Crack theories: the end of Nightblood. Also larkins, and Dawnshards.

[Nitpicking]

So ... Nightblood has to go. He's already the most Invested object in the Cosmere, capable of killing a (weakened) Vessel, far stronger than the mere Bands of Mourning per Brandon.

How can it be removed from the story?

Well, who's really good at disposing of surplus Investiture? How about Rysn's great friend and protector, the Ancient Guardian, Chiri-Chiri? He eats Investiture, and presumably will need more and more as he grows and develops--he, like Nightblood, has already absorbed enough Investiture to become sapient. (That's my explanation, anyway--we know that enough Investiture gathered in one place becomes sapient by WoB.) In fact, Larkins are rather like non-murderous Nightbloods, aren't they?

I predict [looks around to be sure no Vorin people are present] that Chiri-Chiri will end up draining a huge amount of Investiture from Nightblood. Might not kill him, but will most certainly weaken him. And like Nightblood, Chiri-Chiri never seems to be full.

Another prediction: Chiri-Chiri will form a romantic, or at least child-producing, relationship with Nale's larkin (who drained Lift back in Edgedancer).

Yet another: the Sleepless were worried that Rysn might become capable of actually exerting the Dawnshard power by becoming a Radiant. She agreed not to. But she does have a Connection to Chiri-Chiri. And if my first prediction is right, Chiri-Chiri will drain an enormous amount of Investiture from Nightblood and become, effectively, a demigod-dragon-flying-crab thing. Could the bonded pair of Rysn and Chiri-Chiri use the Dawnshard power?

[mathiau]

13 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

How can it be removed from the story?

"Throw it in a black hole" was my first thought when I read that

13 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

Well, who's really good at disposing of surplus Investiture? How about Rysn's great friend and protector, the Ancient Guardian, Chiri-Chiri? He eats Investiture, and presumably will need more and more as he grows and develops--he, like Nightblood, has already absorbed enough Investiture to become sapient. (That's my explanation, anyway--we know that enough Investiture gathered in one place becomes sapient by WoB.) In fact, Larkins are rather like non-murderous Nightbloods, aren't they?

I doubt Larkins can absorb solid state investiture so the Larkin=non-murderous Nightbloods only works up to a point

To actually answer your question, I don't think and Ancient Guardian, even fully adult, can absorb all of Nightblood's investiture, at least not without dying

Quote

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)

I'm pretty sure Chiri-Chiri would die if he became oversaturated in investiture

13 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

Another prediction: Chiri-Chiri will form a romantic, or at least child-producing, relationship with Nale's larkin (who drained Lift back in Edgedancer).

It's obvious Chiri-Chiri will find someone to perpetuate the species so why not

Quote

Yet another: the Sleepless were worried that Rysn might become capable of actually exerting the Dawnshard power by becoming a Radiant. She agreed not to. But she does have a Connection to Chiri-Chiri. And if my first prediction is right, Chiri-Chiri will drain an enormous amount of Investiture from Nightblood and become, effectively, a demigod-dragon-flying-crab thing. Could the bonded pair of Rysn and Chiri-Chiri use the Dawnshard power?

I honestly have no idea whether a bound with an overfed Ancient Guardian would give any kind of powers, bounds with Aviars do so maybe. Rysn becoming able to use the Dawnshard is almost certainly something that will happen one way or the other though

[LewsTherinTelescope]

12 minutes ago, mathiau said:

To actually answer your question, I don't think and Ancient Guardian, even fully adult, can absorb all of Nightblood's investiture, at least not without dying

Probably would go very badly:

Quote

Questioner

What would happen if a Leecher touched Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

*nervous laughter* If a Leecher touched Nightblood the Leecher would be dead. That would not end well.

Questioner

For the Leecher.

Brandon Sanderson

For the Leecher.

Bands of Mourning release party (Jan. 25, 2016)

[mathiau]

Just now, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Probably would go very badly:

Touching Nightblood is stupid whatever the situation, do we have a WoB about Leeching it with an ettmetal cube? I can't find one but I can't find your WoB back either so I must hust be doing something wrong

[LewsTherinTelescope]

16 minutes ago, mathiau said:

Touching Nightblood is stupid whatever the situation, do we have a WoB about Leeching it with an ettmetal cube?

I don't believe so, but I would suspect the answer ends up being either "it explodes", or "it gets Leeched somehow"

[Leuthie]

A Shard's Vessel was touched by Nightblood and killed before the Shard's Vessel, who holds the power and expanded abilities of a Shard of Adonalsium, could react. There ain't no hope for any other Invested being to deal with Nightblood. Hide him behind aluminum and throw him into the vacuum of space.

Of course, he has mind powers that would probably get someone to pick him up in deep space and bring him back to keep destroying evil, so...

[Halyo_Alex]

8 hours ago, Leuthie said:

A Shard's Vessel was touched by Nightblood and killed before the Shard's Vessel, who holds the power and expanded abilities of a Shard of Adonalsium, could react. There ain't no hope for any other Invested being to deal with Nightblood.

Well I suppose it comes down to how, realmatically speaking, Larkins consume Investiture from other objects.

[Frustration]

3 minutes ago, Halyo_Alex said:

Well I suppose it comes down to how, realmatically speaking, Larkins consume Investiture from other objects.

If a leacher dies from it, then Larkins should still be in danger.

[Halyo_Alex]

Just now, Frustration said:

If a leacher dies from it, then Larkins should still be in danger.

They're touching Nightblood though. That's bad.

Being NEAR nightblood is not great, but you won't be vaporised.

[mathiau]

6 hours ago, Frustration said:

If a leacher dies from it, then Larkins should still be in danger.

I think trying to eat the corrupted breaths he leaks would be safe but trying to absorb from Nightblood himself at would best but Chiri-Chiri in a food coma

[Kingsdaughter613]

Isn’t Chiri-Chiri a she?

[mathiau]

1 minute ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Isn’t Chiri-Chiri a she?

She is. I had completly forgotten her gender

[Nitpicking]

43 minutes ago, mathiau said:

She is. I had completly forgotten her gender

My fault. Someone elsewhere said "He" and I just accepted it, then replicated it here.

[Nitpicking]

On 2/16/2021 at 2:31 PM, Leuthie said:

A Shard's Vessel was touched by Nightblood and killed before the Shard's Vessel, who holds the power and expanded abilities of a Shard of Adonalsium, could react. There ain't no hope for any other Invested being to deal with Nightblood. Hide him behind aluminum and throw him into the vacuum of space.

Of course, he has mind powers that would probably get someone to pick him up in deep space and bring him back to keep destroying evil, so...

So ... how about an Invested being who is bound to a Dawnshard?

[Leuthie]

1 hour ago, Nitpicking said:

So ... how about an Invested being who is bound to a Dawnshard?

If Nightblood can't dent a Shard, why would it bother a Dawnshard?

Spoilered for Dawnshard spoilers:

Spoiler

I'm guessing that Change would need a new host should Nightblood touch Rysn. If Rysn had access to Stormlight? No idea.

My take on Dawnshards: Dawnshards aren't power. They're knowledge. Fully encased in the Spiritual Realm. Nightblood wouldn't be able to pierce that veil as there is no access from the Physical Realm. However, the holder of the Dawnshard would be Physical and would be...poofed. It's possible a Dawnshard with access to free Investiture would have the ability to counter Nightblood somehow. No way to know, yet.

 

[Frustration]

48 minutes ago, Leuthie said:

If Nightblood can't dent a Shard, why would it bother a Dawnshard?

Spoilered for Dawnshard spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm guessing that Change would need a new host should Nightblood touch Rysn. If Rysn had access to Stormlight? No idea.

My take on Dawnshards: Dawnshards aren't power. They're knowledge. Fully encased in the Spiritual Realm. Nightblood wouldn't be able to pierce that veil as there is no access from the Physical Realm. However, the holder of the Dawnshard would be Physical and would be...poofed. It's possible a Dawnshard with access to free Investiture would have the ability to counter Nightblood somehow. No way to know, yet.

 

Nightblood obliterates on all three realms, a Dawnshard should be invested enough not to be bothered, but Hoid thinks he could be in danger from Nightblood, and due to him having his healing from being a former Dawnshard should tell us something.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Frustration

[Leuthie]

11 hours ago, Frustration said:

Nightblood obliterates on all three realms, a Dawnshard should be invested enough not to be bothered, but Hoid thinks he could be in danger from Nightblood, and due to him having his healing from being a former Dawnshard should tell us something.

Nightblood killing a Vessel tells me that no Physical being is powerful enough to be safe.

Spoiler

Hoid is the only known "Dawnsliver", and probably no more immune to having his soul obliterated by Nightblood before his Investiture can kick in than Rayse was. Then again, just because Hoid thinks he's in danger doesn't mean Nightblood could actually kill him. We'll probably see in a decade or so.

 

[Nitpicking]

2 hours ago, Leuthie said:

Nightblood killing a Vessel tells me that no Physical being is powerful enough to be safe.

  Reveal hidden contents

Hoid is the only known "Dawnsliver", and probably no more immune to having his soul obliterated by Nightblood before his Investiture can kick in than Rayse was. Then again, just because Hoid thinks he's in danger doesn't mean Nightblood could actually kill him. We'll probably see in a decade or so.

 

Nightblood killed a horribly wounded Vessel, of course. Some of those injuries seemingly go back to Rayse's fight with Dominion/Skai.

[mathiau]

Just now, Nitpicking said:

Nightblood killed a horribly wounded Vessel, of course. Some of those injuries seemingly go back to Rayse's fight with Dominion/Skai.

We have Brandon's confirmation it would work on any Vessel