Ebony Blade (Skyrim)

Ebony Blade

Base Damage	Weight	Base Value
11	10	2000

Additional Effects

Absorbs the life essence of foes. Strengthened by the blood of deceit.

Class

Two-Handed

FormID
0004A38F

The Ebony Blade is a Two-Handed weapon found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Resembling an Akaviri Dai-Katana, the Ebony Blade is a Daedric artifact belonging to Mephala. Killing kindred with the blade bolsters its power. Followers can wield the blade, but cannot fortify the enchantment unless instructed to kill an ally.

History

The blade has changed hands many times over the years. It is believed that the Eternal Champion himself once wielded the blade when it was discovered in Valenwood. Later, it was rewarded to the Hero of Daggerfall sometime after the War of Bretony. In the late Third Era, the Hero of Kvatch was granted the blade by Mephala.

Acquisition

The Ebony Blade is obtained in the Daedric quest "The Whispering Door", which can be initiated by speaking with the barkeep Hulda at The Bannered Mare in Whiterun after level 20 and completing the quest "Dragon Rising". If Hulda is killed, Ysolda will not begin the quest. But it can be started using the command "setstage DA08 10".

Enchantment

This weapon starts with a 10-point Absorb Health enchantment that can be increased by slaying friendly characters. For example, someone whose favor has been completed, or someone who's been won over during any type of quest can be absorbed by the blade.

For every two such characters killed, the weapon's Absorb Health enchantment increases 4 points. Killing ten friendly characters maximizes its power, granting a maximum of 30 points Absorb Health per hit.

Its Absorb Health enchantment has unlimited uses and never needs to be recharged. This makes this weapon ideal for followers, especially if followers are used to sustain massive amounts of damage.

Mephala's voice sounds after every-other friendly NPC kill, commenting on the progress of the blade. Her voice's dialogue, in order, is such:

2^nd Kill - "Excellent work, Child."

4^th Kill - "I can feel their heartbreak swelling in my blade."

6^th Kill - "Their tears shine the ebony to a sharpest gleam."

8^th Kill - "Ah, the blood of deceit is a noursing flow."

10^th Kill - "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."

One can be sure the blade is empowered after slaying allies if the hilt glows red with a radiant particle effect.

Smithing

The blade cannot be upgraded. This is possibly explained in Admonition Against Ebony which states that: "Not even the hottest fires of the Skyforge could melt it; indeed the coals themselves seemed to cool when it was placed within," revealing the sword's immunity to heat or normal forging/smithing techniques.

Weapon classification

The blade behaves as a Two-Handed weapon with the following exceptions:

It only benefits from One-Handed damage effects, enchantments, potions.
It benefits from One-Handed weapon perks. [Fixed: from patch 1.9 it benefits only from two-handed perks]
It does swing as fast as most One-Handed weapons.

Contrary to its classification, this weapon benefits only from One-Handed enchantments and perks. However using the weapon increases the Two-Handed weapon skill. Game code confirms that the weapon shares template data from both One-Handed and Two-Handed swords, leading to this mix of traits. It is because of this that the weapon does not stay on weapon racks, once this bug is fixed it will stay on the rack. For PCs a simple adjustment with the creation kit solves this.

Usefulness

This sword, in some ways, is an upgraded version of the Blade of Woe. It's two handed and has unlimited charge. Using the Ebony Blade can benefit characters who wish to continue leveling up through weapon advancement but have maximized their one-handed weapon skill. The weapon allows for a character to train the two-handed weapon skill without sacrificing damage. However, for characters that use two-handed weapons normally, this weapon is a poor choice because of its skill/perk mismatch. As the Enchanting skill advances, the Blade becomes inferior, for with a Black Soul Gem and a Fortify Enchanting potion, a weapon can easily be crafted with an Absorb Health enchantment above 30, and it may also be improvable at a grindstone with a higher base damage.

Potential kills

Several potential targets are listed. Their deaths will count as a charge towards the sword.

Characters

Any beggar - giving them a single septim to gain favor, then killing them.
Mercenaries and followers. Characters that are bested in gambling brawls often become followers immediately thereafter and mercenaries can be hired for 500 gold.
Dogs that are followers. Tested and confirmed on Meeko and Vigilance.
Orc Strongholds - Upon retrieving the Forgemaster's Fingers, simply slaughter everyone in at least two of the four strongholds including the miners.
Cicero during The Cure for Madness
Amaund Motierre - killed at the end of Hail Sithis! after he reveals where the gold is.
Betrid Silver-Blood during the quest The Forsworn Conspiracy. Killing her before her inevitable death will grant a charge, after which the Dragonborn can try yielding and paying the fee, then continue with the quest.
Jaree-Ra and Deeja during Lights Out!.
Nilsine Shatter-Shield during Mourning Never Comes. Player must have completed Blood on the Ice first.
Also any innkeepers or merchants. As long as there are no witnesses, no bounties can be added by the holds.
If you decide to kill everyone for the Taste of Death quest it gives you a few charges you can feel no guilt about and if you kill Verulus with it during the quest it counts as a charge.
Hroggar during Laid to Rest. Sell some firewood to him before breaking into Alva's house and then kill him there with the Blade.
Completing the quest The Chief of Thirsk Hall (Dragonborn DLC) allows select Rieklings to become followers. Killing these while they are followers counts towards the needed kills without the need to lose potential allies or NPCs. Also, Bujold the Intrepid, maybe the other nords, and maybe the old chief count as charges during this same quest.

Daedric quests

Boethiah's Calling - involves both slaying a companion (one charge) and the cult leader who gives the quest upon investigation (second charge).
Pieces of the Past - If the Dragonborn chooses to obtain Mehrunes' Razor, Silus counts towards another charge.
Ill Met By Moonlight - Killing Sinding, should the Dragonborn choose the Savior's Hide instead of the Ring of Hircine. Killing the dying hunter J'Kier after speaking to him inside the entrance to Bloated Man's Grotto may also charge it, needs confirming though
The Taste of Death - The Dragonborn has to kill Brother Verulus at the conclusion of the quest.
Walking Nightmare - Much like Mehrunes' Razor, if the Dragonborn chooses to obtain the Skull of Corruption, Erandur counts towards another charge.

Exploits

PC This way only requires one friendly NPC. Simply killing him with the Ebony Blade and resurrecting him by clicking on him in the console and typing "resurrect" (without the quotes) also works. Also the command player.placeatme xxx (xxx is the NPCs ID) works with a friendly NPC. If 10 of the same NPCs are resurrected all together nothing happens. They just walk back to a door and head back for their house.
PC 360 PS3 Instead of using console commands, the player can just kill one person who likes the Dragonborn and reanimate them with Dead Thrall or the Ritual Stone. Because these powers dont turn them into ash when they die, the NPC can be repeatedly killed the required number of times. (Tested on patch 1.4.21.0.4) . Death Hound followers from the Dawnguard DLC are a good victim, as they won't fight back and have only few health.
PC 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, affected NPCs and their affiliations are liable to maintain the negative mark against the player resulting in, among possible other changes, greetings such as, "I should have bashed your face in for what you've done," and "Something you need, you miserable wretch?" (Does not happen with every NPC)
PC 360 PS3 To quickly charge the blade, one may conjure a familiar and kill it repeatedly. This provides unlimited charges, as the familiars have very low health, and is not considered cheating. No negative NPC relationships will be incurred.

Trivia

If the player unlocks the whispering door with a console command before the quest has started, a cabinet will appear on the other side of the door, barring entry to the room.
The Ebony Blade has the lowest base damage of all two-handed weapons.
If attempted to place on any weapon rack, it will be dropped randomly on the ground.
The blade can be obtained through a glitch, by standing on a cabinet near the whispering door and stepping on a platter. This puts the player on the other side of the wall, requiring a second platter to escape again.
The Ebony Blade shares similarities with Stormbringer, a black, runed sword from the Elric of Melnibone novels. Stormbringer strengthened its wielder by absorbing souls, including those of friends and lovers. Elric was called the Eternal Champion, a name also shared by a previous wielder of the Ebony Blade.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Ebony Blade (Skyrim). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:

Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening.
If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template 360 / XB1 , PS3 / PS4 , PC / MAC , NX / PS5 , XS , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.
Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.

Click to see the list of bugs encountered.
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. 360 Adding to the belief that the skill mismatch is intentional is an associated armor glitch: While taking melee damage while holding the Ebony Blade and wearing full Heavy Armor, the Light armor skill levels up. However, it also levels up the Heavy armor skill. Two handed weapon enchantments do not improve the melee power of the blade but using one handed weapon enchantments can increase the melee output. Guards will both comment about the Dragonborn using two-handed weapons and one-handed weapons, since the sword is considered as a two handed weapon while also being a one handed weapon. It is possible to obtain the blade without meeting any requirements to start it (before level 20 or doing the main questline requirement). Using a Wooden Bowl and Whirlwind Sprint glitch, the player can enter the room and retrieve the blade. (See Bugs Section of Whirlwind Sprint for exact details.) However, once inside, the player might notice that the Whispering Door (the actual thing that speaks) is actually a dresser hidden behind the door. This poses an immediate problem of getting back out. If the Dragonborn goes on the left side of the dresser and places the Wooden Bowl so that it is resting at an angle on the door hinge, he can glitch back out, though it may take more than one try. (Needs testing PS3, 360, PC) An alternative to the above is to get a guard's attention by committing a crime. While guards are coming after the player, quickly glitching through the door and getting the blade then stepping back near the Whispering Door so the guard activates the dialogue to convict the player of his crime and to be taken to jail can get one out. Finishing the quest "The Whispering Door" and obtaining the blade may cause any subsequent saves to be corrupted and not load afterwards. Since it's unknown if it's the quest or picking up the blade itself that causes the corruption, it's advisable to create a save file at the beginning of the quest before unlocking the locked door at the end of the quest and before picking up the blade, (tried this on PC saving before as well as after and had no issues loading previous save games or alternate character saves after unlocking the door AND after picking up the sword. Console issue only?). This weapon ( like some other daedirc artifacts) has an unstable physical model which causes it to dissapear, delete, move, and fall, when placed on weapon plaques, weapon racks, and in the world in general. Exercise caution when placing it in a home. However it is not affected when placed in a storage container or while in inventroy. PS3 Template:Pc 360 360 When leveling the Ebony Blade using the 'Dead Thrall' method, killing the NPC directly via melee damage may cause them to freeze in their location upon being reanimated. (needs confirmation on PC and PS3) PS3 If used after a Bound Weapon, the Ebony Blade may go into the position that a Bound Sword/Battleaxe is summoned in. However, it will then be sheathed and brought out again.