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What would giving Breath to spren result in? Breath is supposed to be more in the Physical than the Spiritual due to the nature of Endowment / to facilitate their transfer. Would the adaptability of Breath to different sDNA cause it to become more Cognitive in nature? Or would it make it easier for the spren to push into the Physical Realm and retain their coherence there? I assume that the rules of Awakening should still remain the same for them and they would still gain Heightenings if they acquire more Breaths, but would doing so change what kind of spren they are if they have more of Endowment's Investiture or would Endowment's nature mean her Investiture wouldn't change the inherent nature of the spren? If the spren was a Nahel Bond capable spren, would this count as Corruption assuming their nature does change? Would they still grant the same Surges? Could they grant the benefits of the Heightenings to their Bondmate? Seeing as the Nahel Bond is a melding of the Spiritwebs, to some degree, would transferring Breaths be easier between Bondmates or could a Bondmate use one another's Breath at the Fifth Ideal?

Hey folks! @Honorless has had a fantastic RP idea, wherein our characters are all new in T’Telir and have been conned or forced to give up their Breaths. As Drabs, they then try to get a Breath or more back. This allows us to RP weaker characters, and in a setting that is used less than others. Quote boxes for OOC from now on, be fair and don’t godmod, you guys all know the rules I’m sure. Active Characters: Inactive Characters:

So where do the the Returned return? Lightsong died in the sea, I assume he did not Return deep in the sea? Did Llarimar somehow manage to get his body out? I doubt that... Did he just appear on the ship? In some random location? Somewhere that was important to him? Do the Returned return to their own body or like the Heralds (& possibly Kelsier) do they get a new body? Their Divine Breath is a Splinter, so a new body is possible...

My question is basically whether Brandon has made clear whether a royal loses the ability to change their hair color when they have no breath. I know Vivenna couldn't change her hair color during much of the time she was a drab, but she was having lots of other issues at the time. Does a royal need at least one breath to use whatever power they inherited, or do they retain that power to even as a drab, at least to some extent? I searched arcanum and didn't find anything clear.

Okay here's the premise. All 4 of the big Shardworlds participate in a planetary battle Royale for Cosmere supremacy. The catch is that God Level users are excluded. So TLR is out for Scadrial, Roshar cannot have the Heralds, Susebron and the Returned cannot fight for Nalthis. Sel keeps Elantrians because they have no other comparative God users (Dead Shards). Any magic system native to their world can be used on the planet in conflict along with the fuel in the amounts that they'd normally get. Each has a home city on the planet in conflict, 500,000 people a piece, but with their magic users being proportional to their numbers on the home planet, at least initially. More magic users created from the total population is permitted. No reinforcements from home. 90 days to organize their forces. So who wins?

So we have seen shardblade on two worlds thus far . Roshar and Nalthis. Has anyone considered it may be possible on every world in the Cosmere , and Others just haven’t figured out how ? I think Sel would probably be a good candidate . Possibly Skadrial as well , i just think the magic system on Skadrial is so broken there is little you can’t do if you only knew they right metals . Sel has Seons which are really close to spren . And they have a dark version we haven’t seen yet . Seems you can create some interesting things on Sel , if you can make Seons then shardblades should be possible. Can anyone think of another world they could make shardblades.

Now, at first glance the notion is preposterous. Yet a roughly humanoid figure is animated the equivalent of a Divine Breath is used (something must keep the Fused out of the Beyond) it moves it gains perception a spirit is inserted just as in case of the Returned

I have been thinking alot about how OP Lift's ability to metabolizes food into raw investiture is. My question is is this ability universal with all abilities and connections? For example, if lift would eat a bead of lerasium would she be able to use that metabolized investiture to power all allomancy abilities? Another possibility would be if she was able to access awakening would she be able to awaken without the need to use Biochromatic Breath?

Heya everyone, I was just wondering, once the Returned die a second time there is absolutely no way to bring them back, right? I just wanted to confirm because my friend who just got into Warbreaker asked me if Lightsong

So, just recently I realized that most cosmere systems of magic have to do with shardic intent. I know that people have probably already thought of this, but it came to me while I was reading Warbreaker. On Endowment's shardworld, magic allows people to endow items with gifts, namely, the gift of life and breath. Awakeners give items life, of course, but even common people can give their breath to the Returned. And the Returned give their breath to heal. On Scadrial, Ruin's system of magic requires the destruction of metal for power. Preservation's preserves power to be saved for later. Hemalurgy sort of preserves power by transferring it, but requires the ruin of a living being. So it's kind of a combination of the two. On Sel, stuff is different, due to both shards being shattered. I won't bother. I'm still trying to work out White Sand. I haven't read them yet. On Roshar, a Knight Radiant's power is directly linked to being honorable by following the ideals of their order. Cultivation cultivates people with her magic. She nurtures with a gift, but prunes with a curse, in an attempt to foster healthy growth. Odium is... Odium. It seems like the Fused are fuled by passion, which is Odium's thing. We really don't have much concrete information on them though, except that they're basically uncool and Unhinged versions of the Knights Radiant. That's... All I've read of the cosmere so far. Feel free to add, or correct.

So we know Rashek was aware of other shard world's , what would have happened if he had visited nalthis and either bullied or threatened ppl to give breath or used his power to see them and fool then into giving thier breath to him as tribute or simply bought breaths with gold mined from the final empire or some thing else like . Could he have accepted the breaths or is it only limited to the nalthisians ? Would endowment kick him out ? Had he succeeded and stopped depending upon atium compounding and grown free from ruin , would he overtime, over the centuries have become a better ruler. Preservations influence woulddy would have left him averse to change and progress but still .....

I was doing a reread of TWOK, and at the end of chapter 26:Stillness, there is noted that purple ichor spurts out of a chasmfiend as Adolin reaches inside to grab a gemheart. I also recently listened to the Five Scholars shardcast in which they reference the importance of Yesteel being the one to discover ichor alcohol. Could this possible mean that Yesteel has been to Roshar and developed it from the purple ichor from the animals of Roshar? I say animals because in the prologue of TWOK Kalak notices purple blood on the ground, as well it is stated in the books that axehounds have purple blood. Is this just coincidence I am noticing or is there something noteworthy here? I am not good with the timelines on when each book in the Cosmere unfolds. Could Yesteel be responsible for some life on Roshar, like the chasmfiends? My speculations, probably common speculation would assume that Roshar's Shattered Plains and surrounding areas could have been underwater at some point, given the description of life and environments. Chasmfiend being very crustacean esque, and the plant life being very ocean like. Is this life on Roshar strictly due to evolution or experiments of Yesteel in his pursuit to discover ichor alcohol? Or is all of this just a huge rabbit hole tangent my brain went down? Either way any thoughts or speculations?

Breath. It comes, and it gets taken away. There are those, like the Idrians, who view it as a sacred object, part of the soul, and who consider it sacrilege to use or transform it in any way. Then there are those, like the Hallandren, who buy and sell Breath like they would eggs at a market, and who view it as a simple fuel for their various arcane activities. Then there are those, who are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, and who see Breath as an ultimate source to power and influence in T'Telir. The Black Shadows have been looking for a way to find a fresh supply of Breath, and do not much care how. But they took a step too far when they kidnapped Mmerinas, a wealthy merchant Awakener, and stole his Breath. Awakeners from around T'Telir and beyond are banding together to combat this new threat - the Hallandren Alliance does not intend to get picked off in such a manner. Whether they succeed in their task is yet to be seen. Welcome to QF37! All the normal rules for QF's apply - Cycles are 24 hours, with a lynch each cycle. Signups will end on Saturday May 4th, 5PM AEST. Every player will start out with a certain amount of Breath. You can use Breath to do two things. Achieve Heightenings, or make Items that can perform abilities. Heightenings: First Heightening (5 Breaths) - Aura Recognition. Target a player each night, and you can discover how much Breath that player holds. Second Heightening (8 Breaths) - Enhanced Hearing. You can listen in on a player, and discover who they targeted that Cycle. Third Heightening (12 Breaths) - Color Recognition. You see the letters of gossip passing back and forth between members of the Hallandren court, and are able to see who a player was in contact with in PM’s in the last cycle (but not its contents.) Fourth Heightening (18 Breaths) - Life Sense. You know who targetted you on a given night without having to submit an action or use an item, unless that player is Drab (has 0 Breath). Items: Rope - 4 Breath - Roleblock a player Strawman - 6 Breath - Add an extra vote to a player in the lynch Lifeless - 9 Breath - Can kill a player each night. The Lifeless will show up on a player list (with the name you give it, otherwise the GM will choose a name), and can be targeted like a regular player (for example, to roleblock the kill, you can roleblock the Lifeless or the player commanding the lifeless in order to do so). The Breath from a Lifeless can not be retrieved. Awakened Clothing - 10 Breath - Protect a player from an attack Miscellaneous Rules: You may have as many Items as you like, however, using an Item costs an action, and you may only use one action a cycle (not including voting). If you are of, for example, the Third Heightening, you may perform any action up to that Heightening (but you still can only perform one action.) If a player is lynched, the Breath will get passed out to those who voted on that player, in order of the votes (this includes vote manipulations, which are seen as coming at the end of the cycle, after regular votes.) For example, if Chaos, who has 8 Breath is lynched by Joe and Bard, in that order, then Joe and Bard would get 4 Breath each. If Fifth had placed a vote via his strawman on Chaos, then Joe and Bard would get 3 Breath each, and Fifth would get 2 Breath (so, it is allocated as Joe, Bard, Fifth, Joe, ... , until the Breath runs out.) If Chaos held any Items, those Items would be destroyed. You can pass all the Breath you currently hold, or none of it - it is not possible to pass just a portion of your current Breath. Except for the Lifeless, you can retrieve Breaths from Items you control. Player List: Steeldancer - Awakened Steel Xinoehp - Thaerb Ark1002 - Katie the Koloss Elandara - Turquoise-Bellied Alligator (TBA) Randuir - in CadCom - Ch. Aracter TBA Alvron - Izzy Dedyet Lumgol - N'Nairim Kidpen - Buffy the Black Shadow Slayer Devotary - Hohelin Maill - M'Malil Rathmaskal - Sart - Joe - Quick Links:

SUMMARY BUSINESS PLAN (As Founder Brandon Sanderson Predicts Endowment Wants) Presented to the Nalthis Breath Council by the Confused Consulting Group Introduction Thank you, Nalthis Breath Council (NBC), for this opportunity to present to you CCG’s ideas on how best to monetize Breaths. Nalthians are wise to have created this elected council to unify their interests in an organized Breath Market. The Breath market now is highly fragmented and dis-integrated. CCG believes all Nalthians will benefit from the enhanced value an organized market will bring them. Our proposed Business Plan focuses on the cosmere-wide sale of Breaths. We think now is the time to implement this plan while most Breaths remain on Nalthis. Our advice is to make NBC the sole cosmere source for buying and selling Breaths – a real-world monopolistic cartel like “earth’s OPEC.” (“OPEC” is a group mentioned in the famous fantasy novel Twentieth Century Earth). This Business Plan shows how NBC can accomplish that goal. Breath Benefits That Affect Value Breaths may be the cosmere’s most valuable freely-transferable asset – same-sized quanta of Endowment’s Investiture. Each Breath enhances its holder’s lifeforce. Breaths come only from Nalthis but can be transferred to anyone anywhere. New supply is limited to Nalthian births. Nalthians must give their Breaths willingly. That lessens the risk of Breath theft. Breaths enable their holder to animate (Awaken) objects. 2,000 Breaths make their holder functionally immortal. 50,000 Breaths make their holder the equivalent of a Hallendren God King. NBC Breath Exchange We recommend you form the NBC Breath Exchange to let the market price Breaths rather than set an arbitrary price. The Exchange should be the sole cosmere market for Breaths. The NBC should require buyers and sellers to conduct all Breath transfers through the Exchange. The NBC may choose to exempt intra-family transfers, inheritances, and at-the-moment-of-death transfers. NBC should ban all private Breath sales that fall outside these exemptions. The Breath Black Market To ensure the Exchange works as intended, the NBC must take steps to eliminate smuggling and the black market in Breaths. Currently, the Tears of Edgli are the only way to enter Nalthis, but future technologies may change that. We recommend for now NBC monitor visitor traffic through the Tears. Each person must leave Nalthis with the same number of Breaths they held on entry or account for the discrepancy with NBC-certified papers. We recommend you station strong Awakeners at the Tears to count the Breaths and enforce anti-smuggling laws. We urge the NBC to capture the bandit and murderer Vasher and his cohort the former Princess Vivenna of Idris. This notorious pair has eluded all previous efforts to find and restrain them. Together they hold many thousands of Breaths. They are criminals, but our concern is the potential market disruption if they choose to dump their Breaths onto the market. NBC Revenue Streams CCG foresees NBC generating revenue from commissions and other fees on each Breath transfer. CCG anticipates NBC’s efforts will have increased Breath value enough that buyers and sellers won’t mind paying these commissions and fees. Spinoff Business Revenues CCG recommends NBC expand its business model to augment its Breath marketing business and generate substantial additional revenues. Some examples: Breath storage devices. CCG anticipates NBC will hold very large Breath reserves. It may be unfeasible for NBC officials to hold and carry these Breaths personally. These Breaths don’t belong to them in any event. If something unexpectedly happens to an NBC Breath holder, NBC could lose those Breaths. Developing Breath storage technology mitigates this risk. Such technology should allow for multiple NBC officials to retrieve these Breaths, perhaps through an Awakening password created and shared by the person who stores the Breaths. Awakening Training. NBC should sell Awakening training services to Breath purchasers. Breath Financing. As Breaths increase in value, individuals may lack sufficient capital to purchase them. We recommend NBC form the NBC Investment Bank to develop financing options for individual purchases. These options may include purchases on margin, installment contracts, and other payment plans. Security Consulting. NBC has unique expertise it could package and market to Breath holders to ensure Breath safety and security. Exclusive Transportation Rights. NBC should retain the right to transport Breaths to the buyer. While this is a sensible security feature, NBC’s transportation monopoly provides it an additional, independent revenue stream. Other Issues Private Equity Breath Purchases We anticipate promoters will form business entities to consolidate Breath investor capital. These private equity firms could accumulate huge numbers of Breaths. These firms’ buy/sell strategies could adversely affect market efficiencies or otherwise compete with NBC’s financing business. To avoid this, we recommend NBC bar corporate ownership of Breaths or limit the number of Breaths such entities can own. Ethical Issues Some may question the propriety of establishing an organized market in human souls. They may see Breath transfers as immoral, taking part of a human life, or even soul slavery. CCG recommends NBC develop strategies to combat these perceptions including in-school education programs and massive advertising campaigns. The latter might highlight the enormous financial benefits that enhanced Breath values yield to Nalthian society. Legal Issues As the price for Breaths increases, Nalthians may choose to have more children and harvest their Breaths. This will lead to more drabs in society. From their Breath sale, each drab should have enough wealth not to burden society, but the NBC should monitor this situation closely. If necessary, the NBC should enact laws that prescribe the minimum age a person may sell their Breaths; ensure payment benefits the child and not the parent; and otherwise preclude child abuse through Breath deprivation. Effect of Mass Murder, War, and Other Catastrophes Some unscrupulous investors may try to inflate Breath values through the mass murder of Nalthians. The villains Vasher and Vivenna use this tactic with the Awakened sword Nightblood. Terrorist attacks can occur too swiftly to collect the Breaths of the murdered Nalthians. Nightblood reportedly destroys every part of those it kills including their Breaths. War, disease, and natural disasters can also materially reduce the Breath supply. We recommend the NBC maintain a large Breath reserve at all times. If any of these events occur, the NBC can stabilize pricing by putting part of the reserved Breaths back on the market. (In the fantasy novel Twentieth Century Earth, a fictional country called the U.S.A. kept a strategic carbon-based fuel reserve to guard against OPEC disruption of the fuel supply.) Conclusion NBC contacted us when founder Brandon Sanderson concluded Endowment wishes to encourage the growth of the Nalthian Breath market. We believe this NBC Business Plan offers the best means of accomplishing that goal with the least friction to the existing Breath market. CCG designed the NBC Business Plan to maximize NBC revenues. We did so on the assumption NBC will re-distribute the bulk of its operating profits to native Nalthians. Getting buy-in from native Nalthians through this unity of interest is essential for the Plan’s ultimate success.

So I'm in the process of trying to make my own Cosmere blanket, based on this amazing one here, and I realized that Nalthis was left out of Arcanum Unbounded, as it doesn't have a short story. This means it doesn't have a fancy symbol, and won't have representation in the blanket. What's a girl to do? So far, my best idea is to tie multicolored strips of cloth in with the ties, but I'm feeling rather bummed that Nalthis wasn't included. Any ideas?

Nananav was a character in Oathbringer who was robbed by Veil and her crew. Veil's crew posed as carpet workers, which allowed them to infiltrate the keep. The name Nananav reminds me of Nalthian naming schemes, with the repetition of consonants, such as Vivenna or Llarimar. I would assume she would be at third heightening or higher, which would allow perfect color recognition, as one line of dialogue from her is requiring the new carpet to be a perfect match of color. Am I reading too much into this?

Hey everyone, so I am new (obviously) and love this forum so far! So I picked up my first cosmere-related book (not Sanderson book, but cosmere-related book) on January 1st this year-and loved it so much I finished the whole cosmere by August 21st (unless you count white sand- haven't gotten ahold of that yet). Anyway, I have a burning question and I was wondering if any of you know the answer or want to share your opinions- Does everyone in the Cosmere have breath? I get that they aren't all drabs but do they all have a breath, like from when they are born? Or is it just people from Nalthis (Nalthinians?)? I mean Hoid got some extra but Hoid is Hoid and besides I figured anyone could get more... Anyway would really appreciate any reply to this (And heads up, I really like parentheses as you can tell). Suppose I should also introduce myself- I'm a dude who lives in Japan although I am American and admittedly haven't read much fantasy outside of Sanderson (Do like Fablehave and Eragon tho, although I am still working on Eragon so no spoilers). TLDR; Hi. Who has breath.

I've been relistening to Warbreaker and at 8 hours and 16 minute it mentions that if Vasher had more breaths he could have seen the "lichen" on the grass. I can't find if it has been discussed, any idea if it's the same lichen as mentioned in White Sands that fuels their sand Mastery?

In the Greater Cosmere there are 4 major magic systems I'd like to discuss and make comparisons. My purpose is not to theorize who'd win a fight between magic users of different systems, more a comparison of the nature of the magics themselves. Note that I'm not including White Sand, Aether of Night or Shadows of Threnody. The first isn't fully published, the 2nd may not quite be canon yet and the third we don't know nearly enough to evaluate. So, first the Planet and the systems. Sel-AonDor/Dakhor Scadrial-Metallic Arts Nalthis-Awakening/Chromatics Roshar-Surgebinding/Voidbinding Granted this list is of course incomplete. As Brandon writes more books and opens up more of the Cosmere we will potentially see more planetary systems and more magic. Up to this point the 4 major magic systems of the Cosmere are the ones listed above. Easiest Entry Point: That title goes to Awakening. Everybody in the system is born with a seed of the magic in Breath. It's not terribly difficult to get more, at least in comparison to the other systems. And if one gets enough Breath you get the magic handbook. In fact the only restrictions come when you make it to Cognitive Shadow territory and even that's not onerous. 1 Breath a week, substituted for any raw Investiture if breath isn't available. Most Mobile: The Metallic Arts take the cake on this one. If your sDNA allows for metal manipulation then you can do it anywhere in the Cosmere. It's not location dependant like on the other Shard worlds because the doorway to the power is already incorporated into your spiritweb. Most Investiture: This is obviously Roshar. Two living Vessels and a shattered third are all in system. Raw Power circles the globe on a semi-regular basis. That raw power can be harnessed by practitioners of different magic systems with a simple hack. Probably a different hack for each system but it's probably not terribly difficult. Unlike say Scadrial where the hack into their system involves material that no longer exists (lerassium) or finding someone with the appropriate spiritweb and ripping a piece from their soul. On Roshar all you gotta do is stand out in a storm with a kite. I'm sure there are more but that's all I could come up with for now. I'm sure there are others. I tried to stay away from the more subjective comparisons like Most Useful or Most OP but feel free to explore.

Keepers on Ashyn would be incredibly powerful. So we know that on ashyn, magic is disease based. The example Brandon gave is that while you have the common cold, you can fly. Now who do we know that can control when they are sick? I think it can generally be agreed upon that for most metals, tapping is better than storing, right? You would rather be fast than slow, healthy than sick, quick of thought than slow, and so on. Unless you are on Ashyn that is. What we know of Ashton is that it is incredibly hot, you get powers from being sick, and people live in the sky. If I were a Feruchemist, I would gladly spend a year or two absolutely miserable in exchange for immortality and an incredibly wealthy and comfortable life. Allow me to explain. So our keeper heads to ashyn, with plenty of extra metalminds of all of the different metals, he finds a nice place to stay, perhaps someone to help take care of him, and he spends the next year or so absolutely miserable. He stores everything. Being in a floating city, its better to weigh less, he needs to store heat, storing senses to keep him from suffering, but most importantly, strength age and health. He needs to be as frail as physically possible. The idea is to get as sick as possible, and store all of those newly gained powers in unkeyed nicrosilminds. So you can see where this is going, he lies in bed for a year and fills all of his metalminds as well as collected tons of powers in his nicrosilminds. Even though he is intentionally close to death this whole time, he is never in danger as if he ever needs it, he can just stop storing and tap a little health to completely recover. Now our keeper, after all this time pumping stuff into his metalminds, can sell his unkeyed nicrosilminds filled with powers, which are vastly more efficient than when normal people get them. For example, if someone has a cold for 3 days, they have the ability to fly for 72 hours, which is being wasted whenever they aren't flying. After 72 hours, the power is gone and the whole time you had it, you were sick. When you use a nicrosilmind though, you can fly for 72 hours, and whenever you aren't flying, you just stop tapping. Say you fly for one hour a day, you fly for 3 days with the cold, so 3 hours. However if you fly with the nicrosilmind, you can fly for 72 hours or 72 days. Far more efficient. So back to our keeper, everyone on this planet can use these powers with the right sickness requirements, so as cool as it is, its nothing special. However... Over on Nalthis, nobody has ever had these powers that you can offer them, and everybody is born with something to offer to you. I bet you could get breaths incredibly easy if you talk to wealthy people with lots of breaths and offer them new magical powers with incredible length of use, remember that our keeper spent a year, or as long as he wants, collecting these powers as well as his own feruchemical powers. Assuming he sells everything he has been collecting in exchange for a massive wealth of breaths, he could gain immortality, awakening, and live a comfortable, powerful, and wealthy life wherever he wants. If he chooses to go back to ashyn and stores a few more powers, he can basically use whatever powers he wants wherever and whenever he wants, on top of his breaths and Feruchemy. Slightly overpowered and awesome if you ask me. I doubt it would happen in Canon, but I would love to see it so much. Tell me what you guys think.

So... I’m doing a re-read of Warbreaker, and this thought came to my head. When awakening, can you lose breaths? To add some clarity, I’m asking that when you awaken something and retrieve your breaths afterwards, can you possibly lose some? Ex. You awaken a rope. It takes 50 breaths, you only retrieve 35 because some was ‘used up’. The book always says you get all of them back, but I’m just asking if it’s possible. (And as a smaller question, do non-Nalthians have Breath?)

So quick question, are people to transfer limited numbers of breaths (i.e. Not all of there breaths) to another person? And if so what are the words they have to say? Admittedly I haven't read Warbreaker in a while so can't remember if this is ever addressed Thanks

Aloha! Does anyone know if Brandon have any plans on writing more books about Nalthis? I can't seem to find any topics on this here, or anything on brandonsanderson.com. But I have a vague memory of reading something about it... I so want to know more about Vasher and Nightblood! Thanks!

I just saw this very cool response from Brandon over on this Reddit thread. Basically, BS had previously said he'd like to include a Nalthis essay (which was notably absent from the original Arcanum Unbounded) in a future edition, around the time of its paperback release and/or Oathbringer. Given that both have happened, they asked if he still intended to write that and here's his response: So... that's pretty awesome, yeah?