Vasher

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

1. How did vasher not die when giving breath?

2. How did he retain some of his breath when he gave breaths?

3. How was he able to hide his aura if he had so many breaths?

[Honorless he/him]

You should read the Warbreaker annotations, they are available on Brandon's website.

Denth lied when he told Vivenna that you can only give all of your Breath when you use the "my life to yours, my breath become yours" Command. You can give away a few of your Breaths rather than all of them.

The Returned can learn to suppress their Divine Breath. The appearance of a Returned is Cognitive in nature, as we see with Allmother & Hopefinder, who look the way they do because of how they are perceived, same goes for all the other Returned including Lightsong & Blushweaver; they can fiddle with how they view themselves and change their appearances.

Edited August 8, 2020 by Honorless
edited for clarity

[Karger he/him]

35 minutes ago, Hoid the Drifter said:

1. How did vasher not die when giving breath?

He has breaths on top of the one that animates him.  Giving breath is not all or nothing.  That is a lie.

35 minutes ago, Hoid the Drifter said:

2. How did he retain some of his breath when he gave breaths?

Quote

The answer is simple, in many ways, but I’m not sure if I have the groundwork for it properly laid in the book. (Which is why I hesitated in explaining it.) Remember when Denth said that Awakening was all or nothing? Well, he lied. (I think you’ve figured this out now.) A very skilled Awakener can give away only part of their Breath. It depends on their Command visualizations. So Vasher needs to always give away everything except for that one Returned Breath that keeps him alive. As long as he has that one Breath (which he’s learned to suppress and hide), he can stay alive.

35 minutes ago, Hoid the Drifter said:

3. How was he able to hide his aura if he had so many breaths?

Quote

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.

Warbreaker is kind of confusing.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Karger

[Chaos he/him]

Here's the link to the Warbreaker annotations for you. It does answer these questions: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/annotation-warbreaker-dedication/

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

17 minutes ago, Karger said:

Warbreaker is kind of confusing.

ya think?

[The One Ring she/her]

On 2020/8/7 at 0:08 AM, Hoid the Drifter said:

1. How did vasher not die when giving breath?

2. How did he retain some of his breath when he gave breaths?

3. How was he able to hide his aura if he had so many breaths?

1. He only need 1 breath a week to let himself live. And 1 breath is easy to buy.

2. Denth was lying.

3.Hide it in his shirt or something.

[Saodar he/him]

On 8/6/2020 at 0:43 PM, Karger said:

Warbreaker is kind of confusing.

It is, but that's part of what makes it so fascinating to go back and look through!

[Chinkoln he/him]

All of Brandon’s books are confusing. You can read any book a dozen times, and find new little tidbits each time. 

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

4 hours ago, Chinkoln said:

All of Brandon’s books are confusing. You can read any book a dozen times, and find new little tidbits each time. 

For the record I'm in my 7th reread of Arcanum Unbounded in a month