Stormlight, Nahel Bonds, Ascension, and the Mist

[Swimmingly he/him]

During Vin's ascension, we see a remarkable enhancement of her Allomantic abilities, to the point that she wields and surpasses Surgebinder-esque levels of Investiture. Her Allomantic Pewter acts much as Stormlight does, healing her broken limbs and giving her incredible speed, and she slams about chunks of metal with more power than Szeth on a killing spree. She breaths in the gaseous Investiture like Stormlight, and, indeed, wisps of it begin to puff out of her skin.

 

I'm theorizing here that what we're actually seeing is what happens with Surgebinders on a much larger scale. This is possible because the Shard is still intact, but, with Honor dead and shattered, fragments of him attempt to complete a mini-Ascension with an individual with a Cognitive aspect matching certain bits of Honor or Cultivation's Intent. Because those fragments are Splinters, not Shards, they are already partially sentient, but the Nahel bond fulfils the same purpose as a Shardholder, giving greater sentience and direction while slowly being subsumed by the Splinter's Intent. Interesting to note is that we also see a parallel in terms of the alien Investiture prevent use of the gaseous Investiture - Kaladin is immune to the Thrill, but when he does things out of hatred or a similar emotion (Odium's territory and possibly the method by which he influences people), he loses the ability to absorb Stormlight without conscious and painful effort from Syl. Vin cannot begin her Ascension until she loses the Hemalurgic spike in her.

 

In conclusion, Surgebinding is simply the process of Ascension carried through a shattered Shard. It can be interfered with by alien Investiture, similar to the blocks on Vin's Ascension. If this is true, it also suggests that Stormlight is purely of Honor, which is interesting in itself.

[Shadowspren he/him]

That makes sense and is really interesting... would that also explain why there are different groups of Knights Radiant, because they each gain an ability that Honor would have had, only on a smaller scale. Like seeing the future to a degree, and being able to move between realms (since every shard can take either of the three forms) as we assume and they can but also shown by Sazed after he becomes Harmony and is able to tell Spook about Vin and Elend (who had both just died) 

Also I really like the link to Mistborn, I never thought about that but it seems more than plausible that you are right

 

But do the different shards have different ways choosing or rather allowing someone to ascend to hold the shard? On Roshar they have to make an oath, and if they break their oath -as said before- they lose their Honor and therefore their ability to absorb stormlight...

 

On Scadrial however, It makes sense that Vin could do it because she was a Mistborn which is of preservation. But if Feruchemy is of both Ruin and preservation then how could Sazed Ascend...? would that be considered as foreign investiture? Thoughts anyone...?

Edited June 25, 2014 by Zaci-chan

[Swimmingly he/him]

Well, I don't know if Innate Investiture is what interferes. So far, it's just been direct and ongoing interaction with an aspect controlled by an opposite Shard that halts an Ascension. Sazed had no Hemalurgic spikes, and neither was he burning metals. All his power was keyed to himself, not to one Shard or another, and so accessing it during the Ascension (the copperminds) did not drive out Ruin or Preservation's Investiture. Besides, his was something of a special case, as I suppose that the vast amounts of opposing Investiture rushing into him at the same time were doing something different than the previous Ascension, which was a calculated act by Preservation.

[Bloodfalcon he/him]

Brandon has commented on the similarity between Stormlight and Mistborn before and it gave me the feeling that the two were far more similar than we typically consider them, so I bet this is on the right track. I just saw one of the quotes yesterday - I'll try to go back and find it - but the similarity felt significant. It might have had to do with Elantris as well.....

[Moogle]

The Mist is a gaseous form of Investiture, much like Stormlight and Breath. I'd agree that Vin's use of the Mist is the same as taking in Stormlight, but I'd disagree that an opposing Investiture can make you unable to Ascend. The reason Kaladin loses his ability to use Stormlight is because he's breaking his spren bond, which makes it so he no longer is 'keyed' to Stormlight. Vin had to use the Well to 'key' her to the Mists in a similar manner. I believe we have a WoB that just about anyone can take up a Shard, too.

 

I'd agree that if you could hold all the Stormlight there ever was, you'd probably Ascend, but I'd also argue that it's more likely you'd die before you could ever manage it. Stormlight is more dangerous than the Mists, as the Mists have an Intent which is designed to 'save' you from a lot of their power. Kaladin and Szeth both feeling like exploding on a few occasions, and they're holding comparatively little Investiture compared to Vin.

 

I also doubt that Stormlight is just Honor's Investiture. The highstorms (and Stormfather) existed pre-humanity on Roshar, which suggests Stormlight is actually of Adonalsium, or else some sort of mix of H+C+O. (Given that we have blue for H, green for C, and red for O, if Stormlight is composed of all three, we could easily see it being white.)

[WeiryWriter he/him]

The highstorms (and Stormfather) existed pre-humanity on Roshar

 

Where are you getting the Stormfather existing pre-humanity from?

[Moogle]

Where are you getting the Stormfather existing pre-humanity from?

 

 

Eshonai preferred a shield. It felt more like facing the Rider straight on. This one, the soul of the storm, was the one the humans called Stormfather— and he was not one of her people’s gods. In fact, the songs named him a traitor— a spren who had chosen to protect humans instead of the listeners. Still, her people respected him. He would kill any who did not respect him.

 

Doesn't directly prove anything, and it's certainly at odds with the Stormfather claiming to be the spren of Honor, but I think that could be explained by the spren changing over time.