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All righty, so I'm creating this thread to be a place to discuss gaseous investiture. This started due to a topic Moogle created regarding the Mists and metals in Allomancy, where he posed the following question: This led me to thinking about gaseous investiture as a whole, as each of the major magic systems in the Cosmere that we've been shown make some mention of it. So let me begin this by discussing what knowledge we currently have. What We Know Spoilered for length. I create this list above knowing full well that I may have made mistakes. I also ask that any observation you wish to be added to this list be accompanied by sources. I cited all of my observations that didn't come directly from the books, I'm pretty sure. I'm hoping this discussion can be mostly focused around textual evidence and WoB's, rather than baseless conjecture. Obviously baseless conjecture is allowed and often appreciated, though. Discussion I do hope this thread will involve discussion of all the forms of gaseous investiture, and not just one two, but Moogle originally wanted such a topic to discuss the Dor, so I will start this discussion there. My observations above all say that Elantrians are "holding" the Dor, but is it holding in the same sense that one can hold the Mists, or how one can hold Stormlight? I do think there is a difference. Such a difference would explain why Raoden feels like his old self upon completing the Shaod, rather than being filled with a torrential energy, such as Szeth and Vin observe. I do not, however, believe there is a way to "hold" more of the Dor than an Elantrian already does. Ignoring the fact that the Dor does not seem to occur naturally in the Physical Realm apart from leaking through Elantris and its denizens, if an Elantrian could intake more of the Dor, why has no one done it? As I noted, the Dor leaks from the city itself. Has no Elantrian taken a deep breath within their city? Or, if intent matters, are we to presume that there has never been an Elantrian to sigh in frustrastion, wishing they were more powerful? In a city such as Elantris, where they are so far advanced to possess a detailed library system, such a thing should have been documented. Of course, it is possible that Raoden's studying in the library never came across such a thing, and as a result we, as readers, have simply never been told about it. It could also be that the system is more selective, like the Mists, rather than not being selective, like Stormlight. We do not know much about such a thing, though that is my current position. As a final note, the description of holding "large" amounts of Breath comes from the prologue, and as such focuses on the abilities granted by the Heightenings. I can't currently search the entirety of the book to find other instances which might be more pertinent to the comparison at hand, but if someone could point me at least to a chapter to save myself time later it would be greatly appreciated.