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You know that every Rosharan would set their telerials to the right channel when it was time for this show to come on air: The Odd Couple + Sword Setup: Refuges flood into Urithiru from all over Alethkhar, Herdaz, Emul, and Iri. Suddenly space is limited, Radiants who once had a room all to themselves now must live together. Due to the housing shortage Szeth, Lift and sword-Nimi are forced to live in the same apartment. Hilarity ensues. CUE THE MUSIC: EPISODE 1: Ground rules Setting: Interior of Lift's, Szeth's and Sword-Nimi's apartment. One side is barren, immaculately swept and has only one small square pillow and a pot with shinovar grass in it. The other side of the apartment is a sprawling mess, dirty dishes, half eaten chicken legs, old dirty curry bowls and dirty clothes wadded up and strewn over every flat surface. Szeth, sleeping cross legged on the square pillow, with nightblood strapped to his back, awakens and looks across the room at Lift's small form, hanging half way off the bed, snoring loudly with a half eaten roll clutched in one hand. SZETH: The young Radiant's burdens are light, she sleeps well sword-nimi. NB: Well, if you mean how loud she is, then Vasher slept even better. He sounded like 10 boulders rolling down a hill. (Laughtrack) (Lift wakes up, eats the half eaten roll in one gulp and then begins to scratch her backside with her shard-backscratcher.) (Laughtrack) SZETH: Ah, good you are awake. We can discuss the rules we will observe in our shared habitation. We must establish the bounds and determine the precepts of ordering our common living space. NB: Ah, the dirt and grime, all those dirty dishes. Let's destroy them Szeth, they look evil. LIFT: I've got a starvin' rule for you, stick to your side of the room and don't worry about my side. SZETH: I was thinking we could start with some common agreements about the cleanliness of our– (Szeth stops speaking mid-sentence as he is hit in the head with a half eaten chicken leg) LIFT: There, I just cleaned my side up some. Do you want me to clean some more Crazy face? (Laughtrack) NB: Oooh, she's so deevy (Laughtrack) SZETH: These are wise words, balance can only be maintained if– (Szeth is once again pelted, this time by a half full curry bowl. Curry drips off of his face and spills onto his formerly white robes) LIFT: Try balancing that on your face. Hey look, my side of the room just keeps getting cleaner and cleaner. I think if you keep talking like this I'll have my side clean in no time. (Laughtrack) NB: I told you Szeth, we should have slain those dishes, then they wouldn't have been able to attack your face like that. SZETH: I am a skybreaker of the 3rd Ideal, the surge of Division is mine to command. Perhaps instead of hitting me with rotting foodstuffs, I could assist you in the cleansing of your side by– (Lift throws another chicken leg at Szeth's head, but bursting with stormlight, Szeth raises his hand and applies a triple lashing to the chicken leg so that it goes speeding back towards Lift, who catches it in her mouth) SZETH: You will please let me finish, young Radiant. LIFT: (Talking around a mouth full of chicken) Sure thing crazy face, as long as you let me finish eating my starvin' breakfast. (Laughtrack) NB: Oooh, that was pretty deevy of you Szeth SZETH: I could use my surge of division to cleanse your side of the room of the accumulated filth and dirt, so that we could have a clean living space. LIFT: See now, I think you're missing the whole point. You clean up the room, sure, but then what happens? It gets dirty again. What's the point? Besides do you know how far away the kitchen is from here? Where am I going to put my food if I can't just leave it laying around. SZETH: You could requisition a larder or a hamper of some kind. LIFT: Yeah, a larder good that would do me. (Laughtrack) LIFT: I'd have to put my food into the larder and take it out of the larder, sounds ineffecient, and would probably make me real hungry doing all that, so I'd need to get more food. Then I'd probably need to get more larders and more hampers, so many that our whole starvin' room would be filled with larders and hampers. Wait a sec, look at our room, it kind of looks like the inside of a larder right now. (Laughtrack) NB: She has a point Szeth, it does look like a Larder. (Szeth stands up, robes and face dripping oily brown curry onto his clean floor, then walks over to the center of the room and places his hand on the floor. From his hand a brilliant orange line of light streaks across the floor, creating a scorched black line dividing the room in half). SZETH: You are wise. The room has been divided. Obey the simple precept that you shall not interfere on my side of the Room and I will not go on a Crusade to cleanse your side of the Room. (Nervous Laughter???) NB: Hey, what about my side of the room? SZETH: Shut-it sword-nimi. CUE END CREDITS. If you like episode one, feel free to write another episode of what is sure to be the most popular sit-com on all of Roshar.

For obvious reasons these three people will be coming together over a common thread: Nightblood.What face-time Szeth gets in book 4 will surely be dominated by his multiple commitments: Dalinar as the subject of his third oath, his fourth oath and the purging of the Shin, reforming the Skybreakers, and Nightblood. By bearing Nightblood Szeth will eventually draw Vivenna and Vasher. This seems the most certain to happen in book 4 and especially before the end of book 5 (I hope, I pray), although I can absolute imagine being teased for a full 10 12 books on Nightblood's fate and influence so I won't will get my hopes up. Whenever it happens, these three will either be enemies or intimate, depending on Vasher and Vivenna's motives. The crux of this conflict will lie in Nightblood's chain of custody and the creation of Vivenna's Type IV BioChromatic sword. The last we saw Nightblood before he showed up in Nale's hands, he was with Vasher and Vivenna at the end of Warbreaker. We've been promised a sequel which should clear up these custody issues, but regardless of how (at least) three two Nalthians and their two sentient swords ended up on Roshar, we know they're all coming into conflict. This whole post started from speculation on 'shipping Szeth, so I'll end with a twist. How will the two swords react to each other when they meet for the first time? Nightblood is ostensibly masculine, and Vivenna refers to her sword as she. Can we get some Type IV BioChromatic lovin' on?

Epic matchup: Szeth Son Son Vallano V.R.S. Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, and Spider Man. Who do you guys think would win? In my opinion it would be Szeth, because he could just draw Nightblood and throw it at Hulk’s feet. Hulk would destroy the Avengers and Szeth would finish them off.

There is a WoB from November 13, at the Oathbringer signing party, in which Brandon confirms that Nightblood's sheath is made of Aluminum. Brandon has also previously noted that Vasher (and I assume at least also shashara if not all the scholars) where on Roshar to study investiture, leading them to attempt to duplicate shardblades on Nalthis (resulting in Nightblood). He also noted separately (sorry for not having this WoB's linked) that Nightblood's sheath was present upon Nightblood's creation to serve its obviously necessary purpose (though he does make it sound like they aren't sure what will happen). However we can pretty obviously infer there, that the five scholars are aware of at least some properties of Aluminum for them to have used it as the metal to be sure they could put Nightblood inside if they needed to. Compounding this knowledge with the presence of Iyatil (who is, I believe, a confirmed southern Scadrian) on Roshar to prove that worldhopping between the planets is fairly conceivable, it seems to me to be fairly certain that the scholars would have also visited Scadrial on their trip and brought the aluminum back with them. Do we have any other confirmation that they went to other planets? Or do we only know for sure that Vasher at least has been to Roshar and Nalthis?

So it's a trope in anime that their massive swords break at least once. Tetsusaiga breaks in Inuyasha, Guts' sword breaks in Berserk in the battle of Doldry. So what if a Shardblade broke either in half or was shattered worse than the plains? How could this happen? My best guess would either be Nightblood, Odium or a Fused. Would an Honorblade break differently from a Shardblade? What if Syl was broken in blade form? Or Maya, what would happen to them?

So this is a pretty far out there theory that I have been thinking about. I went online to see if I could find anything, but wasn't able to find anything like my theory so here it goes. My theory is that investiture is evil. I got thinking about this when we see Vivenna in Oathbringer. Now we don't know this for certain so I could be way off, but it seems that Vivenna's sword does not have the same effect on her, other beings, or investiture that Nightblood does. This got me thinking as to why. It seems clear to me that it has to do with the command of "Destroy Evil". In Warbreaker we see a problem with this command because Nightblood is not aware of what evil is. He is able to kill people based off of how they want him. This seems to be one way in which his command is fulfilled. Yet, there has to be more because Nightblood does so much more than just kill bad guys, or have bad guys kill themselves. With him, the effect of investiture is intriguing. In the two instance we see of him, he destroys investiture. He doesn't change it. In Warbreaker, color is used to access their breaths and commands. He destroys color. It does not return, and clearly the breaths do not either. In SA, he absorbs the stormlight whereas every single instance of stormlight use we see it become released back to the world to be recycled. It seems to me (I could be very wrong) that he is destroying investiture. This plus the fact that Surgebinding destroyed the world of the humans makes me think that their is something going on with investiture. Now I know that investiture is everything, so I doubt it's purely evil but there is something about it that causes Nightblood to destroy it the way he does. Anyway, there you go. I could be way off I know this was just something I wanted other thoughts on.

As I thought about Zahel, Azure, and Nightblood and their future roles in the stormlight archive it became increasingly obvious to me that Awakening would eventually take a bigger role in the story. Zahel is also known as Kalad the usurper former God-King of Hallandren and creator of an army of corpses encased in stone. Given that in roshar the dead are transformed into various metals it seems inevitable that Zahel will create another army. Ever since Nightblood appeared at the end of WoR the question of whether it would grant any abilities to it's weilder Has tantalized my mind. Azure came into Oathbringer wielding an awakened blade searching for Nightblood and let us know that Awakening was here to stay. So I set out to make a list of all the possible ways Awakening could interact with Rosharan magic. With awakening you take a piece of your soul called Breath and put it into an object with the right command giving it life. This Breath can be compared to spren, some of which are described as pieces of the gods. The eighth heightening of Breath has the ability of "Command breaking" I am speculating that this would allow you to alter the Intent on certain lesser spren similarly to San-want. In the cosmere it is hard to know for certain because only the God-kings have reached that heightening. So number 1. Creation of more shardblades. This is the easiest to speculate because the spren do express an interest awakened blades in Oathbringer. Number 2. Using breath instead of spren in fabrials. Number 3. Use of the eighth heightening to corrupt a spren possibly resulting in the ability to convert stormlight into breath. Similarly as Sja-anat corrupting Glys gave Renarin access to visions of the future and possibly voidbinding. Number 4. Using the eighth heightening to convert stormlight into breath. Number 5. Nightblood spren. This might be the most terrifying concept in the cosmere, spren who imitate the Ideal of Destroy Evil. Number 6. New forms for the Singers. I saw another thread mention this one, basically you put breath in a gemheart to create a new form or alter existing ones. It is worth noting that any magic system that replicates another will have some differences an example being the fused and the knights radiant. I feel there is more that can be done with Awakening and Surgebinding so If you think of anything I would be glad to read it.

Brandon’s explanation for “corrupted” Investiture – a “mixing of different Shards” – raises a question about Nightblood’s history. How could Nightblood acquire another Shard’s Investiture before he left Nalthis? Warbreaker occurs before WoK. Following is speculation built on “black smoke.” I think Nightblood isn’t some piece of “steel” shaped like a sword. I think Shashara took a “dead” spren Shardblade from Roshar when the Five Scholars visited. Honor and Cultivation are the other Investitures comprising Nightblood. Here’s the text description of Nightblood’s creation from Vasher’s point of view (Warbreaker, Kindle p. 569-70, emphasis added): Brandon further addresses this last bolded statement in his Warbreaker Annotations (emphasis added): Analysis Vasher suggests Shashara competed with Yesteel for scholarly preeminence. I think she borrowed one of Vasher’s “tricks” – she took a Shardblade home from Roshar to experiment on and told the other Scholars it was “steel.” The Scholars were among the earliest Worldhoppers. They may have heard stories of Shardblades, but didn’t know what Shardblades actually were: “Nightblood is an attempt by someone who didn’t know how Shardblades were made to create a Shardblade using a different magic system.” The other Scholars wouldn’t recognize Nightblood as a “god metal” made from a spren of Honor and/or Cultivation. They’d just accept that an unrustable hard metal is “steel.” (Or maybe Shashara shouted to her colleague, “Yes – steel!” and they misunderstood her? Da-dum…) Every other source stating Nightblood is Awakened “steel” derives from the quoted text, including fan questions and Brandon’s responses. If Nightblood really is steel, that forecloses my speculation. But maybe Shashara felt shamed Yesteel had “shown her up.” Maybe she found her own “trick” to prove herself. Consider the following evidence. 1. Brandon says Nightblood needs to feed on Investiture because he is “leaky.” But Endowment’s Investiture “sticks.” Stormlight “leaks.” Nightblood’s “black smoke” looks like the black smoke streaming from the eyes of those killed by a Shardblade. 2. 1,000 Breaths seems too few to Awaken and give consciousness to “steel.” “This process shouldn’t have worked…. Nightblood should not be alive.” Maybe 1,000 Breaths IS enough to Awaken the “dead” – unconscious – spren that comprises the Shardblade. There are two paraphrased WoBs about this that may refer to the same conversation. One says “a piece of stone or wood or cloth or plain metal” with 1,000 Breaths “needs more” to be as Invested as Nightblood. The other RAFOs a similar question. 3. “Nightblood is one of the most heavily Invested things in the cosmere that is not a Shard.” If I am right, Nightblood permanently holds the Investiture of a full Radiantspren plus Breaths equivalent to half a Returned. Radiantspren themselves constitute a large amount of Investiture: “The Investiture in a Shardblade is much greater than your average Allomancer.” Shardblades also exceed the Investiture in the Bands of Mourning. Radiantspren and Breaths both naturally bond with humans and should have no problem bonding with one another. Breaths adjust to their holder’s Identity, even when the holder is a barely Awakened spren from Roshar. Brandon says he can’t accurately compare Nightblood’s power with a Shardblade’s power, but “when he is fully consuming Investiture he can do some really freaky things.” A footnote to that WoB says, “In the past Brandon has described Nightblood as being ‘magnitudes more invested than a shardblade’.” I’ve not seen that description. “Magnitudes” implies logarithmic orders of ten. That seems unlikely unless some of the Investiture Nightblood consumes adheres to him – making him “fatter” as one poster puts it. Without seeing Brandon’s description, I’m inclined to discount the footnote. Even without absorbing new Investiture, holding a Radiantspren and half a Returned would still make Nightblood “one of the most heavily Invested things in the cosmere….” Brandon RAFOs questions about what happens to the consumed Investiture. 4. Nale treats Nightblood as the equivalent of a highspren Shardblade. Nightblood might have started as a highspren, a Skybreaker’s spren. But Shashara’s Awakening command to “Destroy Evil” permanently overwrites the spren’s original “ideal.” Discerning “evil” is Nale’s primary Divine Attribute – “Just.” “Justice” is a moral judgment, the weighing of good and evil. Nale attunes to an Investiture that wants to “Destroy Evil.” He wouldn’t have kept or given Szeth the sword if he didn’t sense the spren – and not just the Breaths or Awakened “steel” – inside Nightblood. Taln recognized Pattern inside Shallan when she visited him in the ardent hospital. 5. Nightblood “speaks” like a child, much like Syl did before her bond with Kaladin developed more fully. Vasher notices incipient maturity in Nightblood, as if Nightblood’s bond were also developing. I speculate below that Nightblood and Szeth will bond fully now that Nightblood’s back on Roshar. 6. The Frankenstein image of Nightblood as a patchwork of magics fits nicely. The full WoB is ambiguous. “A bunch of souls” might refer only to Breaths, but the "something" they are stuffed into could be a "dead" Shardblade - a spren. Szeth Will Bond Nightblood-Spren The spren constituting Nightblood is sufficiently Awake as to bond with its holders. Szeth’s soul is more broken than most – he’s been wrongfully made Truthless and then killed. Lift sees his soul’s “after-image.” This opens opportunities for Nightblood to begin a more intrusive bonding process. I believe he will learn morality from Szeth – a warrior-priest turned unwilling assassin. Szeth has lived evil. He will know how to direct Nightblood to destroy it. In Szeth’s hand, Nightblood will become the “Sword of Retribution” pictured in WoR. Can he direct Nightblood to consume only the voidspren inside the listeners? Nightblood will tell Szeth his spren-name. On Roshar he can form a Nahel bond with Szeth and give him the Skybreaker power to bind the Gravitation and Division Surges. Szeth will become a Knight Radiant, and Nightblood will be his Shardblade. “Nightblood can feed off Stormlight, but Szeth can't draw in Stormlight right now. So Szeth better not draw that sword, for a while at least. [Emphasis added.]” * * * * * That’s a lot of speculation to build from “black smoke.” Is there any fire there?

Now, Nightblood is a pretty badass sword, with his sense of humour and intent to eradicate evil in whichever fashionable way possible. Whilst his power is somewhat nebulous as of right now, I am wondering what happens to a Fused struck by Nightblood. He destroys across all three realms, so what does this mean for the Fused who intend on returning to a new Parshman body? I think that NB will be the way to stop Fused from being reborn in the Everstorm. We saw a Thunderclast cleaved in two by Szeth as he saved Lift, maybe it won't be 'reborn'! Personally I don't fee Nightblood is in the Stormlight Archive just for the sake of being in them, he has a bigger roll than shown so far, and maybe this is it? Instead of the Fused going to Damnation, they just stop existing. Thoughts?

So I created an account just so I could pose this questions to everyone. Be warned, Oathbringer spoilers here! ---- We now have scenes from Oathbringer (as well as WoB) demonstrating the use of one type of investiture to fuel a different off world sub-type of magic (ex. Szeth using stormlight to fuel Nightblood rather than breath). Now that Hoid is Knight Radiant in addition to a fully powered lerasium mistborn what sort of effect would stormlight have fueling allomancy? We see Kaladain receive a renewing supply of energy flying at the front of the everstorm and Szeth able to unleash the full effects of Nightblood without having to utilize biochromatic breath. Would stormlight act as a "metal supply" for Hoid? And if so, would it also potentially fuel him with an "atium reserve", possibly even a renewing one if he was near the everstorm? Conversely what sort of effect would metal vials have fueling surgebinding?

The end of OB brings to the forefront of my mind the question: How powerful is Nightblood? Considering that it is being wielded against the fused and even a thunderclast and that it instantly turns them into smoke, this leads to the conclusion that maybe Nightblood can even be used on the Unmade and maybe even a shard (I doubt this is possible as it would be hard to pin down an exact physical location of a shard). If Nightblood can destroy the unmade, then that sure sounds like a better alternative than trapping them in a flawless gemstone. Evidence supporting the idea that Nightblood can destroy the Unmade: 1. Nightblood can destroy splinters. He does this when he kills Returned in Warbreaker (the Returned are splinters, but they don't appear to have the same level of investment as the Unmade). 2. Nightblood easily destroys a Thunderclast (which may not be a splinter, but is at least heavily invested). 3. Nightblood destroys on all three realms (physical, cognitive, spiritual). 4. Resisting Nightblood's directives seems to be at least as hard as resisting the unmade (only Szeth and Vasher have proven able to resist Nightblood and only Shallan and Dalinar have successfully resisted the unmade). This seems to mean they are at least near the same power level. One of the questions this creates for me, is if Nightblood uses up more investiture while destroying something more heavily invested than it does destroying other things, or if only eats investiture at a steady rate.

Hi. Long time lurker. Quick theory. At the end of OB, Dalinar seems to be able to access Stormlight at will, as he is able to replenish some of Kaladin's spheres. 'Kaladin flew across the churning ocean. Dalinar had been able to summon the strength to overcharge him with Stormlight, though it was obviously exhausting to do so.' Doesn't this mean that Dalinar could potentially wield Nightblood safely as he could provide a constant stream of Investiture to the sword, or if he was close enough to the weilder, he could constantly replenish their gems? Dalinar and Szeth now form a very interesting team... and a real threat to Odium?

Nightblood consumes investiture from his victims (and wielder). If Nightblood were to be stabbed into a Fused would it consume whatever investiture Odium gave them that makes them respawn endlessly? We don't know exactly what Odium did to the souls of the dead ancient Singers that made them immortal, but it seems like one way to put an end to them. Perhaps they would need to be stabbed right in the gemheart where the Voidspren is stored in order for Nightblood to consume them. Otherwise they might be able to escape.

Nightblood is one of the great mysteries of the cosmere. A shardblade made out of awakened steel that bleeds black smoke and can force those it deems unworthy into murder and suicide. feats similar to Ashertmarn the Heart of Revel, or Neragaoul with the Thrill. I am not saying that nightbood is one of the Unmade merely that he (or she) could be a recreation of the Unmade's powers with the intent to DESTROY EVIL, and like the Unmade has an intense desire to understand his intent. Please feel free to poke holes in this idea or add to it at your leisure.

Hey all, After reading OB and understanding the Oathpact's purpose and the importance of the Everstorm (now we understand what Jasnah meant at the end of WoR, don't we?), I have thought of something I want to share. As we know, in the current Desolation the Fused can return in the next Everstorm after been killed, as opposed to all previous Desolations (except for the first one, because you know, roles reversed and all that). Given that the Fused are formidable opponents even to the Radiants (at least the 3rd Level Radiants, the ones we have so far), this is a big difference. But maybe there is a solution for this! Since it is known that when the blade (Nightblood) inflicts a wound, it vaporizes and destroys on all three realms, Cognitive, Physical, and Spiritual, maybe it can be used to destroy Fused for good. This is (I think) good for everyone, since we have seen that not all re-Connected parshmen are really into fighting, the Fused being the ones that really hate humans. Since possessed listeners are already dead, killing Fused with Nightblood is not killing listeners. This may be a big step towards ending the listener-vs-humans conflict, so they can present a unified front against Odium. I'm sorry if this has been brought up elsewhere! Edit: formatting

The blade that Azure uses seems to be a shardblade that isn’t summoned, it instead is always out. as well as it doesn’t scream in Kaladin’s head. This leads me to believe that it is a awakened blade. (just realized that most of you have already confirmed this)

Ok, friends, I apologize if this has already been discussed before. I searched for a post about it and couldn't find one, so I figured I'd open the discussion if it doesn't already exist. I've been noticing what I feel to be a quiet trend going on in the Cosmere - Silver. I would like your opinions on what this could mean or if i'm just plain crazy. Silver is not always in a meaningful spot within the Cosmere (clothing, decor, etc)... but when it does appear in a meaningful role, it seems to work the same way throughout the Cosmere. Considering how often Silver makes an appearance, it seems apparent that the metal is present on all of the cosmere worlds... some of those worlds seem to have discovered its very special uses and effects. Just to name a few key examples of silver making notable appearances within the Cosmere: Nalthis - Nightblood's sheath. To contain Nightblood's immense powers and abilities, he is kept within a silver sheath. When Nightblood is even slightly released from this sheath, his power is also released and he influences his surroundings. Like taking the cap off of something that kept him "bottled" up. Threnody - Silence Montane's dagger. Silver (weapons/dust) is the only thing on Threnody known to touch/harm/ward against shades... hence Silence's silver dagger. Silver can even heal a whither wound that has recently been caused by a shade. Silver on Threnody is widely known and coveted because of its effectiveness against shades. This is important because shades are, presumably, connected to/from/part of the spiritual realm. And yet silver is the one known defense that can touch/fight/resist them without ill effect. Scadrial - Electrum. I've always wondered why silver itself wasn't technically an allomantic metal... it seems like it should be. It does, however, show up in the Silver+Gold alloy known as Electrum. As near as I can tell, Electrum is the only metal of the 16 metals that is powerful enough to neutralize a God Metal (Atium) in another allomancer. "Thank you, Silver... because without you, Gold alone would only let me see my possible past self. With you, however, I can see all of my future selves - disabling Atium's advantage for its user. Whew!" Silver saves the day again! Roshar - Shardplate, shardblades, (and half-shards?). The shardplate(s) and shardblades of Roshar are repeatedly referred to as silver. Let's start with a few quotes. WoK Prologue mentioned Szeth's honorblade: "Szeth turned and continued on his way, slippered feet falling on the soft red rug. The Shardblade, as always, glistened silver and clean." ... and before that, the WoK Prelude mentioned shardplate itself: "Juxtaposed between them were others in gleaming plate armor. One group walked past, four men in their ragged tanned skins or shoddy leather joining a powerful figure in beautiful silver plate, amazingly intricate. Such a contrast." Along with many MANY other examples and quotes throughout WoK and WoR that (other than paint and ornamentation) repeatedly refer to Shardplate and shardblades as silver or "silvery metal." Crazy questions: In keeping with this silver theory here, is this what spren become when they transform into shardblades?...do they imitate/become silver? Could this be why shardblades can block/hit other shardblades and yet cut through everything else as if it wasn't even there? When the Vedens manufactured "half-shards," were they made of silver? Shallan encountered a keyhole at the Oathgate (at the end of WoR) that was "made of the same stuff" as a shardblade, as she put it. It doesn't seem implied that a spren had transformed into said keyhole... but rather unlike shardblades, no spren was involved. I theorize that no spren is necessary for this "stuff" (silver?) to exist in the physical realm. Therefore, the keyhole could possibly be made of simple silver. It's possible that the Vedens have managed to create their half-shards simply by discovering the proper metal to use when forging them. 1.) Have some Veden smiths forge shields of silver. 2.) Power the shield with infused gemstones (just like shardplate). 3.) and VIOLA! ...Half-Shard? ... Crazy crazy questions bouncing around my head. At any rate, one thing that seems certain to me is that silver is very special within the cosmere. It's possible that its effects and influence span across all three realms at once! I'm not saying that everything described as "silver" or "silvery" has some profound meaning behind it... but there might just be a bit of a cosmere-sized trend here. To me, if there really is a trend, it seems that silver can "counter" powers within the cosmere. Like shielding nightblood, touching/harming shades, mixing with gold to allow an allomancer to negate the effects of atium, stopping/blocking a shardblade's attack, etc... If anyone in the Cosmere knows what's going on, it's Hoid... and even he keeps a silver sword handy. "Wit picked his way through the groups of attendants, holding a cup of wine in one hand, silver sword belted at his side." "Wit sat on a raised stool at the end of the bridge leading onto the island. Wit actually dressed as a lighteyes should—he wore a stiff black uniform, silver sword at his waist." Seems like Hoid knows something about the benefits and usefulness of silver that we don't. Can you guys think of anymore examples? ...or am I crazy? What does silver mean to the Cosmere?

When Dalinar visits the Nightwatcher and she is trying to figure out what to give him she offers a very specific item. Chapter 114 "The Cost" page 1078 of the US hardcover: "Perhaps it is possessions you wish, she said. Spheres, gemstones. Shards. A Blade that bleeds darkness and cannot be defeated." Did the Nightwatcher have possession of Nightblood and was offering to pawn it off on someone else? This was five and half years in the past so Nale might not have had possession of Nightblood at this point in time. It's possible the Nightwatcher was offering to create a new sword that happens to be like Nightblood. Even if that is the case I suspect the Nightwatcher must have seen a sword like Nightblood in order to think of creating one for someone else. Perhaps Vasher visited and part of his cost (or boon) was to have Nightblood taken. Or perhaps Lady Azure visited and asked for a blade that bleeds darkness and cannot be defeated and that's where she acquired her blade.

(Sitting in a tree....) Serious Theory Time: Szeth is rebuilding a moral code based on Nightblood, and that will seriously affect all of his future interactions. Spoilers for Oathbringer, Edgedancer and Warbreaker. When Szeth ‘died’ and was revived by Our Friend Nale he admired Szeth’s dedication to his law, and tried to recruit him to the Skybreakers. And then he introduced him to Nightblood. Nightblood, destroyer of evil and sword of terrifying hilarity. Would you like to kill some evil today? Nightblood is a super sword created to destroy evil, and it’s pretty darn good at it - well, the destroying part anyway. Most interestingly, however, is that Nightblood has a resonance with people. If someone is good/innocent/relatively moral, they will feel profoundly nauseated by Nightblood. If someone is evil/selfish/relatively immoral they will be filled with lust to claim and use Nightblood; all but inevitably ending in their death. Where does this leave us? Well, Szeth is starting to dedicate himself to, or at least live by the precepts of, the Sword. He will go about ‘destroying evil’ - but only those who are nauseated by Nightblood. This will create extremely interesting conflicts as he uses the ‘Nightblood Litmus Test’ to determine who he should kill, and if he should kill. This will especially be interesting when he runs into our ‘voidbringers’ the freed Parsh-people. It will be even more interesting when we run into ‘possessed’ parsh-people like Eshonai. Would they qualify as evil to be destroyed? But that’s an aside. Evidence for this theory: this mostly comes from Edgedancer. It’s pretty clear that Our Friend Nale was trying to recruit Szeth, and Szeth was hanging around, but he was not buying into the Skybreaker motto, and did not drink their kool-aid as it were. He’s openly questioning the man he believes to be the Herald of Justice. Interestingly too they have a discussion about being unable/unwilling to trust their own minds. Most strikingly, when Szeth notices Lift, he doesn’t turn her over to Nale’s ‘justice’. Instead, he uses the Nightblood Litmus Test. Lift is nauseated, passing the test, after which Szeth talks to her and helps her, instead of killing her or turning her in. So, I think Szeth, not trusting the minds or manners of feeble Men or their laws, is instead trusting himself and his behaviour to the Nightblood Litmus Test. Of course, there’s a lot left open - where will he go? To whom will he apply the test? But there we are!

So when a spren has progressed far enough in a bond with a human it's able to manifest in physical form as a shardblade. Nightblood is a spren who is in the form of a sword without being bonded to a human. Dose that mean that if he bonds with someone and progresses far enough he'll be able to turn into something more like other spren? And sorry if this has bin brought up already. There so many Nightblood posts.

Hello 17th shard. I just want put out a question out on the forum for the first time and see how it goes. My question is, how far do Nightblood's destructive abilities go? We know that he can cut through all three realms, but does that mean he can destroy, for instance, radiation? Something which is in the physical realm but is very hard to simply attack with a weapon. Say a wall of fire is coming toward you and you pull out Nightblood to block the flames. Will the sword melt away the flames or could something else happen? Please give comments on what you think are Nightbloods limits in these situations.

I have not yet read Warbreaker but have heard great things - especially how learning about Nightblood reshapes your understanding of the Stormlight books. As I prepare to read it, what should I be on the lookout for to get the best experience possible?

Hello All! I am very new here and this my first theory post! Very excited to discuss this! If this has been posted before i apologize, I am still trying to learn the ins and outs so your patience is appreciated. That being said, Here is my theory about Szeth and Nightblood. We know that Nightblood feeds on breath when drawn (or in this case stromlight). However, since losing his honorblade, Szeth has also lost his ability to draw in stormlight, making him unable to draw Nightblood. So my theory/question is, would it be possible for Szeth to supplement his inability to draw in stormlight with Hemalurgy?

We know from here that Nightblood is a sort of splinter (which makes his creation even more amazing/terrifying to me, cause apparently Vasher and Shashara managed to forge a self aware splinter from 1000 Breaths worth of investiture), and that he was made with at least partial knowledge of Shardblades. I also have reason to believe that Sazeth, who we know is bonded to Nightblood, is NOT bonded to a Highspren but does have the surgebinding abilities of a Skybreaker. (See minor Eddgedancer Spoilers). This leads me to wonder what else might grant surgebinding abilities, and of what sort? Would a person from Sel who (somehow) managed to get to Roshar have surgebinding if they held a seon or skaze (which are splinters of Dominion and Devotion respectively)? If so, what would determine the type of surges they have access too? Thoughts?

I have a theory that, before it was Nightblood, the sword now called Nightblood killed Adonalsium. Nightblood is the only thing in the Cosmere that is truly end-negative (it removes Investiture from the Cosmere) so before that, it may have been really powerful.