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So we know that Adhesion can be used by Dalinar and Ishar to mess with Connection, and when that happens its described as Spiritual Adhesion. But something I was thinking about recently is a scene in WoR, where Shallan convinces Vathah and Red and the others to stop being deserters and to be good soldiers again. Pattern says that she Soulcast them, which Shallan is confused and disagrees about. Maybe Pattern is right and Shallan did Soulcast them, but not in the Physical Realm. She Transformed their Spiritual selves, just slightly. Once I made that connection I started thinking about the other Surges. When Venli uses Stoneshaping she was able to communicate with the stone of Ur, something which seems like not normal Stoneahaping. But maybe she was using Spiritual Stoneshaping, rather than Physical Stoneshaping, making a Connection between her and the stone. Do all Surges have Physical and Spiritual versions? Do they have Cognitive versions?! Please help me here hahaha

Can a Radiant only use Stormlight held within their body to fuel their surges, or can they use stormlight that is near them, but not currently held within them? If they can only use stormlight within their bodies, how did Jasnah use her Soulcasting abilities in WoK without glowing?

Is there a way to allow other items to be brought with you when utilizing the surge of Transportation that is used by the Fused such as the Pursuer? Would piercing yourself with metals allow you to bring them with you, since they touch your soul? Could you take Feruchemical storages with you using this method? Would Hemalurgic spikes be able to be transported with you if you traveled this way?

There's a lot of thoughts going around as to what new abilities might be gained at the Fifth Ideal of the Windrunners. One possibility I thought of is the Radiant spren is brought enough into the Physical Realm that they can Surgebind almost on their own. For example, a spren could lash an item toward the Radiant, almost acting as a form of telekinesis. I'd be curious to hear what other people think of this idea!

Is Feruchemical gold healing superior to Surgebinding healing, since feruchemical healing leaves the person feeling rejuvenated and refreshed, and stormlight leaves the person feeling tired? If a gold Ferring were to become a knight radiant, could they tap small portions of a goldmind to counteract the exhaustion they would feel after healing via stormlight?

So, we know each Radiant Order has a "resonance" that occurs through having two different surges, much like Twinborn do in Mistborn. For example, it's known the Windrunners have a vastly increased number/strength of Squires, and the Lightweavers have some sorta memory ability. But what about the other orders? Any ideas? Off the top of my head, it seems to have something to do with the spiritual identity of the surges, since you could argue spiritual gravitation (drawing people to you) and spiritual adhesion (uniting people) would have that sort of effect.

Despite being bonded to a spren with a significantly greater amount of investiture than a typical radiant spren, Dalinar Kholin doesn't seem to be particularly powerful when compared to the other radiants. He doesn’t seem to be able to hold a noticeably larger amount of stormlight than a normal radiant, and it doesn't seem to confer any greater affect to him than other radiants. His actual abilities do seem to have some pretty powerful potential, but if both he and another radiant of a different order coppied their powers into unsealed metalminds, then it seems unlikely to me that there would be a larger requirement of investiture to make Dalinar's powers function than say, a windrunner, because honorblades don't seem deviate in raw power, yet they confer those same abilities. Which means it's not the raw power that would allow him to use those particular abilities either, but rather that he happens to have that power set. Is the reason he isn't more powerful than other radiants because the Stormfather’s power is not really Dalinar’s power, but his powers are from the bond itself, which would limit Dalinar's ability to draw on the Stormfather's full power, because it's not really his? Does a normal radiant's power not depend on the amount of investiture held by their spren?

I couldn't find the quote, but Sanderson has said that there is more investiture in surgebinding than allomancy. I believe this to be the reason why a twinborn's resonance to be less pronounced than a radiant's; there's simply less innate investiture involved in the system. Any thoughts on this?

I just realized this. A vessel’s Connection to the shard they control is what allows them use possess it. So, since a bondsmith can steal Connections from people, could they, if Odium met them in one of his visions, take his Connection to his shard, allowing them to ascend and become Odium themselves? Just makes you wonder a bit about how powerful a bondsmith might be when they use their powers correctly.

TL;DR: Pretty sure that "Physical Adhesion" is just an extremely limited form of Spiritual Adhesion, as opposed to a separate manifestation of the concept. (This theory's a lot less complex than many of my others, so it's gonna be way shorter and less formatted.) Rereading the Ars Arcanum, a couple things stood out to me about Adhesion: If it's just a Physical binding, it's odd it's so completely unbreakable, and "binding objects together as if they were one" certainly doesn't sound very Physical when put next to the other powers of Adhesion. In fact, it sounds somewhat similar to what Ishar did: Now, obviously the effects are not exactly the same—the Pursuer doesn't get all his Voidlight drained out, and neither does Lopen. But it might be a version of the same thing with a weaker Connection, or perhaps making them "as one" in a different way than directly making the surface part of the target's body. But yeah, after what we saw with Ishar and the emphasis in RoW of Adhesion as a much more spiritual force ("Honor’s Truest Surge, the Surge of Binding and Oaths"), I think that "Physical Adhesion" isn't a separate manifestation of the Surge from "Spiritual Adhesion" at all, it's just that Windrunners don't have enough raw power to manipulate the Connection in more complex or deeper ways than a quick "you, you're that now". Perhaps it's similar to how normally Allomancers can only Push and Pull on metal, but if you chuck enough Investiture into the spiritweb via something like the Bands of Mourning, you reach the point you can see and nearly interact with the souls of objects and people, like Marasi and Wax mention? A Bondsmith spren probably has enough Investiture that when it starts to enter your spiritweb, it pushes the limits of what's possible pretty far compared to a normal sapient spren. (None of this is particularly groundbreaking as a concept, but "Spiritual Adhesion" and "Physical Adhesion" are still distinctions I've seen thrown around and even used myself until very recently, so I think it's still worth a discussion even if it's probably happened before.)

I have a theory about Ishar's experiments. First off, I believe the reason he is trying to bring spren physically into the physical realm is because this is a potential "cure" for Cognitive Shadows. But my theory is more about the consequences of these specific experiments. I'm not sure where it was said, but there is a WOB saying that using hemalurgy to steal powers from a radiant would be difficult because the surges come from the bonded spren, not from the radiant themselves. But what if you were able to spike a spren directly? I think that these physical spren will be spiked in the future to grant surges through hemalurgy. The experiments are already pretty dark, and I think it will only get darker....

I may have stumbled into the beginnings of something much bigger than I anticipated. It was an easy enough matter to get started; I posed a set of statements and a question to myself. "It's becoming increasingly clear that color and metal are important fundamentals of the Cosmere because of Fabrials, Awakening, and the Metallic Arts. Color is important because it's a property of specific wavelengths of light, particular "tones" of light. So how is Metal going to relate to that?" From there, I hit upon a couple possibilities. But I think the one most worth going into detail about connects Investiture to my favorite weird physics, that's right everyone, quantum mechanics. It's my current hypothesis that metallic atoms have the proper frequency of quantum wavefunction to "filter" different frequencies of Investiture. This results in the strange supernatural "theming" of the metals across the metallic arts and even extending into the cages of Fabrials, where color and tone have already been proven abundantly needed. Picture "background investiture" as white noise. Now picture, say... Tin atoms in a pure, undisturbed lattice. Now recall that according to quantum mechanics, all particles also behave like waves (this has even been observed with molecules made of tens of carbon atoms still producing an interference pattern (even when released 1 at a time) in the famous double-slit experiment). The frequency of Tin's quantum wavefunction will interfere constructively with some frequencies of background investiture, and destructively interfere with others, filtering the output of the investiture into a new set of frequencies that don't look like background noise, the frequencies become a stream of investiture that "enhances senses", or something thereabouts. Now picture using a specific Shard's Investiture as the "background investiture". Tin will filter out everything of that shard that doesn't relate to senses, causing the amplification. Stormlight becomes a booster of the spren's sensitivity, making them output less for the same subjective feeling, while Tineyes get to see through the Mists because the frequencies overlap due to the Investiture originating with Preservation. And of course, with alloys, what's important is the "holes" in the atomic lattice (and indeed, metallic atoms' ability to arrange in a regular structure is key in general). It lets other frequencies of investiture leak through, which correspond to different effects. Tin's senses becomes Pewter's physical enhancement. The one thing I'm not certain on is where in Allomancy the push/pull difference originates from precisely. Is it just a rule that Bronze seeking hears pure metal tones as "pulling" while alloyed tones become "pushing"? Or is it a fundemental, even a Singer would hear tin as pulling, while pewter pushes? I'd love to hear feedback on all of this in general. I'm super curious to know if my "quantum wavefunctions filter Investiture frequencies" hypothesis makes any sense.

If you could have the ability to burn one Allomantic metal and control over one surge, what would they be and what would the name of your new Misting/Radiant hybrid be?

Is the mechanism by which Slatrification occurs like soulcasting, but only sand to water, do we think?

I posted about this in the comments for the Surgebinding Shardcast episode, but I wanted to elaborate on it more. So, Adhesion, according to the Ars Arcanum, is the surge of pressure and vacuum. While it is more broadly the surge of connection, this is at least its physical embodiment. Now, we have Odium being described by Syl: Odium is described as a Void, a vacuum, drawing in emotion. Through pressure. It seems like this description of Odium is very reminiscent of Adhesion, supposedly Honor’s truest surge. We know all the other nine surges are a combination of two shards. Honor and Cultivation. What if Adhesion is also a combination of two shards. But not Honor and Cultivation. Honor and Odium. Additionally, this effect is reflected in Raysium. According to Navani talking about Raysium in fused weapon stealing Stormlight: Again, a pressure differential being a key factor in Odium magics. Raysium is an investiture pressure vacuum. Anyway, this could be pure coincidence, but it does open up some interesting questions, particularly about Voidbinding. Specifically because some of the abilities of Voidbinders seem linked to Connection, an ability of Adhesion.

Lately I have been thinking about the two brands of Fused that we have not yet seen on screen - Tension & Division. I believe this is intentional by Brandon, as I don’t think we have seen any Knight Radiants use these powers either, but today I would like to discuss what each brand of Fused might look like and how they might utilize their powers. Tension I can imagine a Tension fused having long, tentacle-like protrusions from their arms that are quite floppy. They could whip this “tentacle” at any enemy, wrapping it around them, and then use Tension to stiffen it, trapping their foe. Another arm could be swung to the side, where the tentacle is stiffened in order to act like a blade. The Fused could then stab or slice at their trapped foe. I could also see this same method being applied, but instead of carapace, it is long hair that is used, like how the Nex-im uses hair as clothing-wrap when they reform their bodies. Alternatively, perhaps this brand of Fused wears specific clothing, like how the Heavenly Ones nearly always appear in long, flowing robes. I imagine this clothing to be cut into many strips, not unlike a mistcloak, than can then be stiffened and used to trap or attack enemies as I have described above. I would imagine that, especially if these Fused use hair or carapace with their surge, they would not “use up” much Voidlight, and are able to fight indefinitely. If clothing is used as a weapon, they would perhaps need to recharge periodically. The overall appearance of these “Ones of Tension” would really depend on if it is hair or carapace that is used with the surge, or perhaps not at all. I am not going to speculate too much on this, but I encourage others to do so. Division I imagine Division Fused as having a sort of “heavy plate” version of carapace, such that it covers their entire body, leaving only a slit for the eyes, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet uncovered. They would sort of be opposite of the Makay-im in this way. The reasoning for this would be to protect them from the explosions and physical destruction that they could cause. Under this heavy carapace they are protected from shrapnel & partially from shockwaves. This thick carapace would not conduct electricity well, and would provide some measure of insulation from fire or other great heat. I am not sure what this type of Fused would do specifically with their surge, but I would guess it is like the Heavenly Ones, and that it is not very much changed from the version of the surge that the Knights Radiant can access. They can degrade and burn both living & nonliving material, they can almost certainly create fire and lightning, and may be able to cause small (or large) explosions. I expect that since applications of this surge are typically external, this brand of Fused would need to recharge Voidlight similarly to the Nex-im. What do you think about about these Fused we have yet to see? Fingers crossed they show up in Stormlight 5.

I mentioned in my Dawnshards and Microkinesis theory[1] a few times that I was going to be writing another related theory. Took longer than I expected, but here we are. (0.) TL;DR I theorize that several Surges share a connection to Dawnshards, though whether this is purely thematic, or due to perception shenanigans, or in some way related directly, I am unsure. These Surges are Cohesion, Transformation, and Division. (1.) Cohesion (2.) Transformation (3.) Division (4.) Some Concluding Thoughts (I.) References

So it seems honor restricted the surges in some way to prevent what happened to ashyn and seemingly something stoneshaping did to yolen from happening again. This raises a few questions the most pressing of which are 1. what restrictions it appears we know for certain that bondsmith are restricted and so are stonewards and willshapers because according to khriss their version is less destructive then what was on yolen it also seems that the most limited surge is adhesion because adhesion seems to be the surge taht bound and codifies all the others it’s what connects every other surge into a cohesive whole. and I think the restrictions really applied to the spiritual forms of everything, there is only a single order that seems to have access to the spiritual side of their powers in any major way. Windrunners kinda draws people to follow them and Lightweavers kinda change people’s perception and can transform them I guess but these are still very limited and it seems like these have been super restricted. 2. are those restrictions falling away this one is a clear yes we know this for a fact but what exactly does this mean? it means that surgebinding will likely Become stronger and new abilities will be accessed this may be happening already through kaladin who displays never mentioned or seen shardplate abilities alongside abilities that even his spren does not understand which should not happen. 3. Do these restrictions apply cosmere wide? We don’t know about this but probably yes honor seems to be the force that codifys all forces in the universe and when it was part of adonalsium the part that is now honor was still always what was doing that. So likely I think it would restrict everything in some way. the fact that all illusion magic mirrors light weaving seems to suggest this too. - everything after this is just my crackpot theories about isnane windrunner abilities because they are probably restricted for a reason so who will be most affected probably windrunners and bondsmiths adhesion seems to have likely been dampened more then any other surge because of its odd interaction with other things and insane power level. We know this is happening with bondsmiths reacessing insane abilities and we may have seen kaladin do the same for example the parting of a high storm is clearly not something that normally windrunners should be empowered to do. In fact windrunners may now be capable of things in the realm of the creation of black holes and generating infinite storm light, I think a windrunner could use adhesion to connect themselves to the spiritual realm directly like a bondsmith and draw investiture out and I think we have seen this before. In the duel in WoR kaladin displays a thing described very similarly to atium which could result from him using adhesion to connect to the spiritual realm. In fact if the restrictions fall apart completely could windrunners gain access to spiritual gravitation and adhesion because maybe windrunners aren’t allowed either of those since sky breaker do not have spiritual gravitation and the extent of it for windrunners seems to be a leadership buff basically drawing poeple to them. What if windrunners completely unchained could do isnane things like Windrunners most insane theoretical power time travel or timeline manipulation, like imagine using spiritual gravitation to pull things like events to yourself and attach them with spiritual adhesion imagine a bondsmith and windrunner totally unbound and the windrunner could maybe create connections like forcibly attract these threads dalinar sees and forge connections the bondsmith can exploit. Or like imagine if you could pull the spiritual realm in a certain way like imagine since everything exists there at once you say went in and create a let’s call it spiritual lashing and then connected it to the formation of the path pact and pulled yourself to that moment through the spiritual realm or do something like pull yourself to the moment of odium defeat in the future which would be much easier since it’s possible in real life through near light speed travel or you could maybe take go in and like make something happen faster or make it inevitable like say you know ___ villain will die and you use spiritual gravitation to pull the moment of their death closer or pull yourself to it or maybe it’s not certain so you like pull them to a moment where they can die and bind them spiritually to make sure they do. The problem with this is windrunners wouldn’t know what exactly they are manipulating but combined with say renarin this could be incredibly powerful. Like what is spiritual gravitation if not time or at least part of it right, like a surge diner with spiritual progression and gravitation maybe could just control time. i think I’m losing it.

So on Roshar we have the ten surges. The Heralds were given special magic swords, later known as the Honorblades, which granted them access to these mystical powers. As a matter of fact, anyone who bonds one of these blades is granted access to its surges. We also know that spren saw this, and decided they could mimic it. If a spren bonds with a human, through a process known as the Nahel bond, they can grant said human access to the surges as well, and even manifest physically as a replica of one of these swords. Jump cut to Scadrial, where we have a different kind of bond. But is it really so different after all? Sure, the powers are a little different, and you get them not by acting a certain way, but just by having the right amount of investiture in your bloodline. Remember though - something of the Nahel bond is hereditary too. No, not the powers, unfortunately, but there is a physiological difference between the offspring of a surgebinder and the offspring of anyone else. Their eyes. Okay, so what exactly is @Narcoleptic Axolotl proposing here, (you might ask yourself)? Well, I'm glad you asked. . . . yourself. . . . Whatever. I think it's reasonable that Harmony could create weapons that would bestow upon the holder all the powers of a mistborn and full feruchemist. Not totally unlike what the Bands did. You would still need your own metals and metalminds, just like Szeth still needed his own stormlight. And, just like the honorblades, these 'harmonyblades' wouldn't allow for quite the level of efficiency that an invested person can operate with. That meaning, you would have to flare your metals higher to get the same strength a mistborn has. And, while it's not clear what a lack of efficiency in feruchemy would mean, you'd have that too. Now, let's consider the last of the metallic arts. Hemalurgy. I don't think it makes any sense to think the harmonyblade would grant hemalurgic power, unless holding it made you perfectly aware of all the hemalurgic bind points. As useful as that might be, that's not the most interesting aspect of the harmonyblade with hemalurgy. We can assume that the honorblades, like shardblades, are made of Honor's godmetal, Tanavastium. (This WoB is a little confusing, but I've highlighted the part that matters.) So presumably these harmonyblades (maybe harmony-spears, given the spear's significance in Scadrian history) would be made of Harmony's godmetal, Harmonium aka Ettmetal. So, hypothetical scenario, someone's using a harmonyspear and stabs a metalborn. What happens? What attribute is stolen? Surely not nothing. We know godmetals can steal attributes: (again, you need only read the highlighted part.) Well, that's where I come up short. According to the coppermind, Harmonium is extremely reactive with water, and of course blood is like 98% water. (Disclaimer: don't know for sure about that and don't care.) So a spike made of harmonium would be pretty impractical. Maybe stabbing someone with your harmonyspear is a bad idea, because as soon as it pierces the skin, your spearhead starts exploding. Imagine that. Maybe go with a warhammer then? Maybe don't use it as a weapon. After all, its most useful aspect is granting you all allomantic and feruchemical powers. With those, you almost don't need a sword. Just go with obsidian daggers or something, that's stylish in its own way. Okay, that's all I got. Interesting stuff, right?

Ok, so I'm really, really glad Ishar showed up. Like when he was mentioned in OB I was pissed that nothing happened... but now I'm just like totally reeling after everything we've learned about and from him: 1. He recovered his Honorblade 1.1 He can literally just manipulate any connection?!?! The implications are insane To what extent can Dalinar do this? 1.2 The Shin serve the Unmade somehow? This connects to an earlier comment (can someone find it?) About an Unmade taking up residence in Shinovar 2. His insanity. He's delusional. But, like Taln, the perpendicularity inspired a lucid period. Why does the perpendicularity do this, but only sometimes? Is it the presence of Honor somehow? 2.1 He implies he wants to refound the Oathpact, during his lucid moment. Will this happen? I've heard it suggested that the series will end with a new oathpact refounded using the main characters as heralds, but it is frequently met with derision. I don't like this theory, for reasons i won't go into unless asked. However, considering the other twists in this book (looking at you, mr. T) I doubt Brandon will go with this approach. I do see this as plausible, however: 3. THE SPREN. THE DAMNATION SPREN. What. The. Actual. storm. ISHAR!!! why is he doing this? What is he even doing? How could he possibly do this? Is he manipulating connection somehow? I don't like it.

TL;DR: ALL of Investiture in the cosmere seems to be, like Stormlight or Voidlight, composed of unique vibrations or pulses. And so, like Stormlight and Voidlight - can it all somehow be combined and/or inverted? I had something of a revelation today, while writing gay fic of all things, and I thought I would share and try to get other peoples' thoughts. Because I might have noticed a connection, but I'm definitely not smart enough to figure out what it means, lol. So, one of Navani's biggest breakthroughs in understanding the various forms of Light on Roshar was realising that Stormlight, Voidlight, Lifelight etc are not just light, not liquid, but sound. Vibration. This allowed her to combine the lights with Raboniel, and it also allowed her to discover its opposite. A large breakthrough for understanding Investiture on Roshar. Except that this is not the only kind of Investiture in the Cosmere we've seen that has vibration as a core part of its nature. Allomancy. Allomancy gives off allomantic pulses to seekers who are burning bronze. Allomancy gives off DISTINCT allomantic pulses, as we saw in the scene where Marsh shows Vin how to use it in The Final Empire. Each metal, when burned, gives off a distinct and unique vibration. Something that can be used to determine a pulling/pushing metal, to determine which specific metal is being burned, and even if it's being flared. The power at the Well of Ascension also pulsed, and so did the 'mist spirit'. Allomancy, as Investiture, also has a unique vibration attached to each source. In Warbreaker, Breaths require sound to activate - they require a carefully, clearly spoken Commands in order to Awaken. They also grant a holder perfect pitch. The Iridescent Tones form a core part of the Nalthis belief system. While not as explicit as in Mistborn, Investiture here also has a clear vibrational component. In Elantris, seons pulse when they speak, and their aons glow. Raoden explains and understands accessing the Dor via drawing different shapes (aons) through which the power can access the physical realm from where it is trapped in the cognitive realm. However, he notes that his books on the topic describe the process via 'pulse length and frequency', which he doesn't understand, but, in the context of all Investiture having a unique vibration to it, makes sense to me. Do I have any idea what this means in real-terms for the cosmere going forwards, and the potential applications of this knowledge in terms of combining, inverting, or altering different forms of Investiture, but this is why I'm posting it here for you smart people to engage with and give me the answers.

Hello, first post, be gentle with me We don't really know that the Nightwatcher is a Bondsmith spren. It's a good theory, seems widely accepted and quite probable. But so far as I know, no in-book quote or WoB confirms her as such. I think it's likely that she probably is one of the three Bondsmith spren, as a counterpart to the Stormfather. She already has a magic system (-ish?) associated with her, the Boon and Curse: granting a wish but with a curse attached alongside it. Couldn't someone also ask her for the boon of being granted Radiancy (is that the word?). Has anyone in Roshar's history? Could she grant other spren bonds, lower spren or spren of the other Orders? And assuming she is a Radiant spren, could someone ask to bond with her? Could it be how she herself is supposed to be bonded? Could the next Bondsmith have to trek to the Valley and ask for the boon of bonding her? What could be the Curse to accompany such a Boon? Would they need to speak the Ideals or would the Curse, sort of, supplant the words?

This question basically related to whether it would be easier for a surgebinder with access to stormlight or a bloodmaker with plenty of health stored up to get absolutely jacked or in totally insane mundane shape by lifting weights or going on runs at top speed while healing or burning stormlight. Like, could they heal the body as fast as they break it down and, assuming they have adequate nutrition, just get in insane shape, or does the stormlight heal their body is such a way that the fast recovery time can't be used to just like, get a month's worth of lifting in a day without strain?

So, during WoR Shallan convinces a bunch of criminals to do the right thing. Pattern states that she used the Surge of Transformation. So, does this mean Transformation is more than just Soulcasting? Does the Surge represent more than the effects of Surgebinding? I'm confused.

We've seen Kaladin use adhesion (the surge of "pressure and the vacuum") multiple times in the series so far. Mostly this has been in the use of full lashing, but at other times this has also certainly been used, but besides full lashings, it has not been well explained, and certainly not compared to gravitation. It seems though that by controlling local atmospheric pressure precisely, Kaladin really can assert very fine control over the wind, and doing so, he could basically do most of the stuff airbenders can do in the Avatar universe. Do you think this is ultimately what Brandon has in mind? If so, what are the implications? I think it could make what has seemed to be one of the least useful surges, being used mostly just for full lashings, into one of the most useful, making the windrunner suite of abilities more appealing that that of the skybreakers (though we still really don't know much about division).