Surge obtaining

[The Unknown Order he/him]

Do lightweavers obtain Illumination before or after transformation? And do we know which oaths each happen at?

[AerionBFII he/him]

The only Lightweaver we see in any detail is Shallan, over the series she discovered her powers but was warned directly to not experiment with Transformation by Jasnah which would imply she has access to Transformation. I am fairly certain Lightweavers like all Surgebinders gains access to both access to both Surges at once, it is just that transformation was more difficult and dangerous to use. If you exclude her childhood experiences with Lightweaving I believe she soulcasts blood before consciously lightweaving. 
 

I think which ever Surge you manifest first is one you just have a natural affinity with, like how Mistborn generally have some metals they are better with. It's irritating because the KR we are familiar with were progressing on their own with no instruction, perhaps it is different from order to order with some wriggle room but I know Lightweavers have access to both. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by AerionBFII

[I think I am here. he/him]

I think there was a theory that Orders have a “primary” surge and a “secondary” surge (supported by the fact that Kal learns Adhesion before Gravitation and that Szeth learns Gravitation before Division when he becomes a Skybreaker) but I don’t think it was confirmed.

Obviously, Shallan learning Soulcasting before Illumination, which disputes that theory, though one could argue Illumination came far more naturally to her.

WOB:

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[Dustbringers] are one of the only orders where their abilities weren’t all available at the beginning, but instead were delivered slowly, as they made the proper oaths.

This seems to imply that for most orders, all of their abilities are available right at the start. I’m not sure if any more info exists on this topic.

Edited April 15, 2022 by I think I am here.

[Dunkum he/him]

To be clear on what oath they learn things at: Skybreakers specifically do learn Gravitation before Division.  Nalan explains that to Szeth during his testing - I want to say that get Division after the second oath, but I would need to double check that. for the rest - Kaladin was doing both his surges on the first oath, so at the very least there is no oath-based barrier for that. We see the same or Lift, doing both progression and friction on oath 1. We mostly have Shallan as an example for Lightweavers, but she is very much a special case.

[Elegy he/him]

1 hour ago, I think I am here. said:

I think there was a theory that Orders have a “primary” surge and a “secondary” surge (supported by the fact that Kal learns Adhesion before Gravitation and that Szeth learns Gravitation before Division when he becomes a Skybreaker) but I don’t think it was confirmed.

Obviously, Shallan learning Soulcasting before Illumination, which disputes that theory, though one could argue Illumination came far more naturally to her.

WOB:

This seems to imply that for most orders, all of their abilities are available right at the start. I’m not sure if any more info exists on this topic.

Brandon has confirmed that there isn't a strict "primary" Surge - the tendency that the clock-wise Surge is often the first to be shown in the story is real and intentional, but it has writing reasons and only "a little bit of an in-world reason":

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Overlord Jebus

So I've noticed a pattern in the way that the Radiants learn their surges. They seem to learn their anti-clockwise surge before their clockwise surge?

Brandon Sanderson

They do.

Overlord Jebus

Excellent, everyone thought I was a crazy person!

Brandon Sanderson

They do tend to-- Now, I'm gonna give you some behind the sausage stuff on that. That is partially for writing expediency reasons.

Overlord Jebus

How do you mean?

Brandon Sanderson

I designed that partially because I didn't want to overwhelm people with too many magic systems at once so I came up with a little bit of a pattern so that I could have a little bit of an in-world reason why we were slowing that down. It's not a hard fast rule, it's something that I've kept to in order to not overwhelm readers so it's more of form following function than the other way around.

Oathbringer London signing (Nov. 28, 2017)