[Warbreaker Spoilers] Taln question

[Rlain]

I'm wondering if it's possible that the character that we think is Taln (Brandon has been careful to avoid confirming that it is Taln) held nightblood and killed his spren accidentally in the process.  I think that has the potential to drive him crazy.

[RShara]

Any particular reason or evidence for this theory?  I don't see any connections, and as far as we know, Heralds don't have spren.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Edit: Wow, I'm not actully certain what i was writing. Thank you for pointing that out RShara. Here's a re write.

 

So Rlain is wondering if 'Taln' was a Radiant with a Spren blade, who also held Nightblood. But when he used nightblood, it Sucked up all the Stormlight, and then the Spren.

 

I don't think that's true. Spren are cognitive beings, not Pure investiture. Nightblood wouldn't be able to kill a spren that way, unless using Nightblood broke Taln's oaths. Taln's blade was just a Normal Shardblade, that Taln had for a Short time. Hence the Dark eyes. Zahel/Vasher, Nale, and szeth are the only ones to have wielded Nightblood so far.

 

Original Post.

When Dalinar bonded Taln's Blade, he never heard any Screams, even though he had started the Bonding of a Spren, The stormfather. This could suggest that the Spren of Taln's blade is Truly Dead, Deader than even restoring Oaths could fix. Only Nightblood would be cappable of doing something Like that. So his Idea does seem possible.

 

But, It's hard to Unbind a Blade, his eyes were Dark, and how long has he been a Radiant? He unbound his Blade to Quickly, summoning it, chopping the Gate, and throwing it aside, for it to be a DeadSpren Blade. If he was a Radiant, or bonded to a Deadspren blade, his eyes would have been Light, and they aren't. We just don't have enough Evidence to theorize about Taln yet.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Hello. My name is Joe

[RShara]

I'm not sure what you're saying, Joe, but Dalinar definitely did feel uncomfortable when wielding the Shardblade he thought he got from Taln, and after he bonded with the Stormfather, when he drew the Blade, he heard screaming.

Honorblades are not made of spren so would never scream or have problems.

[curi]

i am unclear on whether rlain thinks Taln had a spren himself that was killed, or is talking about the shardblade's spren being killed. or he thinks Taln had a spren/shadeblade before the recreance? or something? pretty vague. i'm not sure it matters though, it's just wild speculation combined with maybe not paying attention to how dalinar did have the shardblade scream.

 

but anyway i'm posting cuz i wanted to talk a little about nightblood.

 

i think partly people are really impressed by nightblood because it *felt* very unique, special, powerful in warbreaker. i think this helps explain the speculations here. they feel like they could fit nightblood because of awesome nightblood is.

 

but actually i think warbreaker presents it more like this:

 

more similar swords could be made. nightblood is actually part of a major category of magic item (so its mechanics are actually normal stuff that fits into the standard cosmere magic systems without creating exceptions).

 

nightblood is just unique, currently, because the scholars didn't make more. and while it's powerful, other powerful things could be made, it's not unique. the reason it's able to be so powerful is it consumes tons of magic (investiture) whenever it does anything powerful, rather than it actually having a lot of its own power.

 

the most unique aspect of nightblood in a theoretical way, i think, is its mission to destroy evil. if more swords would made they could be given the same instructions or different.

[Argent]

Okay, I see a couple of misconceptions I can clear up here.

 

The Heralds wield a special form of Shardblade call Honorblades (one of their abilities being to grant Surgebinding powers to their wielder). Honorblades are not and do not have spren, and because of that people, Heralds included, do not bind with them the same way Shardbearers bind with their Blades. The screams Surgebinders / Radiants in training hear when they touch Shardblades are the screams of the spren that is the Shardblade - but they wouldn't hear anything if they touched an Honorblade, because there is no spren there to make the screaming.

 

So.

 

Dalinar reportedly didn't hear any screaming when he bonded Taln's Blade - but that's because the Blade he bonded with was not an Honorblade, it wasn't Taln's actual weapon. We've had a few discussions and pieces of evidence about this, but there are two main points of interest: #1 the description of the Blade Taln shows up before the gates of Kholinar doesn't match the description of the one Dalinar wields and bonds with; and #2, Dalinar's Blade does scream when he actually forms a Nahel bond with the Stormfather, which means it has to be a Shardblade, a what I call dead Sprenblade. The reason he doesn't report screams before that point is because he didn't have the bond before - at least it wasn't strong enough to allow him to feel anything more than just general unease.

 

@curi does make a very good point about Nightblood's uniqueness though. Vasher's sword is not special in the grand scale of things, it's special by virtue of consequences. Given what we know about the similarities between Nightblood and the Honorblades, I have to wonder whether the Heralds' swords were created with both the same means and goal in mind - created by Investing regular swords with a ton of Stormlight and then given a Command, or a task, or an Intent, or something like that. It doesn't seem like they are Invested enough to gain semi-consciousness (which matches the WoB about Nightblood being more powerful by orders of magnitude), but... I don't even know where to take it from here. I guess it's just a neat way things connect.