Nightblood may get even more powerfull [RoW spoilers]

[Nasax he/him]

Hello everyone,

i was just wondering: is there a limit to how much Investiture Nightblood can absorbe?
Since RoW we know there is kind of a limit, at least Nightblood was fed up after consuming part of Odiums Investiture.
But is this the hard limit of how Invested Nightblood can become or can it still wield more Investiture?

Secondly we know that Nightblood leaks Investiture in form of black smoke, so there is definitely a loss there.

Just imagine the possibility of Nightblood storing a very big amount of Investiture.
In that case it may function as a Perpendicularity, so you might be able to travel the Realms freely just by holding Nightblood.

There might also be the possibility for Nightblood to mix different types of Investitures.
I imagine that, after consuming Stormlight and Voidlight, the black smoke it leaks may have similarities to Warlight.
I hope we see something like this in later books, as it would enhance our understanding of the cosmere significantly.

So let me know your thoughts on this.
Maybe there is somthing in the books i missed or maybe there are WoBs I don't know about.

Cheers and have a wonderful day.

[NameIess]

I think that Nightblood has already hit the capacity for how much investiture he can hold. Here's some WoBs on it:

Quote

Ryan

Do we know why Nightblood didn't take up a Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood didn't take up a Shard, Nightblood was not there... Oh, [they're] probably just asking why Nightblood did not absorb the entire Shard of Odium.

Nightblood cannot hold that much Investiture. At least not at that rate, right? Like, if you drop Nightblood without his sheath... I have to do it this way, because otherwise you drop him on the planet and he would absorb the entire planet, right. This is not a power I want Nightblood to have. I do not want Nightblood... Nightblood is a very dangerous tool without also being the death star.

I did not want... I actually was happy that I had the chance to put that scene in so I kind of put the kabosh on Nightblood being able to absorb the entire Investiture of an entire Shard. Not where I wanted... I didn't want that to be a promise people thought was coming. Now, he can absorb a lot and it's also rate of absorption is a pretty important deal.

...

People are gonna quote me on this in ten years and things like that and say "but, but, but". Just, you know, understand that there are specific ways that I'm trying to phrase some of these things.

The Dusty Wheel Show (June 17, 2021)

 

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 Spoiler Stream 1 (Dec. 17, 2020)