed incognito. My suspicious mind would like to think we have a surprise coming here soon concerning the amount of Shards in their possession, but realistically I would agree with those numbers. As far as the Shattered Plains are concerned, I don't feel like we'll see more than another 2 or 3 around there.Side note: when I type the word "Shardbearer" I can't help thinking about the possibility of a Shard-bear. Huge, vicious creature with Shardplate for skin and mini shardblades for teeth. Of course, that might mean the Shard-bear has to summon all of his teeth. So they may typically go around gumming everything... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shardlet he/him Posted October 1, 2013 Report Share Posted October 1, 2013 upvote for the shard-bear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name_here Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 One of the readings on the site (not from Steelhunt; look through the news archive) has a chapter from Words Of Radiance with a Parshendi viewpoint character. Apparently there's actually not all that many Parshendi or Parshendi Shardbearers. 6-8 originally seems a pretty good estimate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arran Posted October 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2013 Thanks for your answers. Looks like I'm probably not too much off the mark. I guess we'll find out more about the Parshendi Shardbearers in Words of Radiance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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