Denth and Vasher question

[sakage]

i'm doing a reread of the series and ive realized that aside from one instance with vasher early on, we dont see either of them get their weekly breath sustenance. on top of that, vivenna doesnt notice that denth has an obnoxiously strong breath like all the other returned do.

 

what gives? i havent found an explanation yet. 

[Krelian]

Brandon has said that the exact way that Vasher and Denth disguise their divine Breath would be covered in the next book. 

 

Additionally, if they had stores of Breath (which Vasher at least certainly did), those can be consumed at the pace of one per week instead of needing an offering every week. 

 

Denth must have been storing his in clothing or something and then re-absorbing them just when he needed to use one up, I guess?

[BlairJ he/him]

I thought of this as well, and I agree with Krelian that they could have been using their stores of Breath.  Another thing that is possible is that Denth and Vasher were taking weekly Breaths, we just don't hear about it.  While Vasher ended up being a main character and much more, there are lengthy periods of time that we do not hear about what he is up to.  Same goes for Denth.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Vasher mentions in the last(?) chapter that he's consumed almost all of his vast hoard of Breath over the years.

[sakage]

ahhhh. that makes sense that they would able to use one of the breaths that they had stored for awakening to stay alive. 

[happyman he/him]

Vasher's method is stated almost explicitely.  It's a large part of the reason why he needed to get breaths at the beginning of the book; he had used up his immense supply.  Not only did he need it to awaken; he was running low, long-term-planning-wise.

 

Denth is a more interesting question, but it isn't hard to come up with ways that he could have done it.  He probably did have a relatively small stash stored away somewhere, and I suspect he bought breaths on the black market or stole them outright to keep himself supplied.  In the annotations, Brandon mentioned that Denth wanted the Breath's Vivenna had, and letting her think otherwise was just a way to keep her under control.  When the maskerade fell apart, getting her breath's was his first priority.

 

Edited to add:  He couldn't steal the breath's outright, as stated in the book.  I suspect that he was *very* good at persuasion when he wanted to be.  However, I suspect that he bought most of his breath's on the black market.  That's a lot safer, long-term.

Edited April 2, 2013 by happyman

[Morsk he/him]

I keep reading this thread title as "Darth Vader question" when I scan over it in the list. It's happened like 3 times...

[Leuthie]

That hide their Divine Breaths by believing themselves to be less than they are: Vasher a hobo, Denth a common mercenary.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

That hide their Divine Breaths by believing themselves to be less than they are: Vasher a hobo, Denth a common mercenary.

It's more complicated than just that, though belief is part of it

[HemalurgyIsMessy]

I thought the "belief" part of it just related to physical appearance, not necessarily hiding their huge Returned breath. 

[AerionBFII he/him]

I thought they put all their Breath in to like a handkerchief or something and withdrew it when they needed it, since technically their not holding the Breath Life sense doesn't work on Drabs plus they can Shape shift or take the appearance of what they believe themselves to look like. I imagine with mental training they can use that ability at will

[Shardmancer he/him]

As with many of Sanderson's books its all about perception. We know them being the original 5 scholars they know more tricks than they lead on, and changing disguise and hiding breath is proabably just the start. Im sure there are many other tricks not relieved that we just have to assume they know..

 

We all know Vasher knows a lot more tricks than he leads on...
 
 

[Kobold King he/him]

I keep reading this thread title as "Darth Vader question" when I scan over it in the list. It's happened like 3 times...

And now that the topic's been revived, I'm seeing "Darth Vader question" on the front page too. I guess it's cool to see that even a year later, people are still seeing the exact same phrase here.

And now I'm contemplating posting a thread called "Darth Vader question" just to see if people will mistake it for "Denth and Vasher question".

[BreathTaker he/him]

And now I'm contemplating posting a thread called "Darth Vader question" just to see if people will mistake it for "Denth and Vasher question".

 

I was just thinking the same thing Kobold King.

[Lightsworn Panda he/him]

 

Quote

And now I'm contemplating posting a thread called "Darth Vader question" just to see if people will mistake it for "Denth and Vasher question".

 

I was just thinking the same thing Kobold King.

And so was I. I came in because of that, actually.

[Aether he/him]

But could we maybe not keep jumping in to say so? It is a bit annoying that this Thread is being necroed solely because of this, with nothing new to add to the discussion.

[Lightsworn Panda he/him]

Okay, to re-rail the topic.

 

Vasher mentioned he had many secrets about his powers, like giving someone breath but not his Divine Breath. Perhaps the same applies to this question.