Twelve Swords of Power - Doomgiver

Doomgiver is also called the Sword of Justice. It has a hollow circle engraved in white upon its hilt.

Doomgiver is one of the least understood of all the Swords. Its verse in The Song of Swords hints at its powers, and is as follows:

The Sword of Justice balances the pans

Of right and wrong, and foul and fair.

Eye for an eye, Doomgiver scans

The fate of all folk everywhere.

Doomgiver is poorly understood because of the ambiguity of its verse, and because Doomgiver was rarely used in canon. It turns any attack directed toward it back to the source. If an arrow is fired at the wielder of the Sword of Justice, the arrow would turn around in mid-flight and fatally strike the archer. It also in general redirects maliciousness directed toward the one who holds it.

For example, in the Third Book of Swords, the goddess Aphrodite attempts to seize a Sword from a common mortal by seducing him. Doomgiver's sheath falls off in the exchange, and suddenly the goddess fell in love with the mortal, who equally suddenly was released from his own attraction to her. Her long history of callously toying with mortals' emotions was abruptly balanced by a sudden and permanent love for this human, as well as concern for the well-being of humanity in general. Although the Sword was quickly sheathed, the effects on Aphrodite lasted for the remainder of the series.

The Dark King Vilkata similarly hesitated to confront the Sword when it was defending the city of Tashigang, fearing that all the evil he or his followers had ever wielded against anyone in the city would be suddenly returned against him.

In "Blind Man's Blade", Doomgiver had bats eat themselves, had a demon folded painfully into its own gut. Doomgiver prevails over Soulcutter in that same book, turning its despair back at the Gods, and it is also hinted at Doomgiver's power would prove superior to the other Swords, including being able to turn Farslayer back at the one who threw it, that Sightblinder's holder would see a terrible apparition while remaining vulnerable, that the Mindsword holder should worship Doomgiver's holder, and Coinspinner's master would suffer excruciating bad luck. Likewise, in that same book, when Mars tried to take Doomgiver away from the man who held it, in the name of the council of Gods, Doomgiver exacted its retaliation, and took all the Swords of the Gods away from them, except, of course, Shieldbreaker, which is immune to Doomgiver's powers.

The Sword may have had other properties only hinted at in its verse, but it was destroyed early on in the series by Shieldbreaker, making many facets of its power and use unclear.