Nightblood on Roshar?

[eszroth]

So I guess other shards effects last despite what world your on. I'm just wondering how Nightblood still has power and consciousness on Roshar without breaths. Also how is Vashor still alive since he needs one breath a week to stay alive? Can they substitute stormlight?

[Yata he/him]

Vasher has with him a great amount of Breath to use to his sustainment (but a Returned with manage to drawn in Stormlight may use Stormlight to remain alive).

About "Destroy Evil"'s CEO, Nightblood may feed of every king of Investiture (Breath, Mist, Feruchemical charge, Stormlight, Allomantic power, Soul, Dor, ecc...) therefore someone with some of this source of power may use it for some time (well if you have only your soul...you are pretty dead man). But to sustain his mind, Nightblood didn't need "extra fuel", this is needed only to unleash its full power.

[Eki]

We actually don't know if Vasher has tons of Breaths anymore. He has found a way to sustain himself on Stormlight. I'm guessing he does have Breaths in case of emergencies, but for now we don't know.

Actually I think Nightblood might need investiture to stay conscious (I think Lifeless need new Breaths sometimes in order to stay fresh, so other BioChromatic entities probably do too), but it's so little compared to what he already has, so it doesn't really matter.

[Pagerunner he/him]

In this interview, Brandon told us that Vasher is subsisting off of Stormlight instead of Breaths, and that it is relatively much easier to find Stormlight on Roshar than it is Breaths on Nalthis. All the power behind magic - the energy of the Dor, the pure power of Preservation in the Well or the Mists, Breath, and Stormlight - are all different forms of a single power, called Investiture. Returned don't need to consume Breath specifically - they consume Investiture, and Breath is the kind of Investiture that is readily available on Nalthis.

Not all power is completely interchangeable - Vasher cannot Awaken using Stormlight (at least, he hasn't figured it out yet; there's a long ways to go to his story yet). But he can consume it to stay alive.

[The Sovereign]

Relevant WoB:
 
 

Quote

Interview: Aug 6th, 2014

WOR-Manchester

BlackYeti

Did he [Vasher] actually come from Nalthis and not Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

I’m not going to actually answer that one. Well I can answer that: yes he does come from Nalthis. It’s pretty obvious that the way that the Breath’s working, the reason he moved is because it’s easier to get Stormlight than Breaths, and Stormlight can fuel being a Returned like him. And so yes, he was born on Nalthis. Becoming Returned without being born on Nalthis would be really hard.

Tags

vasher, returned, nalthis, stormlight, investiture,

Edit: Just realized Pagerunner beat me to it.

Edited June 23, 2016 by Iron Eyes

[Ardjet]

44 minutes ago, Eki said:

We actually don't know if Vasher has tons of Breaths anymore. He has found a way to sustain himself on Stormlight. I'm guessing he does have Breaths in case of emergencies, but for now we don't know.

We know he has life sense, as shown when he sensed Kaladin at night. So he's at at least the Fourth Heightening still, which requires around 1,000 Breaths.

Unless, of course, he can reach Heightenings with Stormlight alone, but this seems like it would be far more difficult.

[Argel he/him]

Yeah, pretty clear about the life sense:

Quote

Someone was near. Zahel awoke, snapping his eyes open, knowing instantly that someone was approaching his room.

Words of Radiance (p. 398). Kindle Edition.

 

[Eki]

On 06/23/2016 at 6:31 PM, Ardjet said:

We know he has life sense, as shown when he sensed Kaladin at night. So he's at at least the Fourth Heightening still, which requires around 1,000 Breaths.

Unless, of course, he can reach Heightenings with Stormlight alone, but this seems like it would be far more difficult.

He's still Returned, which at least gives him access to the Fifth Heightening. I'm not quite sure about the effects of suppressing the Divine Breath though. He could have refined his methods to be able to suppress his outward appearance without losing some of the powers. But you make a good point, and you're probably right.