Oudeis he/him Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 There were three books in the Mistborn trilogy, and WoB has confirmed that they were each to focus on a different one of the Metallic Arts. There are ten books in the Stormlight Archive, and it's understood each will be about a different Order of the Knights Radiant. Yet I wonder... there's a WoB out there stating that there are either 10 ways to access magic on Roshar... or 30, depending on how you look. It simply makes me wonder. Next time I re-read the books, I'm going to see if perhaps Way of Kings shows not just Kaladin, but perhaps two other versions of people somehow accessing the same power-set. Szeth immediately springs to mind; perhaps he means that either a spren, or an Honorblade, can access those two surges? Maybe there's a third way? Maybe that's what a Squire is? I don't know. One obvious guess is, there's a way for Odium, Honor, and Cultivation to access the Surges, the same way Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy all make use of the sixteen (yes I know that's a simplified number) metals. If so... random speculation, but maybe an Honorblade is Honor's way, the nahel bond is Cultivation's way, and... I don't know, the Voidforms of the listeners might be Odium's way? I have no answers, I just wonder if it might be an interesting question to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShyGuy Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) This seems like a solid theory. Remember with Mistborn the three different methods all have different end percentages of power relative to starting percentages. Maybe there is a similar scheme like with Allomancy having a net gain of power, Feruchemy being net neutral, and Hemalurgy having a net loss. Edited July 2, 2014 by ShyGuy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asperity he/him Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 I like it. Seems legit. It still blows me away how much hidden subtle things are in these books. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serity Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 As for Cultivation and Odium each having their own way to access the same surge: it seems unlikely. First of all, the very name "Honorblade" seems to imply that it is not of another shard such as Cultivation, and we've already seen one of the voidforms (stormform) which doesn't seem related to one of the ten Surges. I'd say that Surges are Honor's magic system, and Honorblades are called that because they allow the user to tap into Honor's power. I suspect Cultivation and Odium have their own non-surgey things going on. Your mention of the Metallic Arts all having metal in common makes me wonder, though: what do the three groups of ten on Roshar have in common? Are they all powered by Stormlight? If so, does the Everstorm have stormlight as well? Do they have gemstones in common (since I think I remember Investiture being stored in gemstones on Roshar was stated)? I don't remember gemstones being mentioned in conjunction to the stormforms, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serity Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 But... Each book has five parts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 (edited) As for Cultivation and Odium each having their own way to access the same surge: it seems unlikely. First of all, the very name "Honorblade" seems to imply that it is not of another shard such as Cultivation, and we've already seen one of the voidforms (stormform) which doesn't seem related to one of the ten Surges. I'd say that Surges are Honor's magic system, and Honorblades are called that because they allow the user to tap into Honor's power. I suspect Cultivation and Odium have their own non-surgey things going on. Your mention of the Metallic Arts all having metal in common makes me wonder, though: what do the three groups of ten on Roshar have in common? Are they all powered by Stormlight? If so, does the Everstorm have stormlight as well? Do they have gemstones in common (since I think I remember Investiture being stored in gemstones on Roshar was stated)? I don't remember gemstones being mentioned in conjunction to the stormforms, though... The Parshendi forms were accessed through spren, through a highstorm, so I would guess that Stormlight and spren is the uniting factor. Unless, for example, fabrials are one general magic system with ten parts to it (paired fabrials, opposing fabrials etc.), also based on stormlight-infused rocks and possibly spren. Surgebinding is another magic system and then Parshendi forms/Voidforms is the 3rd system with ten different versions. THen again, there are hundreds of Parshendi forms, based on the amount of verses in those songs. I think we'll have to wait for another book or two to properly work this out though. Edited July 5, 2014 by Delightful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serity Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 The Parshendi forms were accessed through spren, through a highstorm, so I would guess that Stormlight and spren is the uniting factor. Unless, for example, fabrials are one general magic system with ten parts to it (paired fabrials, opposing fabrials etc.), also based on stormlight-infused rocks and possibly spren. Surgebinding is another magic system and then Parshendi forms/Voidforms is the 3rd system with ten different versions. THen again, there are hundreds of Parshendi forms, based on the amount of verses in those songs. I think we'll have to wait for another book or two to properly work this out though. I assume that there are ten Voidforms or "forms of power" since those were apparently rare and significant, and the rest of the forms are just innocuous ones like art form and scholar form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 I assume that there are ten Voidforms or "forms of power" since those were apparently rare and significant, and the rest of the forms are just innocuous ones like art form and scholar form. Likely, but then how do you explain the other forms? A quirk of Parshendi biology and not a magic system? (totally unsarcastic question, just to be clear). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serity Posted July 6, 2014 Report Share Posted July 6, 2014 Likely, but then how do you explain the other forms? A quirk of Parshendi biology and not a magic system? (totally unsarcastic question, just to be clear). Good question... They're obviously magical in some way since they require a highstorm and are changed by bonding with spren. We probably won't fully understand this until we learn more about the creation of the Listeners, but one guess comes to mind is that Odium created the Listeners and gave them the ability to bond with spren to change forms. During the desolations, he used this to give them the Voidforms by bonding with his spren, but at other times, they were able to bond with other, non-Odium based spren (I seem to recall that in one of the Parshendi chapters, it was stated that in order to gain access to artform, they would have to attract creationspren), allowing them to gain a multitude of other forms. So this is still a magic system, technically, but since it isn't as powerful as the surges or the voidforms I wouldn't really think of it as part of the 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teknopathetic he/him Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 (edited) We do have a hint of Cultivation's magic system in Roshar. The people of the Pure Lake ingested Fish: one fish cured arthritis, and one fish allowed you to track people. The Pure Lake was also rumoured to have tides that could predict the future. There was definitely something going on during the Pure Lake interlude. There is also the lake in the Horn Eater mountains. That might be another pool of Cultivation's power. It seems to allow healing and World Hopping to some extent. Honour said that Cultivation was good at predicting the future. It makes sense as you need to predict the weather to cultivate a crop adequately. And the idea of cultivating fish to obtain Investiture seems theoretically sound. It sounds a bit like Allomancy. Edited July 10, 2014 by teknopathetic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahak he/him Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 I assume that there are ten Voidforms or "forms of power" since those were apparently rare and significant, and the rest of the forms are just innocuous ones like art form and scholar form. The relevant verse implied scholar form wasn't innocuous. “Scholarform shown for patience and thought. Beware its ambitions innate. Though study and diligence bring the reward, Loss of innocence may be one's fate.” —69th stanza of the Song of Listing[ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudeis he/him Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 (edited) The relevant verse implied scholar form wasn't innocuous. A form needn't be voidform to be "not innocuous." Warform brings power, strength, and the ability to fight and kill, yet we see it plenty and it never give an indication of being voidform. ...Though I suppose this is more a commentary on the fact that Prometheus seemed to be saying that a form is either Voidform or innocuous. I guess it depends on if you define innocuous as "not powered by Odium" or whatever makes the voidforms unique. Compared to something like Stormform, Scholarform doesn't really seem all that bad. Edited July 12, 2014 by Outis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgedancer he/him Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 The relevant verse implied scholar form wasn't innocuous. “Scholarform shown for patience and thought. Beware its ambitions innate. Though study and diligence bring the reward, Loss of innocence may be one's fate.” —69th stanza of the Song of Listing[ I´m pretty sure that his is foreshadowing for how Eshonai´s sister researched the Voidspren/Stormform instead of someting diplomatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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