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From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Bilbo's poem for Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings

A blade, once broken, reforged! It's probably the Sword of Plot Advancement or Infinity +1 Sword, but it could also just be the hero's signature weapon, if it got broken somehow. In reality, going through something like this would weaken the integrity of a blade, if it is possible at all (realistically "reforging" a blade would be melting down and recycling the metal as well as adding some new metal if you want a same sized blade, effectively making it a new sword, which might be handy for Unobtainium). In fiction, they might actually come out of the reforging stronger than they went in.

If the sword was broken "in ages past", you may have to hunt down each individual fragment separately in order to put it back together, which makes them Plot Coupons if it's for the Sword of Plot Advancement. You may also need to track down some "legendary smith" to do the actual forging.

Despite the name, it's not limited solely to swords. It will count if it's a weapon that has been destroyed and then repaired through some means.

Overlaps with Wrecked Weapon in several places. Contrast Like Cannot Cut Like.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Guts' Dragonslayer in Berserk is never actually broken, but still takes a great amount of stress and damage after two straight years of Demon Slaying. Godot therefore has to repair it.
  • Bleach:
    • Ikkaku's Bankai is "patched up" by Akon after it is destroyed at the climax of his fight with Edrad Liones, though it's stated to no longer be as powerful as before.
    • Ichigo's Zangetsu is reforged with an Asauchi base and manifests as two swords that represent his Shinigami and Quincy powers.
    • After Renji's Zabimaru is reforged, Ichibei allows him to learn the true name of his Bankai.
  • In the first episode of Hyper Police Natsuki finds an Orichalcum sword and manages to break it shortly after. So she goes to a swordsmith, who tells her it would be too expensive to reforge so she just has it ground into a dagger.
  • Inuyasha
    • The Tessaiga is broken by one of Naraku's incarnations, then reforged. This actually follows a somewhat more Applied Phlebotinum version of realistically needing to add more material, as while the first sword was made from Inuyasha's father's fang only, The Blacksmith needed Inuyasha's own fang to reforge the sword. Because of this, Inuyasha had to rely on his own power to wield the sword, while beforehand he was relying on his father's power, effectively riding daddy's tail. Since Inuyasha's power was inferior to his father's, this initially rendered the sword so heavy it was difficult to wield.
    • Also Sesshomaru's Tenseiga is reforged into a fighting weapon because of Sesshomaru's feelings for Kagura, but it's never clearly stated exactly what those feelings were. He then vows over the sword to make sure that she hadn't died in vain.
    • During a battle with a bone-eating demon, Sango had to deliberately coat corrosive poison on her Hiraikotsu in order to trick the demon into swallowing the poison (it's made of bones so he wanted to eat it), since Miroku couldn't simply absorb the demon with his Wind Tunnel. She then took the melted boomerang to a poison master to purify and repair it. The demons whose bones comprised it were none too happy that she would sacrifice them despite all they'd been through, but seeing Miroku's resolve convinced them to work with her again, not only reforging the boomerang but giving it the ability to cut through demonic energy.
  • A surprisingly realistic example occurs in Kill la Kill, given its capacity to wantonly disregard reality for flair. When Satsuki's sword is snapped in two toward the end, she has the pieces reshaped into a pair of smaller blades. This is actually an improvement: the sword is designed to cut Life Fibers, but they can only be completely severed if attacked from both sides simultaneously, so having two blades is more effective.
  • The prequel manga of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword shows that, originally, the Master Sword could only be wielded by gods. In order for the first Link to be able to wield it, it needs to be melted down and reforged by mortal hands.
  • Implied in Lupin III: Goemon's sword has been broken on occasions, but next time it's whole again.
  • In the second season of the Magic Knight Rayearth anime, Hikaru's Escudo sword is broken by Nova. Because Escudo is a magic mineral, Hikaru and Presea have to undertake a Journey to the Center of the Mind to "resurrect" it. Although it's not explicitly stated to be more powerful, Hikaru comes out with a stronger will and starts using Sword Beams with it.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray, Lowe Guele's Gerbera Straight is broken by Rondo Ghina Sahaku, so he returns to the Hermit Guru who crafted it in the first place. Instead of reforging it himself, the old man teaches Lowe how to do it because he knows he's going to die soon and wants his craft to live on in a worthy successor. In a subversion, the repaired Gerbera is just that — repaired — and not made anything really amazing. On the other hand, Lowe uses his knowledge along with a giant hunk of Thunderbolt Iron to forge a 150-meter-long Gerbera Straight which can only be wielded by his Gundam's Meta Mecha.
  • This is the special power of Kubikiri Boucho ("Decapitating Carving Knife") in Naruto. Even if it's broken, it will always be remade... because it actually absorbs the iron from the blood of its victims to repair any damage it suffers.
    • This also invokes Artistic License – Physics, as the average human being has enough iron in his body to make one nail. You'd need to kill a lot of people to get enough iron to repair a sword that big if it gets significantly damaged.
    • Considering the mindset of the swords wielders and their origin this may in fact be completely intentional.
  • Pretty early in Rave Master the Ten Commandments broke. They brought it to the smith who forged it originally, "Musica," the old one. The sword is stronger thanks to advances in technology.
    • Reforged again by "Musica", the young one, toward the end of the series.
  • Samurai Troopers (aka Ronin Warriors) has a truly bizarre reforging scene. In it, Ryo climbs inside Mount Fuji and throws the broken blades of his Rekka-ken into the magma. The volcano erupts, and Ryo catches some of the magma on the broken hilts, which forms itself into new blades.
  • In the manga version of Sailor Moon the protagonist's Eternal Tiare gets broken during her battle against the brainwashed Sailor Senshi, but she easily repair it after obliterating the enemies with the still broken sceptre.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Live-Action 
  • The Lord of the Rings: The shattered remains of Narsil, the sword that cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand even in its destroyed state, are kept on display in Elrond's house. Elrond has the legendary weapon reforged into Andúril for Aragorn to wield in the final battle against Sauron. Unlike in the books the movies are based on, it serves a crucial role in winning the war by proving the rightfulness of Aragorn's claim to Gondor's throne to the army of ghosts he tries to recruit to his cause, as only the rightful king would be able to command them back into battle. The timing is also changed to reflect the development arc Aragorn has in the movies, where he is initially unsure of reclaiming his throne; he uses a well-made but normal sword and Elrond doesn't deliver Andúril until shortly before Aragorn enters the Dimholt road.
  • Star Wars: In the climax of The Last Jedi, the iconic Skywalker lightsaber is destroyed during a telekinetic tug-of-war between Rey and Kylo Ren. The Rise of Skywalker reveals that, during the Time Skip between the two movies, Rey has repaired the weapon and is wielding it again.

    Literature 
  • In The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson, the eponymous sword is a major plot point: it's a doomed sword of evil doom. Skafloc (the protagonist) travels to the edge of the earth to get it re-forged by epic giants. It's a weapon that makes its wielder almost invincible in battle, but once it's been drawn, it has to taste blood. Ultimately his own.
  • The Dresden Files: In Skin Game, Fidelacchius, the Sword of Faith, is broken by Nicodemus when Murphy tries to use it in rage, leaving just a hilt. At the climax of the book, Harry tries to throw it to Charity Carpenter, but it instead lands in the hand of nerdy coroner Waldo Butters — and, because of Butters' deep faith in his friends and the morals of Star Wars, the sword is reforged . . . into an honest-to-God holy lightsaber. Even the Archangel Uriel is forced to admit he didn't see that one coming.
  • At one point in the His Dark Materials trilogy of books, Iorek has to reforge the Subtle Knife when Will breaks it, although Will is warned that it won't be quite as strong again.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, there was Narsil, sword of Elendil, which was shattered in the Siege of Barad-dûr — but the hilt-shard cut the One Ring from the finger of Sauron, thus winning the war. Much later, they were reforged for Aragorn's use and renamed Andúril. It serves as a symbol of his status as the Returned King, and since the reforging was part of a series of prophesied events leading up to the final fall of Sauron, it qualifies as a Sword of Plot Advancement. Aragorn shows it in the palantir to distract Sauron from Frodo because Sauron recogizes it as the blade that brought him down. Other than a few flashes of light and Aragorn being terribly finicky about who gets to handle it, however, Andúril sees its most use in the tremendous amount of hand-to-hand fighting Aragorn does with it.
  • In Mossflower of the Redwall series, the book starts with Martin getting his Ancestral Weapon wrecked by Tsarmina, and wears the broken hilt around his neck for much of the story, until it gets reforged (with metal "from a fallen star", no less), and becomes the legendary blade that shows up in the rest of the series.
  • In The Saga of the Volsungs, the smith Regin, with the help of the hero Sigurd, reforges the pieces of Sigurd's father Sigmund's sword into the sword Gram, with which Sigurd will later kill the dragon Fafnir. This is very likely the Trope Maker (note that other versions of the Sigurd legend such as the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda or the German Nibelungenlied don't have this trope). Richard Wagner repeated this version in his Ring of the Nibelung cycle of operas, and it was also quite unambiguously the inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien's use of the trope.
  • The Saga of Gísli Súrsson: Gísli Thorkelson and the slave Koll kill each other fighting over the ownership of the sword Greyside, which Gísli borrowed from Koll and never returned, and which he breaks by smasthing it on Koll's skull. Many years later Gísli's nephew Thorkel, who has inherited the pieces of Greyside, has them forged into a spearhead by a sorcerer, with the implication he intends the weapon to kill Vestein (who was having an affair with Thorkel's wife). Later an unknown attacker stabs Vestein with the spear and leaves it at the crime scene; Gísli Thorbjornsson, Vestein's brother-in-law and Thorkel's own brother, takes it and later uses it to murder Thorkel's brother-in-law Thorgrim in retaliation. There is no explanation given for why Thorkel chose to reforge the pieces of Greyside rather than to use any other weapon, but it is transparent that the sword's grim history predestined the spear made from its pieces to become a two-times murder weapon.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • The longsword "Oathkeeper" that was given to Brienne of Tarth is one of two swords forged from the Valyrian Steel left by melting down Eddard Stark's greatsword Ice.
    • "Widow's Wail" is the second Valyrian Steel sword forged from Ice.
    • House Mormont's Valyrian Steel sword Longclaw lost its original silver bear head pommel (along with the crossguard and hilt being burned) when Jon Snow set a fire to save Jeor Mormont from a wight attack. When Jeor finds Longclaw's blade, he has it reforged, but with a wolf's head pommel made of pale stone with chips of garnet for eyes since Jeor decided to give the sword to Jon (Jon's bonded direwolf Ghost is an albino with white fur and red eyes).
  • Lightning, Alanna's sword, in the Song of the Lioness quartet. It was shattered by an Artifact of Doom sword, and no blacksmith could reforge the magical blade. Alanna later came up with a solution and, with a combination of magic and help from a goddess, combined the wrecked blade with that of the sword that destroyed it, reforging it as a new weapon.
  • In The Stormlight Archive, there are hints that it might be possible to revive the dead Shardblades. In particular, Adolin's blade has been able to communicate with him on a rudimentary level, sending him a few vague emotional impressions and even telling him her name, and also appearing in his hand in seven heartbeats instead of the usual ten necessary for a dead blade. Word of God has implied that it is indeed possible but apparently very difficult.
  • In Jennifer Roberson's Tiger and Del series, Tiger's original sword is shattered, but reappears down the road. Tiger's leery about using it because he feels that reforging a broken blade makes a sword more likely to break in the future, and thus, untrustworthy when fighting for your life. Tiger is correct, and the person who had it reforged is fully aware, also. He was being forced to use the compromised sword in a "sword dance" to the death against his greatest rival, in the belief that the handicap would be enough to give his opponent the edge. In the duel, Tiger grabs his opponent's sword instead, forcing his rival to use the reforged blade, and the fight ends with the sword being broken once more.
  • Damoren, the holy revolver from Ragnarok Publications's Valducan series was formerly a sword which was broken by demons. The reforging process made it much-much more badass.
  • At the very end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry repairs his own broken phoenix feather wand thanks to the power afforded to him by the Elder Wand after Hermione accidentally damaged it beyond regular repair earlier in the book.
  • Conversed in Rihannsu. According to Arrhae, the Romulan equivalent of the When Life Gives You Lemons... saying is "When a sword shatters, take the fragments back to the forge."

    Live-Action TV 
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena's chakram had been broken into two pieces and they had been magically reforged into a new weapon that can transform into two blades.

    Theatre 

    Toys 
  • In BIONICLE, there is a subversion, in that the Spear of Fusion used by Vezon was broken in half by Reidak. Vezon managed to fix it using the Spear's own powers. Unfortunately, Jaller used his powers to burn it to a crisp when Vezon encounters the Toa Inika again.

    Video Games 
  • In Atelier Iris 2, after beating Chaos at the Guardo Drive, Felt tries to land a final blow. Only to be turned to stone by Chaos's ultimate attack. Just before Felt fully transforms, his magic talking sword uses up all of its power to attack Chaos which causes the magic crystal powering it to break. After Felt is restored his sword loses all of its magic. You spend the next chunk of the game hunting down rare alchemic ingredients to create a new crystal to repower it. However before fixing it Felt can still use his magic sword skills, which is probably a form of Gameplay and Story Segregation
  • In Baldur's Gate II this is done with several artifact weapons, like The Equalizer, Wave, and the Silver Sword. Unlike most versions of this trope, the Ultimate Blacksmith needed to repair the various artifacts found in the game is surprisingly accessable: he's got a workshop in the main city of the game rather than in some remote cave in a distant mountain full of vicious monsters like you might expect.
  • The first Broken Sword game has the antagonists trying to reforge the eponymous weapon in the belief it will restore their order to glory. The heroes stop them.
  • At the end of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and its "Resurrection" Downloadable Content, Gabriel Belmont shatters the Vampire Killer Combat Cross after killing the Forgotten One. Due to background events in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, it is reforged by the time of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, much to the surprise of its destroyer, as it is the only weapon capable of killing immortals for good, such as Gabriel himself (as Dracula) and seemingly Satan as well.
  • Chrono Trigger has the Masamune (Grandleon in the Japanese version), which was broken in half and has to be restored to advance in the game, since it's the only weapon capable of harming Magus.
  • The Greatsword of the Wolf Knight Artorias from Dark Souls was lost when he made a pact with the Abyss and was slain by his former comrades. The true divine Greatsword of Artorias can be reforged using a broken sword and the soul of Artorias' most loyal companion the Great Grey Wolf Sif. Alternatively, Sif's soul can "corrupt" a normal sword to reforge the cursed Greatsword of Artorias (the original sword was cursed when Artorias made his pact). The "Artorias of the Abyss" Downloadable Content introduced a third version forged from a fully upgraded normal sword and Artorias' own soul. The Abyss Greatsword's power scales with the wielder's Humanity since the Abyss is essentially Humanity gone out of control.
  • Darksiders: The Armageddon Blade is the only weapon capable of killing The Destroyer; unfortunately, the sword was broken before the start of the game after being used by Archangel Azrael to shatter six of the seven Seals per the urging of Abaddon in order to prematurely trigger The End War to try and kill Hell's leaders, only for it all to go to figurative and literal hell, its pieces scattered and hidden throughout the world. War in the final stretch of the game needs to collect all the shards and bring them to Ulthane (its original creator and another conspirator on the premature End War so he can reforge it and use it in the final battle against The Destroyer who is actually Abaddon reborn as a demon after he was killed by Hell's soldiers and realized he would face judgement for his crimes. After the battle, the sword is also used to kill War and shatter the Seventh Seal, resurrecting War and allowing the Four Horsemen to all be summoned to Earth with their unchained powers to deal out justice to all the other shadow players of the game.
  • Demon's Souls
    • The Legendary Northern Regalia was split into two swords, Soulbrandt (which becomes stronger if its wielder follows the path of Demons) and Demonbrandt (which becomes stronger if its wielder follows the path of Humanity). The original sword can be reforged using the two swords and the False King's Demon Soul.
    • Also, the Blueblood Sword can only be crafted from a broken sword, and you only find one in the game.
  • This happens to both of the sons of Sparda's trademark swords in the Devil May Cry series:
    • Vergil's Yamato is shattered by Mundus when he tries to fight the demon king in his weakened state after the third game. The broken hilt and blade are later recovered by the Order of the Sword and later reforge themselves (or in other words, the katana was "resurrected", according to Agnus) then merge with Nero's Devil Bringer arm in Devil May Cry 4. When Vergil rips off the Devil Bringer in Devil May Cry 5, the arm turns into the Yamato.
    • In the opening of Devil May Cry 5, Urizen shows he's a force to be reckoned with by shattering Dante's sword Rebellion with a punch. Dante later impales himself with Rebellion's hilt, guessing correctly that Rebellion has the power to fuse humans and demons as a counterpart to Yamato's ability to separate the two. This causes the Rebellion to merge with the Sparda, resulting in a new Devil Arm, the Devil Sword Dante.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition:
    • The Sulevin Blade was broken into pieces in a magical ritual gone wrong long ago. The Inquisitor can gather the pieces and bring them back to Dagna to have it reforged. The trope is then averted when Dagna explains that she can't reforge the sword with its pieces since metal doesn't heal. Instead, she uses the pieces as inspiration to forge an entirely new sword. The new Sulevin Blade is one of the most powerful weapons in the game.
    • Played straight with Certainty, which is the Red Lyrium sword Meredith wielded. The Elder One reforged the blade using a combination of Elven, Tevinter, and Blight magic and gave it to Samson.
  • In Dragon Quest III, it's revealed that the Big Bad destroyed the legendary Sword of Kings because it was a threat to him. If one picks up the the pieces of Orichalcum left from the shattering and sell it to the Ultimate Blacksmith, he'll reforge it.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Morrowind:
      • Mehrune's Razor has laid in the tomb of a thief for so long that it has become rusted and unusable. Mehrunes Dagon will send you on a quest to retrieve it, and will then re-imbue it with the power it once had.
      • In the Tribunal expansion, you get the opportunity to do this with True-Flame, the shattered Flaming Sword of St. Nerevar. It is, of course, in pieces that you must find. Then you have to take it to Mournhold's best smith to reforge it. And finally, plunder a massive ancient ruin beneath the city in order to find the special oil that will cause it to burn eternally. Once complete, you'll have a weapon worthy of Killing The God, but perhaps not the god you were expecting...
    • Skyrim:
      • Wuuthrad, a giant two-headed axe and chosen weapon of the ancient hero Ysgramor, must be reforged in order to complete the Companions questline. The scattered pieces serve as sort-of Plot Coupons.
      • Mehurne's Razor is this once again. This time, it's in pieces that must be found and reassembled at the altar of Dagon himself.
  • Exile has a very old-school example in the Demonslayer — a very good (but not Infinity Plus One) sword that is, however, extremely good against Demons — which is important, since one of your main quests is to slay the Demon Prince. In order to reforge it, one must first collect all the scattered pieces and then have it reforged by a famed master smith.
  • Fall from Heaven: Age of Ice does this with the Godslayer; indeed, the main point of the 'Age of Ice' scenario is to seek out the scattered fragments of the Godslayer, since only that weapon can bring down Mulcarn, the God of Winter. The actual reforging is passed over lightly, and was apparently performed by Kylorin the Archwizard himself — so presumably, it was magical in nature, rather than involving hammers and anvils. Of course, considering the intense magic held in those shards, it may have just spontaneously reassembled itself when all the pieces were gathered in one place.
  • In Fate/Grand Order, Sigurd appears with his sword Gram. Much like in his original story, Gram was shattered by Odin's Gungnir and had to be reforged. This also serves as a convenient explanation for its radical redesign from a less ornate version of Caliburn to a glowing BFS that separates into short swords and daggers that Sigurd punches into his foes.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, there's a questline a player can access after beating the initial Main Story Questline for A Realm Reborn where a drunken blacksmith sends you to a location to retrieve a legendary weapon used by the job you talk to him with. When you retrieve it and return to him, you both found out it's in terrible shape and the rest of the questline is spent reforging the weapon to its former glory.
  • In the fourth and fifth Fire Emblem games, you can repair fully broken weapons, and they'll be good as new. This becomes a plot point when Sigurd receives the Holy Tyrfing from his father. It's broken and must be repaired for an absurdly high cost.
  • Icewind Dale: A broken sword is given to the party as a quest in the First Town. It's useless as is, but a lake spirit wanted to return it to the descendant of the sword's original owner. If you complete the quest and tell him the truth about the spirit, he'll turn up at the end of the game with the sword, which he says miraculously repaired itself while he was sleeping, and gives it to the party. It's a fairly powerful sword, and if you keep it for the Heart of Winter expansion you can find the Ultimate Blacksmith who originally crafted it, who will restore it to its full strength.
  • Knights of the Old Republic has the Wookiee ceremonial weapon Bacca's Blade. The hilt is with Chuundar, who may be in charge, but is anything but honorable. The blade was broken off in a sacred hunt, and (if the player chooses), can be recovered and given to Chuundar's (and Zaalbar's) exiled father. If you choose this route, the blade will be re-forged, and is one of the better non-lightsaber blade weapons.
  • In League of Legends, Riven the Shattered Exile had a pretty cool sword, but broke it in rage when she found out about Noxus' corrupt government. Her ultimate has her reform it, giving her a large power boost and a shockwave attack.
  • The Legend of Zelda
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: The Master Sword is the Trope Codifier for the way it's used in video games (as a way to avert the Ludonarrative Dissonance of the Sword of Plot Advancement becoming the Penultimate Weapon after being replaced by a better one). It's reforged by a pair of dwarven blacksmiths, and later magically upgraded by a faerie.
    • The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages involves reforging a broken blade. Whether it's the Noble Sword or the Master Sword you're reforging depends on if you've played Oracle of Seasons first.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: There is a blacksmith who can reforge the Kokiri Sword into the Razor Sword. However, this upgrade is temporary (the sword reverts back after 100 strikes or if Link goes back in time). But if Link offers Gold Dust to the blacksmith, he can reforge the Razor Sword into the stronger and longer Gilded Sword. This upgrade is permanent and even survives time travel.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The Master Sword isn't exactly broken, but it's lost its magical power to repel evil, which must be restored by having sages pray musically in the hearts of dangerous monster-infested ancient temples.
    • The Picori Blade from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, which is broken, fixed, and eventually upgraded to become the Four Sword.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The Goddess Sword wasn't broken at all, but in its initial state it isn't strong enough, and so it's reforged anyway with three Sacred Flames (and then blessed by Zelda), creating the Master Sword in the first place.
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds follows a similar structure to that of A Link to the Past in how the Master Sword is forged (being a sequel to it), but uses Master Ore found as a treasure in dungeons. Also, the sword's second upgrade is done by another blacksmith, who was brought out of his Despair Event Horizon after looking over his counterpart's handiwork.
    • Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom establish that the Master Sword can reforge itself on on its own if given enough time, and it needs to after being damaged due to overuse in the backstory of Breath of the Wild and being shattered by the newly released Ganondorf leading to a Bag of Spilling at the beginning of Tears of the Kingdom. Tears of the Kingdom adds on that the Master Sword can be imbued with light energy to make it even more powerful, which Zelda does while taking the 10,000 year slow path back to her time as the Light Dragon in order to give the Master Sword enough power to stop Ganondorf.
  • In The Lord of the Rings Online, players can take a long series of quests to help reforge Narsil - the process requires a special gem, (a Silithar) and Aragorn can't be bothered to go get it himself. Also, expansions to the game introduced Legendary Items for players at level 50, weapons and gear which can be customized and improved. They require occasional "reforging," although they don't actually break first.
  • In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Talion keeps the remains of his son's broken sword as both a Tragic Keepsake and a makeshift dagger. Over the course of the game it's reformed into a proper dagger.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2 has the Silver Sword of Gith, which is reforged near the endgame. Notably, in the original campaign there's still pieces missing (one of which is embedded in your chest). It's not until the expansion that the sword is completed.
  • Pathfinder: Kingmaker:
    • The Storyteller is an ancient elf who appears in your court one day who uses his psychometry powers to reforge magic items from fragments of artifacts you can find throughout the game. There aren't any actual weapons available this way, but there are some pieces of armor.
    • Your barbarian party member Amiri lugs around the Ginormous Sword, a bastard sword she took from the corpse of a frost giant she killed so she says. The sword is broken when she duels Armag, and part of the conclusion to her companion questline involves reforging it with the help of the Storyteller.
  • Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous:
    • The Storyteller returns in this game and once again reforges magical items from artifact fragments you find.
    • Staunton Vane's weapon Soulshear was originally a legendary magical warhammer named Soulbasher. When its wielder defected to the Abyss, he reforged it into the glaive Soulshear, a weapon more suitable for worshipers of the demon lord Baphomet (Baphomet's favored weapon is the glaive). It was then enchanted with demonic magic, turning it into an Evil Weapon that Lawful Good characters cannot wield. After defeating its owner and claiming it for yourself, you get a Crusade Decree that allows you a chance to reforge the Soulshear again, allowing you the opportunity to give it different enchantments if you want.
    • The sword Radiance was once a mighty Holy Avenger wielded by the legendary paladin Yaniel. When you first rediscover the sword in Act I, it's lost all of its power and is just a Cold Iron Masterwork longsword. Throughout the game it's possible to gradually restore it to its former glory. Or desecrate it by slaying its original wielder Yaniel and bathing it in her blood, turning it into an Evil Weapon.
  • In the first Pillars of Eternity game, it's possible to obtain two powerful swords in the bonus dungeon the Endless Paths Of Caed Nua, the Blade of the Endless Paths and the Whispers of Yenwood. If the player managing to obtain both, and import their save in the sequel, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, their starting ship's cupboard will contain the shattered fragments of the swords. The swords were shattered when Eothas awoke in the adra colossus. By taking the fragments to a certain blacksmith in Neketaka, the player can have the swords reforged. The blacksmith will also mention that the two swords' fragments seem drawn to each other, and offers to use all of the fragments to forge an entirely new sword. The result is an enormous greatsword, The Whispers of the Endless Paths.
  • RuneScape:
    • If the player can collect all three fragments from the God Wars Dungeon, they can reforge the blade of the Godsword (if their Smithing level is high enough), after which they can attach any of the four hilts for different effects.
    • While the weapon itself is not broken per se, the blade of the Sunspear obtained during Lord of Vampyrium is big enough to be used as a one-handed sword. During River of Blood, however, the player is able to improvise a few components to reforge it into a proper spear, which is stronger than the blade alone and can be used as both a javelin and a magic staff, effectively serving as a single weapon capable of being used in any combat style.
    • Should any player be lucky enough to excavate the tip of the Spear of Annihilation from the Warforge, they can construct a shaft for it with enough Archaeology materials and rebuild it into a useable weapon, after which they have the option of using masterwork trim to improve it and turn it into the Masterwork Spear of Annihilation.
    • The player can reassemble the Ek-ZekKil by collecting its three fragments as drops from fighting and defeating TzKal-Zuk in the TzekHaar Front in the Elder God Wars Dungeon.
    • The Rex Matriarchs drop savage spear parts. When all four parts are collected and shown to Laniakea, she's able to reassemble them into a functional spear eerily similar to her own, which raises several questions given that Anachronia, the island where the Rex Matriarchs are found, is a past version of itself brought into the present by Kerapac using the Needle; if there is any relationship between the two, or even if they are actually the same weapon existing twice at the same time, is unknown.
  • Starbound: The very first weapon you start out with is the Broken Broadsword, which deals pretty pathetic damage. Hold onto it to the end of the game, and once you finish the second-to-last mission you can get it reforged into the Protector's Broadsword, which is one of the best weapons in the game.
  • In Ultima Underworld, the Sword of Justice needs to be reforged by the dwarven smith, Shak. You must find both pieces of the sword first.
  • In Vandal Hearts, one of your main purposes during your quest is to obtain the legendary sword Vandal Heart. However, if you take on a number of subquests along the way - collecting all the Spheres, passing all the Trials, obtaining all the Keys — then towards the end, you can upgrade the main hero, Ash, into the 'Vandalier' class, which makes him virtually invincible and turns the rest of the game into a cakewalk. As part of this transformation, the Vandal Heart is turned into the even-stronger Vandal Heart Reforged.
  • In Vindictus, the friendship sword. The increase in power is justified because the original was one of two made for kids, and Ferghus made them dull so they wouldn't hurt themselves.
  • Warframe has the War, the sword used by the Shadow Stalker. You get a broken version of the sword at the end of the Second Dream questline that can be reforged into one of the most powerful two-handers in the game if you're willing to give up having one of the best one-handed swords in the game.
  • World of Warcraft Legion:
    • Frost Death Knights go to Icecrown Citadel and collect the shattered pieces of Frostmourne, and reforge them into a pair of rune swords called "The Blades of the Fallen Prince".
    • Sir Anduin Lothar's sword, the Great Royal Sword, was broken by the Doomhammer when he lost his Duel to the Death with Ogrim Doomhammer. His second-in-command Turalyon took up his fallen leader's broken sword and rallied the Alliance troops to victory. When he returns in Legion, he is still wielding the sword, except he has reforged it by replacing the broken part of the blade with solid Light energy.
    • Felo'melorn, or "Flamestrike", the Artifact weapon for Fire Mages, was shattered by Frostmourne when Arthas killed the Blood Elves' king, Anasterian Sunstrider. Anasterian's son Kael'thas Sunstrider had the blade reforged even stronger than it was before.
    • The runeblade Kingsmourne is a reforged Shalamayne. Runes of Domination were inscribed on the original blade and a blue crystal was inserted into it, infusing the sword with the Jailer's power.

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY:
    • In Volume 4, a blacksmith reforges Jaune's armor and weapon with the remains of Pyrrha's gear, making them stronger and with new mechanics.
    • At the end of Volume 6, Blake's Gambol Shroud is broken in battle with Adam Taurus. Once Team RWBY and the remains of JNPR become official Huntsmen and Huntresses, they get gear upgrades. Blake had Gambol Shroud's blade repaired with a gold filling around where it had shattered.

    Webcomics 

    Web Video 
  • An episode of Man at Arms did this on purpose, with the team making Narsil from The Lord of the Rings using improper forging techniques, then having a (female) Sauron cosplayer come in and smash the fragile blade into pieces with a mace so they could re-forge it as Andúril, doing things the right way this time around.
  • Critical Role: After the Mighty Nein from the second campaign find the shards of a magical sword, especially Caduceus becomes fascinated with it and decides to find all the pieces to have it reforged. Even after the group have gained all the pieces, they can't find a smith willing to step up to the challenge until they come to the city of Uthodorn. There, dwarven blacksmith Umagon reforges the sword to prove himself a master-smith. The blade in question turns out to be a powerful vestige of divergence, Dwueth'var, the star razor.

    Western Animation 
  • In The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Puss' rapier is broken in the fourth season finale, and while its repair happens off-screen, it being returned to him marks the end of a Heroic BSoD he had been having since the battle.
  • Subverted in Blue Eye Samurai. Mizu returns with her broken katana made of Thunderbolt Iron to Swordfather, asking him to reforge it for her. He recognizes that she's not in the right mindset and refuses; plus he doesn't have any metal available. After failing several times to create iron, she strips herself naked and paints the Heart Sutra on her body to purify her soul, and to add impurities to strengthen the blade, she adds her first knife, Ringo's bell, and a pair of tongs donated by Swordfather to the oven, finally creating the ideal metal for a sword. However, she realizes Swordfather is right and decides to delay reforging her sword until her revenge on the Big Bad is complete.
  • In ThunderCats, the Sword of Omens is broken and reforged thrice over the course of the series.
  • In Transformers: Prime, the Starsaber is shattered by Megatron's Dark Starsaber. Optimus later uses the Forge of Solus Prime to repair it.

    Real Life 
  • Played straight, subverted or averted entirely in real life. You could theoretically repair a broken sword (played straight), but it's difficult and usually requires complete reforging of the weapon, meaning that for historic practical use, it may just be easier to get a new one (averted).
    • Averted in the case of one particular weapon in an Oslo museum, which had the tip re-sharpened after the end broke off, as if the owner saw the bill for a sword repair and thought "screw it".
    • In the Middle Ages broken swords were usually re-forged into daggers or knives. Tantó, literally "short blade" is an example of this.
    • Reforging is a viable option if there's a severe shortage of weapons-grade steel and refining new steel is either too expensive or too time-consuming. That being said, it's still a significant effort and the process of sharpening a new blade will result in some metal loss.
  • It was common in the past to try to restore swords found in archeological digs to what was thought to be like new condition. Modern archeologists would recoil in horror at this practice.
  • Fans of Touken Ranbu have fundraised for the real-life reforging and restoration of swords featured in the game, all important historical artifacts in Japan.


Alternative Title(s): Reforged Weapon

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