happyman he/him Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 Other than the fact that you would need to imagine perfectly the process needed to do the taxes? Heck, it's challenging with a guide for each line. Fell, sword-lover I dunno. That's for normal Awakened objects. It's pretty clear Nightblood is well and truly different from normal Awakened objects in a lot of ways. It has a pretty significant Cognitive aspect of its own that goes beyond what was put into it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darniil he/him Posted August 29, 2011 Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 which brings on the completely different question of what is that sheath made out of, that it can block that much of Nightblood's purpose? My take on this? It's just a sheath. Nothing more. It is the nature of a sheath to contain the destructive abilities of a sword, and it is the nature of a sword to be incapable of destroying when sheathed. Nightblood, being a sword, "knows" this - this is how the world works, and there is no way around it. A sword may have a hard time defining evil, but it knows what a sheath is and what a sheath does. As such, Nightblood tones itself down when sheathed. Now, it's been a little while since I've read the book, so if there's a point where Nightblood kills while completely sheathed, this theory goes right out the window. (Though I do remember reading somewhere that the sheath was just as deadly as the sword, even though it didn't have its own intelligence. Perhaps "Nightblood" is the sword and the sheath, not just the sword, yet still recognizing the intent and nature of a sheath? /shrug ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aashyma she/her Posted August 29, 2011 Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 Wording also might help. Would 'fight evil' be less aggressive than 'destroy evil?' How long would you keep fighting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBobs he/him Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I'm pretty sure 1000 breaths for Nightblood is accurate, but perhaps Yesteel has come up with a way to do it more efficiently? Right it's 1000 . . . for the first rough prototype. Lifeless originally took 50 breaths, now only 1. There might be ways of making weaker versions of Nightblood that are still very deadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozndevl Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 Sorry to thread necro, but I just read the book and am reading through the forums. I think that it would still take a signficant amount of Breath to create another Nightblood-esque object, even if they have become more efficient for two reasons. 1) Metal / stone are more difficult to Awaken anyway, (8th Heightening?). 2) A sword is nowhere near the form of a human, which requires more Breath. As the story goes, we see what Vasher does with his Breath and he uses up probably several hundred Breath just in making his super-suit (legs, arms, cape, etc). Vasher is one of the best Awakeneres ever, and he is still burdened by some what would be basic Awakenings taking so many Breath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eri she/her Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 Maybe he somehow stole the super-Breath from another Returned and used it to make Nightblood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner he/him Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 I don't think that's possible. Firstly you cannot steal Breath. The second point is that the Divine Breaths are useless for Awakening as far as we know. It seems impossbile that they could be given to someone else without doing their whole healing thing. A process is mentioned in the book wherein the Breaths are forged into the steel, so this could be significant. It only takes 1000 Breaths to make a Sentient Biochramatic Manifestation in a Non-Living Object. However Vasher says that in order to do this you have to be of the Ninth Heightening. I think specialized Commands and the appropriate power level are the only prerequisites, not Divine Breath. It's a good idea though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj26792 he/him Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 I always thought that it was a normal sheath and blocked him from acting because it was a sheath, a sheathed sword is not an active sword. So when sheathed he takes a more passive approach to his job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RavenclawWill73 he/him Posted October 16, 2012 Report Share Posted October 16, 2012 This is a bit of a rant, but why would you only make weapons from this kind of awakening? OK, OK, human knowledge always seems to be used for weapons first, better technology and life second. So historically, that's the most likely use. I guess I'm just speculating about where it would go once people decided that they needed or wanted to use that kind of awakening for something else? What if the command used was "Do my taxes every year?" It takes so many breaths to make one of these. Why would you waste all that breath on taxes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RenegadeShroom Posted October 17, 2012 Report Share Posted October 17, 2012 It takes so many breaths to make one of these. Why would you waste all that breath on taxes? Because taxes are both living and hateful. So they are clearly of Odium, and thus we can conclude that they were sent by Odium as precursors to an invasion or something, and they threaten all Nalthian life. Ergo, they must be dealt with by a being that cannot experience hate to be defeated. TL;DR, taxes are Odious and need awakened metal to be truly destroyed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khmauv he/him Posted May 16, 2013 Report Share Posted May 16, 2013 I don't think you could get the same results by using a more efficient method to make a nightbloodesque awakened object. I believe the sentience endowed to nightblood is a direct result of being invested with so many breaths. Along the same lines of Aons or Syl. It seems that a certain level of investiture grants sentience. (Though that could be completely wrong.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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