[OB] Lift's capabilities

[Faceless Mist-Wraith]

During the final battle, Dalinar uses his new Bondsmith power to charge all of the nearby spheres, which is what allows all of the Radiants to use their powers constantly. But even after Dalinar does this, Lift still asks him where the food stores are, since she gets stormlight from food. My question is: Can Lift breath in stormlight normally? She has to know that it's a thing. She's seen several Radiants do it, including Darkness, so she should definitely know that people with surge binding can breathe in stormlight. But she still seems to only access via food. Is there a reason for this or is Lift not putting 2 and 2 together?

[A Dopey Spren]

There's a WoB somewhere (can't find it) stating that she can't breathe in Stormlight. I believe this is from when she went to the Nightwatcher. She's also partially in the cognitive realm and thus she can physically interact with her Spren, Wyndle.

[BeskarKomrk]

See here: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/32-arcanum-unbounded-fort-collins-signing/#e8073

She can only get Stormlight from food.

[aemetha]

There's a lot we don't know about what Lift can do, here's a summary of what we do know.

The basics:

• Lift can convert glucose into stormlight. The more carbohydrates in the food, the better she can convert it. Bread is better than sausages for example.
• Lift exists partly in the cognitive realm. This allows her to do some wierd stuff, like touching Wyndle as if he were more substantive in the physical realm than he is, and walking into the visions of Dalinar from the stormfather.
• Lift cannot breath in stormlight as other radiants do.

Lifts method of gaining stormlight has some advantages and disadvantages:

• She cannot immediately access stormlight, it takes about 5 minutes for the fastest food to convert to stormlight, which is an accelerated metabolism.
• Lift has some limited capacity to store stormlight, which is much longer than what other radiants can. Other radiants can hold their stormlight for approximately the equivalent length of time a person can hold their breath. Lift can keep her stormlight in her for up to half a day.

Much of the specifics of how Lift gains stormlight is discussed here: 

Fun fact: Lift is the illigitimate love child of Cultivation and a previously unseen shard called Rambunctious (not really, I made that bit up).

[Willshaping Crasher]

I think the most likely answer is that Lift has a parent from Scadrial.  It has been posted here before and I think, dismissed unfairly.  There are a number of ways in which this could happen with worldhopping.

[aemetha]

Nothing unfair about dismissing that at all. It's easily debunked as the reason she gets stormlight from eating:

1) Allomancers burn metals as a focus for their allomancy. The metal is not the fuel, it is the focus. The fuel is investiture, such as in the mists.

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mooglefrooglian

My question is, what 'causes' an effect in the end for Allomancy? You've got Investiture being filtered through a metal, but does putting it through the metal turn the Investiture cause a Steelpush, or is it putting the Investiture through your soul that causes it? At what point do you turn Preservation's Investiture into a Steelpush, or is there no one 'point' where it happens?

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, imagine you've got one of those play-dough machines you can stuff with dough, then press a handle on the top to make a little snake-like tube of play-dough squirt out.

Those have appendages you can affix to the front to change the shape of the tube that comes out. The metals are the appendage that determines the shape of the power released, but only certain souls can unlock those metals and use them.

2) Stormlight is not the focus, it is the fuel - investiture. Stormlight and the mists are analogous.

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youshallnotpass

Can stormlight be used to fuel allomancy like the mist in the mistborn trilogy? Is stormlight therefore a manifestation of honour?

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible.

3) Lift does not burn metal, she metabolises carbohydrates into stormlight. Metal contains no carbohydrates and so cannot be used to metabolise into stormlight.

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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. So if she eats--

Brandon Sanderson

She's got to have a blood sugar spike.

Argent

So if she eats like a cake it will give her more Investiture--

Brandon Sanderson

Faster. It will give her faster.

Argent

Whereas if she eats a vegetable...

Brandon Sanderson

Vegetable... More calories is going to equal more. But the better comparison would be a sausage and bread. Because bread is a fast blood sugar spike and the sausage is not. And that's how I'm working in my head. It's kind of a magical version of a blood sugar spike and I have it happen to her faster than it could happen. Like normally you eat a piece of bread and your blood sugar spikes in a half hour, it's going to go faster for Lift.

Argent

Hers is like five minutes.

Brandon Sanderson

Hers is like five minutes, but a sausage would be slower.

So what you have with allomancy, is someone channelling investiture (the mists) through a focus (the burning metal) to create a particular effect. What you have with surgebinding is someone channelling investiture (stormlight) into their surge (maybe spren are a focus there, as far as I know that's never been settled) to create a particular effect. What lift is doing is acquiring the investiture from a different source (carbohydrates in food instead of breathing stormlight from gems or highstorms), which is quite different from changing the focus. The focus is more about how the magic is manifested than how the magic is powered.

I'm sure @Calderis could explain that better than I have.

[Willshaping Crasher]

15 minutes ago, aemetha said:

1) Allomancers burn metals as a focus for their allomancy. The metal is not the fuel, it is the focus. The fuel is investiture, such as in the mists.

The metal is burned away as a "focus". Much as Lift's carbohydrates are burned away, as a "focus".  There are two possibilities here:

1. The planet on which she "snapped" is not Scadrial and therefore the focus is different.

2. This is her Boon/Bane from the Nightwatcher/Cultivation

21 minutes ago, aemetha said:

2) Stormlight is not the focus, it is the fuel - investiture. Stormlight and the mists are analogous.

  I am not disputing the type of fuel. It is clear from BS that Vasher/Zahel can get the investiture he needs from stormlight rather than consuming breaths.  Therefore I see no reason to debate the fuel.

27 minutes ago, aemetha said:

3) Lift does not burn metal, she metabolises carbohydrates into stormlight. Metal contains no carbohydrates and so cannot be used to metabolise into stormlight.

I refer back to point 1.

[aemetha]

If Lift has the ability to use sugar as a focus for stormlight, why would she need to have a spren in order to access her surge? She could just do it without a nahel bond at all since she already has a perfectly adequate way to channel the investiture.

She does have and need a spren though, so she doesn't use sugar as a focus, she converts sugar into investiture instead of breathing it in, as is specifically stated in the third WoB I posted.

Just in case it isn't completely debunked now though, here is another WoB (emphasis mine).

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CCQ

Also, what did Lift get? If she didn't stop aging, what did she get? Read and find out?

Brandon Sanderson

Read and find out. It involves the way that she's getting Stormlight.

So the way she gets stormlight is a consequence of her visit to the Nightwatcher. Lift could very well have a parent from Scadrial, but it wouldn't change the fact that her ability to access stormlight the way she does was bestowed on her when she visited the Nightwatcher, not as an inheritance from her parentage.

[Willshaping Crasher]

4 minutes ago, aemetha said:

So the way she gets stormlight is a consequence of her visit to the Nightwatcher. Lift could very well have a parent from Scadrial, but it wouldn't change the fact that her ability to access stormlight the way she does was bestowed on her when she visited the Nightwatcher, not as an inheritance from her parentage.

Actually, I believe this supports my point.  Lets say she is a Seeker (because I think she is but let's not get into that right now).  She snaps upon the death of her mother.  If anyone on Roshar had suggested "swallow some bronze", she may have discovered something.  However, of course, they don't.  She goes to the Nightwatcher, Cultivation appears and "prunes" what she can to work within surgebinding.  We suddenly have someone with Scadrian sDNA shunted into surgebinding.  Wyndle (a "Cultivation" spren) is sent to her.  I don't see how this is debunked in any way.

[Calderis]

@Willshaping Crasher Allomancy works the same Cosmere wide. If one of her parents were Scadrian, and she inherited the ability and snapped, it would make her an allomancer.

Her Stormlight abilities are due to her trip to the Nightwatcher. 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Calderis

[NotBurtReynolds]

So my question is this; so we have post-Nightwatcher visit Lift who is infused with stormlight every time she eats...How does this affect her growth? If she is indeed older than she appears, could constant infusions of stormlight explain it? Say Lift asks to never change(or the like) and the Nightwatcher gives her the boon of metabolizing food into stormlight, giving her a steady stream of SL whether she wants it or not, which in turn drastically alters the rate at which her cells age.  I'm not positing anything, I'm just not sure what the effect would be. I know BS has said that the KR didn't live crazy long lives or anything, but do we have any ideas on what the aging consequences would be if you had a steady stream of stormlight in you through adolescence(along with existing partially in the Cognitive Realm;)?

[Duke of Lizards]

12 hours ago, Willshaping Crasher said:

I think the most likely answer is that Lift has a parent from Scadrial.  It has been posted here before and I think, dismissed unfairly.  There are a number of ways in which this could happen with worldhopping.

Whaaaat?!  Please elaborate.  Or point me to that discussion.  I'm intrigued.  

 

PLEASE DISREGARD.  I SHOULD HAVE KEPT READING THIS THREAD.  Cooool!

Edited December 20, 2017 by Duke of Lizards
Got too excited.

[aemetha]

54 minutes ago, NotBurtReynolds said:

I know BS has said that the KR didn't live crazy long lives or anything, but do we have any ideas on what the aging consequences would be if you had a steady stream of stormlight in you through adolescence(along with existing partially in the Cognitive Realm;)?

Lift herself has said she is ten, and has been ten for three years. That would, by our years, make her about 14 years old. She has also hit certain developmental milestones that occur in female adolescence. Based on that, it doesn't appear that she is ageing unusually slowly. The main implication of the infusion of stormlight is likely to be on her health. She is less likely to become ill.

Also, bear in mind, she isn't infused with stormlight every time she eats, or rather, she doesn't convert all of her glucose to stormlight every time she eats. If this were the case she would suffer hypoglycemia and neural damage. The brain cannot function without glucose (the body can exist on protein, but the brain requires glucose). Wyndle supports the fact that there is a level of conscious control in what she does when expresses concern that she was doing it too much.

[Willshaping Crasher]

12 hours ago, Calderis said:

Allomancy works the same Cosmere wide. If one of her parents were Scadrian, and she inherited the ability and snapped, it would make her an allomancer.

Her Stormlight abilities are due to her trip to the Nightwatcher. 

I am not arguing that she was not an allomancer.  I am saying she was pruned in her visit to the Nightwatcher/cultivation.  Basically her ability to burn a metal was pruned and "regrown" to an ability to burn food. Then the "spiritual extension cord" was unplugged from Preservation and plugged into Honor.