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Hello, I noticed that in warbreaker when Vasher uses nightblood he is able to discard Nightblood before all of his investiture is consumed by just throwing him away. However, in Oathbringer when Szeth uses Nightblood he is not able to drop him without the sheath and nearly dies from having all of his investiture drained (Lift has to use healing on him iirc). So my question is why can Vasher drop Nightblood but Szeth cannot? I have a few theories and am curious what other poeple think: Is this a sign of Nightblood growing stronger from having consumed more investiture? If so will he become harder and harder to resist/sheath in the future? Was Vasher able to drop him because he understands how Nightblood works and has a better cognitive understanding of how the investiture is being used Is there an inherent difference in using breaths to fuel Nightblood compared to using Stormlight? My personal opinion is that it is a combination of 2 and 3 where Vasher is able to separate the breaths/investiture he is holding from himself and view them as individual pieces that Nightblood is consuming and then discard the investiture as a separate entity whereas Szeth views the stormlight as a single entity (not a combination of many parts) as well as the stormlight becoming a part of himself, so once Nightblood started feasting on the investiture he had a hold on all of Szeth. Thoughts anyone?

I have only read SA, MB (Book 1), and WB so I don't really know about etlantris sorry. Here goes the theory. Scadral has metals that deal in investiture, Roshar has stormlight, and Nithis has breath. Nightblood feeds on forms of investiture. We have seen Nightblood feed on stormlight ad breath, we have not however seen him feed on metal. What metal would Nightblood eat? I will list the metals I know of and say why or why not I think he would feed on them. 1. Tin- I do not think that Nightblood would feed on this, it would not give him the "kick he needs" 2. Pewter- Nightblood might fed on this, this might be converted to strength for both the holder and make Nightblood stronger himself. 3. Iron- Push good away 4. steel- Pull evil closer 5. Zinc- Creates strong emotion to destroy evil 6. Brass- Suppresses good in people 7. Copper- hides good 8. Bronze- finds evil 9. Gold- Sees if people could have become evil 10. Atuim- See's if people would become evil. I don't know any other metal's so please tell me what Nightblood would do if he burned the others that I'm sure there are. Also please talk about edlantris as well

I have some questions about Nightblood that I haven't quite found answers for on Arcanum (although I haven't scanned all 222 WoBs tagged "nightblood") or in the cosmere books: 1: Does Nightblood need a direct connection to a source of investiture to consume it (e.g. consuming Breaths/Stormlight from someone holding it vs. it lying on the ground and consuming ambient investiture)? I know Brandon has said Nightblood can only consume kinetic investiture, but he also said that it can consume the mists so I'm not sure where the line of what Nightblood can and can't consume is. 2: If Nightblood interacts with the Spiritual realm, why can it not consume all investiture in that realm? I bet this has something to do with Connection and who is holding it, but I'm not sure. My knowledge of how spiritual mumbo-jumbo works is limited. 3: If Nightblood consumes enough investiture, would it become a perpendicularity? If so, would someone be able to use it without being consumed or is it more like a black hole with an event horizon? 4: On the black hole analogy, is Nightblood's investiture slowly dissipating like Hawking radiation? 5: Since Nightblood deepens colors around it, is it converting all the investiture into Breath or some other form of Endowment's investiture?

So Brandon has said that burning Aluminium can purge the soul of unwanted investiture. Example of this is Brandon confirming that burning Aluminium can stop the withering of a Shade. This got me thinking, if you were cut by Nightblood and you burnt Aluminium just in time could you stop the absorption and corruption effects of the sword.

According to the Stormfather in Oathbringer, even before the Fused got Surges, they were unbeatable because they just kept reincarnating, which necessitated the whole Oathpact thing - the Heralds had to go to Braize forever (which unfortunately turned into being tortured) to lock away the Fused, since they just couldn't kill them. But the Fused are Cognitive Shadows, and we've seen plenty of Cognitive Shadows killed on other planets (Warbreaker/Arcanum Unbounded spoilers). And we know that Nightblood "destroys on all three Realms", and there's a WOB that a Shardblade could kill a spren. With the amount of power Honor could give the Heralds, why wasn't there a way to kill the Fused? Hmmm... actually... is Nightblood the first thing Roshar's seen that actually can permanently kill them? Szeth might be even more important than we thought...

1. Nightblood is the most invested thing in the cosmere other than shards 2. A perpendicularity is a result of large amounts of concentrated investiture 3. First of the Sun has a perpendicularity, but is not directly influenced by a shard (not sure how this works with Patji, but it's a WoB) I might be wrong, but what this looks like to me is that Nightblood has more investiture than First of the Sun's Shardpool, and therefore should also have his own perpendicularity. Have we seen this perpendicularity? Is there a reason that it seems to not have a perpendicularity? (Also I would add links to these WoBs, but I can't without more posts)

Could Nightblood be a nicrosil metalmind? Brandon has RAFO'd everything about what Nightblood is made out of, and has also stated that there is more to his astronomical amount of investiture than his breaths. Could this fit? Brandon has said that Nightblood was not black before being awakened. Anybody know what color nicrosil is? I'm not sure if this works, let me know what you guys think.

We have a few hints about the creation of Nightblood, and the comment that it was a fairly unique convergence of conditions not known or intended by its creator that would be difficult to replicate. One thing that's unusual about Nightblood is that it "contain's Ruin's investiture". So how can Nightblood contain Ruin's investiture without being composed of atium? Simple: he's a hemalurgic spike. But how is that possible? To be a hemalurgic spike, he'd have to be created with Intent, and furthermore, a hemalurgic spike steals from A and staples onto B - who's the A, and where's the B? Here's my thinking: Hemalurgy works anywhere in the Cosmere, as Ruin's power is "everywhere" at the Spiritual level. It requires intent, the right metal for the spike, and the right placement of the spikes in the donor A and the target B. Before being Awakened, Nightblood was simply made of steel (per Warbreaker itself, ch. 53, cited in the Coppermind wiki). Now imagine Shashara, a leading figure in the Manywar, going about creating the first Awakened sword, a Shardblade equivalent. She amasses thousands upon thousands of Breaths from her followers, as Vahr did, but drawing upon a whole country. Breath retains a bit of the identity of the donor: Vahr's large stash collected from his rebel followers gave him a sense of resolve stemming from their common cause. She then either takes a dark turn, or acquiesces to a dark suggestion from someone else, to do a standard symbolic gesture when making a sword of war: quenching it in the blood of an enemy. Hemalurgically, steel steals human physical ability (it's what goes toward making a koloss). She takes that newly forged steel blade, and stabs it through the heart of a living person. Ta-da, inadvertent hemalurgy! She draws it forth and Invests it with thousands of Breath to Awaken it with the Command, DESTROY EVIL. The effect of hemalurgy seeks for a Spiritweb to attach onto, but it finds only Breath. But, lots and lots of Breath. Lots and lots of Breath with a common cause: GATHER INVESTITURE. Perhaps enough to form a kind of "Spirtweb canvas" for the hemalurgy to staple onto the sword itself? ...With a bit of extra Endowment? What do you think?

So I just finished listening to the Nightblood 2 Shardcast (I know, it’s an older one) and several things sort of coalesced in my head that sort of make sense. Interestingly, they started down a similar thought path regarding Endowment at the very end of the episode. I had never heard that Nightblood was modeled after shardblades, btw. Interesting. Anyway, realizing that Endowment was most likely afraid of Odium coming to Nalthis to destroy her, it totally makes sense that she might intervene in Nightblood’s creation. Also, knowing now that the five scholars had been to Roshar, it seems vary possible that they knew of Odium as well. I find myself wondering if Nightblood was an attempt to create something that would destroy Odium that went very wrong in the process. First, Endowment intervened and gave it a supercharge of investiture. This gave Nightblood way more power than anticipated. The second happened in the Command. If part of the purpose of creating Nightblood was to kill Odium, then a command was needed that would work across realms to destroy, but would only destroy the intended target(and other bad dudes). That’s why it took so long to come up with the perfect command. Understanding the importance of Intent in the command, any mental imagery had to be avoided that would corrupt the Command, such as thinking about Odium. Trying not to think about something after you’ve told not is nearly impossible, however. I wonder if somehow, subconscious thoughts and conclusions about Odium entered in to Shashara’s visualizations and that magically allowed a bunch of his random investiture (Some of Adonalsium’s investiture that was sitting around on Nalthis at the time of the shattering and was was assigned to Odium), to also get sucked into Nightblood, corrupting Endowment’s investiture and supercharging it even more. This is sounding way too complicated now (not sure I like it) Oh well. Whatever happened, Shashara thought it was great. Vasher not so much. They fought, Vasher killed Shashara. Vasher took Nightblood into protective custody. Years pass, Vasher meets Vivenna, they go on an off world Yesteel chase where something really bad happens on the planet. Vivenna decides to return home and stay out of other world business. Vasher, saying he is tired of living off of other people’s breath, says goodbye to Vivenna and heads for Roshar taking Nightblood with him. He assures Vivenna that he is just going to live a simple anonymous life and keep the world safe from Nightblood. I’m sure he is also thinking that it can’t hurt to have the weapon designed to destroy Odium in the same system that he (Odium) resides. Sometime after returning to Nalthis, Vivenna happens across a member of the 17th Shard, finds herself in agreement with their policy of nonintervention, joins up and accepts an assignment to go fetch Vasher and Nightblood back to Nalthis. This is just an example of the crazy places my mind goes when listening to Shardcast episodes. Now you know what kind of nonsense goes on in the frightening recesses of my mind. You may now all commence tearing apart and completely disproving my meanderings. PS. Apologies for any misspellings etc. Autocorrect and my iPad both hate me.

So if you were a super evil guy that just did evil things as a pass time and you wanted to be able to wield Nightblood, assuming you had enough investure to sustain it, could you store Identity and hold Nightblood without fear of him eating you? I know it has alot to do with how Nightblood perceives the world, but what do you think?

do we know what would happen if Nightblood stabbed through a spren? I know the main part of the spren is housed in the cognitive realm but what would happen if nightblood cut through the physical manifestation of the spren, Like syl, would she die and that part of Kaladin's spirit web ripped out? or would she be cut off from the physical realm becoming, essentially, a cognitive spren shadow? Or would it do nothing as they don't have a strong enough prescenes in the physical realm (least likely in my opinion)

This post is to theorize about Nightblood: how he was made, and why he's so powerful. Warbreaker spoilers ahoy! What we know about Nightblood's' creation: -- Nightblood was made by a group of scholars trying to make a Shardblade using Awakening (Warbreaker) -- At least one of the scholars had worldhopped to Roshar and seen Shardblades (WoB) -- His creation involved around 1000 Breaths (Warbreaker) -- "Something more" than just 1000 Breaths was required (WoB) -- Nightblood has grown more powerful with time (WoB) Now of course one simple explanation is that Nightblood started off with no more Investure than those 1000 Breaths -- barely a fiftieth of what the god-king has and probably not too far off from a Radiant spren, and grew stronger over time by consuming other Investure. In support of this theory, we know that Nightblood seems to get somnolent after being unsheathed, like a person after a full meal, and we also know that some creatures (like Larken) can eat Investure. This explanation falls a little flat, though, when we consider the sheer amount of growth required to go from ~1000 Breaths to "the most Invested object in the Cosmere". Nightblood doesn't get wielded all that much -- he can't, given the speed at which he goes through his holder's own Breath, so it seems pretty unlikely that he'd have the chance to eat the millions (billions?) of Breaths' worth of Investure required. Having Nightblood gaining power by taking others' Investure has another problem, too -- at least, if his Investure comes solely from Endowment. Endowment's Breaths are all about giving to another person, not taking from another person. If Nightblood were made solely from Breath, this sort of consumption would be antithetical to the nature of Breath and Endowment. But what if his Investure weren't entirely from Endowment? Minor Mistborn spoiler: But I would like to draw your attention to another Shard that is about taking stuff, at least if his injunction to Dalinar to "Give me your pain" and the subsuming of Moash's passion are any indication. Everybody's favorite Rosharan Shard, Odium. It's also worth noting that all of his Unmade are about destruction. Sja-anat corrupts spren, Yelig-nar consumes his users, the Thrill drives entire armies to destroy each other. Why is this noteworthy? Because Nightblood's Awakened Command is to "Destroy evil." It's time to jump off the deep end, folks. What if Nightblood were made not just with 1000 Breaths -- not even primarily with 1000 Breaths -- but using as its base one of the Unmade themselves? Sound crazy? It is. (That's why I entitled this thread Crazy Theory Time.) But that doesn't mean there isn't evidence to support it. First of all, note that there's at least one missing Unmade. One indication is from the chapter headings: Another possible missing Unmade is in the fact that there are apparently only nine of them, when what we know about Roshar suggests that there probably ought to have been ten. So take your pick, whether from the chapter headings or from the nine/ten discrepancy. At least one Unmade is unaccounted for. Second, note that Nightblood bleeds black smoke. You know who else bleeds black smoke? The Midnight Mother, one of the Unmade. Although my memory's not the greatest, I believe that the Unmade and their works are the only instance in all the Cosmere where we've seen black smoke, other than Nightblood. Third, remember that at least one and perhaps all of the Five Scholars had been to Roshar (at the very least, Vasher knows how to get there). Remember too that the Manywar was going on at the time too, leading to an arms race. We know from Warbreaker that there was an arms-race with Lifeless; and we also know that Ysteel, like Vasher and Shashara, knew how to make Awakened swords (presumably Denth and Arsteel did, too). So it seems at least plausible that there would have been an arms-race with Awakened swords as well. So you've got a group of people who've been to Roshar, have observed the shardblade/spren interaction, and who were in the midst of an ever-greater arms race. Investure's a lot easier to get at on Roshar than it is on Nalthis, and at least some spren can already turn into Shardblades. Plus, spren can be stuffed into gemstones for convenient transportation. Why restrict yourself solely to Breaths when you've got all that convenient Rosharan Investure just sitting there? It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch that one of them would have thought to stuff the biggest spren of all -- one of the mindless Unmade -- into a gem for convenient Shardblade repurposing. In this case, the thousand Breaths would have been more of a...modification to the Unmade's original drive than a true Command. Not mindless destroying, but destroying evil. And hey presto, that gives you one of the most Invested objects in all the Cosmere. It gives you, in short, Nightblood.

This post addresses a mystery: In a world riven by race warfare, why does an Ascended being give Roshar’s deadliest killer the cosmere’s most dangerous object? Why link this scary duo when one doesn’t trust his moral code and the other doesn’t have one? One answer: Cultivation foresees Investiture growth will cause Nightblood to ascend as a Divine Object, the super-sapient Sword of Retribution. She chooses Szeth to teach Nightblood the meaning of evil – who deserves to die (“retribution”) and who doesn’t – before Nightblood ascends. The starting point: 1. Cultivation knows about Nightblood, since the Nightwatcher offers Nightblood to Dalinar: “A Blade that bleeds darkness and cannot be defeated.” (OB, Chapter 114, Kindle p. 1078.) 2. We don’t know how the Nightwatcher acquires Nightblood, but we do know Nale ends up with him. 3. Nale delivers Nightblood to Szeth. ANALYSIS The main sections outline my narrative. The Spoiler sections are more technical. Nightblood Basics and Mechanics I tucked these subjects in a Spoiler because most of you already know this stuff. Cultivation Fears Nightblood’s Growth Nightblood adds Investiture “over time” (I believe each time he destroys evil). The added Investiture causes Nightblood’s mind to grow: “The more investiture clumped together, the more likely – and the closer to human-level intelligence it is likely to obtain.” Brandon tells us, “Nightblood is capable of more change than Vasher assumes.” “The only clues I'm willing to give on [Nightblood’s growth] right now are the ones that are in Oathbringer.” Nightblood picks up Lift’s vocabulary quickly enough, curses and all. That suggests some growth. If Nightblood continues to be used, he will inevitably reach “human-level intelligence” and theoretically surpass it. Cultivation fears a super-sapient being of enormous destructive power with no moral compass. With or without a conscience, if used enough Nightblood will ascend. Cultivation decides Nightblood needs a moral tutor. He’s still a child who doesn’t understand abstractions like “evil.” She may believe, “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” Cultivation implants Nightblood’s moral code while she can. How Nightblood Adds Investiture My best guess: Why Szeth? Szeth doesn’t trust his own moral judgment: “How was a twisted soul like his to decide who should die?” Impossible.” (OB, Chapter 118, Kindle p. 1124.) But the two Purelake scenes show exceptional discernment and judgment – when he assesses blame on the prison operator and when he “loopholes” himself to victory against other Skybreaker wannabes. Nale admires Szeth not for his combat skills but for his faithful adherence to an unforgiving moral code. Maybe Cultivation asked Nale to select Nightblood’s tutor; maybe she chose Szeth herself. Regardless, they chose well. But Szeth now navigates morality by Dalinar’s true north. As when bound by his oathstone, Szeth still avoids responsibility for his moral decisions. I believe this is unsustainable. Szeth himself must grow and learn to trust his own judgment before he can teach Nightblood who deserves to die. Cultivation Transforms Nightblood WoK describes a carved relief of “Nalan’Elin, emitting sunlight, the sword of retribution held over his head.” (Chapter 18, Kindle p. 286, bold added.) We don’t know what that sword is, maybe Nale’s Honorblade. Some posters note the idea of a “sword of retribution” fits Nightblood’s destructiveness. I think Cultivation/Nightwatcher transforms Nightblood into the Rosharan spren “Sword of Retribution.” The carved relief, still being worked on, shows the Sword’s cultural currency. “Retribution” means “deserved punishment.” I view Retribution as a subset of Just, the Skybreakers’ primary Divine Attribute. Nightblood might not technically be a highspren, because he was created differently and represents only a sliver of Justice. But I believe Cultivation/Nightwatcher gives Nightblood the ability to grant Skybreaking powers to Szeth. Nightblood does not Connect to Szeth through the Nahel bond: “Nightblood does not have the same spren bond, and so the renouncing of Oaths is not going to affect him.” As the Shard of transformation, Cultivation doesn’t need the Nahel bond (the “same spren bond”) to grant her magic to mortals. Nightblood’s existing Cognitive bond with Szeth communicates Szeth’s wishes. As a Rosharan spren (now), Nightblood can transform Stormlight into the Skybreaking powers. Why Not Another Highspren? Many posters believe Szeth does have a Nahel bond with a separate highspren. They may be right, but I think Nightblood himself is “the hidden spren who only rarely showed itself to” Szeth. (OB, Chapter 121, Kindle p. 1198.) I discuss this in the Spoiler. Conclusion Nightblood as the Sword of Retribution is not a new thought. I believe Nightblood as the living ideal of Retribution, a non-Nahel bond spren that grants Skybreaking powers and ultimately ascends, is. If this interpretation seems strained, it fits within SLA’s broader redemption arc. Why bring Szeth and Nightblood together if not to transform two mass murderers? They redeem the evil they’ve each done (like Dalinar tries to do) by destroying true evil here and now. Two predictions: EITHER – Szeth and Nightblood will ascend together. He will replace the broken Nale as Herald of Justice, wielding Nightblood the ascended Sword of Retribution. (Someone else must have predicted this by now.) OR – Instead, Szeth will achieve the Fifth Skybreaker Ideal and fully merge into Nightblood. He will become the Sword of Retribution’s Divine Conscience. (My personal vote goes to this one, if only for novelty.) Happy New Year’s, everyone! May it be a joyful, healthy, and prosperous year for all humankind! Confused

Ok, so, we know that Nightblood has the ability to cut through anything, like a shardblade. We also know that Nightblood has been Awoken. Could it be possible to awaken a Shardblade? Like, not a an actively bonded blade, a dead one or an Honorblade.

Hello humans! A question here. If you can have a Nightblood of your own making, what command would you give it instead?

So, Nightblood is basically a super op sword that we have never seen defeated and according to the Nightwatcher "can never be defeated". We also know he is fairly similar to a shardblade in the way he acts, but far more powerful. So my question is, would a regular shardblade be able to block a strike from Nightblood? Would shardplate be able to block it the way it blocks regular shardblades? Would Nightblood just consume the blade and plate (i.e. consume the investiture of the shards)? Would this result in, when Nightblood strikes a shardblade, just kill the spren that acts as your blade and so stop you from being a radiant any longer? What can this thing do? Thanks in advance for your insights.

So I’ve been thinking (please let me know if you think I’m wrong because I probably am) night bloods name hasent always been nightblood so what was it? I think I know what his name is. what is his purpose? To destroy evil. What was the first thing he was told to do? Destroy evil. Yes that’s right I think nightbloods name is, Destroy Evil. Sorry if someone’s already made this connection I don’t come on here often.

Would Nightblood have a bead, a flame, or something different all together in shadesmar?

If Nightblood was unsheathed and dropped, I’d like to think he would just consume everything, eventually cause a black hole, and cause the universe to collapse into a singularity.

We've seen in OB the results of killing strokes from type IV Biocrhomatic entities Nightblood and whatever Vivienda's sword is named. Instead of shriveled up limbs the limbs cut by these entities lose all color. We know regular Shardblades sever spiritual connection. What exactly are these Shardblades severing to cause the effect. We know that they are not excising Breath; that's an Endowment thing. Could they be severing the connection to whatever Shard their victims are associated with, thus the loss of all color? Are they severing whatever latent Endowment resides in that victim from their spiritweb? And a tangential question. Could a Shardblade be fashioned from other Cosmere magic systems other than the two we've seen and if so what in the world would a wound taken from such a weapon look like? Would a Scadrian Shardblade turn one into mist or snatch attributes? Would a blade from Taldain draw all moisture from it's target? Would a blade from Threnody turn its weilder or it's victim into a shade?

So Nightblood can cut through all three realms, does that mean that by using nightblood, someone could kill a spren, therefore stripping a radiant of their power?