Caladbolg

Caladbolg

Type

Bundle

Interact

Yes

Destructible

No

“

Once before, I gave this sword to a beloved son. Now, I pass it on to you, Trahearne. Its name is Caladbolg. Bear it with honor, and the sword will never fail you.

— Pale Tree in A Light in the Darkness

Caladbolg is a greatsword made by the Pale Tree from a thorn of her own bough. It is the only weapon she has ever made, and it is meant to be the blade of heroes. Caladbolg is capable of enhancing the qualities of its wielder, such as strength, wisdom, bravery, and even negative qualities. According to Iowerth, the greatsword is a living thing.

Players and some NPCs can wield Caladbolg in combat during certain steps of the Personal Story.. Players can also become the wielder of Caladbolg by completing the Side Story achievement chain Knight of the Thorn after completing the Heart of Thorns storyline.

History

Early history

Caladbolg was created by the Pale Tree circa 1303 AE. The blade was crafted from a thorn of her own bough. It was the only weapon she had ever made, and doing so took a great deal of spirit. It was meant to be the blade of heroes.

The Pale Tree gave the greatsword to Riannoc, a Firstborn sylvari, so he could destroy the lich Mazdak the Accursed. But while battling Mazdak's forces, Riannoc's young human squire, Waine, urged Riannoc to give up the fight and run for his life. After Riannoc's refusal, Waine panicked and stole the greatsword from him and ran away, leaving Riannoc to die alone.

Waine would use the greatsword for years to win in gladiatorial bouts, unbeknownst to the sylvari, who thought the greatsword lost forever in the swamp where Riannoc had fought Mazdak. While Caladbolg was missing, a prophetess of Rata Sum proclaimed that its return would signal the Elder Dragons' downfall.

Personal story

The sylvari found out about Caladbolg's true fate in 1325 AE, around the time Mazdak reappeared. They immediately set out to recover the greatsword, seeking justice for Riannoc. Assisted by the orders of Tyria, the sylvari Valiant retrieved the greatsword from Waine either via straight combat by following the Vigil's plan or via trickery by following the Order of Whispers's plan. The sword was then used to slay Mazdak after the Valiant had chosen which order's plan to follow in order to confront the lich.

The greatsword was then returned to the Pale Tree, who would later entrust it to Firstborn Trahearne to aid him in the completion of his Wyld Hunt. Trahearne wielded Caladbolg throughout the Pact's campaign in the Ruins of Orr and used its energy to defeat the Sovereign Eye of Zhaitan, which freed the spirit of King Reza. The sword also fulfilled Trahearne's Wyld Hunt by cleansing the Artesian Waters, a powerful source of magic which Zhaitan had been using to spread its corruption throughout the land. Caladbolg's magic made plantlife grow within the cave of the Artesian Waters, beginning the slow healing process throughout Orr.

Heart of Thorns

Caladbolg continued to be Trahearne's weapon until the downfall of the Pact airship fleet and his imprisonment by Mordremoth in 1328 AE. The greatsword was found alongside Trahearne, but now only a shattered sword, deep within the Heart of Thorns. The Pact Commander used the broken sword to end Trahearne's misery and defeat the Elder Dragon permanently. The Commander kept the Broken Caladbolg in memory of Trahearne's sacrifice.

Living World Season 3

Much later, Ridhais, a sylvari warden and former soldier under Trahearne, requested an audience with the Commander, and claimed she could help restore the sword. Under her guidance, the Commander sought out shards of the blade and motes of natural power and restored the broken Caladbolg sword into the greatsword Caladbolg. Caladbolg then tested the Commander's worth by having them fight visions of its former wielders—Riannoc and Trahearne—and eventually a vision of the Commander themselves.

Returning to the Artesian Waters, the Commander proved themselves to the greatsword and became its wielder. As a living weapon, Regrown Caladbolg can assume different forms to suit its wielder. The restoration of the sword also rejuvenated the Pale Tree, who had been injured during the Shadow of the Dragon's assault on the Grove, and she granted the Caladbolg-wielding Commander the title of the Knight of the Thorn as a sign of gratitude.

Story involvement

Personal story

• Chapter 3: Justice for Riannoc
  • Secrets in the Earth
  • The Bad Apple
  • Trouble at the Roots
  • Dead of Winter
  • A Tangle of Weeds
  • Flower of Death
• Chapter 6: The Battle of Claw Island
  • A Light in the Darkness
• Chapter 8: Victory or Death
  • The Source of Orr

Heart of Thorns story

• Act IV
  • Hearts and Minds

Living World Season 3

• Side Stories: Knight of the Thorn
  • The First Vision
  • The Second Vision
  • The Sword Regrown

Skills

When wielded in Personal Story instances, players get access to the following skills.

#	Skill			Description
1	Daybreak Blade	0.5½		Slash your foe once, then again on the backswing.
1	Flashing Arc	0.5½		Medium range sword attack.
2	Electrolyze	0.5½		Hit multiple foes with arcs of chain lightning.
3	Skyfall	1	5	Smash your foe, knocking them down.
4	Twilight Crash	0.5½	8	Knockback all targets in front of you.
5	Maelstrom Strike	0.75¾	10	Thrash foes around you in a spinning frenzy while flinging projectiles.

Effects

• Caladbolg's blade has a yellow glow.
• Blue and yellow-orange butterflies fly constantly around the blade.

Related achievements

• Knight of the Thorn: Knight of the Thorn — Become blessed by the Pale Tree as the bearer of Caladbolg. (25)
• Knight of the Thorn: Shards of a Thorn — Locate sword fragments within the Maguuma Jungle to aid in the restoration of Caladbolg. (5)
• Knight of the Thorn: Sword Taxonomy — Account-bind each form of Caladbolg. (20)
• Knight of the Thorn: The Sword Regrown — Restore Caladbolg, Thorn of the Pale Tree. (5)

Notes

Anomalies:

• Some versions of Caladbolg have skills require energy from the player's endurance meter. This is most likely left over from early versions of the game where energy was used as a skill resource.
• The tooltips for Caladbolg's skills sometimes appears as if they chain into Throw Rock. These skills are enabled while the wielder is downed, but since the character's downed skills replace them, players will not be able to use them.

• Caladbolg is used by sylvari characters during the personal story.
  • Players gain Caladbolg as a transformation that replaces the player's equipment attributes, profession mechanics and specialization traits with Caladbolg and its skills.
  • Utility skills will be usable under the Caladbolg transformation.
  • Mesmer clones summoned under the Caladbolg transformation will also hold Caladbolg and have use of all its 5 skills.
    • Unlike phantasm skills, the Caladbolg skills used by the clones will consider the stats of the clones, not the player, and so they will do about half of the damage done by the Caladbolg skills used by the player.
    • Clones summoned under the Caladbolg transformation will be rather unreliable, and may not attack at all. They will not move closer to use the melee attacks and stick to the ranged ones until their target is close enough, only move when their target moves out of the range of Electrolyze. They will not save Maelstrom Strike for melee range, using it instead when there is any enemy in the range of its projectiles.
• Each skill utilizes the animations of profession skills, e.g. Twilight Crash is similar to Illusionary Wave and Maelstrom Strike is similar to Whirling Wrath.

Trivia

• Caladbolg is a cognate with the Middle Welsh word Caledfwlch which means "hard cleft".
• Caladbolg is the name of Fergus mac Róich's sword in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. It was said to be a two-handed sword that made a circle like an arc of rainbow when swung, and to have the power to slice the tops off hills and slaughter an entire army.
• How to pronounce Caladbolg.
• The versions of Caladbolg used for bundles and NPC weapons can be previewed in-game. Here are some examples:

See also

• Shard of Caladbolg

Associated items

• Caladbolg weapons
  • Broken Caladbolg
  • Caladbolg Astera
  • Caladbolg Iridi
  • Caladbolg Orchida
  • Caladbolg Origin
  • Caladbolg Rosa
  • Caladbolg Solana

References

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Caladbolg

Caladbolg • Shattered Caladbolg • Broken Caladbolg • Regrown Caladbolg