Things that glow with darkness...

[Jofwu]

Anyone else notice the similarities between Skaze and Gavilar's black sphere?

Quote

He turned to regard his companion: a hovering dark sphere, about the size of a melon. It somehow *sucked in* the light, and didn't have distinct edges Hoid could make out--it just kind of blended out into the air, warping everything around it like a stone dropped onto a sheet of silk stretched tight.

Quote

Szeth hesitated, then knelt down and took the sphere. It was odd, unlike any he’d seen before. Though it was completely dark, it seemed to glow somehow. With a light that was black.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but two spherical things that "glow with blackness" seems notable.

You might also argue that Nightblood is relevant to the conversation... And Ruin's black mist?

I started a discussion about this on Discord, but wanted to share in the forums for further discussion. We talked a little bit about whether it implies relation to a particular Shard (probably not) and then wondered if it said something about the nature of the Investiture (i.e. corrupted? synthetic?). I wondered if it implies Seons and Skaze are related in the same way as spren and voidspren. A WoB on corrupted investiture is a little ways down in this post: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/53592-madison-wi-odessycon/#comment-429347 And there's this line related to Nightblood: "The blackness that leaks out is actually corrupted and consumed Breaths, the ones that Nightblood leeches off anyone who draws him."

If you want to dig up the full conversation it started at 23:08 EST on #cosmere.

Thoughts? Ideas?

[FiveLate]

On Galivar black sphere I think you needed to quote more.

Spoiler

“The Parshendi? That makes no sense.” Gavilar coughed, hand quivering, reaching toward his chest and fumbling at a pocket. He pulled out a small crystalline sphere tied to a chain. “You must take this. They must not get it.” He seemed dazed. “Tell … tell my brother … he must find the most important words a man can say. …” Gavilar fell still. Szeth hesitated, then knelt down and took the sphere. It was odd, unlike any he’d seen before. Though it was completely dark, it seemed to glow somehow. With a light that was black. The Parshendi? Gavilar had said. That makes no sense.

One other thing to take into consideration is this.

Spoiler

Szeth slammed his hand to the side, pushing Stormlight into the doorframe, using the third and final type of Lashing, a Reverse Lashing. This one worked differently from the other two. It did not make the doorframe emit Stormlight; indeed, it seemed to pull nearby light into it, giving it a strange penumbra.

Edit @jofwu

I think the crystalline part is important.  And the drawing in of light with a Reverse Lashing should be considered too.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2017 by FiveLate
Clarification

[king of nowhere]

4 hours ago, FiveLate said:

On Galivar black sphere I think you needed to quote more.

  Reveal hidden contents

“The Parshendi? That makes no sense.” Gavilar coughed, hand quivering, reaching toward his chest and fumbling at a pocket. He pulled out a small crystalline sphere tied to a chain. “You must take this. They must not get it.” He seemed dazed. “Tell … tell my brother … he must find the most important words a man can say. …” Gavilar fell still. Szeth hesitated, then knelt down and took the sphere. It was odd, unlike any he’d seen before. Though it was completely dark, it seemed to glow somehow. With a light that was black. The Parshendi? Gavilar had said. That makes no sense.

One other thing to take into consideration is this.

  Reveal hidden contents

Szeth slammed his hand to the side, pushing Stormlight into the doorframe, using the third and final type of Lashing, a Reverse Lashing. This one worked differently from the other two. It did not make the doorframe emit Stormlight; indeed, it seemed to pull nearby light into it, giving it a strange penumbra.

Edit @jofwu

I think the crystalline part is important.  And the drawing in of light with a Leningrad should be considered too.

 

 

I'mm really curious to know how "reverse lashing" could become "leningrad"

[Agent34]

1 minute ago, king of nowhere said:

I'mm really curious to know how "reverse lashing" could become "leningrad"

I'm guessing lashing was autocorrected? Maybe??

[Jofwu]

@FiveLate Yes! Those are relevant as well. Couldn't post in Discord for lack of spoiler control, and I was too lazy to dig up more quotes. I think there's a definite connection here. t don't mean to say that the black sphere and Skaze are directly related. But I feel that it MUST tell us something about the nature of the Investiture involved.

Corrupted Investiture perhaps? What does that mean exactly? The term gets used around Nightblood occasionally. The WoB above talks about it a little, but is vague. Sounds like it could, on one hand, refer to different types of Investiture being mixed. At face value, I think it implies one form of Investiture has been changed in some way into another. Or perhaps that one form of Investiture has been "damaged" in some way.
Also of note is that Hoid refers to the Skaze as a "synthetic race". If we can draw a connection with Nightblood, a "synthetic spren" so to speak, then perhaps there's something here? I don't think we know much about the Skaze, so this would be interesting insight into them.

What do you guys think?

Are there any cases where Nightblood seems to "suck in light"? Or is he and his effect always described as a simple blackness?

(Rejected thought: I wondered briefly if Odium could have been involved with them, as we suspect he might with the black sphere... But I think there is evidence against this? I don't think this would make sense considering Hoid appears to be working with them. And if Nightblood is connected, it's highly unlikely Odium was involved there.)

[Calderis]

5 minutes ago, jofwu said:

Are there any cases where Nightblood seems to "suck in light"? Or is he and his effect always described as a simple blackness?

I think every instance with Nightblood is just "black smoke" 

5 minutes ago, jofwu said:

What do you guys think?

Could the "synthetic" be as simple as they were made in a way that can't naturally occur? We know we're missing something with Nightblood. And we know almost nothing about the Skaze. 

As far as the Voidlight, I think we are looking at "mixed" or corrupted investiture. I think that it is Stormlight, corrupted by Odium. If he can do it to spren, why not Stormlight. On that not though, why are corrupted spren red and not black? 

[Steeldancer]

Just now, Calderis said:

I think every instance with Nightblood is just "black smoke" 

Could the "synthetic" be as simple as they were made in a way that can't naturally occur? We know we're missing something with Nightblood. And we know almost nothing about the Skaze. 

As far as the Voidlight, I think we are looking at "mixed" or corrupted investiture. I think that it is Stormlight, corrupted by Odium. If he can do it to spren, why not Stormlight. On that not though, why are corrupted spren red and not black? 

Because red is cooler than black. 

[Toaster Retribution]

@Calderis

It might be something in the style of corrupted investiture being black, and corrupted sentient things being red. 

Odium could by the way be the connection between Skaze and black spheres. He was on Sel after all, and you can blame the Skaze on him (really, you can blame the whole mess that is Sels magic on him). Point being, Odium might have specifically created the Skaze from Skais investiture, maybe in order to "put it somewhere" like Sazed has to do with Ruins investiture.

Also @Flash, black is way cooler than red. 

[Steeldancer]

3 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

@Calderis

It might be something in the style of corrupted investiture being black, and corrupted sentient things being red. 

Odium could by the way be the connection between Skaze and black spheres. He was on Sel after all, and you can blame the Skaze on him (really, you can blame the whole mess that is Sels magic on him). Point being, Odium might have specifically created the Skaze from Skais investiture, maybe in order to "put it somewhere" like Sazed has to do with Ruins investiture.

Also @Flash, black is way cooler than red. 

According to mistborn 2, no. Red is flashier. I personally don't agree with that, but in the cosmere... I think breeze was onto something. 

[+Extesian]

Note that I researched this and started this post before The Chapters. So I'll keep this shorter than I'd like. 

As I said on Discord, I think it's a good observation. There is very little on Skaze and not much on the black sphere. Same with the specific topic of Nightblood's black smoke. And I'll add in one that's just as tenuous, Shades.

So firstly, on the black sphere, we have this extra information from the Oathbringer prologue, which I assume I can spoiler here. 

Spoiler

Quote

A sphere? It was dark, yet somehow still glowed. As if it had . . . an aura of blackness, a phantom light that was not light. Faintly violet. It seemed to suck in the light around it.

The light is not black, it was faintly violet with an aura of blackness. Te violet gives it less in common with the other examples but the aura of blackness, I think, gives it more. 

I read through the relevant parts of Warbreaker and Shadows for Silence. 

Here's an interesting part with Warbreaker

Quote

He ran forward and grabbed Nightblood’s hilt and pulled the sword free, leaving the sheath behind in the body.
The blade sprayed a wave of black liquid as he swung it. The liquid dissolved into smoke before touching walls or floor, like water in an oven.
Smoke twisted, some rising from the blade, some falling in a stream to the floor, dripping like black blood.

...

 single scratch and the bodies dissolved like paper being consumed
by an invisible fire, leaving behind only a large stain of blackness in the air

...

Black smoke churned around him, and his arm twisted with pain as veinlike
tendrils climbed up the hilt and around his forearm—like black blood vessels that latched on to his skin, feeding off his Breath

...

The black veins on his skin slowly evaporated.

 It doesn't seem anywhere that the light is sucked into the smoke, it's just black. But I still think there could be a link with black meaning corrupted investiture. Whether corrupted means mixed Shards or investiture that has become unusable (or the waste product of nighblood eating investiture) I don't know. 

With Threnody, the Shades go from bright to black when they're enraged.  I was going through thoughts about this being stepping from Ambitions investiture to Odium's (as the battle between the Shards surely didn't only hurt Ambition) but I have nothing to really propose. The Shades eyes also go from green when they're alert to red when they're enraged. Again could be different Shards investiture but seems tenuous. 

So what I'm saying is I've got nothing. But I did do the leg work to think there's no stronger canon connection than what I've posted. But I think it raises important questions about corrupted investiture, what corrupted means and whether there's a link between Roshar, Sel and Threnody - that of Odium's interference in those systems. 

[FiveLate]

5 hours ago, Extesian said:

So firstly, on the black sphere, we have this extra information from the Oathbringer prologue, which I assume I can spoiler here. 

  Hide contents

Quote

A sphere? It was dark, yet somehow still glowed. As if it had . . . an aura of blackness, a phantom light that was not light. Faintly violet. It seemed to suck in the light around it.

The light is not black, it was faintly violet with an aura of blackness. Te violet gives it less in common with the other examples but the aura of blackness, I think, gives it more. 

I read through the relevant parts of Warbreaker and Shadows for Silence. 

Here's an interesting part with Warbreaker

Blackness, faintly violet overtones.  this makes me think of a black light, which is mostly UVA.

[Shuffel]

To fit the theme of black. White sand turns black after use. Not glowing but maybe relevant.

Edit: The Elantrians in SH draw in light as well.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Shuffel

[Asrael]

It's not fully an idea so much as a thought but could it have anything to do with end-negativity? Like these various things are more "greedy" with their power source in some regard? Or with energy in general? Maybe these things that suck in light actually suck in light somehow to supplement their own power, perhaps instead of consuming more investiture.

And I would agree that given the similarity of skaze and voidspren and the difference between Nightblood and the others there must be a significant difference between the two phenomena observed (that I don't think is simple which shard their power is associated with)