Breaths

[Merrickz he/him]

So quick question, are people to transfer limited numbers of breaths (i.e. Not all of there breaths) to another person? And if so what are the words they have to say?

Admittedly I haven't read Warbreaker in a while so can't remember if this is ever addressed

Thanks

[RShara she/her]

Actually, it just involves a couple of hoops. You Awaken something with an invalid Command, so that part of your Breath goes into the object but doesn't do anything (or I guess you could actually Awaken it if you want). That stores some of your Breath. Repeat till you only have the number of Breaths you want to give away. Give them away. Then take back the Breaths you put in the object(s).

[Weltall]

Yes, Brandon has said that it's possible to transfer only some of your Breaths using the standard 'My life to yours, my Breath become yours' command. However, most people don't know this is possible and believe it's all-or-nothing, which is how Denth is able to get away with lying about it to Vivenna. Giving away only some Breath has to do with practice and how you visualise the Command.

Quote

Mark

It was said throughout the book that you cannot just give some of your breath, but must give all of it. Perhaps I'm simply forgetting part of the book where this changes, but wouldn't Vasher have to give his Returned breath along with his others?

Brandon Sanderson

The "You must give up all of your Breath, not some" line was mostly perpetuated by Denth, who is saying it to Vivenna to stop her from giving away her Breath to all the people she passes. It is a lie. Now, it's a lie that's commonly accepted by a lot of people. But it's still a lie—as we find out midway through the book, you can stick some of your Breath in an object and bring it to life, and then recover that Breath. So it's very easy to give some of your Breath to someone if you know the logical steps to take. Invest most of it into an object, give what you have to someone else, then pull back what you Invested. So it's flat-out proven in the novel that what Denth is telling her is wrong. Now, he could dance around that lie by pretending to be the ignorant mercenary—he's just perpetuating a falsehood that many people believe. But it is a lie. In fact, a lot of the things people believe about BioChromatic Breath isn't true.

One of the things I was trying with this book was to take a few steps back from MISTBORN, where so much was understood. I feel that the approach I took in MISTBORN is right for that book, and yet people have so much superstition regarding all sorts of science. I worry sometimes that there isn't enough superstition in my books, regarding magic as science. What people believed and what people knew and what people understood was so varied and confused throughout most of history, that I worry that I lack realism in that. Vasher brings up at several points in the book that they don't know a whole lot and that people perpetuate a lot of myths and stories and lies.

Vasher has learned to suppress his Returned Breath. When it's suppressed, it's as if it doesn't exist to him. He's Invested it into a place within himself, much like you can Invest your Breaths into a shirt, and when he gives away the rest of his Breaths, he doesn't give that one away. He could split off others of his Breaths if he wanted to—he's learned to do that, so that he could give a few Breaths and not all. It's just a matter of practicing as long as he has. But even people who aren't as practiced as him do it all the time when they Invest an object with not all of their Breath but just enough to bring it to life

source

 

Edited May 4, 2018 by Weltall

[Gray to he/him]

Quote: "Vasher paused on the street, setting the girl down. 'Child,' he said. " I'm going to say some words to you. I want you to repeat them. Repeat them, and mean them.'...And with that extra awareness she had, she thought she saw something. The girls Biochromatic aura-the normal one that all people had-flickered just slightly."

So this is right after Vasher and Vivenna save that one priest's daughter. I've always assumed Vasher was giving her one of his Breaths. It seems like the recipient has to say the Command, which is weird because that sounds like taking and not giving which is what Endowment is all about. Unfortunately he makes Vivenna back off so we don't get to hear what the Command is.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Gray to
Spelling

[Yata he/him]

2 hours ago, Gray to said:

Quote: "Vasher paused on the street, setting the girl down. 'Child,' he said. " I'm going to say some words to you. I want you to repeat them. Repeat them, and mean them.'...And with that extra awareness she had, she thought she saw something. The girls Biochromatic aura-the normal one that all people had-flickered just slightly."

So this is right after Vasher and Vivenna save that one priest's daughter. I've always assumed Vasher was giving her one of his Breaths. It seems like the recipient has to say the Command, which is weird because that sounds like taking and not giving which is what Endowment is all about. Unfortunately he makes Vivenna back off so we don't get to hear what the Command is.

Vasher gave to the girl the Command She need to spoke for erasing her own memory (the same offered to Denth in the end). The Command of course is powered by the girl's Breath.

At this point we don't know if the Breath is consumed or not in doing that. There are two possible scenarios:

- the Self-awakening consumes Breath and in this case Vasher gave also a Breath to the girl to be' used (unlikely because Viv would register the huge increase)

- the Self-awakening doesn't consume the Breath and the flickering in the Breath was just the Breath performing his Command and then returning passive

[Gray to he/him]

Whoa I didn't even know Self-awakening was a thing.