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Connection in the Cosmere [Bands, M:SH spoilers]


Dirigible

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Feruchemical duralumin allows someone to store their spiritual 'Connection'. Recently, Bands of Mourning and Secret History have provided some insight into the workings of Connection. This is collection of theories relating to Connection--what forms it takes and how it can be applied to different worlds/magic systems in the Cosmere. Despite their being different theories, they are all related to each other so I did not want to split them up.

 

I've used spoiler tags to collapse the different theories so it is easier to read. There are also excerpts relating to Connection from Bands/Secret History, so don't read this at all if you haven't read those.

 

Types of Connection

I have found at least four types of Connection: Personal, Locational, Shardic, and Temporal.

 

Mistborn: Secret History:

M:SH mentions all four of these each multiple times. I searched my e-book copy for every mention of "Connect"; Personal, Locational, and Shardic Connection are mentioned quite a bit; I won't quote every mention. This does a good enough job proving that all three exist:

Page 65; Regarding the Spiritual Realm / future sight:

Time had no relevance here. It was not a place. Location had no relevance. Only Connection, person to person, man to world, Kelsier to god.

 

Temporal Connection is mentioned only twice and with a bit less certainty as to its existence:

Page 14; Regarding Malatium:

"Yes, the metal, flared during the moment of transition. You got a glimpse of the Spiritual Realm, then? His Connection and his past?" - Fuzz

Page 133; Regarding Atium+Duralumin

Elend Venture raised his hand, and then exploded with light. Lines of white scattered from him in all directions, lines that drilled through all things. Lines that Connected him to Kelsier, to the future, and to the past.

These two quotes imply people have a Connection to time.

 

Bands of Mourning:

Bands shows the first confirmed use of Duralumin Feruchemy, in the medallions; Locational Connection:

Bands of Mourning (page 338), Allik:

It's filled with Connection, yah? Blank Connection, to no place. But Connection can't just be connected to nothing, so when you tap it, it reaches out and connects you to the place where you are. Makes your soul think you were raised in this place instead, so your language changes."

The Wax and Wayne books also suggest Personal Connection can be stored, and that is the primary use of F.Duralumin in N.Scadrial, presumably:

Wax and Wayne Ars Arcana:

Connector Ferrings can store spiritual connection in a duralumin metalmind, reducing other people's awareness and friendship with them during active storage, and can tap it at a later time in order to speedily form trust relationships with others.

 

This reddit post also mentions quite a bit about Connection, specifically Locational, Personal, and Temporal:

The piece your missing is the nature of a person's Spiritual aspect. This is similar to a Platonic idea--the idea that there's a perfect version of everyone somewhere. It's a mix of their connections to places, people, and times with raw investiture. The soul, you might say.

...

However, your age is part of your Connection to places, people, and times. Your soul "knows" things, like where you were born, what investiture you are aligned with, and--yes--how old you are.

(While two of the three things he mentions in the second part of the quote are Connection, I think the "investiture you are aligned with" is what is stored in a Nicrosil mind)

 

Connection in Feruchemy: Duralumin

Firstly: I would think different types of Connection could be stored individually, and in separate metalminds, similar to how tin works.

 

Bands:

I wasn't under the impression that Allik was making particularly close relationships with everyone on the boat (Marasi maybe?, but not any of the others), so I think this make sense for now.

 

I would guess that all four types of Connection would be able to be stored by a duralumin Ferring. Two (Personal/Locational) are essentially confirmed, and I would guess that if a Connector knew enough about Realmatic Theory and their ability then they could somehow manipulate the other two. The two types of Connection we see mentioned seem to work in slightly different ways.

Personal: If a Connector stores their P.Connection to person A, and later taps it around person B, they have the ability to "speedily form trust relationships" with them--aka make Connections more easily.

Locational: When the Connector stores their L.Connection to location A, and later taps it in location B, they immediately are Connected to place B.

 

That same reddit post implies manipulating one's Connection would be a way to achieve immortality:

Yes, all of this means there are FAR more efficient means of counteracting aging than the one used by the Lord Ruler. It's a hack, and not meant to be terribly efficient. Eventually, he wouldn't have been able to maintain himself this way at all. Changing connection (or even involving ones Cognitive Aspect a little more) would have been far more efficient, though actively more difficult.

Changing T.Connection seems like the best way to achieve this, so I would guess that since it is possible for T.Connection to be manipulated, that a Connector Ferring could do it.

 

Secondly: Feruchemy seems to store 'blank' Connection. If they store Connection to thing A, then they can tap it and use it in relation to anything (as long as it is the same type as thing A).

 

Through this, they could store Shardic Connection to Harmony and tap it on another Shardworld to Connect themselves to another Shard. It is also possible they could manipulate the manifestation of their Connection when tapping it to perform other effects.

 

Connection in Allomancy: Gold, Electrum, Atium, Malatium

Temporal Connection reveals a lot of the workings of the Internal Temporal metals (and their strange God-metal mirrors).

 

Malatium allowed Kelsier to see TLR's "Connection and past."

  • Gold likely shows you your own Connection to your past.

Elend using Atium+Duralumin essentially allowed him to look into the Spiritual Realm. It showed him the same lines Kelsier saw when Preservation showed him the future; specifically it showed him "Lines that Connected him to Kelsier, to the future, and to the past."

  • I would guess that Atium even without duralumin shows a person the short term Connection of the things around them to the future, only less strongly.
  • Electrum shows your own Connection to the immediate future.

Theory: The Internal Temporal metals show you your Connection to the semi-far past or to the near-immediate future, and their Atium counterparts work the same way.

 

Connection in Forgery/Soulcasting

Allik's explanation of Feruchemical L.Connection--a soul becoming convinced that its history is different than it actually is--aligns closely with the explanation of Forgery in The Emperor's Soul. The history of an object (its Connection to people, locations, and time) is rewritten to be different.

 

Forging also seems to modify an object's Identity (especially, I think, in Soulforging--I however don't have TES with me so I can't check for Shai's accent changing or anything when she Soulforges herself), but to a lesser extent than Connection.

Conversely, I think Soulcasting on Roshar works in the other way: Identity of an object is greatly changed, and Connection is probably involved but to a lesser extent.

 

I would guess that a sufficiently knowledgeable Connector Ferring could achieve some of the same effects as Soulforging, but not all of them, as Identity is an important aspect of the magic system as well.

 

Theory: Forgery modifies Connection primarily, but also Identity. Soulcasting works the opposite way.

 

Connection on Sel

The Magic a Selian can use is tied to where a person is from, even if their long-term heritage is not the same. So, in order to use a magic from Sel you need to be Connected to that area. For Forgery, since anyone from MaiPon can use it, a Connector Ferring in MaiPon tapping L.Connection could probably Forge things, but she wouldn't be able to do it anywhere else.

Elantrians are normal people of Aonic descent who have been transformed by the Shaod. The Shaod only takes people who are Connected to Arelon. If someone manipulated their Connection to being from Arelon, and somehow was taken by the Shaod, then they would probably remain an Elantrian afterword. I think this is what Hoid was trying to do in the end of Elantris 10th Anniversary edition.

 

However, I don't think L.Connection is the only thing necessary for use of a magic system. A theory that has been proposed before is that all of the Elantrians who have been chosen by the Shaod were Devoted to something--with S.Connection, this makes even more sense to me. Someone who is both Connected to Arelon and Connected to Devotion would be able to be transformed into an Elantrian.

 

I'd bet a duralumin compounder could tap insane amounts of S.Connection and L.Connection in Arelon, perform some "acts of Devotion," and become an Elantrian.

 

Connection for all Major Shardworlds and their Magic

Theory: In order to use all Externally-Powered magic systems (i.e. all of the ones that require "cracks in the soul") you need to be Connected to the entity that is powering you.

 

On Sel, to become an Elantrian you need to be Devoted; to use Dahkor you need to show your Dominion over others.

 

On Scadrial, to use Allomancy you need to Snap--try to Preserve yourself through a difficult time. To use Hemalurgy you need to Ruin someone: kill them and take their power.

 

On Nalthis, I think those who Return are people who have been Endowing in their previous life; or those who can Return to provide a Gift to someone else. Lightsong Returned after giving his life for his neice; I don't remember any other stories of pre-Return life so that's all I have.

 

On Roshar, Surgebinding requires a bond to a particular Spren based on your moral outlook. I think this bond is a Connection to that Spren, who represents a particular aspect of Honor (and possibly Cultivation).

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I believe now that that we're a few weeks out of release that spoilers can be discussed in other boards with spoiler tags (I'm hesitant to give any official word I'm just going off of spoiler policy so this may be subject to change) . Though since this entire topic is a spoiler I'll move it for now anyway.

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Great theory! There's also the orb the Ire have, which stores connection to Preservation (S.Connection in your notation, I suppose), which seems to store a specific, attuned Connection, not the blank kind you've mentioned, so it seems to St least be possible. Also curious as to how it was made, as the Connection device doesn't seem to match any known magic system, certainly not that of Sel.

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This:

Dirigible, on 09 Feb 2016 - 8:32 PM, said:

Connector Ferrings can store spiritual connection in a duralumin metalmind, reducing other people's awareness and friendship with them during active storage, and can tap it at a later time in order to speedily form trust relationships with others.

 

 

This makes me think about Breath from Warbreaker. If someone doesn't have Breath, than no one can "sense" that person (less aware). If you have a lot of Breath, you feel more connected and can "sense" a lot. So...the more investiture you have the more connected you are?

 

Might be something there...

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