Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-39332473-20190808194309/@comment-44625412-20191213211404

MakePeaceAndLove wrote: At this point I'm fairly convinced that the Shining Swords are the result of tower magic, unless we uncover some new evidence to the contrary. But given that the blacksmiths in Eustrin have forged both armor and swords for Aram, I'm leaning towards that tower magic being applied only post-forging, as their unique blessing (just like when forging Aka's Custom Knife, we got the ore and forged it into a blade, then finished by Enchanting it) that also makes the swords (and armors) shine.

Beyond that, I'd like to pose this suggestion: the key difference between the Shining Swords and true divine shards (and soul shards for that matter) is that they hold no power of their own, as in, they are not a power source that lets their wielders cast divine magic, heal wounds and so on. Instead, I think these Shining Swords are basically, hmm... something like open power channels, they drain power from Ivala and pour it into their wielder, who in turn is transformed by the raw divine power overflowing through their body. Thus when separated from their Shining Sword, a Chosen would eventually lose their powers (and why it's possible for Kalant to give up the power and survive). This also explains how the Lustlord can use this power, the Shining Sword remains an open channel, and by studying this channel the Lustlord can find a source of great power and tap into it, using it to transform his Orcs even without understanding how these Shining Swords are created or the Chosen-making process itself, merely imitating it to get the results he wants. I think you're onto something here on the nature of the Shining Swords. Though the existence of one fully formed in the holy plane makes me think that maybe the blades are more than enchanted with Tower magic, since the one we find there is fully formed. Though I think it's said when we find that that it feels like it fits that place, which seems to solidify their nature as holy magic channels.

If I can offer another bit of speculation, maybe the way the divine magic works when channeled through the Shining Sword is that it replaces the person's own natural divine magic. That might explain why the Chosen all end up with similar personalities—no matter their starting point, the more they use their abilities, the more their divine magic is replaced by power stolen from Ivala. This would also explain why Kalant has none—his was taken away by being Chosen, and his separation from that left him lacking any divine energy, which probably isn't healthy in the long run. It might also explain how Chosen sometimes die so suddenly—when the captured Chosen dies in Chapter 3, it's said that it felt like something was 'withdrawn' from him; could this be the divine energy taken from Ivala being returned automatically if somebody tries to figure out the secret?