5. Truths and Secrets; Of Watching and Taking

[+asmodeus]

Table of Contents: 
4. Some curious parallels between Moelach, the Silent Gatherers, and Edgedancers
5. Truths and Secrets; Of Watching and Taking
3, 9. Ashertmarn and Nergaoul
1. Moash, Ba-Ado-Mishram and the Windrunners

I’ll be using the same general template for this as I did for Moelach. Here, I'm comparing Sja-anat with the Truthwatcher concept.

Parallel 1: By Inversion of Ideals
Ideals Unknown.

Parallel 2: By Inversion of Attributes
Truthwatcher attributes: Learned, Giving
Thematic Inversion:        some generalisation of the Taker of Secrets
In comparing the Edgedancers and the Silent Gatherers, the idea they both share is this idea of the medicine man, the quintessential “Healer.” Edgedancers are the positive Healer concept, the doctors of society, who seek to help and truly “care” for their patients. Medicine men that heal ailments. The Silent Gatherers are the dark version of this idea, the dark side of medicine. Their “patients” are their guinea pigs, sacrificed for the greater good of society. Conceptually/Thematically, they kind of represent those that experiment and test on whoever they can, arguing that the suffering they cause will help millions more.

Here, with the Truthwatchers, I think the focus is very much on knowledge and secrets, Learning in the most literal sense. I speculate that the Truthwatcher element represents the teachers of society - The ideal, good take on that idea are the teachers that seek truth and teach it selflessly, seek to enable you, giving you a chance to better and improve yourself. The dark take on that idea is the corrupt teacher - someone who takes the chance to be you from yourself, selfishly corrupting/subverting your truths into whatever suits them.

Combine Progression and Illumination, and you get some form of "Learned". Add Honor and Cultivation to that Learned, and you get "Giving" - someone selflessly enabling of others to better themselves. Add Odium to the Learned however, and you get "Taking" - someone selfishly disabling of others' own identities, someone who if corrupting of others to his/her own ends.

Parallel 3: By Surges
Truthwatcher Surges: Progression, Illumination
Sja-anat’s only known ability so far is Enlightening. It is implied that this is what she uses to corrupt. Now, I’m not saying this matters, but as far as obvious things go, it’s En-light-ening. (Sorry :p)

Enlightening
Here’s what Merriam Webster has to say about Enlightening, the word:
    :   providing or tending to provide knowledge, understanding, or insight

Here’s what googling it brings up:
    1:   give (someone) greater knowledge and understanding about a subject or situation.
       a:   "give (someone) spiritual knowledge or insight.
       b:   shed light on (an object).
 
Here’s what Enlightened means, to Merriam Webster:
    1:   freed from ignorance and misinformation
    2:   based on full comprehension of the problems involved
 
Illumination
In contrast, here’s what Merriam Webster has to say about Illumination:
    1:   the action of illuminating or state of being illuminated: such as
       a:   spiritual or intellectual enlightenment
       b  (1):   a lighting up
       b  (2):   decorative lighting or lighting effects
       c:   decoration by the art of illuminating
    2:   the luminous flux per unit area on an intercepting surface at any given point
    3:   one of the decorative features used in the art of illuminating or in decorative lighting

Here’s Google’s definition of Illumination, from Oxford:
    1:   Lighting or light.
       a:   (often illuminations) A display of lights on a building or other structure.
    2:   The art of illuminating a manuscript.
    3:   Clarification.
       a:   Spiritual or intellectual enlightenment.
    4:   another term for illuminance

So... yeah. I don’t think I have to do too much work on tying Enlightening to Illumination. Not Physical Illumination, as in the manipulation of light, but something more Cognitive, or potentially Spiritual, like how Adhesion is more than just Pressure and Vacuum. Here, it’s about understanding.

Spoiler

Now, “Enlightening” having an “Illumination” component doesn’t on it’s own mean that Sja-anat has to associate with the Truthwatchers. Her Enlightening, or corruption, could be Illumination + Transformation. Originally, I did, in fact, attribute Enlightening to some form of Voidish Transformation. But... Re-shephir exists, and even if I have zero clue how she uses Transformation, she needs it thematically, for very much the same reasons why Lightweavers need it.

Progression. 
Here’s what Nohadon has to say about the nature of existence in all three realms:

Quote

“All things exist in three realms, Dalinar,” Nohadon said. “The Physical: what you are now. The Cognitive: what you see yourself as being. The Spiritual: the perfect you, the person beyond pain, and error, and uncertainty.”

As far as I understand it, the mechanic behind Progression seems to be dealing with ideals. You have a platonic ideal, which is your true Spiritual ideal. But, this is not the only factor, as Kaladin’s slave brands are arguably more a part of his cognitive, deeply subconscious image of himself as opposed to a part of his Spiritual self. The spiritual provides a ground truth, and the cognitive can, within reason, shape that ground truth to create a truth for you at any given moment - and this truth is what Progression actually uses as reference when healing you.

Another factor is this WoB. There, Brandon pretty clearly states that in most cosmere healing, including Progression based healing, when the healer and healed are two separate people, then both their perceptions matter in shaping the truth/ideal that the magic will use as reference.

The Point.
Sheesh, that took some setup. The idea is that Sja-anat’s Enlightening could be a twisted version of Progression-based healing magic. The sequence is simple - if you are Sja-anat, then some use of Illumination could be used to “enlighten” your target to your version of their Truth, your version of their perceived ideal self. Then, it’s a simple matter of using Progression to “heal” them to this new twisted ideal of themselves. The fact that for such healing both perceptions matter probably also helps in “overpowering” the old ideal of whatever you are Enlightening.

Spoiler

As an aside, I suspect that the Fused that can change the shape of their body at will are using an application of Progression too. They’ve mastered the mental gymnastics needed to truly believe your body shape should be different, in a somewhat similar vein to how this works for the Returned. So long as you’re within reason, you should then be able to use Progression’s Growth/Regrowth to “heal” yourself to your new body shape. Singer bodies being so mutable already in their various forms, and the minds of the Fused being millenia old varyingly insane Cognitive Shadows separate from the body, and with significant experience in using their Surges probably makes this easier.

I ended up getting into more specific mechanics than I wanted to get into. Oops.

Parallel 4: Names, Attributes, Abilities, and Trends
First, Order names. Every Order name, for the Orders we know about in any detail, is evocative of what the surgebinders of that order can do with the magic they have. These are not realmatically accurate images - the name “Windrunners” doesn’t give us the mechanics of how the Windrunners actually fly, but it still evokes the idea that Radiants of this Order specialise in “running on the wind.” Similarly, the name “Lightweavers” neither tells us how light is woven realmatically, nor does it give us the specifics of their abilities - but it does evoke the idea that Radiants of the Order of Lightweavers specialise in weaving light with the magic they have. Similarly, Bondsmiths forge bonds. 

Truthwatchers? They watch truth. They see.

Second, attributes. The attributes associated with any given Order are something more… innate. They describe characteristics of Surgebinders of the associated “Radiant element” categorically. Radiants that attract and bond Honorspren are categorically natural Leaders, and they are driven by a desire to Protect those around them. Radiants that attract and bond Cryptics are categorically Creative, and they have to be Honest with themselves about who/what they are. I believe this has realmatic basis in the living ideas that those spren represent, but I’ll leave that discussion for either the comments, or another post.

With this in mind, the Truthwatchers have semantic dissonance between what they are implied to do with their magic, and what their attributes paint them as being. Does a Truthwatcher watch Truth (knowledge goes in to the Truthwatcher from outside him)? Or give it (knowledge goes out from the Truthwatcher to others)? How does this relate to that passage about them from the in-world WoR? This carries on to Sja-anat too. She is the Taker of Secrets (knowledge goes in to her from others). Yet Enlightening means to show someone a Truth (knowledge goes out from her to others).

By meaning, “Enlightening” has an inverse thematic parallel to the implied meaning of the double word “Truthwatcher” - “Showing Truth” vs “Watching Truth.” Similarly, the implied nature of Sja-anat by her epithet (or name) is a thematic inversion of the implied nature of the Truthwatchers by their attributes - “Taker of Secrets” vs “Learned and Giving.”

Moreover, Sja-anat’s epithet - the Taker of Secrets, is like a different version of what the name “Truthwatcher” implies. Taking truths, vs Watching them. Both are about the magic user learning truths from outside. Similarly, Enlightening is like what the Truthwatcher attributes imply they are like - “Showing Truth” is very much like a Learned person Giving back to society. Both imply that the user brings truths to others.

This particular fact may be important in Renarin’s case, who, when using his healing capabilities on at least one occasion, has shown Adolin a perfected version of himself, his true spiritual self. (yay for confusing pronouns. The last "himself" and "his" refer to Adolin here).

The elephant in the room then, is Renarin’s visions. I have a theory on what’s happening there, and it does have something to do with a corrupted Glys. But I don’t think it has anything to do with Truthwatchering, at least nothing that will be available to others. I think what’s happening there is that whatever ailed Renarin before, and gave him his fits originally, was something realmatic that manifested in all three aspects of him. With his bond to Glys, now it has changed to what it is now - specifically the futuresight visions. I don’t think any other Truthwatchers, uncorrupted or otherwise, are going to get that, unless they were suffering from the same “illness” that Renarin was.

And with that I’m finally done. This was probably the longest one of these.
 

Edited February 15, 2020 by asmodeus

[Honorless]

The linguistic connections alone show a thematic relationship between the two, I'm all for it! 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Honorless