Zahel

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

He's Returned. He needs Breaths. How does he create Breaths from Stormlight?

[Dancer]

The Returned act like Nightblood in that it doesn't matter what Investiture is used to sustain them only that it is Investiture. If one of them is able to connect themselfs to another Magic system then they could use the Investiture from that system to keep them alive. 

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

7 minutes ago, Dancer said:

The Returned act like Nightblood in that it doesn't matter what Investiture is used to sustain them only that it is Investiture. If one of them is able to connect themselfs to another Magic system then they could use the Investiture from that system to keep them alive. 

so is he a radiant? also how much stormlight is his one Breath per week, because he's still using breath?

[Dancer]

As far as we know he is not a Radiant. It is unknown what the conversion rate of one Breath to Stormlight to metals ect are. Brandon has said that he is working on this and that he will have it for us at a later date. 

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

8 minutes ago, Dancer said:

As far as we know he is not a Radiant

so how does he ingest stormlight?

[Dancer]

Probably the same way others do by breathing it in. It's like Vin with the Mists if your Connected enough to a Shard you can take in that Shards free Investiture. How he Connected himself to Honor or the Stormlight specifically is a Mystery. It will most likely be answered in the later books.    

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

Just now, Dancer said:

How he Connected himself to Honor or the Stormlight specifically is a Mystery

maybe he used breaths to do it. as far as we know he can do things with breaths that nobody else knows how to do.

[Aspiring Writer]

Well, I will mention ne needs investiture, not breaths, to survive, and we see things that consume investiture aren't very picky, like Nightblood or Chiri-Chiri

[trav]

On 18.12.2020 at 10:00 AM, Hoid the Drifter said:

so how does he ingest stormlight?

hes chewing on Invested spheres, duh!

seriously. hes either getting it out of spheres or hes slowling running dry on Breaths. he has to get past the weeping every year somehow.
at the moment I believe he can suck it in like Radiants. no fancy magic mumbo-jumbo required.

theory: Vasher stores Breath in an Invested sphere and when he reclaims his Breaths the Stormlight comes out along with it.

[Weltall]

One thing to bear in mind is that no special trick is needed for Nightblood to absorb Stormlight, we see that he just does it as long as the person holding him has some light conveniently available, before starting on the wielder's soul. Vasher may need something a bit more active to get access to the Stormlight but it's unlikely to be terribly difficult.

We know that Taldain would have been another very good option for him (had it been possible to get there) which means that whatever method he uses doesn't have to rely on superficial similarities between Breath and Stormlight but could be used with forms of Investiture that are accessed in other ways, like sunlight.

[+robardin he/him]

Maybe he just stands out in the highstorm and absorbs it like an Investiture rod.

It's also worth considering that however he "ingests" the Stormlight, it's possible he could subsist on Voidlight from the Everstorm just as easily with the same technique.

[Rorzikel]

He can consume Stormlight but not use it to surgebind nor does it make him Radiant. He could also teach this method to others.

Quote

R.E. (paraphrased)

Does Vasher have a different way of getting access to Stormlight than everyone else? Given that he has no spren, no honorblade and he isn't a squire?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. He can use Stormlight to stay alive, but it doesn't let him Surgebind.

R.E. (paraphrased)

Could Szeth get access to this method?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes

R.E. (paraphrased)

And use it to fuel Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes he could.

R.E. (paraphrased)

Can you tell me what that method is?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

*smiles*

Supanova 2017 - Sydney (June 18, 2017)

 

[IAmTheStick]

I think Zahel can easily breathe in Stormlight, with the similarities to Breath. Let me clarify: while I don't think the similarity is necessary for him to use investiture, it does make it easier for him. He's used to breathing in power, only now this power isn't locked to a specific individual until its given away?! Sweet! 

As has been mentioned above, the real mystery is how he connected to a different magic system, if he even needed to

[Weltall]

On 3/28/2021 at 8:56 AM, IAmTheStick said:

As has been mentioned above, the real mystery is how he connected to a different magic system, if he even needed to

Since the Divine Breath is Investiture-agnostic it might not even require Connection hacking, just having a sufficient supply of the stuff in close proximity. Breaths are locked to the Identity of the user until given away via the 'My Breath to yours' Command but Stormlight isn't locked, so perhaps he really does just 'breathe it in'.

That said, if Conneciton hacking is required then we know Vasher's got a way to do that too; he's using a similar hack to speak the local language (his color/flower expressions are a sign of someone using such tricks and not learning the languages the old-fashioned way) and he must have a way to manipulate Connection since he's bonded to a Splinter of Endowment and thus strongly Connected to Nalthis' Physio-Cognitive* 'zone' but has managed to worldhop multiple times.

* Yes, I just made that up.

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

5 hours ago, Weltall said:

Since the Divine Breath is Investiture-agnostic it might not even require Connection hacking, just having a sufficient supply of the stuff in close proximity. Breaths are locked to the Identity of the user until given away via the 'My Breath to yours' Command but Stormlight isn't locked, so perhaps he really does just 'breathe it in'.

That said, if Conneciton hacking is required then we know Vasher's got a way to do that too; he's using a similar hack to speak the local language (his color/flower expressions are a sign of someone using such tricks and not learning the languages the old-fashioned way) and he must have a way to manipulate Connection since he's bonded to a Splinter of Endowment and thus strongly Connected to Nalthis' Physio-Cognitive* 'zone' but has managed to worldhop multiple times.

* Yes, I just made that up.

Indications are that Breath of any sort is an exception to the usual Connection rule issues.