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How does investiture work?


Woefulleaf

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Sorry if this had already been asked but I was wondering if someone could explain the mechanics of investiture and how it connects the different magic systems. I have a very basic idea of it but not enough to make sense of half of what is said on here .

 

also, what is a lerasium? (Idk if that’s spelled wrong or not) 

 

IM SORRY IM NEW HERE

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Oh God...

Ok, short version on Investiture, without getting into the Three Realms and the nature of Reality in the Cosmere, is that Investiture is the magic 3rd form of Existence along side Matter and Energy.  All things that exist have some (to facilitate their existence itself), living things have more, and Sapient things like Humans have even more.  Most of the time that's pretty much it, but when there is some accumulation of Investiture (because a God/Shard lives on that world, for example) then strange and magical things happen, and "Investiture" is the magic pseudo-energy that makes it possible.  It either exists Infusing some existing matter (like a person or a metalmind) or is manifesting as "pure investiture" in one of the three traditional forms of matter.  For "because it's Cool" reasoning solids are almost always Metal, powerful but generally locked into a specific form and purpose; shardpools are the most powerful/versatile because they are dense liquid, and Mist, Breaths, and Stormlight are all Gaseous forms.  

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26 minutes ago, Woefulleaf said:

also, what is a lerasium?

Lerasium is a godmetal, a physical manifestation of pure Investiture from any of the Shards. Lerasium is from Leras, hence the name, who held Preservation for a very long time. If you haven't read Mistborn, don't click this:

Spoiler

Lerasium is what Vin forced Elend to eat in Well of Ascension after he was stabbed that turned him into a Mistborn. Similar beads as to what Elend ate were what Rashek bribed the forefathers of the nobility with that made Allomancy so common among the nobility.

Someone else is going to have to do the other bit.

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Welcome to the Shard!

1 hour ago, Woefulleaf said:

Sorry if this had already been asked but I was wondering if someone could explain the mechanics of investiture and how it connects the different magic systems. I have a very basic idea of it but not enough to make sense of half of what is said on here .

Investiture is a third state alongside matter and energy and is basically the energy that underlies all the different magic systems in the Cosmere and it transcends all three Realms (Physical, Cognitive and Spiritual). All Investiture in the Cosmere originally came from Adonalsium and after the Shattering, all of that Investiture got 'assigned' to one of the sixteen Shards. Brandon has likened this to the concept of spin in physics. Pure Investiture can take solid, liquid and gaseous forms. The first of these appear as the various godmetals (atium, lerasium, the Honor/Cultivation alloy that Shardblades are made of etc), the second is seen with the Perpendicularities (aka 'Shardpools' like the Well of Ascension) and the last includes Breath and Stormlight.

Direct access to Investiture is usually mediated by one of the Shards but there are indirect ways to make use of it as well, as seen on places like First of the Sun. Allomancy for example works by using metal as a key that draws Preservation's Investiture and tells it what you want it to do. The Dor is a mix of Devotion and Dominion's Investiture and all magic on Sel is essentially programing, telling that Investiture what you want it to do.

You can get all the details here:

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Investiture

Edited by Weltall
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Yeah, the short answer is that Investiture is the fuel for all of the different magic systems. It can have different flavors: breath, stormlight, etc. If you have read Wheel of Time it is kind of like the One Power.

If you have read all of the books already or don't care about spoilers I would definitely check out the coppermind article. It gives a technical and in-depth explanation of investiture and how it relates to shards, realms, and what not.

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So put simply, Investiture is the power that makes Shards Shards and fuels all magic in the cosmere. So everything magical, from stormlight to the mists to Breaths to perpendicularities to basically any magic is all Investiture, and it can be used in different ways for different feats. It also has effects on people who hold a lot of it, like how someone of the Tenth Heightening warps colors and can see and hear more clearly. I agree with all the explanations before this, as well.

Look forward to seeing you around the forums!

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