[SPOILER] Siri and quality of breath

[timi1993]

So, I've been rereading Warbreaker with my wife which has meant reading slightly slower than usual as well as out loud. This led me to notice something that I'd never noticed before.

In chapter 55,

Spoiler

Lightsong finally notices that the insurgents are from Pahn Kahl:

Quote

"He should have seen it earlier. It had to do with color—not the color of their clothing, but the color of their faces. It was just slightly off. The deviation in one man would have been easy to ignore. But all of them together was a pattern.

No regular person could have noticed it. To a man with his Heightenings, it was obvious, once he knew what to look for." 

 

What I find interesting is what we are told in the very next page of the book.

Spoiler

When Susebron lashes out at the priests, while Siri and Susebron are being taken down to the dungeon, and Siri too attempts to attack Bluefingers, a couple of men wearing the priests' clothing arrive. Siri notes:

Quote

"Siri, looking closely, immediately recognized them as being from Pahn Kahl. They were too short and their skin color was just slightly off. "

 

It makes sense for Lightsong to notice the difference in the skin colour, he has Perfect Colour Recognition. Why can Siri recognise it too?

Here's my theory. 
Vasher's explains that the Returned reach their Heightenings not because of the quantity but quality of Breath.

Quote

"Returned aren’t quite what people think they are. They don’t automatically have hundreds or thousands of Breath.”

“But—”

“They’re of the Fifth Heightening,” Vasher said, interrupting her. “But they don’t get there by the number of Breaths, but by the quality. Returned have a single, powerful Breath. One that takes them all the way to the Fifth Heightening. It’s a divine Breath, you might say."

He also explains, in the Epilogue, that the Royal House of Idris has Returned blood.

Quote

“You’ve got Returned blood in you,” he said. “The royal line. Where do you think that ability to change your hair color comes from?” 

My question is, does the fact that Siri has Returned blood in her mean that her breath is of a higher quality than most people? If the quality of her breath is high enough for her to be able to have perfect colour recognition, she would have at least the third heightening. The problem with this theory is that no one ever notices an aura around Siri. Unless you count Susebron's comment as a reference to an Aura:

Quote

"You’ve got color on the inside, so much of it that it bursts out and colors everything around you. "

i've always taken Susebron's comment as a simple statement on Siri's positivity and happiness, but there may be more to it...

Any thoughts? Theories? WoB?

[Jondesu]

11 hours ago, timi1993 said:

My question is, does the fact that Siri has Returned blood in her mean that her breath is of a higher quality than most people? If the quality of her breath is high enough for her to be able to have perfect colour recognition, she would have at least the third heightening. The problem with this theory is that no one ever notices an aura around Siri. Unless you count Susebron's comment as a reference to an Aura:

I suspect it's higher quality, which means she has better color recognition, but not perfect.  It's a sliding scale according to Brandon, so as you gain more Breaths, you get closer to each of those qualities, with the perfection of them being achieved at the Heightenings.  As for her aura, though, do we know at what point the aura is noticeable?  I suspect it'd be well before the Third Heightening, probably by the First or Second even for someone with only their innate Breath, which does make this less likely.

Also, Siri was looking for it at that point, thinking that the Pahn Kahl were on her side.  That may account for her quick recognition of the difference.

[Yata]

I always had the idea that not every Breath is equal, they are quite the same (statistically speaking) but there are people with more or less Investiture in their original Breath...the individual Breath's strenght become quite meaningless in Awakening because you need to stack a lot of Breath to performe quite every thing

To me, Siri and Vivienna's Breath is more powerful than the average but not too much, something like they have naturally 2,3 or 5 Breath-worth Investiture in their Breath. Nothing so explicit but enough to give a little margin on the others.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Yata

[Jondesu]

6 hours ago, Yata said:

I always had the idea that not every Breath is equal, they are quite the same (statistically speaking) but there are people with more or less Investiture in their original Breath...the individual Breath's strenght become quite meaningless in Awakening because you need to stack a lot of Breath to performe quite every thing

To me, Siri and Vivienna's Breath is more powerful than the average but not too much, something like they have naturally 2,3 or 5 Breath-worth Investiture in their Breath. Nothing so explicit but enough to give a little margin on the others.

I feel like there's more to it, though.  A Returned's Divine Breath may not have equal Investiture to 5,000 regular Breaths (though it could), but it has the same qualities.  I think it's entirely possible that while the Royal Family's Breath isn't a lot high quality in terms of level, it could Endow them with other benefits like more instinctive Awakening (which most of them would never have tried, but we see with Vivenna) and better color recognition (also tough to see in Idris, but Siri may be showing there).

[The One Who Connects]

On 1/20/2017 at 3:46 PM, Jondesu said:

As for her aura, though, do we know at what point the aura is noticeable?

Vivienna (I'm pretty sure, might've been Siri) could see a small ring of enhanced color in the grass around the feet of someone they were talking to in Hallandren. Some priest Vivienna spoke to on the way into the Court of Gods perhaps..? I distinctly remember "small ring of color" and "First Heightening" but I'd have to find the exact quote to be sure. She had to be looking for it to notice, but it was there. So 50 breath seems like a good starting point

[Mirdrim]

In the Ars Arcanum in the back of the book, it says around 30 breaths is where the color shift would be noticeable to a single breath holding person.

[The One Who Connects]

12 hours ago, Mirdrim said:

In the Ars Arcanum in the back of the book, it says around 30 breaths is where the color shift would be noticeable to a single breath holding person.

Technically, the book says "to the naked eye" which could be meant as a person without any breath (the Ars Arcanum writer him/herself) or as the average person on Nalthis, since 1 breath is standard. It isn't a large enough difference to argue over, because "about 30 breaths, some of which can be stronger or weaker than average" is the definition of close enough.