Skyrim talk:Ebony Blade

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Archive 1: Jan 2012 - Jul 2012

Ebony Blade Common Sense Questions[edit]

Everyone wants to argue about the skill blah blah etc and anyone looking for quick down to earth info has to get lost in all this unnecessary splitting hairs. People have gotten so much into detail on the technical side of the Ebony Blade and misses the simple questions or ways to go about it.

1. How do you charge it? "kill NPCs determined friendly after doing their quests etc" We got that... How about just put some type of marker or image on character pages for eligible characters for charging the blade? Simple... If someone wants to compile that together to have an actual list, by all means... Forget this good and bad character... If someone is playing the game then they can determine who they want to kill after interacting with them...just show who is eligible.

2. A question that NO ONE has seemed to answer...HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT IS FULLY CHARGED? thanks for your rants about stats. But could someone simply answer this with the last phrase that is said or specific number of people and STATE IT. I've yet to see anyone really mention that the charge and speaking comes after every 2 kills. Some reading these so called "hints" can easily be confused thinking there is a glitch or something is wrong because something is not said after every kill.

I would love to see the answers to any of these (eligibility or when it is fully charged) and would offer the answers but still trying to figure it out myself with multiple characters to try and cover every avenue. But it would be much appreciated if this was passed along to whoever has the info for whatever pages, as all sites are talking about the same things. Stats...one hand, two hand...we get it. I'm sure a lot of people would love to know the answers to those 2 simple questions without the distractions of other things so again, I suggest just put a little asterik of some kind on character pages for those eligible and someone please just put how/when you'll know the Ebony Blade is fully charged.

Well, I can answer your 2nd question, sort of. The article states that "for every two such NPCs that are killed with the blade, Mephala will speak to the player, and the blade's Absorb Health effect will increase by 4 points", which is accurate. This isn't a glitch or something gone wrong with the game, because Mephala is scripted to say something every two kills, not after every kill. I believe there isn't any other indication of the charge of the blade other than Mephala's dialogue. Even the blade's enchantment doesn't show on the weapon in your inventory. Her dialogue goes as follows:
After the killing the first two eligible NPCs, the blade will have an enchantment of 14 points Absorb Health, and Mephala will say the following: "Excellent work, child."
After the third and fourth kill, enchantment = 18 pts, dialogue: "I can feel their heartbreak swelling in my blade."
After the fifth and sixth kill, enchantment = 22 pts, dialogue: "Their tears shine the ebony to a sharpest gleam."
After the seventh and eight kill, enchantment = 26 pts, dialogue: "Ah, the blood of deceit is a nourishing flow. "
After the last two kills, enchantment = 30 pts, and this is the dialogue you will be hearing and looking out for when the blade is fully charged: "At last, my blade is returned to its full glory. Now go forth, child. Continue your tiny subversions against the orders of trust and intimacy."
As for the NPCs to kill, I'm quite positive that this page is pretty extensive. Hope all this helps. ~ Psylocke 02:12, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Save Corruption[edit]

Sorry if this has been asked before and answered, but I don't see anything on this page or the page for the quest on it. Quite a few websites have said that either acquiring the Ebony Blade or just starting the quest causes your saves to become corrupt. Some have said that it only corrupts any saves you make afterwards, but some say it corrupts all previous saves along with all the saves afterwards. Is any of this true? I've tried going through, but don't want to risk losing my progress for it. WolfMaster91 00:06, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Well I have never had this happen to me and I have done this quest on 5 different characters. I am not sure where you read this but a quick google search only pulled up 2 relevant links, the other wiki where the information seems to have come from and a post on a forum where the only two responders say it did not happen to them either. I would have expected a lot more people complaining if this was a real bug, it was possibly a one off someone had. — Kimi the Elf (talk | contribs) 00:47, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Quest Breaking[edit]

Above, someone mentioned that giving the Ebony Blade to a follower will possibly break the quest to increase the Blade's enchantnent power; At the very least, the women stops talking to you. Does anyone know if the blade stips bring upgraded, or if you just stop being told it's being upgraded? Also, being disarmed with the blade appears to have the same effect. In Yngols Barrow (a Nordic tomb on the river bank northeast of Windhelm), I was disarmed by the boss and haven't heard the lady since. I will make sure that's the problem, and not it's not just a problem of killing NOC's who aren't friendly, but I thought it was worth mentioning. DeBlackKnight 21:37, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

EDIT: Nevermind my second comment. After completing a quest for a orc stronghold, I accidently hit another orc in a friendly brawl with the Chief. I decided to just kill all of them, and ended getting the final two level for the 30 point health absorption.DeBlackKnight 22:18, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Dead Thrall[edit]

Just some advice for on the page. You can spare lifes (and an awful lot of time) by killing the desired NPC, then use Dead Thrall on them to reanimate him/her and repeat the process (kill, thrall, kill, thrall) — Unsigned comment by 62.163.133.201 (talk) at 22:34 on 30 August 2012

Yes, this is fully explained on the linked "victims" page. SilencerSpeak 22:47, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Attacking NPC's without becoming hostile[edit]

In the article is says that "A second Ebony Blade (item ID ea29c) is included in Skyrim, though it cannot be obtained without the use of the console. This version of the Blade allows a player to attack NPCs without having them become hostile. This effect matches the description of how Mephala says the Blade should function once it is sufficiently powerful."

In my game however, on xbox, when I kill a friendly NPC (it's a fine day with you around etc) everybody stops attacking me the moment he or she is killed with the ebony blade and I don't get any bounty. Shouldn't this be on the article, or is this just a glitch in my game? RIM (talk) 11:02, 3 December 2012 (GMT)

Stored value?[edit]

Is there a way to access any sort of stored value for the number of valid kills that have been made by the Ebony Blade (globalvalue for instance)? Schiffy (talk) 04:50, 8 December 2012 (GMT)

Yes, by typing sqv DA08EbonyBladeTracking - it's a quest variable. The value of FriendsKilled_var is the valid kills registered so far. --Alfwyn (talk) 15:00, 28 January 2013 (GMT)

Two versions[edit]

Hi, I'm confused, I was derping in the construction set and noticed that there were two different versions of the Ebony Blade, DA08EbonyBlade and DA08RealEbonyBlade. I know that the Blade get better after some twenty-ish friendly kills, but I thought it was just the enchantment that was improved? Also the "real" one has slightly better stats, but it doesn't have any counts... Does anyone know just what exactly happens during the improvement of the Ebony Blade on a Creation Kit level? Jyggorath (talk) 14:11, 28 January 2013 (GMT)

At DA08EbonyBladeTraditionalEnchantment the successive effects check the DA08EbonyBladeTracking::FriendsKilled_var for the number of friends killed. That variable is updated by the quest DA08FriendKilled, which is triggered by the DA08KillFriendNode (SM Event Node->Kill Actor Event).
DA08RealEbonyBlade is used by the quest DA08, and there is a property RealEbonyBlade to the script DA08QuestScript, but it is not used there any further.
So the second version is just not used, and has no role in the improvement of the blade. --Alfwyn (talk) 14:55, 28 January 2013 (GMT)

Improving the blade[edit]

On PC I was able to improve the blade to exquisite quality, however I cannot improve it past this. — Unsigned comment by 75.119.255.236 (talk) at 00:45 on 3 April 2013 (GMT)

Are you using mods? The Ebony Blade cannot be tempered under normal game conditions. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 00:45, 3 April 2013 (GMT)
Turns out the unofficial skyrim patch "fixes" this — Unsigned comment by 75.119.255.236 (talk) at 01:08 on 3 April 2013 (GMT)

My version of the bug[edit]

The larger paragraph under the bugs section describes one specific bug. Mine is similar but modified a bit. As described, using the weapon trains the two-handed general skill. But it does not benefit from one-handed perks (or two-handed perks). It's a very frustrating bug; the one described on the page actually wouldn't be too bad in comparison. In fact it could even be a useful exploit to be able to apply one-handed perks to a two-handed blade. But as the game progresses the base damage for the weapon remains mired in the 20s (while other weapons are up in the hundreds) no matter how high I raise the Armsman perk. Shame because it is unique in its speed coupled with two-handed training ability. I just thought this information could be useful for people who might not want the patch. 64.121.50.17 09:01, 10 May 2013 (GMT)

Oblivion Walker Achievement[edit]

This would be useful to add on the article, if its not mentioned already. I would like to know whether or not having the Ebony Blade in its original(first) form counts towards the achievement, Or do I have to fill the blade to get it? — Unsigned comment by ThierryJohn001 (talkcontribs) at 03:30 on 26 July 2013

Never got final message[edit]

So, I started working on powering this up, and I had whacked a few folks before, then put the blade away for a while. Went back to it, and I got the first two lines (got the first one multiple times) but have never heard the final message. Checking via the console, I have ten kills, but the blade does not appear to be powered up. Is there a way to test/check this? FMPhoenixHawk (talk) 08:42, 26 August 2014 (GMT)

Final Message[edit]

I also have been trying to power up the Ebony Blade, I have used several of the victims mentioned here, and have gotten all but the
final message. I am on PS3,so I lack the ability to check how ,any kills I actually have.71.238.15.188 15:44, 21 September 2014 (GMT)

Bug with blade power-ups (360) -- save the game near eligible corpse, quit to dashboard and load that save.[edit]

Moved from Skyrim talk:Ebony Blade Victims

I did some experimenting and found that NPCs that should power the blade don't always do. I went on a huge rampage, because I was frustrated that using the blade to Destroy the Dark Brotherhood didn't power the blade, even though it has been confirmed to. Nor did it work raising all five with the Ritual Power and slaughtering them again. On my repeated rampages and reloads I found that sometimes an NPC would power the blade, and other times the same NPC wouldn't. It could be that attacking certain people lowers others disposition to you, making them ineligible, or some other bug altogether. Anyway, the workaround I discovered by accident when I loaded my Dark Brother Sanctuary save. By going from the Xbox dashboard to that save (without zoning or reloading) I found that using the Ritual power and killing them powered up the blade. But if quit to mainscreen and load that game, it won't work. This could be the case with other NPCs that have been dismissed as being eligible, like Skjor whose corpse remains in Gallows Rock after completing The Silver Hand (Skjor is probably the best to power the blade if you're not keen on killing anyone at all)--RumblePen (talk) 02:53, 4 January 2015 (GMT)

Just a note: I tried to use Skjor's corpse (as mentioned above) but even with Dead Thrall it said he was too powerful for the spell and it failed. As far as I know that's the most powerful reanimate spell in the game. If I'm missing something please let me know. (Philbert) 65.25.169.116 11:13, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Killing Blow[edit]

I did a little experimenting, and I found something interesting. It seems you don't have to deliver the killing blow to a friendly NPC or even strike them. I was fighting the cannibals in the Namira quest, and both Banning and Lisbet liked me because I did each of them a favor. So when it came time to kill the cult, I focused my attention on Eola while Lydia killed everyone else, and I ended getting a message from Mephala, meaning that Banning and Lisbet were worth two points total even though Lydia was the one who killed them. Another time, I was fighting vampires with Serana and Sceolang, and the dog ended getting killed by a thrall. To my surprise, I get another message from Mephala. I immediately reset of course, but it seems that as long as a "friend" dies while you have the Ebony Blade equipped, it counts towards the charge, even if you or your follower are not the ones to kill them. If another player can confirm this, it may be worth mentioning on the main page. ChaoticQueen (talk) 18:46, 17 November 2016 (UTC)

Moved Note[edit]

The Ebony Blade appears to be loosely based on the black sword Stormbringer in the Elric of Melniboné stories by Michael Moorcock; it is a sentient, demonic blade that steals life-force from victims and imparts some of it to the wielder, and has a particular fondness for taking the lives of those closest to the wielder.

I don't this is incredibly likely. This idea is common enough to have an entire TV Tropes article. I'm not sure we can say this was inspired by any other particular setting without direct confirmation due to how many similar weapons exist. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 22:33, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Dwarven Comapions Exploit[edit]

Should you have the Dragonborn DLC and arrived on Solstheim. Head towards Kagrumez after acquiring at least four resonance stones and complete the trail. Upon completion, the gate on your left will open up, going through the gate you will encounter a lever near a shelf of Dwarven metal ingots, pull it!

A steadfast Dwarven sphere will spawn and be available as a secondary companion. Recruit the sphere then kill it, the game will count this as a charge for the blade, assuming you're looking straight ahead after entering the room, another corridor will be connected to the room you are in, enter it and turn a right upon the end. Another lever will be presented, upon pulling a steadfast dwarven spider will spawn, just like the sphere it can be recruited as a companion, do the same thing you did to the sphere and you will receive the second charge.

After this, exit Kagrumez and wait twenty-four hours, re-enter the building and go back to the companion room, upon pulling the lever the dwarven companions will respawn, do the same thing last time and receive another two charges. Rinse and repeat until the blade charges are maxed out. — Unsigned comment by AlphaRadStorm6464 (talkcontribs) at 17:38 on 10 September 2021 (UTC)