Argent: Staying with Yumi, since we're asking the big questions here. I want to talk about the big machine, the father machine.
Argent: There are some really interesting what feel like intentional parallels between it and Nightblood.
Argent: There's smoke involved, there's eating of souls, there's a whole bunch of things. So what I do want to ask is: one, was the father machine awakened using Breaths, using Nalthian awakening? Or are you using Awakening as Lightweaving or Bondsmithing which is an overarching system in the Cosmere?
Brandon Sanderson: It's the second.
This wouldn't exist in the pre-space-age as much; by space age there's a certain terminology that is going between... basically it's starting with the arcanists and moving to the general population. What certain themes in the Cosmere magics mean. And so when Hoid says "this is an Awakened machine" his audience understands what that means. It does not necessarily mean Breaths awaken, but Breaths are one of the main ways that people see things be Awakened.
You should be noticing those parallels, but that's a term that in the Cosmere is becoming genericized to mean un-living object being given some measure of sentience and even sapience by application of Investiture, Commands, and these sorts of things. By this point they've all interacted with various Awakened machines of sorts in the future Cosmere. They know what this means. They've talked to an Awakened computer.
Argent: Interesting! Very interesting! That's what I was hoping you would answer. Because Awakening is such a cool term for Awakening an object, right!
One notable difference between the father machine and Nightblood other than them using different magic systems to be Awakened is that the Machine was able to somehow draw people's souls at a distance, which seems EXTREMELY broken to me.
Brandon Sanderson: Yeah. I had to let... This is going to be a pretty special circumstance for this book. But yes. It is pretty broken. You wouldn't want this to be... this could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. Don't expect this to be very commonly used in the Cosmere.
Argent: Was that a side effect of the magic system that was used to Awaken the Machine, or was there something else going on?
Brandon Sanderson: This is a side effect of what Virtuosity did and the bit of Virtuosity in all the people allowing the Machine to have enough of a plausible Connection to them to draw upon them.
Argent: Ok. Interesting. I will think about this while I pass the ball back to Matt.
Brandon Sanderson: Yeah. This is me pushing just a little bit hard on the boundaries of what is possible. It is possible, but it it is pushing further than I normally would on the bounds of what that can do.
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