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Do you know when we're going to get Nightblood?
I don't know for sure. Your best bet at Nightblood is after Stormlight 5. I'll take a little bit longer break than normal between 5 and 6 because there are two five-book arcs, and I'm really hoping to squeeze Nightblood in there.
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.
What would happen if Azure's sword was wielded against Nightblood?
If Azure's sword was wielded against Nightblood, terrible things would happen, but Nightblood would be the stronger of the pair. Good question.
Can Nightblood damage or kill a Shard? Is he that powerful?
Nightblood is not powerful enough for-- *makes weird/hesitant ehhh sound*
Can it damage?
Damage? Yes. How damaging? Is a subject to discussion. Nightblood contains a lot of Investiture.
What’s your most terrifying character, and why is it Nightblood?
Ha. Nightblood is pretty terrifying… You know, an object created to destroy evil but doesn’t know what it is?
When you brought it back...I had <to like shut the book> a little bit and like, scary.
I wanted you to think that Nightblood in the hands of Szeth should be one of the most terrifying things that you have ever contemplated.
Can you become a Nightblood savant?
Um... No, I don't think that would work. Just the way that things are working, probably not. Whether Nightblood is savant or not... But you probably could not become a savant of Nightblood.
Anyway, Nightblood is named for the smoke he leaks, and he originally had a different name when he was created. Vasher himself dubbed the sword Nightblood after he had used it to kill the woman he loved. The blackness that leaks out is actually corrupted and consumed Breaths, the ones that Nightblood leeches off anyone who draws him.
Old Chaps
I love having random little viewpoints like these in books. I don't do them often, usually just once or twice a book. But I was excited to write this one, as Chaps has a very interesting way of thinking. Dance, dance, dance. I didn't plan him into the book specifically; I simply wrote this scene as it arrived and I knew someone had to fetch Nightblood. I'm always pleased when a little glimpse like this gives us such a distinctive feel and flavor for a character, though.
Nightblood is better at communicating with people who are mentally unhinged. He can influence them more easily. Really, Denth, you should have known to toss Nightblood someplace far deeper than the shallow bay.
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.
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.
Any hint on how Nin got a hold of Nightblood, or how Vasher lost Nightblood?
Vasher and Nightblood had something of a falling out...
So what would happen if [Lift] ate Nightblood? *laughter*
Yeah, eating Nightblood would not be a smart idea for anyone. *laughter* Nightblood would eat you. In Soviet Russia, sword eats you? I don't know…
How does corrupted investiture work, like Nightblood?
Oh, Nightblood. Again, this is a definition of what somebody feels is a corruption. For instance, there are spren that people would feel are corrupted. But that's corruption where the mixing of different Shards has changed things, and I think a lot of times when people say corruption, what they're meaning is the mixing of Shards' powers.
So is there a mixing of Shards' powers happening with Nightblood?
*smirks* RAFO. That's the natural question, I'm glad you asked it.
Ok, uhhh, so something similar is happening with Gavilar's sphere, right?
*contemplative silence* RAFO.
Can Nightblood attract spren?
Nightblood could theoretically attract spren. I don't think he really does yet, but I think this is theoretically possible.
Can I ask you real quick: Where Warbreaker falls in Stormlight Achive?
Warbreaker is before Stormlight Archive. Vasher, before Warbreaker, had been to Roshar.
Okay, that's what I needed to know. Nightblood.
Nightblood was patterned off of things that Vasher and the others saw on Roshar.
Hypothetically could Nightblood Splinter a Shard?
Uh, Splintering a Shard takes more power than Nightblood has.
So at the end of Words of Radiance Szeth gets Nightblood. But Nightblood on Nalthis will suck your Breath until you die.
Yes.
So how can Szeth-- like presumably it takes whatever Roshar's form of Investiture is.
Yes.
So how-- but wouldn't it kill Szeth?
So that's-- First off let's make-- let's mention this: no spoiler questions. That spoils the end of Words of Radiance.
Oh, I'm sorry.
You're okay, but let's avoid spoiler questions. That one will specifically be answered in the next book. So you don't have to worry about that as much. That is a read and find out. That one-- but it's a read and find out that's very obviously the answer is coming.
In Warbreaker, Vasher makes the claim that Nightblood's personality is essentially static, that he'll never change. How true is that? Assuming Nightblood managed to stick around for thousands, or millions of years, could he grow in even the smallest of ways; develop a legitimate sense of right and wrong and figure out what's really going on around him?
Vasher believes it's true. Vasher has been wrong on occasion, but he is a fairly authoritative source.
If Nightblood uses Breath, and Szeth has Nightblood, how would it use-- would it feed off of Stormlight?
It can feed off of Stormlight, but Szeth can't draw in Stormlight right now.
[...]
So Szeth better not draw that sword, for a while at least.
Nightblood, being a sentient object, could he give away his Breath?
Ah, Nightblood...could not give away his Breath. It's a good question. It's because that Breath is making him...like something weird has happened to him where the metal is Invested almost to a Hemalurgic or Feruchemical way, right? Like it's no longer just an object with a bunch of Breath. It's become permeating the whole thing. So it's more like the soul of a person, the part of the Breath they can't give away. Like when you give away your Breath, you retain some of your Investiture, you can't give that part away. It's the same thing.
Cuz I imagine it would be kind of like a Lifeless where that Breath is probably stuck so close that it would not be removable by an Awakener at least.?
Yeah, Yep. It's stuck in there, yep. I mean there are ways to get the Investiture out, but it's not the simple "We give it away" thing. Yeah, he can't just give it away.
<inaudible> corrupted or?
Yes, that is part of it, that is part of what that means.
Is Nightblood considered a Sliver after what happened in Rhythm of War?
By some definitions... *indecisive sputtering* Tenuous. I would say for the most part no. Some people might in-world disagree because Slivers are pretty... it's a moving target, but Nightblood shuts off pretty quick in terms of the amount of Investiture that would come through something like that. And so while he did get a piece of that, technically anything he eats is getting a piece of a Shard. I'm going to say no, with room for debate.
We've seen people Ascend. If it were in the position to do so, could Nightblood take up a Shard?
This is a RAFO, as I'm not specifically willing to comment on whether or not power that has become self-aware (Seons, Nightblood, Spren) can Ascend or not.
What's Nightblood's melting point?
Nightblood could survive a whole lot, so we're talking a pretty high melting point. But I haven't written it down specifically. (Some things are too detailed, even for me.)
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.
*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.
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.
Would Nightblood consider Investiture to be evil?
No, Nightblood would not.
If Nightblood was on Roshar—for whatever reason—would it be a Shardblade essentially, like would it func--
Yes. They are exactly the same thing. [...] Nightblood is indeed a Shardblade, basically the exact same thing. Though he is a Shardblade that is twisted and he is a lot more powerful than your standard.
If you held out Nightblood in the mists on Scadrial what would happen?
Nightblood would probably start feeding on the mists on Scadrial.
Would it pick up the Shard?
No, that's not how that works.
Nightblood's intent is to destroy evil. Since it consumes Investiture, does it view Investiture as evil?
No, it does not. Nightblood has trouble deciding what is evil. It is getting better, more and more, but it wouldn't view Investiture itself as evil.
If someone created another Awakened sword, just like Nightblood, with the same process, and then brought it to fight Nightblood the same way, would they destroy each other?
RAFO!
I was curious if Nightblood was the only one of its kind, or if Vasher and Shashara have made any others.
That's a RAFO. Good question. Very good question. There was a point in time when Nightblood was the only one of its kind, and it may have continued until now.
Was Nightblood a massive waste of Investiture?
There are lots of people of that think Nightblood is a massive waste of Investiture.
Let's say some Mistborn jerk tosses Nightblood into the mists. What happens?
I suspect the mists would pull away from Nightblood, though he'd try to feed on them.
I've got a list of various Cosmere bits of metal and I was wondering if you would rank them from like one to ten or just easy to difficult on how hard it would be to steelpush on them. So with one being just a regular coin, ten being like when the Lord Ruler was moving bits of glass on the floor, so like metal inside a person's body.
It depends on how strong the Investiture in them is.
Is that gonna be the answer for all of these?
Probably!
How about a spike charged with Hemalurgy?
A spike charged with Hemalurgy... that depends on...
Not in a person.
Depends on how strong, yeah, a spike is moderately, (in the realm of these kinds of things) moderately easy to push on because a spike does not rip off very much Investiture. Only enough to short circuit the soul, and less it over time. I would put that at the bottom, with the top being very hard, to be one of the easier things.
How about a metalmind that is full?
That is full? That is going to be middle of the realm of the, yeah. Generally easier than, for instance, a Shardblade which is going to be very hard.
A Shardblade is [inaudible] actually metal? [metal]-ish?
Ish. Is Lerasium a metal? Yeah.
So that'd be the same for Shardplate too?
Shardplate and Blade are very hard. Blade is probably gonna be a little harder.
A Half-shard?
A Half-shard shield? That's gonna be moderate.
Nightblood? I imagine that being hard.
Hard, of all the things you've listed, that is going to be the hardest. Far beyond even a Sharblade.
Far beyond metal inside a person?
Uh, yes. Depending on how invested the person is.
If somebody was invested as much as Nightblood?
Yes, for instance the God King, right. At the end with all those Breaths. Pushing something inside of him, getting through all of that? Gonna be real hard. Average person on Scadrial? You've seen how hard that is. A drab? Much easier.
That was my next one, or no, sorry not a drab. A lifeless?
A Lifeless, yeah. Even... yeah. Lifeless are kind of weird because they've had their soul leave but then they've had a replacement stuck in in the form of Breath which leaves them in a very weird position compared to a drab which has had part of their Investiture ripped away but a majority remains, so, anyways. I'm going to give you one more. Pick your favorite.
A soulstamped piece of metal?
A soulstamped piece of metal is going to be on the lower, easier side. Not a lot of Investiture going on in a soulstamp.
If Nightblood was to be used by a Scadrian, would that person have to be an Investiture ferring?
No, you could be burning any metal, and Nightblood would co-opt it and feed off that.
Does Szeth ever get to figure out Nightblood's name, or does he just always call Nightblood, "Sword-nimi?"
That's a RAFO too!
Are there other objects that we've encountered like Nightblood?
Nothing quite like Nightblood, though Azure's sword is Invested.
Does Nightblood have a favorite flavor or type of Investiture? In addition, does different Investiture taste different?
Yes it would, but the thing is, when Nightblood is eating Investiture, he is generally not in a mental state to really pay attention to that. He's not what you would call a connoisseur, he is a glutton. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but kind of making a distinction there. Because of that, if you asked him, he wouldn't even really be able to remember. Because that time when he's really drinking it in, he is not himself, so to speak. But it would taste different to him, if he were able to pay attention and to eloquently speak about those experiences.
Peter actually said on the 17th Shard that we should ask you about this, we'll see if I get RAFO'd or not.
Would you share with me how Vasher lost his sword to Nale?
How Vasher...?
Well uh "Zahel".
Oh, oh. *having far too much fun with this*
So how Zahel lost his "sword"...
We're talking about the same thing here. So Nightblood. How did that get in-- how did that transfer over?
I'm not sure why Peter's telling you to ask that, because--
Well he said something about that maybe you could share a little bit about, I don't know...
There will be a lot of information in the book Nightblood about how some of these things came to transpire.
Does Nightblood rip souls out of people, by chance?
Nightblood consumes Investiture, including the spark of life.
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.
Nightblood Origins
I've been wanting to do a book with a talking sword for some time. Sentient objects are a favorite theme of mine from fantasy books I've read, and I think you'll probably see more of them in future books from me.
The magic sword is its own archetype in fantasy, even if there haven't been any good magic sword books among the big fantasy novels of recent years. Perhaps that's because Saberhagen and Moorcock did such a good job with their books in the past. I'm not sure. (I don't count appearances of magic swords like Callandor in the Wheel of Time. I mean books with major parts played by swords.)
Anyway, that's a tangent, and I'm certain that half the people reading this can think of examples and exceptions to what I just said. Either way, this is a theme I wanted to tackle, and the magic system of this world lent me the opportunity.
Nightblood is another favorite character of the readers. I think his personality works the best out of any non-viewpoint character I've ever written. He doesn't get that much dialogue in the book, but it is so distinctive that it just works.
First, just please tell me anything about Nightblood--the book or the Type IV Awakened object. Or Warbreaker--the book or the Type II...
All right. My current plot for the book Nightblood. It's really minor, but it involves Darro entering the cosmere officially. He is a character from Aether of Night... He's a side character in that that I've always wanted to work into this main continuity, the real continuity, so he's coming.
What about [Nightblood] compared to a Shardpool?
Nightblood compared to a Shardpool? Depends on the Pool.
Does a Herald using an Honorblade consume the same "dangerous" amounts of Stormlight?
Honorblades are less efficient; this doesn't change when a Herald uses them. (But they have other advantages.)
Are Honorblades closer in power to Nightblood than they are to Shardblades made from Spren?
Hard to say. They're all similar, but at the same time, very different. And in a way, Nightblood is what you might call a "Third Generation" blade.
Ah gotcha. And in this analogy, Honorblades would be 1st gen and Sprenblades would be 2nd gen?
Yes.
So we know that Nightblood was created by people who had some knowledge of Shardblades.
Mmhmm.
But we also know that Nightblood consumes Breaths when it's used.
Yep.
So do Shardblades require that kind of energy? It doesn't seem like they--
No.
So why are they different?
Because they were made with different magic systems, by different people, and different styles.
Who can consume more Investiture, Nightblood or Chiri-Chiri?
Nightblood. Chiri-Chiri would get full a lot faster.
Does Vasher want Nightblood back?
Vasher feels responsible for Nightblood
is there any reason why he didn't go by Vasher, as well?
Because in the original draft he was, and I'm like, "That's just too easy." Plus he's kinda trying to hide, so he's not as foolhardy as a certain other character who goes willy-nilly by the same aliases over and over again and doesn't care. Picking an alias, if you know people would potentially would be hunting for you, having them not be able to ask for you by name is useful.
