VirtuousTraveller Posted November 2, 2016 Report Share Posted November 2, 2016 We know that a divine breath is a splinter of Endowment, which is given to every Returned. We know that every Nalthian has a breath, which is the power of life - " a certain BioChromatic Investiture" according to the Coppermind. Nightblood required 1,000 breaths to create. We know that splinters can, over time, develop sentience on their own. Can investiture (not necessarily a splinter) develop sentience on its own? In other words, could Nightblood be considered a splinter of Endowment, since it was created with a significant amount of Endowment's investiture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yata Posted November 2, 2016 Report Share Posted November 2, 2016 Yes Nightblood would be probably classificated as "anomalous" Endowment's Splinter, many time Mister Sanderson call it a "robot Spren" or something like a Frankenstein Spren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eki Posted November 2, 2016 Report Share Posted November 2, 2016 Like Yata says, Nightblood has been compared to other splinters by Brandon. I think it might be a little more complicated, since Nightblood seems to be a bunch of Investure connected to a physical object (would Nightblood, or its mind, still exist if the blade itself disappeared?), and not just sentient Investiture. (Cosmere spoilers) Spoiler I guess it could be more comparable to Seons and Skaze, where the symbol in the middle of them is the actual splinter. In that anology, Nightblood's mind (or something) would be the splinter. But as Yata says, Brandon called it "robot spren", and has said that it is, by definition, a shardblade. So the short answer is yes, Nightblood is a splinter. The slightly longer answer is still yes, but it might be a little bit more complicated than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted November 2, 2016 Report Share Posted November 2, 2016 A Divine Breath is known to be a splinter and gives the equivalent of two thousand Breaths in one, Nightblood has at least half that and it's the mass of investiture that made it sentient so yeah, I'd say it's functionally a splinter of Endowment even if it wasn't deliberately created by the Shard in the way Divine Breaths are. 18 minutes ago, Eki said: I think it might be a little more complicated, since Nightblood seems to be a bunch of Investure connected to a physical object (would Nightblood, or its mind, still exist if the blade itself disappeared?), and not just sentient Investiture. Reveal hidden contents I guess it could be more comparable to Seons and Skaze, where the symbol in the middle of them is the actual splinter. In that anology, Nightblood's mind (or something) would be the splinter. But as Yata says, Brandon called it "robot spren", and has said that it is, by definition, a shardblade. Maybe Nightblood would become a cognitive shadow if the physical blade were destroyed? Though given that WoB says it's about the most heavily invested thing out there it would probably be really really hard to manage that in any case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goody153 Posted November 3, 2016 Report Share Posted November 3, 2016 Yeah nightblood is a splinter for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZenBossanova Posted November 17, 2016 Report Share Posted November 17, 2016 I have wondered if Cultivation could help Nightblood either grow, or mature or be a little less dangerous. I would be interesting to have some character growth for the sword. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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