@@TheCosmerenaut I think bronze can only sense kinetic investiture. The Lord ruler had bronze mistings operating 24/7 in Luthadel, they would basically all be Bronze Savants but they can't detect the investiture in Sazed's metalminds or an allomancer just holding metal inside themselves. However, that leads to the question. Is the breath in an awakened object kinetic or static? Certainly when the awakening is occurring it's kinetic, but for example could a Bronze Savant sense a Lifeless? It's interesting, I'm of the mind that they couldn't and that breath spends most of its time being static investiture even for an awakened. However, someone with enough breath can sense awakened objects. Not to mention people can sense the breath inside of others. Does it matter whether its static or kinetic?
Yay. A video explain the awaken. Warbreaker is so undertarred cosmere novel, when is amazing. Well, amazing in your tipe xD I can't wait for more videos. And sorry for my english, I speak spanish xd
Just finished oathbringer. Love Stormlight & it’s become my favourite series. I really enjoy your videos. Fun, comphrenshive & so rewatchable. I must have seen all of them dozens of times.
Is it just me, or this videos are freaking addictive? Dayum, I´ve read these books and I understood the magic systems, but after this series I UNDERSTOOD them. Great job!
An interesting I noticed at the end of Warbreaker. After all the crap goes down Vasher retrieves the breath from his cloak and splits it between himself and Vivenna. The thing is, earlier in the book Denth tells her that you can only give either all or none of your breath to someone. Really shows how many secret commands Vasher knows.
Loving your explanations here so much One thing that I think does bear mentioning is the way Vivenna becomes depressed when she makes herself drab. And the shock of pleasure gaining breath brings. I think Sanderson has said that with enough breath you would become The Shard itself, so it makes me think - Does gaining more breath automatically make the person more like Endowment in nature? We know they see beauty in more things as they gain Heightening, so I think that suggests something more about the nature of this Shard. Taking real pleasure and joy in the Beauty of the world.
That's very true. Breath doesn't only bring with it the ability to Awaken, but also an increased perception and appreciation of the world. Excellent point.
I would love a sequel to Warbreaker. Just finished it today and although I have not read the stormlight archive it is definitely my favourite of Brandon Sanderson's work
Love your video's, just wanted this after finishing rhythm of war, brings so much clarity to the epilogue of RoW! I had totally missed the use of breath and memories in Warbreaker. Thank you for this!
If someone had Nightblood and was able to enter the spiritual realm with it, would they be able to attack anyone anywhere so long as they were connected enough to them? What's more, would that person (let's assume that they use one of the magic systems we've already seen, i.e. awakening, allomancy, feruchemy, surgebinding) have any kind of defense against that?
[Spoilers for Oathbringer] we've actually seen 2 type-4 bio-chromatic entities (probably). There's of course Nightblood or Sword-Nimi, however, Azure's (Vivenna's) sword is almost certainly a more refined version of Nightblood without the um... flaws... While it's not confirmed that this is a type-IV entity, we see a few things that go a long way to confirming it. First and foremost is that it still exists in Shadesmar, every other type of shardblade reverts to spren form in the cognitive realm. Secondly, I believe we see he hit a wall and it destroys it (more similarly to Nightblood) rather than cutting through it (like a spren-blade, or even a herald blade). The only little hitch getting in the way of confirming this is that we only have one other example of a type-IV entity and that was flawed from the beginning, so it's hard to say what a more perfected design might look like.
Hey, I was wondering, when a metal born pulls investiture into their spirit web from burning metal, the investiture disappears as soon as they stop burning. An awakener's investiture never runs out though, and they get passive effects from it still. Do you think that these passive effects from bio-chromatic breath are created from energy drawn from the spiritual realm, or are more like effects that would always be there do to the way investiture works, kind of like gravity or some other natural force that doesn't need to expend energy to make things happen.
An Allomancer doesn't add to their spiritweb when burning a metal, no more than an Elantrian does when drawing an Aon. They simply channel the investiture from the Shard. I think heightenings from Awakening are just a byproduct of holding that much investiture, which draws you closer to the spiritual realm.
MASSIVE RoW SPOILERS AHEAD We saw that Nightblood could easily kill a shard's vessel, but it only chipped an honor-blade. I have a somewhat hard time believing that an honor-blade has more investiture than a Vessel, so maeby the fact that the honor-blade was in a metallic form made it more resistant. Kind of like a god's flesh being weaker than a god's sword.
Yeah, I think it boils to the physical manifestation of that investiture. Hydrocarbons in gasoline are fluid and incredibly combustible, but those same hydrocarbons in plastic are rigid and stable.
Biochromatic breath is definitely one of the most fascinating of all the magic systems in the cosmere because of the implications of what it can achieve when used alongside other forms of magic.
I wonder if a lifeless was correctly made if they could speak and thus be able to use awakening or to return their breath back to the Awakener who awakened them because if so an Awakener could use a Lifeless to hide a huge amount of Breath and for it to have an instant guard.
Brandon has said that using the person's own Breath when making them a Lifeless (like if they gave away their Breath before they died, and then the Awakener used that Breath to bring them back) would definitely have an effect in making the Lifeless more cognizant - we've even apparently seen this on screen already. He's RAFO'd any question about using a Divine Breath on a Lifeless though.
I remember hearing once that Plastics exist in trees (or their bark?) so I assume they would function like cloth unless refining diminishes this effect...
An interesting little note about not being able to drain color from people. Spoilers for Warbreaker and Stormlight 3+ ahead. In Oathbringer we meet Highmartial Azure, who is Vivenna from Warbreaker Worldhopping after Zahel who is Vasher in hiding. Azure has a fake magic sword that the people of Roshar just label a Shardblade. It is incredibly sharp and seems to have some form of mind as Azure refers to it as a she and acts as if it has emotions of some kind. Characters in the story note that her Shardblade is very weird, not only can it not be summoned, its construction is unusual and it has no Spren either when in Shadesmar. She remarks it's more of a pale copy of real Shardblades. However, they also observe that people she stabs, DO bleed to gray. So I surmise that Azure created a sword similar to Nightblood that can suck color from people it cuts that she can then store like a battery to use to awaken things. We know she can still awaken things as when she splits from the group on the Honor Spren ship, she requests fabric cut into particular shapes to help fight the Fused. Obviously fabric cut into humanoid shapes to make them easier to awaken. We do not see her do much awakening otherwise, which makes sense as now that she's off Nalthis, she has a very limited supply of Breaths with which she can use.
You know, it seems that the cosmere's magic systems are mostly very well balanced; Sel has enormous versatility and potential, but it takes a lot of time and effort to learn most of them, and you can't use them far away from your homeland. Roshar surgbinding requires stormlight, which only can be gathered at certain intervals of time, and it can only be collected on Roshar itself. Scadriel magics seem to have great power and can conveniently be used so long as you have metal to burn (though there are some sub types like feruchemy and hemalurgy that do have other limitations), but are limited in what ways they can be used. So far, Nalthis seems to have the most convenient magic system of all the major magics that we've seen so far; all you need is breath, which you always would have on you, color, which is literally everywhere, and the proper command and training. It does seem like the system, while certainly versatile and convenient, doesn't seem to have the same level of destructive or combat related abilities as Roshar or Scadriel.
@@TheCosmerenaut True, Susebron is powerful, but it seems that no matter how much bio chromatic breath you have, getting stabbed or shot will still lead to your demise. Scadriel allomancy allows the use of pewter, and feruchemy allows the use of gold healing. Rosharan radiants have shard-plate and can regenerate even more cheaply than gold feruchemists. Selish Dakor are ridiculously tough, and Elantrians can heal with little effort. Awakeners are versatile and cool, and with enough breath and training they can be dangerous, but I don't think that they could ever compare to many other magic users in sheer combat ability.
But we've seen Breath used in healing before. Granted, to this point it's just been Divine Breath from a Returned, but I think conceptually it's the same. If Vasher can somehow use Awakening to heal a little girl's trauma at being kidnapped, I'm certain there's a way to manipulate/consume Breath in order to heal physical wounds.
@@TheCosmerenaut Yeah, you probably just need the right commands. That makes me wonder though; if normal awakening can physically heal someone, what else can it do? Magically enhance strength like pewter? Speed up cognitive function like feruchemical zinc? Perhaps let you shape shift into a completely different form? It would be really cool if you could enhance yourself with breath by "awakening" different parts of your body.
And that is precisely the reason why I think Awakening is probably one of the most versatile systems, because with the right command you can accomplish a huge variety of things.
Good videos! :D A question... where do you get the "planetary" info about the Cosmere? I just finished reading Warbreaker, but I didn't notice any reference to the name "Nalthis". Was I too distracted by the events? Or is there a different source of into?
The first time I saw Nalthis was when I started my own research into the Cosmere. Every other planet has a star chart and explanation in Arcanum Unbounded, but Nalthis wasn't included because there wasn't a short story to put in.
I haven’t read/listened to Warbreaker yet (it’s next on the list after I just finished The Way of Kings) but there was something that got me thinking since I’m more familiar with Mistborn and the Metallic Arts. Could some form of Twinborn (most likely a full Mistborn/Feruchemist combo like Rashek) create a Connection with Feruchemical Duralumin to Nalthis, which would in theory get Endowment to grant that person a Breath, and then Compound Nicrosil to create more Breath from nothing at all? Random thought I know but I like thinking about mixing and matching the various Magic Systems of the Cosmere! What do you think Steve?…
The only trouble with that theory is people on Nalthis are born with their Breath, so creating a Connection wouldn't just get given Breath. Also, even with artificially making a Connection, Endowment might not give Breath.
I wonder how many breaths you would need to last indeffinately as a cognitive shadow. Assuming Susebron has more raw investiture than your average fused, you probably don't even need to be the 10th heightening.
Plastics & oils I like to think will no longer see itself as organic anymore- after hundreds/thousand of millions of years being crushed & liquidised. But I don’t know. Do we know if fabrics or wood ever thinks like that after a long enough time? But the Cosmere I think is only 10,000 or so years old so do they even exist?
We don't know how old the Cosmere is all we know is that Sanderson said that 6,000 years passed between the shattering and the breaking of the Oathpact though he said that he also said that the number hadn't been finalized so we should take it with a grain of salt. Also if there's no fossil fuels then what do the cars in Era 2 run on?
Given that nalthians who give away their Breath have less investiture than Cosmere average, would they be able to, say, bond a spren? It seems that their reduced investiture might interfere with their connection to the cognitive realm (the size of the flame in shadesmar, maybe?) and thus the ability of spren to find and bond them.
@@TheCosmerenaut this also brings up the issue of whether a Nalthian's in-born Breath is required for bonding spren, or if any Breath would do. I personally think that some spren would care and others wouldn't, based on their personalities
Like their own original Breath? I don't think it would necessarily need to be, simply just having enough to serve as an effective tie from Cognitive to Physical realms.
So we know that a person can store breaths inside parts of their body (as this is how Vasher hides his divine breath), but do think that there could be some beneficial side effects of this other than suppressing you bio chromatic aura?
@@TheCosmerenaut also, do you think that being aware of the Hemalurgy chart would allow you to be more accurate and efficient with this method since you're trying to empower you spirit web?
Brandon specifically designed Awakening to be usable by anyone. It may be necessary to jump through some hoops to do it, but anyone with Breath would be able to Awaken.
@@TheCosmerenaut Or Godlight (it's never been officially called that, but I'm talking about Stormlight and the such) considering that it can be used as a substitute for Nightblood and Returned. Though it would probably take a heck of a lot of light
On the part where he said that lifeless don’t need to exercise I think that the book says that at the returned’s lifeless facility they take a couple out at a time to exercise
That may be just to keep them functional. Without a heartbeat, the only way to lubricate joints and circulate the ichor-alcohol in their bloodstream would be through physical activity.
We just don't know how tied to structure a things cognitive identity is. Like, with everything broken down past a cellular level, would a thing still consider itself that thing? Also, does the user still consider it a plant-based substance, or is it strictly manmade at this point?
I'm pretty sure it is all or nothing, if you are talking about someone giving breath to another person or being. You don't have to use them all when awakening objects though. There is a loophole however as someone could, in theory, place some of their breaths into an object or objects, give the remaining breath(s) to someone then reclaim the breaths from the object.
Well it is commonly thought you MUST give it all away, but if you know what you are doing at the very least an Awakened can give a portion. Maybe it is something that comes from having a greater Heightening
@@neodigremo we know two things: Vasher only gives away a part of his breaths and Vivenna stores some of her breaths, then gives others away and retrieved the breaths later.that way you can split it invest everything but one or two, give those away, return your breaths to yourself
@@karlfranzemperorofmandefil5547 True. But that is more an inherent "loophole" of awakening that far too few people in the story think about. Someone giving away a portion directly, and not as a side effect of some being used in awakening, has only been seen to be done by Vasher. A Returned who has probably the best theoretical grasp on the whole procedure. So I suspect anyone can learn to do it, but it takes a heck of a lot of skill and practise
Plastics! Perception probably has a lot to do with them and other ancient organic materials like coal. I can see them being easier to awaken than an inorganic material but harder than a clearly recently living material. The “memory” of their life probably has something to do with it too.
I don't think conductivity would necessarily be a factor. But considering there's a lot of processing that goes in to making plastics, they probably wouldn't be very effective.
Cool video thanks. Some points though: 1. is it really a neutral investiture? You can make all kinds of things move around without having to do anything (after command) nothing decreases so I would call it a positive one. 2. though you are probably right that a small piece of oneself goes along with the breath (that really has the sound of being confirmed by Sanderson) you can't conclude that because of drabs. If everyone on the planet has something more (then on other planets) then a "normal" person (like those without breath and those of other planets) would be considered less. Hence a drab. You must consider their point of view :D
Thanks! However, (1) Brandon has confirmed that Awakening is indeed End-neutral here: wob.coppermind.net/events/218-words-of-radiance-chicago-signing/#e6738 Also, (2) a normal human in the Cosmere has more natural investiture than a drab, but less than someone with Breath. Drabs lose a bit when they lose their Breath, making them a little less than normal. Also confirmed: wob.coppermind.net/events/2-jordancon-2016/#e182
@@TheCosmerenaut Thanks for reacting, appreciate it. 1. kind of depends on how neutral is defined. Since Brandon can make that one up in this instance, I stand corrected :D 2. I think you missed my point on this one. Yes if you consider people from other planets it makes sense. But imagine it not being so. (if giving away your breath would make you the same as "normal" people. Granted this is not so in the books) The people on Nalthis would call those breathless people Drabs anyway since they are less then everyone else on the planet. Thus the fact that there are people called drabs on the planet is not proof in itself that you must give part of yourself away when giving away (your last) breath. It happens to be true, but the people on Nalthis can't tell for sure. Just a minute detail and I was nitpicking, I am sorry ;p Keep up the good work!
If a soothing compounder made it to Nalthis with the intention of taking breath by "forcing" people to give it to them, I wonder if they'd be able to pull off becoming the most powerful non-shard in the cosmere.
Depends on TLR's reserves. Like, how much health had he stored up? He's been decapitated a few times and came out fine, so he'd probably be about to just take most of whatever Susebron threw at him. But with enough prep time, Batman would still win.
@@TheCosmerenaut As it has been pointed out to me recently, Susebron vs. TLR is a horribly unbalanced fight. Susebron has fully mastered one magic system, where TLR has mastered two and discovered a powerful synergy between them. Susebron is more on the power scale of a Mistborn with a belly full of all sixteen metals, or a Feruchemist with full metalminds.
I think if Susebron had 1000 years to practice, or at least some training or something, it would be a much more interesting fight. He's got way more investiture than just a fully-loaded Mistborn, but by the end of Warbreaker he hasn't really learned how to use it.
@@jeremiahmiller6431 He's also used Hemalurgy as shown as he had the metals spiked in him, though Vin thought that it was so that they couldn't be Pushed or Pulled
@@TheCosmerenaut And that's the beauty of it. Trying to ultimately destroy Evil, unless you're dealing with the very rare pure evil, is nearly impossible due to the tiny pices of evil in everyone. By trying to destroy all evil, without weighing all possible factors, will cause you to destroy yourself and everyone around you. I should probably say that I still need to read warbreaker this is just what I picked up from oathbringer edgedancer and little bits here and there.
@@TheCosmerenaut Nightblood: Everything is evil change my mind. Also what do you think about Vivviennas Type 4 Entity blade (which isn't as agressive as Nightblood and is white ) has a command phrase like "Protect X" or something. Basically a Hippie night blood? (Brandon intended to give her a name in Oathbringer but he wasn't statisfied yet with his ideas )
Azure's blade is an interesting thing. It's definitely invested, but we don't yet know how and to what degree. It has some sort of intelligence, in that it "investigates" its wielders, but we don't know if it's fully sentient or not. It must feed off investiture like Nightblood, because of the color drain in those slain by it, and it may even drain chromatic investiture from its user given that Azure often hides her arm/clothing while using it. As for it being a hippie Nightblood? I think of it more like a baby Nightblood, not yet at its full potential.
I agree, especially with our chemical understanding of it. But given how important perspective is in Cosmere magicks, could it potentially have an effect?
Ooh, great point! What Ruin did with keeper copperminds is basically what we've seen Todium and Vasher do with Breath. I gotta think about this some more...
@@TheCosmerenaut I was thinking more cosmere "hacking". Powering one magic system with a different investiture. But you have a point there. Between Wax's coin at the end of BoM (I haven't read Lost Metal) and everything in Tress, copper and breath are gonna be very interesting soon.
BioChromatic breaths are tight. Excellent video. Too short though, you could always talk slower next time. Not a race. I like the editing and thumbnails. Quality release. The Nightblood heightening. I see what you did there.
I just had SOOO much material in this one so I unconsciously just powered through it. I definitely noticed I was going too fast when I was editing it, so I'll be slowing down in my next one. Well, my next video was originally part of this one, so my NEXT next one.
@@TheCosmerenaut your mouth was burning pewter? lol Yeah maybe some pauses throughout to let your material sink in. Love the humor and puns. Thank you. Ever considered going on the 17th shard show?
Did you know that when burning copper, Allomancers can't be sensed by the Breath life sense?
And with bronze you can sense other systems of investiture! So if you're a bronze savant, could you sense invested Breath in an object?
@@TheCosmerenaut could the 1st heightening's breath aura ability then be used similar to bronze?
@@TheCosmerenaut I think bronze can only sense kinetic investiture. The Lord ruler had bronze mistings operating 24/7 in Luthadel, they would basically all be Bronze Savants but they can't detect the investiture in Sazed's metalminds or an allomancer just holding metal inside themselves.
However, that leads to the question. Is the breath in an awakened object kinetic or static? Certainly when the awakening is occurring it's kinetic, but for example could a Bronze Savant sense a Lifeless? It's interesting, I'm of the mind that they couldn't and that breath spends most of its time being static investiture even for an awakened. However, someone with enough breath can sense awakened objects. Not to mention people can sense the breath inside of others. Does it matter whether its static or kinetic?
Perhaps allomantic bronze senses kinetic investiture, and the lifesense of Breath is sensitive to inactive investiture?
that makes a lot of sense.
RoW Spoilers: We now have more confirmation of breath being able to remove memories...
Terrifying confirmation with huge implications, yes.
How did that get confirmed? What did I miss?
Todium manipulated some of Hoid's Breath to make him forget their interaction in the RoW epilogue.
Yay. A video explain the awaken. Warbreaker is so undertarred cosmere novel, when is amazing. Well, amazing in your tipe xD
I can't wait for more videos.
And sorry for my english, I speak spanish xd
Haha no worries! I'm glad you enjoy them!
I’m slowly starting to get a real grasp on investiture. Must watch all videos again.
Soon the student will become the master...
@@TheCosmerenaut MUWAHAHAHA!
Just finished oathbringer. Love Stormlight & it’s become my favourite series.
I really enjoy your videos. Fun, comphrenshive & so rewatchable. I must have seen all of them dozens of times.
Thank you! That means a lot!
Is it just me, or this videos are freaking addictive? Dayum, I´ve read these books and I understood the magic systems, but after this series I UNDERSTOOD them. Great job!
Thanks! I'm happy to be your Cosmere dealer!
An interesting I noticed at the end of Warbreaker. After all the crap goes down Vasher retrieves the breath from his cloak and splits it between himself and Vivenna. The thing is, earlier in the book Denth tells her that you can only give either all or none of your breath to someone. Really shows how many secret commands Vasher knows.
Either that, or Denth was just lying.
Wouldn't be the first time.
And who the f* told you to trust Denth?
Loving your explanations here so much
One thing that I think does bear mentioning is the way Vivenna becomes depressed when she makes herself drab. And the shock of pleasure gaining breath brings. I think Sanderson has said that with enough breath you would become The Shard itself, so it makes me think - Does gaining more breath automatically make the person more like Endowment in nature?
We know they see beauty in more things as they gain Heightening, so I think that suggests something more about the nature of this Shard. Taking real pleasure and joy in the Beauty of the world.
That's very true. Breath doesn't only bring with it the ability to Awaken, but also an increased perception and appreciation of the world. Excellent point.
I would love a sequel to Warbreaker. Just finished it today and although I have not read the stormlight archive it is definitely my favourite of Brandon Sanderson's work
Warbreaker is truly a delight. Brandon's promised a sequel eventually...
Love your video's, just wanted this after finishing rhythm of war, brings so much clarity to the epilogue of RoW! I had totally missed the use of breath and memories in Warbreaker. Thank you for this!
There's a LOT about Awakening that we don't know yet. It's cool to see more hints!
If someone had Nightblood and was able to enter the spiritual realm with it, would they be able to attack anyone anywhere so long as they were connected enough to them? What's more, would that person (let's assume that they use one of the magic systems we've already seen, i.e. awakening, allomancy, feruchemy, surgebinding) have any kind of defense against that?
No idea. We haven't seen really any aspect of the Spiritual Realm yet, so I have no way of even surmising a possible answer to that.
This was my favorite of your videos to date! So thorough and clear. Thanks man! I feel like we would be friends irl lol.
Let's make it happen Adam.
I certainly wouldn't mind getting on that boat :)
we have actually seen 2 type 4 entities, probably: nightblood and the weapon vivenna has in oathbringer
O shit i cant believe i didnt notice that
Possibly true, but not confirmed yet. I mean, she definitely has an awakened sword, but whether it's to the level of Nightblood we don't know.
@@TheCosmerenaut isn't it supposed to be a more refined version of nightblood?
@@TheCosmerenaut of course is not on Nightblood level, but still is 4th type biochromatic entity.
@@TheCosmerenaut assuming the weapon has any form of sentience it's a type 4 entity.
[Spoilers for Oathbringer]
we've actually seen 2 type-4 bio-chromatic entities (probably).
There's of course Nightblood or Sword-Nimi, however, Azure's (Vivenna's) sword is almost certainly a more refined version of Nightblood without the um... flaws...
While it's not confirmed that this is a type-IV entity, we see a few things that go a long way to confirming it. First and foremost is that it still exists in Shadesmar, every other type of shardblade reverts to spren form in the cognitive realm. Secondly, I believe we see he hit a wall and it destroys it (more similarly to Nightblood) rather than cutting through it (like a spren-blade, or even a herald blade). The only little hitch getting in the way of confirming this is that we only have one other example of a type-IV entity and that was flawed from the beginning, so it's hard to say what a more perfected design might look like.
Yeah, we really just don't know enough about Azure's sword to say anything for sure, but it's likely that it's a Nightblood 2.0
Hey, I was wondering, when a metal born pulls investiture into their spirit web from burning metal, the investiture disappears as soon as they stop burning. An awakener's investiture never runs out though, and they get passive effects from it still. Do you think that these passive effects from bio-chromatic breath are created from energy drawn from the spiritual realm, or are more like effects that would always be there do to the way investiture works, kind of like gravity or some other natural force that doesn't need to expend energy to make things happen.
An Allomancer doesn't add to their spiritweb when burning a metal, no more than an Elantrian does when drawing an Aon. They simply channel the investiture from the Shard. I think heightenings from Awakening are just a byproduct of holding that much investiture, which draws you closer to the spiritual realm.
MASSIVE RoW SPOILERS AHEAD
We saw that Nightblood could easily kill a shard's vessel, but it only chipped an honor-blade. I have a somewhat hard time believing that an honor-blade has more investiture than a Vessel, so maeby the fact that the honor-blade was in a metallic form made it more resistant. Kind of like a god's flesh being weaker than a god's sword.
Yeah, I think it boils to the physical manifestation of that investiture. Hydrocarbons in gasoline are fluid and incredibly combustible, but those same hydrocarbons in plastic are rigid and stable.
Biochromatic breath is definitely one of the most fascinating of all the magic systems in the cosmere because of the implications of what it can achieve when used alongside other forms of magic.
Definitely. Second only to Hemalurgy.
I wonder if a lifeless was correctly made if they could speak and thus be able to use awakening or to return their breath back to the Awakener who awakened them because if so an Awakener could use a Lifeless to hide a huge amount of Breath and for it to have an instant guard.
Brandon has said that using the person's own Breath when making them a Lifeless (like if they gave away their Breath before they died, and then the Awakener used that Breath to bring them back) would definitely have an effect in making the Lifeless more cognizant - we've even apparently seen this on screen already. He's RAFO'd any question about using a Divine Breath on a Lifeless though.
I remember hearing once that Plastics exist in trees (or their bark?) so I assume they would function like cloth unless refining diminishes this effect...
Apparently natural rubber is a type of plastic, so they could! Probably depends more on perception than anything else.
I fricken love your videos man! Just got into the Cosmere and your interpretations of what is going on is brilliant. Keep it up.
Thanks!
I would have loved to get the 3rd heightening if Brandon hadn't said that it wouldn't cure colorblindness. Even fictional magic can't help me.
But it might have some interesting effects!
wob.coppermind.net/events/171/#e8270
@@TheCosmerenaut I just hope he'd tell us what those are. Interesting does not always mean good.
Yeah, in this case "interesting" could just mean "nothing works the way you want it to."
@@TheCosmerenaut who knows, it might just make the color blindness worse.
Excellent as always. Really enjoy your vids. Can't wait for more!
Thanks William! I should have another one coming fairly soon.
An interesting little note about not being able to drain color from people. Spoilers for Warbreaker and Stormlight 3+ ahead.
In Oathbringer we meet Highmartial Azure, who is Vivenna from Warbreaker Worldhopping after Zahel who is Vasher in hiding.
Azure has a fake magic sword that the people of Roshar just label a Shardblade. It is incredibly sharp and seems to have some form of mind as Azure refers to it as a she and acts as if it has emotions of some kind. Characters in the story note that her Shardblade is very weird, not only can it not be summoned, its construction is unusual and it has no Spren either when in Shadesmar. She remarks it's more of a pale copy of real Shardblades. However, they also observe that people she stabs, DO bleed to gray.
So I surmise that Azure created a sword similar to Nightblood that can suck color from people it cuts that she can then store like a battery to use to awaken things. We know she can still awaken things as when she splits from the group on the Honor Spren ship, she requests fabric cut into particular shapes to help fight the Fused. Obviously fabric cut into humanoid shapes to make them easier to awaken. We do not see her do much awakening otherwise, which makes sense as now that she's off Nalthis, she has a very limited supply of Breaths with which she can use.
Oh yeah, Azure's Nightblood 2.0 is definitely up to something.
Thanks for the shoutout :D
I'm really looking forward to the next video!
EVERYONE CHECK OUT THIS GUYS ART!!! IT'S INCREDIBLE!!!!!!
You know, it seems that the cosmere's magic systems are mostly very well balanced; Sel has enormous versatility and potential, but it takes a lot of time and effort to learn most of them, and you can't use them far away from your homeland. Roshar surgbinding requires stormlight, which only can be gathered at certain intervals of time, and it can only be collected on Roshar itself. Scadriel magics seem to have great power and can conveniently be used so long as you have metal to burn (though there are some sub types like feruchemy and hemalurgy that do have other limitations), but are limited in what ways they can be used. So far, Nalthis seems to have the most convenient magic system of all the major magics that we've seen so far; all you need is breath, which you always would have on you, color, which is literally everywhere, and the proper command and training. It does seem like the system, while certainly versatile and convenient, doesn't seem to have the same level of destructive or combat related abilities as Roshar or Scadriel.
At least not until you get really good. When Susebron comes in at the end of Warbreaker, he's pretty stinkin' OP.
@@TheCosmerenaut True, Susebron is powerful, but it seems that no matter how much bio chromatic breath you have, getting stabbed or shot will still lead to your demise. Scadriel allomancy allows the use of pewter, and feruchemy allows the use of gold healing. Rosharan radiants have shard-plate and can regenerate even more cheaply than gold feruchemists. Selish Dakor are ridiculously tough, and Elantrians can heal with little effort. Awakeners are versatile and cool, and with enough breath and training they can be dangerous, but I don't think that they could ever compare to many other magic users in sheer combat ability.
But we've seen Breath used in healing before. Granted, to this point it's just been Divine Breath from a Returned, but I think conceptually it's the same. If Vasher can somehow use Awakening to heal a little girl's trauma at being kidnapped, I'm certain there's a way to manipulate/consume Breath in order to heal physical wounds.
@@TheCosmerenaut Yeah, you probably just need the right commands. That makes me wonder though; if normal awakening can physically heal someone, what else can it do? Magically enhance strength like pewter? Speed up cognitive function like feruchemical zinc? Perhaps let you shape shift into a completely different form? It would be really cool if you could enhance yourself with breath by "awakening" different parts of your body.
And that is precisely the reason why I think Awakening is probably one of the most versatile systems, because with the right command you can accomplish a huge variety of things.
Good videos! :D
A question... where do you get the "planetary" info about the Cosmere?
I just finished reading Warbreaker, but I didn't notice any reference to the name "Nalthis". Was I too distracted by the events? Or is there a different source of into?
The first time I saw Nalthis was when I started my own research into the Cosmere. Every other planet has a star chart and explanation in Arcanum Unbounded, but Nalthis wasn't included because there wasn't a short story to put in.
I haven’t read/listened to Warbreaker yet (it’s next on the list after I just finished The Way of Kings) but there was something that got me thinking since I’m more familiar with Mistborn and the Metallic Arts. Could some form of Twinborn (most likely a full Mistborn/Feruchemist combo like Rashek) create a Connection with Feruchemical Duralumin to Nalthis, which would in theory get Endowment to grant that person a Breath, and then Compound Nicrosil to create more Breath from nothing at all? Random thought I know but I like thinking about mixing and matching the various Magic Systems of the Cosmere! What do you think Steve?…
The only trouble with that theory is people on Nalthis are born with their Breath, so creating a Connection wouldn't just get given Breath. Also, even with artificially making a Connection, Endowment might not give Breath.
I wonder how many breaths you would need to last indeffinately as a cognitive shadow. Assuming Susebron has more raw investiture than your average fused, you probably don't even need to be the 10th heightening.
That's true, but I think the Fused have also had something else done that ties them to Braize.
superinteresting! you should do more like these!
Thanks!
Plastics & oils I like to think will no longer see itself as organic anymore- after hundreds/thousand of millions of years being crushed & liquidised. But I don’t know. Do we know if fabrics or wood ever thinks like that after a long enough time?
But the Cosmere I think is only 10,000 or so years old so do they even exist?
We don't know how old the Cosmere is all we know is that Sanderson said that 6,000 years passed between the shattering and the breaking of the Oathpact though he said that he also said that the number hadn't been finalized so we should take it with a grain of salt. Also if there's no fossil fuels then what do the cars in Era 2 run on?
Brandon has said that the fuel being used in Era 2 is mostly biodiesel: wob.coppermind.net/events/56/#e757
Given that nalthians who give away their Breath have less investiture than Cosmere average, would they be able to, say, bond a spren? It seems that their reduced investiture might interfere with their connection to the cognitive realm (the size of the flame in shadesmar, maybe?) and thus the ability of spren to find and bond them.
You know, I think you're right! That's a great theory!
@@TheCosmerenaut this also brings up the issue of whether a Nalthian's in-born Breath is required for bonding spren, or if any Breath would do. I personally think that some spren would care and others wouldn't, based on their personalities
Like their own original Breath? I don't think it would necessarily need to be, simply just having enough to serve as an effective tie from Cognitive to Physical realms.
So we know that a person can store breaths inside parts of their body (as this is how Vasher hides his divine breath), but do think that there could be some beneficial side effects of this other than suppressing you bio chromatic aura?
Selective activation of parts of your spiritweb seems cool.
@@TheCosmerenaut Ooo. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but that would make sense.
@@TheCosmerenaut also, do you think that being aware of the Hemalurgy chart would allow you to be more accurate and efficient with this method since you're trying to empower you spirit web?
i didnt remember about the spoilery thing. I really need to reread warbreaker!
It's an incredibly minor spoiler, but a spoiler nonetheless.
Amazing book !!! 😁
Indeed. Time for another reread!
@@TheCosmerenaut oh,I will re-read it too for sure. 😁
A person other than Nantliana cannot use the commands, he only takes his breath. Hoid can, for being hoid
it's like turning to metalborn
Brandon specifically designed Awakening to be usable by anyone. It may be necessary to jump through some hoops to do it, but anyone with Breath would be able to Awaken.
@@TheCosmerenaut Or Godlight (it's never been officially called that, but I'm talking about Stormlight and the such) considering that it can be used as a substitute for Nightblood and Returned. Though it would probably take a heck of a lot of light
Im excited for the timeline
Hype
I'm pretty proud of it.
It's out!
Are you planning to talk about Sand Mastery on Taldain? Please do, if you have the time!
Taldain will be coming after my timeline video, so it'll be here soon!
Man he really think we getting that second warbreaker book. That's never gonna happen.
I BELIEVE!!!
it will happen eventually... maybe by 2030.
What I'm not sure on is, how do they increase their breath rating or how many breaths?
Just get more people to give you their Breath. There's a whole economy for it in Hallandren.
On the part where he said that lifeless don’t need to exercise I think that the book says that at the returned’s lifeless facility they take a couple out at a time to exercise
That may be just to keep them functional. Without a heartbeat, the only way to lubricate joints and circulate the ichor-alcohol in their bloodstream would be through physical activity.
Plastics are made from oil, so they do come from an organic host.
We just don't know how tied to structure a things cognitive identity is. Like, with everything broken down past a cellular level, would a thing still consider itself that thing? Also, does the user still consider it a plant-based substance, or is it strictly manmade at this point?
haven't read this one yet, this put it high on my list though!
It's good. Like, it's really good.
Love watching this after reading Yumi and when it’s said only one awakened object just sit back like: um actually 😂
Heck, that was wrong as soon as Oathbringer came out.
@@TheCosmerenaut Touché
When giving breath, do you either give all of yours or can you give a portion of it?
I'm pretty sure it is all or nothing, if you are talking about someone giving breath to another person or being. You don't have to use them all when awakening objects though. There is a loophole however as someone could, in theory, place some of their breaths into an object or objects, give the remaining breath(s) to someone then reclaim the breaths from the object.
There are tricks to give away only a portion, but typically it's everything.
Well it is commonly thought you MUST give it all away, but if you know what you are doing at the very least an Awakened can give a portion. Maybe it is something that comes from having a greater Heightening
@@neodigremo we know two things: Vasher only gives away a part of his breaths and Vivenna stores some of her breaths, then gives others away and retrieved the breaths later.that way you can split it invest everything but one or two, give those away, return your breaths to yourself
@@karlfranzemperorofmandefil5547 True. But that is more an inherent "loophole" of awakening that far too few people in the story think about. Someone giving away a portion directly, and not as a side effect of some being used in awakening, has only been seen to be done by Vasher. A Returned who has probably the best theoretical grasp on the whole procedure. So I suspect anyone can learn to do it, but it takes a heck of a lot of skill and practise
I wonder what would happen if you tried to use the colors of an electronic screen to fuel an Awakening. Would the pixels just refuse to work?
That begs a fundamental question: how would investiture interact with electronic technology?
@@TheCosmerenaut I suppose we’ll have to wait for Mistborn Era 3…
WAFO
I NEEDED this video :)
This video needs you, Megan. Thank you for being here.
Awesome video
Thanks!
You deserve more subscribers
I agree Ryan. Let's make it happen.
Plastics! Perception probably has a lot to do with them and other ancient organic materials like coal. I can see them being easier to awaken than an inorganic material but harder than a clearly recently living material. The “memory” of their life probably has something to do with it too.
That's probably true. I like the consideration of a material's "memory" in terms of Awakening difficulty.
I would think that plastic, being more an insulator than a conductor, would resist breaths?
I don't think conductivity would necessarily be a factor. But considering there's a lot of processing that goes in to making plastics, they probably wouldn't be very effective.
Cool video thanks. Some points though:
1. is it really a neutral investiture? You can make all kinds of things move around without having to do anything (after command) nothing decreases so I would call it a positive one.
2. though you are probably right that a small piece of oneself goes along with the breath (that really has the sound of being confirmed by Sanderson) you can't conclude that because of drabs. If everyone on the planet has something more (then on other planets) then a "normal" person (like those without breath and those of other planets) would be considered less. Hence a drab. You must consider their point of view :D
Thanks! However, (1) Brandon has confirmed that Awakening is indeed End-neutral here: wob.coppermind.net/events/218-words-of-radiance-chicago-signing/#e6738
Also, (2) a normal human in the Cosmere has more natural investiture than a drab, but less than someone with Breath. Drabs lose a bit when they lose their Breath, making them a little less than normal. Also confirmed: wob.coppermind.net/events/2-jordancon-2016/#e182
@@TheCosmerenaut Thanks for reacting, appreciate it.
1. kind of depends on how neutral is defined. Since Brandon can make that one up in this instance, I stand corrected :D
2. I think you missed my point on this one. Yes if you consider people from other planets it makes sense. But imagine it not being so. (if giving away your breath would make you the same as "normal" people. Granted this is not so in the books) The people on Nalthis would call those breathless people Drabs anyway since they are less then everyone else on the planet. Thus the fact that there are people called drabs on the planet is not proof in itself that you must give part of yourself away when giving away (your last) breath.
It happens to be true, but the people on Nalthis can't tell for sure.
Just a minute detail and I was nitpicking, I am sorry ;p
Keep up the good work!
Haha, fair points!
If a soothing compounder made it to Nalthis with the intention of taking breath by "forcing" people to give it to them, I wonder if they'd be able to pull off becoming the most powerful non-shard in the cosmere.
That's terrifying.
Man.. I have to reread Oathbringer and Warbreaker!
Oh yeah, there's some good stuff waiting for you.
@@TheCosmerenaut I began Oathbringer already.. 😊😊😊
Warbreaker is my favorite of the Cosmere
It's so good!
Could you do something on shardblades and nightblood
I've mentioned them both. What exactly do you mean?
Well we now know that there are 5 types of Invested entitites. Spren, Seons and Skaze being the first, and everything else moved up one
Or Vasher's just depressed.
Imagine having Awakening, but also having Asthma. Wouldn't that weaken your potential?
If Breaths were equivalent to breaths, then yeah, that would suck.
Can you awaken your hair while it's still in your body since it's not already alive?
I think cognitively it's still Connected to you. Consider the royal locks - technically dead, but still able to be influenced by the user.
@@TheCosmerenaut true. Makes sense when you put it that way.
Susebron vs. the Lord Ruler. I'd personally hand it to the LR, but man, it would be a _fight._
LR had over 1000 years to hone his craft - susebron just gained access to his magic, so he'd be at a disadvantage
Depends on TLR's reserves. Like, how much health had he stored up? He's been decapitated a few times and came out fine, so he'd probably be about to just take most of whatever Susebron threw at him. But with enough prep time, Batman would still win.
@@TheCosmerenaut As it has been pointed out to me recently, Susebron vs. TLR is a horribly unbalanced fight. Susebron has fully mastered one magic system, where TLR has mastered two and discovered a powerful synergy between them. Susebron is more on the power scale of a Mistborn with a belly full of all sixteen metals, or a Feruchemist with full metalminds.
I think if Susebron had 1000 years to practice, or at least some training or something, it would be a much more interesting fight. He's got way more investiture than just a fully-loaded Mistborn, but by the end of Warbreaker he hasn't really learned how to use it.
@@jeremiahmiller6431 He's also used Hemalurgy as shown as he had the metals spiked in him, though Vin thought that it was so that they couldn't be Pushed or Pulled
My favorite command was destroy evil
The only issue: define evil.
@@TheCosmerenaut
And that's the beauty of it. Trying to ultimately destroy Evil, unless you're dealing with the very rare pure evil, is nearly impossible due to the tiny pices of evil in everyone. By trying to destroy all evil, without weighing all possible factors, will cause you to destroy yourself and everyone around you.
I should probably say that I still need to read warbreaker this is just what I picked up from oathbringer edgedancer and little bits here and there.
Oh yeah, it's time to read Warbreaker then.
@@TheCosmerenaut Nightblood: Everything is evil change my mind.
Also what do you think about Vivviennas Type 4 Entity blade (which isn't as agressive as Nightblood and is white ) has a command phrase like "Protect X" or something. Basically a Hippie night blood? (Brandon intended to give her a name in Oathbringer but he wasn't statisfied yet with his ideas )
Azure's blade is an interesting thing. It's definitely invested, but we don't yet know how and to what degree. It has some sort of intelligence, in that it "investigates" its wielders, but we don't know if it's fully sentient or not. It must feed off investiture like Nightblood, because of the color drain in those slain by it, and it may even drain chromatic investiture from its user given that Azure often hides her arm/clothing while using it. As for it being a hippie Nightblood? I think of it more like a baby Nightblood, not yet at its full potential.
Plastic, though originally organic, is so chemically refined that it isn't organic anymore
I agree, especially with our chemical understanding of it. But given how important perspective is in Cosmere magicks, could it potentially have an effect?
@@TheCosmerenaut Who's perspective matters? The user or the things...
And RAFO answered my comment!! I can die happy!
Dang, the Steve'stache is strong in this video
I think I ended up trimming right after I recorded this. That was the longest it had been in a while!
The system had to be recalibrated when scholars learned about spren
Things got complicated at that point.
SPOILERS FOR RYTHM OF WAR!!!
Hoid stores some if his extra memory in his Breaths. Sounds very similar to what Vasher did with the kidnapped girl.
Yup; but the wacky thing is Vasher did it without the girl storing memory in Breath before that.
@@TheCosmerenaut Probably a process to store the memory in the first place that Hoid did. Also, hacked coppermind anyone?
Ooh, great point! What Ruin did with keeper copperminds is basically what we've seen Todium and Vasher do with Breath.
I gotta think about this some more...
@@TheCosmerenaut I was thinking more cosmere "hacking". Powering one magic system with a different investiture. But you have a point there. Between Wax's coin at the end of BoM (I haven't read Lost Metal) and everything in Tress, copper and breath are gonna be very interesting soon.
I dont think there is any plastics in the cosmere, so...
Yet.
Wait.. did you say “my wife to yours”?
SWINGER!
Variety is the colour of life 😉
Alas, she doesn't share.
This reminds me of the Law of Attraction, just saying.
There's always another "Secret"®
BioChromatic breaths are tight. Excellent video. Too short though, you could always talk slower next time. Not a race. I like the editing and thumbnails. Quality release. The Nightblood heightening. I see what you did there.
I just had SOOO much material in this one so I unconsciously just powered through it. I definitely noticed I was going too fast when I was editing it, so I'll be slowing down in my next one. Well, my next video was originally part of this one, so my NEXT next one.
@@TheCosmerenaut your mouth was burning pewter? lol Yeah maybe some pauses throughout to let your material sink in. Love the humor and puns. Thank you. Ever considered going on the 17th shard show?
Shardcast? I'd love to; I just don't know how to go about doing that.
You say Parrot but I hear Aviar
Aviar, due to their increased investiture, seem much more sapient than normal other birds, so maybe an Aviar would be able to Awaken!