[Mekeritrig]

At this point in Tiste history, are Hust blades being quenched in eleint blood? That seems to be one of their defining features, as Yedan Derryg and Silchas Ruin both note in CG; this is the reason for their special efficacy against dragons. But the Tiste in FoD don't seem to have had experience with dragons yet -- Mother Dark saw them in the surrounding Chaos when she came into her power on the Spar of Andii, but she has to describe them to artists, who still get it wrong. They base their conception of them upon a forest-dwelling reptile in KG.

So, do the Hust have access to it? It's said by Anomander's captain that Anomander knows the Husts' secret? Is dragon blood the secret he's talking about? In the captain's pondering, he recalls speaking with one of the Husts, who says that it is the twisting of the core of the blade which makes it laugh and scream; is he lying? Dragon's blood has tons of power and presumably would have a significant effect on a weapon, so it might be the source of the blades' "personalities."

Also, as we see in CG, the Liosan who drink the blood of Kessobahn have mixed results. The first 14 are fine, lovely little Soletaken. After that, the blood spoils and those who drink it go mad and die. And this is all while Kessobahn is alive (how it is that his blood could go bad is a different question). All that to say, could quenching blades in old blood gone bad explain why the blades are insane?

Any thoughts?

This post has been edited by Mekeritrig: 13 June 2014 - 12:22 AM

[Inane Babble]

The ancient Letherii also knew how to make weapons that have a "voice" if I am not mistaken. The hust blades may be being quenched in dragon blood at the time of FOD when Anomander has grief made, but I doubt it, it's likely just a mythical method of sword construction possibly aided with sorcery.

Dragon blood gives out power based on (a) the owner of the blood and ( in order of consumption


IMO IMO IMO IMO

The strength of the power you can take from a dragon drops the further in line you are, I think what happens is the dragons essence is diminished and they start drinking more and more pure chaos, which reaches a tipping point eventually becoming poison.

[Spoilsport Stonny]

There's also the idea of what happens when the soletaken Andii (like Silchas) semble into dragon form while holding the swords and the swords become part of their makeup. Obviously that's because of the Chaos inherent in the blades but since Chaos = Elient there's some interesting parallels to be drawn there.

I've posited the quenched in dragon blood theory before but when I recently re-read Dust of Dreams, after my re-read of FoD there was this quote that I immediately picked up on:

Dod CH. 21:

Quote

Yedan Derryg had walked a thousand or more paces along the ethereal First Shore, but now at last he was returning. And in one hand, Yan Tovis saw, he held a sword. The weapon flashed green in the incandescent fall of liquid light. The blade was long as a man's leg yet thinner than the width of a hand. A wire basket hilt shielded the grip. As he came up to where she stood, something lit his eyes.
'A Hust sword, sister.'
'And it's healed.'
'Yes.'
'But how can a broken sword grow back?'
'Quenched in dragon's blood,' he replied. 'Hust weapons are immortal, immune to all decay. They can shear other blades in two.' He held up the sword. 'This is a five-blade sword—tested against five, cut through them all. Twilight, there is no higher calibre of sword than the one you see here. It was the possession of a Hustas, a Master of the House itself—only children of the Forge could own such weapons.'
'And the woman threw it away.'

So rock on.

EDIT: And now I realize OP already brought up that Yedan mentioned their quenching. See people this is the problem with helping a rock band destroy two cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon on a work night.

This post has been edited by Spoilsport Stonny: 13 June 2014 - 03:02 PM

[Saitama]

Mekeritrig, on 12 June 2014 - 10:09 PM, said:

In the captain's pondering, he recalls speaking with one of the Husts, who says that it is the twisting of the core of the blade which makes it laugh and scream; is he lying?

Inane Babble, on 13 June 2014 - 12:31 PM, said:

The ancient Letherii also knew how to make weapons that have a "voice" if I am not mistaken.

Just a moment ago I had a random thought about Silchas' Letherii swords and after a quick visit to the malazan wiki, I'm pretty sure that they were an attempt at recreating the hust sword by andii survivors:

-Andii+Edur invaded Lether long ago
-wiki: the forging technique is called 'Blue Style'. Blue=Bluerose=Andii?
-both weapons 'sing' and both regenerate (letherii is inferior in that regard)
-one of Silchas' swords has a core "of twisted wire with five braids of sixty strands each"

Maybe the anti-eleint husts are version 2.0? Tiste survivors were able to partially reproduce the hust swords, but didn't have access to eleint blood. That would explain why in FoD we have husts, but not dragons. Eleint blood is an enhancement, not a requirement.

The survivors weren't able to reproduce it perfectly (not only because of lack of dragon blood) and that may be why Silchas doesn't recognize his blades as husts - they are similar but not the same.

This post has been edited by Saitama: 17 September 2014 - 08:37 AM

[worry]

I've had similar thoughts regarding the Husts/Eleint. It only makes sense that the Hust we see in FoD don't have Eleint blood. I guess you could argue that this world has seen Eleint before, long ago, so blood reserves might be available, but that seems like a long shot. The Blue Style lineage is a pretty cool idea too.

It's possible that the Hust swords thirst for blood, period. And once they "taste" one kind or another they crave it, Eleint being the most addictive of all. Just a thought that popped into my head, not necessarily a strong theory. And another crazy thought: the methods of the post-Eleint Hust, the properties of dragon blood as traps for beings, and the nature of Dragnipur are all inter-related somehow.

[DaddyDraconus]

A thought, the watch mentioning that the Hust sword was insane could be releating to :

Spoiler

The massacre of the Hust legion and how all the blades keened at the deaths of their wielders