Are Honorblades end-negative?

[Merrickz]

I've spent the last few days on a Brandon theory binge, digesting as many fan theories, plot analyses and wild speculations as possible. After reading up someone's question on Hemalugy (Is Hemalugy the only end-negative magic system or are there more?) I realised that there is another use of magic which needs you to give more than you get, the Honorblades! From what we've seen the Blades work exactly like a Sprenblade would bestowing Surgebinding powers with 2 notable exceptions one, no Spren (and by extension no Shardplate) and also that a lot more Stormlight is required to power the same effects. This certainly sounds end-negative to me but I may be misunderstanding the meaning. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Skybreaker156]

The bonus is that it doesn't bind you to any rules of the spren and it is also gain instantaneous power

[Weltall]

End-negative means that power is lost at some point during the process. Hemalurgy is end-negative because the power stolen by the spike and transferred to whoever uses it is always weaker than the power of the original owner who was spiked. Honorblades are not end-neutral because at no point in the process is power being lost. They're less efficient than Nahel Bond-granted surgebinding but it's still surgebinding, which is an end-positive system. The power is external to the user (the Investiture comes from the stormlight) and thus represents an overall increase in energy.

By way of analogy, look at Awakening (an end-neutral system) and what Vasher calls the Law of Comparability. It takes more breath to awaken a square of cloth than one cut into a shape that resembles something living, but both can do the same things once Awakened. That the former example of Awakening is less efficient than the latter does not make it end-negative, it's the net effect that's important.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Weltall

[RShara]

Very few things in the cosmere are end-negative.  Power being *used* isn't the same as power being lost.  As Weltall said, hemalurgy is end negative because it's stealing the part of the spiritweb that enables usage of a power, but the ability is always going to be weaker than the original person who held it.  Ability is lost, not investiture (since investiture that's used goes back into the system).

[Merrickz]

@Weltall Thanks so much for your explanation that really cleared up my understanding 

[Weltall]

@Merrickz Glad to help.

For a couple other bits of information that you may find useful, Brandon has stated that almost all magic systems in the Cosmere are end-positive, and this includes all Selish magic (even what the Dakhor monks do is still drawing power from the Dor). Apparently there is at least one other end-negative system and we've seen hints of it. However, the wording on that is vague enough that we could have unknowingly met a worldhopper with access to the system, or that one of Mraize's unidentified trophies is associated with it, and that would qualify without us actually seeing someone use the magic in question.

And now you know.