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Hello 17th sharders, tip of the hat to you all, you do amazing work. So, I have been doing some high level speculating as to the nature of Investiture on Roshar, and have some thoughts that I would like to get feedback on. So we know that the number 10 is an important number on Roshar, and that the 2 shards Honor and Cultivation each have 5 surges associated with them. Honor has the 5 surges of emotion and Cultivation has the 5 surges of natural forces. Further, each order of Knights Radiant has access to 2 surges, one from Honor and one from Cultivation (with the possible exception of the orders that are in the God Eye positions (bondsmiths deriving 2 surges from Honor and truthwatchers deriving 2 surges from Cultivation)). I've seen speculation that voidbinding will have 10 orders, and this does seem plausible given that Brandon is a fan of Symmetrical systems. This is the speculation, what if Voidbinding was a mixture of 5 Odious surges with the 5 surges of Cultivation. Honor and Odium seem like diametrically opposed intents, and I find the idea of them mixing very problematic. But Cultivation is an end neutral force, it doesn't have a goal it simply is. There are positive and negative aspects, and given that it's alignment is probably Lawful Neutral, it could mix with both Honor and Odium providing access to it's surges to both of 2 other shards invested in the Rosharian system. This is a kind of symmetry that allows for balance but a great degree of difference between voidbinding and surgebinding. Also it would be fun to see how the parallel systems are similar and how they are different. This said, I think the fused seen in the final Kaladin chapter in Oathbringer are using the surge of Gravitation (from Cultivation) and have a voidish surge in reserve that they weren't using at that time. Maybe the reason that they are seen bobbing like kites, not in full control over their flying isn't that they have little practice, maybe it's the nature of how they control the surge. The Nahel bond is a friendly agreement, the voidish bond that grants access to the surge is probably more of a domination of the surge, like they have to fight or master it to use it. The speculation that maybe Odium is complete and unalloyed in the extension of his Investiture, composed of 10 specific surges doesn't feel right to me. Because it would be too much of the case that he is simply the inversion of the Honor. Like deciding his forms of investiture were like a playground squabble: "You got a stick, well I have a really pointy stick. Oh you have a rock too, well my rock is obsidian and it's really sharp." This seems like a petty and boorish way to develop his investiture. I think we totally don't have enough information on the nature of Cultivation yet to do much more than reasoned conjecture, but holy crap this book is so amazing and it's fun to build castles made of speculative sand. Looking forward to your thoughts.
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- roshar magic system
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