Theory that needs help but I think it might be realmatic.

[Mikanium]

Is snapping something that in one way or the other occurs realm wide and not just on Scanrial?

 

Allomancy: Been spelled out for us

Feruchemy:  Not enough info, it existed before the first ascension. 

Hemalurgy:  The snap is external, occurs in the person stealing the powers from, by killing them (even though you don't have to kill them, you have to 'snap' them)

 

I was thinking of this during my re-read of WoK.

Kalinar seems to snap when his brother gets sent to the army... And when his brother gets killed.  And when he's in the high storm with Sel.  And um.. When he's defending Dalinar.   Of course only the last one was invested by stormlight.

 

Awakening can be forced into the category as a snap if you start reading warbreaker right after getting hit in the head with a large brick and every time you start to clear up, get hit again.

 

Shaod is a much easier to swallow as a 'snap' then awakening is.   I need to reread Elantris.

 

Forgive me if this has been discussed before. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[name_here]

I'd say Warbreaker does not have any analogue to snapping, unless it happens automatically at birth. Everyone starts off with one Breath and can use it if they know how. I think the annotations indicate that Feruchemists can use their powers from birth, too.

[Kurkistan]

I don't think cosmere-wide "snapping" is a very fruituful path to go down.
 
Snapping on Scadrial is very specific to Allomancy:
 

HoA Chapter 70 Annotation:

The Reason for the Mistsickness

So, it finally comes out. I wonder at this numbers plot, as I think many readers will glaze over it and ignore it. I think others will read into it and figure out what it means very quickly, then feel that the reveal here isn’t much of a revelation. Hopefully I’ll get a majority in the middle who read the clues, don’t know what they mean, but are happily surprised when it comes together. That’s a difficult line to walk sometimes.

What is going on here is that the mists are awakening the Allomantic potential inside of people. It’s very rough on a person for that to come out, and can cause death. Preservation set this all up before he gave his consciousness to imprison Ruin, so it’s not a perfect system. It’s like a machine left behind by its creator. The catalyst is the return of the power to the Well of Ascension. As soon as that power becomes full, it sets the mists to begin Snapping those who have the potential for Allomancy buried within them.

Many of these people won’t be very strong Allomancers. Their abilities were buried too deeply to have come out without the mists’ intervention. Others will have a more typical level of power; they might have Snapped earlier, had they gone through enough anguish to bring the power out.

My idea on this is that Allomantic potential is a little like a supersaturated solution. You can suspend a great deal of something like sugar in a liquid when it is hot, then cool it down and the sugar remains suspended. Drop one bit of sugar in there as a catalyst, however, and the rest will fall out as a precipitate.

Allomancy is the same. It’s in there, but it takes a reaction—in this case, physical anguish—to trigger it and bring it out. That’s because the Allomantic power comes from the extra bit of Preservation inside of humans, that same extra bit that gives us free will. This bit is trapped between the opposing forces of Preservation and Ruin, and to come out and allow it the power to access metals and draw forth energy, it needs to fight its way through the piece of Ruin that is also there inside.

As has been established, Ruin’s control over creatures—and, indeed, an Allomancer’s control over them—grows weaker when that creature is going through some extreme emotions. (Like the koloss blood frenzy.) This has to do with the relationship between the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm, and the Spiritual Realm—of which I don’t have time to speak right now.

Suffice it to say that there are people who have Snapped because of intense joy or other emotions. It just doesn’t happen as frequently and is more difficult to control.

Edited October 17, 2013 by Kurkistan

[happyman]

I actually think that how you get the magic is the element of each magic system most closely bound to the Shard which fuels it.

 

With Allomancy, you have to deliberately Preserve yourself.  Then you might become an Allomancer if everything else is lined up.

 

With Hemalurgy, you have to deliberately Ruin somebody else.  This is apparently cosmere wide.

 

With Feruchemy, you have to Ruin yourself in order to later Preserve yourself.  No reason for a life-changing event on this one.

 

With Awakening, the power to perform magic must be Endowed on you from the outside.  That's why giving breath must be (at some level) voluntary act from giver to receiver (baring Hemalurgy, of course).

 

It's been speculated that to use any of the magic systems we have seen on Sel, you need to be Devoted to a Dominion.  It certainly fits very well with the (scant) evidence we've had so far.  Certainly, most of the Elantrians we saw had devoted their life to something.  Shai had as well, although in a different way.

 

On Roshar, you get magic based on what you do.  Act with honor, and Honor will aid you, kind of thing.  Probably there are related ideas, like "Cultivate you talents, and Cultivation will help you grow."  Shallan might have some of that going on.

 

So that's how I see it.  Snapping is important, but I doubt it is universal.  It comes from Preservation's nature.

[Shardlet]

Actually, I have a lovely tidbit on my recorder about this very topic from the signing.  I will post it soon.  But, suffice it to be said for now, Brandon at least seemed to suggest that 'snapping' is a part of all the magics.  I think it is safe to say though that snaping will operate using different-ish mechanisms in other systems.  He only elaborated a bit on Scadrian snapping. 

[Argent]

@happyman, it looks like you've stumbled upon the Principle of Intent You can congratulate Chaos on both of you being brilliant - or downright insane.

 

@Shardlet, you keep withholding information from us, you US government, you...

[Kurkistan]

With Allomancy, you have to deliberately Preserve yourself.  Then you might become an Allomancer if everything else is lined up.

 

No. This particular misconception is of continual irritation to me, so you'll have to forgive me if I single you out for it.

 

Note the last paragraph of the annotation I quoted:

 

As has been established, Ruin’s control over creatures—and, indeed, an Allomancer’s control over them—grows weaker when that creature is going through some extreme emotions. (Like the koloss blood frenzy.) This has to do with the relationship between the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm, and the Spiritual Realm—of which I don’t have time to speak right now.

Suffice it to say that there are people who have Snapped because of intense joy or other emotions. It just doesn’t happen as frequently and is more difficult to control.

 

So it is not a matter of "Preserving yourself", but instead of going through extreme emotions.

Edited October 17, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Mysty]

What about the Returned in warbreaker? They actually had to die to obtain a divine breath. Could that be considered snapping even if being born with an ordinary breath isn't?

[Shardlet]

@Shardlet, you keep withholding information from us, you US government, you...

 

Ironically, I do work for the gov't.  I work for the USPTO.

 

 

What about the Returned in warbreaker? They actually had to die to obtain a divine breath. Could that be considered snapping even if being born with an ordinary breath isn't?

 

The returned are a special case.  But there is more hapening on Nalthis than just returned.  there are also awakeners.  Can anyone who has enough breath to spend awaken?  Or does something have to happen first?

Edited October 18, 2013 by Shardlet

[Kurkistan]

Cool. Sorry about all that... stuff for the last month.

[Shardlet]

Actually, it didn't affect me.  The PTO had a reserve contingency fund that would have carried us for 4 weeks.  It was everybody else that got 2.5 weeks paid vacation.

[chronotrigger]

 

No. This particular misconception is of continual irritation to me, so you'll have to forgive me if I single you out for it.

 

Note the last paragraph of the annotation I quoted:

 

 

So it is not a matter of "Preserving yourself", but instead of going through extreme emotions.

Actually, is it possible that Sazed changed the threshold to be ANY extreme rather than just lots lots of hurt? In the Q&A Brandon Sanderson vaguely implies that it could be possible. 

 

I'm new to writing in forums in general, so I don't know how to link a specific portion of the page, just scroll down to

'KChan', on 24 Sept 2012 - 20:12, said:

/>Hey Brandon! It's Kerry. Thank you so much for doing this!  I have a rather random-looking assortment of questions for you:

[*]How does Snapping work after Sazed changed it? If you don’t want to reveal it all right now, are there any hints you can give us?

He couldn't get rid of this entirely. I don't want to spoil things, but Snapping was built into Allomancy primarily because of larger-scale magical issues. This is getting deep into the issue, but it has to do with a person's spiritual makeup and a 'wounded' spirit being easier to fill with something else, kind of like a cut would let something into the bloodstream. Sazed made this threshold on Scadrial much easier to obtain.

[Kurkistan]

Pro tip: See the numbers at the top-right of every post? If you click on it, you'll get a dialog to "Share" it, as well as a raw url to link directly to that post. I usually just right-click and choose "Copy link address", so avoiding the hassle of using the dialog box.

 

That quote is interesting (I had forgotten the specifics), but ultimately doesn't change my point. The annotation I quoted was from Hero of Ages, so it was possible to have non-suffering Snapping pre-Harmony. So still no "choose to Preserve yourself". Reading the WoB, it seems more like any extreme emotion leaves "cuts".

Edited October 20, 2013 by Kurkistan