The Blood of Dawnwalker: How to Find Sword Shards and Solve Blasphemy

The Sword of St. Mihai route has three separate gates: advance Anca’s story far enough to unlock the cathedral investigation, defeat St. Mihai for the Broken Sword component, then complete Forge It Anew with three Silver Sword Shards and the Uriashi hermit blacksmith. Blasphemy and Withering Away matter for a different reason: they establish the Focus Mode and time-management habits that prevent early quest progress from stalling.

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Unlock A Saint and a Monk Before Hunting Sword Shards

Do not begin searching Vale Sangora for Sword Shards before the quest log gives you Forge It Anew. The shards are part of a story-gated legendary weapon chain, and the Sword of St. Mihai cannot be bought from merchants, obtained as a random drop, or completed by visiting a regular blacksmith.

The required setup takes place through Anca’s questline. Progress through the St Tryna’s excursion, complete Echoes of Silenced Bells, then finish Beyond the Words. Return to Svartrau afterward. This opens the cathedral-focused quest called A Saint and a Monk; some quest references label the same chain A Monk and a Saint.

• Advance Anca’s quests through St Tryna’s.
• Complete Echoes of Silenced Bells.
• Complete Beyond the Words.
• Return to Svartrau and check the Middles District near the city walls and cathedral complex.

Common blocker: reaching Svartrau early and searching the cathedral without the active quest will not produce the full chain. The relevant markings, scholar trail, crypt access, and Broken Sword reward are tied to the quest state.

Use Focus Mode to Reach the Cathedral Crypt

In Svartrau’s Middles District, activate Focus Mode around the walls, religious structures, and cathedral approach. The route depends on carved markings and St. Mihai symbols rather than a straightforward combat waypoint. Treat every visible saint symbol as a directional clue until the trail moves inside the cathedral complex.

Continue scanning in the cathedral until you locate the crypt and find Albertus. The crypt sequence leads into the St. Mihai encounter. Clearing the fight awards 1 Skill Point, 1,000 XP, and the Broken Sword of St. Mihai, then starts Forge It Anew.

The Broken Sword is the hilt component for the legendary weapon. Keep it in inventory while collecting the three Silver Sword Shards. The reforge interaction will not proceed until all four required quest components are present.

Combat handling during the crypt route

Coen’s defensive rules change with his form. In human form, a perfect block leaves an enemy open for a counterattack. In vampire form, rely on dodges and perfect dodges instead, since blocking is not the equivalent defensive tool. This matters in confined crypt encounters, where backing away without a clean dodge can place Coen against walls or environmental clutter.

Forge It Anew: Sword Shard Locations and Collection Order

Forge It Anew requires three Silver Sword Shards across Vale Sangora, plus the Broken Sword of St. Mihai. One shard has a fixed, fully identifiable overworld route. The remaining two are recovered through the quest’s Kohboldin-related leads, map objectives, and Focus Mode trails.

Sword component	Location or lead	What to use as an anchor
Silver Sword Shard 1	Cave in the Maragir Wealds	Travel east from Mert’s Mill; the cave is north of the Upper Maragir Wealds Shrine.
Silver Sword Shard 2	Kohboldin-related territory	Follow the quest lead established after Albertus explains that a Kohboldin took part of the sword.
Silver Sword Shard 3	Remaining Forge It Anew search area	Follow the active sword objective, inspect saint symbols, and use Focus Mode around highlighted ruins or wilderness points.

Silver Sword Shard 1: Maragir Wealds cave

This is the cleanest shard to collect first because it has clear landmarks. Reach Mert’s Mill, head east into the Maragir Wealds, and keep the Upper Maragir Wealds Shrine as your map reference. The shard cave is north of that shrine, inside the dense woodland.

The route is easy to misread because it uses two anchors: go east from Mert’s Mill, then locate the cave north of the shrine. Starting from the shrine and moving south sends you away from the pickup. Clear the cave thoroughly before leaving; the shard is the relevant objective item, not a generic exploration reward.

Silver Sword Shards 2 and 3: follow the quest trail

The second component is linked to the Kohboldin lead established during the cathedral story. Albertus explains Tobias’s betrayal and the theft of the remaining sword component, which supplies the narrative reason for tracking the creature’s territory. Keep Forge It Anew active while following this portion of the route so its investigation prompts remain visible.

The third shard is another quest-led wilderness or ruin search. Focus Mode is the important tool here. Scan around saint iconography, sword markers, suspicious carved symbols, and any area that becomes relevant after advancing Forge It Anew. The weapon route deliberately mixes map travel with environmental investigation; a direct run between blacksmiths will not replace the clue searches.

Reforge the Sword of St. Mihai at Uriashi Hermitage

Once the inventory contains the Broken Sword of St. Mihai and all three Silver Sword Shards, travel to Uriashi Hermitage in Vale Sangora. The Uriashi hermit blacksmith is in the northwest, near the starting region, and is the only specialist who can complete this reforge.

• Broken Sword of St. Mihai
• Silver Sword Shard 1
• Silver Sword Shard 2
• Silver Sword Shard 3
• Uriashi hermit blacksmith at Uriashi Hermitage

Speak to the hermit with every component available. The crafting dialogue completes Forge It Anew and creates the restored Sword of St. Mihai, a legendary silver sword intended for supernatural targets. Other blacksmiths in Vale Sangora cannot advance this quest.

How to Reach the Imbued Sword of St. Mihai

The restored sword is part of a longer weapon progression. The later objective is the Imbued Sword of St. Mihai. Continue the related questline until the encounter with The Echoing Anger, then interact with the altar after the fight. That altar interaction imbues the weapon into its strongest form.

Keep the two stages separate while checking the journal. Forge It Anew restores St. Mihai’s blade from the Broken Sword and shards. The Echoing Anger sequence is the later upgrade step that produces the Imbued version.

Blasphemy: Every Focus Mode Clue at Gremla’s Shed

Start Blasphemy before the Blood Mass. The investigation is short once you inspect the correct objects, but it is designed to make players use Focus Mode rather than rely on dialogue alone.

• Go to Gremla’s shed.
• Activate Focus Mode around the exterior.
• Inspect the footprints behind the shed.
• Examine the bloody scrap from the stolen banner.
• Use the evidence to identify Premysl as the thief.

The critical evidence is outside the shed. The footprints are around the back, and the bloody banner scrap confirms that the theft trail leads beyond a simple missing-item search. Missing either clue can leave the investigation feeling incomplete even after speaking to nearby villagers.

Premysl is the elderly villager at the northeast edge of the village, close to the house and farm area. Confront him after examining both Focus Mode clues. The final decision is whether to tell Gremla the truth about the banner or keep Premysl’s secret. Keeping the secret leaves Gremla to take the fall, so treat the choice as a narrative consequence rather than a routine dialogue skip.

Withering Away: Fix the Medicine Recipe Before Moving On

In Withering Away, the medicine preparation requires three scoops of herbs in hot water. The water must be hot, not boiling. Check Anca’s instructions in the inventory before committing the recipe; the quest records the preparation details there.

The usual error is treating “hot” as a vague prompt and overheating the water. Follow the three-scoop measurement exactly, then prepare the mixture at the required temperature. This is an early example of the game tying quest progress to item handling rather than combat or map navigation.

Manage the Hourglass Before Time-Sensitive Objectives Expire

The Blood of Dawnwalker tracks major activities with an hourglass-based time bar. Any quest activity marked by an hourglass advances time when completed. The number shown with the hourglass indicates how many time segments that activity occupies, so check the cost before taking optional detours during urgent story beats.

Complete time-sensitive prologue work before the mass ceremony, particularly Blasphemy and any open character objectives. Exploration, combat, and quest chores can consume segments that matter elsewhere.

• In the fishing prologue, find the fishing lines in the bushes and set them up before spending an hour to bait them.
• If you initially refuse and return later, the younger siblings set up the fishing lines, leaving only the baiting step.
• In Deep Down, search for Lazar near the Pete bogs north of Blackwater Hollow Shrine before five time segments pass. After five segments, Lazar is found dead.
• The treasure-map route east of the village, through the forest path to a bandit camp, commits Coen to a one-hour segment once the camp is engaged.

For the St. Mihai weapon route, the practical order is to resolve urgent early quests, push Anca’s chain until the cathedral opens, complete the crypt fight, then use Forge It Anew as the active exploration objective. This preserves the relevant story path while turning the shard hunt into a controlled Vale Sangora route rather than an unfocused search.