DEATROY THE EVIL nightblood theory

[Alumínio he/him]

We know that Nightblood is strange, that it was created somehow differently from the other swords of Nalthis, like Vivivena's.

Perhaps it's not just the command, but also the intention and the hand behind it all.

We know that Vasher traveled the Cosmere before creating the sword, and we know that to navigate between worlds, you need the Great Knell, which has been confirmed to be where Ambition died (which is why I also believe the Cosmere is just over 100 stars. I don't believe people can navigate further than that, but that's another theory).

Knowing this, we can be sure that Ambition was already dead.

Now I believe what happened was that Donation, seeing that mass of negative investiture near his system, didn't like it at all, and when Vasher used the destroy evil command, she influenced it to be THAT specific evil. Perhaps this is even related to his returned name, Warbreaker.

[RedBlue]

IMO a huge part of Nightblood’s character is that his entire personality is built around a really vague command. He knows that he wants to destroy ‘evil,’ but he doesn’t know what ‘evil’ is. He has very little concept of morality, just a whole lot of enthusiasm for it (although he does seem to be growing more self-aware as of WaT).

If Endowment (I assume you’re talking about Endowment?) had somehow tweaked the Command to refer to the entities specifically, I think Nightblood would be a lot more focused on that and a lot less concerned about a vague, slippery concept of evil.

[alder24]

1 hour ago, Alumínio said:

We know that Nightblood is strange, that it was created somehow differently from the other swords of Nalthis, like Vivivena's.

Perhaps it's not just the command, but also the intention and the hand behind it all.

We know that Vasher traveled the Cosmere before creating the sword, and we know that to navigate between worlds, you need the Great Knell, which has been confirmed to be where Ambition died (which is why I also believe the Cosmere is just over 100 stars. I don't believe people can navigate further than that, but that's another theory).

Knowing this, we can be sure that Ambition was already dead.

Now I believe what happened was that Donation, seeing that mass of negative investiture near his system, didn't like it at all, and when Vasher used the destroy evil command, she influenced it to be THAT specific evil. Perhaps this is even related to his returned name, Warbreaker.

Nightblood was created around 400 years before WoK so that's way after Ambition's death. It was also Shashara who Awakened Nightblood, not Vasher.

Nightblood would do almost nothing against the Evil because they are made out of negative investiture and they can annihilate dragons and live through this. Nightblood is super invested, but I doubt he's more invested than dragons who need a separate realm to fade into the Beyond after death. In fact, from WoBs we know that Nightblood is more invested than an Unmade, but not as much as the Stormfather. Nightblood is made out of normal investiture (although corrupted) so if he were to touch one of those entities, he would be destroyed just like those three dragons were. Anti-investiture and investiture reacts explosively, Nightblood can't consume anti-investiture without self-destructive consequences.

Moreover, from SA letters we can speculate that Endowment wouldn't really care about the Evil in the Shadesmar. She seems to stick to the non-intervention policy that Vessels promised to uphold after the Shattering, so the Evil wandering around Cosmere is none of her concern. They keep their distance from populated areas and busy roads in Cosmere, so Nalthis would be clear of them.

Spoiler

Questioner

You've previously said that Nightblood is the most powerful non-Shardic being in the Cosmere. Is he more powerful than the Unmade or Stormfather in terms of raw Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

Raw Investiture? Here's the thing, when you say powerful, it can mean lots of different things. More raw Investiture than the Stormfather... probably not. Than the Unmade, probably. I would have to look, I don't have the numbers on this. But the Stormfather is very restricted in what he can do.

Orem Signing (March 16, 2019)

 

[Argenti he/him]

13 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Anti-investiture and investiture reacts explosively, Nightblood can't consume anti-investiture without self-destructive consequences.

Im not entirely convinced that's true. The entities eat normal investiture, after all, and apparently are unharmed. I'm not convinced that Nightblood couldn't do the reverse, and somehow switch negative investiture polarity or something.

[alder24]

10 minutes ago, Argenti said:

Im not entirely convinced that's true. The entities eat normal investiture, after all, and apparently are unharmed. I'm not convinced that Nightblood couldn't do the reverse, and somehow switch negative investiture polarity or something.

I think they are "unharmed" because they are ridiculously invested and losing a fraction of their anti-investiture means nothing to them. IotE confirms that this is an explosive reaction, just like the one we've seen in RoW, when Raboniel exploded the room. Anti-investiture mixing with investiture turns them both into energy, so the Evil is losing anti-investiture with every being it kills.

Nightblood has no control over investiture he consumes, this is all driven by his intent and this makes him corrupt investiture, which can be most likely described as mixing investitures, not switching polarity.

IotE ch 26:

Quote

"If that negative Investiture touches our souls . . .”
“I assume it is unpleasant,” ZeetZi said. “Burn our eyes out in a flash?”
“Probably an explosion, actually,” Ed said. “The meeting of Investiture with so much anti-Investiture can be violent. Each of us would be vaporized in an explosion that would leave our physical forms splattered across our seats.”

 

Spoiler

Blightsong

How does corrupted investiture work, like Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, Nightblood. Again, this is a definition of what somebody feels is a corruption. For instance, there are spren that people would feel are corrupted. But that's corruption where the mixing of different Shards has changed things, and I think a lot of times when people say corruption, what they're meaning is the mixing of Shards' powers.

Blightsong

So is there a mixing of Shards' powers happening with Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

*smirks* RAFO. That's the natural question, I'm glad you asked it.

Blightsong

Ok, uhhh, so something similar is happening with Gavilar's sphere, right?

Brandon Sanderson

*contemplative silence* RAFO.

OdysseyCon 2016 (April 8, 2016)