Another Nightblood thread.

[Calderis]

I realize the annotations have been a weak point in my cosmere knowledge, and have been reading through them and came to this. 

It's the from the spoilered section of chapter 47 annotations. 

https://brandonsanderson.com/annotation-warbreaker-chapter-forty-seven/

Spoiler

Lightsong Thinks about How Hallandren Wouldn’t Fall

He’s wrong here. If he hadn’t intervened and taken responsibility, the God King would have died, and another Manywar would have begun. It would have ended with Hallandren in flames, destroyed by the advancing Idrian coalition, who by then would have gained the secret to creating swords like Nightblood from Yesteel, who is hiding in one of the kingdoms across the mountains and who secretly knows what Vasher did to create the sword. He would have brought his kingdom into the conflict. And the world would have burned.

So Yesteel know the process to create Nightblood.

If the Idrian coalition could do it, then it is most likely a process consisting solely of Awakening. Eliminating the need for any off world investiture. 

If Yesteel already knows, than it's also perfectly plausible to believe Nightblood is not alone. 

I really should have read these annotations sooner. 

[+Extesian]

4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I realize the annotations have been a weak point in my cosmere knowledge, and have been reading through them and came to this. 

It's the from the spoilered section of chapter 47 annotations. 

https://brandonsanderson.com/annotation-warbreaker-chapter-forty-seven/

  Hide contents

Lightsong Thinks about How Hallandren Wouldn’t Fall

He’s wrong here. If he hadn’t intervened and taken responsibility, the God King would have died, and another Manywar would have begun. It would have ended with Hallandren in flames, destroyed by the advancing Idrian coalition, who by then would have gained the secret to creating swords like Nightblood from Yesteel, who is hiding in one of the kingdoms across the mountains and who secretly knows what Vasher did to create the sword. He would have brought his kingdom into the conflict. And the world would have burned.

So Yesteel know the process to create Nightblood.

If the Idrian coalition could do it, then it is most likely a process consisting solely of Awakening. Eliminating the need for any off world investiture. 

If Yesteel already knows, than it's also perfectly plausible to believe Nightblood is not alone. 

I really should have read these annotations sooner. 

WOAH

[Calderis]

4 minutes ago, Extesian said:

WOAH

Just about the same reaction I had. 

[Yata]

Yeah It was a well known thing.

Is One of the reasons I spoke aganist the Nightblood=Awakened Sprenblade

[Steeldancer]

Why haven't you guys read the annotations? There is some crazy stuff in there 

[WhiteLeeopard]

Its entirely possible that Vasher deals with Yesteel in the second Warkbreaker book, which could reduce or eliminate the possibility of more swords like Nightblood. 

Personally I feel as uncomfortable with the idea of multiple Nightbloods as Vasher is. Nightblood is awesome, but have too many and it becomes a nightmare.

[Calderis]

3 hours ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

Personally I feel as uncomfortable with the idea of multiple Nightbloods as Vasher is. Nightblood is awesome, but have too many and it becomes a nightmare.

While Nightblood is awesome, I think he's pretty damned terrifying all on his own. 

[WhiteLeeopard]

1 hour ago, Calderis said:

While Nightblood is awesome, I think he's pretty damned terrifying all on his own. 

Thats totally true. Now imagine him multiplied by a thousand. And lets practice the common "trip your partner while running for the hills". 

[cometaryorbit]

This is also mentioned in the ch 55 annotation. I still want to know why multiple Nightbloods would be so decisive in war though. Nightblood's terrifying on a personal scale, but he's rather obvious - it seems like it would be easy to target the wielders from a distance with crossbows, and Nightblood doesn't seem to give any resistance to that.

[Calderis]

1 hour ago, cometaryorbit said:

This is also mentioned in the ch 55 annotation. I still want to know why multiple Nightbloods would be so decisive in war though. Nightblood's terrifying on a personal scale, but he's rather obvious - it seems like it would be easy to target the wielders from a distance with crossbows, and Nightblood doesn't seem to give any resistance to that.

Considering his black smoke is able to vaporize walls, I feel that projectiles would never reach their target. 

[+Extesian]

1 hour ago, cometaryorbit said:

This is also mentioned in the ch 55 annotation. I still want to know why multiple Nightbloods would be so decisive in war though. Nightblood's terrifying on a personal scale, but he's rather obvious - it seems like it would be easy to target the wielders from a distance with crossbows, and Nightblood doesn't seem to give any resistance to that.

I always bring it back to this when someone is sceptical of Nightblood's power. 

Quote

The waves of men pointed toward one figure at the center. A woman, vaguely depicted by a couple of curved brushstrokes. And yet it was obvious. She stood high, as if atop a cresting wave of crashing soldiers, caught in mid-motion, head flung back, her arm upraised. Holding a deep black sword that darkened the red sky around it. “The Battle of Twilight Falls,” Llarimar said quietly, standing beside him in the white hallway. “Last conflict of the Manywar.”

Cresting waves of crashing soldiers all charging one woman with a sword. There's no way that's just hams to hand combat. Nightblood fully invested i think is a weapon of mass destruction. Brandon also says Nightblood is one of the most dangerous things in the Cosmere and that he can do 'funky' things when fully invested. 

[cometaryorbit]

1 hour ago, Calderis said:

Considering his black smoke is able to vaporize walls, I feel that projectiles would never reach their target. 

The wall vaporizes when Nightblood hits it. I think Nightblood would have to actually come into physical contact to destroy projectiles; while Nightblood gives you increased speed, it wouldn't be enough to block a sustained shower of crossbow bolts from many different enemies.

The number of Breaths needed would mean that Nightblood-type weapons would be rare even if their creation method was universally known; the opponent could easily have dozens or hundreds of soldiers and Lifeless directing a rain of arrows/bolts onto each Nightblood-wielder.

35 minutes ago, Extesian said:

I always bring it back to this when someone is sceptical of Nightblood's power. 

Cresting waves of crashing soldiers all charging one woman with a sword.

To me that description sounds like the enemy soldiers were charging to melee range, at which point, yeah, they'd get chopped up.

But I can't really see what Nightblood or its wielder could do if they stood 100 yards away and fired bows/crossbows.

37 minutes ago, Extesian said:

Nightblood fully invested i think is a weapon of mass destruction. Brandon also says Nightblood is one of the most dangerous things in the Cosmere and that he can do 'funky' things when fully invested. 

Oh, I don't doubt that he is that dangerous (or, not since I saw the chapter 55 annotation - I used to think Vasher was obsessed/monomaniacal on the topic). But I'd really like to know how - none of the powers we've seen so far seem to work beyond the radius of Nightblood's "aura of nausea/fatal attraction" which seems pretty small.

[Calderis]

4 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

Oh, I don't doubt that he is that dangerous (or, not since I saw the chapter 55 annotation - I used to think Vasher was obsessed/monomaniacal on the topic). But I'd really like to know how - none of the powers we've seen so far seem to work beyond the radius of Nightblood's "aura of nausea/fatal attraction" which seems pretty small.

The problem here, is we've only seen Nightblood drawn once. And relatively speaking, by how Brandon has spoken of the things Nightblood can do, he was nowhere near full power. 

Considering how much more readily available investiture is on Roshar, I think we'll see how truly frightening Nightblood is. 

I think that as he starts consuming faster and manifesting more strongly, he won't need to physically touch anything, and his range will increase dramatically.

If he were as limited as you describe, I can't imagine Vasher feeling he needed to kill his wife to keep the method of his creation secret. 

Nalthis has a much more restricted access to available investiture. If the things Vasher had seen Nightblood do weren't truly horrifying, and easily replicated, Shashara would still be alive. On Roshar those things will be even easier to achieve. 

[LH1407]

Noob here, how do I get the annotations?

Edit: nevermind apparently they are online

Edit 2: Ok, those annotations were super interesting to read. Is brandon planning to also do annotations for Stormlight, or will he have to wait until it is done?

Edited June 9, 2017 by LH1407

[+hwiles]

On 6/7/2017 at 10:00 PM, cometaryorbit said:

.........

But I can't really see what Nightblood or its wielder could do if they stood 100 yards away and fired bows/crossbows.

Oh, I don't doubt that he is that dangerous (or, not since I saw the chapter 55 annotation - I used to think Vasher was obsessed/monomaniacal on the topic). But I'd really like to know how - none of the powers we've seen so far seem to work beyond the radius of Nightblood's "aura of nausea/fatal attraction" which seems pretty small.

Awakening requires physical touch and vocal commands...Unless you have enough breath, in which case, objects can be awakened at a distance and with thought.  My point is that we've seen action at a distance effects in awakening already.  Nightblood himself causes madness and nausea at a distance at baseline.  With enough Breath, Nightblood may be able to kill via proximity.

Nightblood might be able to stop or disintegrate arrows in flight, but he could still potentially devastate a battlefield without this power:

1. His wielder could have an awakened cloak that catches arrows...
2. Every Breath Nightblood consumes fuels his ability to vacuum up Breath from his wielder more powerfully; at some point it's possible that he'd be able to start vacuuming up the Breath of nearby people who aren't his wielder, consuming souls in a rapidly expanding radius of death.  After all, Nightblood doesn't ask permission before consuming his user, just ask the confused guy with the grey hand in Hallandren.
3. Alternatively, it would also be consistent with what we know about Awakening that feeding Nightblood enough Breath could to allow him to simply extend the reach and power of his aura.  He might not be able to feast on distant soldiers' souls, but he might be able to cause them to kill themselves and each other from, again, a rapidly expanding radius of death, which is almost as good.  If people can't get within a few hundred yards of you without going mad, they'll have a hard time hurting you.

Obviously it's all very speculative at this point, but just remember, Vasher killed his wife to keep knowledge of Nightblood secret.  He participated in a world war with her, committed crimes against humanity at her side, and loved her while wading through an endless bog of fire and blood, but the thought of the knowledge of Nightblood's creation getting out was where he drew the line.