ChaseBakes

I personally doubt it is possible to bond to of the same type of spren, normally (I will expound on the "normally" bit); or, if you can, I doubt power would increase. So, a spren bond is an example of Connection. While I don't think we have the knowledge to be sure of this, I doubt one's Spiritweb could is compatible with more than one of the same bond. But, as stated, we have no knowledge of anything like this. The closest we have is Hoid bonding a Cryptic while he is a Yolish Lightweaver. Those are different uses of Investiture which, I believe, is why the bond worked. Now, the exceptions: if one were to store the Nahel bond in a Connection metalmind, I believe a second spren could bond you. I do not know how tapping the metalmind after that would work, however. Unfortunately we just don't have the information. Now, lets think logically: how would swearing Ideals work with two of the same spren? What if you are of the Third, Fourth Ideal when a second spren bonds you? How would that work? I just don't think the Connection is compatible. But, lets assume that what you theorize would work. Would it increase power? I do not think so. I would bet that someone on Roshar has thought of this and tried it. And lets assume it worked. Why didn't every Radiant become a super Radiant? If there was the possibility of an advantage that big, why wouldn't they take it? If there are spare spren without bonds, would you want to bond a new, inexperienced Knight? Or one that is at the Fourth Ideal and suddenly make them twice as strong? So, that is my take on the issue. Is it possible? Theoretically, but I believe the method would be complicated. But if it ever was tried, I doubt it was beneficial.

Just a few questions: I have seen the WoB about the smoke being corrupted Breaths but... what are corrupted Breaths, or corrupted Investiture in general? This is a total shot in the dark but what is corrupted Investiture is the byproduct of the reaction between Investiture and its opposite? Navani also notes a dark smoke leaving the mouth of Raboniel's daughter after being killed by anti-Voidlight. You're post just made me think of that possibility. Also where do we see red being Corrupted Light? Not trying to be argumentative, just curious haven't heard that before. And one clarification: The explosion was caused by pressure because the reaction was confined to a gemstone. Raboniel stated this specifically, after blowing up Navani's lab (sorry don't have time to find the quote). She also noted that in the air, where the reaction isn't pressurized, it would not be explosive. This is seen when Raboniel, her daughter, and Phendorana are all killed by using Investiture. No explosions there.

Thanks for the WoB, beewall I was very curious about that topic and hadn't encountered that post so thanks. Anyway, a different possibility is what seriodor said: I like that theory a lot. Because it is well established that Nightblood drains Investiture from both its bearer AND its victim. Draining Investiture alone is not enough to destroy a being. But using that Investiture and converting it to its opposite... that could work. But yeah no sure way to know how Nightblood kills yet, not enough information and Nightblood is very unique. Remember that he, not knowing how to fulfill his Command, decided for himself the Intent of his Command as well as how to go about doing it. So I think it is possible it did something like this that is not well known to those in the Cosmere. And thanks everyone for your theories! Nightblood is one of my favorite characters and getting so much feedback is awesome!

WoB please? I have heard that it is a thing but it is unstable and tries to connect to whatever it comes into contact with which is irrelevant when applied to my theory. So an unbound Investiture that Connects to Honor would become Stormlight, unbound ant-Investiture that Connects with honor becomes anti-Stormlight. I may be wrong though this is just my understanding from Q&As regarding converting Investiture from form to form.

We did not know about anti-Investiture when that WoB came out. So it is possible that now with more books released he would answer differently. It may be possible that, if it IS anti-Investiture, it is unbound, Investiture lacking Connection.

So we saw a lot of Nightblood in RoW and I wanted to share a theory. So I believe that Nightblood uses the anti-Investiture we learned about (e.g. anti-Voidlight, anti-Stormlight) in order to destroy. So think about it: Raboniel told Navani about how anti-Voidlight would react with Odium's vessel to kill him like what was done to Tanavast. Coincidently, Rayse, Odium's Vessel, a being that should be too powerful to be killed by a human creation, was then killed later by Nightblood. Furthermore, we see Nightblood damaging Ishar's Honorblade; this was previously thought to be impossible. The only theory I can come up with is it came into contact with anti-Investiture. Now, some might argue that Nightblood wasn't damaged in either process as has been seen in the case of Investiture reacting with its opposite. Remember that Shadblades and Honorblades are pieces of power manifested in the Physical Realm. Nightblood, however, was once an ordinary sword infused with massive amounts of Investiture and given a Command with Intent. It then uses external Investiture to fuel its power. My theory is that, somehow, the Investiture that Nightblood absorbs from its bearer becomes inverted, as we saw Navani do in her experiments. This anti-Investiture is then what causes instant antihalation upon contact with its opposite. We saw anti-Stormlight used to kill Phendorana. I believe that would still happen if she had been manifested as a Blade. Possibly in the form of, say, breaking or chipping it? I also believe that is how Nightblood kills so... uniquely. The descriptions of people being instantly vaporized sound similar to what happened to Phendorana as well as Raboniel's and her daughter's souls. So definitely not cannon and I am sure my theory has some holes, but I honestly believe this has merit. I would love to here your thoughts as I believe this will have massive implications for the future!

I disagree with a few things, Leuthie. From my understanding, Dawnshards do amplify Investiture. They were used in conjunction with Surgebinding to destroy Braize after all which is why the Sleepless forbad Rysn from bonding a spren. They know first-hand how dangerous powering an Investiture through the Dawnshard is. That is what provoked the question of Nightblood. I don't think we have enough information about either to make a reasonable hypothesis but it is still interesting to consider. I would love to ask Brandon about it but I would probably just get a massive RAFO.

So, the person wielding a Dawnshard holds an insane quantity of Investiture as evidenced by the Heightenings they receive. And Nightblood consumes Investiture while drawn. So what happens when a Dawnshard uses Nightblood? Would Nightblood destroy it after a while? Would it increase Nightblood's power? And if it did destroy the Dawnshard what would happen to the Cosmere? We've learned that the Dawnshards were what Adonalsium used to create the Cosmere so what would happen if one was destroyed?

Obviously it wouldn't give greater awakenings or stuff like that, but the way I understood it is Heightenings are are NOT something specific to Awakening: tskyeguye From Rysn's observations in the epilogue, it seems like she has a lot of the same aspects of a Fifth Heightening/Returned at the least. Is this because her Dawnshard is particularly connected to Endowment or because the effects of a certain level of Investment result in similar effects? Brandon Sanderson The latter. Skrimyt Interesting. So are actively Surgebinding Radiants or metal-burning Allomancers just not Invested enough to gain those passive effects, or do they not experience perfect pitch/color/etc. because their Investiture is just not as tightly bound to their Spiritweb as Endowment's Breaths or a Dawnshard would be? Brandon Sanderson Be aware that the two groups you mention don't generally hold much Investiture themselves, at least not in large quantities over time. More in Surgebinding. Almost none in Allomancy. But RAFO to specifics. Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020) So my question is how the Heightenings that do seem Awakening specific translate to other forms of Investiture. Some are obvious like detecting Breath quantities is just Investiture in general, like detecting if someone is burning metal or holding stormlight. But others seem to be less obvious translations so I just wanted some theories. Also, side note, I wonder what Zahel (A.K.A Vasher) will think when he sees Rysn as he would be able to detect her Investiture with the Breaths he has.

So, as mentioned in Dawnshard, and later confirmed by Brandon, high levels of investiture give Heightenings as seen most prominently in Awakening, and now in being a Dawnshard. So Brandon confirmed that it is being very invested that gives Heightenings and it is NOT limited to holding a lot of Breaths. So we saw Rysn with perfect pitch and color suggesting she has at least the Third Heightening. I theorize that that will increase as she holds the Dawnshard for longer because agelessness is the Fifth and we see that with Hoid being a Dawnsliver but Rysn makes no mention of life sense which reaches its peak strength at the Fourth, so she probably only has the Third at this point. But anyways, to the main question I am curious about, what about later Heightenings that seem specific to Awakening? Specifically the Sixth, instinctive Awakening, the Eighth, Command breaking, Ninth, greater Awakening and audible Command, and Tenth, perfect invocation and mental commands. I am really curious how those translate to other systems of magic. Any thoughts, theories, provoking questions?