Nightblood as the "Final Boss" of the Cosmere.

[ReaderAt2046 Arbiter]

Ok, so as I'm sure we'll all agree, Nightblood is freaking terrifying. A weapon that destroys anything it touches, that devours the soul and kills the unkillable, bound around a single Command to Destroy Evil and with no clear idea what evil is. It's also been a moderate plot element in both Warbreaker and the Stormlight books, suggesting that it has Cosmere-scale plot relevance. And finally, there is a critical quote here, where Brandon hints that Nightblood is getting stronger over time, that as it devours Investiture it gradually grows in strength.

So my theory is that, eventually, Nightblood will reach the point where it holds so much power that its power can no longer be contained by the physical sword, and it will ascend as a kind of pseudo-Shard, a Shard of Destroying Evil. In its new unbound state, Nightblood will spread across the Cosmere, devouring everything it encounters to fuel its Command. And that will be the mainspring plot of the final Cosmere cycle, how the different civilizations react to Nightblood's expansion. I imagine geniuses coming together to try and find a way to unravel Nightblood's command, or craft barriers that it cannot devour. I see hordes of invading refugees fleeing before Nightblood, trying to escape to planets it hasn't devoured, and the inhabitants of those planets trying to fend off the onslaught. I see individuals trying to find ways to hide from it, shelters that it will overlook and where they can wait out the storm until Nightblood, having destroyed all evil everywhere it can reach, comes undone and ceases to be.

So that's my guess on the plot arc for the final Cosmere books, which I think will be the "space opera" Mistborn trilogy. Thoughts?

[Aspiring Writer Sentient Awakened Object]

52 minutes ago, ReaderAt2046 said:

Ok, so as I'm sure we'll all agree, Nightblood is freaking terrifying. A weapon that destroys anything it touches, that devours the soul and kills the unkillable, bound around a single Command to Destroy Evil and with no clear idea what evil is. It's also been a moderate plot element in both Warbreaker and the Stormlight books, suggesting that it has Cosmere-scale plot relevance. And finally, there is a critical quote here, where Brandon hints that Nightblood is getting stronger over time, that as it devours Investiture it gradually grows in strength.

So my theory is that, eventually, Nightblood will reach the point where it holds so much power that its power can no longer be contained by the physical sword, and it will ascend as a kind of pseudo-Shard, a Shard of Destroying Evil. In its new unbound state, Nightblood will spread across the Cosmere, devouring everything it encounters to fuel its Command. And that will be the mainspring plot of the final Cosmere cycle, how the different civilizations react to Nightblood's expansion. I imagine geniuses coming together to try and find a way to unravel Nightblood's command, or craft barriers that it cannot devour. I see hordes of invading refugees fleeing before Nightblood, trying to escape to planets it hasn't devoured, and the inhabitants of those planets trying to fend off the onslaught. I see individuals trying to find ways to hide from it, shelters that it will overlook and where they can wait out the storm until Nightblood, having destroyed all evil everywhere it can reach, comes undone and ceases to be.

So that's my guess on the plot arc for the final Cosmere books, which I think will be the "space opera" Mistborn trilogy. Thoughts?

Nightblood I believe resets in power every time it is drawn. It gets stronger the longer it's out. Also, have you read RoW?

[ReaderAt2046 Arbiter]

9 hours ago, Aspiring Writer said:

Nightblood I believe resets in power every time it is drawn. It gets stronger the longer it's out. Also, have you read RoW?

I have read RoW, but I was trying to avoid spoilers in this forum. And the exchange I linked certainly sounds to me as though Brandon were saying Nightblood gets permanently stronger over time.

[Quantus Dawnsinger]

13 hours ago, Aspiring Writer said:

Nightblood I believe resets in power every time it is drawn. It gets stronger the longer it's out. Also, have you read RoW?

No, it's been getting steadily more Invested over time.  

 

 

Quote

 

Mason Wheeler

Nightblood is the most ridiculously over-invested thing in the Cosmere, second only to the Shards?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Mason Wheeler

Was this true from the moment of his creation, or did it grow in power over time.

Brandon Sanderson

Grew in power over time. Kind of answers a question that people have been wondering. But, yes.

Legion Release Party (Sept. 19, 2018)

 

 

[StormingTexan Listener]

Hmm..I do not want to spoil anything but what we learn in RoW does not seem to be compatible with this. 

[Raven Wilder Babsk]

Something I wonder is, what if you unsheathed Nightblood and then flung him into outer space, somewhere there's no Investiture for him to feed on. Could he eventually go hungry?

[Dannex Kandra]

57 minutes ago, Raven Wilder said:

Something I wonder is, what if you unsheathed Nightblood and then flung him into outer space, somewhere there's no Investiture for him to feed on. Could he eventually go hungry?

I don’t really have any proof that this is what would happen, but my thoughts are that he wouldn’t die, just get hungrier and hungrier. If he eventually drifted onto a planet he’d be so hungry he’d consume the entire thing. Starting with the easiest Investiture, but I think he’d be so hungry that he’d eventually just start eating the planet itself. 

My reasoning for this is that

1. The only thing that stops him from doing this normally is that he gets “full”. We see this happen a few times. So if he just gets hungrier and hungrier for millennia, he’ll be able to suck up a lot more Investiture at once. 

2. Energy, mass, and Investiture are all the same thing in the cosmere, so it makes sense that after consuming all the easily accessible Investiture, he’d move on to converting and eating energy and mass. 
 

I believe that there are some WoBs that relate to this, I’ll try and find them and edit them in. 

[Kingsdaughter613 Knight Radiant]

5 hours ago, Ookla the Disproportionate said:

I don’t really have any proof that this is what would happen, but my thoughts are that he wouldn’t die, just get hungrier and hungrier. If he eventually drifted onto a planet he’d be so hungry he’d consume the entire thing. Starting with the easiest Investiture, but I think he’d be so hungry that he’d eventually just start eating the planet itself. 

My reasoning for this is that

1. The only thing that stops him from doing this normally is that he gets “full”. We see this happen a few times. So if he just gets hungrier and hungrier for millennia, he’ll be able to suck up a lot more Investiture at once. 

2. Energy, mass, and Investiture are all the same thing in the cosmere, so it makes sense that after consuming all the easily accessible Investiture, he’d move on to converting and eating energy and mass. 
 

I believe that there are some WoBs that relate to this, I’ll try and find them and edit them in. 

So he’d basically be Galactus?

[trav Babsk]

20 hours ago, StormingTexan said:

Hmm..I do not want to spoil anything but what we learn in RoW does not seem to be compatible with this. 

Nightblood is accumulating more and more investiture.
it can only take X amount of Investiture in until it is full.
for a time.

after a rest it can take more in again.

I thought Nightblood is not keeping the Investiture and rather breaks it down and makes it return to the beyond.
the WOB suggests that its sucking it in and keeping it there.

[ReaderAt2046 Arbiter]

On 12/15/2020 at 1:06 PM, StormingTexan said:

Hmm..I do not want to spoil anything but what we learn in RoW does not seem to be compatible with this. 

Could you please elaborate in a spoiler box? I have read RoW, and I'm not sure how it is incompatible.

14 hours ago, Raven Wilder said:

Something I wonder is, what if you unsheathed Nightblood and then flung him into outer space, somewhere there's no Investiture for him to feed on. Could he eventually go hungry?

 

13 hours ago, Ookla the Disproportionate said:

I don’t really have any proof that this is what would happen, but my thoughts are that he wouldn’t die, just get hungrier and hungrier. If he eventually drifted onto a planet he’d be so hungry he’d consume the entire thing. Starting with the easiest Investiture, but I think he’d be so hungry that he’d eventually just start eating the planet itself. 

My reasoning for this is that

1. The only thing that stops him from doing this normally is that he gets “full”. We see this happen a few times. So if he just gets hungrier and hungrier for millennia, he’ll be able to suck up a lot more Investiture at once. 

2. Energy, mass, and Investiture are all the same thing in the cosmere, so it makes sense that after consuming all the easily accessible Investiture, he’d move on to converting and eating energy and mass. 
 

I believe that there are some WoBs that relate to this, I’ll try and find them and edit them in. 

IIRC, in Warbreaker, after drawing Nightblood and going on his rampage Vasher manages to fling it aside, at which point it cuts a gouge in the ground and then goes inert. So at least for the moment it can't execute its Command unless someone is actually holding it.

 

7 hours ago, trav said:

Nightblood is accumulating more and more investiture.
it can only take X amount of Investiture in until it is full.
for a time.

after a rest it can take more in again.

I thought Nightblood is not keeping the Investiture and rather breaks it down and makes it return to the beyond.
the WOB suggests that its sucking it in and keeping it there.

This is how I understand it to work as well.

[Raven Wilder Babsk]

When unsheathed, Nightblood gives off a black smoke/mist that Brandon has said is Investiture leaking out, so clearly at least some of what it takes goes back out again.

On 12/16/2020 at 1:45 AM, Ookla the Disproportionate said:

I don’t really have any proof that this is what would happen, but my thoughts are that he wouldn’t die, just get hungrier and hungrier. If he eventually drifted onto a planet he’d be so hungry he’d consume the entire thing. Starting with the easiest Investiture, but I think he’d be so hungry that he’d eventually just start eating the planet itself. 

My reasoning for this is that

1. The only thing that stops him from doing this normally is that he gets “full”. We see this happen a few times. So if he just gets hungrier and hungrier for millennia, he’ll be able to suck up a lot more Investiture at once. 

2. Energy, mass, and Investiture are all the same thing in the cosmere, so it makes sense that after consuming all the easily accessible Investiture, he’d move on to converting and eating energy and mass. 
 

I believe that there are some WoBs that relate to this, I’ll try and find them and edit them in. 

If Nightblood can get hungry enough that it starts consuming all nearby matter, but it's in the depths of space where there isn't any matter, then couldn't it end up consuming its own body?

[Dannex Kandra]

6 minutes ago, Raven Wilder said:

If Nightblood can get hungry enough that it starts consuming all nearby matter, but it's in the depths of space where there isn't any matter, then couldn't it end up consuming its own body?

Hmmm

I think that gets too recursive too quickly. If he eats himself then there’s no ‘him’ that can eat himself.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Ookla the Disproportionate

[Raven Wilder Babsk]

True, but if it reaches that point, then Nightblood might not be outright destroyed, but would still be rendered powerless, since it would have consumed its own ability to consume Investiture.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Nightblood only leaks excess Investiture, and there's a certain base amount that it can't fall below.