awakening Can an Awakener...

[Honorless]

Can an Awakener use colour from a person's eyes to fuel an Awakening? How powerful or skilled would an Awakener need to be in order to achieve this? Would people with grey eyes be immune?

 

We know that an Awakener can use colour from gemstones

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zas678

If an Awakener went to Roshar and bled color from a gem, would this gem still hold Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson

If an Awakener bled-- No it would-- Oh wait yes it would because a colorless gem could still hold Stormlight. It just would not have--

zas678

Would not have the properties of the original color.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, the color is integral to what's going on because molecularly some of these gems are the same except for the different coloring. The coloring is kind of what--

zas678

What defines what magic.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. It has to with fabrials and some of the effects, and that relates directly to the spren and what spren-- anyway.

Holiday signing (Dec. 12, 2015)

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Questioner

If an Awakener were to go to Roshar and were to bleed the color from a gem would that gem still be able to store Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson

Bleed the color from a gem… Um ye-ye-ye-yeah. This would interfere with its function on Roshar. It would probably still be able to hold Stormlight…

Questioner

Might not be able to be used for Soulcasting?

Brandon Sanderson

Yea-- It's going to… You know what no it would just change it. It would just bleed the color from it and turn it into a dusty quartz or something like that. That's probably what it would end up with, a dusty quartz. Because the molecular structure doesn't matter as much as the color for Roshar. So yeah you would probably still be able to hold Stormlight because a diamond can but I don't know, quartz might cut it. You'd probably end up with something that's not going to work so well.

Questioner

What about a fabrial that needs a specific--

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah a specific-- A ruby wouldn't work any more, and it would let go whatever is captured inside.

Bands of Mourning release party (Jan. 25, 2016)

What about smokestone (smoky quartz)? Awakening bleaches colours to grey, can it draw colour from a grey gemstone?

[Karger]

2 hours ago, Honorless said:

What about smokestone (smoky quartz)? Awakening bleaches colours to grey, can it draw colour from a grey gemstone?

I would say not usually.  Idrian customs about wearing dull colors are not completely silly.

2 hours ago, Honorless said:

Can an Awakener use colour from a person's eyes to fuel an Awakening? How powerful or skilled would an Awakener need to be in order to achieve this? Would people with grey eyes be immune?

Nightblood kind of does this when no real fuel is available.  He leaches it out of a person's arm.

[Dunkum]

3 hours ago, Honorless said:

What about smokestone (smoky quartz)? Awakening bleaches colours to grey, can it draw colour from a grey gemstone?

Someone with a lot of breaths probably could.  the godking was able to bleach colors all the way to white when he did his awakening at the end of warbreaker, but you need to be like 7th or 8th heightnening for that i think.  maybe higher; I'd have to double check the chart

[GoWibble]

The awakening seems to draw color (no u ) from organic but dead things. I'm not sure how eye color changes if at all (before they decompose) after the person dies. 
 

I do not think that you can make someone a lighteyes simply by bleeding color from their Ash's storming eyes 

[Quantus]

3 hours ago, Honorless said:

What about smokestone (smoky quartz)? Awakening bleaches colours to grey, can it draw colour from a grey gemstone?

There is another relevant WOB that came just after the "Dusty Quartz" one at that particular event:

 

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Questioner

What would happen if somebody used the color from a Stormlight-infused gem to create a BioChromatic entity?

Brandon Sanderson

So I just had this question actually and what we came up with was that would leave behind something that is like a cloudy quartz and is going to make it work not as well for holding Stormlight. That's our answer right now, I'm going to talk to my scientists and see what they think because draining the color from something doesn't just leave it white, or clear, it kind of ruins it, it's gray-ish, it's dun. It clouds. So I think it would ruin things for Stormlight.

Bands of Mourning release party (Jan. 25, 2016)

 

 

So, the Smokestones used as Gems are clear smokestones, but using the color for awakening would cloud it up, making it useless for stormlight.  

As to Draining Color from grey things, that's a known ability granted by the 10th Heightening, part of "Perfect Invocation".  That being said, there's some amount of wonkiness involved.  Specifically, he's said that an object whihc has been drained to White by Perfect Invocation cannot then be drained down to Grey by another awakener the way a normal White object could be, however he's said the reasons get into why color is important whihc h'll get into in a coming story (Im guessing the Warbreaker sequel) and so he's RAFO'd it for now.

 

 

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xnkvbo

If an Awakener with Perfect Invocation turns something white, can they or another Awakener then use the white thing back to gray, back to white.

Brandon Sanderson

I actually thought about this. My answer ended up being a no.

xnkvbo

Can you give a little explanation why?

Brandon Sanderson

I will delve into it more as I delve into the nature of color and why it's relevant to multiple magics in the cosmere. So it's a RAFO.

Skyward San Francisco signing (Nov. 8, 2018)

 

 

[Honorless]

1 hour ago, GoWibble said:

The awakening seems to draw color (no u ) from organic but dead things. I'm not sure how eye color changes if at all (before they decompose) after the person dies. 
 

I do not think that you can make someone a lighteyes simply by bleeding color from their Ash's storming eyes 

We've seen Nightblood and Vivenna's sword bleach a person's colour but of course, that is debatable as evidence for this topic. I think an Awakener can do this, needing both skill with Commands and being at least of the 6th Heightening, perhaps.

I wasn't thinking of turning a person lighteyes but wouldn't a person with clear grey eyes be considered a lighteyes on Roshar? I was thinking if a powerful Awakener might be able to drain a Rosharan lighteyes' eye colour from their blues and yellows and violets to grey.

[RShara]

I don't think an Awakener can pull color from a living thing like that. At least, not unless they're crazy skilled with a crazy amount of Breath. We've seen that living things resist the color draining properties of Awakening.

[Quantus]

2 hours ago, RShara said:

I don't think an Awakener can pull color from a living thing like that. At least, not unless they're crazy skilled with a crazy amount of Breath. We've seen that living things resist the color draining properties of Awakening.

In at least one case they are able to use themselves for color (not sure if it's form blood or skin or the color of their kidneys):

 

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Chaos

Why does giving your Breath to another person not require color? Every other Command does.

Brandon Sanderson

I thought I answered this in the book. You use your own color.

/r/fantasy AMA 2013 (April 15, 2013)

 

 

Fun Fact I just ran across:  Awakening will drain colors outside the visible spectrum

 

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Argent

Does Awakening drain colors outside the visible spectrum?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes it does. You're talking about ultraviolet and infrared? Yeah.

JordanCon 2018 (April 22, 2018)

 

 

 

[Honorless]

@Ookla the Ingeniator, so you're saying that draining colour from someone's eyes would require an unspecified amount of skill and/or power but should be possible. And the dull grey color left behind after an Awakening is a specific hue so draining color from smokestone should be possible. Did I get that right?

[Quantus]

2 hours ago, Honorless said:

@Ookla the Ingeniator, so you're saying that draining colour from someone's eyes would require an unspecified amount of skill and/or power but should be possible. 

Id say so yes, but I think we'd be talking about overcoming the innate Investiture of a person, so it would be comparable to trying to Steel-push metal inside somebody.  It's going to take a boatload of investiture, to the point where it might be prohibitive without serious shenanigans.  I think it would be significantly easier to drain your own, however.  

2 hours ago, Honorless said:

And the dull grey color left behind after an Awakening is a specific hue so draining color from smokestone should be possible. Did I get that right?

Agreed, though if Im remembering Warbreaker correctly some colors provide more fuel than others so a smokestone and diamond (as a prism if nothing else?) might be poor sources if still technically possible.  Once a Gem is drained, it goes cloudy, which I suppose is consistent with the idea that it would affect a prism or light-bulb rather than the projected light.