Trusk'our Posted December 27, 2021 Report Share Posted December 27, 2021 (edited) I used to think that Awakening could do just about anything without needing other magic systems for hacks if used with the right command and with enough skill (i.e. using breaths to enhance body or mind by investing them with a command, editing your own spiritweb, copying other invested arts' abilities, or creating powerful invested objects like Nightblood by simply investing enough breath into their creation). However, this quote changes things... Quote Questioner (Disclaimers so that you can't say, like, "well if a Shard...") If a regular Awakener, just a mundane Awakener with nothing more than a few hundred Breaths and not any other outside influences, is there some Command they could give a blanket to get the blanket to turn warm? Generate heat; is that a normal thing you can Command? Brandon Sanderson Not in just a normal situation. I mean, technically, you could tell the blanket "start rubbing one part against another part" or something like that, or "set yourself on fire," right? But that's not what you're asking. For Awakening to work, you have to work within the intrinsic properties of the matter you're making, except it can move around a bit and with a few little other things it can do. It's not outside the realm of possibility you could activate those Breaths as Investiture to do something else, but you would need more than just the simple magic system of Awakening. Apparently, you can only work with the intrinsic properties of something that you awaken, which greatly limits your abilities. Not only that, but since Awakening follows Endowment's Intent of giving things away, you are somewhat limited in how much you can modify yourself (I know there's a quote somewhere, but I couldn't find it). I'm actually pretty glad about this, as it helps balance a magic system that once felt like it would outshine the others. Nightblood, however, is a special case, since it quite clearly has some magical abilities that normal swords don't have. My theory on this is that a hack between Hemalurgy and Awakening was used in order to make it work, as if you were to awaken something that already had magical properties, you should be able to manipulate them further with Awakening. I feel that my assumption that a Hemalurgic charge being involved with Nightblood's creation is supported by this quote here. Quote Walin Does Nightblood contain any of Ruin's Investiture? Like, not atium, but... Brandon Sanderson Yes, technically; and I'm not wiggling around that, because technically, location in the Cosmere and who belongs to what gets really weird, right? Because Ruin's Investiture is everywhere--but I'm not talking that way. I'm talking the way you actually mean it. Not only that, but Nightblood is black, and the color black is associated with Ruin's investiture. Although, I suppose that Nightblood could have simply absorbed investiture from a Hemalurgic spike after killing a Hemalurgist at some point, or that some other weird investiture mechanic is going on that we simply don't know much about yet. Edited December 27, 2021 by Trusk'our 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honorless Posted December 27, 2021 Report Share Posted December 27, 2021 Ah, for the level of munchkinry you want, I suggest you turn to Sel rather than Nalthis 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trusk'our Posted December 28, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2021 11 hours ago, Honorless said: Ah, for the level of munchkinry you want, I suggest you turn to Sel rather than Nalthis I actually don't like Sel's magic very much. Well, not Elantrian magic, anyway. It just feels too much like a "Well, I can do basically anything, but I choose not to for plot purposes and stuff", like how pretty much every standard fantasy wizard works. But I suppose that's just my personal preference. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.