| Nightblood | |
|---|---|
| Type | weapon |
| Creators | Shashara, Vasher |
| Owner | Vasher |
| World of Origin | Nalthis |
Nightblood is a sentient sword on Nalthis. It was created through the experiments of Vasher and his associates, the Five Scholars.
Creation
Nightblood was created in a collaboration between Vasher and Shashara. It took many thousands of Breaths and a very difficult visualization to Awaken steel. After much deliberation, the Command that was decided on was "Destroy evil." Unfortunately, a sentient sword doesn't really know what evil is. The Breaths it inherited decided "evil was someone who would try to take the sword and use it for evil purposes, selling it, manipulating and extorting others, that sort of thing."Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
Vasher decided the knowledge to Awaken steel was far too dangerous and when Shashara didn't agree, he felt it was better to kill her than risk the knowledge getting out.
Powers and Characteristics
Nightblood is sentient, but lacks a human context for its intelligence. Time has no meaning for it, nor can it well understand the dynamic aspect of human personalities. It can speak into Vasher's mind, as well as Vivenna's, and reads their surface thoughts whether they want it to or not.
When its clasp is undone and even a bit of its blade shows, it leaks an inky smoke. The smoke is the Breaths that it has absorbed from its victims, twisted and fouled, leaking back out.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content Those it defines as "evil" feel drawn to possess it; once an "evil" person picks Nightblood up, the sword is able to take control and will murder anyone in the vicinity who is evil, finally killing its wielder when there is no one left.
A "good" person, someone who wouldn't want to use Nightblood for evil purposes, feels sick in Nightblood's vicinity
Even while still in its scabbard, once Nightblood is unclapsed every part of it is a deadly weapon that--literally--yearns to kill evil-doers. It can smash bones and even run a man through. Once drawn, Nightblood becomes incredibly powerful. Lifeless that it touches disappear in a puff of smoke and stone also disappears when struck. It is not shown whether living humans struck by Nightblood's blade would disappear like the Lifeless or would die in some other way, but one would assume even a minor cut by Nightblood would result in instant death.
So long as Nightblood is unsheathed, it drains the Breath from its wielder, drawing Breath faster the longer it is used. Vasher claims that if it drained all the Breath from him he would die; but whether this happens to all wielders or is only because of Vasher's Returned nature is unclear.
Notes