Trusk'our he/him Posted July 31, 2024 Posted July 31, 2024 The more I think about it, the more I think that skill sets in the Cosmere may naturally utilize Fortune. Fortune is a natural attribute that all people have, it has been described as a "gut feeling", and the Atium-electrum alloy was introduced to foreshadow the use of Fortune. Most skills work by repeatedly working at a task until you can intuitively know what to do even without consciously thinking about it. For example, sword fighting would be such that you learn to predict and intercept your opponent before they do the same to you. Atium grants incredible precision and an intuitive knowledge of how to act in order to achieve a desired end result; Kelsier was not only able to kill with it effectively, but was able to save a crowd of Skaa by perfectly Steelpushing/Ironpulling a pair of metal rods to scatter a hail of arrows. Ishar was described by Dalinar as moving before his opponents did, likely by using his incredible skill in dueling to utilize his Fortune (could also be he used his Bondsmithing to hack Connection and directly read Spiritwebs, so this is no guarantee). I find it also worth mentioning that part of Kaladin's abnormally high skill with the spear is his Bond with Syl, which may do so by influencing his Fortune. Before I had only thought of using Fortune in the sense of getting a "spidey-sense" or to have beneficial things happen for you seemingly at random (mostly because Fortune subconsciously moved you into the right place at the right time), but now I seriously wonder if Fortune utilized by Feruchemy could express itself as more of an unusual talent for a given task, where you just happen to have magically induced muscle-memory take over, like with what often happens when burning Atium. 5
EdgedancerJacob he/him Posted July 31, 2024 Posted July 31, 2024 1 hour ago, Trusk'our said: now I seriously wonder if Fortune utilized by Feruchemy could express itself as more of an unusual talent for a given task, where you just happen to have magically induced muscle-memory take over, like with what often happens when burning Atium. I love this idea! It's way more interesting than just getting 'luckier' by tapping Fortune. I wonder how specific it will be -- like, if Kaladin somehow created an unkeyed Chromium-mind, would the person tapping it would gain Kaladin's natural instincts with a spear? Similarly, I wonder what happens as you fill a Chromium-mind in this scenario. Do you lose that innate ability temporarily? 2
Trusk'our he/him Posted July 31, 2024 Author Posted July 31, 2024 29 minutes ago, EdgedancerJacob said: I love this idea! It's way more interesting than just getting 'luckier' by tapping Fortune. I wonder how specific it will be -- like, if Kaladin somehow created an unkeyed Chromium-mind, would the person tapping it would gain Kaladin's natural instincts with a spear? Similarly, I wonder what happens as you fill a Chromium-mind in this scenario. Do you lose that innate ability temporarily? Well, Connection has a lot of individual possible things to store, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if F-Chromium could do something similar and store specific types of Fortune related to certain skills or tasks. That said, it could also be a general attribute that is simply harnessed better when someone forms more Connections to a given task (i.e. practice), so storing might just make all skills worse. 1
alder24 Posted July 31, 2024 Posted July 31, 2024 3 hours ago, Trusk'our said: The more I think about it, the more I think that skill sets in the Cosmere may naturally utilize Fortune. Fortune is a natural attribute that all people have, it has been described as a "gut feeling", and the Atium-electrum alloy was introduced to foreshadow the use of Fortune. Most skills work by repeatedly working at a task until you can intuitively know what to do even without consciously thinking about it. For example, sword fighting would be such that you learn to predict and intercept your opponent before they do the same to you. Atium grants incredible precision and an intuitive knowledge of how to act in order to achieve a desired end result; Kelsier was not only able to kill with it effectively, but was able to save a crowd of Skaa by perfectly Steelpushing/Ironpulling a pair of metal rods to scatter a hail of arrows. Ishar was described by Dalinar as moving before his opponents did, likely by using his incredible skill in dueling to utilize his Fortune (could also be he used his Bondsmithing to hack Connection and directly read Spiritwebs, so this is no guarantee). I find it also worth mentioning that part of Kaladin's abnormally high skill with the spear is his Bond with Syl, which may do so by influencing his Fortune. Before I had only thought of using Fortune in the sense of getting a "spidey-sense" or to have beneficial things happen for you seemingly at random (mostly because Fortune subconsciously moved you into the right place at the right time), but now I seriously wonder if Fortune utilized by Feruchemy could express itself as more of an unusual talent for a given task, where you just happen to have magically induced muscle-memory take over, like with what often happens when burning Atium. I'm skeptical, but it may be possible. However Brandon said that Kaladin's skill with a spear isn't supernatural, he's just really talented, just like a normal person can be. But there is something Spiritual happening to him too. Spoiler Questioner Why is Kaladin so proficient-- Like naturally born to wield a spear. Is that a weapon he likes or is it a destiny for him? Brandon Sanderson So destiny is a strong term... I would say he has natural aptitude, but no more so than a normal person who has a natural aptitude for something. But the way the Spiritual Realm works in the cosmere and the way Connection works, there were certain things that were happening to Kaladin before they happened... It's like Syl says in one of the books. "You didn't know me then, but I knew you then. Even though we hadn't met yet, I still knew you." You see some weird Connection things too. And these are mostly just for fun sort of cosmere connections. Like when you see Syl take on the look of Shallan standing on the beach. There's gonna be a connection there. It's forming, it doesn't exist yet, but all things are one in the Spiritual Realm, and we're just kinda seeing echoes of that. It's not meant to be destiny, it's more meant to be, "Hey there's little connections happening". I would not say Kaladin is any more naturally gifted in that than your average professional sports player is naturally gifted in what they do. Emerald City Comic Con 2018 (March 1, 2018)
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