Ebony Blade (Skyrim)

The Ebony Blade Is a Two-handed sword in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Locations
You can obtain it from the quest "The Whispering Door".

Characteristics
This weapon comes with a 10 point life leech and can be upgraded by slaying your friends (i.e., someone you've completed a favor for, completed a task for, or won over during any type of quest). For every two such characters killed the weapon increases in power, adding two to the strength of the life leech effect up to the maximum of 30.

Contrary to its classification, this weapon benefits only from one-handed damage item enchantments. For example, the Armsman perk(s) will affect its damage value. The mystery of this perk mismatch is only deepened, since a character with a properly filled Two-Handed perk tree and an untouched One-Handed can still perform decapitations with the Ebony Blade.

Using the Ebony Blade can benefit characters who want to continue leveling up through weapon advancement but have maxed out their one-handed weapon skill. The weapon allows for a character to train the two-handed weapon skill without sacrificing damage or having to change gear. However, for characters that use two-handed weapons normally, this weapon is a poor choice because of its skill/perk mismatch.

In total, the weapon behaves as a two hander with the following exceptions:


 * 1) It benefits from +one-handed damage effects from enchants and potions and does not benefit from +two-handed damage effects from enchants and potions.
 * 2) It benefits from One-Handed weapon perks and not Two-Handed weapon perks with regard to quantitative changes to attacks. i.e., changes to damage and the cost of power attacks from the one-handed perks effect the Ebony Blade.

This unique behavior may or may not be a glitch, see commentary below and talk. Investigation of the game code has confirmed that the weapon shares template data from both One-Handed and Two-Handed swords leading to this mix of traits, see talk.

It cannot be improved via smithing even if you have the Arcane Blacksmith perk.

Its life leech enchant is not limited by charges; it has an unlimited charge.

The weapon itself resembles the Akaviri Dai-Katana.

Background
The Ebony blade was rewarded to the Hero of Daggerfall sometime after the War of Betony. The blade was around, since the time of the Eternal Champion. It is also believed that the Eternal Champion himself once wielded the blade.

During the Oblivion Crisis, it is often said that the mighty Hero of Kvatch himself wielded this Daedric Artifact of Mephala. Some say that the Hero had to complete an indeed gruesome task given by Mephala, to acquire this demonic blade. If this story is really true, we may never know.

The Ebony Blade is indeed dark. The legend says, "The Ebony Blade, sometimes called the Vampire or the Leech, resembles an ebony katana, and its power is very dark indeed. Every time the Ebony Blade strikes an opponent, part of the damage inflicted flows into the wielder as raw power. The Blade itself may not be any more evil than those who have used it, but at some point in its history, a charm was cast on it so it would not remain with any one bladesman for long. The wizard who cast this charm sought to save the souls of any too infatuated by the Blade, and perhaps he was right to do so."

Upgrading

 * First way: You have to kill NPCs you did quests for. You can either go on a killing rampage in a town or select your victims one by one.
 * Second Way ("Victimless"): You have to own Breezehome and have to have Lydia as a Housecarl. You have to kill Lydia with the Ebony Blade and resurrect her using console commands (click on Lydia and type in "resurrect" without the quotes). Repeat until the Whispering Lady tells you that the blade has returned to it's full glory (around 10 times).
 * Instead of using console commands, you can just kill 1 person who likes you, and reanimate them with "Dead Thrall." Because "Dead Thrall" doesn't turn them into ash when they die, the NPC can just be repeatedly killed the require number of times. This should also work for consoles. Confirmed on 360. (Needs confirmation on PC and PS3.)
 * If you do not have "Dead Thrall," you may be able to reduce the amount of victims by using other reanimation spells on NPCs you have killed. (Confirmed PS3)
 * Third Way ("Victimless" and works on console) complete the Dark Brotherhood quest series and continue to kill your Initiates. They respawn every few days as a male or female version. (needs verification)doesnt work on 360 initiates dont die
 * (struck: Meeko counts as a victim, thus there is no "no victims" way of upgrading the blade. Any NPC killed will count towards the upgrade, even if you resurrect them via console commands.)
 * Incidentally, the other Daedric Shrine quests often provide numerous opportunities to upgrade the Ebony Blade. Boethiah's quest involves both slaying a companion (one charge) and the cult leader who gives the quest upon investigation (second charge). If you choose to obtain Mehrune's Razor at the end of 'Pieces of the Past,' Silus counts towards another charge. The same applies to Hircine's quest, should you choose the Savior's Hide instead of the Ring of Hircine.
 * Mercenaries and followers are also easy ways to add charges. Foes that you best in gambling brawls often become followers immediately thereafter, and mercenaries can be hired for 500 gold.
 * For PC players, another way to cheat and empower the blade without negatively effecting NPC relationships is to find NPCs like bandits to set to a relationship rank of 3 or higher via the console and then kill them. This is the only way for a player who wants to maintain an unblemished "good guy" radiant story set to empower the blade. Otherwise, such as with the resurrect method, effected NPCs and their affiliations are liable to maintain the negative mark against the player resulting in, among possible other changes, greetings such as "Every time I see you my blood boils." and "What do you need you miserable wretch." etc.
 * Another charge can be obtained by killing the blind bandit in White River Watch. Just tell him you are who he thinks you are first. It should give you a charge (it did for my game) since he thinks you're telling the truth.
 * Another way of doing this is by finding a beggar within the town, giving them a single septim, then immediately killing them. This counts as a 'quest'/like status with them, and will give you a charge.

The Irony of Ebony
The following is an extrapolation on the weapon's flavor text, the nature of Mephala, and the irony of the apparent bugged nature of the item:

For those that are not familiar with Mephala and her ways, this blade can appear to be "bugged" or "glitched" when they wield it. Mephala is the god of deceit and lies amongst other things and as you progress into The Whispering Door quest you'll understand the nature of Mephala much better. The Ebony Blade itself embodies this very nature. Mephala tells you the blade hungers for deceptive killing and will only become more powerful with each deceitful death.

As you kill more of your friends and followers the blade grows stronger until Mephala announces that it has reached its former glory. Upon opening your inventory to view the blade, you'll notice no visible stat changes in damage. Upon using the blade you'll notice that the life drain has increased.

For most of you the immediate feeling is mixed. Happiness that the blade steals more life, but disappointment that the blade doesn't do more raw physical damage. Essentially the blade is a one handed weapon that requires both of your hands, which means 100% commitment to using the blade and nothing else. So what should the wielder (AKA you) do to make the blade more powerful? Maxing your one-handed perks still gives this blade so-so damage, It can't be honed or sharpened at the blacksmith and two-handed perks don't help it. You can see how this is slightly frustrating? Maybe even maddening? Almost makes you want to go kill more of your friends to try and make the blade more powerful doesn't it? After all, Mephala herself said the blade reached it's former glory, but not that it has reached it's full potential.

Welcome to the will of Mephala. Insanity derived from a lust for power so strong it drives you to kill those that you've befriended and care about. The person who has been deceiving (AKA you) has ultimately been deceived yourself. Mephala has forced you commit all your attention to the blade by using both hands to wield it, but after killing your friends and followers the blade still possesses the power of a one-handed weapon. This is the irony of the Ebony Blade and the reason it drives all who use it into madness. For Mephala never truly had any intentions of letting you only kill a few innocent friends to gain ultimate power. The blade is only designed as an instrument to wreck havoc on Tamriel and carry her will out, much the way Mehrunes' Razor ultimately carries Mehrunes Dagons' will out.

This is the way of the Daedra. There is always a hidden stipulation or motive behind their artifacts and usually something or someone is sacrificed in order to acquire and use them. The lesson here is that nothing is truly free and if something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

While this isn't based on any official lore in the game, it seems to be what Bethesda was aiming for. After all, it's pretty lazy to assume a dev accidentally made the Ebony Blade point to the one-handed skill tree instead of the two-handed. However, in the unlikely event that i'm wrong and Bethesda corrects the Ebony Blade to being a two-handed weapon in a future patch, anyone can remove this section, and I'll eat my hide helmet.

Bugs

 * When trying to place the Ebony Blade on a weapon rack or weapon plaque, it "falls off" immediately. After this, the same happens to any other "greatsword," such as a Dwarven Greatsword or a Glass Greatsword. Exiting the area does not seem to fix this either. The only fix appears to be loading a previous save.
 * This seems to be a way to "drop" Red Eagle's Fury from your inventory indirectly.
 * The Ebony Blade, though it uses a two-handed mesh file, uses the template for a one-handed weapon, resulting in improper sound files, attack speed, damage, weight, perk benefits, impact force, and stamina usage.
 * Bethesda has not confirmed whether the blade is intended to be one-handed or two-handed, and is currently a mismatched amalgamation of the two.
 * Killing your spouse will not fully charge the Ebony Blade, despite the fact that it is heavily implied it should.

{C}{C Эбонитовый Клинок (Skyrim)