The Mechanics of Gaining Innate Investiture

[Trusk'our]

I have a theory as to why this Innate Investiture is higher on Shardworlds than on non-Shardworlds.

I believe that this is because of or at least connected to the Second Law of Investiture; in simple terms, Investiture likes to flow from high states of concentration into lower states of concentration.

This means that when a Spiritweb forms in a developing baby that the Investiture of the SR, and the Shard Connected to it, begins to meld to that Spiritweb, Investing it further than it would be otherwise as the Shard counts as a single object/entity and therefore has a much, much higher concentration of Investiture than the newly forming Spiritweb. The Connection is the bridge between the Shard and the person, so it is what determines how much of the Investiture is drawn into the new Spiritweb.

There is a set amount of naturally given Investiture whenever a person is conceived on a Shardworld based on the strength of the Connection between the Shard and the person.

If a person's Spiritweb had a genetically higher Connection to the Shard in question (such as if you Burned Lerasium and Connected more strongly to Preservation), more of this extra Connection would be passed to their children, thus making the Investiture be drawn to the Spiritwebs more than it would from natural levels of diffusion, as there is a larger bridge for the Investiture to cross.

This is my personal thought for this as of right now.

Actually, it kind of makes me wonder if you could temporarily increase your Connection to, say, Endowment via Feruchemical duralumin when conceiving a child in order to give them a super-Breath when they were born. Or, maybe if that Connection isn't transferred, you could Connect the child while developing to the Shard, making their Spiritweb fill with more Investiture than normal, which would "solidify" once they were done growing and become a permanent part of them.

Thoughts?

[JustQuestin2004]

I think this theory has some merit, but I also think it's more the availability of Investiture in the environment that is a big part of this phenomenon.

Rosharans rarely get sick thanks to the immense amount of Investiture that flows across Roshar every week, so they must have a higher amount of Innate Investiture.

Taldain has a sun that is constantly beating down on one side of it, constantly filling Dayside with a decent amount of Investiture at all times. I don't think people ever got sick naturally in White Sand but I could be wrong.

Scadrial and Nalthis both had their population being given an intentional increase to their innate Investiture by Preservation and Endowment respectively.

Komashi had Investiture constantly radiate from within the ground in it's ancient days, now it has Hion out and about everywhere, providing light and power constantly.

I could go on but I think I have gotten my point across.

[+hwiles]

6 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

...

This means that when a Spiritweb forms in a developing baby that the Investiture of the SR, and the Shard Connected to it, begins to meld to that Spiritweb, Investing it further than it would be otherwise as the Shard counts as a single object/entity and therefore has a much, much higher concentration of Investiture than the newly forming Spiritweb. The Connection is the bridge between the Shard and the person, so it is what determines how much of the Investiture is drawn into the new Spiritweb.

There is a set amount of naturally given Investiture whenever a person is conceived on a Shardworld based on the strength of the Connection between the Shard and the person.

...

I think this is essentially correct, yes, and the mechanics work very similarly to electrical charging systems in some sense. I think this is actually basically why Odium is going to have to massacre everyone in the Rosharan solar system in order to divest and escape (which...seems to be exactly what he's hellbent on doing).

Your point about artificially augmenting the Connection of parents to their homeworld seems horrifyingly sound. I would caveat it with the observation that, at least as far as I've heard, inquiries relating to whether life in the Cosmere begins at conception, birth, or somewhere in between specifically do not get answered to avoid extreme political polarization in the fanbase so, to be safe, if you're trying to breed superheroes, you would probably have the best chances if you artificially enhanced the connection of both parents prior to conception and sustained those enhancement elements throughout completion of the process.

This...has some kinda dark and manipulative implications from a certain point of view...it might be a way to bring back pseudo-natural mistborn in era-3 or 4 without hemalurgy or eugenics though. One would just need to find volunteers willing to commit their children to a life chosen and controlled by powerful investors in exchange for aid and comfort in getting themselves settled. I can imagine folks taking that deal.

[alder24]

6 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

I have a theory as to why this Innate Investiture is higher on Shardworlds than on non-Shardworlds.

I believe that this is because of or at least connected to the Second Law of Investiture; in simple terms, Investiture likes to flow from high states of concentration into lower states of concentration.

This means that when a Spiritweb forms in a developing baby that the Investiture of the SR, and the Shard Connected to it, begins to meld to that Spiritweb, Investing it further than it would be otherwise as the Shard counts as a single object/entity and therefore has a much, much higher concentration of Investiture than the newly forming Spiritweb. The Connection is the bridge between the Shard and the person, so it is what determines how much of the Investiture is drawn into the new Spiritweb.

There is a set amount of naturally given Investiture whenever a person is conceived on a Shardworld based on the strength of the Connection between the Shard and the person.

If a person's Spiritweb had a genetically higher Connection to the Shard in question (such as if you Burned Lerasium and Connected more strongly to Preservation), more of this extra Connection would be passed to their children, thus making the Investiture be drawn to the Spiritwebs more than it would from natural levels of diffusion, as there is a larger bridge for the Investiture to cross.

This is my personal thought for this as of right now.

Actually, it kind of makes me wonder if you could temporarily increase your Connection to, say, Endowment via Feruchemical duralumin when conceiving a child in order to give them a super-Breath when they were born. Or, maybe if that Connection isn't transferred, you could Connect the child while developing to the Shard, making their Spiritweb fill with more Investiture than normal, which would "solidify" once they were done growing and become a permanent part of them.

Thoughts?

It's a reasonable theory, but I agree with @JustQuestin2004 - the amount of ambient investiture in a major Shardword is also a contributing factor. The fact that supports this is that to be reliably born with a Breath you don't just need to have both parents from Nalthis, you also need to be born on Nalthis otherwise you will get weaker and weaker Breaths with each new generation, until your grandkids won't have Breaths anymore. 

This environmental investiture would invest souls that have a Connection to the planet and maybe even invest them in a way to strengthen their Connection to Shards present in the system, allowing the soul to draw investiture directly from SR. Either way, it's important.

Parents strengthening their Connection to their Shard/planet might help, but I think it's more about kids Connection to that Shard and planet - you would need to manipulate their Connection instead. For parents when conceiving a child it would matter if they were able to permanently overwrite their spirit web, a temporary change isn't enough - something like Feruchemy or Hemalurgy doesn't modify your sDNA and that's what is passed down on your kids. But without environmental investiture it won't be the same as if the kid were to be born on their home world.

Spoiler

stormfather (paraphrased)

Does the plague on the Purelake has anything to do with the fact that the magic fish form symbiotic bonds with spren?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No, worldhoppers brought a disease to Roshar that they didn't have before. It's the common cold. Rosharans' Investiture makes it so they're usually a healthy bunch so something like the cold is kind of frightening. "It's a plague of the sniffles."

stormfather [Alternate wording from ZenBossanova's report] (paraphrased)

Another person asked about the plague in the Purelake.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Turns out, that was a pathogen introduced by worldhoppers. People on Roshar normally have greater health than elsewhere in the cosmere because they are more Invested (Stormlight and all that). This plague was what we call… the common cold.

Firefight Phoenix signing (Jan. 21, 2015)

 

Spoiler

JoyBlu

In order to have a Breath, do you have to be native to Nalthis?

Brandon Sanderson

Not to be given Breaths, but people who are not native to Nalthis are not born with that Investiture.

JoyBlu

So, you have to be born on that planet?

Brandon Sanderson

There are exceptions. Most of the time.

JoyBlu

If both your parents were Nalthians, and they moved off planet, and they had a child that was born on a different planet—

Brandon Sanderson

It is possible for that child to have a Breath, but it would not continue too long. But yes, that child would probably have a Breath, depending...

Joyblu

If both of his parents had Breaths.

Brandon Sanderson

Mmmhmm.

Orem Signing (March 16, 2019)

 

[Duxredux]

Interesting. It puts the final epigraph of HoA into an interesting perspective.

Spoiler

Vin was special. Preservation chose her from a very young age, as I have mentioned. I believe that he was grooming her to take his power. Yet, the mind of Preservation was very weak at that point, reduced only to the fragment that we knew as the mist spirit. What made him choose this girl? Was it because she was a Mistborn? Was it because she had Snapped so early in life, coming to her powers even as she went through the pains of the unusually difficult labor her mother went through to bear her? Vin was unusually talented and strong with Allomancy, even from the beginning. I believe that she must have drawn some of the mist into her when she was still a child, in those brief times when she wasn't wearing the earring. Preservation had mostly gotten her to stop wearing it by the time Kelsier recruited her, though she put it back in for a moment before joining the crew. Then, she'd left it there at his suggestion. Nobody else could draw upon the mists. I have determined this. Why were they open to Vin and not others? I suspect that she couldn't have taken them all in until after she'd touched the power at the Well of Ascension. It was always meant, I believe, to be something of an attuning force. Something that, once touched, would adjust a person's body to be able to accept the mists. Yet, she did make use of a small crumb of Preservation's power when she defeated the Lord Ruler, a year before she even began hearing the thumping of the power's return to the Well. There is much more to this mystery. Perhaps I will tease it out eventually, as my mind grows more and more accustomed to its expanded nature. Perhaps I will determine why I was able to take the powers myself. For now, I only wish to make a simple acknowledgment of the woman who held the power just before me. Of all of us who touched it, I feel she was the most worthy.

TSM musings and spoilers:

Spoiler

This may also explain the divergence of the Canticle Threnodites who still have the propensity to turn into Shades despite being far from Threnody, but also the heat / Investiture transference abilities that seems to be a new addition. They've had multiple generations born right next that incredible Investiture source of the sun. Notably the Canticle Threnodites did not have any additional genetics introduced into their population, so there was no interbreeding with Scadirans or Rosharans. They had their pure Threnody heritage, possibly altered by Canticle's native Investiture.

The follow up question is if we'll have similar divergences in exhibited powers as more and more cultures worldhop - so long as the groups remain insular.  In other words, if the Beaconites somehow crash landed on Roshar and were a little conclave that persisted for several generations, would they have had different abilities manifest?

Another notable influxes of Investiture into a developing child I can think of are the infant or adolescent Returned of Hallendren - the Godkings and Hopefinder. Both Susebron and Hopefinder are remarkably keen and well adjusted considering their isolation from birth without even the residual memories of a past life to subconsciously inform them.

Add in how the yoki-hijo of Komashi are identified and trained from birth setting them apart from the rest of their people... I think it's definitely worth paying attention to children exposed to Invenstiture as they develop. Granted there is the obvious note that people who have their literal entire lives to develop and make connection regarding Investiture have a leg up over those who arrive late in life (like how sometimes multilingual children develop language skills much more readily than many adult learners), but it may not account for all of this.