Nightblood doubt...?

[Xabben]

[WARNING, SPOILERS OF RoW]

At the end of RoW, Taravangian uses Nightblood to kill Odium. However, there is something a little bit strange in how Nightblood appears in Odium's vision. Some people say that Nightblood can appear in the vision due to the high amount of Investidure it contains. However, in that particular moment, the sword was inside its aluminum sheath, which should have "blocked" the effect of the Investidure. Am I missing something?

[Frustration]

It's not investiture. Odium's vision distorts the realms there. Taravangian's body is still in the physical realm, and he could grab Nightblood. Once Nightblood was in his hands Taravangian could bring Nightblood into the visions.

[Xabben]

9 hours ago, Frustration said:

It's not investiture. Odium's vision distorts the realms there. Taravangian's body is still in the physical realm, and he could grab Nightblood. Once Nightblood was in his hands Taravangian could bring Nightblood into the visions.

But the text explicitly states that Nightblood appears in the "Odium's realm" before Taravangian even grabs it...

PD: By the way, I wanted to include the exact citation here for reference, but I'm quite new to the forum and I don't know how to do it...

[Treamayne]

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1 hour ago, Xabben said:

But the text explicitly states that Nightblood appears in the "Odium's realm" before Taravangian even grabs it...

PD: By the way, I wanted to include the exact citation here for reference, but I'm quite new to the forum and I don't know how to do it...

RoW Ch 113:

Spoiler

Rumbling thunder. A brilliant, terrible golden light. Odium appeared. When he did, his face was distorted, his eyes shining with angry power. Thunder broke the landscape, and Szeth began to fade.

You should not tempt me today, Taravangian! Odium thundered. I have lost my champion AGAIN, and now I am bound by an agreement I do not want. How do they know how to move against me? HAVE YOU BETRAYED ME, TARAVANGIAN? Have you been speaking to Sja-anat? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

The awe of that force—that transcendent power—left Taravangian quivering, spren of a dozen varieties swirling around him, fighting for his attention. So many emotions. He barely noticed Szeth pulling the knife free, for he was so overwhelmed—awed, frightened, excited all at once.

Fear won.

Taravangian cried out, his shoulder afire with pain, his body broken. His plans had been silly. How had he thought to outthink a god when stupid? He couldn’t do that when smart. No wonder he’d failed.

Did you fail?

The sword is here.

Odium is here.

Cold steel bit Taravangian’s skin as Szeth stabbed him right in the chest. At the same moment, Taravangian felt something pushing through his fear, his pain. An emotion he’d never thought to feel himself. Bravery.

Bravery surged through him, so powerfully he could not help but move. It was the dying courage of a man on the front lines charging an enemy army. The glory of a woman fighting for her child. The feeling of an old man on his last day of life stepping into darkness.

Bravery.

The Physical Realm faded as Odium pulled Taravangian into the place between worlds. Taravangian’s body was not as weak here. This form was a manifestation of his mind and soul. And those were strong.

The sword at Szeth’s waist—that strange, terrible sword—manifested here, in this realm where Odium brought Taravangian. The god looked down and saw the curling black darkness, and seemed surprised.

Taravangian seized the sword and pulled it free of its scabbard, hearing it scream for pleasure. He turned and thrust it upward—black smoke curling around his hands.

“Destroy!” the sword bellowed. “DESTROY!”

Taravangian rammed it up into Odium’s chest.

The entire process of feeling brave, beginning to transition into the Spiritual Realm Demense and Drawing Nightblood is all simultaneous - and since it is formed using aspects of all three realms, Taravangian's thinking "Odium is here, Nightblood is here" is enough to Connect all three Cognitively. Nightblood is invested enough that he would appear in all three realms regardless, but Taravangian Connected to both Odium and Nightblood as the vision formed, and drew the sword. 

Hope that helps. 

[alder24]

The hilt is part of Nightblood in the same way his blade is, It's all him and the hilt is not blocked by aluminum. His hilt is not a blade so it doesn't cut anything or consume anything, because that's what hilts are. Nightblood is so invested that he manifests in all three realms simultaneously, when he's physically in the Physical Realm he manifests as a black smoke in the Cognitive Realm. Visions created by Honor and Odium are kind of in between the Cognitive and the Spiritual Realm and because Nightblood is so invested, he was pulled into Odium's vision as well. That's why Taravangian could have seen it and used it. 

Spoiler

Argent

How do visions in the cosmere work? And I'm thinking Realmatically.

Brandon Sanderson

So almost always [it's] glimpsing into the Spiritual Realm. But you are often seeing it through the Cognitive, and so like a vision that...

So like the vision that Dalinar sees. What's going on is-- being pulled, and kind of stretched a little bit through the Realms, into the Spiritual Realm.  Where a Cognitive construct is adding a framework to seeds that are set in place.

Argent

So that you can kind of comprehend the Spiritual?

Brandon Sanderson

You can comprehend-- and also there's a little bit of a life to it. Meaning it can respond to you and things like this, to an extent. So imagine, it kind of works like an AI. Imagine there's some-- You've got that power in the Spiritual Realm and you're adding a framework to it, that it is shining through, and that is giving you the vision. Complicated, I know. Spiritual Realm is supposed to be weird, and we aren't supposed to quite comprehend it, but that's why we've got the Cognitive framework there.

JordanCon 2018 (April 22, 2018)

 

Spoiler

Chaos

Is atium Invested?

Brandon Sanderson

Is atium Invested? Atium is Investiture distilled into the Physical Realm, right? So is electricity electric? Or is it--

Chaos

Well I think the question Sharders had was if it's Invested, how can people Push and Pull on it. That was the struggle.

Brandon Sanderson

Atium breaks a lot of rules, in the same way that you will see other things break rules. Atium plays weirdly. When you get distilled Investiture, you're starting like-- My kind of rule for myself is it's kind of like when you start going on the quantum level, the rules just start playing weirdly. Because it's like, what Realm does atium exist in-- is another thing. Because-- Pure Investiture like that is like a mini black hole, right? It's like existing in three Realms at once. Kind of, and things like that... There's lots of weirdness.

The writerly answer is there is lots of weirdness because when I built atium, I didn't have the rest of the cosmere built, right? And so it breaks a lot of rules that I later set up that everything else has to follow, right? So the writerly answer is we just have to accept that atium and lerasium and some of these other distilled Investiture things are going to play very weirdly with the magic systems. But that's okay. Nightblood will too, and some of these things that were built even after the cosmere was coming together.

Salt Lake City signing (Dec. 16, 2017)