This is a pretty important weapon, especially now given its transformation into Kingsmourne, but we don’t really know why it’s a special weapon beyond who wields it, even though it’s strongly implied to be uniquely powerful in its own right and have some inherent magical qualities.
What we know:
It was originally a pair of blades forged by Night Elves in the War of the Ancients. They were wielded by a pair of Night Elves against the Burning Legion.
The names of the original blades are "Shalla’tor and “Ellemayne” which mean “Shadow Render” and “Reaver” respectively, and so its complete form is a portmanteau that probably translates into “Shadow Reaver”
After the War of the Ancients, a bunch of ??? happened and eventually they ended up in Jaina’s care. She gave them to the twin Varians in that really weird comic and eventually they were fused together along with Varian himself by Onyxia’s magic.
As far as inherent qualities are concerned, it can split into its two original forms by the wielder. How this is done isn’t known, although Saurfang being able to do it was considered a climactic moment, suggesting that the sword might react to the qualities of its wielder.
This is further supported based on the glow above the hilt. When split, one weapon has a red glow while the other has a blue glow. In its combined form, it glowed red while in Varian’s hands. If it is not being wielded, it does not glow at all.
When Anduin collected it at the Broken Shore, it continued to lack a glow until he came to accept his duty as King, at which point it began to glow again. It has a yellow/golden glow in Anduin’s hands, further reinforcing that it reacts to its wielder.
Anduin is not very strong, but when he used it in the Battle for Lordaeron, specifically in the BfA cinematic, it seemed to enhance the magnitude of his blows, sloppy as they were, enough to cause shockwaves on impact with his target.
Sylvanas and the Jailer seemed to be interested in it the moment they saw it, suggesting there may be a reason that they chose it in particular to forge into Kingsmourne.
So from what we know, it can be split in two or wielded by itself as a greatsword, its glow changes depending on who wields it and their confidence, and that it seems to somehow enhance the blows of its wielder to be stronger than they would otherwise be.
While this is a reasonably strong blade, the game treats it as a legendary artifact on its own, equivalent to other weapons such as Felo’malorn, Ashbringer, or the Doomhammer, but it’s not really clear to me why that is yet. Sure, it’s a cool looking weapon, more powerful than your average one, and has come to serve as a symbol of the Wrynns and of the Alliance (even though it’s only been passed down one generation so far) but that doesn’t really feel like it merits the sort of attention it has gotten.
So what’s its deal? What kind of inherent powers or abilities does it have to warrant its legendary status? I’m not complaining I’d just like more information.
Chances are it’s just a blade already prone to magic, which made it easier to carve runes into it to transform it into a runeblade. Things like that, especially weapons, usually just operate on rule of cool.
All I know is that I delighted in the irony of Sylvanas wielding a blade forged by night elves in the last Torghast cinematic.
It does seem to have some sort of supernatural sharpness to it, given that Varian was able to take down that Fel Reaver and slice through a bunch of Felguards like butter with it, even though a Fel Reaver is obviously a super-tough colossus made of fel-infused metal and Felguards along with other demons are supposed to have high resistance to conventional weapons.
Given its name, perhaps it is exceptionally strong against entities of Chaos/Void/Death
Really, it’s just the first and only weapon of it’s status to be featured so prominently in in-game cinematics, and not because of the weapon itself but who wielded it during those cinematics. The only other weapon that came that close was Ashbringer during Tirion’s and the Lich King’s confrontation.
Maybe going forward, Blizz should have other weapons on display in the story.
Axe of Cenarius or Doomhammer would be an interesting choice.
Its a Narsil expy. How do you make a hero more special? Give them a weapon made by an older race full of magic. Just pray you’re not in an Eastern setting where weapons are an extension of the wielder, or you’ll get embarrassed with your infinity+1 sword by an old man with a stick looking for a student.
His first few movies are still good, but the fact that he puts twists at the end of all of them means that you’ll distract yourself trying to figure out what it is, and if it turns out not to be ‘good enough’ it sorta ruins the whole experience. That and he made several stinkers in a row and pretty much derailed his career for a decade.
The fact that it’s now called Kingsmourne makes me genuinely nauseous. I need the story to be spoiled, I’m so tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop. plzdon’thurtm’boy.
More on topic, that sword is going to become a void blade at some point, I guarantee it. Anduin’s gonna go all Shadow on the Jailer’s butt, and the domination magic won’t matter. THE END.
Hey now, don’t disrespect Narsil, the ancestral blade of the line of Elendil, the shards of which cut the One Ring from the very hand of Sauron himself, by comparing it to Shalamayne, which mostly just exists as a visual reminder of that one time that Varian was two people. If anything in WoW is a Narsil expy, surely it would be Felo’melorn.
Besides, Frostmourne had already taken up the requisite Sword-in-the-Stone/Excalibur expy role. Although, Jaina is a frost mage who likes to use water elementals, so her giving Shalamayne to Varian does bear a slight resemblance to the Lady of the Lake and Excalibur if you squint really hard.
I mean that what the artifact weapons are doing. They are 32 weapons that now actually have a long history and more or less had been integrated to Warcraft’s overall story. Heck, why knife wife is probably gonna end up important in the future.
While we are on the subject of Cenarius Axe, it is probably time for Thura to make an appearance and be the new face of the Saurfang line.
Honestly, magical weaponry like this is where I feel they really dropped the ball in terms of power creep in the lore. Mages can raise entire glaciers at Sea, seemingly summon an entire fleet of ships or shatter an entire dam or bridge with a single spellcast.
Meanwhile one of the like top 3 melee weapons (aside from Frostmourne and Ashbringer) can… split it itself in two. That’s it.
Where are the swords that can launch shockwaves or the spears that can create whirlpools after being thrown, shield’s that can fire beams of light or erect barriers around the wielder? Throw warriors a couple bones so the power creep stops being so nutty. I mean heck, wands are a thing, how is creating a wand in the shape of a sword so it can fire bolts of magic not a thing yet?
It legit hurts seeing classes and weapons effectively playing in totally different fantasy genre’s.
As for Shalamayne itself… we know Anduin can use both shadow and light magic. Chances are they’re about to give him a blade capable of using both through each separated blade. I’m not against it, it’d be pretty cool.
Those artifact weapons were rendered powerless to seal the menace of the sword of Sargeras that’s still sticking out of Azeroth like a spear in a pig. Their stories are done.
Most had no lore history anyway, being made up so that each order can have their three (or 2 or 4 in some cases) specs with their own weapons.
Again, knife wife begs to differ. I expect if ever Blizzard wanted to they will just “repower” them. Or more likely the weapons with actual entities in them(like the Demonology/arcane one) will have their characters end up affecting the world in some way.
Many of them were made on the flight but done so in a way that organically integrated them into the world. Like say the Affliction weapon being the reason Kharazan is a Barren waste land. Heck, the resto weapon even got a shout out from Aszhara herself.
I’m honestly half-expecting Anduin to be freed from Zovaal’s domination by Kingsmourne (Shalamayne) being shattered and permanently destroyed. I know that they can never resist the urge to destroy any and all airships.
plzdon’thurtm’boy.