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Nightblood's a Nicrosil Metalmind?!?


TheBeast22846

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Could Nightblood be a nicrosil metalmind? Brandon has RAFO'd everything about what Nightblood is made out of, and has also stated that there is more to his astronomical amount of investiture than his breaths. Could this fit? Brandon has said that Nightblood was not black before being awakened. Anybody know what color nicrosil is?

I'm not sure if this works, let me know what you guys think.

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I'm convinced that the majority of Nightblood's weirdness can be attributed to him containing a Splinter of Ruin, as well as direct involvement by Endowment (probably to balance out Ruin's influence).  

 

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Walin [PENDING REVIEW]

Does Nightblood contain any of Ruin's Investiture? Like, not atium, but...

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

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. 

Legion Release Party (Sept. 19, 2018)

 

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OrangeJedi [PENDING REVIEW]

When Nightblood created, was Endowment involved in any way more than normal?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Good question, you qualified that the right way! I would say yes, but maybe not to the extent you're thinking.

OrangeJedi [PENDING REVIEW]

Normal being using Endowment's Investiture to Awaken. There's something special.

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

I would say, there is something special.

Legion Release Party (Sept. 19, 2018)
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I always assumed the bit of Ruin in Nightblood came from his command, "Destroy Evil". The first half is basically Ruin's name. In order for Endowment to make the command functional she would need to allow it to tap into the forces that are Ruin's "Domain". As for Endowment's "involvement", I've always interpreted that as being the same as Cultivation's involvement with Dalinar or Lift (I think she was involved with Lift?). Basically she saw something that wouldn't quite work within the normal system and decided to give it a little push.

All just my read on it, so do with it what you will.

Edited by SwordNimiForPresident
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14 hours ago, TheBeast22846 said:

Could Nightblood be a nicrosil metalmind? Brandon has RAFO'd everything about what Nightblood is made out of, and has also stated that there is more to his astronomical amount of investiture than his breaths. Could this fit? Brandon has said that Nightblood was not black before being awakened. Anybody know what color nicrosil is?

I'm not sure if this works, let me know what you guys think.

Relevant excerpt from Warbreaker

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Vasher snorted. “You don’t even know what that is.”

For once, Nightblood was silent.

That was the great crux of the problem, the issue that had dominated most of Vasher’s life. A thousand Breaths. That was what it took to Awaken an object of steel and give it sentience. Even Shashara hadn’t fully understood the process, though she had first devised it.

It took a person who had reached the Ninth Heightening to Awaken stone or steel. Even then, this process shouldn’t have worked. It should have created an Awakened object with no more of a mind than the tassels on his cloak.

- Warbreaker, Chapter 51

My opinion is that given Vasher being certain that Nightblood is made from steel, he's made of steel. The weirdness is probably the association with Ruin that has been mentioned above.

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On 4/10/2019 at 3:49 PM, SwordNimiForPresident said:

I always assumed the bit of Ruin in Nightblood came from his command, "Destroy Evil". The first half is basically Ruin's name. In order for Endowment to make the command functional she would need to allow it to tap into the forces that are Ruin's "Domain". As for Endowment's "involvement", I've always interpreted that as being the same as Cultivation's involvement with Dalinar or Lift (I think she was involved with Lift?). Basically she saw something that wouldn't quite work within the normal system and decided to give it a little push.

I don't think simply invoking "ruin as a concept" while doing powerful magic in another magic system would draw on Ruin's power.

I think I have a new theory about Nightblood, though, and Ruin is certainly involved. I'll start my own thread about it

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3 hours ago, robardin said:

I don't think simply invoking "ruin as a concept" while doing powerful magic in another magic system would draw on Ruin's power.

I think I have a new theory about Nightblood, though, and Ruin is certainly involved. I'll start my own thread about it

It's not just a concept, it's what Nightblood does, he destroys. Destruction is Ruin's thing. I don't see any scenario where Ruin, who is bound to Scadrial at the time of Nightblood's creation, has an active hand in things. They used a command that required something that regular awakening couldn't provide. Endowment decided to make it work. Seems pretty straight forward.

If you want to get really aluminum foil hat, you could ask why Endowment decided to make it work.

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Nicrosil is a silvery gray. 

Vasher saying 'An object of steel' doesn't make it steel. It's possible the sword contains a bar or veins of nicrosil in it. Brandon has RAFO'd what it Nightblood is made of. This could either mean "It says it in the text" or "this will be revealed in a later book." I personally see the second one as more likely. Vasher has no training (that I know of) in metalworking. He's just an awakener. Unless someone pointed it out, a random bar of nicrosil (especially if it was in the core of the blade) would go unnoticed. The sword could be entirely nicrosil, but that has some issues as well. 

There are other issues. Nicrosil (assuming an alloy of chromium and nickel) would be very weak. Both components are very weak metals, far more than steel. A sword of pure nicrosil would break or warp. It would nick and chip very easily, not things you want in a sword. 

While anyone can draw from an unsealed metalmind, investiture can't be added back in. Unless this is some weird bending of the rules, it probably wouldn't work. Nightblood would have to be taking the investiture by itself, like someone inhaling stormlight. And why would it be a metalmind? That would mean somebody could take all the breaths out of it at any time. 

My thought is that no, Nightblood isn't a metalmind, but probably has some Nicrosil based properties. 

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The likelihood of the sword being made of Nicrosil, even in part, is unlikely due to timeframe. 

Nicrosil is a real Alloy that contains nickle, chromium, and silicon. And that last one is the problem. 

Edited by Calderis
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