Shalamayne

Shalamayne in the Battle for Azeroth cinematic trailer.

Shalamayne is a legendary sword, the result of two night elven blades, Shalla'tor and Ellemayne, that fused. Once wielded by Varian Wrynn, former King of Stormwind,^[1] it is now carried by his son, Anduin Wrynn.^[2]

History

Shalla'tor and Ellemayne

The two Varians, wielding Ellemayne and Shalla'tor.

Shalla'tor and Ellemayne were a pair of magic elven blades forged during the War of the Ancients and wielded by the twins Vor'Illian and Lo'Vellian. In Darnassian, Shalla'tor means Shadow Render, while Ellemayne means Reaver.^[3] While Ellemayne had a red gem, Shalla'tor had a blue one instead.^[4]

The blades eventually came into the possession of Lady Jaina Proudmoore. After Varian was split into two people by Onyxia's magic, the two ultimately found each other again and resolved to slay the black dragon. They were granted the night elven blades by Jaina, who aided them in the assault on Onyxia's Lair.^[3]

When Onyxia inadvertently combined the two Varians back into one person, the two blades were merged into a single weapon as well.^[5] This sword became known as Shalamayne,^[1] and its first target was the black dragon Onyxia, who was slain by the merged Varian using his new sword.^[5]

Shalamayne

After Onyxia's death, Varian returned home with the new sword at his side. From this moment onward, Varian would be able to split the sword at will.

At the battle for the Broken Shore, Varian once more split Shalamayne into two to battle the Burning Legion. In the end, the split swords were left in the sand upon Varian's death. One of the halves was last seen with its hollow no longer emanating its fiery glow;^[6] without Varian's touch, the sword lay dormant, awaiting the touch of another to which it would respond.^[7]

When the Armies of Legionfall began their assault on the Broken Shore, Varian's son Anduin Wrynn sneaked out of Stormwind and journeyed to Wrynnfall, the site of his father's demise, where he found Shalamayne^[2] (or perhaps Shalamayne found him).^[8] The moment Anduin truly accepted the duties of a king,^[7] light once again began swirling in the right hand blade he was holding,^[2] only this time with the golden glow of the priest instead of the orange-red hue of the warrior.^[7] Anduin would go on to wield Shalamayne himself.^[9]

Appearance

Shalamayne has a unique narrow edge at the point and a thicker, angled edge further down. The hollow in the lower part of the blade glows like a sun. There is a backward arch at the bottom of the blade, and the hilt is long and slender.^[1]

Notes and trivia

A Shalamayne-like Rallying Blade in Hearthstone.

In the original version of the Broken Isles loading screen, one of the split halves of Shalamayne was depicted with a blue glow while the other was orange, matching the appearance of Shalla'tor and Ellemayne in the comic.^[5] However, in the in-game cinematic for [98] The Battle for Broken Shore as well as the Legion opening cinematic, both blades are depicted as orange. In patch 7.1.0, the blue sword on the loading screen was changed to orange in order to match the cinematic. Senior Art Director Chris Robinson later explained that the discrepancy between the loading screen and the cinematics had been due to the different teams sometimes using different art references that don't always line up.^[10]
In World of Warcraft, Varian used two swords with the Shalamayne model from patch 3.1.0 until patch 3.3.3, after which he wielded only a single one.
The Rallying Blade, a rare paladin weapon in the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion for Hearthstone, appears very similar to Shalamayne.
The weapon's name may be a reference to the Frankish king Charlemagne who is often regarded as a great king and strategist.