Vivennas blade vs Nightblood.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

I don't know that I would ever push the idea that Vivennas blade is stronger than Nightblood. I doubt she would try to state that either. 

But I do know that I would vastly prefer her blade to Nightblood. 

I have been thinking about some WoB that says that the breaths would eventually run dry if you just left an awakened object alone forever. They do eventually leak away.  

So for a weapon you would need some function to feed right?  Nightblood is obvious. He feeds not only on the investiture of his wielder but also on all of those he destroys.  Vivennas blade appears to consumer color instead to feed itself and keep itself working at peak.  Much like regular awakening. 

I would like to praise Yesteel, if he is infact the one who who awakened it, for having found a superior command for making shardblades compared to Vivenna.  

In a nuclear war I would agree that Nightblood is likely the better choice but given the choices as I see them now...

A blade that destroys everything it touches and tries to eat my soul while doing it. 

Or 

A blade that just consumes the color of the thing it cuts through and still holds that 1 shot potential.  (Do we see her blade just give a deadlimb?)  

 

If I had to be equipped with one for a fight I would chose Vivennas blade in a heartbeat over Nightblood. You can fight as long as you can hold the sword with Vivennas blade. I really don't see the downside! 

[Frustration he/him]

38 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

I have been thinking about some WoB that says that the breaths would eventually run dry if you just left an awakened object alone forever. They do eventually leak away.

I do not recall these, could you post them here?

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

10 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I do not recall these, could you post them here?

This is the one I have seen others quoting. 

Spoiler

DavidB

Also, it seems to me like it would be more internally consistent if Awakened objects consumed Breath, to make all of these Breath-consuming powers in the last few chapters fit in better. So for example, if Vasher Awakened a shirt and left it Awakened and doing stuff for a day, then he might be down one-seventh of a breath when he took it back at the end of the day. (Of course, that mechanic requires it to be possible to transfer or Awaken with portions of a Breath, and if you could do that, then using the "putting the Breaths you don't want to transfer into a cloth until after the transfer" thing, you could feed the Returned by taking a tiny fraction of all the Halladren's breaths, instead of taking some people's entire Breaths and turning them into Drabs.)

Brandon Sanderson

Hum. I like that suggestion, actually. I think I'll use it. Though, what I'll do is say that if you leave the breath in for too long, one of them vanishes. If you can get them back quickly enough, however, there is no loss. That gives a bit of a better explanation of why there aren't a lot of awakened objects doing things all over the place. True, using the breath to make them would be initially expensive--but if you got a magic object that never winds down, then that might be worth the expense.

TWG Posts (May 3, 2007)

Granted it is from 2007 but it makes sense that this is why the swords need to eat something at least.  Not only are they so invested, vs being pure investiture, but they are going to eventually run out if they don't eat. I probably should have just combined all of my thoughts from my other post with this one but I think I try to explain it better there.  Aluminum sheaths being immune to being cut are just 1 of 2 reasons why nightblood is kept in one.  I think the more important note is that the breaths would eventually run out if he were not stored in aluminum. 

[Quantus he/him]

22 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

This is the one I have seen others quoting. 

  Hide contents

DavidB

Also, it seems to me like it would be more internally consistent if Awakened objects consumed Breath, to make all of these Breath-consuming powers in the last few chapters fit in better. So for example, if Vasher Awakened a shirt and left it Awakened and doing stuff for a day, then he might be down one-seventh of a breath when he took it back at the end of the day. (Of course, that mechanic requires it to be possible to transfer or Awaken with portions of a Breath, and if you could do that, then using the "putting the Breaths you don't want to transfer into a cloth until after the transfer" thing, you could feed the Returned by taking a tiny fraction of all the Halladren's breaths, instead of taking some people's entire Breaths and turning them into Drabs.)

Brandon Sanderson

Hum. I like that suggestion, actually. I think I'll use it. Though, what I'll do is say that if you leave the breath in for too long, one of them vanishes. If you can get them back quickly enough, however, there is no loss. That gives a bit of a better explanation of why there aren't a lot of awakened objects doing things all over the place. True, using the breath to make them would be initially expensive--but if you got a magic object that never winds down, then that might be worth the expense.

TWG Posts (May 3, 2007)

Granted it is from 2007 but it makes sense that this is why the swords need to eat something at least.  Not only are they so invested, vs being pure investiture, but they are going to eventually run out if they don't eat. I probably should have just combined all of my thoughts from my other post with this one but I think I try to explain it better there.  Aluminum sheaths being immune to being cut are just 1 of 2 reasons why nightblood is kept in one.  I think the more important note is that the breaths would eventually run out if he were not stored in aluminum. 

Devil's advocate thought on this, but that WOB is talking about normal non-sapient Awakening.  Once it crosses the line into that sapience, they could become more permanent like spren and seons seem to be, a more cohesive Investiture being rather than a temporary Command.  

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

10 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Devil's advocate thought on this, but that WOB is talking about normal non-sapient Awakening.  Once it crosses the line into that sapience, they could become more permanent like spren and seons seem to be, a more cohesive Investiture being rather than a temporary Command.  

I have thought along similar lines. I think that metalminds are good examples of holding investiture really well and I believe that a large part of that is that they are metal. 

However I am curious why it is that both blades seem to need to feed?  Maybe it is wrong to classify Vivenna's blade as feeding but it obviously is doing something more than just killing folks which is the thing I am getting caught up on. 

We know that Nightblood is not a perfect vessle for all of the investiture he holds. This makes me wonder if he leaked investiture when he was made or only after being used and consuming thousands more breaths in battle plus all of the souls he destroys? But it cant be argued that Nightblood is leaking investiture all of the time. If Nightblood were to be dropped into the ocean and landed hilt in the sand and blade unsheathed what would happen? Would he destroy all of the water in the ocean? Would he eventually consume the world?  Or would he, after years and years have leaked out all of his investiture and return to a normal sword? Would he reach a point where he is no longer sentient or would he sit there crying out desperately for someone to use him to destroy evil for eternity? 

I have wondered what happens when a shardblade hits something invested. If a metalmind can block a strike or two the way plate does then how is it going to break and end? Plate leaks stormlight once cracked and then shatters. Steel doesnt really break and shatter. I always assumed that steel metalminds would have been better at blocking shardblades than plate because they would simply deform and hold their investiture still. Others speculate that the metalminds would explode and lose their investiture as well... but feruchemical storage doesnt seem to leak the same way stormlight does, and I would assume breaths would stay the same way metalminds would. So I started to agree with the conclusion that the investiture is somehow damaging the other investiture. 

I imagine spren being splinters allows them to constantly be fueled by Honors investiture even though everytime they are used it expends some of what they had. This would cross over to the awakened blades as well which would explain the need to feed on something in order to keep going if not the idea that they eventually would decay away.

Of course this is all assuming that Vivenna's blade is infact feeding on color instead of the color draining being purely a show of it being "different".  I dont know that I am convinced that Brandon would write that in for so little of a reason when we have WoBs saying that color is important for more than just awakening. I imagine there is something about color that lets it be plausible that Vivenna's blade is feeding on it the way Nightblood feeds on the user. 

 

Also- what better thing to carry a breath than a human?  And the breaths in humans get less as they age. Breaths required for a heightening are a generalization as breaths from far older people or those who are sick would be dimmer than those from a child or healthy person. If breath can dim down and decay in a human that is already living and the vessel that breath was made for wouldnt it make sense that breaths shoved into a vessel not intended for them would also break down?  

I dont know if there is anything about unusually long lived humans turning into drabs eventually but I believe that the fact that illness makes breaths less vibrant and strong shows that even the perfect host for a breath eventually has that breath decay on them.