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Lightweavers might be the Strongest of the 10 Radiant Groups


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Another thing to consider is harmonics.  
If certain frequencies are put out at a high enough amplitude, with a medium for harmonics to resonate in, they could cause (perhaps) unintended consequences.  
Think along the lines of trying to make an avalanche happen with a low rumble- but, a higher pitched harmonic causes everyone in your party's teeth to shatter.   

Edited by Massik
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1 hour ago, Massik said:

Another thing to consider is harmonics.  
If certain frequencies are put out at a enough amplitude, with a medium for harmonics to resonate in, they should cause (perhaps) unintended consequences.  
Think along the lines of trying to make an avalanche happen, with a low rumble- but, a higher pitched harmonic causes everyone in your party's teeth to shatter.   

Sound manipulation will need to be carefully regulated by Sanderson-applied controls on Lightweavers for this particular reason (resonance phenomna).  Certain low frequency vibrations, if applied long enough (several minutes to several hours) can topple buildings; the crazy thing is that the energy output of the sustained vibration can be ludicrously small despite being even more effective than a single massive shockwave.

How they make or manipulate sound will have to be useful without being counter-intuitive or outrageously powerful.  For example, if Shallan could create/output/produce a sound (pressure wave) originating from any source of her choosing she could make it sound like shouting is coming from around a corner to create a distraction, but she could also blowout people's eardrums or explode their hearts/arteries by instead making the sound originate inside a person's head/chest, which would require trivial amounts of mechanical energy compared to kaladin's flying...If there's one thing this thread has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, it's that the ability to initiate or alter sound on any level or scale can quickly go from useful and interesting to needlessly powerful and undermining the plot very quickly if not handled expertly.  There's probably more room to be loose with the rules surrounding light creation/manipulation since its previously been established that the physics surrounding light in the Cosmere differ in key ways from those in our universe and electromagnetic theory took people on Earth a pretty long time to flesh out (and we didn't have the threat of demons crawling out of the ground.)

TLDR;

From what is currently known, Lightweavers have the potential to be outrageously powerful.  Studying physics is hard during an apocalypse, so crazy destructive light weapons based on advanced electromagnetic and field theory are probably a long long ways off (but who knows, it is Sanderson after all).

Edited by hwiles
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  • 2 weeks later...

All physics technobabble aside, both soulcasting and illusions would be very powerful if they're trained. Think about it. Jasnah was able to kill four thieves with Soulcasting, and Dalinar noted during one of his visions that "the danger to the Radiants was real." You could potentially Soulcast an army of Voidbringers into stone or crystal in a matter of seconds with enough Lightweavers. Unlike Windrunners, Lightweavers could stay back and Medusa the crap out of an army, and that's just one of their powers. Which brings me to their second Surge, Illumination. Creating illusions are obscenely powerful if you think about it. You could hide an entire battalion of Radiants be putting up a false shield, create a false army on the other side of the battlefield, and attack Voidbringers from their flank while they're wondering why their tasty Shardplate morsel is just refusing to be harmed in anyway. And speaking of hiding an entire battalion, they could effectively employ invisibility, only they couldn't move while shrouded by the illusion.

Lightwaves don't need lasers. They're powerful enough as it is.

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12 hours ago, Assassin in Burgundy said:

All physics technobabble aside, both soulcasting and illusions would be very powerful if they're trained. Think about it. Jasnah was able to kill four thieves with Soulcasting, and Dalinar noted during one of his visions that "the danger to the Radiants was real." You could potentially Soulcast an army of Voidbringers into stone or crystal in a matter of seconds with enough Lightweavers. Unlike Windrunners, Lightweavers could stay back and Medusa the crap out of an army, and that's just one of their powers. Which brings me to their second Surge, Illumination. Creating illusions are obscenely powerful if you think about it. You could hide an entire battalion of Radiants be putting up a false shield, create a false army on the other side of the battlefield, and attack Voidbringers from their flank while they're wondering why their tasty Shardplate morsel is just refusing to be harmed in anyway. And speaking of hiding an entire battalion, they could effectively employ invisibility, only they couldn't move while shrouded by the illusion.

Lightwaves don't need lasers. They're powerful enough as it is.

Just a few flaws in the rationale. First Voidbringers would be fill of investiture like the radiants. Investiture interferes with investiture so we are unsure if it is possible for a lightweaver or elsecaller to directly transform a voidbringer. Personally I think it would be more likely that they would set up fortifications, alter the battleground to benefit their side, or transform the air into various lethal results (toxic gas, huge chunks of stone to crush, etc), or transform the ground to mud/water to make troop movements problematic. Hiding an entire battalion of radiants could work depending on how you employ the illusion. If you put up a straight screen (ie like wallpaper in front of the army so it looks like the army isn't there), unless you include holes, you won't be able to see what the enemy is doing (as evidenced by Shallan hiding in that alley). Secondly, so far the extent of the invisibility we have seen is having the color of the body match the color of what is behind the person (shallan turning black to blend in with the shadow). This certainly can be employed for such a tactic, but is certainly not invisibility. It would act more like camouflage with all its benefits and limitations. The more people there are using camouflage, the less effective it is. 

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1 minute ago, Pathfinder said:

Just a few flaws in the rationale. First Voidbringers would be fill of investiture like the radiants. Investiture interferes with investiture so we are unsure if it is possible for a lightweaver or elsecaller to directly transform a voidbringer. Personally I think it would be more likely that they would set up fortifications, alter the battleground to benefit their side, or transform the air into various lethal results (toxic gas, huge chunks of stone to crush, etc), or transform the ground to mud/water to make troop movements problematic. Hiding an entire battalion of radiants could work depending on how you employ the illusion. If you put up a straight screen (ie like wallpaper in front of the army so it looks like the army isn't there), unless you include holes, you won't be able to see what the enemy is doing (as evidenced by Shallan hiding in that alley). Secondly, so far the extent of the invisibility we have seen is having the color of the body match the color of what is behind the person (shallan turning black to blend in with the shadow). This certainly can be employed for such a tactic, but is certainly not invisibility. It would act more like camouflage with all its benefits and limitations. The more people there are using camouflage, the less effective it is. 

True, I was being very optimistic about their powers. And you are correct that invisibility would be more like camouflage. I was thinking of when Shallan made an illusion around her of a rock to hide from the Ghostbloods, (may have just made that up, I can't remember). Still my views were probably not too realistic. Thanks for the feedback though!

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Just now, Assassin in Burgundy said:

True, I was being very optimistic about their powers. And you are correct that invisibility would be more like camouflage. I was thinking of when Shallan made an illusion around her of a rock to hide from the Ghostbloods, (may have just made that up, I can't remember). Still my views were probably not too realistic. Thanks for the feedback though!

No worries. You were recalling correctly about the rock, but that is where I mentioned you would need to include holes. Basically she put the image of the rock around her, but she could not see through her own illusion so had to guess if they had left. Later on in an alley, she puts the illusion of a wall in front of her, but leaves a peep hole, hoping they are not noticed so she could observe who was following her. 

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42 minutes ago, Pathfinder said:

No worries. You were recalling correctly about the rock, but that is where I mentioned you would need to include holes. Basically she put the image of the rock around her, but she could not see through her own illusion so had to guess if they had left. Later on in an alley, she puts the illusion of a wall in front of her, but leaves a peep hole, hoping they are not noticed so she could observe who was following her. 

That makes sense. Thanks

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