Spikard



A spikard is a type of magical object with one or more hyperdimensional "lines of power" which connect to sorcerous power caches in various Shadows. In the Amber novels and short stories two shapes of spikards are explicitly cited: rings and swords. Benedict's metal arm shares with Corwin's spikard sword Grayswandir the rare magical ability to bypass an existential barrier of intangibility, so Benedict's metal arm is probably a spikard despite not being explicitly cited as such.

At least one spikard, the golden-colored sword Werewindle, is revealed to be sentient in The Salesman's Tale.

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Etymological Speculation
In Knight of Shadows, Merlin described the spikard ring he found in Brand's room as bearing a wheel-like device with countless tiny spokes which extended hyperdimensional lines of power to various power caches in Shadows; those lines-of-power spokes are the key trait of a spikard. The word for the noun spoke in several Earth languages is spica; spikard appears to be an Amberite Thari word with a base meaning of "object with spokes [of lines of power]". In some Shadow there likely exists the cognate word spokard.