Nightblood and Shardblades

[Mason Wheeler]

We know per WoB that Nightblood was an attempt by Worldhoppers familiar with Roshar to create something like a Shardblade with the Awakening magic system of Nalthis.

What I wonder is, was it pre- or post-Recreance Roshar that they ware familiar with?  (Anyone who's read Warbreaker and Words of Radiance will understand why this is significant, given the way Nightblood turned out.)

Has anyone asked this question before and gotten an answer?

[Oversleep]

Since Warbreaker is not long before Way Of Kings (cannot be longer than about 300 Scadrian years) and given the timelines (Coppermind says that Vasher went to Roshar 300 years before events of Warbreaker) and Dalinar states that Day of Recreance was a event so long ago it as well could happen in shadowdays, I think we can safely say that Vasher saw a dead Shardblade.

[Eki]

On 2016-07-01 at 2:21 AM, Oversleep said:

Since Warbreaker is not long before Way Of Kings (cannot be longer than about 300 Scadrian years) and given the timelines (Coppermind says that Vasher went to Roshar 300 years before events of Warbreaker) and Dalinar states that Day of Recreance was a event so long ago it as well could happen in shadowdays, I think we can safely say that Vasher saw a dead Shardblade.

It is, however, worth noting that Vasher (or whoever it was) probably saw that there was 'life' in the Shardblades, since he had life sense from his Breaths, and the Blades are only slightly dead. Not to mention that he likely traveled through the Cognitive Realm and could have met spren there. So he possibly knew about living Blades, even if all the ones he saw were dead. That would explain why he or his wife would have come to the conclusion that Awakening could be used to create something similar.

[Rockbud]

Wonder where he got the inspiration for the (presumed) Aluminium sheathe, and if it wasn't made before hand: what kind of havoc did Nightblood cause before one was found...

[Argel]

They may have seen the practice guards.

[Yata]

8 hours ago, Argel said:

They may have seen the practice guards.

But the practice guards hardly are made by Aluminium

[Argel]

Yeah, but they could have still been the inspiration.

[Naurock]

On ‎6‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 5:21 PM, Oversleep said:

Since Warbreaker is not long before Way Of Kings (cannot be longer than about 300 Scadrian years) and given the timelines (Coppermind says that Vasher went to Roshar 300 years before events of Warbreaker) and Dalinar states that Day of Recreance was a event so long ago it as well could happen in shadowdays, I think we can safely say that Vasher saw a dead Shardblade.

Hey, new to the forums. In an AMA that Sanderson did he refused to say it was Vasher that copied the Shardblade, I believe his words were, "someone with knowledge of Shardblades". It may have been Shashara that was attempting to recreate them and Vasher did not approve, hence why he killed her.

 

It's all kinda vague though because in Warbreaker when Vasher thought back to them creating Nightblood it seemed like they were both very complicit in the creation and then giving it the command, "Destroy Evil". I'm looking forward to the sequel to find out why the sudden change of heart.

[Argel]

We have a new WOB from the RAFOlympics (transcription document) that Vasher had been to Roshar before creating Nightblood (though it doesn't tell us if that was before or after he Returned, though afterwards seems like a good guess since he's back there again).

Quote

[1:22:43]

Q: So is Vasher - [lady?] who was part of the process creating Nightblood a worldhopper, then?

A: Vasher had been to Roshar before he created Nightblood, yeah.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Argel

[Eki]

2 hours ago, Naurock said:

Hey, new to the forums. In an AMA that Sanderson did he refused to say it was Vasher that copied the Shardblade, I believe his words were, "someone with knowledge of Shardblades". It may have been Shashara that was attempting to recreate them and Vasher did not approve, hence why he killed her.

 

It's all kinda vague though because in Warbreaker when Vasher thought back to them creating Nightblood it seemed like they were both very complicit in the creation and then giving it the command, "Destroy Evil". I'm looking forward to the sequel to find out why the sudden change of heart.

I think it was Shashara who did the actual Awakening, but that they both conducted the research. Seems to fit everything we know so far.

But if I recall correctly, we do know what caused Vasher to change his mind. It was the Battle of Twilight Falls, where Nightblood was freely unleashed (wielded by Shashara) the first time. The destruction Nightblood caused horrified Vasher, and when Shashara still insisted on revealing the process of creating more Awakened blades to the world, Vasher killed her.

[Naurock]

43 minutes ago, Eki said:

I think it was Shashara who did the actual Awakening, but that they both conducted the research. Seems to fit everything we know so far.

But if I recall correctly, we do know what caused Vasher to change his mind. It was the Battle of Twilight Falls, where Nightblood was freely unleashed (wielded by Shashara) the first time. The destruction Nightblood caused horrified Vasher, and when Shashara still insisted on revealing the process of creating more Awakened blades to the world, Vasher killed her.

Aha, your link lead me to this and I read the spoiler text which confirmed what you said. This probably will be in Nightblood, so it's fully explained, and because the scene described when using Nightblood fully unsheathed was amazing. So I'm sure another one on a larger scale, will be quite thrilling to read.