Questioner
Is there a limit to the amount of Investiture that Nightblood can hold.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. Yep, there is.
Found 274 entries in 0.351 seconds.
Is there a limit to the amount of Investiture that Nightblood can hold.
Yes. Yep, there is.
The Heralds, back before Honor died, were they directly powered by Honor?
Yes. You’ll find out more about that, but the Shardblades [pretty sure he means Honorblades here] were pieces of Honor’s soul that he gave them and direct access to his essence.
Like Vin and Elend?
Yeah, a little like that. That’s why Honorblades don’t work like Shardblades do, like Radiants do.
The second part of the question is, what would happen if they were directly powered by Honor and they were holding Nightblood?
RAFO
Does Nightblood annihilate Investiture?
Investiture cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change forms. But, anything more than that is a RAFO.
How would Nightblood work when drawn on Scadrial?
So, you would have to be actively burning a metal or tapping a metalmind, or Nightblood would eat you very quickly.
Will we ever find out the when, how, and why Vasher and Nightblood moved to Roshar?
Yes, but I don't know when it will happen. I will get around to it.
Does Nightblood rip souls out of people, by chance?
Nightblood consumes Investiture, including the spark of life.
Nightblood, is that going to be using Stormlight?
Yes, Nightblood can feed off of any Investiture, including the one inside of people's souls. Which is what kills them.
How many different worlds of the cosmere has Nightblood been to in total? By which I mean, been present in the Physical Realm of that world.
More than two.
Speaking of the Stormfather, would the Nightwatcher and the giant water spren be on the same level of spren as the Stormfather?
...The Nightwatcher, yes. Um... There are, I would say, a level below the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher who are also much-- a much bigger deal than something like one of the sapient spren, and that's what Cusicesh is.
So the Nightwatcher is a spren you'd say?
The Nightwatcher-- I mean, they call the Nightwatcher a spren. Everyone in the books thinks the Nightwatcher is a spren. That's what they would call-- that's what they would call, if they knew what Honor was, they would call Honor a spren. A spren is Investiture that is alive.
Nightblood?
So they would call Nightblood a spren. They would call-- That's the word for what all of these things are. They would probably've called Adonalsium a spren…
What would Hoid call one of those?
What would Hoid call the Nightwatcher? *laughter* What would Hoid call one of what?
Yeah what would Hoid call the Nightwatcher?
Um… *long pause/laughter*
If Hoid were to use a non-proper noun?
Unpleasant names. *laughter*
You once said Nightblood can do some really freaky things when he is fully consuming Investiture, have we seen Nightblood do that yet?
That is a RAFO. But you will find out...
If you took Nightblood into the Cognitive Realm, what would he look like?
RAFO, and yes, he has been taken into the Cognitive Realm before.
More specifically, would he stay a sword or would he give himself a sort of...
That's a RAFO... that's the RAFO. Just make sure when you go through that perpendicularity, he's in a sheath. Otherwise, bad things happen.
There would be a difference, you say?
Yeah, bad things would happen if you took Nightblood through.
How much more powerful is Nightblood than a regular Shardblade?
I haven't actually quantified that in my own mind so can't give an accurate comparison at this point. I will say that when he is fully consuming Investiture he can do some really freaky things.
Are the Bands of Mourning...would they be like similarly invested as Nightblood?
Not quite to the extent of Nightblood. In fact not remotely close to the extent of Nightblood.
Could Nightblood theoretically be turned into a Hemalurgic spike?
The problem with that is that Nightblood is already invested, so it depends on your version of ' Hemalurgic spikes'. Piercing someone's body with Invested metal can have weird effects all through the Cosmere, but ripping off a piece of a person's soul using an un-Invested spike to Invest it and create one is different... we're talking about two different things, right. So there's the.... so what is a Hemalurgic spike? For instance if you've got a spike that's Invested and you stick it into a Kandra on Scadrial it will still work as an Invested Hemalurgic spike. Making a new Invested spike by ripping off a person's soul, that's a different process and a little more difficult to accomplish and requires some specialized knowledge.
Is Nightblood any more Invested now than when she was created?
RAFO. (Good question.)
Can you use Forgery to enhance or diminish a person's intelligence? If so, could you use it to uplift a non-sentient animal to human levels of intelligence?
Uplifting requires extreme amounts of investiture, and needs to be affixed permanently to the soul. This is beyond what a normal person, even a Forger, usually has access to.
And if full uplifting is practically impossible then are more minor intelligence alterations (like Taravangian) feasible?
Uplifting isn't quite as impossible as I might have implied. It would be easier, say, than making Nightblood. But, of course, making Nightblood was VERY hard.
If Szeth were to have drawn Nightblood immediately after he had consumed Rayse, would he still have drained Szeth's Stormlight? As it said he seemed like he had eaten as much as he could.
At that point, Nightblood had entered into essentially a food coma... Well, no, the food coma one came when he was drawing from the perpendicularity. I don't think he was in food coma mode at that point. I think that he could still have drawn more at that point, I'd have to go look at exactly what I wrote, if I'd put him into food coma mode or not. It is possible.
This is one of the things I wanted to answer with the book. A lot of people have been theorizing, could Nightblood eat an entire Shard? And indeed, Nightblood could not eat an entire Shard. That is not within his capability. In fact, one of the reasons that he leaks Investiture is: he's too stuffed full of it. There is more Investiture in the sword Nightblood than it can actually hold, it's supersaturated. And it leaks Investiture (that it's done some weird things to). But it is constantly hungry for more and constantly leaks it, but it definitely can get full for a time, and it could not eat an entire Shard.
I did see questions about that from people floating around, and it's something I'd been meaning to get to eventually. Nightblood is definitely relevant to things that are happening in the Cosmere, but it is not as simple as grabbing the sword, sticking it into a Shard, and defeating the Shard, unfortunately. Though, as you see in this book, there are reasons for a Shard to still be afraid of Nightblood. It didn't destroy Odium, but Rayse still really had a bad time.
Did Nightblood's Awakening transform it into a God Metal?
*hesitant* Yes, you could say that.
Was that a permanent change, or was that just while...
You can argue that Nightblood is a God Metal. Is he? You could argue otherwise as well. How about that?
What happens if a kandra eats Nightblood?
That would be bad for them.
Could Wax, Vin, or the Lord Ruler burn Nightblood?
Firstly, you're assuming Nightblood is not Allomantically inert, but if it was, it would be like trying to burn someone else's metalmind.
Another note here is that Nightblood can sense where Vasher is. This is because Nightblood has ingested and fed off Vasher's Breaths in the past. When he does that, it connects him to someone. It's also, by the way, one of the secrets as to why Vasher doesn't get sick when holding Nightblood, even though he's a good person. It's not simply familiarity (though that is part of it). Nightblood has a built-in test. If he feeds off you and you survive, then you become somewhat immune to his powers.
What would happen if Nightblood was drawn inside of a perpendicularity?
It depends on the perpendicularity. It has a good chance of collapsing it.
How would Nightblood react to Hoid?
Nightblood would probably try to be very friendly to Hoid, and then-- But Nightblood tries to be friendly to everybody. He's a very friendly, uh, demonic terrible sword that sucks your soul.
Zahel/Vasher is in Roshar for Nightblood? Will we know in Stormlight Archive why these two were separated? Or in the sequel of Warbreaker?
The Warbreaker sequel will give clues about this, but the actual event happened between that and [The Way of Kings]. So I'm not sure where I'll slip it in.
Are we going to see a clash between Nightblood and a Shardblade anytime soon?
Yes.
Nightblood is the most ridiculously over-invested thing in the Cosmere, second only to the Shards?
Yes.
Was this true from the moment of his creation, or did it grow in power over time.
Grew in power over time. Kind of answers a question that people have been wondering. But, yes.
Would Nightblood view Nale as evil?
*Long pause* Probably not.
*Written:* How much compounding would a nicrosil Twinborn would need to do to get a metalmind that is as Invested as Nightblood?
*Reading question:* How much compounding would... *mumbling*
Wow, so much.
*Writes:* Wow so much.
*Written:* A thousand breaths doesn't seem to be that much--the God King has tens of thousands. Would a piece of stone, wood, cloth, or plain metal that has a thousand breaths be as Invested as Nightblood, or is there something more?
No, it needs more. Needs more.
*Writes:* Needs more.
More?
Yeah.
Does that-- is it taking stuff from people it kills?
That's a RAFO, good question.
So Nightblood is sentient, he can make choices, and now he is in Roshar. Could Nightblood bond a spren and become a Radiant?
Could Nightblood bond a spren-- *drowned out by laughter* That one's just a bit farfetched. *laughter* I rarely say anything is impossible but let's just say that one's pretty farfetched.
A question I've been thinking about recently: In Warbreaker we see Nightblood's consciousness shift dramatically when he is actively consuming investiture. Does the Shardic flavor of that investiture (Breath vs Stormlight or Preservation Mist vs Ruin Mist) influence how his mind functions in that state?
RAFO, actually. Good question.
So you said that different Investitures from different worlds can fuel different Investitures, right? Would that mean that you could potentially use Stormlight for Allomancy and/or Feruchemy?
Yes, a little harder with the Metallic Arts than, for instance, Nightblood is the easiest example. He can just feed on whatever Investiture is around.
Could he feed on the Dor from...
He could totally feed on the Dor.
Would you need to have a special sheath to do that or?
No, what you would have to do for him on Elantris is you would have to open some conduit to the Dor that's persistent, like a light or something, and he will suck through that, he would probably end up sucking the whole aon.
City of Elantris itself?
City of Elantris itself would work, yeah, but you're gonna be in trouble if he sucks up the whole thing and destroys it, which is totally possible.
What would happen if Hoid held Nightblood?
Uh, Hoid would not do that. Hoid would stay very far away.
Not even hold it??
He would stay really far away. There are very few things in the Cosmere that Hoid is afraid of, and Nightblood is one of them.
I thought he'd be afraid of the blade end.
So let's just say if very, very, very few things in the Cosmere had a chance of destroying you, you wouldn't even pick one up. You'd try to be in a different room entirely.
*Whispering about Nightblood being able to destroy Hoid*
I didn't say, I said theoretically. I said "had a chance of", I did not confirm. Hoid doesn't know. But there's a chance, and so he is not going to risk that.
Is atium Invested?
Is atium Invested? Atium is Investiture distilled into the Physical Realm, right? So is electricity electric? Or is it--
Well I think the question Sharders had was if it's Invested, how can people Push and Pull on it. That was the struggle.
Atium breaks a lot of rules, in the same way that you will see other things break rules. Atium plays weirdly. When you get distilled Investiture, you're starting like-- My kind of rule for myself is it's kind of like when you start going on the quantum level, the rules just start playing weirdly. Because it's like, what Realm does atium exist in-- is another thing. Because-- Pure Investiture like that is like a mini black hole, right? It's like existing in three Realms at once. Kind of, and things like that... There's lots of weirdness.
The writerly answer is there is lots of weirdness because when I built atium, I didn't have the rest of the cosmere built, right? And so it breaks a lot of rules that I later set up that everything else has to follow, right? So the writerly answer is we just have to accept that atium and lerasium and some of these other distilled Investiture things are going to play very weirdly with the magic systems. But that's okay. Nightblood will too, and some of these things that were built even after the cosmere was coming together.
Can Nightblood be dismissed like a Rosharan blade?
He thinks you could.
Is it possible for a sentient bit of Investiture to pick up a Shard? Like a spren or Nightblood?
It would be possible yes, well, for a spren or a seon for example, it would. Nightblood could theoretically but it would be difficult for various reasons.
Right, because he has no hands.
*graciously chuckles at my dumb joke*
Would they have to be embodied to be able to actually use it effectively, or would they have the same limitations as Kelsier did when he was a cognitive shadow ?
They would have the same limitations yes, but there are ways around that.
Right, like Ishar is working on.
Right.
So Stormlight and Breath are both just different manifestations of Investiture.
That's correct.
So Nightblood and Shardblades are both kind of powered by Investiture?
Yes, in fact you can call Nightblood kind of a mismade, evil Shardblade... more mismade than evil but yes.
But a Shardblade wouldn't shear through Nightblood.
Yes a Shardblade would not shear through Nightblood. In fact I wrote Way of Kings first and then I wrote Warbreaker and Way of Kings came out after Warbreaker but in my mind Warbreaker is a prequel to Way of Kings, where I was telling Vasher's backstory.
Oh really, so the Warbreaker we know takes place after Way of Kings?
No, it takes place before, it's a prequel meaning I wrote Way of Kings and then I went back in time and told Vasher's backstory but Warbreaker ended up coming out first because Way of Kings wasn't ready yet.
So after Nightblood was used pretty obviously in Thaylen City does Zahel [or Vasher] know?
Where Nightblood is? Zahel is pretty sure where Nightblood is; Vivenna does not know. She's on the look out let's say.
I guess it's hard to get back from Shadesmar.
It is. She had some plans and that didn't work out.
Does this mean that Rysn is immortal now? If so that's going to start causing some questions if she stops aging.
Also, would Hoid be able to tell that Rysn bears a Dawnshard? Solely from having born one before? (Maybe he'd be able to sense it with Breaths or some other mystery Investiture.)
I also want to see what would happen if you stabbed a Dawnshard (/Dawnshard bearing person) with Nightblood.
These kinds of questions are why I gave a preemptive RAFO. :)
What is the most Invested item so far revealed?
What counts as an item?
Inanimate object. Sentient swords, stuff like that.
Okay, inanimate objects, would be Nightblood. Well-- is he inanimate?
Well, he's a sentient sword, but he's an inanimate object.
So, yeah, he would count.
I was wondering when you first thought to put Nightblood in Words of Radiance?
Nightblood in Words of Radiance happened because... So I wrote the original draft of Way of Kings in 2002 and Vasher was Kaladin's swordmaster and I thought "This guy has a really interesting past, he's not natively from Roshar". So I went and wrote his backstory and that became the book Warbreaker. So he predates-- And then I came back and I re-wrote Way of Kings and I cut him out of it to save him for the later books. So when did I first think of it? Well 2003 probably? Was where that was happening.
Nightblood was our apartment's collective favorite character.
I have some other quote-unquote cons going on the fans so to speak that are going to be very cool when they happen.
What would a fully trained Seeker sense from Nightblood when it is influencing emotions?
RAFO!
Lightsong Sees the Painting of the Red Battle
This is our first major clue (though a subtle one at the same time) that there might be something to the religion of the Iridescent Tones. Lightsong does see something in this painting that an ordinary person wouldn't be able to. A well-crafted piece of art, made by a person channeling the Tones and connected to them via Breath, can speak to a Returned. Now, in this case, it doesn't work quite like Llarimar says it does—Lightsong doesn't actually prophesy about the black sword in the way the priest thinks. In other words, Lightsong isn't prophesying that he'll see the Black Sword (Nightblood) in the day's activities.
Instead, Lightsong is seeing an image of a previous war, which is prophetic in that another Manywar is brewing—and in both cases, Nightblood will be important to the outcome of the battle.
The person Lightsong sees in the abstract painting is Shashara, Denth's sister, one of the Five Scholars and a Returned also known as Glorysinger by the Cult of the Returned. She is seen here in Lightsong's vision as she's drawing Nightblood at the battle of Twilight Falls. It's the only time the sword was drawn in battle, and Vasher was horrified by the result.
It's because of her insistence on using the sword in battle, and on giving away the secret to creating more, that Vasher and she fought. He ended up killing her with Nightblood, which they'd created together during the days they were in love—he married her a short time before their falling out. That marriage ended with him slaying his own wife to keep her from creating more abominations like Nightblood and loosing them upon the world.
Nightblood is part of a much larger story in this world. He's dropped casually into this particular book, more as a side note than a real focus of what's going on, but his own role in the world is much, much larger than his supporting part here would indicate.
How does Nightblood determine who is evil and who is not?
He is not very good at that, which is the joke. He needs someone else.
How would you compare the Investiture in Nightblood to the Investiture in one of the spren turned into a--
Sword? They have less Investiture than Nightblood.
If Nightblood were a Magic card, what would its abilities/stats be?
Equipment. When equipped creature does combat damage, destroy all other creatures. During your upkeep, pay WUBRG or you lose the game. (Note, I have no development chops, so I have no idea how to properly cost the artifact or the equip.)
If a Shard were to wield Nightblood more directly, like Odium's champion and Odium channeling his power through Nightblood, would we see a lot of world ending stuff from that?
That-- What you just described would work no differently from a Knight Radiant wielding Nightblood
Okay. And that would be scary powerful?
No. No, they'd feed off the Investiture and eventually would either run out or be drawing it so quickly that it would dissolve the person's soul.
So souls are made of Investiture?
Yes, in the cosmere, souls are. So you'd have a little while, but eventually the person would just die and get eaten.
Did it take a life to create Nightblood?
Did it take a life to create Nightblood. It did not. It just required a lot of Breath, which you could assume each one is a little piece of a life so maybe. Multiple lives in that way but no one actually had to die. Good question.
Does Nightblood contain any atium?
No.
The sword with which Azure fights? Is it a lot like Nightblood, maybe?
It shares some features, but is different.
Would Nightblood consider Investiture to be evil?
No, Nightblood would not.