Nightblood

[Shadowrunner]

Simple but important question: What does Nightblood do to a shard? (Don't know i this has been discussed or not)

 

Edited February 26, 2018 by Shadowrunner
spelling

[+Extesian he/him]

Theoretically damage but not destroy or splinter one. The issue to me is that Nightblood attacks the spiritual through the physical and the question is how exactly you attack the physical aspect of a shard. Through a perpendicularity? We don't really know. 

Here are the relevant Words of Brandon. 

Quote

Questioner

Hypothetically could Nightblood Splinter a Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh, Splintering a Shard takes more power than Nightblood has.

Source

Quote

Argent

Can Nightblood damage or kill a Shard? Is he that powerful?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood is not powerful enough for-- *makes weird/hesitant ehhh sound*

Argent

Can it damage?

Brandon Sanderson

Damage? Yes. How damaging? Is a subject to discussion. Nightblood contains a lot of Investiture.

Source

Quote

Iceblade44

if you were to chuck Nightblood into a Shard that had the intent of Evil would Nightblood splinter it?

Brandon Sanderson

Splintering is a completely different process from what Nightblood does.

Source

 

[Eerongal he/him]

Moved to Cosmere Q&A section

[RShara she/her]

He might damage it but there's way too much power there for him to destroy it.

[Shadowrunner]

Then does that mean if Susebron were to make an awakened sword by pouring all, and i mean all, of his breath into it, with a very, very specific command, that he could make a sword capable?

 

[Weltall]

9 hours ago, Shadowrunner said:

Then does that mean if Susebron were to make an awakened sword by pouring all, and i mean all, of his breath into it, with a very, very specific command, that he could make a sword capable?

Doubtful. Even if you grant that Susebron could make such a weapon, you still have the question of what you'd actually hit with Nightblood in the Physical and how much of the Shard you're really damaging that way. Even Perpendicularities which can contain a lot of Investiture may be less-so than Nightblood depending, and definitely do not represent anything close to the totality of a Shard's power in any event. There's also the question of whether you could cram much more Breath into a sword-sized vessel than Nightblood already has; Brandon was asked whether you could turn a Shardblade/Nightblood into a hemalurgic spike and he replied that in theory you could but at the same time, those are so heavily Invested already that they can be argued as being 'full' and thus can't be Invested further.

[Shadowrunner]

What about multiple divine breath?

 

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, Shadowrunner said:

What about multiple divine breath?

You can Awaken with a Divine Breath but 'Investiture fullness' isn't based on Breath counts but rather total Investiture in the system, so there should still be an upper limit to how much Investiture you can shove in any given bit of metal whether you're using a lot of ordinarly Breaths or a small number of superpowered ones. Also, Brandon was asked about whether a Divine Breath could heal the mental damage Leras was suffering from and mentioned that such a thing would be well beyond the amount of Investiture it could provide (source) so extrapolating to other uses it's unlikely that multiple Divine Breaths in an Awakened sword would grant it the power to splinter a Shard. The things are powerful but compared to a full Shard we're still talking 'ants on a runway' level.

[Tineye Navigator he/him]

Whether or not nightblood can damage a vessel is one question, And that depends on whether or not you can get to a perpendicularity, But Brandon has specifically said that Nightblood cannot splinter a shard. The power that Rayse, or Odium uses to splinter shards must be far more horrific, and/or powerful. I imagine that wielding Nightblood through the essence of Perservation and Ruin, before Sazed took them, would basically do nothing to the essence of the Shard.

 

[Themasterhunter]

Does nightblood's "destroy evil" directive really change anything even if the shard he was directed at was evil itself

 

[RShara she/her]

4 minutes ago, Themasterhunter said:

Does nightblood's "destroy evil" directive really change anything even if the shard he was directed at was evil itself

 

I think it's a matter of power and capability rather than anything to do with his Command.  A Shard is magnitudes of power higher than Nightblood and has multiple methods of keeping Nightblood away or just destroying him.