Long range assassination of Shards with Nightblood?

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

Warning! The information and references in this question will require you to have read the first 5 books of the Stormlight archive to understand fully.
 

 

 

 

Premises:

Shards can form bodies that the are deeply connected to and control. These will be referred to as “Masks”. It is possible that they can only form masks of their former bodies, or you’d have masks that look like the protagonists running around and causing general havoc.

The vessel of a shard can be killed if a mask is stabbed with Nightblood.

Definitions and clarifications.

Shards can have avatars, who give up a measure of their autonomy in exchange for power by pledging themselves to a shard, which connects the avatar and the shard. The shard can use this connection to grant invested arts or control the avatar.

Masks are avatars with a deeper connection. Think of avatars as masks with their own thoughts and personalities that the shard occasionally chooses to puppeteer.If all matter is made out of equal parts of each Light, then possibly avatars are made of just one kind of light which gives them deeper connection. But avatars can be chosen simply by swearing allegiance to a shard.

Question:

Would it be possible to, using an arbitrary amount of investiture and all invested arts, create a Voodoo doll of sorts with enough connection to the shard that, when stabbed with Nightblood, could kill the Shard?

Further questions:

If Nightblood severed the connection between a mask and the shard, would the mask dissolve, die, or gain sentience?

Would this method, if technically true, be viable? A mask would theoretically have access to as much investiture as the shard chooses to give it, and is completely puppeteered by a shard. To use this method, you’d have to first create a mask. Of a shard who can see that you’re trying to kill them. See the problem?

Edited October 17, 2025 by BigBadBagsworth

[alder24]

23 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

Sorry, not kill the shard. Kill the vessel of the shard. Shards are definitely almost impossible to kill without splintering them which takes enough investiture to become a shard yourself. But you might be able to kill a shard’s vessel by stabbing a mask with nightbood, which, for example could kill bavadin so that someone else with more empathy could take up Autonomy, or the same with Odium.

And for the second question in the “further questions”, I’m not asking what would happen if you stabbed the mask, but what would happen if you severed the connection from mask to shard. 

21 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

It seems like people are misinterpreting my question. I have noticed that there is evidence that if you took a mask, a tiny bit shardic investiture controlled by a tiny bit of the vessel’s consciousness, and stabbed it with Nightblood, you can kill the shard’s vessel. Since all things in the Cosmere are matter, energy, investiture and connection, and the last two can be easily manipulated with metalminds and identity-blanked with tones, is it possible to create, then subsequently stab, a mask, thereby killing the vessel of the target shard?

The mask IS the Vessel. It's his own body created out of his own investiture and his Spirit Web is attached to it. You can't make a fake mask for an already existing Vessel, the Vessel has to create its own body - the mask - for you to be able to stab it with Nightblood. That's why Nightblood can kill it, it's not because Nightblood severs any Connection, it's because he's stabbing directly into the soul of the Vessel, which is present almost fully there and he's consuming it all. 

If you were to try to create a mask of some sort, like take a bunch of investiture and connect it to the Shard or the Vessel, it wouldn't become the Vessel's body and wouldn't have their soul. At best it would become something like a spren, fully independent from Vessel's control, or something like a Hemalurgically controlled entity - it would allow the Shard to take control over it, but harming it won't harm the Shard or the Vessel. It would always be separate with its own Spirit Web, just like a spren is separate from their Radiant despite sharing a very strong bond - killing that spren doesn't kill their Radiant, just harms them as their Connection is ripped out of their soul. The Vessel needs to create their own body out of their own will for you to be able to stab it with Nightblood. 

You can't do what you propose, unless you find a Vesselless Shard, give a bunch of investiture sapience and connect it so strongly that it Ascends as the Shard's new Vessel (it would be even more problematic that what Kelsier did) and then stab it with Nightblood at the moment of Ascension, killing the newly formed Vessel before it disappears. But this is pointless as you're making a Vessel for a Shard with no Vessel, just to kill it for no reason.

As for severing the Connection between the mask and the Shard, it depends on what you mean. If you're thinking about the body created by the Vessel and want to break the Connection between the body and the Vessel, nothing would really happen to the Vessel, but if you're thinking about the mask as the Vessel themselves and you try to break the Connection between them and their Shard, it might be almost impossible as the Vessel and the Shard are intertwined and combined at such level, that breaking them apart forcefully might result in Splintering and the death of the Vessel. 

You should avoid double posting, as that's against the forum's policy, use the edit option instead. It can be found in the three dot menu in the upper right corner of your post. 

[alder24]

8 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

Would it be possible to, using an arbitrary amount of investiture and all invested arts, create a Voodoo doll of sorts with enough connection to the shard that, when stabbed with Nightblood, could kill the Shard?

No, because the mask is not the Shard nor even an Avatar (Avatars are something else), it's the Vessel manifesting a body to interact with other realms. Nightblood killed the Vessel of Odium, Rayse, but did almost no harm to the Shard itself. The Shard holds almost an infinite amount of investiture and Nightblood, even if he's one of the most invested objects in Cosmere, simply can't compete. The Vessel is a mind that holds and controls the power and the Vessel and the Shard are kind of one, but the Vessel isn't much invested on its own. I doubt you would be able to create a Voodoo doll of the Vessel as you would try to work against both the power of the Shard and the mind of the Vessel, at best you would be able to create a spren of some sort that's connected to, maybe even bonded with the Vessel, but killing it with Nightblood wouldn't hurt the Vessel at all - they would always be separate. Even an Avatar is separate enough from the Shard that if you were to stick Nightblood into one, it would kill the Avatar (or rather the mind behind it, as the power would probably still be vastly more than Nightblood can consume and a new Avatar could later Ascend to that power), but leave the Vessel of the Shard intact. 

Spoiler

Questioner

Nightblood has more Investiture than any other being, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Not every other being, but definitely one of the most highly Invested individuals that we have seen.

Questioner

So Nightblood, he was used to wound Odium. Is Odium now weaker than he was before?

Brandon Sanderson

Not in a relevant way. Technically, yes. Not in a relevant way. The amount taken, compared to how much there is, is pretty small. And a whole bunch of what happened there was focused on the Vessel, not on Odium itself.

Questioner

Could Nightblood consume Odium?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood would get full before consuming even the smallest fraction amount of Odium. As you saw, Nightblood kind of got full in that instance. Actually, it was with the perpendicularity, it would be similar to that. So for those who are wondering, no, you can't stab Nightblood into the planet and absorb the planet. Nightblood is really dangerous, as we've seen, but we're not talking "absorb planets" dangerous.

Dragonsteel Mini-Con 2021 (Nov. 22, 2021)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

Assuming you have a way to siphon out a Vessel from a Shard, how much hemalurgic metal would be required to contain that Vessel?

Brandon Sanderson

An astronomically large amount. Oh, the Vessel? Or contain a Shard? The Vessel, just a little dude... not that much. Basically, like a decent-sized gemstone would hold an Unmade, and that's more Investiture than we're talking about.

Questioner

Can hemalurgic metal hold around the same amount of an Invested creature as a pure gemstone?

Brandon Sanderson

No, gemstones can do more.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

 

Spoiler

Alex M

What's the difference between avatar and Splinter?

Brandon Sanderson

These are all very weird terms that I'm just using.

*mistakenly answering for Sliver* A Sliver is a person who has held the power of a Shard, and then let go of it. A briefly held time, holding the infinite power of a Shard, but no longer does. So what does that do? That changes your soul, and leaves markers on it. It's a real physiological thing.

An avatar is... a Shard manifesting a semi-autonomous piece of themselves that is still connected to who they are. An avatar, for instance, of Autonomy - depending on how Autonomy creates that avatar - might know, might not know, but they are still an aspect, they are still part of Autonomy. And when you get down to it a part of them knows that, and it's almost a god roleplaying, but in a way that only a Shard, or a lowercase-g god in the Cosmere, can do.

Brandon Sanderson

*realizes that he answered for Sliver earlier, and clarifies*

A Splinter is a piece of a Shard that is fully autonomous, where an avatar is not. So something that is Splintered does not consider itself - and would not be considered by the definitions  - an actual piece of it [the Shard], and has free will. So once it has free will, and/or could develop free will (because some of the Splinters haven't gotten there yet), but is fully cut off from the direct control and self-identity of the Shard, then it is called a Splinter.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 (June 3, 2021)  

 

Spoiler

Pod

The combination of a Shard and its Vessel leads to sapient mind with access to a virtually infinite pool of Investiture. Are avatars the product of a similar combination of a mind and a pool of Investiture, only on a smaller scale, with less power?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say that is an accurate representation of what an avatar is. It’s not the only way, but it is an accurate... some avatars are that. I would say that’s the standard.  

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

8 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

If Nightblood severed the connection between a mask and the shard, would the mask dissolve, die, or gain sentience?

Nightblood straight up consumed the Vessel of Odium and there was almost nothing left of Rayse afterwards. The mask was just a body Rayse manifested.

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

Sorry, not kill the shard. Kill the vessel of the shard. Shards are definitely almost impossible to kill without splintering them which takes enough investiture to become a shard yourself. But you might be able to kill a shard’s vessel by stabbing a mask with nightbood, which, for example could kill bavadin so that someone else with more empathy could take up Autonomy, or the same with Odium.

And for the second question in the “further questions”, I’m not asking what would happen if you stabbed the mask, but what would happen if you severed the connection from mask to shard. 

Edited October 17, 2025 by BigBadBagsworth

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

It seems like people are misinterpreting my question. I have noticed that there is evidence that if you took a mask, a tiny bit shardic investiture controlled by a tiny bit of the vessel’s consciousness, and stabbed it with Nightblood, you can kill the shard’s vessel. Since all things in the Cosmere are matter, energy, investiture and connection, and the last two can be easily manipulated with metalminds and identity-blanked with tones, is it possible to create, then subsequently stab, a mask, thereby killing the vessel of the target shard?

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

First of all, please use my terminology. A mask is completely controlled by the shard. An avatar was born as a normal being, but was then connected to the shard and gained powers, but can be controlled by the shard at will.

Quote

The mask IS the Vessel. It's his own body created out of his own investiture and his Spirit Web is attached to it.

I disagree. I have evidence that not all of a shard’s spiritweb (or at least consciousness) is concentrated in a mask. Evidence includes: 

In Secret History,

Spoiler

Sazed formed a mask in the cognitive realm while actively reshaping scadrial.

And in WaT,

Spoiler

Odium formed two masks to talk to Jasnah and Fen while he was focused on tormenting three different people with three different visions, while pondering whether to destroy the power of honor. That’s at least a 6-way attention split. Do you think his spiritweb is actively focused in one of those places and not the others?

To re clarify, because that’s apparently necessary: I believe that when a mask is stabbed with Nightblood, Nightblood doesn’t destroy a connection, but somehow uses the connection between the mask and the vessel’s spiritweb to destroy the vessel.

If all things in the Cosmere are a combination of matter, energy, investiture and connection, and a certain combination of those four things are automatically inhabited with an exploitable connection to a vessel’s spiritweb (or, if your theory is correct, the spiritweb itself), then if you recreated that combination of investiture and connection, you’d have the same ability to exploit that connection as with a naturally summoned mask. A viable way to do this might be to get an unkeyed connectionmind, have a friendly mask fill it, and then blank the connection and rewrite it’s identity.

6 hours ago, alder24 said:

You should avoid double posting, as that's against the forum's policy, use the edit option instead. It can be found in the three dot menu in the upper right corner of your post. 

Sorry! I thought the posts would merge.

Edited October 18, 2025 by BigBadBagsworth

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

Sorry! I thought the posts would merge.

Please see the SHARDER FAQ for tips on Editing a post, and much more. 

5 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

First of all, please use my terminology. A mask is completely controlled by the shard. An avatar was born as a normal being, but was then connected to the shard and gained powers, but can be controlled by the shard at will.

Please use Cosmere terminology. An Avatar already has a definition - you trying to redefine it for your theory only causes misunderstandings and confusion. 

Quote

Shards can also create avatars, personas that can act independently of them. Avatars can be of any gender, race, and species, regardless of the original Vessel creating them, and can be formed at a considerable distance from the main body of the Shard, with many different avatars able to exist on a single planet. Though a Shard can create them directly, avatars can also form without a conscious decision on the Shard's part, though the Shard is still aware of what is happening.

An avatar may have a Vessel (Telsin was the Vessel for the Trell Avatar) but a Vessel is not required (Patji is an Avatar without a Vessel). 

Also, you seem to be trying to use the word "mask" like a Physical Manifestation - except you are assigning attributes that do not actually apply, and ignoring the attributes that do apply. A Manifestation is a very small piece of a Shard's investiture used in the Cognitive or Physical Realm to interact with beings in those realms. It is not the Shard - it's not even the Vessel and it is not limited to a single instance (M:SH - Kelsier sees many copies of Fuzz - because Leras Manifested a different body to speak to each dead soul).

Hope that helps. 

[alder24]

16 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

First of all, please use my terminology. A mask is completely controlled by the shard. An avatar was born as a normal being, but was then connected to the shard and gained powers, but can be controlled by the shard at will.

I cannot use your terminology because your terminology is wrong. The mask is the Shard, it's a body manifested by the Shard to interact with the Physical or Cognitive Realm, it's not separate in any way from the Shard/Vessel, it's just a piece of them taking a material form. An Avatar already has a definition and it can be either born without any direct action from the Shard, or be created by the Shard as an Avatar. An Avatar is a semi-autonomous aspect of the Shard.

Spoiler

Argent

Can Shards manifest a physical body that can actually interact with the Physical Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

If they wanted to, yes.

Argent

Was that the thing that Odium did at the end of Oathbringer or was that just a projection?

Brandon Sanderson

Umm, it starts to be really difficult to define when you're getting to these points because they generally are such massive wells of Investiture themselves that it's like, is this thing they're creating, like, they are kinda, y'know, then bending the three Realms around the like spacetime with lots of gravity so is that a projection? Is that a real thing? Does it matter? Does that definition--

Argent

Oh! At that point they are almost the same thing, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, exactly.

JordanCon 2018 (April 20, 2018)

 

Spoiler

Alex M

What's the difference between avatar and Splinter?

Brandon Sanderson

These are all very weird terms that I'm just using.

*mistakenly answering for Sliver* A Sliver is a person who has held the power of a Shard, and then let go of it. A briefly held time, holding the infinite power of a Shard, but no longer does. So what does that do? That changes your soul, and leaves markers on it. It's a real physiological thing.

An avatar is... a Shard manifesting a semi-autonomous piece of themselves that is still connected to who they are. An avatar, for instance, of Autonomy - depending on how Autonomy creates that avatar - might know, might not know, but they are still an aspect, they are still part of Autonomy. And when you get down to it a part of them knows that, and it's almost a god roleplaying, but in a way that only a Shard, or a lowercase-g god in the Cosmere, can do.

Brandon Sanderson

*realizes that he answered for Sliver earlier, and clarifies*

A Splinter is a piece of a Shard that is fully autonomous, where an avatar is not. So something that is Splintered does not consider itself - and would not be considered by the definitions  - an actual piece of it [the Shard], and has free will. So once it has free will, and/or could develop free will (because some of the Splinters haven't gotten there yet), but is fully cut off from the direct control and self-identity of the Shard, then it is called a Splinter.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 (June 3, 2021)

 

Spoiler

Oversleep

Okay now I have one about Shard avatars, like Autonomy's. Is it possible for one to form without the Shard's Vessel directly making it, so independent...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it is. They would be aware of it, however. They couldn't not be aware of it, but it could arise without their direct and conscious decision to do so.

Oversleep

And the one on First of the Sun, is it by Autonomy's direct...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that is directly created.

Prague Signing (Oct. 26, 2019)

 

16 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

I disagree. I have evidence that not all of a shard’s spiritweb (or at least consciousness) is concentrated in a mask. Evidence includes: 

The Shard and the Vessel are two different, yet intertwined things. The Shard is a well of infinite power with its own will and Intent, the Vessel is the mind that holds and controls this power with their own will. The Vessel's mind is greatly expanded during Ascension, allowing it to be focused on several places and interact with many people at once. That's why Sazed can create a body to interact with Vin while actively reshaping Scadrial and Taravangian's mind can do all those tasks simultaneously - it's called multitasking. However, even with a greatly expanded mind, this multitasking has its limits. You can see it clearly in SH - Ruin is reaching to his agents everywhere on Scadrial, but he's focused mainly on Vin, which allowed Kelsier to influence Spook and freed him from Ruin's control, which turned Ruin's attention back on him. Vessel’s mind is not infinite, even if the power of the Shard basically is. Those things aren't masks, they are the same Vessel being in multiple places at once, doing multiple things simultaneously with the power of the Shard. And because the Shard and the Vessel exists in the Spiritual Realm, where space and distance is meaningless, the Vessel can create bodies in many places in PR at once.

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

17 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I cannot use your terminology because your terminology is wrong

I concede this point. You are right, and I am wrong.

 

17 minutes ago, alder24 said:

That's why Sazed can create a body to interact with Vin while actively reshaping Scadrial and Taravangian's mind can do all those tasks simultaneously - it's called multitasking.

Then the question becomes, how many of those places is the Vessel’s spiritweb in? And could you use metalminds and connection to re-create a physical manifestation without the Vessel’s knowledge, then stab it with Nightblood, or does my theory just not make sense in the slightest?

[Treamayne]

26 minutes ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

Then the question becomes, how many of those places is the Vessel’s spiritweb in?

All and none. Like all Spiritwebs, it resides in the Spiritual Realm where neither Time nor Place matter. The difference being, that for normal Beings, only one Physical manifestation connects to their Spiritweb. Beings like Sleepless also have multiple physical manifesations connecting to the same spiritweb, and have a form of immortality in that the personality persists so long as a sufficent percentage of their Hordelings also survive. WoB:

Spoiler

<edited for length and relevance>

Faera

Implying that some are actually immortal?

Brandon Sanderson

Depends on which definition of immortal you mean.

• Doesn't age, but can be killed by conventional means. (You've seen some of these in the cosmere, but I'll leave you to discuss who.)
• Heals from wounds, but still ages. (Knights Radiant with Stormlight are like this.)
• Reborn when killed. (The Heralds.)
• Doesn't age and can heal, but dependent upon magic to stay this way, and so have distinct weakness to be exploited. (The Lord Ruler, among others.)
• Hive beings who are constantly losing individual members, but maintaining a persistent personality spread across all of them, immortal in that as long as too much of the hive isn't wiped out, the personality can persist. (The Sleepless.)
• Bits of sapient magic, eternal and endless, though the personality can be "destroyed" in specific ways. (Seons. Spren. Nightblood. Cognitive Shadows, like a certain character from Scadrial.)
• Shards (Really just a supercharged version of the previous category.)

And then, of course, there's Hoid. I'm not going to say which category, if any, he's in.

Some of these blend together--the Heralds, for example, are technically a variety of Cognitive Shadow. I'm not saying each of these categories above are distinct, intended to be the end-all definitions. They're off the cuff groupings I made to explain a point: immortality is a theme of the cosmere works--which, at their core, are experiments on what happens when men are given the power of deity.

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 29, 2016)

 

26 minutes ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

And could you use metalminds and connection to re-create a physical manifestation without the Vessel’s knowledge, then stab it with Nightblood, or does my theory just not make sense in the slightest?

It doesn't make sense - to assemble enough of the relevant investiture to forcibly manifest a Physical Form, you would have destroyed yourself and your body in the process. WoB:

Spoiler

<edited for length and relevance>

mooglefrooglian

If metals shape the Investiture in Allomancy, causing a Steelpush or whatever, how is it that the mists can be used to perform the same feat? What is 'shaping' the inhaled mists into a Steelpush, if there's no metal "nozzle" to do so?

Brandon Sanderson

Consistently through the cosmere, once you have the power in hand and it has permeated you, will becomes your nozzle. This can be seen in Warbreaker, where the power has been distributed and inhabits the people. The nozzle idea is important for Magics that are drawing power externally, as it keeps the power from overwhelming and destroying you. (Which, basically, happened to Vin at the end of the Trilogy--she got consumed by the magic. She became something new, now, so it didn't KILL her. It destroyed what she was, transformed her into something else.)

So you see magics like on Sel and Scadrial where a specific nozzle is needed--as the power source is external, at least with Allomancy. Will and intent take a backseat, though still pop up on occasion. On Nalthis (and in a lesser way, Roshar) will and intent are more important, and what you are trying to do shapes the magic more directly.

/r/books AMA 2015 (May 25, 2015)

Hope that helps

[alder24]

24 minutes ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

Then the question becomes, how many of those places is the Vessel’s spiritweb in?

This question is kind of meaningless because the Vessel and the Shard both exist in the Spiritual Realm, where space doesn't matter anymore. The power of the Shard is everywhere in Cosmere, it's omnipresent, the Vessel can be everywhere because of it, but their mind is not infinite so they can only be in a finite amount of places. It's one spirit web peering into multiple places at once. 

Spoiler

[...]

We generally mean the term "Invested" to mean a Shard has taken permanent residence in a location, a kind of base of operations--but at the same time, this is meaningless, since distance has no meaning on the Spiritual Realm, where most Shards are. So imprisonment of a Shard like Ruin or Odium is a crude expression--but the best we have.

[...]

General Reddit 2018 (March 18, 2018)

 

Spoiler

Overlord Jebus

Is all Investiture in the cosmere associated with a Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, well, okay. So this is a complicated one. *pauses* So, Investiture predates the Shattering of Adonalsium, all Investiture was from Adonalsium, all Investiture got assigned to one of the 16 Shards when Adonalsium was Shattered. Some of the Investiture was not on Yolen but location is irrelevant. So Investiture is related to Shards even on planets where none of the Shards are inhabiting. 

Overlord Jebus

Are they aware of that Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

That's part of the whole seeing into the infinite, being beyond even the power of a Shard. So, technically you could make the argument that Harmony could feel the sense of Preservation on every world in the cosmere, right? Because the building blocks of all life and creation are these things.

Overlord Jebus

So the Shard of Preservation embodies all preservation in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes but he just can't do that, right? Like, he's not infinite. The Vessels are not, even if their minds are enormously expanded by holding a Shard, they are not infinite. The Connection is all there in the Spiritual Realm.

Oathbringer London signing (Nov. 28, 2017)

 

30 minutes ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

And could you use metalminds and connection to re-create a physical manifestation without the Vessel’s knowledge, then stab it with Nightblood, or does my theory just not make sense in the slightest?

You can't do that as I explained in my previous posts. The spirit web of your creation and the Vessel would always be separate. In the same way, if you were to somehow create a perfect copy of yourself with all Connections, Identity etc, it would still be a separate entity, with its own spirit web and killing it wouldn't kill you. Dalinar in WaT kind of did what you're talking about, he infused a past memory of himself with his memories and made it sapient and self-aware, he created a spren of himself, but that spren was fully separate from Dalinar, with his own individual spirit web. Dalinar's death didn't affect this Blackthorn-spren at all and spren's death wouldn't affect Dalinar as well.

[Duxredux he/him]

Yeah... I'm gonna agree on the "this theory doesn't make sense in the slightest." Let's break it down step by step.

Step one. Make a voodoo doll (later stated without the Shard's knowledge using Connection and a lot of Investiture). Issue one is doing this at all - because creating something directly tied to the Shard's governing consciousness without the Shard's knowledge is like trying to establish an internet connection without the target server ever pinging you. Think about it. That's just not how Connection works. It's like asking fire to not generate heat via combustion, it's part of the definition. You're proposing to Connect something to the mind and being, the Vessel that controls the Shard and to not have it notice? No idea how you do that.

Next, is whacking your voodoo doll with Nightblood. In a nutshell, Nightblood's properties prevent killing anything by proxy. Because Nightblood consumes on all three Realms, he destroys the framework and structure of anything that he is drawing power through. Draw an Aon and he won't absorb all of the Dor, he'll break down the Aon itself. Kill your voodoo proxy and Nightblood would consume the proxy and the Connection itself rather than traveling on manufactured Connection to damage the Vessel. This is why it is really not healthy to draw Nightblood, even with a lot of Investiture.

As for what happened to Rayse, it's worth looking at Secret History. There's a few times Kelsier deliberately pulls back from the power of Preservation to communicate with others, including Spook. His "soul" as he describes it is what he uses to communicate and it is the Connections he had to Spook in conjunction with the cracks in Spook's soul that allowed for that. This consciousness is what Taravangian destroyed when he swung the Cognitive aspect of Nightblood at Rayse.

That said... I'm going to quibble a bit over the Coppermind definition of Physical Manifestation that has been referenced because I don't remember that term being used canonically. Manifesting in the Physical Realm is seen a couple of times in SA when a Shard is visible  and tangible within the Physical Realm. However, there was no physical presence at Rayse's demise - this is confirmed as everything happened in the Cognitive Realm with Szeth entirely unaware of what had occurred up until the Shard of Odium spat out Rayse's disfigured corpse at the location the bulk of his attention had been at his passing. That section in the Coppermind doesn't seem to differentiate between when the Shard is visible only in the Cognitive Realm and has a tangible presence in the Physical Realm which seems shortsighted to conflate the two states. I think it's safe to say that those multiple copies of Preservation we saw going around comforting people still housed at least part of the mind of Leras - it was the Cognitive Realm and Kel could see the slow degradation of both his form and mannerisms. I suspect if one of those copies were to be hit by Nightblood then everything that had been there to be hit, whatever fraction of mind that was governing that copy would have consumed leaving Leras's mind that much weaker. I think it was because Taravangian got Rayse's full attention that he took out his full mind.