Jump to content

Silarn

Members
  • Posts

    52
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Silarn's Achievements

39

Reputation

  1. I know I'm digging up an older thread, but this is a fun supposition. (And I took a bit of a hiatus from looking at the forum since I last posted.) I think it's pretty obvious that Brandon is at least pulling some ideas about the way investiture works from actual particle physics, so whether or not he actually has real specific physics principles behind everything, it's fun to theorize how what we do know about our own reality might map onto Cosmere physics.
  2. Keep in mind that antiparticles only annihilate similar particles. Antiprotons and protons. Electrons and positrons. Interestingly, photons are considered chargeless and therefore are their own antiparticles and do not actually have a particle that will annihilate them. So the investiture seems to act as a type of charge, which means that the 'photons' of investiture are not actually chargeless like photons are. Their intent/rhythm/tone is a type of charge. So long as Raysium (I guess we still call it that?) is made of different types of particles than the anti/voidlight, it could flow and not cause annihilation. Though you would tend to expect it to flow opposite to how you were used to 'regular' voidlight flowing. To address the question, I would guess that at least a major part of their being is Light-based. Assuming that the Light is a fundamental force that keeps them whole, annihilating that Light would destroy them pretty well - even if there were some other fundamental 'particles' that also give spren their structure. I suppose that's not too different from the electrons in our own bodies. If we were suddenly bathed in positrons, things would not go well for us, but not every particle in our bodies would be annihilated, just the electrons.
  3. It's a bit hard to know what they're talking about here. Keep in mind that in many ways our science is ahead of most science in the Cosmere (at least with published material). There was a time that we believed atoms were the smallest particle. Then we came to understand those were made up of more particles, and those were made up of yet more particles still. It's possible their 'axi' are akin to atomic particles. It's hard to say. But I'd guess this is largely referring to electrical charge. That being said, I think it would be reasonable to perceive investiture as something akin to a superposition, with intent as an added requirement. The rigidity of the intent is interesting, though. Two individual investitures will only combine in the presence of the combined intent and rhythm in their environment. Further, Navani and Rabioniel were only able to create the anti-light by introducing 'intent-less' light in a closed system to the anti-intent they wanted it to adopt.
  4. I mean I think what we're really talking about here is matter vs antimatter. In Navani's experimentation, she describes splitting the spectra of various lights. In reality, while different substances will produce different light spectra, they scatter in a predictable way in a prism. Some substances will produce more of certain wavelengths than others, but you end up the same overall spectrum with some gaps in it. Invested light produces its own unique spectrum. Now, I don't know how that translates into visible light. I'm not sure how you 'see' light that isn't light. But essentially invested matter and energy seems to have its own rules separate from 'standard' matter. It can recombine with itself, much like light recombines with itself, but it doesn't naturally combine with other types of light. What I take this to mean is that, with standard light, if you were to add RGB together you would ultimately perceive white light. Based on BS's descriptions, if you were to take, say, green 'standard' light, red voidlight, and blue stormlight and shine them on a surface - you would still interpret three different types of light. They would not combine to white. This is all still rather odd, since we know that 'shardmatter' still interacts with regular matter, physically, chemically, etc. But ultimately, I think it's safe to say that no Shard is truly the opposite of any other shard. They are all aspects of what was once a unified power. Anti-light is the opposite of that power. Perhaps Ruin and Preservation combine into something that would be a bit jarring and dissonant, but they can still combine. Not unlike any two physical sounds or EM spectra in the real world. Anti-light is like anti-matter. It's out of phase with standard light such that the two will cancel out if they interact.
  5. I'd guess that Regals and other Fused are a sort of modified cognitive echo. At one point they would have been much like the Heralds, but they've been modified substantially to the point where it's impossible for them to manifest in the physical realm without a host to 'ground' them. However, when they take over a host they seem to largely transform the host to something closer to their own perceived appearance. So I'd guess that they wouldn't be all that different in appearance to the cognitive realm, though I think it would be possible that their host body would be destroyed if they tried to enter the cognitive realm fully again. That's a little different to a bonded Singer. I think it's still an open question how a bonded Singer would appear in the Cognitive. A similar question would be, what would happen to a gemstone with a captured spren (a modern fabrial) if you tried to take it to the cognitive realm - and I think we have a partial answer to that, right? When they try to transfer certain types of items with the Oathgate, things like Shardplate simply don't transfer. But you can transfer gems that have investiture captured within them. So it seems to be that physically captured spren are somewhat incompatible with Shadesmar. But would that apply to a bonded Singer? And how exactly does the captured voidspren/true spren combo work - as singers only have a single gemheart - no? Ed: Got Regals mixed with Fused. Regals and Radiants are two sides of the same coin, and we can only speculate without official WoB.
  6. I think it's interesting to note here that Vasher seems to have revised his categories of BioChromatic entities. As we know, the manifestation of Spren is fairly unique to Roshar. Until Vasher came to Roshar, he believed himself and those like him to be the only sentient type of BioChromatic entity (which he then labeled type I) which was essentially a shadow of a person that had been invested and imprinted upon the cognitive realm. This means they can manifest as a living, physical entity as they used to be one. This would also apply to the Regals and other Fused, though it is perhaps a bit unusual that they require a host body to manifest fully in the physical realm. He now believes spren - or perhaps 'true spren' - to be true Type I BioChromatic entities as they seem to be sentient life that has spontaneously manifested in the cognitive realm. However, as they are life that was created in the cognitive realm, their cognitive forms are not actually compatible with the physical realm. So what we see of spren in the physical realm is generally just an impression or aspect which manifests in the presence of sentient beings expressing those emotions. The bond allows the spren to manifest more completely in the physical realm, but they are still a step removed from their true cognitive forms (and sentience). For some reason Ishar is trying to pull actual physical spren from the Cognitive realm into the Physical realm without relying on a bond.
  7. So based on other descriptions we have, it would seem that - at least on Roshar - investiture produces both light and rhythms with their own unique spectra. So if you were to invert this property, it would stand to reason that it would cause the investiture to suck in some degree of light, which would cause the light around it to warp and bend toward it. What's not clear is how invested light is different from standard light, as BS describes it as creating a wholly unique spectrum that doesn't seem to 'mix' with other types of light - be it standard or invested. (At least, not without providing the proper rhythm and intent to help align it with the desired investiture.) So, if the anti-investiture is pulling in light, why does it also seem to produce light instead of a sort of 'black hole' type effect? Perhaps the anti-investiture only pulls in certain spectra of light, which would leave the other bands to bleed through in the appearance of a visible light while sucking in other bands of light? Perhaps it just creates a fairly strong pull, like a star, without necessarily having the strength to keep light from escaping. But if that's the case, would a strong enough anti-investiture produce something like a black hole?
  8. My initial read was that Cultivation's plan was to at the very least have T take out Rayse, but also attempt to groom him to be a more 'responsible' holder of Odium that wouldn't be bent purely on domination were he to take up the Shard. Now, I do think it's likely we haven't seen all of the fruits of her planning. There may well be more to Lift than we currently know, though her being able to survive the inversion of the Sibling was at least part of that plan. She says herself that she can merely guide/influence people on their path and hope that it leads them to the desired outcome. However, we also have evidence that she may have gambled poorly on T as well. Even as she lays out her hopes for him as Odium, he begins plotting. "You have no idea what you have done." Sure, he claims he's going to "save them all," but we know he's got a twisted view as to what that means and what that entails. In his conversations with Dalinar, even in his 'passionate' state, he believes he's only done evil in the name of a greater future good. And yet, even if you can acknowledge his Machiavellian point of view, he also ended up putting himself in greater power and influence in the process. And Dalinar wonders how fully altruistic his motives actually were. Beyond that, even, we know that Harmony has great doubt as to how much that a Vessel can resist the Intent of their Shard and that Rayse was having great difficulty fighting against the destructive passion of Odium. Can T really do better - if he even wants to? There are also the epitaphs of Part 5. How much do Taravangian's ideas align with those El seems to profess? I'd guess he's not far off.
  9. I think I was off by one word, lol. Good to have it confirmed! And nobody got the italic he must not know! * Nope, three whole words! And a small amount of punctuation.
  10. I think it's worth remembering that Brandon has said that Nightblood is growing and learning - and I don't think we know how many years have actually passed between Warbreaker and Stormlight Archive. Thus, Nightblood may have changed a bit in that time. There are a lot of unknowns - and we can't assume things are the same as in Warbreaker.
  11. Again, Eshonai being the Traitor isn't really that hard to grasp. She was a key figure in the betrayal of the Listeners' alliance with the Alethi. She was convinced to take on Stormform - leading to the betrayal (by her command - though it was probably Odium's will) of her people to Odium. It's possible she will also betray Odium in her bid for freedom. Her screaming mind seeks freedom from Odium's control.
  12. Brightness Radiant is quite clearly a coping mechanism, and Shallan is definitely going in pretty deep on the character - something like method acting. To the point that she's only realizing in hindsight when she says things that have gone too far / are a little suspect. It seems that, as a possible aspect of her bond, her Truth is keeping her somewhat grounded to her 'real' personality. But she's making it quite clear that she can't 'be' Shallan while using Patternblade without being overwhelmed by her memories. She lets Shallan surface a little to adjust her reactions and so forth, but she's definitely becoming that other person to an extent. In the back cover thread, we've got a pretty close read on what the back cover text is now and the part that references Shallan is (likely) this: "The Spy, broken by cruelty, seeks completion." As these back-cover excerpts reference what will happen in this book and not just previous events, I think this dichotomy, repression of the past, and inability simply be Shallan (particularly as it comes to being a Radiant) is definitely going to be a big aspect of this book.
  13. While I agree for the most part, it's uncertain to me if they all have to be Radiants. Has it been confirmed that Szeth actually has a real bond now? Previously, he had powers from the Honorblade - and now he has Nightblood. Neither one of those requires a Nahel Bond. I know that Nalan has taken him under his wing, but did Edgedancer actually show him using new Radiant abilities? And obviously Eshonai is a big question mark as well. I suppose it's possible either of them could potentially become Radiants in the future - though that hasn't been a requirement in previous books. @phoenix2563 That version looks pretty good to me. Like "The Dress", it's easy for our eyes to interpret the slightly-out-of-focus and motion-blurred text differently, but I think soul fits best now that you say it. I'm also on the fence about completion - but I haven't been convinced that the shape of the other suggestions fits it quite right. (But we do know that out of all the suggestions so far, we have hit all the right words - per that Twitter post above.)
  14. Re Shallan & cruelty... IMO both her mother and father were their own brand of cruelty to Shallan and her siblings - cruelty which drove her to kill them and become broken. We don't know much about when she actually bonded with Pattern, so that will be interesting, but I don't think it's a prerequisite. And she's learning to disguise herself and take on personas, counter-infiltrating the Ghostbloods. Seems pretty spy-like. The reasons for their respective 'breakings' are not totally self-inflicted. You could argue it was Eshonai's sister's ambition as much as her own. Dalinar was certainly a willing participant, but it was his brother's war and the Thrill that helped to break him. Kaladin suffered loss despite trying to prevent it - though his hate for nobility has often made things worse. Szeth chose to follow his oaths, of course, but those oaths and the ones that bound him to them were misguided and wrong in their assumptions.
×
×
  • Create New...