Feeding on Stormlight

[rjl]

I'm sure someone else will have noticed this but I can't see a topic.

Quote

This sword gave the assassin power to use Lashings, but it also fed upon his Stormlight. A person who uses this will need far, far more Light than you will. Dangerous levels of it. (Syl talking about the Honorblade, Words of Radinace page 1045)

The Heralds were supposedly greater than the Knights Radiant, they were the leaders, the best etc. BUT their Honorblades are seemingly less efficient/useful than SprenBlades BUT feed on stormlight.

There is one other thing that feeds on stormlight that we know of - Nightblood.

Nightblood in many ways seems less useful than a SprenBlade:

1. Doesn't grant the ability to Invest (or at least not as far as we know)
2. Drains Stormlight fast
3. Kills you when you're out

BUT we also know that Nightblood is one of the most powerful weapons in the cosmere.

QUESTIONS:

• What does it mean that something feeds on stormlight?
• And what practical use is the apparent greater power of these weapons?

Edited August 16, 2019 by rjl

[RShara she/her]

The Honorblades use stormlight in order to provide the surges to the person. The person then also uses stormlight to power the surges.

Nightblood was an attempt to use Awakening to duplicate a Shardblade. Shardblades were spren who figured out how to emulate Honorblades. So they do all have a similar basis.

The Heralds were directly powered by Honor when he was alive, so the inefficiency of the Honorblades with stormlight wasn't a problem back then. It's humans trying to use them that has the inefficiency problem.

Also, it's not that Nightblood is one of the most powerful, but rather one of the most invested. And he can do freaky things when drawn and fully powered.

Edited August 16, 2019 by RShara

[rjl]

2 hours ago, RShara said:

The Honorblades use stormlight in order to provide the surges to the person. The person then also uses stormlight to power the surges.

Is there a source for that point or is it speculation?

[RShara she/her]

Woops, misunderstood. One moment. Here we go.

Quote

Steeldancer

The Heralds, back before Honor died, were they directly powered by Honor?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. You’ll find out more about that, but the Shardblades [pretty sure he means Honorblades here] were pieces of Honor’s soul that he gave them and direct access to his essence.

Steeldancer

Like Vin and Elend?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, a little like that. That’s why Honorblades don’t work like Shardblades do, like Radiants do.

Steeldancer

The second part of the question is, what would happen if they were directly powered by Honor and they were holding Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

Boskone 54 (Feb. 17, 2017)

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by RShara

[rjl]

I recall reading that WoB before but I don't think it answers this point. Yes it says that in some way HonorBlades plugged straight to Honor and that won't work now.

BUT this doesn't tell us:
1. Why HonorBlades feed on stormlight - and how this relates to NightBlood doing it.

2. How Honrblades work now they're not plugged into Honor.

3. Why HonorBlades seem to work like the Nahel Bond but badly.

[Weltall]

1. Because the Investiture to power Surgebinding has to come from somewhere, and on Roshar that somewhere is the Stormlight that's ubiquitous. Other power sources are possible with hacking but Stormlight has it built-in because it's already associated with Honor, so the difference between using it to power Surgebinding and drawing from Honor directly is just a matter of the former being a degree removed. There's precedent for this sort of thing in the Cosmere already.

2. They form a shallow and somewhat limited bond with the person holding it that the Nahel Bond mimics, but on a deeper level. See above for how using Stormlight and drawing power straight from Honor are largely the same thing, as far as the magic is concerned.

3. It's the other way around, Honorblades were built do grant Surgebinding while the spren who bond with people figured out they could imitate it. Radiants can do more with their bonds precisely because the deeper connection they form with the spren (to the point that their souls are actually merging) lets them get more out of the bond than the shallower Honorblade bond.

Relevant:

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

A full-blown Radiant can heal almost anything (cut from a Shardblade included) because of the way the magic works--their soul is literally bonded to Investiture, and it suffuses them in such a way that even the soul is very resilient to damage.

Honorblades are what you'd consider a "prototype" for what eventually happened with Shardblades. An Honorblade can be used by anyone, without need for oaths, which makes them very dangerous--but since the bond isn't as deep, they are far less efficient. They use more Stormlight, for example, and can't heal to the extent that a Radiant can.

So the difference is not in the device that did the damage, but in the method using to heal. Over the course of the first two book, the reader should be able to subtly pick out differences from what Szeth says is possible(in more than just healing) and what Kaladin experiences.

General Reddit 2017 (Sept. 8, 2017)

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by Weltall

[Scion of the Mists]

On 8/16/2019 at 2:25 PM, rjl said:

What does it mean that something feeds on stormlight?

“Feeding” on Stormlight just means that it uses it as fuel to power Surgebinding. 

[Quantus he/him]

On 8/17/2019 at 11:20 AM, rjl said:

I recall reading that WoB before but I don't think it answers this point. Yes it says that in some way HonorBlades plugged straight to Honor and that won't work now.

BUT this doesn't tell us:
1. Why HonorBlades feed on stormlight - and how this relates to NightBlood doing it.

2. How Honrblades work now they're not plugged into Honor.

3. Why HonorBlades seem to work like the Nahel Bond but badly.

1.  Those are two different things: Honorblades use more Stormlight than a radiant for an equivalent effect because (per WOB) the Bond between Honroblade and wielder is much shallower than that between Spren and Radiant, and in both cases it is the Bond that is emitting the magic into the world. But it's still just normal Stormlight use, and when the available Investiture runs out the effects stop.  When Nightblood Feeds, by contrast, he much more actively sucks in the ambient Investiture of the wielder, and if they have no extra (Breaths, Stormlight Etc) it will eat the Investiture that makes up their own Soul. Nightblood then takes that Investiture and uses it for his Trans-Realmic Annihilation attack, and I think the jury is still out on whether the Investiture of what's annihilated gets returned to the Spiritual Realm as normal or Absorbed by Nightblood himself.

2.  The Honorblades (or more likely  the Heralds themselves) used to have a direct conduit to Honor and got unlimited Power directly from him, as if they were standing in a Highstorm at all times.  Now that Honor is gone and the conduit with him, the Honorblades require that their wielder get Investiture themselves like any Radiant, Inhaling it from a Storm or a Gem.  

3.Per WOB Honorblades where the prototype and then Spren later figured out how to mimic them.  Their Powers are less efficient with in their use of Stormlight because the Bond between Honorblae and wielder is very very shallow compared to a Radiant.  Radiants get more efficient with each Oath because the Oaths dramatically strengthen the Bond, but Honorblaes are basically at the 0.5 Oath level.  The Nahel Bond is kind of like the Antenna for the Surges, and Radiants get an increasingly bigger antenna, while the Honorblades where always inefficient prototypes.