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We have info from WoBs and in universe conversations which say that the Surges manifest different for the different Orders. However, we don't really see that. We mostly see that whatever one Windrunner can do with Gravitation, a Skybreaker can also do with Gravitation, or that whatever an Elsecaller can do with Transformation, a Lightweaver can do. Discounting Renarin and Bondsmiths because they are the exception which prove the rule. But upon reread, which I do a lot of, I think I can see a very good example of one time where we see a Surge manifest differently between orders. In Oathbringer, when Kaladin is flying a group of people above a highstorm, he says that he's not just making them fall forwards like normal, he's also creating a sort of wind funnel around them, keeping them from all separating in the wind. I think that's a Windrunner only ability. Scientifically, Kal has created a bubble of higher pressure air around him and his friends, keeping the winds from disrupting them too much. That's Adhesion. While Adhesion sticks things together, its not with a chemical bond like glue, its with suction. Air pressure. My theory is that every order of Knights Radiant uses a little of their other Surge whenever they use a Surge. Windrunner Basic Lashings also manipulate air pressure while their Full Lashings also manipulate gravity (maybe, I have no proof for this). Lightweaver, well, Lightweavings have a little bit of Soulcasting in them, adding extra substance to the illusion (see the Battle of Thaylen Field for a disputed example). If this theory is correct, that would explain why the Surges manifest differently between Orders, even if only in small ways. The Knights can't stop themselves from using a tiny amount of their other Surge whenever they use one. However, I want to add one more thing to this, something I've seen most other people miss (and something I reeeeeeally want to ask Brandon about.) The Essences. Each Order is associated with an Essence, and while we normally think of these for Soulcasting as they play an important role in limiting that power, I think they're more important than just that. We don't know if that association is just cultural or if its magical, and even if it is just cultural then it might have become magical through the ways that the Cognitive Realm functions. If it is magical, then what happens if we change that association? What if he had a Windrunner who's essence was Blood instead of Wind? Would that change their powers at all? Would it change their Resonance? Anyway, a question that I think should be asked at the next QnA with Brandon is: "Each Order of the Knights Radiant has two Surges they can use and an essence associated with them. Is that association simply cultural, or is it magical? Would changing the essence of an Order change they way they use their powers?"

My question really all comes down to what would happen if a being like Kelsier, circa era 2, was stabbed by Vyre's knife? Would the same thing happen that happened to Jezrien? I think the heralds are preserved by Honor's investiture and they seem to have the perk of automatic incarnation after death, and Kelsier, preserved by Preservation had to get himself a body somehow to return to the Physical Realm, but like, would that knife kill him for good, or would it have no effect since he, you know, doesn't reincarnate anyway, but is just preserved as a cognitive shadow? I couldn't find any WOB directly relating to this.

Okay, I don't intend to make a theory here (I promise!). I'll describe something that's been bugging me ever since we started learning more about the Surges from various post-WoK WoBs, and especially after WoR. After I do that, I'll let you guys give whatever explanation you can think of. Because I certainly don't know what to make of this. The first inkling of this problem of mine appeared when we learned that there is a form of Lightweaving on Roshar, and that it involved the Surge connecting Pulp and Blood. When I saw that, I felt troubled. "What's Blood got to do with Light?" I asked myself. This nagging feeling that something was wrong intensified when we finally got the Surge name: "Illumination". Illumination. Light. Shouldn't that be more of a Spark (which connotes "fire") and Lucentia (which is Latin for "visibility") thing? What's going on? Then I looked at the other Surges. There is Transformation, the Surge of Soulcasters, which was assigned to Blood and Tallow. Note the term: Soulcaster. Why then isn't it assigned to Spark, which is the Essence of the Soul? And Vapor is the Essence of smoke, the end product of certain significant transformations. So Transformation would have been the perfect Surge for Spark and Vapor, except it was given (randomly, it seemed to me) to Blood and Tallow. Next, there is Transportation. I don't know about you, but I think Blood, which transfers oxygen and nutrients to all the cells in the body, sounds like a perfect Essence for Transportation. I'm not quite sure of what a second appropriate Essence would be (Pulp might fit due to the capillary action that happens in plants), but that's beside the point that the Surge has weird connections. What's Foil (metal) got to do with Transportation?! Then the real weirdness starts. Doesn't Progression sound perfect for Pulp and Tallow (because, you know, fat makes things bigger)? Okay, that was sort of a joke. But speaking of Tallow, doesn't it remind you of Lift's "Slick" ability (because, you know, oil makes things slick)? But that ability is supposed to be from the Abrasion Surge, connected to Lucentia and Spark. It does not make sense! None of this makes sense! If the Essence does not fit, you must acquit! Um... sorry about that... Could anyone help me make sense of all this? Am I just seeing connections that don't really exist? Did Tanavast mess with the Surges when he arrived on Roshar? Or did some other Shard do the messing? Or is there some other more elegant explanation? The only Surge that I think sort of fits its current Essences is Cohesion and Adhesion. I don't even know what to think of Gravitation and Division! Heeelllppp... Edit: Other problems: Why does Talus have both Strong Axial Interconnection ("Cohesion") and Soft Axial Interconnection ("Tension")? And isn't the Tension Surge supposed to be based on surface tension, which is a property of liquids? Edit: Whoops, I accidentally wrote a four-part theory based on this. Sooorrryyy...

On the ten Essences chart on the Coppermind, There are 7 things associated with each other. Number, Gemstone, Essence, Body Focus, Soulcasting Properties, Divine Attributes, Herald. I believe there should be more. Due to the Holy number of Vorin tradition and Roshar, 10, a chart like this would have 10 Categories or Columns during the Days of the KR. 10 by 10. This chart was made in World by the Ars Arcanum Author (Khriss?) so it can be Wrong. I think we can add the specific Order of the KR onto the chart, matched to their Herald, as well as the Silver Kingdom. This way, the Chart would be More Holy, and probably closer to the in-world version. So for Number 2, Nale's row, we could add Skybreakers and Natanatan. This still leaves one more Column, unless you count the Divine attributes as two, bu t I don't think that's likely. The Capitols of each Silver kingdom could Work, or the Spren of the KR. (I'm assuming that each of the Silver kingdoms also had a specific Herald more so than others. I'm guessing Natanatan because it sounds closest to Nale.) And I apologize if someone had proposed this before, but I coulnd't find anything like it.

As some of you might know, I previously espoused the "The Focus on Roshar is Waveforms" theory. I liked that theory because a number of magical things on Roshar have wave/wavefunction/quantum dynamic properties (Stormlight, spren, Shardblades, Parshendi song, etc.). Recently I discovered that the theory's leader, Isomere, has changed his mind, preferring the Sound theory instead. On my part, after thinking a lot about Investiture while writing my own Realmatic theory, I found that I've changed my mind as well. My reason is different from Isomere's, though. He says that Stormlight is like the Mists on Scadrial, a way to bypass the actual Focus, which he theorizes is Sound. It's a valid theory, and I agree that Stormlight is probably a manifestation of a Shard. But my own understanding of what a Focus is leads me to a different conclusion: I think the Focus on Roshar are the Essences. Let me try to explain why. What is a Focus? From what we've seen so far in previous Cosmere books, I believe that a Focus is a thing with certain properties that narrow down the specifics (what I call the Intent) of Investiture. Basically, a Focus focuses the Investiture's Intent. A Focus does not need to be magical in itself. As far as I can tell, metals (The Metallic Arts), words (Awakening), body movements (ChayShan), and symbols on stamps (Forgery) are all pretty non-magical things. Even Aons can be written on the ground, something everyone can do. What makes these non-magical things special is that they dictate what kind of magic happens. Part I: Roshar's Focus So, what about Roshar magic? Well, here are some manifestations of Investiture that have been explained to some extent so far (in Spoiler tags due to length): As you can see, when I talk of Essences as the Focus, I'm including the Gemstones and the Body Focuses associated with the Essences. In short, this is my argument: All Investitures on Roshar have Intents determined by various forms of the Essences. Therefore, the Essences are the Focus on Roshar. Part II: Parshendi Song Let's talk about Parshendi songs. I think they may have something to do with exhalation (Vapor) and blood-flow (Blood). We know from Dalinar that Shardbearers can distinctly hear the ten heartbeats that summon a Shardblade: I will speculate that the Parshendi who are bonded to spren can hear various kinds of rhythms in their heartbeats depending on the situation and the type of spren they are bonded to. (Edit: This was confirmed in WoR.) I further theorize that groups of Parshendi can synchronize their blood-flow, allowing them to chant in harmony. In this way, the Parshendi's hearts basically act as synchronized metronomes, producing beats that the whole group can hear. This could explain why they like using drums when performing music for non-Parshendi people: it is their way of showing to non-Parshendi the sounds that their blood makes. As for Vapor, I believe that as the Parshendi learn more about their own magic system, they will one day discover chants that actually have magical effects. (Edit: This was confirmed in WoR.) The Focus of those magical effects would be the Exhalation of air produced by their singing. Each chant would correspond to a different Intent. I suppose Dawnsingers could have a similar capability, though we don't really know much about them at this point. But this does tie in with my other theory about Dawnshards being musical instruments. If Dawnshards are wind instruments, then the Focus of their Investiture's Intent would, again, be Exhalation. Part III: The Knights Radiant and the Essences (2015-03-07 Note: I have abandoned this part of the theory. You may still read it for the lulz if you want. I've spoilered it so it would no longer clutter the post.) *** So, what about the waveforms that I've been almost obsessed about before? I still think that they are important. I believe that the Shards on Roshar manifest their power through special waveforms (e.g. Stormlight), just like how Harmony's power manifests as the Mists, and how Endowment's power manifests as pigments. But the point is that Shardic power is separate from the Focus, which may not even be magical at all. (Edit: After WoR, we now know that the Illumination Surge manipulates both light, sound, and various waveforms.) Well, that's all for now. Tell me what you guys think!

As I mentioned in one of my theory threads in the Cosmere Theories forum, I think I may have found the inspiration behind the table of Essences. It may be the 16th century book Blazon of Gentrie by Sir John Ferne. The book associates the nine heraldic tinctures (the colors used in heraldry) with various things that were relevant to the astrologers of the time, including gemstones, virtues, numbers, classical Elements, the months of the year, etc. You can read various excerpts here (just search for "Blazon of Gentrie"). Sounds familiar? Yeah, these very same things are also associated with the Heralds of the Almighty, with a few major differences. For example, ten is the numerologically significant number on Roshar, not nine. Also, the four classical elements of antiquity are replaced by the ten Essences. There are other differences, but I believe that the similarities are striking enough that a connection here seems likely. On the other hand, these kinds of astrological associations have been done by other heraldists before Ferne, so it's possible that Brandon got the idea from somewhere else. There is, however, another connection between the Stormlight Archives and the Blazon of Gentrie. Ferne, being a knight, was well aware that knighthood wasn't supposed to be just parading around in jousting competitions wearing heraldic symbols and poking other knights with sharp sticks. Knights were supposed to uphold chivalric codes of conduct, and part of Blazon of Gentrie was dedicated to the virtues of chivalry, of which there were nine: Others have made different formulations of the chivalric code of medieval knights (look here for Gautier's), but the particular way that Ferne worded his version reminded me a lot about the Ideals of the Knights Radiant (just change "He shall" to "I will"). What do you guys think? Did I stumble upon something relevant, or is this all just a coincidence?

(Edit: According to Senior Feesh, Kiwi, and shardbearer, the original post was difficult to understand. So I revised a lot of things to improve clarity and added a list of the 17 Essence-pairs to help explain the theory. I hope it's clearer now.) So, I was reading the WoK Ars Arcanum this morning, specifically the table of the Ten Essences, and I was trying to link each Essence to the different kinds of spren that we've seen. Note that at the start, it was all just for fun; at the time I didn't really think spren had any connection to the Essences. Anyway, so I started with Zephyr. It obviously reminded me of windspren and Sylphrena's windspren-like form. Then there's Vapor, which could be linked to the smokespren we've seen on chasmfiends since smoke is linked to Vapor. Next, Spark reminded me of flamespren. Then I came upon Lucentia (a.k.a. light)... and then I suddenly remembered Syl's other form: the "Radiant" swordsman (swordswoman?) who fought the Deathspren around Kaladin. It was interesting that Syl seems to be related to two of the Essences (Zephyr and Lucentia), but at first I thought it was just coincidence. Then I looked at the Divine Attributes linked to each Essence and found another coincidence: Zephyr is linked to Protecting and Leading, and Lucentia to Loving and Healing. All those things can be attributed to Kaladin, the person that Syl decided to bond to. It is also noteworthy that Syl was in her "Lucentia form" when Kaladin was in need of healing (fighting the spren associated with death), and in "Zephyr form" when he needed to protect and lead. This made me wonder if other spren who bonded with Surgebinders showed a similar double connection to the Essences. We only know of one other such spren (unfortunately), so I decided to check them out. I'm talking about the Cryptics that bonded to Shallan, of course. We know that Shallan is dependable and resourceful, which are the attributes of Talus. And Shallan was asked by the Cryptics to say something true, meaning they value honesty, which is linked to Blood. So, the Cryptics might be linked to the Talus and Blood Essences, although I admit that it's not as convincing as Sylphrena's case. To cut to the chase, here's my theory: The spren that bonded to the Knights Radiant were each connected to two Essences. Let us look at the Knights Radiant chart: If you notice, the colors for each Order symbol are actually based on a gemstone associated to an Essence: Zephyr: Top right. Sapphire. Blue, the color of the sky. Symbol of Windrunners. Vapor: Smokestone. Smoky symbol. Spark: Below Vapor. Ruby. Fiery red symbol. Lucentia: Bottom right. Diamond. Pulp: Bottom center. Emerald. Leafy symbol. Blood: Bottom left. Garnet. Blood-red symbol. Tallow: Blue Zircon. Foil: Above Tallow. Amethyst. Talus: Top left. Topaz. Sinew: Top center, above Pulp. Heliodor. I'm theorizing that each line connecting two Orders/Essences represents a kind of spren that has two Essences. You'll see a line connecting Zephyr and Lucentia, and a line connecting Talus and Blood, so that neatly ties in to my previous speculations regarding Syl and the Cryptics. There are 17 lines connecting each Essence all in all. Here they are, including their Divine Attributes and the possible spren connected to them: (Edit: Added the spren revealed in WoR) Zephyr-Vapor (Protecting, Just, Leading, Confident) Zephyr-Lucentia (Protecting, Loving, Leading, Healing) - Honorspren Zephyr-Blood (Protecting, Creative, Leading, Honest) Zephyr-Sinew (Protecting, Pious, Leading, Guiding) - Stormfather? Vapor-Spark (Just, Brave, Confident, Obedient) Vapor-Tallow (Just, Wise, Confident, Careful) - Ivory? Spark-Lucentia (Brave, Loving, Obedient, Healing) Spark-Foil (Brave, Resolute, Obedient, Builder) Lucentia-Pulp (Loving, Learned, Healing, Giving) - Wyndle Lucentia-Talus (Loving, Dependable, Healing, Resourceful) Pulp-Blood (Learned, Creative, Giving, Honest) Pulp-Sinew (Learned, Pious, Giving, Guiding) Blood-Tallow (Creative, Wise, Honest, Careful) Blood-Talus (Creative, Dependable, Honest, Resourceful) - Cryptics Tallow-Foil (Wise, Resolute, Careful, Builder) Foil-Talus (Resolute, Dependable, Builder, Resourceful) Talus-Sinew (Dependable, Pious, Resourceful, Guiding) Have we met people who seem to match any of the above attributes? Anyway, if my theory is correct, each Order might be related to more than one type of spren. Perhaps each Order has subgroups bonded to different types of spren. It could also mean that each spren can be associated to more than one Order (but probably not). I would also like to speculate that all the spren that bonded with Surgebinders see themselves as honorspren, though they may have other names. So Cryptics might call themselves honorspren as well as truthspren, etc. Update: Wrong, as per Lift's Interlude. What do you guys think? Update: We now have plenty of spren-related info from Words of Radiance as well as from interviews with Brandon, and some of it provides support for my theory. One obvious example is Wyndle, who exhibits both Pulp and Lucentia properties by having an appearance of a crawling vine with crystals attached. Wyndle implied that honorspren and cryptics are separate things, so I'll have to rename this theory to fix the terminology. Jasnah's spren Ivory is described as oily, which fits the Tallow Essence. It's kind of tricky to pinpoint a second Essence (too bad there's no Essence linked to shadows), but I'm guessing that it is Vapor. Why? Because Jasnah's spren remind me of Midnight Essence and those creatures bleed smoke (a Vapor substance). Also, Nalan (the Vapor Herald) is referred to as "Darkness" by Lift. Anyway, I think people would agree that "just, wise, confident, and careful" fits Jasnah perfectly. We also know that Cryptics wear stiff robes, which reminds me of the Tension Surge's ability to make soft things rigid. Tension is associated with Talus and Sinew, and so this fits my Blood-Talus assignment for Cryptics.