Pitch-black, un-shining Shadowrend - how to?

[ZuTheSkunk]

I would like to change Shadowrend into totally black, light-absorbing sword, but I'm encountering problems with this. Can you help me?

This is how sword looks in vanilla (yuck!):

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5839/shadow1a.jpg

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/5426/shadow1bw.jpg

This is how sword looks after changing APPLY_HILIGHT into APPLY_MODULATE (editing normal doesn't change anything in this matter):

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/8486/shadow2a.jpg

http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/5486/shadow2b.jpg

This is how sword looks after giving him texture with missing normal, and that's how I want to make him looking...

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/6914/shadow3a.jpg

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/5923/shadow3bp.jpg

...but without making him transparent in inventory, what missing normal does:

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1610/shadow4s.jpg

How to make such a thing?

[washington]

How does alpha channel of normal map look like?

[ZuTheSkunk]

I've just checked the alphas of both common texture and his normal map, and... I've finally understood what was wrong - I think so, at least. Original texture had alpha DX1, which means it had no alpha. After changing them to be sure that they both possess DX5 and white alpha, I've finally got the desired effect:

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6990/fixed1.jpg

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/66/fixed2.jpg

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2855/fixed3.jpg

I'm not sure where I've made the mistake in my previous attempts to do the thing, though - probably it was something with using my own textures. But nevermind, at least I've got what I wanted. Thank you washington for tip (even if it wasn't supposed to be a tip ).