Nightblood questions

[Adonalsium Will Return He/him]

1. In RoW, why did Nightblood not instakill Taravangian when he drew it? He had no Investiture for it to feed on, right?

2. Could Lift with bendalloy compounding be able to use Nightblood for, like, a while?

3. What do you think some other Commands could be for the thousand Breath Awakening?

[alder24]

29 minutes ago, Adonalsium Will Return said:

1. In RoW, why did Nightblood not instakill Taravangian when he drew it? He had no Investiture for it to feed on, right?

He was fast and this was happening more in the Spiritual Realm where time flew differently than it was in the Physical Realm. Nightblood doesn't kill his bearers instantly, for example in OB Szeth ran out of Stormlight and stayed alive for a while as the gray vines were covering his body. 

36 minutes ago, Adonalsium Will Return said:

2. Could Lift with bendalloy compounding be able to use Nightblood for, like, a while?

Yes.

37 minutes ago, Adonalsium Will Return said:

3. What do you think some other Commands could be for the thousand Breath Awakening?

Really hard to say. It depends on the shape of an object and what you want it to do, but try to avoid abstract concepts like evil in your Command. 

Spoiler

Questioner

If Vasher and Shashara had Awakened a non-weapon in exactly the same way as Nightblood (say a shield), would the object exhibit the same properties as Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

So, if you said "destroy evil" to a shield... no, it wouldn't be exactly the same. The Command is the most important part of all of this, but the shape, how the weapon perceives itself, how you perceive it, is all gonna play into this. They're playing with some real dangerous stuff when they made Nightblood. And it didn't go as intended.

San Diego Comic-Con@Home 2020 (July 23, 2020)

 

[ParaTulip fae/faer (declines as she/her)]

I imagine Thousand Breath Commands are all going to be hugely weighty things. You could probably do crazy stuff like "Be fruitful and multiply" or "Seek truth". I doubt anything less intensely abstract and broad takes that much power for the Awakening to work.

I would probably go with "Reveal true beauty" for my choice if someone asked me what could possibly be worth doing it. I would give that command to a clear, silver, mirror and hope that the object helps people be authentic and splendid versions of themselves. Maybe have the frame be copper and bronze braiding, for memory and spiritual perception, and some emeralds and zircons, for the association with Truthwatchers and Elsecallers, settings to further clarify the purpose.

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

52 minutes ago, ParaTulip said:

I imagine Thousand Breath Commands are all going to be hugely weighty things. You could probably do crazy stuff like "Be fruitful and multiply" or "Seek truth". I doubt anything less intensely abstract and broad takes that much power for the Awakening to work.

 

The Breath cost was not because of the abstract command, it was because they were Awakening steel.

53 minutes ago, ParaTulip said:

I would probably go with "Reveal true beauty" for my choice if someone asked me what could possibly be worth doing it. I would give that command to a clear, silver, mirror and hope that the object helps people be authentic and splendid versions of themselves.

This is the same problem as Nightblood. How does the mirror know what "true beauty" is? Its hasn't been alive before, and has no real connection to the idea.

54 minutes ago, ParaTulip said:

Maybe have the frame be copper and bronze braiding, for memory and spiritual perception, and some emeralds and zircons, for the association with Truthwatchers and Elsecallers, settings to further clarify the purpose.

I doubt those would have any effect, or at least not this way. I don't know how metals affect awakened objects, but how would the gems do anything? The orders were made because spren tried to mimic the Heralds and are not truly tied to the fabric of the Cosmere. 

5 hours ago, Adonalsium Will Return said:

3. What do you think some other Commands could be for the thousand Breath Awakening?

Maybe Awakened metalminds for FTL travel? Something like, "guide me to any coordinates I provide you with", and give it access to a giant map of the Cosmere.

[ParaTulip fae/faer (declines as she/her)]

4 hours ago, Through The Living Grub said:

This is the same problem as Nightblood. How does the mirror know what "true beauty" is? Its hasn't been alive before, and has no real connection to the idea.

[snipped]

I doubt those would have any effect, or at least not this way. I don't know how metals affect awakened objects, but how would the gems do anything? The orders were made because spren tried to mimic the Heralds and are not truly tied to the fabric of the Cosmere. 

It will learn by watching, by trying. The goal with the metal and the gemstones is to hopefully to crate Connections to patterns outside the mirror so it can become like those things but also something different. By crafting the mirror thus, I am making sure the command has Intents to pick up on and to know what I mean by "reveal true beauty".

The issue is not one of sufficient calculation and precise terms, it is about sculpting the meanings for the words "truth and beauty" by examples and by laying down pathways. If you think you need to put the full command into words, then it would be like this:

Quote

Mirror, receive my breath and be as thus:

Capacious in memory as an archivist,

Sensing of spiritual activity as a seeker,

Illuminating as a Truthwatcher,

And see with the grand vision of an Elsecaller,

Do these things so you may reveal true beauty in all things before you.