Could a Skybreaker reach the origin with only existing book 4 knowledge?

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

So...I just want people to know what's actually at the origin. To that end, I was trying to imagine an easy way for someone to get there without taking substantial personal risk to be able to report back and be believed when they explain how they did it. Soooo...could any skybreaker ride the front of the everstorm to get there today with what we already know?

My thought: the everstorm seems to travel at about 120 miles per hour, taking approximately 9 Rosharan days to circle the globe. That means, worst case, it would take approximately 4.5 days for it to get from the center of the continent to the origin. That's about 3 days from the east coast to the origin (worst case). It could (if timed decently) reasonably cross paths with a highstorm twice in that time if my geometry is on today. That's about 60 hours of travel and being awake needed for someone riding the storm.

My proposal: a skybreaker flies up high loaded with gems, then reduces down to a half lashing vertically, making them weightless while draining as little Investiture as reasonably possible, then throws open a parachute in front of the everstorm and uses as little investiture as possible to stay aloft (and heal from lightning burns and exhaustion...) using the two highstorm crossings to recharge, spaced at about 30 hour intervals; lets say they happen at hours 15 and 45.

Again, I'm talking about loading up a backpack with as many gemstones as a surgebinder can reasonably carry and just soaring to the origin on faith and back-of-the-envelope math alone.

Is this insane? Is there another easy way to just get there so everyone can be certain finally? Could it work if someone really committed to it? Please don't tell me we just have to wait for wait for Elsecallers with more control over transportation to evolve in order to get a straight answer 

Edited May 28, 2024 by hwiles

[alder24]

11 hours ago, hwiles said:

So...I just want people to know what's actually at the origin. To that end, I was trying to imagine an easy way for someone to get there without taking substantial personal risk to be able to report back and be believed when they explain how they did it. Soooo...could any skybreaker ride the front of the everstorm to get there today with what we already know?

My thought: the everstorm seems to travel at about 120 miles per hour, taking approximately 9 Rosharan days to circle the globe. That means, worst case, it would take approximately 4.5 days for it to get from the center of the continent to the origin. That's about 3 days from the east coast to the origin (worst case). It could (if timed decently) reasonably cross paths with a highstorm twice in that time if my geometry is on today. That's about 60 hours of travel and being awake needed for someone riding the storm.

My proposal: a skybreaker flies up high loaded with gems, then reduces down to a half lashing vertically, making them weightless while draining as little Investiture as reasonably possible, then throws open a parachute in front of the everstorm and uses as little investiture as possible to stay aloft (and heal from lightning burns and exhaustion...) using the two highstorm crossings to recharge, spaced at about 30 hour intervals; lets say they happen at hours 15 and 45.

Again, I'm talking about loading up a backpack with as many gemstones as a surgebinder can reasonably carry and just soaring to the origin on faith and back-of-the-envelope math alone.

Is this insane? Is there another easy way to just get there so everyone can be certain finally? Could it work if someone really committed to it? Please don't tell me we just have to wait for wait for Elsecallers with more control over transportation to evolve in order to get a straight answer 

Sure, you can travel that way towards the Origin, it would be better using the Highstorm as it will continuously provide you with Stormlight, be faster than the Everstorm (200 mph I think?) and it won't try to kill you as much as the Everstorm. 

But good luck finding a small island in the middle of something like the Pacific Ocean by sheer chance with a stormfront that's more than 6000 km wide. It's practically impossible. The best chance of finding the Origin is to go to space. You're a Skybreaker, you control gravity, you can lash yourself into the low or even high Roshar orbit where there is no air resistance at all, which means nothing will slow you down, which means far less Stormlight used up (there is no comparison between going 100 km up to space vs 35,000 km around the entire Roshar circumference within its atmosphere). Stormlight would keep you alive for a few hours (Fused were trying to get to Braize, they survived only for a few hours in space) and if you have a Shardplate, then that's even more survivable as it will trap the atmosphere inside and provide you with oxygen for some short time (but you won't have to heal the damage done by being exposed to the vacuum of space).

Just go to space, fly above the ocean and from there you have an excellent view of a huge fraction of the planet. With that you will easily find the Origin, even without needing a Highstorm to point it to you, as the clouds would obstruct your view. Then just gently land on it, if you want to investigate further. The royal gem reserves that Kaladin took to fly to the Hearthstone in OB would provide you with enough Stormlight to achieve all of this. No fancy parachutes needed, no preparations needed, just yeet yourself into space and you'll be back home in just a few hours. 

[Through the Living Heir he/him]

I think it would be easier to travel over the Highstorm with this method, as the gemstones would be continuously reinfused. I think your math is good. I'd use uncoupled reverse fabrials to stay upright, and potentially dip sails into the stormwall. By using the half-shard method or living shardplate, people could be placed inside a vehicle and protected from the brunt of the storm. I believe Fourth Bridge could probably make it on it's own, potentially with a bondsmith to repleish stormlight. 

You mentioned that Elsecallers needed to get more precise, but they could probably make it as is. They would just have to trek across the cognitive realm, which would be land due to the ocean. Then they could portal back to the physical. If I were planning this, (which I would only do if there wasn't a war going on), I would have an Elsecaller or Willshaper, a Skybreaker or Windrunner, and a Bondsmith. (Although I suppose an Elsecaller could just soulcast themself a boat)

That's all I the thoughts I have. I'll see what everyone else has to say. 

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

38 minutes ago, Dragonheir said:

I think it would be easier to travel over the Highstorm with this method, as the gemstones would be continuously reinfused. I think your math is good. I'd use uncoupled reverse fabrials to stay upright, and potentially dip sails into the stormwall. By using the half-shard method or living shardplate, people could be placed inside a vehicle and protected from the brunt of the storm. I believe Fourth Bridge could probably make it on it's own, potentially with a bondsmith to repleish stormlight. 

You mentioned that Elsecallers needed to get more precise, but they could probably make it as is. They would just have to trek across the cognitive realm, which would be land due to the ocean. Then they could portal back to the physical. If I were planning this, (which I would only do if there wasn't a war going on), I would have an Elsecaller or Willshaper, a Skybreaker or Windrunner, and a Bondsmith. (Although I suppose an Elsecaller could just soulcast themself a boat)

That's all I the thoughts I have. I'll see what everyone else has to say. 

Thanks! And...Yeaaahhh...I couldn't come up with a reference that confirmed that the highstorms keep restoring investiture after passing the west coast (honestly still unsure on this point), so I tried to take the most absolute and confirmed approach i could imagine. That might work fine and easily though in one-third the time and with way fewer resources to boot.

A vehicle is a very intelligent idea. My thought was to go as totally minimalist as possible though, like...solo operator, no state or military resource requisition rights beyond what they can personally utilize and control, no supporting team after setup and launch, and no experimental technology, just raw leveraging of what is already 100% confirmed and reliably possible from the perspective of the characters on screen.

I've been awake for 60 hours straight before (albeit, not under literal life-threatening stress...) with zero investiture, so I feel relatively confident regarding proof of concept on that front. I'm struggling to recall if we have any examples of a Radiant remaining powered on on-screen for 30+ hours straight though. And I'm not familiar enough with existing WoBs to know if readers have had it confirmed one way or the other whether stormlight functions similarly to allomantic Pewter in terms of staving off fatigue (dampening the effects, even for days at a time, but not actually healing them). I'm hoping folks can help me cover those uncertainties for us to be able to say, "yes, absolutely, just about any skybreaker or windrunner could hit up the origin with a little math and patience for the storms to line up right."

I'm assuming that, on account of the war, no one who has fully earned their plate would be allowed to take the risk and sheer amount of time away from the battlefront to answer such an esoteric curiosity. A single first or second-oath skybreaker or windrunner though? Well...There are enough of them for this to be a mission that I would approve financing for in any of their officers' shoes.

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

14 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Sure, you can travel that way towards the Origin, it would be better using the Highstorm as it will continuously provide you with Stormlight, be faster than the Everstorm (200 mph I think?) and it won't try to kill you as much as the Everstorm. 

But good luck finding a small island in the middle of something like the Pacific Ocean by sheer chance with a stormfront that's more than 6000 km wide. It's practically impossible. The best chance of finding the Origin is to go to space. You're a Skybreaker, you control gravity, you can lash yourself into the low or even high Roshar orbit where there is no air resistance at all, which means nothing will slow you down, which means far less Stormlight used up (there is no comparison between going 100 km up to space vs 35,000 km around the entire Roshar circumference within its atmosphere). Stormlight would keep you alive for a few hours (Fused were trying to get to Braize, they survived only for a few hours in space) and if you have a Shardplate, then that's even more survivable as it will trap the atmosphere inside and provide you with oxygen for some short time (but you won't have to heal the damage done by being exposed to the vacuum of space).

Just go to space, fly above the ocean and from there you have an excellent view of a huge fraction of the planet. With that you will easily find the Origin, even without needing a Highstorm to point it to you, as the clouds would obstruct your view. Then just gently land on it, if you want to investigate further. The royal gem reserves that Kaladin took to fly to the Hearthstone in OB would provide you with enough Stormlight to achieve all of this. No fancy parachutes needed, no preparations needed, just yeet yourself into space and you'll be back home in just a few hours. 

This legitimately made me smile  

Word!

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

17 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Just go to space, fly above the ocean and from there you have an excellent view of a huge fraction of the planet. With that you will easily find the Origin, even without needing a Highstorm to point it to you, as the clouds would obstruct your view. Then just gently land on it, if you want to investigate further. The royal gem reserves that Kaladin took to fly to the Hearthstone in OB would provide you with enough Stormlight to achieve all of this. No fancy parachutes needed, no preparations needed, just yeet yourself into space and you'll be back home in just a few hours. 

This makes me really want a scene in a future book where a Windrunner/Skybreaker does this and sees the whole of Roshar and is just mesmerized by it from seeing it from orbit.

[Onironte he/him]

What do you think might be at the origin?

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

5 hours ago, Onironte said:

What do you think might be at the origin?

I mean...that's a massive RAFO for certain but it almost certainly must be a highly distilled and concentrated source of Investiture that Pulses in time with the frequency of the highstorms like the beating heart of the entire planet if I had to wager a guess.

I suppose that probably means that it's some form of perpendicularity, though I suspect that it's periodic nature means that it's only accessible a tiny fraction of the time.