Nightblood Smoke

[Primeival Chaos he/him]

So we know that Nightblood bleeds out a dark, almost liquid smoke. What would happen if you were to collect this liquid-ish smoke? What kind of investiture would it be? Would it be similar to what was consumed, or would it be too corrupted to use? Would it immediately dissapate? What do you guys think?

[Quantus he/him]

It's too "corrupted" in the sense of being changed to a new form of Investiture that is no longer Breaths, Stormlight, actual Body&Souls of people, etc.  But it does now have some Ruin in him, and the main theory on that is that his Destroy Command forged a Connection to the closest representative Shard.  

 

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Shadow Guardian

Nightblood, being a sentient object, could he give away his Breath? 

Brandon Sanderson

Ah, Nightblood...could not give away his Breath. It's a good question. It's because that Breath is making him...like something weird has happened to him where the metal is Invested almost to a Hemalurgic or Feruchemical way, right? Like it's no longer just an object with a bunch of Breath. It's become permeating the whole thing. So it's more like the soul of a person, the part of the Breath they can't give away. Like when you give away your Breath, you retain some of your Investiture, you can't give that part away. It's the same thing. 

Shadow Guardian

Cuz I imagine it would be kind of like a Lifeless where that Breath is probably stuck so close that it would not be removable by an Awakener at least.?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, Yep. It's stuck in there, yep. I mean there are ways to get the Investiture out, but it's not the simple "We give it away" thing. Yeah, he can't just give it away. 

Shadow Guardian

<inaudible> corrupted or? 

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that is part of it, that is part of what that means. 

Arcanum Unbounded release party (Nov. 22, 2016)

 

 

 

 

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Walin

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

Brandon Sanderson

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)

 

 

[Returned he/him]

On 1/11/2023 at 0:17 PM, Quantus said:

But it does now have some Ruin in him, and the main theory on that is that his Destroy Command forged a Connection to the closest representative Shard.

I still think there is at least some atium in the blade...

[Quantus he/him]

1 hour ago, Returned said:

I still think there is at least some atium in the blade...

Im barely convinced there's any actual Metal left in the blade.  At this point it's all collapsed into a Perpendicularity; it's a scar in reality with a handle attached.  

[Returned he/him]

35 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Im barely convinced there's any actual Metal left in the blade.  At this point it's all collapsed into a Perpendicularity; it's a scar in reality with a handle attached.  

I really like that idea and description; they feel true to me given what we know about the Cosmere and Investiture. I guess I'll have to amend my pet theory to "I still think the blade was initially composed of atium to at least some degree" 

[Ban Barrn Barôg]

My headcanon regarding Nightblood is that the black smoke is like a bile. The sword knows nothing but to gorge itself to the point it enters a sleepy food coma, only, from what we heard about WoB and the like, nightblood is completely saturated, and its not like it had specialized "digestive" system for investiture. So to me, Nightblood is constantly secreting "investiture bile" that is the result of whatever happens when all that stuff is slushing around in there all that time.