Hoid with Nightblood (Spoilers)

[The Lord of The Mists He/Him]

In the Winds of Truth it states that the only threat to retribution was Hoid but also Nightblood could kill a god and so I got thinking and with Hoid having all the powers he does plus being a dawnshard, what would happen if Hoid also got Nightblood and how much more chaos could he create.

I forgot to mention, this is all theoretical because of him holding the bind dawnshard making him unable to harm others to the extreme that he has to go vegetarian.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

2 hours ago, The Lord of The Mists said:

In the Winds of Truth it states that the only threat to retribution was Hoid but also Nightblood could kill a god and so I got thinking and with Hoid having all the powers he does plus being a dawnshard, what would happen if Hoid also got Nightblood and how much more chaos could he create.

I forgot to mention, this is all theoretical because of him holding the bind dawnshard making him unable to harm others to the extreme that he has to go vegetarian.

Nightblood can't kill a god. Nightblood can kill a Vessel. 

I don't think Hoid having the Dawnshard would have any effect on Nighblood's function, other than he could probably hold it longer.

[The Lord of The Mists He/Him]

Yes, but my question is beyond that of what would he do to the gods. It's what havoc would he wreak on the cosmere.

[Trusk'our he/him]

11 hours ago, The Lord of The Mists said:

In the Winds of Truth it states that the only threat to retribution was Hoid but also Nightblood could kill a god and so I got thinking and with Hoid having all the powers he does plus being a dawnshard, what would happen if Hoid also got Nightblood and how much more chaos could he create.

I forgot to mention, this is all theoretical because of him holding the bind dawnshard making him unable to harm others to the extreme that he has to go vegetarian.

3 hours ago, The Lord of The Mists said:

Yes, but my question is beyond that of what would he do to the gods. It's what havoc would he wreak on the cosmere.

I don't think it would change much for Hoid, assuming he'd be consciously willing to go anywhere near Nightblood. 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/367-skyward-release-party/#e11671

Questioner

What would happen if Hoid held Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh, Hoid would not do that. Hoid would stay very far away.

Stormlightning

Not even hold it??

Brandon Sanderson

He would stay really far away. There are very few things in the Cosmere that Hoid is afraid of, and Nightblood is one of them.

Stormlightning

I thought he'd be afraid of the blade end.

Brandon Sanderson

So let's just say if very, very, very few things in the Cosmere had a chance of destroying you, you wouldn't even pick one up. You'd try to be in a different room entirely.

R'Shara and Sunbird and JoyBlu

*Whispering about Nightblood being able to destroy Hoid*

Brandon Sanderson

I didn't say, I said theoretically. I said "had a chance of", I did not confirm. Hoid doesn't know. But there's a chance, and so he is not going to risk that.

I think it's possible that Nightblood's Command could override Hoid's limitations on violence temporarily, but even then he tends to work from the shadows, as powerful forces in the Cosmere could obliterate him if he isn't careful. 

I think most likely they'd chat for a bit, Hoid gets bored from having a second highly Invested pal that can't be argued with, and then Hoid would find some excuse to dump it somewhere it wouldn't cause too much trouble (at least in his mind).

[alder24]

17 hours ago, The Lord of The Mists said:

In the Winds of Truth it states that the only threat to retribution was Hoid but also Nightblood could kill a god and so I got thinking and with Hoid having all the powers he does plus being a dawnshard, what would happen if Hoid also got Nightblood and how much more chaos could he create.

I forgot to mention, this is all theoretical because of him holding the bind dawnshard making him unable to harm others to the extreme that he has to go vegetarian.

We don't know much about Dawnshards yet, especially how they can be used. Hoid's Dawnshard is "Exist" and I have no idea how that Command can be combined with Nightblood's "Destroy evil" command because their commands seem to be polar opposite. Assuming Hoid can hurt others, he would be able to supercharge Nightblood's command with Dawnshard's Command. At the extreme end I'm guessing that Nightblood can do something similar to what we saw in Yumi, spoilers:

Spoiler

the Awakened Father Machine drew upon the investiture of people's souls of the entire nation and consumed them as fuel, releasing their leftovers as black smoke-like Shroud. 

 

9 hours ago, The Lord of The Mists said:

Yes, but my question is beyond that of what would he do to the gods. It's what havoc would he wreak on the cosmere.

Probably nothing. By now they are all aware of the danger Nightblood himself poses, they all pay attention to Hoid, so if he were to get Nightblood, they would all get almost instantly aware of it and they would simply stay away from him. Without being able to get close to one of the Vessels (like Taravangian did in a vision made by Odium), he probably won't be able to hurt them even with a Dawnshard. Afterall, even though there was a Dawnshard on Roshar and very powerful Surgebinding it was never used directly on Odium, and even though on Ashyn it caused the destruction of the whole planet, Shards were totally fine, which suggest it's not that easy to use a Dawnshard directly against a Shard and its Vessel.

[Returned he/him]

I would wager that a Hoid/Nightblood combination would be incredibly dangerous for everyone. There are lots of ways to destroy things that don't involve violence, and Hoid is clever and knowledgeable enough to engage in a lot of them, and very effectively. His limitations certainly don't extend to nudging other people towards violence and destruction, and psychic or emotional damage seem allowed for him (like his job as Wit in the Alethi court). If Hoid is the sort of person to be evil-ized by exposure to Nightblood he could do an incredible amount of damage in those ways. I was talking about Lord of the Rings in another thread, which leads me to think of an analogy: most people so affected by Nightblood use him to physically kill, maybe in the same sense that most people we see use the One Ring use it just to become invisible. Someone with more knowledge and scope could use it for a lot more.

I wonder how much Hoid's limitations would allow him to interact with Nightblood if he's not the sort of person affected by the sword's influence that way. I have to think he could carry the sword from place to place, but could he draw it from its sheath, knowing the effects that would impose on others? We know so little about the scope of Hoid's limitations and about the true nature of Nightblood its hard for me to be confident about much here. Maybe directly wielding Nightblood would force Hoid into the foreground of events, if nothing else, which he seems to have been avoiding.

[The RoseFire She/Her]

STOP HURTING MY HEAD!!!

[ChillPenguin]

We don’t know if Hoid could even hold Nightblood. He might get sick, like Vivenna or worse! We assume also that because Hoid is kind to others that he is good but we don’t really know that he is good. He could be extremely manipulative. Given that Nightblood reacts due to a person’s perception of themselves (if they are evil or not) it’s really hard to say. I’d bet Hoid doesn’t want to take that risk.