Vasher (Warbreaker)

"I have trouble talking. I get frustrated. I snap at people. Doesn’t make me very popular. But I promise you that I won’t lie to you."

- Vasher to Vivenna

Summary
Vasher, also known as Kalad the Usurper, Peacegiver the Blessed and Warbreaker the Peaceful is a Returned from Nalthis, a majour figure in Nalthian history, and one of the Five Scholars which played a role in the creation of Nightblood.

He was the main figure in starting the Manywar against Kuth and Huth, though long into the war he had a sudden change in heart and decided to end it all. In which he earned the name Peacegiver the Blessed. However it would be during this war that he and the rest of the Scholars created one of the most dangerous weapons in the universe, Nightblood, in their failed attempt to replicate Rosharan Shardblades through the arte of Awakening. This would serve to have long lasting ramifications throughout the Cosmere.

He misinterpreted Arsteel's motives in joining  Denth, Jewels, and Tonk Fah, and killed him for it. This, mixed with his killing of Shashara, led to Vasher and Denth becoming bitter enemies.

Some time after this event, he used a trick in order to get himself locked away in the God King's prison, so that he could find and kill a rebel named Vahr. Who granted him his Breath in exchange for a merciful death.

Vasher found through a priest there was a political Hallandren group pushing for war against Idris, where the exiled royals lived. Looking for more information on the faction involved led him to looking into communicating with Mercystar, who was known for her involvement in politics, yet was not all that influential; and he broke into her palace in order to gain information from her. Easily subduing the guards at the front of the palace. Inside of the palace he was able to find a secret trapdoor.

He found Vivenna was inadvertently working with Denth to create disturbances and vandalize the city, which was making the movement for war stronger. Because of this, he kidnapped Vivenna and took her to one of the slums, where he used Nightblood in order to determine if she had a pure heart. She passed the test, but ultimately still trusted in Denth, and fled from Vasher to try to return to him. Eventually, Vasher found her and rescued her, using Nightblood to kill thugs who were threatening her.

Vasher began taking Vivenna to meetings with members of the Idrian community of Hallandren; trying to convince them to stop the riots and ultimately prevent the impending war. His previous attempts at failed, but with the help of Vivenna he managed to touch the hearts of people and begin to make them question their desire for conflict.

Gaining a large degree of trust for Vasher, Vivenna shared some of Denth's plans with Vasher. This knowledge tipped him into finding the daughter of one of the priests who was kidnapped to manipulate her father into favor for the war. During this rescue, Vasher lost his temper and killed the thugs.

Vivenna and Vasher went to the arena to watch the Hallandren vote on war. Wherein they found Sisirinah, the sister of Vivenna, and she pleaded him to save her from the  God King, to which he agreed. However, when he broke into the God King’s palace, he was ambushed and captured by Denth’s mercenaries. When he awoke, he was tied by his wrists to a hook in the ceiling of a stone room and tortured by Denth.

He was later freed from his bonds by Vivenna, who found Nightblood and went to save him. Which led to him getting into a swordfight with Denth. And managed to kill him in the battle.

He transferred his ability to control the Phantoms to fight back against Hallandren’s Lifeless, which were being sent to attack Idris to Susebron, so that he would be capable of controlling them and ending the attack. This led to the destruction of the Lifeless armies, saving Idris from the Hallandren attack.

Vasher, accompanied by Vivenna, then set off to find Yesteel, who was attempting to restore Huth and Kuth.

Some time after the events of Warbreaker, he moved to Roshar and took up the name of Zahel, though became separated from Nightblood, which wound up in the hands of Nale. During the War of Reckoning, he served as ardent and swordmaster in the Kholin warcamp, and teacher of Renarin Kholin. Seemingly hiding from Vivenna, who is hunting him down.

During the occupation of Urithiru he was occupied with some task, leading to him not being present during it. The exact nature of this task is not yet known.

Powers and Stats
Name: Vasher, Kalad the Usurper, Strifelover, Peacegiver the Blessed, Talaxin, Tax, Zahel, Warbreaker the Peaceful

Age: At least 400

Gender: Male

Classification: Returned, Awakener, Worldhopper

Powers and Abilities: Kalad = Awakening, Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Weapon Mastery with Swords, Light Manipulation via Colour Distortion; Extrasensory Perception via Life Sense, Aura Recognition, and Invested Breath Recognition; Limited Power Nullification via Command Breaking, Immortality via Agelessness Durability Negation and Soul Manipulation via Nightblood; Limited Shapeshifting, Resistance to Poison Manipulation via Agelessness, Zahel = Awakening, Weapon Mastery with Swords, Extrasensory Perception via Life Sense and Aura Recognition; Immortality via Agelessness, Resistance to Poison Manipulation via Agelessness

Nightblood
Nightblood is an incredibly powerful blade created by him and Shashara through the use of Awakening, in an attempt to replicate the powerful Shardblades found on Roshar.

Holding it greatly enhances the strength of the user, and one simply need to slightly unclasp it to get the increase in strength. Enough so that Szeth could easily break the spine of a man by smashing him in the back, and a prison guard on Nalthis could run it through his own chest while still sheathed.

If anything is so much as nicked by the blade, they would burst into black smoke and have all of their Investiture absorbed. This brings about destruction in all Three Realms. It was powerful enough that it was capable of killing Rayse, a Shard of Adonalsium ; collapsing a Perpendicularity, and putting a nick in an Honorblade. As Souls are essentially of Investiture, this can also permanently kill Fused by consuming their Soul beyond its ability to resurrect.

As it is so oversaturated with Investiture, it leaks it out as black smoke, corrupted and fouled by the blade. It is this which got the sword its name. It consumes even the Investiture of the wielder itself, and if it consumes all they have, it would absorb their soul and spark of life.

He is very skilled in using Nightblood, as he is with swords in general, though he mostly abstains from using it due to the risk it provides.

Sometime after leaving Nalthis and moving to Roshar, he and Nightblood had a falling out, and wound up in the hands of Nale. Therefore he does not wield it during his time as Zahel.

Awakening
Vasher is an incredibly skilled practitioner of the Nalthian arte of Awakening, he is very knowledgeable and killed, and has a good handle on what he does and doesn't understand. He was even capable of creating a Type IV BioChromantic Entity in Nightblood, which is a feat that, in all of the history of Awakening, only he and Shashara have been capable of doing.

Awakening, in simple terms, is the ability to Invest objects with BioChromatic Breath and give them a Command in which they will work in order to fulfill. He is particularly skilled in giving Commands, even able to easily give multiple Commands in a single Awakening, which is considered quite difficult to do for most Awakeners.

As with all Awakeners, he requires Breath in order to Awaken objects, and he can collect Breath from other peoples if they are willing and give the proper Command.

Awakened Clothing
He Awakens his clothing for various ends.

His belt, which is a simple rope, is used to send forth to wrap around his targets.

Lifeless
He carries around the corpses of grey squirrels in order to use to create lifeless which follow his commands. The reason he chooses them in particular is due to their grey colour making the grey colour distinct of lifeless harder to notice, making them be less suspect to onlookers.

He has a special method of creating Lifeless which makes it only require a single breath per Lifeless. However, he cannot take back a Breath used to create a Lifeless as it is made a permanent part of the Lifeless.

He is skilled in giving Commands to Lifeless, able to even give up to three different Commands to a Lifeless at one time.

Due to the nature of Lifeless, they are locked to a specific password, which makes it so that only he can give them new Commands through stating the password. The method of this operates through stating the passcode in order to open the Lifeless up to new Commands, state the list of Commands, and than end it off with the passcode, confirming the Commands and cutting it off from further Commands.

He created Kalad's Phantoms, a near-unstoppable army of Lifeless stone soldiers.

Heightening
As a Returned, he has a Divine Breath, making him of the Fifth Heightening. Granting him Aura Recognition, Perfect Pitch, Perfect Colour Recognition, Perfect Life Sense, and Agelessness as a baseline.

Aura Recognition: The ability to see the Breath auras of others instinctively, allowing him to determine how many Breaths any given person possesses.

Perfect Pitch: Has a degree of perfect pitch going beyond normal human levels. Able to perfectly discern and replicate any tone.

Perfect Colour Recognition: Perfect Colour Recognition is the ability to instantly and instinctively determine exact shades of colors and their hue harmonics. This goes beyond the levels of any normal human, and even goes beyond the subjective experience of colour and enters a Realm of objective hues beyond human intervention. This allows him to make out the exact colour that he is looking at, able to determine exactly how many "steps" it is away from the true form of a particular colour.

Perfect Life Sense: Life Sense is the ability instinctively sense other people around him, and to tell when they are watching him. This manifests as an active feeling of unease and awareness. He is even capable of sensing grass far beneath him, and determine how far away the ground is from him.

Agelessness: He does not age, and is immune to most toxins and physical ailments, such as headaches, diseases, and organ failure. Therefore becoming functionally immoral, disregarding his need for Investiture as a Returned. Even hundreds of years later he is still alive and looks the same age as he did those four centuries ago.

However, earlier in his life, he possessed a store of around 50,000 Breaths, putting him at the Tenth Heightening in the past. This granted him Instinctive Awakening, Invested Breath Recognition, Command Breaking, Greater Awakening, Audible Command, Colour Distortion, Perfect Invocation, and Mental Commands. However, by the time of Warbreaker and The Stormlight Archive, he no longer has this massive store of Breaths, having given them to the line of Kings in Hallandren.

Instinctive Awakening: The ability to immediately understand and use basic Awakening Commands without training or practice.

Invested Breath Recognition: This is the ability to tell if an object has been Invested.

Command Breaking: The ability to break and disable the Commands placed on other Awakener's objects.

Greater Awakening: Greater Awakening is the ability to make Type IV Biochromatic Entities, that is to say, the ability to awaken materials such as steel and stone. It is this ability which he took advantage of in the creation of Nightblood. Which would normally be impossible to Awaken due to its inorganic composition and the distance of its form from resembling anything living.

Audible Command: This is the ability to Awaken objects without directly touching them, but instead Awaken them solely through the sound of his voice.

Colour Distortion: The natural ability to bend light around white objects within their BioChroma, creating colors from them as if from a prism. This creates a rainbow aura around the user when they are wearing white, as it is used by Susebron to show off his power.

Perfect Invocation: The ability to draw more color from the objects Awakeners use to fuel their art. This drains objects to white, instead of the usual grey.

Mental Commands: Mental Command allows one to give Commands mentally, without even having to speak their Command in order to Awaken an object.

Swordmastery
He is very skilled in the use of the blade, to an extent that he was stated to be able to beat anyone alive in a swordfight. This is owing to his centuries of experience. Far more than any mortal could possibly have.

As Zahel he became a very soughafter swordsmaster and the trainer of Adolin and Renarin Kholin in dueling and in how to fight with and defend against Shardblades. This knowledge likely originates from his experience with Nightblood, and former experience with Shardblades during his first visit to Roshar.

Returned Nature
As a Returned he requires an influx of Investiture in order to keep him alive, on Nalthis he required one Breath a week in order to keep himself alive, as he would otherwise have his Divine Breath consumed, bringing about his death. This lasts 8 Days, on the Seventh day without any Investiture he would grow sluggish and weak, and on the Eight he would have his Divine Breath consumed, killing him. This was a majour motivation in his moving to Roshar, as it supplied far more present and easy to access Investiture that he could consume in order to keep himself alive.

As a Returned he is also granted superhuman physical characteristics beyond just Agelessness, also gaining superhuman strength and speed. Along with minor shapeshifting ability, such as the ability to change hair colour, weight, or height, to a reasonable extent.

He is capable of suppressing his Divine Breath that he appears like a normal human, however, he loses the effects of the Fifth Heightening while suppressing it. However, they still possess the increased strength and speed they have as a Returned.

He can choose to give up his Divine Breath in order to completely heal an individual at the cost of their own life. This does not give the individual the Fifth Heightening, only working in order to heal them from any injury or ailment.