Stacking Divine Breaths?

[Trusk'our he/him]

If, hypothetically, a Returned went on a killing spree and stole the Divine Breaths of all the other Returned in the Court of Gods, what benefits would there be over just accumulating regular Breath?

Would their visions be clearer?

Would physical augmentation be stronger?

Could they change their appearance more?

[alder24]

31 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

If, hypothetically, a Returned went on a killing spree and stole the Divine Breaths of all the other Returned in the Court of Gods, what benefits would there be over just accumulating regular Breath?

Not accumulating regular Breaths, gaining more Heightenings you meant. 

31 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Would their visions be clearer?

Possible? Or the opposite, he would inherit their visions. Or not because of conflicting identities.

32 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Would physical augmentation be stronger?

Possible.

32 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Could they change their appearance more?

That's just the matter of self-perception. Nothing would change here in my opinion.

 

There is one thing you haven't considered - they would be able to heal without dying, so they would be able to experiment and find what else can be done with Divine Breaths. 

Spoiler

Questioner

When you transfer divine Breath, is it possible to have it result in something other than healing?

Brandon Sanderson

Lots of things are possible. Let's just say that that is not something people know how to do, and they have tried to do something else.

Skyward Chicago signing (Nov. 16, 2018)

As a Returned I don't think you would need to feed every Divine Breath with Breaths each week because your first Divine Breath is keeping your body alive, rest don't do that. 

[Quantus he/him]

Benefits are hard to say, since Hemalurgic stacking doesnt always just multiply logically, if Koloss are any indication.  

They would not need to consume more than normal the single Breath per week, since WOB confirms that's a function of their being Cognitive Shadows and not the DB itself. 

If we assume they are equivalent Breath Units of Investiture for all Heighening purposes, then they should be able to stack themselves up to the next levels in 5k increments. 

Unless DB's stick together, they should be able to perform multiple Divine Breath level miracles before they die. 

The appearance changes are purely a function of Mental Gymnastics and self perception, so that likely will be unaffected out of tte box, but if normal Returned have any hard caps on those augmentations that we havent seen/explored yet (Max height/mass, Max Strength, etc) then they should be able to reach new heights.  

Being anchored in a Spike might make the additional non-"natural" breaths more resilient and resistance to being consumed by their normal DV or things like Nightblood and Larkin (since Leechers cannot drain a Spike).    

[Trusk'our he/him]

18 hours ago, Quantus said:

Benefits are hard to say, since Hemalurgic stacking doesnt always just multiply logically, if Koloss are any indication.   

I'm super curious now; what do you imply by this?

[Quantus he/him]

2 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

I'm super curious now; what do you imply by this?

Koloss are made by adding 4 spikes of Physical Strength to a human, but rather than just making a person that is magically as strong as 5 people (more like a Pewterarm) it makes a mutated subspecies with side effects to physical shape, emotional control, intelligence, etc. that are outside the immediate/know effect of such a Spike.

[Lego Mistborn he/him]

23 hours ago, alder24 said:

Not accumulating regular Breaths, gaining more Heightenings you meant. 

The benefits from heightenings are confirmed by WoB to occur continuously, not discretely, so gaining breaths is the right term.