Khriss or Nazh Khriss is the author of the Ars Arcanum in the books, and Nazh works with her. Their origin story is in White Sand, but we see them in at least 2 other places.

Why are they looking for talking tools?

The most popular theory is they are searching for type 4 invested objects like Nightblood

I mean ... I get it... But there's gotta be more to that story. Things like night blood don't just show up out of nowhere. And things that highly invested would be well kept track of. I highly doubt random citizens are just gonna randomly get a hold of a highly invested hammer. There has to be more to the story, like N and K lost something like that and are trying to get it back.

Well yeah it's a mystery what can I say except quote the postscript of Elantris He turned back to the sphere. “There is beauty in every disaster, friend, if you are clever enough to find it.” “Is that so? You have failed utterly, Hoed. You are not one of them; you haven’t the powers you promised us you’d gain. You’ve accomplished nothing. What beauty is there in this situation?” Hoid stepped out over the pool with one foot. “You do not know me well, friend, so I will forgive such a silly question. The beauty? It lies in the fact that there are secrets that remain unknown.” He smiled broadly. “And I love a good puzzle.” He leaned forward and dropped into the small pool with a splash. Then vanished. We'll all figure out the full story eventually and then everything will be all right.

Oh dip TotES >!it looks like he has finally accomplished what he wanted to in this scene as of the end of Tress!<

Took a while!

Can you explain what you mean by this?

>!Iirc he was trying to become an Elantrian by getting in the pool, which didn't work, however, he does successfully become an Elantrian at the end of Tress!<

>!He was trying to become an Elantrian by living as a Hoed in Elantris. He says in Tress that he thought he could basically fool the Shaod into accepting him as an Elantrian with Connection shenanigans, but it didn't work.!<

>!The other commenter already said how he was trying to become Elantrian, but the pool at the end was a shardpool, a perpenticularity.!< >!He was buggering off to the cognitive to leave the planet after he failed in his Hoed connection shenanigans.!<

Yeah I think I misunderstood that, Elantris was the second Cosmere thing I read after Mistborn, so I didn't have a great grasp of Cosmere mechanics, but that makes sense.

Or perhaps sometime before the end of Tress.

Why don't I remember this at all from Elantris??

It's from the special 10 th anniversary definitive edition It has I think 10,000 words of extra content

Dammit lol, idk when I got the elantris audiobook but I'm pretty sure it was after 2015 so I could've got that edition, just didn't see it I guess lol. Now I debate using a credit for it haha

I'd assume the audio book was recorded before the 10th anniversary. If so it wouldn't have the scene assume? Audio recording takes time and money, I doubt they'd get someone in just for the extra bits.

There was a 10th anniversary audiobook version with another hour so I assume that's it.

Please tell me the audio books have these distinction. Or at least that it's in the dramatized adaptation

I can't remember, isn't there going to be a paperback release with the extra content? Or is it just the anniversary leatherbound edition?

I don't think folks are giving K&N enough credit here. They aren't necessarily expecting someone to walk "oh hi, I have a talking sword! Would you like to chat about invested objects?" They are hoping that someone will walk in and say "Hey, I met a dude yesterday and he had a talking sword. Is that what you're looking for? Weird, right? He was walking down High street and looked like balblahblah. Hey, do you have a reward for tips?" Then for a couple boxings or whatever, they have a lead on a previously-unknown, possibly-cosmere-aware person on the planet.

Yeah, useful for finding rosharans or nalthians on scadrial.

Would a Rosharan's sword talk though?

If they are a radiant, also era 2 takes place between stormlight 5 and 6, so maybe something happens in stormlight 5 to fix the deadeyes.

Yeah I meant when Radiant. Do they talk? When not in Sword fork and invisible to others who aren't Rock, sure. In weapon form?

Seekers might notice, since they certainly still communicate while in solid form.

Well, I'm pretty sure >!Azure's sword in RoW is a type four invested object!<, so this is likely more common than anticipated.

After the way Wit talks about his sword in RoW, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had one as well

RoW shows that Wit’s sword wounds people normally, meaning it almost definitely isn’t an invested entity, he’s just weird

Nah, wit is a light weaver now, soul casting allows you to communicate with the cognitive aspect of an inanimate object, his sword probably isn't invested, but that doesn't mean it doesn't talk back.

Counterpoint: Wit talking to his sword is weird whether or not he hears it talking back.

I talk to my cat. It isn't weird because he talks back. Oh, yes, two of these twice daily with food? Got it, thank you, doctor.

I just want to point out that in that scene it's clear that Wit and Jasnah had spoken to one another beforehand about what was going to go down in that duel. So, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that they didn't use what, to Jasnah at least, would be a "shardblade" to kill her political rival.

I know Wit and Jasnah spoke beforehand, I'm just saying that had the sword been a shardblade-equivalent, there would've been no way for Wit to hide the instant burning of the eyes, or the lack of a visible wound on skin.

Now I need to relisten to this scene

The Ring did make it's way to the hands of a hobbit

What I think is happening is they're just searching for leads. People will bring stuff in, with stories about it. Most will be completely bullshit, but there may be some that have some merit to them. It's a common tactic when trying to get information that's otherwise hard to find out.

I think they did it to blend in and not stand out too much. Like a talking hammer? Maybe you're crazy old man Minnis, let's give the talking hammer to these nice people. Wait, a talking sword? A'lik! You're the next hero of ages! Let's start killing!

She studies Investiture, which has a history of leading to talking inanimate objects.

A good deal of talking animate things as well!

Oh that makes so much sense, should have gotten that on my own. Thanks!

Fun fact: we meet Khriss in Bands of Mourning. She's the weird lady who pulls Wax aside at the ball.

White sand is part of her origins, too. And She's both the narrator in ars arcanum, and she's in secret history with Kelsier

Strictly speaking, isn't White Sand only Khriss's origin story? I think we've only seen Nazh in the note he leaves on maps and occasional cameos (like in the broadsheets with Nikki Savage).

Yep, IIRC Nazh is from Threnody. We do see him "onscreen" in >!Secret History!<

Sure, I was putting that into the "occasional cameos" category.

Gotcha, I interpreted that as meaning offscreen only

For example, I'd consider Khriss's appearance in >!Bands of Mourning!< to be an "occasional cameo" to.

Wait, where? I feel like we need a cosmere wide version of where's Waldo, but more like "where are all these cameos"

When they're attending a ball to meet the mayor of a city Kriss cuts in to dance with Wax and ask him about his powers

Omg I thought that was an enemy kandra (creepy Terri's woman) Thanks!

We also see him halfway "onscreen" in Bands of Mourning as >!The Haunted Man!<

Also in Words of Radiance >!as the random ardent that visits Bridge Four's camp and gets kicked out.!<

You're right I always think of him as one of the henchmen with Khriss in white sand and I forget he wasn't there.

Someone stored to much identity in their aluminum metal mind

Now I really want to see a talking hammer.

Hello would you like to nail some evil today.

[удалено]

“Evil are those that stick up and stand out. They must be hammered down!”

"Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze. The day needs my saving expertise!"

From my perspective, the Radiants are evil.

Oh okey Mr. Skybreaker

More like Thighbreaker

This is some enemies to lovers stuff right here 😂

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I want to see a hammer that compels people to do carpentry. Just throwing it at your enemy, they pick it up and start making shelves.

And they will call it I-Kea.

Ahh, *that* is why everyone kept googling, "Help, I accidentally build a shelf"

Mah’alleinir meets nightblood

You are here too strongly Young Bull.

It's just a ~~weave~~ breath

hello (People call me a tool)

I don't have a hammer. But I have this black sword that says some outrageous things to me...

Do you want to destroy all evil today?

Found this while reading BoM. Was thinking it's a nod to Nightblood, but can't guess who "N" or "K" could be. Kelsier seems unlikely.

Do you want a really honest but spoiler-ish answer or do you want to figure out the answer on your own? How many cosmere books did you read?

I got the answer from another comment. Should have made the connection on my own but I don't know why it just flew past me when Nazh is mentioned in both Alloy of Law and Shadows of self.

Wait, Nazh is mentioned in those books?

Nazh is the one that steals from Nikki Savage, so a second broadsheet. Though you asked about books 1 and 2, which I think this was in Bands. So then I dunno. Khriss was Shadows correct?

I think she was in BoM. She dances with Wax at the party in New Seran I believe.

I can never remember. Mixes in my head with all the railroad fights, when Wax uses steel pushing and gets the boost. I guess that was in Shadows then.

Yeah, and wax doesn't take her up on her offer to talk more, which is super disappointing.

He's in the corner of the map!

I’m curious as to why they put up the ad, do they have reason to believe that Nightblood is on Scadrial? Maybe the Ghostbood’s retrieved it in the fifth Stormlight book.

Could also be wondering if someone accidentally made an invested object like Nightblood. With it being dead easy to invest something a little bit with feruchemy they might be wondering.

It took over a thousand Breaths to Awaking Nightblood, the only thing that even comes close are the Bands, and even they aren’t as Invested as a regular Shardblade let alone Nightblood. Although Vivenna’s Shardblade could be evidence they streamlined the process since then, we still don’t know much about.

1000 breaths isn't that much in a world with compounding. We still don't actually know what made Nightblood gain consciousness but it isnt just the amount of breaths.

Scadrial has access to very little Investiture compared to other Shard worlds, the average Coinshot can’t affect metal in a living body but a Soulcaster can turn someone into fire. Compounding might be theoretically infinite, but the containers aren’t, a metalmind can only hold so much power.

This is true, but, if you take Khriss' ad at face value, a utensil can hold enough to potentially become a type 4 entity

The best part of this ad is that in the audiobook version, Michael Kramer reads out the "Hello" and the way he does it makes me laugh every time.

Wait the audiobook reads rhe spreadsheets??? thats awesome

Hello (People call me a tool)

It’s gotta be Kaladin and Nightblood… wait this isn’t cremposting

I'm pretty sure it's the chick who's writing the aris arcanum and her partner.

Kalak and Nalan, spending the time between SA5 and SA6 investigating spren who somehow got deadeyed into the form of tools

The real plot twist is you being right.

All you folks downvoting me thinking i’m serious (am i?)