Question about Breaths

[LightRinger he/him]

If a child is born on Nalthis to two drab parents, will they be born with a Breath?

I know Endowment gives them out, but just wanted to double check. Got the thought with the Breath farm thread, and I don’t want to surf WoBs to find out. Thanks!

[alder24]

2 minutes ago, LightRinger said:

If a child is born on Nalthis to two drab parents, will they be born with a Breath?

I know Endowment gives them out, but just wanted to double check. Got the thought with the Breath farm thread, and I don’t want to surf WoBs to find out. Thanks!

Yes, every Nalthian will get a Breath when born, it doesn't matter that their parents are both drabs. 

[Quantus he/him]

16 hours ago, alder24 said:

Yes, every Nalthian will get a Breath when born, it doesn't matter that their parents are both drabs. 

Though to clarify, a Drab is a somewhat specific thing.  They are Nalthians who gave up their Beath and are left with less Investiture than the cosmere Standard.  All that to say the average person from some other world is not a Drab.

 

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Questioner

In the last panel we talked a lot about people from different planets using magic systems on other planets, one of the things I've been thinking about, we've been thinking about, talking about Breath, and people being born with Breath, is that something specific to Nalthis or do, technically, other people on other planets have a Breath as well?

Brandon Sanderson

Good question and that is a Nalthian thing. Now, everyone in the cosmere to an extent has Investiture, the Nalthian Breath is part what everyone has and then a little extra, plus the ability to share it around. So a person who gives up their Breath on Nalthis is actually going below what a normal person has. But a normal person on Nalthis has more than somebody-- So if you were for instance to pick a world like Sixth of the Dusk, where there's not a Shard in residence, and you compared them to a Nalthian, Nalthian has an Investiture advantage over them. When they've given up their Breath, they have an Investiture disadvantage.

Bystander

So we're not Drabs?

Brandon Sanderson

So we're not Drabs. That's exactly it. We're not Drabs.

JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)