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How is a Drab Different from a "Normal" Human


leester1478

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So I see a bunch of posts talking about Drabs and Breath. But what I want to know is how a drab would differ from a baseline human. WoB says that another person who travels to Nalthis wouldn't be drab, but what makes someone drab is that they gave away their Investiture from Endowment, their Breath. Giving away your Breath should leave you with just your soul, restoring you to baseline human again, in my mind, at least. There's a bunch of lines about drabs being more susceptible to disease and irritable, but maybe that's just how normal people would appear to a native Nalthian with their innate Breath.

 

But, as I write this, I remember that Vasher can use his lifesense on Roshar, where the humans have no innate Investiture. That indicates that lifesense senses LIFE not Investiture. Which would mean that drabs are somehow less "alive" than a normal person, and that makes no sense because all they should have given away was their Breath.

 

I'm sure I'm just missing something, but I hope that someone can clear this up for me.

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Actually people on Roshar do have innate investiture:
 

Question

 

Do all the humans have innate Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

I believe that they all do. I don't think that you've seen anyone without innate Investiture yet. [Drabs] do not have innate Investiture. And on Scadrial they have the pieces of Ruin and Preservation in them. And they do have it on Roshar.

Question

 

Which Shard is that?

Brandon Sanderson

 

You'll have to RAFO

 

(source)

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Ok. So does that make drabs the most human of the lot? Would you or I be distinguishable from a drab?

That seems to be getting into a religious question, which complicates things a bit.

My views:

In my religion, it is believed that we all have a natural connection to God through the holy spirit, but if you ignore it enough you can lose that connection. In my understanding, that's similar to what is happening here except they give up that connection to their shard.

So, in my opinion and understanding, you would probably be distinguishable.

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Actually people on Roshar do have innate investiture:

(source)

Brandon has contradicted himself before on this matter of drabs and investiture. On a WoB(I won't link it now because I am on mobile) about investiture interfering with allomancy, he said that drabs have less of a soul than regular humans, but do have one, and said that in raw amount of investiture it is a toss up between then and lifeless, at least when it comes to using allomancy on metals inside them.

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Brandon has contradicted himself before on this matter of drabs and investiture. On a WoB(I won't link it now because I am on mobile) about investiture interfering with allomancy, he said that drabs have less of a soul than regular humans, but do have one, and said that in raw amount of investiture it is a toss up between then and lifeless, at least when it comes to using allomancy on metals inside them.

 

I am aware, I was just using that WoB because it explicitly states that Rosharan's have innate Invesiture.

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My understanding is that a drab has less than humans on other planets and that humans on nalthis have only slightly more but the diffrence is that people born on Nalthis are able to detach some of their soul. I think of it like there is a disconnection clamp installed on their soul instead of just welding it on. The clamp requires more Investiture then just permanently attaching it. Drabs have zero life sense (life sense not being something specific to Nalthis only the enhanced variant is) and a lower ability to resist illness and disease I think they also are less vibrant and moddier but I can't remember if I read that or am just  making it up. 

 

here are some relevant qoutes

 

 

LANCE ALVEIN
Is a person's Breath the entirety of that person's Spiritual Aspect?
BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)
No

 

 

QUESTION
Hemalurgy, does the person having the metal shoved through them have to die?
BRANDON SANDERSON

It has to rip off a piece of their soul. That normally results in death.

QUESTION

Because I'm thinking you're going a bit into the future, surgery, precise things like that...

BRANDON SANDERSON

It's plausible but-- I mean it would leave the person like-- It's ripping off a piece of their soul. But the same thing happens when you give up your Breath. So you're giving up a piece of your soul. There are-- It's plausible you could take off pieces of a soul without killing the person.

 

 

INTERVIEW: Jan 10th, 2013 NUTIKETAIEL

"If a native of Sel or another Shardworld travelled to Nalthis, would they be a drab?"

Brandon almost answered quickly, but then got a thoughtful look and paused to consider with a "hmm." After a moment, he replied:

BRANDON SANDERSON

"No, they would not be a drab. But, no one would be able to take their breath."

NUTIKETAIEL

"If such a person died on Nalthis, could they Return?"

BRANDON SANDERSON

"No, they cannot Return."

NUTIKETAIEL

"If such a person received breath, could they use BioChroma?"

BRANDON SANDERSON

"Yes."

NUTIKETAIEL

I was probably grinning like a looby at this point, but I didn't care. Brandon complimented me on my questions, saying that I had asked some good ones and that nobody had gotten so much information out of him in a while. I don't know whether he meant it, or was just trying to give me some confidence and make me feel good about myself as an amateur realmatic theorist (very, very amateur), but either way it made me feel like a million bucks.

Brandon’s good at that. I’m consistently amazed by his positive attitude, and just how much attention he lavishes on his fans. 

 

I found those under breath and drabs tags on theoryland.

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It really is just interpretation at this point, but I think that there might be another way of looking at it. One vanilla, regular-old human being has one soul "unit" (SI soul units? Someone should work on that). Nalthis born humans have an extra 0.5 units bestowed upon then by Endowment on birth, bringing them to 1.5 units. But giving your breath might not be perfectly spontaneous, it might require an input, an "activation energy". So to endow your 0.5 soul unit Breath, you expend 0.3 soul units, leaving you a lesser human being.

However, this would result in a net loss of energy, and humans recover fully when their Breath is returned to them, they don't go back to 1.2 soul units when their Breath is returned, they go back to 1.5. This implies that, when Breath is transferred, it IS spontaneous, and that extra 0.3 units of your soul tags along for no explainable reason.

Now that I've talked myself around in a huge circle, I want to find myself a signing so I can ask Brandon this specific question.

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It really is just interpretation at this point, but I think that there might be another way of looking at it. One vanilla, regular-old human being has one soul "unit" (SI soul units? Someone should work on that). Nalthis born humans have an extra 0.5 units bestowed upon then by Endowment on birth, bringing them to 1.5 units. But giving your breath might not be perfectly spontaneous, it might require an input, an "activation energy". So to endow your 0.5 soul unit Breath, you expend 0.3 soul units, leaving you a lesser human being.

However, this would result in a net loss of energy, and humans recover fully when their Breath is returned to them, they don't go back to 1.2 soul units when their Breath is returned, they go back to 1.5. This implies that, when Breath is transferred, it IS spontaneous, and that extra 0.3 units of your soul tags along for no explainable reason.

Now that I've talked myself around in a huge circle, I want to find myself a signing so I can ask Brandon this specific question.

Maybe Nalthians are only born with 0.7 soul units+Breath, the 0.3 that lacks being replaced by the "hole" through wich the Breath attaches itself to the soul. Has anyone asked if you need a cracked spiritweb to receive Breath?

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 (SI soul units? Someone should work on that).

 

That unit would be the brown, of course.  Based on Leester's theory, where 1 Breath contains 0.5 browns worth of soul, one would achieve the Fifth Heightening after accumulating approximately one kilobrown.

 

Edit: made my stupid joke more consistent with the discussion above.

Edited by Vaidd
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