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  1. I just finished Warbreaker, and I read that Vasher is a world-hopper (known in Roshar as Zahel) and he came back because he was tired of sucking people's souls for a living. He can use stormlight as breaths instead. So is there a stormlight-breath ratio? I mean how much stormlight is one breath, and if there is a ratio, why didn't Vasher just sucked in a lot of stormlight and became 10th heightening instantly?
  2. Minor spoilers for Warbreaker and Mistborn One of the biggest questions with the 1-year time gap between Oathbringer and Rythem of War is that Szeth is with the Radiants. We want the Nightblood Zahel meeting to occur onscreen but it feels weird if they've never interacted during the whole year. So, I have two theories one boring and one slightly more interesting. 1. The easy answer is just Szeth is in prison and refuses to let anyone else hold on to Nightblood. If so that's going to be a very irritating sentence. Imagine trying to meditate while Nightblood talks your psychic ears off. 2. This one is more interesting. When using advanced Steelsight and from shards perspective, at least on Scadrial you see a bright light inside people. So what if that is how Nightblood sees the world. He recognizes people by their spiritual aspect or whatever. Anyway, perhaps Vasher with divine breath is different from Vasher suppressing his divine breath but with normal breath and also different from Vasher with no normal breath and a suppressed divine breath. The theory is sort of falling apart as I think about it but it's an interesting idea
  3. As of the Stormlight books, it seems likely that all four of the other Scholars are dead by Vasher's hand — or at least, he's chipped in and done his bit. Certainly, Shashara, Denth, and Arsteel were killed by him. Regardless of that, all five of them lived for quite a while, especially compared to the other Returned. And yet, none of them (that we know of) gave up their Divine Breath. This begs many questions but I would prefer to start with perhaps the most obvious of them: do they know yet why they took Endowment up on her offer?
  4. I am putting this in Cosmere Discussion rather than the Warbreaker forum because these topics and characters are not restricted to that book. If you are are looking at this and you haven't read Warbreaker and the Stormlight Archive this may contain spoilers. Also this may have already been brought up but I couldn't find anything. I was thinking about what Vasher might use his divine breath for, as he has lived for hundreds of years and still doesn't know why he Returned, and realized that a rather poetic (and paradoxical) end for him would be to heal Nightblood. Nightblood has been described as a poor or inaccurate replica of a shardblade, as broken or opposite compared to them. The abilities and qualities of a divine breath are not fulled defined or understood, so it may be possible for one to essentially fix Nightblood to match the intent of its creation. This would be possible because divine breaths seem to heal across all three realms, as seen with Susebron; when Lightsong healed Susebron he didn't just grow back a physical tongue, but was able to speak intuitively, as if he had never been without one. If a normal person gained a tongue after living without one since birth they would need extensive speech therapy to be able to speak, and even then they may never get to baseline. The flaws with Nightblood aren't physical, they have to do with how he interacts with the cognitive and spiritual realm, so the holistic healing offered by the divine breaths could fix his inability to understand time and morality, as well as stop him from killing his wielder unintentionally after being consumed by his command. This would make him a more powerful true shardblade like Shashara and Vasher intended. In order for this to work a divine breath would need to be able to act on a sentient splinter in the same way it does a human. Since they can act on a Returned which are splinters of Endowment it may work on Nightblood, but this could also be explained by the Returned being cognitive shadows, so who knows. It appears that Nightblood has an important role to play in the fight against Odium and maybe in a greater overarching conflict throughout the Cosmere, so it would make sense that Vasher was returned to heal Nightblood. This would be a cool paradox because it means that he was returned to fix a future problem that wouldn't come to pass if he wasn't returned. The one caveat is that it's possible that Shashara would have created Nightblood even without Vasher's involvement. This was fun to think about, I love the character of Vasher and hope to see more of him going forward. If something like this does happen I doubt it would take place in Stormlight Archive because that would be a bit more crossover than Sanderson is probably comfortable with.
  5. My question is simple: Brandon has said that Vasher has hacked Stormlight to make it work like breath to sustain him in Roshar. I presume he has a reasonable amount of breath so that he wouldn't die immediately without stormlight, but does he lose breaths every midpeace and weeping since they last long enough that every sphere and gemstone is done unless it's huge? Or does he have huge gems hidden for exactly this reason?
  6. 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?
  7. WestTea

    Zahel Memories

    This question has small spoilers for both Warbreaker and Stormlight so I am putting it in a spoiler tag just in case someone hasn't read both Not sure the best way to check if this has been asked and would appreciate some help. Thank you!
  8. In Warbreaker Vasher is shown to be able to remove memories through self awakening ? What ?
  9. If Azure had gone with our heroes back to Urithiru, she would have found “Vasher”, the previous owner of the weapon she’s looking for; and in Thalen City she would have found Szeth
  10. 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.
  11. I am in the middle of rereading Oathbringer and I noticed that in Nazh's notes, the Rosharian glyph pair Kalad means eternal. And given that at least some of the Five Scholars went to Roshar, I think it is likely that Vasher named Kalad's Phantoms after that. Eternal Phantoms, Eternal guardians of T'Telir. It is one page 519 of the hard back copy I have.
  12. 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?
  13. So, I've been re-reading the Annotations for Warbreaker on Brandon's site for the last couple of days, and something just jumped out at me... Brandon mentions in the annotation for chapter fifty five that Yesteel is "much better at sneaking than Vasher or Vivenna." This, combined with the fact that Vasher has worldhopped before coming to Roshar as Zahel, makes me wonder if the reason he came to Roshar, aside from simply having easy access to Stormlight, was to hunt Yesteel. If I remember correctly, he and Vivenna were headed after Yesteel at the end of Warbreaker, in the sequel Brandon will eventually get to writing, which clearly takes place before the events of Stormlight. I'm wondering if during that sequel, Yesteel flees Nalthis entirely, possibly to Roshar. He could be around somewhere, completely missed by us, since we (to the best of my recollection) have never had a description of his appearance/personality.... Though the appearance part is rather moot, since as a likely Returned as well, he'd be able to alter his appearance the way Vasher can. If I had to speculate, I might guess that during the events of Nightblood (I don't think Brandon has ever given another planned name for the sequel), it might be where we learn the precise method on how Nightblood was created, probably from Yesteel himself, telling it to Vivenna. This would explain how she came to create her own Shardblade, since I don't think Vasher, no matter how much he likes/trusts her, would give her the precise method for Awakening a sword like that, and probably wouldn't let her experiment/figure it out herself given the possible outcomes. Any thoughts to support/oppose any of this?
  14. Ever since I read Warbreaker, I have been wanting to re-read the chapters of the storm light archives, where "Ziehl (is that spelled right?)" And "azure" are in it... Because, ya know... But, I listened to the 3 storm light books on audible, so it's much harder for me to find what those chapters are, much less which books they even begin lol If anyone knows what chapters I'm looking for/where to find them, then plz let me know, thx!!
  15. @RShara and @Spoolofwhool brought up the following WOB on discord earlier, which got me thinking: Vasher can't awaken with Stormlight, only surivive on it for now. But Brandon implies it can be figured out. We know that Breath and Stormlight are both investiture, and should both be able to power the same abilities if properly hacked. The difference seems to be that Breath is sticky, and will stay put in any object indefinitely. In fact it's so sticky that it can't be recovered from lifeless at all. Stormlight on the other hand leaks out of people and can only be absorbed by individuals with a nahel bond or honorblade. It can, however, be infused in gemstones, which is the main way to store investiture in Roshar. Fabrials are made of gemstones with captured spren inside. Spren are investiture. "Perfect Gemstones" hold investiture indefinitely, and have been shown capable of trapping even large spren made of significant amounts of investiture (unmade). If Vasher took infused gemstones, and placed them in a fabrial construct made of organic material with a lowered threshold for awakening, for example, by studding his extra long tasseled sleeves on his person shaped cloak with infused rubies in the right locations, he should be able to form the right Intent and vocalize the right command to awaken and animate the garment. Anything but a perfect gemstone would of course slowly leak out the power, but the stones could be replaced or reinfused as needed. A perfect gemstone filled to the brim with stormlight and placed in the pommel of a sword may be able to be awakened into a Type IV sentient object with a single powerful command. Using anything less than a perfect stone would be cruel though, as the entity would need to feed constantly like a Returned to stay infused enough to retain sapience. It may even be possible to place an infused gemstone into a corpse and create a Lifeless who will function until it runs out of stormlight. This combined with soulcasting and the knowledge that went into creating Kalad's Phantoms could be used to create a super soldier. Take the body of a warrior who is killed in battle. Embed a perfect gemstone fully infused with stormlight in the chest of the corpse. Soulcast many thin layers of graphine over the body to create layers of essentially kevlar, soulcast a layer of Kalad's Phantom style armor of thick Stone or Metal on top of that. Awaken the corpse with the most efficient lifeless commands. Use a second infused perfect gemstone in the pommel of a sword as described above to create a sentient Type IV entity with the command "Vex Odium". Give the sword to the super soulcast lifeless soldier. Command the lifeless to obey the sword. Sit back and sip on the color wine of your choosing while Odium gets vexed
  16. So there's someone called Shashara, who is his...wife? Someone else's wife? Denth's sister? And then he kills her because why? And Vasher and she made Nightblood somehow, and then Vasher is also a Returned? How does he change his shape? None of the other Returned can do that.
  17. I mean, there's some strange things about Zahel, yes. And once you tell me that, hey, Zahel is Vasher, I can connect them to things we already know about Vasher/Nalthis. But if someone's starting from square one, what was it that made people make the connection? After I read that Zahel was Vasher on TV Tropes, I went back and reread all the parts I could find with him in them. And the only conspicuously odd thing I found was the bit where he thinks about how he used to hear a voice in his head- and that could have been anything, there's so much we still don't know about Roshar. It could have been a spren he bonded and then killed by being dishonorable. What was the smoking gun here?
  18. So, I searched through six pages of "Shashara" and couldn't find this exact topic so I thought I would post it here, and see what discussion we get. I just wrote up this fanfic of my take on the whole Twilight Falls fiasco, and thinking up the story and writing it has really increased my interest in Vasher and Shashara's relationship. I am curious to know what other people think about it. Here's two of the most pertinent WoBs I think: So we know "they were in love" but that Shashara obviously had different ambitions than Vasher. We also know that their marriage was relatively short, but we don't really know how long their romance was. What I am picturing is a kind of rushed and passionate romance between two collaborators on an exciting project. It's also my opinion that Vasher wasn't aware of everything Shashara was up to or all of her motives, so I also get this image of Vasher being kind of infatuated with the mystery of Shashara, and her encouraging that, but that Vasher does not know her as well as he thinks and that is what leads to their conflict. We were joking on Discord the other day about how apparently Brandon loves writing in spouse killings into character's histories, but I think the Vasher/Shashara conflict is one of the most interesting to me because of the juicy heartbreak and emotional confusion Vasher must feel in the wake of destroying someone who obviously cared a great deal for, but who may not have cared much for him. I know Brandon states in the annotations that "they were in love" but I also think that can mean different things to different people, and that it may have meant something different to Shashara than to Vasher.
  19. So, I had a lot of fun writing the Ati and Leras piece a little while ago, so I thought I would try another speculative Cosmere History. One of the pieces of Cosmere History I would love to know more about is the Five Scholars, and Shashara in particular. Despite how little we know about her, her story has always really intrigued me, so this is my take on her. Let me know what you guys think :). [I know I might be suspending disbelief a little with what Vasher can see here, and what he’s capable of doing with the spy-glass, but let’s just say it works for now so I do not have to figure out how it actually works. My angle is he has a good vantage point, and he’s doing a combination of looking through the glass and using his naked eye]. [Also, I know that Brandon has said that "Nightblood" is not the original name, and that Vasher only named it that after killing Shashara, but without another name to fill in I used Nightblood as a placeholder.] Here are my two primary reference points: "There's something particularly chilling about watching dead men kill living ones." Shashara stepped back from the spyglass, but her eyes continued to dart back and forth across the battlefield, no doubt calculating the odds of their success. "What's that?" Vasher stepped forward to join his wife, though he took little pleasure in what he saw. As one of the leaders of this army, he felt obligated to make an appearance, but he would have much preferred to be back in their laboratory, puzzling out what exactly had went wrong with that sword. . . Shashara laughed, it was strange to hear such a beautiful sound when men screamed and died below them. The couple stood alone on a high platform, suspended in the air by giant Awakened ropes, giving them an impressive view of the battlefield below. "Have I ever told you that you have the lyricism of a lifeless?" Her hair was a vibrant blonde, but Vasher had trouble discerning whether that was for appearances or a genuine show of emotion. Is she enjoying this? "Oh, a couple of times." It was an old joke, between them. Shashara's perfect lips quirked into a familiar smirk. They had both chosen to reveal themselves as Returned for this battle, rather than concealing their divinity beneath facades of humanity. The colours of Shashara's hair and eyes were dazzling, and her well tailored white uniform shone in the light of her Bio Chroma. Aside from her shoes, which looked rather flimsy compared to standard military boots, she looked the part of a general. Today, Glorysinger was revealing herself in all her splendor. "You were saying?" "It's just strange isn't it? Before Lifeless, war was a contest of the living, and the dead were the defeated. But who can win a a battle against the dead, and what does it mean to defeat your enemies if they will rise again as to join your army? We Awaken them and preserve them, then we command them to kill so we can create more. The dead multiply as humanity diminishes. Not a very good survival strategy for the living, is it?" "No, I do not think it is." "Well, it's a good thing we picked the right side then. Us dead people need to stick together." "That. . . was not a funny joke." "The moment I trust your taste is the moment I know my sense of humour is lost beyond all hope." Shashara stiffened suddenly as the battle seemed to shift below them. Vasher watched as her fingers played with the clasp on the weapon. Her hands seemed to have a darker tone than was normal, their colour deepened by Nightblood's aura. "It's not ready. You know that." "How are we to know anything without testing its potential? It's sentient, isn't it? I can hear its voice even now. It can sense the evil down there Vasher. It knows its purpose." "The blades on Roshar. . ." "Colours, who cares about the blades on Roshar. Nightblood is more than some. . . splinter of divinity bound by foolish ideals. I think even those poor fools who call themselves Heralds would fear what we've accomplished." Her grip on the sword tightened. "Shashara. . ." She finally looked up from the battle to meet his eyes. Her gaze was cold and determined. You are not the person you think you are. You are a brilliant scholar and a fearless leader. You drive me mad while being the love of my life. There are other ways. Don't do this. Shashara sighed and re-slung the weapon across her back. "Oh, fine." She stepped towards him, and they embraced. "I don't know what I'd do without your love and support, dear one." Vasher allowed himself a smile--only because Shashara's face was so buried in his shoulder that she could not see him, of course. "Good thing you will never have to find out." He tightened his grip on her, wanting to hold on to the moment for as long as possible. All too soon he could feel her begin to pull away. Reluctantly, he let his hands fall to his sides. Shashara smiled, letting her fingers linger as she straightened his scarf. "Gag and hold to ground." Vasher's eyes widened as one end of his scarf forced itself between his lips and down his throat, while the other encircled his body and yanked him to the floor of the platform. From his new angle, he could see where Shashara had discarded one of her shoes when she walked over to him, and the patch of grey where she had leeched the colour from the floor. Shashara wasted no time, and was already reaching into her satchel taking out a length of starched cord and one of the little straw men Vasher had made her. "Hold things". The chord shot towards him, further restricting his movement. "Explore and disarm". The straw man sprung to life in her hands and scampered over to Vasher. It began to clamber over him, digging under his clothes and exploring hidden pockets, searching for hidden weapons or coloured objects it could remove. Though the Command was simple, the visualization was complex, and difficult to master. Shashara replaced her shoe, and then cautiously approached Vasher has he desperately tried to escape his bonds. Breathing through his nose, he tried mouthing the words he needed to Break the Command on his scarf, desperately trying to force any air he could to make a sound. She has more breath than you, fool. You couldn't break her Commands even if you could make a sound. With the precision of a master inventor, Shashara methodically began stealing the colour from Vasher's clothing, using it to Awaken her own. The tails of her own scarf rose, preparing to snatch arrows from the air or entangle would-be attackers, and tendrils of rope uncoiled from where they hung at her waste, reaching out like the tentacles of an octopus. As she continued, her pant legs seemed to stiffen and the tassels on her sleeves sprung to life. This can't be happening. She won't do this to you. She can't. "I'm sorry to do this Vasher, but I won't let your softness stifle our vision. Nightblood is the future, and we cannot let its potential be wasted for the sake of sentiment. Just watch. You'll see." Shashara gave a few more careful Commands, causing Vasher's bonds to prop him upright and bring him over to the spyglass. "There you are. Nightblood will make us proud. I promise." Shashara turned and clambered over the edge of the railing, using her scarf, her sleeves, and the ropes at her belt to climb down to the ground. The front lines had moved and been pushed into the shallows of the river below. With the magnificent waterfalls in the background, the sight might have been breathtaking if it weren't accompanied by the sound of the more grisly breath -taking going on, and the increasing redness of the waters down stream. Shashara came into view again, gliding across the land on the back of one of the giant ropes their Awakeners used as catapults. In the brilliant uniform, with her hair, still blonde, flowing behind her, and her brilliant Bio Chroma, she seemed like a hero of out legend riding a serpentine dragon into battle. Hero, or villain? The enemy archers and Awakeners recognized Glorysinger instantly, and began training their arrows and boulders on her, hoping to take out a powerful enemy before she could join the battle. It was fruitless, of course. Shashara was too well prepared and her Commands were the most nuanced in existence. The rope she rode wove deftly down the hill, dodging between the falling stones, while her scarf deftly plucked arrows from the air mid-flight. Before the archers and Awakeners could get off a second round Shashara had joined the fray. She didn't draw Nightblood. As the large rope carried her through the battle, the cords at her waist unfurled lashed out, wrapping around necks and breaking them, or slamming soldiers, both living and Lifeless, into the ground. Others found themselves flying backward, pulled back and held by their own uniforms. Though it was inefficient, the ninth heightening allowed her to Awaken using only the sound of her voice. Vasher knew she kept some coloured scarves in her satchel for exactly that purpose. The tails of her scarf continued to defend her, narrowly deflecting the few attacks that managed to catch her as she slid past. Soon, Shashara had crossed to the other side of the battle. The rope she was on arched, lifting her into the air. Though many of the living soldiers turned to regard her with wonder, the Lifeless continued to fight, ignorant of her glory. With the falls to her back, Shashara looked down on the battlefield like a goddess descending from the heavens to smite her enemies. Arguably, that was exactly what she was. And then she drew Nightblood. She cried out as she held the weapon aloft, slamming nearby Lifeless to the ground with a forceful Command. Nightblood began to leak black smoke, it’s flaw corrupting Shashara’s Breath. An enemy Awakener, seeing an opportunity, sent a boulder flying towards her. The hurtling stone met Nightblood and vanished, dissolving into smoke. Shashara smiled. Her rope turned and dove back into the fray. A trail of black smoke followed in Shashara’s wake as both living and Lifeless were vapourized by Nightblood. Finally, unable to watch anymore but unable to turn away, Vasher closed his eyes. **** Later, when Vasher found her, Shashara was picking through corpses, scavenging for Breath to recover. VaraTreledees, only recently arrived, glanced down at them occasionally as he discussed the battle with some of their officers. “I can’t say I’m surprised you managed to free yourself, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get away with keeping it a secret.” Shashara smiled, but Vasher could hear the strain in her voice. Her Bio Chroma was significantly weaker than before, putting her just shy of the Eighth Heightening. “You don’t get to do that.” “Specificity is a scholar’s friend, Vasher. Vagueries are a waste of time.” Vasher stepped forward, unconsciously increasing his size. “You know what I mean.” His tone was low and menacing, but thankfully he kept the trembling in his hands from creeping into his voice. Shashara met his eyes for a moment and then shrugged, unconcerned with his anger. “Fine then, pout if you need to. When you’re done sulking we can go over the Nightblood’s performance. Now that we have a proto-type we can start discussing a test group. We will need more Breath though, lots of it. It might be a good idea to get a team together to test the weapons so we can save our Breath for Awakening. Conversely, I suppose we could teach others the Command and then handle testing personally, though I do worry about them being able grasp the nuances of the visualization.” Vasher stepped back. “You want to create more?” Sashara frowned. “Of course I want to make more. Did you see what it did, Vasher? I was. . . Nightblood was unstoppable. A few more victories as decisive as that one and the war will be over. A thousand Breaths is really a pittance when you think about it. If we equipped some elites with these weapons, and then backed them with a squad of lifeless, even Yesteel would have to admit our superiority.” Sensing his hesitation, and no doubt anticipating his arguments, Shashara continued before he could get a word in. “And who is to say we need only create weapons? The potential of Type IV Biochormatic Entities could be limitless. I know you disagree, but what if we could create Biochromatic poets, or even scholars? We know Roshar’s Radiants gained valuable counsel from the Spren. Think how our research could be enriched by getting an Awakened perspective.” “No.” “No?” Shashara scoffed. “No.” Shashara's eyes narrowed. “I promised to be your wife, Vasher, not your slave. You don’t control me. Here. . .” Vasher flinched as Shashara reached for Nightblood. Noting his discomfort, Shashara smirked as she unslung the sheath from her back and held the weapon out for Vasher to take. From anyone else, freely offering a weapon like Nightblood would have been a sign of trust. Shashara made it seem like an act of defiance, emphasizing his failure to intimidate her. She was handing him what might be the most deadly object in the Cosmere, confident that even then he would not be able to stop her from achieving her goals. She’s right. She’s always right. He saw that now. No matter what arguments he used, or what pressures he applied, he could not control Shashara. Nalthis itself would be dissolved into nothing before she let anyone get in her way. “Go on, take it. If I can’t talk some sense into you, maybe Nightblood can. It was drowsy after the fight, but it’s seeming to wake up now.” Hesitating, Vasher took the sword. Vasher? Shashara was right. Nightblood’s voice did sound strange. Did you see me? I think. . . I think I. . . um. . . I think I destroyed a lot of evil. Shashara says I did verrrrry well. I think she’s going to make new friends for me. Vasher scowled. “You can’t make friends Nightblood. You’re a sword.” Shashara smiled and turned, searching for more Awakened clothing she could recover breath from. Who sayssss? Shashara’s my friend. And I think you are too. “How do you know what friendship even is?” It’s. . . It’s like you and Shashara. You’re friends. You do friend things. The sword’s voice, which Vasher couldn’t help but see as masculine, seemed to be growing more clear, and less muddled. Nearby, Vasher watched as Shashara recovered some breath from a fallen soldier’s tunic, causing her Bio Chroma to brighten slightly. Giving a woman like Shashara an idealized appearance and Bio Chroma had always seemed painfully unfair. She could dazzle kings and charm the most skeptical of scholars with her mind and wits alone. Adding inhuman beauty and a glowing aura seemed like overkill. See? Frieeeendsssss. Are you two going to do that thing? “I’m going to do something, Nightblood, but probably not what you think.” I mean that thing where you . . . DESTROY EVIL. Shashara--Vasher’s brilliant, fearless, incredible wife--turned in surprise as Vasher drew Nightblood. “Don’t worry, I will.”
  20. Is there an official explanation as to how Vasher survives Roshar by substituting Stormlight for Breath? The basis of my question is due to my current understanding of investiture. I've always thought of investiture as analogous to electricity. At electricity's core it's the basic principle of moving charges, but each country/region has differing outlets for that electricity and you have to have the right cord or adapter in order to access that outlet. Thus in my mind, investiture is the power, and the shard/shards of each world dictate how that power is accessed by the general populous. Hoid is a good example of someone who's accessed multiple adapters in order apply investiture in different ways, but Vasher is not shown (to my knowledge) to exhibit anything other than his native Breath/Awakening magic. So how is Vasher able to adapt to Stormlight to fulfill his constant need for investiture to keep himself alive? Does he have to actively absorb stormlight or is he a sort of "ground" that investiture just wants to flow into? Does he have to stand out in the highstorm with all the spheres in order to recharge, or do spheres seem to go dun a little faster around him? How does he survive the Weeping? Can he also pull investiture from the Everstorm/Voidlight? Also, as I write this I'm starting to wonder. Is there yet a cosmere unit of investiture? Do we know the "voltage difference" between one breath versus spheres? Thanks, -Ren
  21. 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?
  22. Anyone have a WoB on whether someone can level up on their Heightenings with Stormlight? Or do they need (can only use) breaths to level up? Yes, Stormlight and Breaths can be used interchangeably. But is there anything on whether you can have a sufficient amount of Stormlight to create a heightening jump. If yes, did Peter work out the math for this? If you need 200 breaths to get the the second heightening, how much Stormlight would you need? thanks!
  23. Doesn't Oathbringer sound like a name of one of the Returned? It has the two word compound name. Light-Song Blush-Weaver War-Breaker Oath-Bringer I mean it fits, but what it could mean, I got no clue.
  24. I have 2 questions... Well, one is a question. The other is more of a theory. 1) Who is the person that Wit is afraid will "crush an entire city for a chance to kill (wit)"? I bought the audio book and so can't really give his name since I don't know how it's spelled. 2) Could Zahel actually be Vasher?
  25. So there's obviously some cultural bias that is causing some of the cosnternation around the female scout that keeps popping up. But brandon rarely re-introduces the same character over and over without any significance. I think lyn is actually vivenna since we have WoB's that confirm she will be in OB. Vivenna also seems exactly like the kind of person who would rather join up with the army rather than infiltrate the scribes. Still unsure what her motives are for joining the army and coming to urithiru, speculate! Possibly trying to contact vasher??
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