Sankta Neyar serves as the protagonist of a legendary folktale in the world of Shadow and Bone; one who wielded the Relentless Sword that cut down the army of shadow monsters.
Sankta Neyar serves as a legendary figure of myths and folktales within the world of Shadow and Bone, and one who eventually turns out to be a key help in the battle against the Darkling, owing to the powerful weapon that she forged on her own.
Much like the Crows, she’s a character in the Netflix series who doesn’t appear in the main Shadow and Bone book series but does exist in the Grishaverse canon. In the show, she also serves as an entry point to the land of Shu Han.
The legendary saint of blacksmiths
Sankta Neyar is introduced in Shadow and Bone when Mal looks for a way to defeat the shadow monster army that the Darkling commands over now. The issue is that no weapon seems to work on the fluid monsters who materialize in and out of existence in spite of any attacks.
However, Mal finds a book in which there’s a folktale of the Patron Saints of blacksmiths — Sankta Neyar. She was one of the “Six Soldiers” and the creator of the legendary sword called Neshyenyer.
For three days and nights, Sankta Neyar fought the army clockwork soldiers, created by Sankt Kho. She fought until the last soldier was defeated and later on, her weapon would go on to be known as the Relentless Sword.
Creator of the Relentless Sword
The Neshyenyer wasn’t a simple weapon but one that had the sharpness and strength to cut down even the preternatural entities. The legend about the sword entails claims that it cuts down the shadows and laughs at steel — two of the most boastful features that are not entirely hyperbole.
After a lot of effort, a near-fatal and one-sided battle, as well as blood, pain, and hallucinations aplenty, Tolya, Zoya and the Crows manage to get the Neshyenyer from Sankta Neyar.
At the final battle with the Darkling, when Mal and Alina are at a tough spot, Inej arrives and begins slashing away at the Nichevo’ya with the Neshyenyer, combining her acrobatic combat style with the power of the sword, effortlessly cutting down the shadow monsters and destroying them for good.
A devoted romantic
Sankta Neyar is immortal and yet, she can’t help but fall in love with people who are inevitably going to succumb to their mortality while she keeps on living. According to herself, watching all her loved ones that time took away from her made her close her heart.
However, she eventually came to realize just how safe and a small way of living that was. She then let herself be blindsided by love and shares herself with the love of her life — The Disciple.
It was the same thief that the Crows, Tolya, and Zoya had gone to Shu Han in search of. The Disciple was the one who stole Neshyenyer from the temple of Ahmrat Jen and it turned out that it was none other than the husband of Sankta Neyar.
When the contingent of the crows and others meet him, he’s grown old and his mind has become a victim of age, but his love for Sankta Neyar lives on, carrying the same passion and affection it did in his young age, and the same goes for his wife.
Sankta Neyar is deeply in love with her husband and as soon as Kaz brings him to the place where she was about to kill all the Crows, the fight comes to a stop, and Neyar finally calms down, not because she fears for her husband, but because she doesn’t wish to trouble him further.
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