Questions about breath and conception on Nalthis

[Fatikis]

I have a few interesting questions that I could not find answers to regarding children and breath.

• If two people of Nalthis heritage have a child off world will that child have a breath?
• If two non-Nalthians conceive and bore a child on Nalthis will it have a breath?
• If you have a single parent of Nalthis do you have a breath if conceived and born on world?
• If you have a single parent of Nalthis do you have a breath if conceived and born off world?

My thoughts on this topic.

• People of Nalthis as drabs have less soul than the Cosmere standard. If they have a child that was not born with breath from Endowment they should be born drab.
• Breath appears to be directly endowed by Endowment. It doesn't appear to be just a natural part of the fetuses development. The reason I think this is two drabs have a child with a breath on Nalthis. This hints at breath not being generated by the parents but directly endowed by Endowment.
• If a non-native is born with a breath on Nalthis they should have more than a normal individual and a Nalthian.

If there are any WoBs or anyone else has any thoughts on this I'd be very interested. This seems like something that will occur as the Cosmere progresses.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Fatikis

[Just another guyn]

Very interesting? Have you also considered looking into non nalthusian, or part nalthusian people returning? 

[Weltall]

All good questions! We do have an example of a couple we could ask Brandon about sometime, as Mi'chele is supposed to be Nalthian and is married to Joshin, a Scadrian (it's a cute cameo, in case you weren't aware) so we could ask what their children might look like Investiture-wise.

Relatedly, Brandon has RAFO'd whether Breath is bestowed at conception or birth and has left that to his fans to debate. There's Khriss' comments in Elantris 10A that Initiation on Nalthis is by the will of the Shard but it's not clear if all Breath is bestowed by Endowment's choice or just the Returned. So, we don't know when you receive your Breath and we don't know if it's a natural process Endowment somehow put into place or if it's something that she chooses to do each time.

23 minutes ago, Just another guyn said:

Very interesting? Have you also considered looking into non nalthusian, or part nalthusian people returning? 

Brandon has said that it would be 'really hard' for a non-Nalthian to Return. My guess is that it's because someone not from Nalthis doesn't have Connection to Endowment and that complicates the process, though it could be worked around if the person were able to get that Connection. Someone of mixed heritage might be able to Return but I imagine it would also have to do with Connection and with how Invested they are. I suspect that Drabs can't Return because they're relatively less Invested than baseline humans (or humans from other worlds) so they don't persist in the Cognitive Realm long enough for Endowment to do her thing. So a half-Nalthian might have the Connection but not be able to Return if they lack enough Investiture to hang around.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Weltall

[Fatikis]

15 minutes ago, Weltall said:

All good questions! We do have an example of a couple we could ask Brandon about sometime, as Mi'chele is supposed to be Nalthian and is married to Joshin, a Scadrian (it's a cute cameo, in case you weren't aware) so we could ask what their children might look like Investiture-wise.

That is awesome. I actually wasn't aware of this. Thanks for pointing it out.

15 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Relatedly, Brandon has RAFO'd whether Breath is bestowed at conception or birth and has left that to his fans to debate. There's Khriss' comments in Elantris 10A that Initiation on Nalthis is by the will of the Shard but it's not clear if all Breath is bestowed by Endowment's choice or just the Returned. So, we don't know when you receive your Breath and we don't know if it's a natural process Endowment somehow put into place or if it's something that she chooses to do each time.

I'm not surprised. You are going to end up in real world tricky ethical areas with that question.
To avoid that I'm assuming the children were all conceived and born either on Nalthis or off. This takes the when the breath is received out of the question. Instead it only matters if the breath is received.