Nightblood vs Father Machine

[Epicdaf]

Here's an interesting scenario. 
Say you've just awaked the Father Machine, same command, same circumstances as they did in Komashi, BUT, in this case you happen to have a very friendly sword capable of killing a Shard. 
The moment the Father Machine starts to consume everyone around you, you unsheath Nightblood. As both entities start to consume investiture around them, including yourself, your last thought is the following: Who will consume the other first?

On the other hand, say you arrived to Komashi later in the story and you had to face the Nightmares, what would happen if you attacked the Nightblood? 

 

Edited January 22 by Epicdaf

[alder24]

5 hours ago, Epicdaf said:

Here's an interesting scenario. 
Say you've just awaked the Father Machine, same command, same circumstances as they did in Komashi, BUT, in this case you happen to have a very friendly sword capable of killing a Shard. 
The moment the Father Machine starts to consume everyone around you, you unsheath Nightblood. As both entities start to consume investiture around them, including yourself, your last thought is the following: Who will consume the other first?

On the other hand, say you arrived to Komashi later in the story and you had to face the Nightmares, what would happen if you attacked the Nightblood? 
 

The Father Machine consumed only those who had a shared Connection to the nation of Torio and Virtuosity and only those people became food for the machine. Nomads outside of Torio survived and later rebuilt civilization because they didn't have this Connection the Father Machine needed. Nightblood and the Father Machine don't share any Connection so the Father Machine wouldn't be able to consume it, although it would probably recognize it as a threat due to his high level of investiture (just like it did with Hoid and Yoki Hijo) and would try to manipulate his memories at most - but Nightblood is insanely invested so it's possible the Father Machine won't be able to do anything to him. 

Nightblood eats only what touches his blade. The Father Machine spit all those half-eaten souls out as the Shroud and unsheathed Nightblood would start consuming it - until it gets full, falls into a food coma, leaks investiture and starts consuming again until it once more falls into a food coma. Nightblood would be able to consume the entire Shroud, but it would take a long time. However the Father Machine is not the Shroud, it just manipulates it, so unless you drop Nightblood right on top of the machine, Nightblood won't be able to consume it. In that case neither would affect the other. Nightblood would also consume Nightmares, they are just the Shroud given form. 

Spoiler

Argent

Staying with Yumi, since we're asking the big questions here. I want to talk about the big machine, the father machine.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Argent

There are some really interesting what feel like intentional parallels between it and Nightblood.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Argent

There's smoke involved, there's eating of souls, there's a whole bunch of things. So what I do want to ask is: one, was the father machine Awakened using Breaths, using Nalthian Awakening? Or are you using Awakening as Lightweaving or Bondsmithing which is an overarching system in the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

It's the second. This wouldn't exist in the pre-space-age as much; by space age there's a certain terminology that is going between... basically it's starting with the arcanists and moving to the general population. What certain themes in the Cosmere magics mean. And so when Hoid says "this is an Awakened machine" his audience understands what that means. It does not necessarily mean Breaths Awaken, but Breaths are one of the main ways that people see things be Awakened. You should be noticing those parallels, but that's a term that in the Cosmere is becoming genericized to mean un-living object being given some measure of sentience and even sapience by application of Investiture, Commands, and these sorts of things. By this point they've all interacted with various Awakened machines of sorts in the future Cosmere. They know what this means. They've talked to an Awakened computer.

Argent

Interesting! Very interesting! That's what I was hoping you would answer. Because Awakening is such a cool term for Awakening an object, right!

One notable difference between the father machine and Nightblood other than them using different magic systems to be Awakened is that the Machine was able to somehow draw people's souls at a distance, which seems EXTREMELY broken to me.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. I had to let... This is going to be a pretty special circumstance for this book. But yes. It is pretty broken. You wouldn't want this to be... this could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. Don't expect this to be very commonly used in the Cosmere.

Argent

Was that a side effect of the magic system that was used to Awaken the machine, or was there something else going on?

Brandon Sanderson

This is a side effect of what Virtuosity did and the bit of Virtuosity in all the people allowing the Machine to have enough of a plausible Connection to them to draw upon them.

Argent

Ok. Interesting. I will think about this while I pass the ball back to Matt.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. This is me pushing just a little bit hard on the boundaries of what is possible. It is possible, but it it is pushing further than I normally would on the bounds of what that can do.

Shardcast Interview (July 30, 2023)

 

[Epicdaf]

Thank you so much for this answer!