Lightflame he/him Posted May 11, 2012 Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 This has been bugging me for a little while. Could a sentient, inorganic object like Nightblood gain a Shard? And if he could, how would he react to it. He is driven solely by the desire to "Destroy Evil", and Shards make you take on aspects of them. Would Nightblood's desire to destroy evil be overwritten by something else? Ugh, the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Spoonface he/him Posted May 12, 2012 Report Share Posted May 12, 2012 My first impulse was to say "no", in the specific case of Nightblood or other sentient Awakened objects. After all, they are powered directly by Endowment. However, it was possible for Sazed to take on two Shards, so we know that it is possible for Shardic aspects to intermingle, so to speak. I'm going to guess "no", simply because Nightblood's spiritual aspect is probably not prepared to hold a Shard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brassmind she/her Posted May 12, 2012 Report Share Posted May 12, 2012 (edited) It does make me think that if Nightblood could hold shards and got hold of Odium, there might be an explosion or something. That said, it seems kind of unlikely. Nightblood is sentient, but I don't know that he/it exactly has a mind in the way a human has a mind, and Nightblood is the only sentient object we've seen. On the other hand, I don't know what qualifies a person to hold a Shard, so... Edited May 12, 2012 by Brassmind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quantum Toast he/him Posted May 12, 2012 Report Share Posted May 12, 2012 It does make me think that if Nightblood could hold shards and got hold of Odium, there might be an explosion or something. Or Ruin, for that matter. After all, Nightblood doesn't seem to hate anyone (I doubt he even knows how), but his entire purpose in existence is to destroy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aray171717 Posted May 18, 2012 Report Share Posted May 18, 2012 nightblood is sentient only with the help of his breaths which are splinters of endowment. when a person takes a shard their body disolves as in mistborn. assuming nightblood would dissapear like in vin or sazed's case then the breaths would no longer be bound to him and he would lose sentience thus rendering him incapable of holding a shard. my opinion is that the act of obtaining a shard would kill nightblood thus leaving the shard holderless and able to be picked up by anyone else as if nightblood had never tried to hold it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuoni he/him Posted May 19, 2012 Report Share Posted May 19, 2012 The problem being that human sentience on Scadrial is a result of preservation giving part of itself to form (excess) souls, so the same should hold for Sazed. After all, Nightblood Breaths now form his soul, in the similar way the pieces of Preservation and Ruin form human soul. Also, it would seem that Nightblood can hold on to his Breaths (you cannot command them away anymore). But I'd say that is not a very good soul, so my guess is: Nightblood can hold the shard if no other (better) holder is nearby. His hold, however, won't be very good (it could be taken from him more easily than in Human case) Also, since his sentience is a result of command, and focused on that Command, (but it is sentience, and capable of changing and learning), the same thing will happen to it as to a human holder - it will be gradually corrupted by the shards intent, but at first (since he is focused on one thing only) it will corrupt the Shard somewhat. The corruption of Nightblood would probably go by redefining evil (remember, Ruin thought destruction good, and opposing it bad, so...), while the corruption of the shard would be like "I preserve good by destroying every last evil human in that city..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeshdan he/him Posted May 19, 2012 Report Share Posted May 19, 2012 But I'd say that is not a very good soul, so my guess is: Nightblood can hold the shard if no other (better) holder is nearby. His hold, however, won't be very good (it could be taken from him more easily than in Human case) Point in favor: Kelsier did something like this when Leras died, hijacking Preservation until Vin showed up and kicked him out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 How do you know he was 'kicked out'? Perhaps Shards can simply release their hold, and give it to someone else. This seems to lie within Kelsier's logic, as he felt that he was the catalyst in the downfall of TLR, but not the direct cause. Also, seemingly, he resides in the Spiritual Realm side by side with Harmony, as the 'Survivor' whereas had he continued to hold the Shard, he would have had to counter Ruin and have died, though now he lives on, waiting for his chance to help the world again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeshdan he/him Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 How do you know he was 'kicked out'? Perhaps Shards can simply release their hold, and give it to someone else. This seems to lie within Kelsier's logic, as he felt that he was the catalyst in the downfall of TLR, but not the direct cause. Also, seemingly, he resides in the Spiritual Realm side by side with Harmony, as the 'Survivor' whereas had he continued to hold the Shard, he would have had to counter Ruin and have died, though now he lives on, waiting for his chance to help the world again. Brandon says so in this annotation: http://www.brandonsanderson.com/annotation/330/Mistborn-3-Chapter-Fifty-Eight-Part-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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