Feurchemical Savantism +

[Elsecaller_17.5 he/him]

It's been forever since I last posted, but let's go. An extension of a previous post a made way back when, now with new arguments!

So, feurchemical savatism. Impossible right? Savantism occurs when the spiritweb is overloaded with investure and feurchemy only gives you back investure you naturally had (less even because of the diminishing return problem) so theres no way to become a savant. Wrong.

There is a mechanic that allows the spiritweb to be overloaded with feurchemical investure and we are actually introduced to it all the way make in TFE. Compounding.

No before I go forward I want to state why I think this is true. Because it makes sense. Savantism is a cosmere constant. Its seen (minor SA)

Spoiler

all the way over in Roshar with soulcasters eventually turning into their essence

The overload of power results in savantism.

I would posit we have actually seen two feurchemical savants. TLR and Miles. I'll go over Miles first. Savantism has a give and take. In our one canonical metalborn example of savantism, Spook, we see the benefit of huge increased power and the detriment of absolute reliance. Miles we see the same thing. He uses so much but never once do we see him consume gold with the express purpose of compounding. This could be an oversight, but I suspect he is just hugely efficient. His savantism allows much more power output than Sazed's x10 prediction. He also doesn't feel pain which I could argue equally is a benefit and detriment. I believe Wax says at one point (correct me if I'm wrong) that he would also just drop dead if he ever stopped tapping. Certainly a detriment. Above all else though I propose his main detriment is is delusion. Even when stripped of all his metalminds he truly believes he is invincible. Miles is anything but stupid; I don't believe he would think that without a magical effect.

TLR is next. He is theoretically a savant x33. Every power plus Atium. But it is atium savantism, if I am correct, that he definitely has. He has to do it constantly for 1000 years and every year he has to dedicate more than before. I don't think it would be possible for him to maintain without increased efficiency from savantism. Much like Miles I believe his detriment is his delusion of immortality. The man is a genius (likely due to his compounded memory and mental speed). He shouldn't have fallen into so simple a trap of being taken out by the very power who made him who he was. Investure induced madness is where he fell.

So what are your thoughts?

Edited August 23, 2022 by Elsecaller_17.5

[The Bookwyrm he/him]

Now that I look at it and think about it, this makes perfect sense.

Compounding is nothing but an overload of an ability that should be impossible to overload, and so it should make sense that those that depend on it gain a reliance on it in the same way an allomantic savant does. Their spiritwebs are definitely overloaded with those kinds of investiture, and the symptoms you're describing perfectly fit with what we know about savants.

I'm pretty sure you've hit the mark dead on here. Really good theory!

[Trusk'our he/him]

It has been confirmed via WoB that savantism leads to a greater degree of efficiency in Investiture use. This is due to the individual becoming closer to the Spiritual realm, most likely.

As a side note, I would venture to say that coming closer to the Spiritual realm is also the result of a Radiant swearing further oaths, which causes them to become more efficient with their Investiture, but it could also just have something else to do with their strengthened Nehel Bond.

[Some Random Spren he/him]

I definitely think that compounding causes savantism, however: miles' immunity to pain is somewhat seen in wayne as well, so that could just as easily be a psychological thing due to how much bloodmakers get hurt and how badly they get hurt. as grim as it sounds, they probably get somewhat used to pain after a while.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Some Random Spren
corrected punctuation