Awakened Posion

[Trusk'our he/him]

With Radiants and Fused being able to breath in Invested Light, Bloodmakers tapping Goldminds, Elantrians accessing the Dor, and Awakeners strait up being immune to toxins, poisons don't seem to be as effective on the really powerful Invested magic users.

However, I was thinking, if someone wanted to assassinate a being of similar stature to the Lord Ruler, or perhaps a very pesky Radiant or Fused, could someone instill some Bio-Chromatic Breaths in a poison to be used on them? We know that Investiture resists Investiture, and since you can put Breaths in basically any non-Invested object, even if you can't necessarily Awaken it, maybe you could create an Invested toxin capable of killing even the mightiest of magic-users.

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Chris King interview (Sept. 24, 2013)

Chris King

Can you store Breath in metal without the [Ninth] Heightening? Just put it there without Awakening, just to hide the Breath.

Brandon Sanderson

Can you hide Breath in-- Yes you can hide Breath in things.

Chris King

Metal in particular, without the [Ninth] Heightening could you put it into metal. Without the purpose of Awakening it, just storing it there.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh without the [Ninth] Heightening-- I would say yes you could.

In all honesty, this probably wouldn't be that world changing though, assuming that it's possible. Not every magic user is immune to poison, and there are probably easier ways to disable or kill powerful magic users with healing properties, such as Hemalurgy, aluminum weapons, and Shardblades.

But even so, Invested poison would be interesting to see.

[therunner he/him]

28 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

With Radiants and Fused being able to breath in Invested Light, Bloodmakers tapping Goldminds, Elantrians accessing the Dor, and Awakeners strait up being immune to toxins, poisons don't seem to be as effective on the really powerful Invested magic users.

However, I was thinking, if someone wanted to assassinate a being of similar stature to the Lord Ruler, or perhaps a very pesky Radiant or Fused, could someone instill some Bio-Chromatic Breaths in a poison to be used on them? We know that Investiture resists Investiture, and since you can put Breaths in basically any non-Invested object, even if you can't necessarily Awaken it, maybe you could create an Invested toxin capable of killing even the mightiest of magic-users.

In all honesty, this probably wouldn't be that world changing though, assuming that it's possible. Not every magic user is immune to poison, and there are probably easier ways to disable or kill powerful magic users with healing properties, such as Hemalurgy, aluminum weapons, and Shardblades.

But even so, Invested poison would be interesting to see.

Interesting idea, though I think it would not necessarily work.

Poisons kill by disrupting necessary biological functions (e.g. breaking down compounds, binding in place of something vital etc.).
However the more powerful healing abilities (Stormlight, compounded Gold) seem to be able to deal with such disruption fine, i.e.  someone with Stormlight does not have to breathe, so this kind of healing could possibly also take place of a lot of those disrupted processes.

Now, if that would happen, as long as they have access to their power they would be ok, though once they would stop they would be in trouble.

[Frustration he/him]

I think rather than just storing breath in the toxin, it would be better to awaken it.

So get a nerotoxin and give it the command along the lines of "When you enter the bloodstream don't do anything until you reach the brain, then cause as much damage as possible"

[Quantus he/him]

Im not sure Awakening (alone) can do that sort of thing.  Per WOB you cant awaken liquids (or at elast they wont gain mobility) and you cant use Awakening to do basic energy conversion like Become Warm.  Given that Im not sure what physical attack options would be available for an Awakened poison.  

 

 

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Questioner

(Disclaimers so that you can't say, like, "well if a Shard...") If a regular Awakener, just a mundane Awakener with nothing more than a few hundred Breaths and not any other outside influences, is there some Command they could give a blanket to get the blanket to turn warm? Generate heat; is that a normal thing you can Command?

Brandon Sanderson

Not in just a normal situation. I mean, technically, you could tell the blanket "start rubbing one part against another part" or something like that, or "set yourself on fire," right? But that's not what you're asking. For Awakening to work, you have to work within the intrinsic properties of the matter you're making, except it can move around a bit and with a few little other things it can do.

It's not outside the realm of possibility you could activate those Breaths as Investiture to do something else, but you would need more than just the simple magic system of Awakening. 

JordanCon 2021 (July 17, 2021)

 

 

 

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Questioner

My friends would like to know if you can Awaken liquids?

Brandon Sanderson

This is almost impossible.

Questioner

Almost impossible?

Brandon Sanderson

Almost impossible, but not fully impossible, but basically impossible. Particularly if you're talking about just a liquid, not in a container, anything like that. Technically, you can kind of Awaken a dead animal, which will have some liquid in it and stuff. But if you just want to Awaken like--

Questioner

A bowl of water?

Brandon Sanderson

A bowl of water, almost impossible.

Prague Signing (Oct. 26, 2019)

 

 

 

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clyguy

Someone else brought up the point, can blood be Awakened?

Brandon Sanderson

Anything can be Awakened.

clyguy

If you make a human-shaped mold and you poured blood into it and you Awakened it, would you have a Terminator T-1000 style blood-golem that could recombine?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, heh, well Awakening liquid is possible but I don't think it would work the way you want it to.

Questioner 2

If you had enough of a cloud in one place, could you Awaken a cloud?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, you could Awaken anything. It's probably not going to work the way you want it to. There is a reason why they Awaken the things that they do. For instance if you want to make a transforming golem, you would be much better off with something thicker.

Shadows of Self release party (Oct. 5, 2015)

 

 

 

 

[Frustration he/him]

8 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Im not sure Awakening (alone) can do that sort of thing.  Per WOB you cant awaken liquids (or at elast they wont gain mobility) and you cant use Awakening to do basic energy conversion like Become Warm.  Given that Im not sure what physical attack options would be available for an Awakened poison. 

There are powder, and gum like poisons.

[Quantus he/him]

3 minutes ago, Frustration said:

There are powder, and gum like poisons.

True, though for it to maintain its integrity and still operate in the body it would have to be something insoluble (otherwise it would destroy the breath like when you eat awakened food), which is going to be a much shorter list of poison options (outside of heavy metals that would resist awakening anyway).

At this point I think the practical limitations of a chemical poison make it a poor alternative to a more mechanical attack, something like Awaken thread to clog their arteries and give strokes, or smother their lungs, or whatnot. 

Breaths might still be capable of purely Cognitive/realmic attacks, messing with the target's mind or memories and the like.  

[alder24]

3 hours ago, Frustration said:

I think rather than just storing breath in the toxin, it would be better to awaken it.

So get a nerotoxin and give it the command along the lines of "When you enter the bloodstream don't do anything until you reach the brain, then cause as much damage as possible"

That won't work so easily. Immune system will be active and will try to fight the toxin. It can even produce antibodies to neutralize it. And there is also blood brain barrier to overcome. 

[cometaryorbit]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:57 AM, Frustration said:

There are powder, and gum like poisons.

The problem imo is that the actual harm from poison is generally a chemical process so once it starts interacting with the body it'll probably be changed enough for the Breaths to escape. So it might not really overcome resistance by Investiture interference, since the Investiture is disappearing.

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I really would like to know why Awakening liquids is so different. I mean, water might need the 9th Heightening since it's not formerly alive, but what about fruit juice or olive oil?

Edited February 8, 2023 by cometaryorbit

[Frustration he/him]

24 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

The problem imo is that the actual harm from poison is generally a chemical process so once it starts interacting with the body it'll probably be changed enough for the Breaths to escape. So it might not really overcome resistance by Investiture interference, since the Investiture is disappearing.

Tensile strength is also a chemical property, but awakening can change that.

[cometaryorbit]

Just now, Frustration said:

Tensile strength is also a chemical property, but awakening can change that.

Sure, but that's not where I'm going there. Awakening can also chemically change pigments.

But if you Awaken food and someone eats it, the digestion process will release the Breaths, right?

So if you Awaken poison and someone consumes it, the chemical interaction with the victim's body will probably also release the Breaths.