Will Nicrosil compounding make you like a Shardblade?

[Koloss17 She/They]

I am currently rereading the stormlight archive books and I remembered how nightblood works like a Shardblade because it stores so much investure. That, in extension, means that a Shardblade is so deadly because of the amount of investure it has in it, right?

 

we don’t know too much about Nicrosil ferrings, but they store investure. If you compound that, then you just begin gaining more and more investure. If you tap all of the Nicrosilmind, that means you now have a ton of investure in you. If you store enough, you could theoretically get to Shardblade levels of investure, or would you need a vessel to concentrate that investure into a purpose, like a sword slashing people’s soul. Would that mean you just need to have a Nicrosil sword acting as a nicrosilmind?

 

then again, people holding a ton of breath can’t do that, so maybe what things do with a ton of investure has to do with what it wants, like with soul casting with radiants.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Koloss17

[Gilphon]

I don't think you'd get that just by piling on lots of Investiture. A shardblade is something pretty specific- and, indeed, Nightblood doesn't really behave much of anything like a shardblade- they just call him one because that's what Rosharans are gonna call a magic sword by default. 

Now, there is a good chance that a Nicrosil Compounder would be able to do some absolutely bonkers things, but I wouldn't think that just using a sword as a Nicrosilmind would inherently do anything special, and nor would just passively having a bunch of power inside you. Like there's a plausible theory that Nicrosil compounding was how The Lord Ruler was able to do things like Soothing an entire city in his sleep, but he was still limited to powers built into the Metallic Arts; he wasn't cutting souls or anything. 

But if your Nicrosil compounder were able to get their hands on some Breath, then maybe they could compound that into a way to make lots of Awakened Swords. Or, potentially, go to Roshar to get a spren bond and getting a real Shardblade, but trying to compound a spren seems like it could go wrong in a lot of unpleasant ways. Although really compounding your way into effectively infinite Investiture by doing this kind of thing that strikes me as a good way to make the Shards decide it's best to just smite you before you become a threat.

[Koloss17 She/They]

12 minutes ago, Gilphon said:

Although really compounding your way into effectively infinite Investiture by doing this kind of thing that strikes me as a good way to make the Shards decide it's best to just smite you before you become a threat.

This much is probably true. 

 

As as I understand it, the only difference between stormlight, breath, or other forms of investure is just the shards presence and its effect on the surrounding investure. 

So theoretically, you could be a radiant with no limits on your powers or hav infinite breaths if you have breaths or are born/squired as a radiant, right? Maybe that’s the purpose of Nicrosil compounding. Other than unsealed metalminds, of course.

[Gilphon]

I personally believe that that's theoretically possible, yes, but I feel the need to caution that we still don't know much about how Nicrosil Feruchemy works. Like it's almost certainly a major piece of the puzzle behind how the Southerner's devices work, but we still don't know the details of the theory behind those, and don't really know if F-Nicrosil can be used for anything else.

[Honorless he/him]

Shardblades are Honor and Cultivation's godmetals, I don't think replicating their effects will be as simple as loads of Investiture.

Hmmmmm... doesn't that mean you can do Hemalurgy by stabbing someone with a Shardblade if you have the know-how?

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

On 12/18/2019 at 10:56 PM, Honorless said:

Hmmmmm... doesn't that mean you can do Hemalurgy by stabbing someone with a Shardblade if you have the know-how?

A shardblade, living or dead, is already chock-full of investiture. It'd interfere severely with any attempt to do Hemalurgy with the blade itself, barring any cutting of the spirit that the blade would do anyway.

[Rorzikel]

Brandon has said before that a metalmind could block the phase through effects of a shardblade (though it would still be a very sharp blade):

Quote

Yata

Could a filled (fully feruchemical charge) metalmind block a Shardblade (or at least, resist a bit)?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it could. Excellent question.

/r/books AMA 2015 (Sept. 3, 2015)

I think a Nicrosil compounder would be kind of like their entire body was made of shardplate- resistant but capable of being damaged by the shardblades.

 

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

17 hours ago, Superbus said:

Brandon has said before that a metalmind could block the phase through effects of a shardblade (though it would still be a very sharp blade):

I think a Nicrosil compounder would be kind of like their entire body was made of shardplate- resistant but capable of being damaged by the shardblades.

 

So, it would actually have to cut you, rather than cutting your soul first? Hmm...