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Rayse's influence on Nightblood


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33 minutes ago, A Radiant In Shiny Armor said:

Now that Nightblood has consumed (what was left of) Rayse, do you think his personality will become more rayselike? Surely absorbing an entire Vessel will have a lasting effect on our favorite sword-nimi.

Nightblood has never seemed to gain any kind of personality from the people he kills, so I wouldn't think a vessel would change his personality. I would say that Nightblood might end up needing a lot more investiture, as people keep saying that he has been consuming more and more investiture the more he gets it.

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On 1/13/2021 at 10:15 AM, A Radiant In Shiny Armor said:

Now that Nightblood has consumed (what was left of) Rayse, do you think his personality will become more rayselike? Surely absorbing an entire Vessel will have a lasting effect on our favorite sword-nimi.

Collecting Breaths from people has an effect on the Awakener

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Ghero6

In Vahr's case, did collecting Breath from other rebel-minded people strengthen his determination and resolve?

Brandon Sanderson

It would have had an influence on him, but you would need the numbers of Breaths that he had for any effect to manifest. It's basically a non-issue in the current book, but it could be an issue in some of the things that will happen in the next book.

Tor.com Q&A with Brandon Sanderson (Jan. 10, 2011)

So, it might have an effect on Nightblood... but I don't feel that it would have any noticeable effect. Also, Nightblood leaks:

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Brandon Sanderson

Anyway, Nightblood is named for the smoke he leaks, and he originally had a different name when he was created. Vasher himself dubbed the sword Nightblood after he had used it to kill the woman he loved. The blackness that leaks out is actually corrupted and consumed Breaths, the ones that Nightblood leeches off anyone who draws him.

Warbreaker Annotations (April 25, 2011)
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lucagreene18

If Szeth were to have drawn Nightblood immediately after he had consumed Rayse, would he still have drained Szeth's Stormlight? As it said he seemed like he had eaten as much as he could.

Brandon Sanderson

At that point, Nightblood had entered into essentially a food coma... Well, no, the food coma one came when he was drawing from the perpendicularity. I don't think he was in food coma mode at that point. I think that he could still have drawn more at that point, I'd have to go look at exactly what I wrote, if I'd put him into food coma mode or not. It is possible.

This is one of the things I wanted to answer with the book. A lot of people have been theorizing, could Nightblood eat an entire Shard? And indeed, Nightblood could not eat an entire Shard. That is not within his capability. In fact, one of the reasons that he leaks Investiture is: he's too stuffed full of it. There is more Investiture in the sword Nightblood than it can actually hold, it's supersaturated. And it leaks Investiture (that it's done some weird things to). But it is constantly hungry for more and constantly leaks it, but it definitely can get full for a time, and it could not eat an entire Shard.

I did see questions about that from people floating around, and it's something I'd been meaning to get to eventually. Nightblood is definitely relevant to things that are happening in the Cosmere, but it is not as simple as grabbing the sword, sticking it into a Shard, and defeating the Shard, unfortunately. Though, as you see in this book, there are reasons for a Shard to still be afraid of Nightblood. It didn't destroy Odium, but Rayse still really had a bad time.

YouTube Livestream 23 (Dec. 17, 2020)

so whatever effect it might have would be temporary, if that, because he Corrupts whatever Investiture he consumes (and he can apparently consume all types of Investiture).

Edited by Honorless
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11 hours ago, A Radiant In Shiny Armor said:

Now that Nightblood has consumed (what was left of) Rayse, do you think his personality will become more rayselike? Surely absorbing an entire Vessel will have a lasting effect on our favorite sword-nimi.

Nightblood is weird. I have a feeling that knowing exactly how Nightblood works will open up a lot of Cosmere knowledge. He changes Matter to Investiture instantly. Does the Investiture retain its Intent? When it leaks gaseous Investiture, the Investiture is black. Does the Investiture change in the process of "destruction" or does Nightblood change the Investiture as it holds it?

It seems like Nightblood can't send the Investiture back to the Spiritual. The steel of its blade holds as much Investiture as it can, then the Investiture leaks out as black smoke, returning to the Spiritual on its own once free. Since the Investiture is just being held in the Physical Realm, it probably doesn't affect Nightblood's personality much, if at all. The grogginess Nightblood exhibits probably has to do with the inability of the steel to hold anymore Investiture with the Cognitive aspect of Nightblood reacting accordingly, like a human would when full. When enough Investiture leaks out, Nightblood "wakes up" and gets hungry again.

My vote is for the Odium Investiture it just sucked up having no great effect on Nightblood.

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