Nightblood is going to be the End

[Hemalurgic Headshot he/him]

Vasher was a fool to bring Nightblood to Roshar...

So Nightblood feeds on investiture, and its power is directly proportional to the amount of investiture it consumes. So far, we have seen Nightblood wielded by mere mortals, whose investiture is minor. But what if more investiture is used, much more...

This is the End of the Cosmere.

If a Shard were to wield Nightblood, unimaginable amounts of investiture would be available to it, enhancing it, strengthening it, making it the most powerful weapon the Cosmere possibly has ever seen! Fully unsheathed, perhaps Nightblood could destroy entire worlds, Shatter Shards... perhaps with enough investiture, even destroy the entire Cosmere. The possibilities are frightening.

So this is why Vasher was a fool to bring it right into Odium's hands. Szeth will do well with it for now, but Szeth will die, Nightblood taken from him, and fall into Odium's greedy hands. With the power of Nightblood, at the expense of his own investiture, Odium can and will destroy Roshar, shatter Cultivation and any other Shard that stands in his way, and make way for his reign of terror. Then he will use the splinters of those Shards to fuel Nightblood, increasing its power. Perhaps this is how SA 5 will end, and the Red Mist is actually the enhanced form of Nighblood's black smoke. 

But not is all lost. Odium will be consumed by Nightblood, his hatred amplified, blinding him, forcing him to shove more and more investiture into Nightblood, until Nightblood has consumed all of Odium. But now Nightblood (possibly) the most powerful entity in the Cosmere. Depending on how Nightblood uses the investiture it consumes, it might Ascend to become a conglomerate Shard of the splinters and Odium. But its Intent is to destroy evil, tainted by Odium and fueled by the rest, Nightblood will destroy the Cosmere, if were not for Hoid.

Hoid will save us, somehow.

---

So stepping back from my doomsaying, this theory relies on how Nightblood functions. Feel free to pry it apart and add to it.

[Jedal he/him]

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

He'd have to do it pretty damnation fast because the longer he holds onto it the more its gonna drain him.

[Hemalurgic Headshot he/him]

2 minutes ago, Jedal said:

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

He'd have to do it pretty damnation fast because the longer he holds onto it the more its gonna drain him.

I understand that. It would be a path of rapid destruction, Odium thirsting for more investiture, so he would target other Shards and splinter them and feed them to Nightblood. We don't have enough information to know how long this would take.

[Jedal he/him]

Just now, Hemalurgic_Headshot said:

I understand that. It would be a path of rapid destruction, Odium thirsting for more investiture, so he would target other Shards and splinter them and feed them to Nightblood. We don't have enough information to know how long this would take.

Dude this is one of the (in my mind) funnier and more plausible theories out there, but I just have one more hole to poke(as is in my nature). Doesn't Nightblood only affect singular targets? I mean, it's a big sword but still, I don't think it's big enough to destroy the entire universe in the relative period of time Odium would want it to take. The guy holding the blade would probably make it run out of power before he could do any real damage(statistically speaking) to the greater Cosmere. Unless he went directly for Shards.

 

Also wouldn't Odium just kill himself? He seems like a pretty bad dude.

[Hemalurgic Headshot he/him]

Ah. So Nightblood is a sword primarily, but what about the nausea and the smoke? Its power extends beyond just the blade.

While Odium is weilding Nightblood, he would target Shards for more Investiture. And I believe that because when Odium first takes hold of Nightblood, that he is so much stronger that Nightblood won't force his suicide. However, once Odium's own investiture is drained, then will things implode.

Once Nightblood is a single super-powerful entity with no holder, and possible ascends, then will it destroy the Cosmere, because it thinks it is evil.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Hemalurgic_Headshot

[Spoolofwhool]

I don't think Nightblood can ascend a shard. It has too many other connections which would interfere. Also, if as you say it's killing the other shards by consuming them, how would it be able to ascend, since by all accounts Nightblood renders the investiture it consumes inaccessible. 

Also, I'm not seeing how Szeth holding Nightblood is going to result in Odium getting it since Szeth has no ties to Odium unless you're just saying generally that because Nightblood is on Roshar, Odium will eventually obtain it?

In any case, it makes absolutely no sense for Odium to intentionally take possession of an object which would move him away from his established goals. We know for a fact that Odium has deliberately avoided weakening himself on multiple fronts in order to remain the strongest while purely of hatred. Taking Nightblood would be illogical as it would result in him essentially permanently destroying pieces of his power, as far as we know. Furthermore, there's no reason for Odium to need Nightblood; he has the power to destroy shards already, he most likely has the power to destroy worlds already since we know shards can create worlds and Ruin was clearly on the path to destroying Scadrial using his own, lesser, power, and once all the shards are destroyed he won't have anything that can challenge his power so he won't need something like Nightblood to destroy them, if he desires. 

[+Extesian he/him]

20 minutes ago, Jedal said:

Dude this is one of the (in my mind) funnier and more plausible theories out there, but I just have one more hole to poke(as is in my nature). Doesn't Nightblood only affect singular targets? I mean, it's a big sword but still, I don't think it's big enough to destroy the entire universe in the relative period of time Odium would want it to take. The guy holding the blade would probably make it run out of power before he could do any real damage(statistically speaking) to the greater Cosmere. Unless he went directly for Shards.

 

Also wouldn't Odium just kill himself? He seems like a pretty bad dude.

We have an iffy WoB on this

Quote

ARGENT

Can Nightblood damage or kill a Shard?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Nightblood is not powerful enough for-- *weird ehhh sound*

ARGENT

Is he that powerful?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Damage? Yes. How damaging? Is a subject to discussion. Nightblood contains a /lot/ of Investiture.

So I'd say he can't, but sounds like maybe he can do some damage? 

I think Nightblood can do more than individual damage. The painting Lightsong looks at in Warbreaker shows a woman holding him with waves of destroyed soldiers surrounding her. Nothing definitive but I think with full investiture he can do a lot more than one on one damage.

Either way this topic made me laugh so I'm happy.

[ZenBossanova]

That WoB suggests to me that Nightblood is a greater danger to Odium, than vice versa. If it can drain a person, how much investiture could it drain, with the power of an entire shard behind it? 

[Darkness he/him]

nightblood ascends and consumes all shards, uniting them to become the next adonalsium, ruling the cosmere with the intent to destroy evil. "would you like to destroy the god beyond today?"

#kiddingnotkidding

[ZenBossanova]

Could Cultivation help Nightblood grow and learn? For instance, could she teach him, Love Good, and Understand the difference between Good and Evil? 

If Nightblood has a character arc, will she be at the crux of it? 

[Tarion]

8 hours ago, Jedal said:

Dude this is one of the (in my mind) funnier and more plausible theories out there, but I just have one more hole to poke(as is in my nature). Doesn't Nightblood only affect singular targets? I mean, it's a big sword but still, I don't think it's big enough to destroy the entire universe in the relative period of time Odium would want it to take. The guy holding the blade would probably make it run out of power before he could do any real damage(statistically speaking) to the greater Cosmere. Unless he went directly for Shards.

 

Also wouldn't Odium just kill himself? He seems like a pretty bad dude.

Well, Nightblood destroys singular targets, but that's still pretty broad. The actual damage isn't confined to the part it hits. Lifeless hit by it are destroyed entirely. When it hits a wall, it takes out a significant chunk of the wall around where it hits. 

Feed it enough Investiture and hit a planet, and who knows what would happen... 

[Jondesu he/him]

5 hours ago, Tarion said:

Feed it enough Investiture and hit a planet, and who knows what would happen...

Nightblood definitely has a limit to the Investiture it can handle, though.  Brandon has said it's a lot less than a Shard, though he didn't set a specific limit (if we even had a way to describe that). I doubt he could do that, but he could certainly wreak a lot of havoc.

[PallonianFire he/him]

The one thing that jumped into my mind as a problem with this whole thing: how would Odium wield Nightblood? It's a sword, and Odium doesn't exactly have hands. The literal wielding of Nightblood would be a tough thing to do for a noncorporeal Shard.

[Darkness he/him]

pretty sure a shard can manifest his/her body in the physical realm if they want to. They definitely have a body to begin with, and a body definitely appears when a shard dies. I don't think physically wielding nightblood would be an issue for Odium, assuming his body has a hand capable of grabbing a sword (or claw/mouth if he's a dragon).

[PallonianFire he/him]

Idk, Preservation had a pretty hard time impacting the PR.

[Darkness he/him]

mistborn spoilers

sure, but even in his severely weakened state he was able to be present enough to slash elend (I guess it's a tiny possibility that his knife was responsible for that ability).

we don't really have precedent for a shard wielding a piece of another shard (except harmony I suppose, but that worked because the shards were of fairly equal power, and harmony invested himself to balance it perfectly). I think the closest we have is people wielding shardblades while under the influence of the thrill, which doesnt seem to have any innate interference (perhaps because the spren is mostly dead and the shardbearer isn't invested) but even then, once the bearer is invested a little by honor (ala Dalinar) they get nauseated instead of thrilled - I would guess that's a direct result of honor's investiture clashing with odium's inside the person.

so what I'm getting at is, I dont think the physical presence would be as much of a barrier to rayse holding nightblood as establishing a stable interaction between the differing shardic investitures.