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[Discuss] Theory: Lift is the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith


SpinningSky

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Disclaimer: I originally posted this theory as a response to another topic, I worked on it some more, but some of this post will be verbatum from that

 

I was looking through everything Lift-related to try and make up my mind on what could explain... well Lift.
While there's clearly something important weird about Lift's origin before her visit to the Nightwatcher, I don't think we have enough data to theorize about that, but I do have an idea what happened with the Nightwatcher, and, yeah, you read the title:lol:

 

To show you I got there, I'll copy here the evidence that I found most relevant (I took notes notes Jasnah style:P) and then just summarize "my findings" and explain how I connected the dots.

I'll be using Spoiler tags for spacing, and I bolded the snippets that I found most interesting, all the relevant info in the quotes is repeated in my final thoughts 

1) WOBs on what Lift is\her origin

Spoiler
Quote

Questioner

So Lift gets her awesomeness from food. Is that a Lift thing or is that an Edgedancer thing?

Brandon Sanderson

That is a Lift thing. She is a very specific thing, and what she is will come out more, as the series progresses. It's not just a little one-off, there is actually something more behind it, but it is not an Edgedancer thing.

Skyward Seattle signing (Nov. 10, 2018

 

Quote

Questioner

When Odium and Dalinar were having their meeting in Oathbringer, Odium seemed kinda freaked out by something. Could it possibly be related to how Lift can interact with spren in the physical world, and that might cause some problems for him, <seeing the impossible>?

Brandon Sanderson

He is weirded out by Lift, certainly. Lift is something that shouldn't exist, let's just say that. You'll find out why, probably in book 6? But she should not exist.

DragonCon 2019 (Aug. 29, 2019)

 

Quote

Gary Singer (paraphrased)

Could Lift convert food from other cosmere worlds into Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. Lift's Spiritweb has something changed about it to allow converting mass to Investiture directly.

Out of Excuses 2016 (Sept. 23, 2016)

 

Quote

Ray745

Is Lift the only one who is able to see the afterimage around Szeth when he moves? And would she have seen that afterimage around him before he was brought back to life by Nalan?

Brandon Sanderson

Lift is seeing that Szeth's soul isn't quite attached to his body any longer. She is not the only one that can see it, but her special physiology is certainly helping her see it.

General Reddit 2016 (Dec. 5, 2016)

 

Quote

athos45678

Has anyone in the history of Roshar ever had Lift’s special physiology? Or is she like a whole new human

Brandon Sanderson

You could say anyone that has their DNA or spiritweb meddled with by the Nightwatcher is something new--that said, Lift is an experiment that hasn't been tried before.

Skyward Pre-Release AMA (Oct. 12, 2018)

 

This last one is relevant to me cause it proves that Windle's bond with Lift is a normal Spren\Radiant bond, though the fact that she was touched by Cultivation made her stand out as a candidate

Quote

Questioner (paraphrased)

How do spren choose what human they'll bond with?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Well, it depends on the spren type. There's some spren that choose on their own, while there's other spren where it's done by committee. Wyndle, Lift's spren was placed with Lift by a committee. It's a culture difference. Some are free-spirited, others more organized.

Orem signing 2014 (Dec. 6, 2014)

 

 

 

 

1) WOBs on the mechanics of Lifts powers

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

Argent

Does Lift turn food into Investiture directly or is it similar to the metals on--

Brandon Sanderson

Similar to the metals.

Argent

So like a gate?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Argent

Okay, that's good to know.

Brandon Sanderson

She can metabolize-- She can draw-- It's not actually the food, it's-- It's not like the metals, not exactly. It's not-- What she can do is she can metabolize into Investiture instead of sugar. Does that make sense?

Argent

Yeah.

Brandon Sanderson

We metabolize food into sugar. She can metabolize it into Investiture. Does that make sense?

Argent

That makes a lot of sense. (...)

Firefight Chicago signing (Feb. 20, 2015)

Quote

Laryyl (paraphrased)

[Can Lift] get Stormlight from spheres like normal or if it's just from food for her.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

She can only get it from food.

Laryyl (paraphrased)

Which [is it] related to her boon or her curse?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO.

Arcanum Unbounded Fort Collins signing (Nov. 29, 2016)

this last one might just be referring to the fact that sphere's are intended generally as holding stormlight and not lifelight, it is from 2016 after all

 

Quote

CaptainRyan (paraphrased)

If Lift touched a "dead" Shardblade would her experience be different than other proto-Radiants/Radiants?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. Slightly different.

CaptainRyan (paraphrased)

Would you please expound on that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No. *grins*

Oathbringer release party (Nov. 13, 2017)

 

 

3) General info on Nightwathcer, Bondsmiths and multiple Naheel bond:

Spoiler

from coppermind:

Quote

Cultivation made the Nightwatcher in such a way that she is not shaped by people's perception or belief of her, unlike most spren. 

WoB:

Quote

PrinceDusty

At the Pixel Project event, you talked about a further extent of Cultivation's magic than just the boon and bane? Are there any people alive at the end of Oathbringer who are influenced by that magic?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, Lift. Well, I guess that's a boon, isn't it? Yes, there are. But nobody on screen that has Cultivation magic, other than boons or curses from the Nightwatcher. Yes, there is such a thing, no, there's no one else on screen. But what Lift does is a hint.

Legion Release Party (Sept. 19, 2018)

from coppermind:

Quote

However, as most Radiants primarily make use of Stormlight, this is perhaps most useful for the Stormfather's Bondsmith, although the other Bondsmiths can still generate their respective Lights for personal use. It is uncertain how exactly this is done, but it is not necessary for the Bondsmith to be holding some Light already in order to pull more over into the Physical Realm.[39] The exact mechanics of this ability are unknown, but it seems most likely that they are pulling it directly from the Spiritual Realm.

Wob:

Quote

Questioner

Could someone bond with two spren and wield two swords?

Brandon Sanderson

It is theoretically possible, but the spren aren't going to like it.  So you are not going to see it very often.

Firefight Seattle Public Library signing (Jan. 7, 2015)

 

 

So to summarize what's in the info I looked through and just some known facts: 

Lift is something very special only possible through an act of Cultivation, result of meddling with her spirit web. What she is and how she is however fits within a certain mechanic and is not a one-off thing, but Cultivation's experiment on her is a first on Roshar.
Wyndle guesses she has a stronger connection to the spiritual realm, which makes sense in how for instance she can see Szeth's afterimage, and touch spren. This connection to the spiritual realm is probably related to how she is slightly different from other radiants (at least in how she would react to a dead shardblade). 
Still Wyndle bonded her as he would have a normal radiant, though the decision was made because she had been touched by Cultivation.

She can only burn foods (not metals) and transforms the resulting energy as lifelight, with mechanics much like those of getting energy from digesting sugar. She does generate the investiture from the food, not quite like metals (allomancy) work though there's a similarity there.

Finally, we know that she asked the Nightwatcher:

Quote

"When everything else is going wrong, I want to be the same. I want to stay me. Not become someone else".

 

I put this together with the fact that Bondsmiths can generate their respective lights for personal use, with not clear mechanics, and with the fact that the Nightwatcher is different from other spren, in how she's disconnected from human perception and thus more unchanging.

 

 

So back my thesis: Lift has been bonded to the Nightwatcher since she was ten, and is already the third Bondsmith

This explains how she can self-generate Lifelight, which as far as we know is only possible for the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith.
We know that it is possible to bond multiple sprens, and we know that Cultivation is very capable of meddling with one's memories, so it's easily explainable how she could be bonded to both her and Wyndle without knowing it.
With what we know about surges, it makes sense she can't do Bondsmith things beside istinctive Light generation until she's aware of what she can do.

There's a lot of wiggle room on the details on how her Connection to the spiritual realm and not-aging, as we know Cultivation ultimatly gives boons and curses as she pleases, so anything is fair game.

From a thematic perspective, the Nightwatcher's "untied to human perception" nature works well with Lift's boon request to be unchanging when everything else does.
Tt would also make sense that the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith would have a stronger focus on the Cognitive realm and spren, as she is less connected to the Physical, this expelaining Lift's Connection with the Congitive realm.
This could make a nice simmetry with the 3 bondsmiths being "more focused" on the three planes, Spiritual for Stormfather, Physical for Sibling, Cognitive for Nightwatcher.
Of course this clashes with the simmetry between Shards and Lights, so it's just a thematic idea not a mechanic of their powers.

In terms of mechanics we have to go with some wild theory, as she's supposed to be an "experiment that's never been tried before", so here it goes:
Her bond is unique because it's a somewhat backwards Nahel Bond, so rather than the bond making the spren more tied to the Phyisical realm, it's Lift who grows more Connected and aware of the Spiritual. This would explain her special connection with the Spiritual realm and all that comes with it, and could be worked in the explanation of her 'not aging'

Of course there's a number of reasons that could explain her not aging if you accept she's a Bondsmith plus Cultivation shenanigans.
Bondsmiths' mechanics are not really clear, and supposed to be very Bondsmith-specific. I mean she burns Lifelight for breakfast for the Almighty's sake :lol:

 

 

But that's it from me, what do you guys think? does this make any sense?

Edited by SpinningSky
wrote Preservation instead of Cultivation at some points xD fixed it
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This is very interesting! What are your thoughts on the theory of Lift eventually becoming the new vessel for Cultivation? I've seen it claimed that her desire to stay the same could wind up meaning that she is able to hold the Shard without being changed by it. How might this interact with your theory here?

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Oh wow. This is… really good. But why wouldn’t we hear about the Nightwatcher in Lift chapters? Don’t spren tend to stay around their people? And why isn’t Windle complaining about this? It said that spren don’t like it. And why isn’t Lift using any of her other cool Bondsmith powers? Just had a few questions.

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14 hours ago, stonehand said:

This is very interesting! What are your thoughts on the theory of Lift eventually becoming the new vessel for Cultivation? I've seen it claimed that her desire to stay the same could wind up meaning that she is able to hold the Shard without being changed by it. How might this interact with your theory here?

In terms of her ascension, it makes sense within the theory, if you think that Dalinar himself might become Honor (or Honor+Odium=War).
I also think that the idea of her "unchanging nature" escalating to a deeper meaning (not aging->not influenced by shard), much like the "Unite Them" for Dalinar, is quite neat, so I think it could work with this theory without much conflict!

But after looking into Lift a quite a bit my feeling is that she's too unique to "simply" (:P) ascend. To me she feels more like a Hoid-type charachter, if that makes sense.
This just occured to me, her future or past might entail something tied to Dawnshards rather than Shards. We know the 'Change' dawnshard is currently on Roshar and walking about, we also know she almost centanly met Hoid at some point in Marabethia and we don't know what happened... actually this is probably worth some thought xD

Quote

gk-sudo

Do we know anyone who is currently a Dawnshard other than Rysn?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you have met people who are curre– at least one who is currently a Dawnshard other than Rysn.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 4 (June 16, 2022)

 

 

8 hours ago, Rabbit Unmade said:

Oh wow. This is… really good. But why wouldn’t we hear about the Nightwatcher in Lift chapters? Don’t spren tend to stay around their people? And why isn’t Windle complaining about this? It said that spren don’t like it. And why isn’t Lift using any of her other cool Bondsmith powers? Just had a few questions.

I appreciate the qeustions it helps me flesh this out!

The Stormfather is free to keep roaming around even after he bonded Dalinar, so I wouldn't expect the Nightwatcher to have to go somewhere, and if indeed Cultivation plan is to keep this part of Lift's nature hidden, then she wouldn't explicitly talk to her either.

Bondsmith powers, I can easily see how she doesn't use them, Radiants need to be aware of what they can do, Kal could "fly" but didn't manage until he found out by seeeing Szeth, Dalinar himself is not doing everything he's capable of, it'd be worse for Lift if she isn't even aware of the bond, let alone the powers.

You make an interesting point about Windle. He could either not know about the other bond, or be keeping it a secret.
I looked into it a bit:

Coppermind (info mostly from Edgedancer):

Quote

He was not happy about his mission and referred to it as an "atrocious duty".[2] The Ring was additionally responsible for the specific choice of Lift as a bond partner for Wyndle, a choice that he did not agree with. However, the Ring viewed Lift's youth and her experience with the Old Magic as positive traits in a candidate.[3] Wyndle found that bonding with Lift was easier than expected[6]


It is true that he didn't want to bond her at all, but that's often explained out as "I wanted to keep gardening chairs", plus the whole Recreance thing.
He could just not be fully aware, sort of like how Syl doesn't fully understand how her bond with Kal works. Maybe Wyndle felt something was off about her, not quite putting his hand on it. As a counter point, Wyndle always seemed more aware than Syl. 
Another option, which could spiral into something very interesting story-wise I think, is that he might be tied to secrecy due to spren politics. We know very little about the Ring, but I expect spren politics to grow more important in the next book. Spren tend to share very little about these things anyways.
It also makes sense she'd be easier to bond if she was already connected to Cultivation's power. Then again, by logic saw in Mistborn, "crazy" people tend to touch the Cognitive Realm more easily. 

I don't feel these points count as strong "evidence" towards my claim, as they would work for a number of theories, but I think it fits in quite well!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

@SpinningSky Wow you're good. But we know the outline of Lift's past.

Her mom died when Lift was younger than 10

At the age of 10 Lift went to the Nightwatcher and asked her to not change so her mother may recognise her. She obviously meant physically. But Cultivation took the chance and changed her boon

As said she is getting taller, and her breasts are developing, that's why she put that tight cloth around her chest in RoW. Wouldn't you agree?

Edited by Adamkarma
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On 11/10/2022 at 9:52 PM, Adamkarma said:

@SpinningSky Wow you're good. But we know the outline of Lift's past.

Her mom died when Lift was younger than 10

At the age of 10 Lift went to the Nightwatcher and asked her to not change so her mother may recognise her. She obviously meant physically. But Cultivation took the chance and changed her boon

As said she is getting taller, and her breasts are developing, that's why she put that tight cloth around her chest in RoW. Wouldn't you agree?

Thanks!

I mean I agree we have an outline or her journey, we have that she met Hoid at some point, and I agree that she's is slowly aging, I feel that the outline we have is not enough (at least for me) to make theories without them just being wild guesses :lol: 

Actually, the fact that she asked because she wanted her mother to recognise her, is that canonised or your supposition? If it's in the books I forgot about it

Do you have any theory on what her actually-slowly-aging might mean?

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I like the theory! One note though. I do not think she is actually aging slower if that is what you mean. It is just her perception of herself and how she projects herself to others. Presumably because of the trauma of loosing her mother she wants to remain a kid but she is clearly aging we see this on screen as her body is getting bigger.  Unless I am missing something this is how I always interoperated it. 

12 hours ago, SpinningSky said:

Do you have any theory on what her actually-slowly-aging might mean?

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On 9/20/2022 at 7:04 AM, SpinningSky said:

Disclaimer: I originally posted this theory as a response to another topic, I worked on it some more, but some of this post will be verbatum from that

 

I was looking through everything Lift-related to try and make up my mind on what could explain... well Lift.
While there's clearly something important weird about Lift's origin before her visit to the Nightwatcher, I don't think we have enough data to theorize about that, but I do have an idea what happened with the Nightwatcher, and, yeah, you read the title:lol:

 

To show you I got there, I'll copy here the evidence that I found most relevant (I took notes notes Jasnah style:P) and then just summarize "my findings" and explain how I connected the dots.

I'll be using Spoiler tags for spacing, and I bolded the snippets that I found most interesting, all the relevant info in the quotes is repeated in my final thoughts 

1) WOBs on what Lift is\her origin

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

This last one is relevant to me cause it proves that Windle's bond with Lift is a normal Spren\Radiant bond, though the fact that she was touched by Cultivation made her stand out as a candidate

 

 

 

 

1) WOBs on the mechanics of Lifts powers

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

this last one might just be referring to the fact that sphere's are intended generally as holding stormlight and not lifelight, it is from 2016 after all

 

 

 

3) General info on Nightwathcer, Bondsmiths and multiple Naheel bond:

  Reveal hidden contents

from coppermind:

WoB:

from coppermind:

Wob:

 

 

So to summarize what's in the info I looked through and just some known facts: 

Lift is something very special only possible through an act of Cultivation, result of meddling with her spirit web. What she is and how she is however fits within a certain mechanic and is not a one-off thing, but Cultivation's experiment on her is a first on Roshar.
Wyndle guesses she has a stronger connection to the spiritual realm, which makes sense in how for instance she can see Szeth's afterimage, and touch spren. This connection to the spiritual realm is probably related to how she is slightly different from other radiants (at least in how she would react to a dead shardblade). 
Still Wyndle bonded her as he would have a normal radiant, though the decision was made because she had been touched by Cultivation.

She can only burn foods (not metals) and transforms the resulting energy as lifelight, with mechanics much like those of getting energy from digesting sugar. She does generate the investiture from the food, not quite like metals (allomancy) work though there's a similarity there.

Finally, we know that she asked the Nightwatcher:

 

I put this together with the fact that Bondsmiths can generate their respective lights for personal use, with not clear mechanics, and with the fact that the Nightwatcher is different from other spren, in how she's disconnected from human perception and thus more unchanging.

 

 

So back my thesis: Lift has been bonded to the Nightwatcher since she was ten, and is already the third Bondsmith

This explains how she can self-generate Lifelight, which as far as we know is only possible for the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith.
We know that it is possible to bond multiple sprens, and we know that Cultivation is very capable of meddling with one's memories, so it's easily explainable how she could be bonded to both her and Wyndle without knowing it.
With what we know about surges, it makes sense she can't do Bondsmith things beside istinctive Light generation until she's aware of what she can do.

There's a lot of wiggle room on the details on how her Connection to the spiritual realm and not-aging, as we know Cultivation ultimatly gives boons and curses as she pleases, so anything is fair game.

From a thematic perspective, the Nightwatcher's "untied to human perception" nature works well with Lift's boon request to be unchanging when everything else does.
Tt would also make sense that the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith would have a stronger focus on the Cognitive realm and spren, as she is less connected to the Physical, this expelaining Lift's Connection with the Congitive realm.
This could make a nice simmetry with the 3 bondsmiths being "more focused" on the three planes, Spiritual for Stormfather, Physical for Sibling, Cognitive for Nightwatcher.
Of course this clashes with the simmetry between Shards and Lights, so it's just a thematic idea not a mechanic of their powers.

In terms of mechanics we have to go with some wild theory, as she's supposed to be an "experiment that's never been tried before", so here it goes:
Her bond is unique because it's a somewhat backwards Nahel Bond, so rather than the bond making the spren more tied to the Phyisical realm, it's Lift who grows more Connected and aware of the Spiritual. This would explain her special connection with the Spiritual realm and all that comes with it, and could be worked in the explanation of her 'not aging'

Of course there's a number of reasons that could explain her not aging if you accept she's a Bondsmith plus Cultivation shenanigans.
Bondsmiths' mechanics are not really clear, and supposed to be very Bondsmith-specific. I mean she burns Lifelight for breakfast for the Almighty's sake :lol:

 

 

But that's it from me, what do you guys think? does this make any sense?

 Unfortunately the wob you posted clearly States that lift is something never seen before.  Meaning she cannot be the night watcher bondsmith. 

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20 hours ago, bmcclure7 said:

 Unfortunately the wob you posted clearly States that lift is something never seen before.  Meaning she cannot be the night watcher bondsmith. 

I don't think that's necessarily how to interpret it, I think she's a Bondsmith, and then some (backwards naheel bond, somethng with downshards?). So in my intepretation the Bonsmith part is the part of her powers that fits within a certain mechanic, but she's special beyond that.

 

BTW I was re-reading Edgedancer, ran into a little tidbit I missed:

Lift talks to a urchin in a language that Windle can't quite understand, when asked on why, Lift just says "Words is words".
On Roshar that's a power associated with Bondsmiths.
 

I think it's another nice detal that points at her being a Bondsmith

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/20/2022 at 8:04 AM, SpinningSky said:

Disclaimer: I originally posted this theory as a response to another topic, I worked on it some more, but some of this post will be verbatum from that

 

I was looking through everything Lift-related to try and make up my mind on what could explain... well Lift.
While there's clearly something important weird about Lift's origin before her visit to the Nightwatcher, I don't think we have enough data to theorize about that, but I do have an idea what happened with the Nightwatcher, and, yeah, you read the title:lol:

 

To show you I got there, I'll copy here the evidence that I found most relevant (I took notes notes Jasnah style:P) and then just summarize "my findings" and explain how I connected the dots.

I'll be using Spoiler tags for spacing, and I bolded the snippets that I found most interesting, all the relevant info in the quotes is repeated in my final thoughts 

1) WOBs on what Lift is\her origin

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

This last one is relevant to me cause it proves that Windle's bond with Lift is a normal Spren\Radiant bond, though the fact that she was touched by Cultivation made her stand out as a candidate

 

 

 

 

1) WOBs on the mechanics of Lifts powers

 

  Hide contents

 

this last one might just be referring to the fact that sphere's are intended generally as holding stormlight and not lifelight, it is from 2016 after all

 

 

 

3) General info on Nightwathcer, Bondsmiths and multiple Naheel bond:

  Hide contents

from coppermind:

WoB:

from coppermind:

Wob:

 

 

So to summarize what's in the info I looked through and just some known facts: 

Lift is something very special only possible through an act of Cultivation, result of meddling with her spirit web. What she is and how she is however fits within a certain mechanic and is not a one-off thing, but Cultivation's experiment on her is a first on Roshar.
Wyndle guesses she has a stronger connection to the spiritual realm, which makes sense in how for instance she can see Szeth's afterimage, and touch spren. This connection to the spiritual realm is probably related to how she is slightly different from other radiants (at least in how she would react to a dead shardblade). 
Still Wyndle bonded her as he would have a normal radiant, though the decision was made because she had been touched by Cultivation.

She can only burn foods (not metals) and transforms the resulting energy as lifelight, with mechanics much like those of getting energy from digesting sugar. She does generate the investiture from the food, not quite like metals (allomancy) work though there's a similarity there.

Finally, we know that she asked the Nightwatcher:

 

I put this together with the fact that Bondsmiths can generate their respective lights for personal use, with not clear mechanics, and with the fact that the Nightwatcher is different from other spren, in how she's disconnected from human perception and thus more unchanging.

 

 

So back my thesis: Lift has been bonded to the Nightwatcher since she was ten, and is already the third Bondsmith

This explains how she can self-generate Lifelight, which as far as we know is only possible for the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith.
We know that it is possible to bond multiple sprens, and we know that Cultivation is very capable of meddling with one's memories, so it's easily explainable how she could be bonded to both her and Wyndle without knowing it.
With what we know about surges, it makes sense she can't do Bondsmith things beside istinctive Light generation until she's aware of what she can do.

There's a lot of wiggle room on the details on how her Connection to the spiritual realm and not-aging, as we know Cultivation ultimatly gives boons and curses as she pleases, so anything is fair game.

From a thematic perspective, the Nightwatcher's "untied to human perception" nature works well with Lift's boon request to be unchanging when everything else does.
Tt would also make sense that the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith would have a stronger focus on the Cognitive realm and spren, as she is less connected to the Physical, this expelaining Lift's Connection with the Congitive realm.
This could make a nice simmetry with the 3 bondsmiths being "more focused" on the three planes, Spiritual for Stormfather, Physical for Sibling, Cognitive for Nightwatcher.
Of course this clashes with the simmetry between Shards and Lights, so it's just a thematic idea not a mechanic of their powers.

In terms of mechanics we have to go with some wild theory, as she's supposed to be an "experiment that's never been tried before", so here it goes:
Her bond is unique because it's a somewhat backwards Nahel Bond, so rather than the bond making the spren more tied to the Phyisical realm, it's Lift who grows more Connected and aware of the Spiritual. This would explain her special connection with the Spiritual realm and all that comes with it, and could be worked in the explanation of her 'not aging'

Of course there's a number of reasons that could explain her not aging if you accept she's a Bondsmith plus Cultivation shenanigans.
Bondsmiths' mechanics are not really clear, and supposed to be very Bondsmith-specific. I mean she burns Lifelight for breakfast for the Almighty's sake :lol:

 

 

But that's it from me, what do you guys think? does this make any sense?

It's an interesting idea.  I lean more toward the theory that Cultivation intends for Lift to be her successor, but this could work.  One thing I've noticed is that despite repeated references to her, we haven't actually seen the NightWatcher except in Dalinar's flashback. Dalinar, Terravangian, Lift, and others talk or think about her, but we've only seen her or witnessed her direct actions on that one occasion.

Lift being a BondSmith would explain a few things, certainly.  Her ability to create LifeLight and her remaining conscious when the tower's protections were turned against the radiants, for example.  But has she shown any specific BondSmith powers, such as Adhesion?  Aside from drawing in Stormlight to heal himself, the first time Dalinar uses his powers (actively) is to glue Kadash to the floor.  Yes, each BondSmith has unique abilities, like Dalinar and the StormFather's visions, but I'd bet the basic surges are still something they share.  And we haven't seen her swearing any oaths other than EdgeDancer oaths. I mean, the book where she swore her third ideal was titled EdgeDancer

I do think the NightWatcher will (finally) play a direct roll in book 5.  I read a theory a while back about the way to defeat Odium involving using the StormFather as a blade.  That much concentrated investiture would be even stronger than NightBlood. But if the StormFather isn't keeping the storm going, does that mean the high storms will stop altogether? Maybe. Unless, someone else does the job for a while.  If another spren, close enough in strength to the StormFather, were to do the job for a while.  Kind of like how Hercules holds up the sky for Atlas in Greek mythology. 

But Lift as both and EdgeDancer and BondSmith? That does sound interesting. Sanderson confirms that spren don't like to share their people (just ask Syl in OathBringer when she's swatting away glory spren from Kaladin) but I have wondered if someone could be suited to multiple orders. The reason why Rlain and Dabbid didn't end up as WindRunner squires (in my opinion) is because they are better suited to different orders.  But is it possible for someone to be a good fit for both a cultivation spren and an honor spren? Who knows?

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2 hours ago, Letryx13 said:

Lift being a BondSmith would explain a few things, certainly.  Her ability to create LifeLight and her remaining conscious when the tower's protections were turned against the radiants, for example.  But has she shown any specific BondSmith powers, such as Adhesion? 

I was gonna make an update post when I had more new things to add, but I did notice rereading Edgedancer that there is a throw away moment where lift speaks to an urchin in an unintelligible language

Edgedancer ch. 6

Quote

"Mistress," Wyndle said, "that was the strangest conversation I've ever heard, and I once grew an entire garden for some keenspren."
"Seemed normal to me. Just a kid on the street.
"But the way you talked!" Wyndle said.
"What way?"
"With all those odd words and terms. How did you know what to say?"
"It just felt right," Lift said. "Words is words Anyway[...]"

This easily goes overlooked, but it can be seen as Lift using the power of Connection to talk to the urchin, much like Dalinar does in Oathbringer (beginning ch. 65) when he spoke in Azish

 

2 hours ago, Letryx13 said:

But Lift as both and EdgeDancer and BondSmith? That does sound interesting. Sanderson confirms that spren don't like to share their people (just ask Syl in OathBringer when she's swatting away glory spren from Kaladin) but I have wondered if someone could be suited to multiple orders. The reason why Rlain and Dabbid didn't end up as WindRunner squires (in my opinion) is because they are better suited to different orders.  But is it possible for someone to be a good fit for both a cultivation spren and an honor spren? Who knows?

Well I would think if any Cultivationspren would be fine sharing a bond with the Nightwatcher, especially if she's kind of not there

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52 minutes ago, SpinningSky said:

I was gonna make an update post when I had more new things to add, but I did notice rereading Edgedancer that there is a throw away moment where lift speaks to an urchin in an unintelligible language

Edgedancer ch. 6

This easily goes overlooked, but it can be seen as Lift using the power of Connection to talk to the urchin, much like Dalinar does in Oathbringer (beginning ch. 65) when he spoke in Azish

I'd forgotten about that conversation with the street girl.  They play it off as Lift just knowing it from the streets, but that could be stronger evidence that she's a BondSmith than anything else.  Ok, I'm a little more open to this idea now.

58 minutes ago, SpinningSky said:

Well I would think if any Cultivationspren would be fine sharing a bond with the Nightwatcher, especially if she's kind of not there

Not so sure about that one. I doubt the proximity matters, just the bond itself.  I think the spren don't like having to share the energy from thoughts and emotions they get from their human.

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On 11/14/2022 at 1:22 PM, Letryx13 said:

I'd forgotten about that conversation with the street girl.  They play it off as Lift just knowing it from the streets, but that could be stronger evidence that she's a BondSmith than anything else.  Ok, I'm a little more open to this idea now.

Not so sure about that one. I doubt the proximity matters, just the bond itself.  I think the spren don't like having to share the energy from thoughts and emotions they get from their human.

I thought it was just a edge dancer combination power like how windruners have a lot of squires.

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