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So, I've noticed a lot of Nghtblood-centric threads on this forum (as there well should be, given that Nightblood is the singular most Invested object in the Cosmere and one of the most unique), and it got me thinking about how it works and what it really is. After leafing through some other theories and looking through the Arcanum, I think I have an idea. So, a quick refresher on how Nightblood was created: So, Nightblood is an Awakened Steel sword with the Command "Destroy Evil" Now, take a look at this WoB: Nightblood, a regular Steel sword that was mined, smelted, alloyed, and forged on Nalthis, and then imbued with Breaths, which is Endowment Investiture, has Ruin's Investiture in it. Why? Well, my theory is as follows: The Breaths in Nightblood were given a Command, which became the sword's Intent: "Destroy Evil". And what happened when this Command was given to Nightblood? Does that ring a bell? The Command breaks down into two basic concepts. "Destroy," and "Evil". I think that, upon receiving the Command, the Breaths were corrupted with Ruin's Intent, that of Destruction, which essentially makes the Breaths part of Ruin's Investiture. All of those Corrupted Breaths, now being forced into a single sword, oversaturated it with Investiture, and so it started leaking it, letting those Corrupted Breaths dissipate. However, here's the problem: Investiture can't be destroyed. The closest it can come to being destroyed is when it's exposed to Anti-Investiture, where the Investiture simply becomes energy, which can presumably be turned back into Investiture. So, how can the Breaths follow their new Intent? The closest it can come to 'destroying' Investiture is Corrupting it and keeping it stuck in the sword, forcing it to stay out of the Investiture systems for as long as possible. Nightblood is, functionally, a prime manifestation of Ruin's Intent, doing its best to destroy Investiture by Corrupting it and trying to keep it compressed within the sword. This is why Nightblood has grown in power over the centuries; it absorbs the Investiture from everything and everyone that it possibly can. The "Destroy" half of the Command essentially dictates the method by which the sword works. All this is separate from the "Evil" part of the Command. That part forms the basis of Nightblood's 'test'. If you want to use the sword for personal gain, extortion, killing your enemies, etc, you will be drawn to kill others with the sword, and then yourself. If not, you feel nauseous. Use the sword and you become Bonded to it, and you become immune to the test. "Evil" determines the test by which the sword decides whether someone is evil or not, and the "Destroy" part ordains how it will kill someone who is decided to be evil. The fact that Nightblood-inflicted wounds cause blackness to form on the corpses through its Aluminum sheath just goes to show how powerful it is. It suggests that Ruin's magic system could have been far, far darker than Hemalurgy. Had Ruin settled on a planet other than Scadrial, alone, it could have resulted in a magic system more like a twisted, nightmarish version of Breaths and Awakening: A world where you can kill other people and suck their Investiture out as they die, with more Investiture gained the more the agony the victim is in as they pass. Collect enough Dying Breaths and you can create creatures or constructs out of Midnight Essence. Infect someone with Dying Breaths and you can possess them through an Entropy Bond, controlling them like a puppeteer, their eyes leaking black smoke all the while. Each use of Dying Breaths expends Breaths in a way that they can never be recovered, always driving people to kill more to gain more power. The more Dying Breaths you have at any given moment, the more sadistic and masochistic you become, reveling in pain. Luckily for the denizens of the Cosmere, Ruin never gets a chance to truly express his Intent, beyond wanting to destroy Scadrial. Nothing we see him do is unique to him; Any other Shard could recreate those effects, Intent notwithstanding. Nightblood is a tiny window into the truly destructive power Ruinous magic systems can have. Thoughts?

i was thinking about this is wondering if it did happen what it would be like or if it would have any effect at all what you guys think i also wonder if the process of corruption in this case would be closer to a lesser spren or a living radiant spren

I admit right off the bat that at this point this is almost entirely a matter of conjecture, since there isn't really a shred of hard evidence for it one way or another, but I thought I'd put it out there and see what everyone thinks. As per Oathbringer, we know that the Unmade Sja-anat wants to defect from Odium (or at least that's what she has claimed, and for the sake of argument I'm just going to assume that this isn't merely a ploy and that she is being genuine), and that she seemingly aided Kaladin, Adolin and Shallan by preventing the Oathgate she had corrupted from killing them. And that got me thinking: Sja-anat, along with the other Unmade, are supposedly Splinters of Odium's power that gained sentience (at least in the case of some of the Unmade) or else were deliberately created by Odium, which should mean that they would share Odium's general nature, but from what we've seen this doesn't appear to necessarily be the case with Sja-anat; she seems to be fighting to free herself from Odium's influence. Ironically, it would almost seem like the corrupter is itself corrupted, or at least in the process of it. So if this is true, and admittedly this does depend on a number of unproven assumptions, it begs the question of what exactly could be behind this. Honor? Possibly, though I personally don't think so, because corrupting Sja-anat so as to make her betray Odium doesn't really seem like it would be consistent with what we know of Honor's nature. Cultivation? Again, possible, and in my opinion far more likely than Honor. But what if it's another Shard altogether? A Shard who most people assume is an ally (albeit probably in a very loose way) of Odium and whose Shardic Intent would certainly seem to be compatible with 'corrupting' something with the desire for freedom and individuality. Might it be that Autonomy isn't quite as sympathetic to Odium's cause as she would have him believe? Like I said earlier, at this point this is purely conjecture. However, we do know that in spite of what she would have others believe, Autonomy has no qualms about meddling in the affairs of other worlds, including other worlds that have Shards, if we assume that she is the one behind the opposition of Harmony on Scadrial. So, is it really that big of a stretch to assume that maybe she's meddled on Roshar as well? Could it be that Autonomy is subtly opposing Odium by 'infecting' one of his greatest servants with a spark of her own power? At this point, I honestly don't know, and I'm by no means convinced of this (in fact, I honestly think it's probably more likely false than true). But it would have a certain poetic form of irony if it did turn out to be true.

Conspiracy Theory: @Calderis and @Extesian aren't actually the good guys we all believe them to be. We all think they're so great because they have sooo many posts and so much rep and they seem so knowledgeable, whereas we've been being deceived this ENTIRE time. Actually, I don't know if deceived is the right word for it. After all Calderis always says how he doesn't understand why he gets so much rep and both Calderis and extesian have talked about how they are held on such a high pedestal when really, there are tons of people with more posts/rep/knowledge than them. So they admit it themselves. That they are fakes. What if good old Calderis and Extesian are actually being payed off by someone to perpetrate false information around the shard. Now they wouldn't do it in obvious ways most of the time, just in small subtle ways so that nobody even realizes until it is too late. Much like how ruin changed the writings slightly to influence the characters in mistborn. They are our ruin. They are the seventeenth shards entropy. And what if the person paying them off is none other than Brandon himself. Why do you think they're always sooo good at finding WoB's for everyone and how come sometimes they "could've sworn" there was a WOB about a certain topic that no one can ever find? They needed to use facts at first to gain respect and acknowledgement but now that they've made it to the top of the food chain they can more easily spread lies about the cosmere information we have to try and prevent more of groundbreaking accidental discoveries ruining Brandon's plot twists and surprises. They practically monitor this place 24/7 between the two of them. Calderis has said that he practically spends all day on the shard -- EVEN when he's at "work". And then while Calderis sleeps Extesian monitors. Maybe not always taking as much of a forward approach like Calderis but posting less often with more "facts" and "research" yet he still has around the same amount of rep anyway. In fact when this was brought up to them Calderis and extesian both mentioned how they have completely different techniques on how they operate on the shard. This would help their plot of espionage because even if a person dislikes calderis's methods they would probably appreciate Extesian's and vice versa. We think the enemies are only in the book pages but the real enemies are already standing with a knife to your throat thank you, and goodnight Disclaimer: i don't personally believe any of the claims or assumptions above and none of them are meant to harm or discredit any person in any way shape or form. It is not meant to offend or annoy either. Only for entertainment purposes (like most theories on here) Edit: @Calderis I don't think you're ready for this one: Conspiracy theory 2! I am Calderis incarnate and I have come to take my throne beside him! Okay, lets back up here. After all that is a bit of a dramatic statement. Which is why I will explain in explicit detail why it is correct. Firstly as our neighborhood Calderis pointed out to me earlier, our names are literally one letter away from being identical. It is a matter of vowels, whereas I have an o and he has an a. Next, would be the fact that neither of us feel worthy of gaining reputation. Like seriously guys, 13 rep? On this one post??? What even.... As Calderis has said he lurked a long long time before he started being active, but once he did start being active he rose through the ranks quickly. I didn't lurk for too long only a few months and when I did I would post every now and then but only rarely. Then sometimes between I think the beginning of the month and now I went from about 5 reputation to 74 and my post count which was barely 10 is now in the eighties. Amazing what such a short period of time can do, or at least it feels amazing to me. It probably isn't all too amazing in relation to people who gain that much rep on a daily basis. Which in saying that last sentence I'm proving how much I'm like him because he always says how he's nothing compared to some other people. Now, there is one distinct difference between me and Not Me. That being, Calderis has over 2k posts and I'm not even at a hundred. Compared to him I'm just a little shard baby. But then again, so was he at one point. So we're all of you, too. Everyone was. After all, you gotta start somewhere. But now what does this mean in context of the original conspiracy? Well this means that I'm likely a super-secret spy espionage dude in training to corrupt people's views of the cosmere and keep them from the truth. I guess we all have a side that we keep hidden. What's yours? Until next time, people of earth... OMG I DID A THING! IT HAS A HEART!!

"They were suddenly dangerous. Like a calm day that became a tempest." "...I believe it may reference the Voidbringers" page 471: Chapter 30: Darkness Unseen. "They changed, even as we fought them. Like shadows they were, that can transform as the flame dances. Never underestimate them because of what you first see." page 499: Chapter 33: Cymatics. "Born from the darkness, they bear its taint still, marked upon their bodies much as the fire marks their souls." Page 553: Chapter 38: Envisager First Theory: Odium will take control of the peaceful Parshmen and suddenly change their form and they will be very dangerous. (Possibly used as Voidbringers or just one piece of a much more complex puzzle.) Second Theory: This was a plan that Odium has had for a long time (possibly after the Last Desolation or thereabouts). He foresaw that humanity could not pass up on perfect obedient slaves and somehow tampered with regular Parshendi to make them like Parshmen instead. Now humans took the Parshmen as slaves and spread them across Roshar (Odium did not do this himself rather knew it would happen due to man's nature). Third Theory: These new parshmen will be able to utilize stormlight in some fashion or another. (Not so sure about this one.) Now to combine the theories: Parshmen have been strategically placed (see the second theory for what I mean by this) all over Roshar by Odium, and that in a moment Odium will utilize their telepathic ability and change them into a very dangerous form and then use them as "Voidbringers" or tools of them to accomplish his purposes. Odium or a servant of his will have complete control over them and use them in whatever way he sees fit. I think this is part of the reason why Jashnah has discovered that Parshendi are possibly the Voidbringers. Perhaps it is not the Parshendi race rather the parshmen. Some other quotes that might help this theory: (The green are my comments) "Death upon the lips. Sound upon the air. Char upon the skin." Page 567: Chapter 40: Eyes of Red and Blue. (The sound upon the air could be the way Odium or a servant issues his commands to the Parshmen who have been changed into something much more dangerous.) "They take away the light, wherever they lurk. Skin that is burned." Page 676: Chapter 48: Strawberry (They will be able to take in stormlight and use it for evil) "Flame and Char. Skin so terrible. Eyes like pits of blackness." Page 696. Chapter 50: Backbreaker Powder. (The dark eyes could reflect that they do not have have control over themselves but are rather animated by Odium or a servant of his) ------------------- From another book where this sort of thing occurred: Spoiler from the book A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. If anyone has read the book Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge then you will be familiar with this concept as demonstrated with Skode Riders and the Blight.

I'm sorry if this all comes out as rambling, it goes against several other theories about shardblades, and may be a bit weak, but I'm sort of just building off something I came up with. *Spoilers follow* We know from the Well of Ascension plot twist, that Brandon Sanderson likes a good plot twist, especially in relation to corruption, so is it possible we're meant to have one here? The Knights Radiant wielded shardblades given to them by the heralds (agents of Honor) in the last desolation, but yet Syl (and Honorspren) in referring to Dalinar's forfeited shardblade remarks: "It just feels wrong to me. I hate it. I'm glad he got rid of it. Makes him a better man" Now is it just me, or is hate a fairly strong emotion, an emotion that would be more at home with someone affiliated with Odium rather than Honor? Now I understand that Odium provokes hatred from others, so if the Shardblades are of Odium, they would provoke hatred from someone affiliated with honor, like Syl and like Kaladin when he passed up on the blade earlier. But in the alternative could Odium seek to triumph on Roshar by corrupting the now splintered Honor to make the spren of the Knights Radiant 'hate' the shardblades the Knights Radiant so effectively wielded, and separate the Knights Radiant from their weapons.