Szeth and his sword

[DarkJester]

Ok. This has probably already been asked and explained, but I'm going to ask anyway because it's bugging me... Spoiler alert for those that haven't finishe Words of Radience. At the end of the book when Szeth is revived, the sword he is given is obviously Nightblood. My question is how can he use it? I mean he can obviously throw it to other people to let them draw it like Vasher does, but the sword itself consumes breaths, and does so at an alarming rate. I mean Hoid makes a comment about having perfect pitch, so he's obviously holding quite a few breaths, and could therefore weild Nightblood for at least a few moments, but Szeth only has his own breath. (I assume that Rosharians have a breath...) I mean he did just return from the dead, but he is not a Returned... Returned can't remember their past and he can... So how can Szeth weild Nightblood?

[Oversleep]

Right now, for all we know, he can't.

If Szeth was a Surgebinder, he could feed Nightblood Stormlight, but he is not. At least right now. And that's what we know.

[Eki]

Nightblood can be used sheathed without consuming breaths. It's still a formidable weapon used that way (for some reason).

Rosharans are in fact not born with Breaths, only people born on Nalthis (Warbreaker's planet) are, as far as we know.

[Spoolofwhool]

Nightblood consumes investiture. If you have kinetic investiture in you, which is stormlight, breath, tapped charge from a metalmind, investiture from Preservation while burning a metal for allomancy, investiture from the Dor when using AonDor, etc, he'll eat that. If you don't have any, then he'll eat your innate investiture, which is your soul, and which does kill you.

It has been theorized that Nightblood will bond to Szeth and function like a Highspren, giving him the surgebinding abilities of a Skybreaker Knight Radiant. 

[goody153]

4 hours ago, Eki said:

Nightblood can be used sheathed without consuming breaths. It's still a formidable weapon used that way (for some reason).

Rosharans are in fact not born with Breaths, only people born on Nalthis (Warbreaker's planet) are, as far as we know.

Nightblood can consume stormlight (it's practically investure after all) just like how Vasher is surviving in STormlight Archives. But yeah Szeth needs to be able to absorb stormlight in order for him to use nightblood or he just throws him all the time and hope they are greedy men.

[Spoolofwhool]

24 minutes ago, goody153 said:

Nightblood can consume stormlight (it's practically investure after all) just like how Vasher is surviving in STormlight Archives. But yeah Szeth needs to be able to absorb stormlight in order for him to use nightblood or he just throws him all the time and hope they are greedy men.

Stormlight is investiture, just in a slightly different. Out of all the investiture we've seen, breath and stormlight are probably the most similar

[goody153]

Just now, Spoolofwhool said:

Stormlight is investiture, just in a slightly different. Out of all the investiture we've seen, breath and stormlight are probably the most similar

It's both investure which practically the same(it's still parts of adonalsium like the shards are adolnasium after all) but just came from different sources. Shards from Roshar are prolly much less restrictive than Endowment

[Spoolofwhool]

3 minutes ago, goody153 said:

It's both investure which practically the same(it's still parts of adonalsium like the shards are adolnasium after all) but just came from different sources. Shards from Roshar are prolly much less restrictive than Endowment

Yes, that's what I said. It is not, however, what you said, which is why I corrected you.

[Yata he/him]

I have a Theory that Nightblood's bond give to the partner the ability to absorb Stormlight on Roshar but it's a theory therefore better to use canon material.

IF an Herald may develop Squires (and we don't know) and Szeth becomes a Nale's Squire he will gain the ability to drawn in Stormlight and this will allow him to unleash Nightblood. As other option if Nale is actually at top of the newformed Skybreaker's Order (also a couple of Radiant is enough), Szeth may become a squire of one of them (with the time)

[asterion137 he/him]

nightblood's grants enormous strength. I imagine Szeth will just smash the sheathed blade into people like a club. I mean when you have enough strength to smash a sheathed sword through someone's ribcage casually all bets are off

[Jofwu he/him]

I wouldn't be surprised if Nightblood can eat up Stormlight from external sources. Point being, even if Szeth is not (yet) a Surgebinder then perhaps Nightblood can be fueled simply by having charged spheres/gems nearby. 

It seems to me that Breaths are protected in some way. One person cannot forcefully take the Breaths of another, no? Even the Returned can't just take breaths from people- they have to be donated. And while Nightblood does suck Breaths directly from his wielder, there's some level of a "deal" that is made with he is drawn.

Stormlight works differently. Just look at larkins, which can forcefully suck Stormlight out of a Surgebinder. Stormlight comes along easily and is easily absorbed by people who are able to take it. Both Stormlight and Breaths are investiture, but they work differently from one another. I don't see why Nightblood shouldn't be able to absorb his own Stormlight (from gems) just like a Surgebinder. No need for Szeth to act as a middle man.

Edited August 29, 2016 by jofwu

[The One Who Connects he/him]

7 minutes ago, jofwu said:

I don't see why Nightblood shouldn't be able to absorb his own Stormlight (from gems) just like a Surgebinder. No need for Szeth to act as a middle man.  You have just given me 2 ideas, and I don't know which one worries me more.

Quote

Szeth fuels Nightblood in a Highstorm, giving the sword ridiculous amounts of power.
Szeth uses Nightblood to absorb the "evil" of the Everstorm, potentially corrupting the sword's mind somehow

 

[Jofwu he/him]

I do feel like Nightblood has some kind of limit on how much power he is able to wield at once. I mean, I don't think he would become all-powerful in a highstorm... He'd just be able to operate at maximum danger level for an extended period of time. Still scary, but not as bad as you might imagine.

1 minute ago, The One Who Connects said:

Szeth uses Nightblood to absorb the "evil" of the Everstorm, potentially corrupting the sword's mind somehow

That IS terrifying!

[Naurock]

5 hours ago, The One Who Connects said:

I don't see why Nightblood shouldn't be able to absorb his own Stormlight (from gems) just like a Surgebinder. No need for Szeth to act as a middle man.  You have just given me 2 ideas, and I don't know which one worries me more.

Quote

Szeth fuels Nightblood in a Highstorm, giving the sword ridiculous amounts of power.
Szeth uses Nightblood to absorb the "evil" of the Everstorm, potentially corrupting the sword's mind somehow

I don't think Nightblood would be corrupted by the Everstorm. To me Nightblood always had a very simplistic mind, and so with his command, I'm not really sure he could be corrupted. I think he just absorbs/destroys everything he can and the type of investiture doesn't matter.

I am curious though if Nightblood will just finally hit a max point of absorption and we will see him... transform?... for lack of a better word. Maybe become even more like a spren/shardblade and drop the "robot" part, gain the ability to be dismissed like a shardblade and a more evolved mind than his blunt ways of lets go kill stuff!