What are Spiritweb cracks?

Trusk'our · October 23, 2024

Cracks in the Spiritweb allow for Investiture to enter, which is of great importance to many Cosmere magics.

What are the cracks though, mechanically speaking?

We know that these "cracks" can occur when physical injury, mental stress, or insanity is felt by a person. Allomancers can Snap from beatings or even in some rare cases from powerful emotions (Emotional Allomancy can even induce Snapping). Those who suffer from madness in some form can be communicated with by Shards and Cognitive Shadows more easily (like in MSH).

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270-the-hero-of-ages-annotations/#e8025

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventy

The Reason for the Mistsickness

So, it finally comes out. I wonder at this numbers plot, as I think many readers will glaze over it and ignore it. I think others will read into it and figure out what it means very quickly, then feel that the reveal here isn't much of a revelation. Hopefully I'll get a majority in the middle who read the clues, don't know what they mean, but are happily surprised when it comes together. That's a difficult line to walk sometimes.

What is going on here is that the mists are awakening the Allomantic potential inside of people. It's very rough on a person for that to come out, and can cause death. Preservation set this all up before he gave his consciousness to imprison Ruin, so it's not a perfect system. It's like a machine left behind by its creator. The catalyst is the return of the power to the Well of Ascension. As soon as that power becomes full, it sets the mists to begin Snapping those who have the potential for Allomancy buried within them.

Many of these people won't be very strong Allomancers. Their abilities were buried too deeply to have come out without the mists' intervention. Others will have a more typical level of power; they might have Snapped earlier, had they gone through enough anguish to bring the power out.

My idea on this is that Allomantic potential is a little like a supersaturated solution. You can suspend a great deal of something like sugar in a liquid when it is hot, then cool it down and the sugar remains suspended. Drop one bit of sugar in there as a catalyst, however, and the rest will fall out as a precipitate.

Allomancy is the same. It's in there, but it takes a reaction—in this case, physical anguish—to trigger it and bring it out. That's because the Allomantic power comes from the extra bit of Preservation inside of humans, that same extra bit that gives us free will. This bit is trapped between the opposing forces of Preservation and Ruin, and to come out and allow it the power to access metals and draw forth energy, it needs to fight its way through the piece of Ruin that is also there inside.

As has been established, Ruin's control over creatures—and, indeed, an Allomancer's control over them—grows weaker when that creature is going through some extreme emotions. (Like the koloss blood frenzy.) This has to do with the relationship between the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm, and the Spiritual Realm—of which I don't have time to speak right now.

Suffice it to say that there are people who have Snapped because of intense joy or other emotions. It just doesn't happen as frequently and is more difficult to control.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/182-stormlight-three-update-5/#e3871

Oversleep

Is it possible to Soothe/Riot so hard that the person Snaps due to extreme emotions caused by emotional Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

I hadn't considered, but yes, that should work.

From this, I currently believe that these "cracks" are the dissonance between the physical, cognitive, and spiritual aspects of a person. When you get hurt, whether it be physical or mental, you create a disparity between your "perfect" spiritual self and who you are now, filtered through how you view yourself.

This crack leaves the opportunity for growth, either until your learn to accept it as a part of who you are (which is why some injuries stick even with Invested healing), or in some cases allowing a change in your Spiritweb more directly through Investiture attaching to it.

I actually find this rather beautiful as an allegory to how we learn and grow through our trials in real life, I have to say.

Anyway, Hemalurgic spikes might aggravate these cracks more than normal because they need to create a dissonance between your physical and spiritual self to function, creating an artificial pathway to your Spiritweb through physical injury (and even continuously cause throbbing as a side-effect of cognitive injury in Inquisitors, likely due to the large number of spikes they bore).

It could also be that Emotional Allomancy can control Hemalurgic constructs because the powerful emotions pressured on them briefly widens cracks in the Spiritweb made by their spikes, allowing for a bond to form between them.

This dissonance between the three aspects and Investiture could also potentially explain why people with extra Investiture heal better, such as with the Heightenings: your Investiture seeks to fill the cracks, close the gaps in your self, which has the effect of physically healing and toughening you.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/467-youtube-spoiler-stream-2/#e14746

Luke Beartline

Along the lines of BioChromatic Breath being akin to a person's soul, how would a Shardblade react to someone who does not have any Breath, would it cut them like an inanimate object?

Brandon Sanderson

No. Remember, one of the things with Breath is I consider Breath to be a part of someone's soul, but it is the extra part that the Cosmere has that non-Cosmere doesn't have. I don't know how far I want to lean into this, but there is definitely a part of me that thinks that Drabs, people who have given up their breath on Nalthis, are just like people from our world. That's what they are, that if we went to the Cosmere we would all be Drabs. Even on planets that aren't Nalthis, where you can't take part of that and give it away and things like that, people are invested. They are invested generally more than here.

Why do I do this? There's a couple reasons. One, it's really convenient for some narrative reasons. A lot of books I'm writing are these kind of action-adventure stories, and can human beings actually take the punishment that is delivered, let's say to Adolin in the end of Oathbringer? *noncommital negative sounds* He doesn't come off well from that, but could a human being really take that? I go back and forth. Humans are capable of some pretty incredible feats, particularly with adrenaline driving them, but my kind of blanket answer is everyone in the Cosmere has got a bit more Investiture; everyone's got something like Breath. Nalthians have something kind of extra special because they can use it in different ways, but everybody's got something like that.

It's leading to the fact that for instance, I highlighted this in the books, this part is canon: There are things about Rosharans that make it so that a lot of diseases have trouble getting a foothold. You do not have the bubonic plague on Roshar. You could maybe say this is because they are not living in close enough proximity to mammals for diseases to hop species as happens on our planet, which is a pretty valid point. Things that affect a horse or a cow (a lot of different diseases from cows come to us), things that affect a cow are much more likely to be able to affect a human than something that affects a chull being able to affect a human. Totally valid, but I also think that there is something more going on here.

This allows me to do fantasy stories where... In Warbreaker we don't have to be worrying about the next outbreak of smallpox, which legitimately they probably would have to be worrying about. It means that, while this is kind of a trope that people, trope is the wrong term, but that people in the past did not have as bad as teeth as we assume that we do because they did not eat the levels of sugars and starches that we do. Investiture also in the Cosmere means that you're not going to... Dalinar probably would not have a full set of teeth, even without being punched in the face and stuff, if he were a human from Earth. But on Roshar he's got just a little bit extra vitality, a little bit extra something, just like everyone on the planet, that is making him a little tougher and making him a little more disease resistant and some of these things. It makes the stories more fun for me to tell and also gives us some suspension of disbelief on some of these things. You do not have to worry about smallpox outbreaks on most planets. You do have to worry about catching the curse of the Elantrian disease and being thrown into a prison city, but smallpox, not as big of a deal.

Adam

Yeah, but you don’t have to worry about that too much anymore.

Brandon Sanderson

No, but I'm saying you could have to worry about things like that. Magical diseases, totally on the board, but the big plague they're dealing with in Roshar is the common cold that got brought across by some of the members of Seventeenth Shard, and that's going to die out pretty quickly. They will get over it and their immune system is... The common cold has come over multiple times before for reasons like that, colds just from another planet. Roshar, they've got three Shards. Basically if you want something like this to happen you go to a planet that's not quite as highly Invested where they might have a few more diseases, you pick one up, you bring it, and it spreads a little bit but then it dies off. That sort of thing happens a lot in the Cosmere. You do not have to worry about during the space age that people are going to be bringing lots of diseases across planets.

Thoughts to expand or contradict this theory?

Through The Living Grub · October 23, 2024

I saw a WoB a while ago (as per law of WoB's I can't find it when I need it) but it says that having a spike would give enough room for a Spren bond, though they might not like the spike all that much. The differences in the perfect and physical versions of you being the "cracks" makes a lot of sense, here's an upvote!

Trusk'our · October 24, 2024

1 hour ago, Xiahida said:

The differences in the perfect and physical versions of you being the "cracks" makes a lot of sense, here's an upvote!

Thanks!

1 hour ago, Xiahida said:

I saw a WoB a while ago (as per law of WoB's I can't find it when I need it) but it says that having a spike would give enough room for a Spren bond, though they might not like the spike all that much.

This one?

Spoiler

Miles was doing some funky stuff.

Investiture interferes with other Investiture.

Argent

And they have a lot of it.

Brandon Sanderson

And they have a lot of it. That is not-- It's not completely-- For instance you can Push on Invested metal, but it's hard. There's a resistance, the more Invested the harder-- So a bond for instance-- forming a bond-- It's, yeah-- It can be done--

I mean Sazed took two of the powers up, right? But I kind of imagine what he did as a nuclear reaction. Where breaking an atom is hard, unless you are in the middle of a sun. And he was in the middle of the sun. At that point--

Argent

There was a lot of stuff going on around him that facilitated.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, definitely. But when you've got that much power you'll-- In other words if there is a lot of power going around, these things become easier.

Argent

So, possible but difficult is--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Edited October 24, 2024 by Trusk'our

Through The Living Grub · October 24, 2024

49 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

This one?

Yes, it was that one.

50 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Specifically for bonding Spren, I think it's the Intent of giving yourself a Hemalurgic spike that's mostly going to matter: if you go all murder-hobo, very few Spren are gonna want to deal out a Nahel Bond to you.

That is true, an ashspren wouldn't mind too much I would expect, and with Marsh, it probably helps he was essentially jumped and spike, and the difficulties come from the spike scaring away spren. Do you think his actions under Ruin's control would interfere, or when he was less controlled, or would they interpret that as a violation of free will? Probably subjective based on how the Spren treats oaths maybe.

Trusk'our · October 24, 2024

19 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

That is true, an ashspren wouldn't mind too much I would expect, and with Marsh, it probably helps he was essentially jumped and spike, and the difficulties come from the spike scaring away spren. Do you think his actions under Ruin's control would interfere, or when he was less controlled, or would they interpret that as a violation of free will? Probably subjective based on how the Spren treats oaths maybe.

Probably subjective, yeah.

The Spren is the one initiating the bond, so their will is what determines its success for the most part.

I would say that Spren like Syl or Pattern would understand though and accept Marsh. Spren like the Stormfather or Sibling, probably not, though for different reasons.

therunner · October 24, 2024

I don't think spiritweb cracks are difference between physical/congnitive/spiritual self, otherwise any wound would open cracks, and you could make bonding easier by physical harm (I doubt that is where it is going), and people who heal easily could not.

Additionally, it would imply that physical healing would seal at least some cracks, and that is seemingly not the case, with spiritual healing being much more difficult than physical healing.

Instaed, I would say that spiritweb cracks are broken Connections within spiritweb, and then something can Connect with those broken Connection (like spren when forming Nahel Bond).

Trusk'our · October 24, 2024

3 hours ago, therunner said:

I don't think spiritweb cracks are difference between physical/congnitive/spiritual self, otherwise any wound would open cracks, and you could make bonding easier by physical harm (I doubt that is where it is going), and people who heal easily could not.

Why then did the noblemen of era 1 Mistborn severely beat each other to Snap?

Physical trauma opens Spiritweb cracks, though that doesn't means those cracks have to be as significant as something like Hemalurgic spikes.

3 hours ago, therunner said:

Additionally, it would imply that physical healing would seal at least some cracks, and that is seemingly not the case, with spiritual healing being much more difficult than physical healing.

I personally think Invested healing being able to seal Spiritweb cracks by repairing the physical or patching up the spiritual isn't unlikely, it seems more intuitive, as by fixing your injuries and realigning your physical aspect to the spiritual or even realigning the spiritual to match the cognitive you're removing the dissonance between aspects.

You'd still be using Investiture to seal the cracks, just by restoring them to how your cognitive aspect views them rather than needing to change your cognition aspect to accept it over time.

3 hours ago, therunner said:

Instaed, I would say that spiritweb cracks are broken Connections within spiritweb, and then something can Connect with those broken Connection (like spren when forming Nahel Bond).

I don't know that I understand this proposition at the moment. May you please further explain why you think this is?

Edited October 24, 2024 by Trusk'our

therunner · October 24, 2024

4 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Why then did the noblemen of era 1 Mistborn severely beat each other to Snap?

Pain and stress, or more generally trauma which is the confirmed reasons for Snapping. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e7526

Quote

Physical trauma opens Spiritweb cracks, though that doesn't means those cracks have to be as significant as something like Hemalurgic spikes.

No, its emotional trauma (which can be caused by physical).

Quote

I personally think Invested healing being able to seal Spiritweb cracks by repairing the physical or patching up the spiritual isn't unlikely, it seems more intuitive, as by fixing your injuries and realigning your physical aspect to the spiritual or even realigning the spiritual to match the cognitive you're removing the dissonance between aspects.

You have it backwards, Spiritual -> Cognitive -> Physical. Physical change won't necessarily cause Spiritual Change, otherwise Radiant healing would not work.

Invested Healing works by aligning Physical Self to Spiritual Ideal Self, not by healing the physical body and then changing the spiritual to match cognitive.

We know that healing Spiritweb is much more difficult than healing body, because it would take a lot of Investiture (per comments on spiking Miles). So healing spiritweb 'by accident' seems very unlikely.

Per WoB below

Quote

(Note that over time, a person's perception of themselves shapes their Cognitive aspect as well, and the Cognitive aspect can interfere with the Spiritual aspect trying to make the Physical aspect repair itself.) Healing in the cosmere often works by aligning your Physical self with your Spiritual self--making the Physical regrow. More powerful forms of Investiture can repair the soul as well.

Healing soul requires more powerful forms of Investiture, than healing just the body. Hence healing the body won't heal anything in the soul by default.

Quote

I don't know that I understand this proposition at the moment. May you please further explain why you think this is?

Sure.

We know that spiritweb is a thing that exists within Spiritual Realm, hence it is made of Investiture. Additionally, per this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/100/#e3448) thinking about it in terms of nodes and lines is a good line of thinking.

And then there is this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/188/#e3923), which literally describes spiritweb/spiritual aspect as mix of Connections and raw Investiture.

Quote

The piece you're missing is the nature of a person's Spiritual aspect. This is similar to a Platonic idea--the idea that there's a perfect version of everyone somewhere. It's a mix of their connections to places, people, and times with raw Investiture. The soul, you might say.

....

However, your age is part of your Connection to places, people, and times. Your soul "knows" things, like where you were born, what Investiture you are aligned with, and--yes--how old you are. When you're healing yourself, you're restoring yourself to a perfect state--when you're done, everything is good. When you're changing your age, however, you are transforming yourself to something unnatural. Against what your soul understands to be true.

So spiritual aspect/spiritweb is Connections + Investiture. Cracks physically form (IRL) when you break bonds between particles of material, i.e. when you break connections.

Hence, natural way of thinking is that cracks in spiritweb = broken Connections, which can then Connect to something else (similar to blank Connection). I'd say it fits with the evidence as well.

Nahel Bond is spren Connecting their spiritweb to these broken Connections, getting a foothold in PR to piggyback into it, as their spiritweb is now merging with that of KR.
Allomancers form Connection to Preservation when Snapping.
Hemalurgy forcefully breaks spiritweb in places to graft stolen piece of Spiritweb, and since it is of Ruin, it breaks more than is strictly needed, causing cracks.

And these cracks form when something traumatic happens (like your brother getting killed and you feeling guilty, killing your parents, etc.), but it does not have to be that traumatic as just living will lead to some measure of cracks in spiritweb. For example, you could have Connection to e.g. you parents, and when then die of old age, their spiritweb will start to decay, possibly damaging/breaking some of the Connections you had to them.

Edited October 24, 2024 by therunner

Trusk'our · October 25, 2024

On 10/24/2024 at 11:58 AM, therunner said:

Pain and stress, or more generally trauma which is the confirmed reasons for Snapping. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e7526

No, its emotional trauma (which can be caused by physical).

The WoB does point out trauma as being the cause of Snapping, but I don't think it specifically states it must be purely mental.

As far as I understand, trauma can be used both to describe physical injuries or mental stress based on the context.

On 10/24/2024 at 11:58 AM, therunner said:

You have it backwards, Spiritual -> Cognitive -> Physical. Physical change won't necessarily cause Spiritual Change, otherwise Radiant healing would not work.

Invested Healing works by aligning Physical Self to Spiritual Ideal Self, not by healing the physical body and then changing the spiritual to match cognitive.

Yes. Most forms of Cosmere healing function by aligning the physical to the spiritual, using the spiritual as a sort of blueprint and the cognitive filtering and interpreting that blueprint.

My reasoning for Invested healing removing Spiritweb cracks is that if a difference between your physical, cognitive, or spiritual self are what counts as the cracks, removing those changes should also remove the cracks.

Which, honestly I didn't express very well. Sorry.

Quote

We know that healing Spiritweb is much more difficult than healing body, because it would take a lot of Investiture (per comments on spiking Miles). So healing spiritweb 'by accident' seems very unlikely.

Agreed. Repairing the Spiritweb is a lot harder because you have to make an actual graft of Investiture. It also seems that when trying to repair the spiritual aspect your Intent (from your cognitive aspect) matters even more.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/451-tor-instagram-livestream/#e14448

Questioner

A character in The Stormlight Archive who eventually was able to heal of a wound. An old wound, and normally healing old wounds, with Regrowth, can't be healed.

Brandon Sanderson

This is a limitation of healing someone else, versus healing yourself. Healing someone else is a weaker method, at least as it's understood by the Radiants currently. Figuring out how to make Regrowth fix older wounds is more difficult. When you are highly Invested in such a way that you have a spren bond, then you are able to kind of rewrite your Spiritual self to better match your Cognitive self. Basically, what your soul is better comes to match your perception of your soul and who you are, and who you want to be becomes more important. And because of that, the Radiant bond is able to heal things and even change physiology that normal Regrowth wouldn't be capable of doing.

On 10/24/2024 at 11:58 AM, therunner said:

We know that spiritweb is a thing that exists within Spiritual Realm, hence it is made of Investiture. Additionally, per this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/100/#e3448) thinking about it in terms of nodes and lines is a good line of thinking.

And then there is this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/188/#e3923), which literally describes spiritweb/spiritual aspect as mix of Connections and raw Investiture.

So spiritual aspect/spiritweb is Connections + Investiture. Cracks physically form (IRL) when you break bonds between particles of material, i.e. when you break connections.

Hence, natural way of thinking is that cracks in spiritweb = broken Connections, which can then Connect to something else (similar to blank Connection). I'd say it fits with the evidence as well.

Nahel Bond is spren Connecting their spiritweb to these broken Connections, getting a foothold in PR to piggyback into it, as their spiritweb is now merging with that of KR.

Allomancers form Connection to Preservation when Snapping.

Hemalurgy forcefully breaks spiritweb in places to graft stolen piece of Spiritweb, and since it is of Ruin, it breaks more than is strictly needed, causing cracks.

And these cracks form when something traumatic happens (like your brother getting killed and you feeling guilty, killing your parents, etc.), but it does not have to be that traumatic as just living will lead to some measure of cracks in spiritweb. For example, you could have Connection to e.g. you parents, and when then die of old age, their spiritweb will start to decay, possibly damaging/breaking some of the Connections you had to them.

That's a theory with merit, I'd say.

I agree that the Spiritweb is basically just Investiture existing in the Spiritual Realm, given context and "code" through Connection and Identity (Fortune plays a roll as well, but I'm not as sure how).

I think terms like Spiritual DNA, spiritual aspect, and Spiritweb are synonymous, just all trying to describe the Investiture Connected to a mind and body in the Spiritual Realm.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/3-firefight-chicago-signing/#e115

Kurkistan

Is there-- Can you explain the relationship between Spiritual DNA, Spiritual aspects, and the spiritweb, or are they all just terms for the same thing?

Brandon Sanderson

They are all similar terms for the similar stuff, yeah.

Kurkistan

Okay. So it's not like the core is Spiritual DNA then things as you spread out is all Spiritual aspect?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

We still don't fully understand Connection yet, but it's some kind of force, like gravity or quantum entanglement. Though, apparently you can directly damage or destroy Connections with things like Shardblades, lending further credence to your idea.

Spoiler

*after mulling it over a bit, he was very interested in this question* "It would be theoretically possible, because steel lines manifest themselves on the Spiritual Realm. Also, there are other things that can cut/interfere with steel lines."

I suspect at least some Connections can be used in a similar method to chemical bonds, attaching physical or cognitive things together to make them function as bigger, more cooperative wholes.

So, I think I agree with this. If certain Connections get severed, it might be the actual culprit of Spiritweb cracks, and lots of little Connections getting messed up by a person getting beat up or emotionally wracked could do this, I believe.

therunner · October 27, 2024

On 10/25/2024 at 11:20 PM, Trusk'our said:

The WoB does point out trauma as being the cause of Snapping, but I don't think it specifically states it must be purely mental.

As far as I understand, trauma can be used both to describe physical injuries or mental stress based on the context.

While true, I don't think mere physical trauma is enough.

For example, would having a massive surgery be enough to snap someone? It is massive physical trauma.
Or, if physical trauma is enough, nobility could render their children unconscious before beating them, to lessen the impact.

So I think it is the mental component that is the primary cause for snapping, which can be triggered by physical harm.

On 10/25/2024 at 11:20 PM, Trusk'our said:

We still don't fully understand Connection yet, but it's some kind of force, like gravity or quantum entanglement. Though, apparently you can directly damage or destroy Connections with things like Shardblades, lending further credence to your idea.

Well, in RoW we see it like literal lines, and WoBs suggest that Coinshots/Lurchers effectively see form and see Connection between metals and themselves.

As such, it is less a general field force, and more directed links. You can think of it as similar to e.g. magnetic flux tubes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_tube) or in QCD where the color charge is confined, leading to effectively 'tubes' of field between particles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_interaction).

On 10/25/2024 at 11:20 PM, Trusk'our said:

So, I think I agree with this. If certain Connections get severed, it might be the actual culprit of Spiritweb cracks, and lots of little Connections getting messed up by a person getting beat up or emotionally wracked could do this, I believe.

Fair enough.
I personally still do think that physical trauma alone is insufficient, however we do lack more evidence.

+Lewis Nethur · October 28, 2024

On 10/23/2024 at 4:51 PM, Trusk'our said:

Cracks in the Spiritweb allow for Investiture to enter, which is of great importance to many Cosmere magics.

What are the cracks though, mechanically speaking?

We know that these "cracks" can occur when physical injury, mental stress, or insanity is felt by a person. Allomancers can Snap from beatings or even in some rare cases from powerful emotions (Emotional Allomancy can even induce Snapping). Those who suffer from madness in some form can be communicated with by Shards and Cognitive Shadows more easily (like in MSH).

Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270-the-hero-of-ages-annotations/#e8025

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventy

The Reason for the Mistsickness

So, it finally comes out. I wonder at this numbers plot, as I think many readers will glaze over it and ignore it. I think others will read into it and figure out what it means very quickly, then feel that the reveal here isn't much of a revelation. Hopefully I'll get a majority in the middle who read the clues, don't know what they mean, but are happily surprised when it comes together. That's a difficult line to walk sometimes.

What is going on here is that the mists are awakening the Allomantic potential inside of people. It's very rough on a person for that to come out, and can cause death. Preservation set this all up before he gave his consciousness to imprison Ruin, so it's not a perfect system. It's like a machine left behind by its creator. The catalyst is the return of the power to the Well of Ascension. As soon as that power becomes full, it sets the mists to begin Snapping those who have the potential for Allomancy buried within them.

Many of these people won't be very strong Allomancers. Their abilities were buried too deeply to have come out without the mists' intervention. Others will have a more typical level of power; they might have Snapped earlier, had they gone through enough anguish to bring the power out.

My idea on this is that Allomantic potential is a little like a supersaturated solution. You can suspend a great deal of something like sugar in a liquid when it is hot, then cool it down and the sugar remains suspended. Drop one bit of sugar in there as a catalyst, however, and the rest will fall out as a precipitate.

Allomancy is the same. It's in there, but it takes a reaction—in this case, physical anguish—to trigger it and bring it out. That's because the Allomantic power comes from the extra bit of Preservation inside of humans, that same extra bit that gives us free will. This bit is trapped between the opposing forces of Preservation and Ruin, and to come out and allow it the power to access metals and draw forth energy, it needs to fight its way through the piece of Ruin that is also there inside.

As has been established, Ruin's control over creatures—and, indeed, an Allomancer's control over them—grows weaker when that creature is going through some extreme emotions. (Like the koloss blood frenzy.) This has to do with the relationship between the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm, and the Spiritual Realm—of which I don't have time to speak right now.

Suffice it to say that there are people who have Snapped because of intense joy or other emotions. It just doesn't happen as frequently and is more difficult to control.

Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/182-stormlight-three-update-5/#e3871

Oversleep

Is it possible to Soothe/Riot so hard that the person Snaps due to extreme emotions caused by emotional Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

I hadn't considered, but yes, that should work.

From this, I currently believe that these "cracks" are the dissonance between the physical, cognitive, and spiritual aspects of a person. When you get hurt, whether it be physical or mental, you create a disparity between your "perfect" spiritual self and who you are now, filtered through how you view yourself.

This crack leaves the opportunity for growth, either until your learn to accept it as a part of who you are (which is why some injuries stick even with Invested healing), or in some cases allowing a change in your Spiritweb more directly through Investiture attaching to it.

I actually find this rather beautiful as an allegory to how we learn and grow through our trials in real life, I have to say.

Anyway, Hemalurgic spikes might aggravate these cracks more than normal because they need to create a dissonance between your physical and spiritual self to function, creating an artificial pathway to your Spiritweb through physical injury (and even continuously cause throbbing as a side-effect of cognitive injury in Inquisitors, likely due to the large number of spikes they bore).

It could also be that Emotional Allomancy can control Hemalurgic constructs because the powerful emotions pressured on them briefly widens cracks in the Spiritweb made by their spikes, allowing for a bond to form between them.

This dissonance between the three aspects and Investiture could also potentially explain why people with extra Investiture heal better, such as with the Heightenings: your Investiture seeks to fill the cracks, close the gaps in your self, which has the effect of physically healing and toughening you.

Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/467-youtube-spoiler-stream-2/#e14746

Luke Beartline

Along the lines of BioChromatic Breath being akin to a person's soul, how would a Shardblade react to someone who does not have any Breath, would it cut them like an inanimate object?

Brandon Sanderson

No. Remember, one of the things with Breath is I consider Breath to be a part of someone's soul, but it is the extra part that the Cosmere has that non-Cosmere doesn't have. I don't know how far I want to lean into this, but there is definitely a part of me that thinks that Drabs, people who have given up their breath on Nalthis, are just like people from our world. That's what they are, that if we went to the Cosmere we would all be Drabs. Even on planets that aren't Nalthis, where you can't take part of that and give it away and things like that, people are invested. They are invested generally more than here.

Why do I do this? There's a couple reasons. One, it's really convenient for some narrative reasons. A lot of books I'm writing are these kind of action-adventure stories, and can human beings actually take the punishment that is delivered, let's say to Adolin in the end of Oathbringer? *noncommital negative sounds* He doesn't come off well from that, but could a human being really take that? I go back and forth. Humans are capable of some pretty incredible feats, particularly with adrenaline driving them, but my kind of blanket answer is everyone in the Cosmere has got a bit more Investiture; everyone's got something like Breath. Nalthians have something kind of extra special because they can use it in different ways, but everybody's got something like that.

It's leading to the fact that for instance, I highlighted this in the books, this part is canon: There are things about Rosharans that make it so that a lot of diseases have trouble getting a foothold. You do not have the bubonic plague on Roshar. You could maybe say this is because they are not living in close enough proximity to mammals for diseases to hop species as happens on our planet, which is a pretty valid point. Things that affect a horse or a cow (a lot of different diseases from cows come to us), things that affect a cow are much more likely to be able to affect a human than something that affects a chull being able to affect a human. Totally valid, but I also think that there is something more going on here.

This allows me to do fantasy stories where... In Warbreaker we don't have to be worrying about the next outbreak of smallpox, which legitimately they probably would have to be worrying about. It means that, while this is kind of a trope that people, trope is the wrong term, but that people in the past did not have as bad as teeth as we assume that we do because they did not eat the levels of sugars and starches that we do. Investiture also in the Cosmere means that you're not going to... Dalinar probably would not have a full set of teeth, even without being punched in the face and stuff, if he were a human from Earth. But on Roshar he's got just a little bit extra vitality, a little bit extra something, just like everyone on the planet, that is making him a little tougher and making him a little more disease resistant and some of these things. It makes the stories more fun for me to tell and also gives us some suspension of disbelief on some of these things. You do not have to worry about smallpox outbreaks on most planets. You do have to worry about catching the curse of the Elantrian disease and being thrown into a prison city, but smallpox, not as big of a deal.

Adam

Yeah, but you don’t have to worry about that too much anymore.

Brandon Sanderson

No, but I'm saying you could have to worry about things like that. Magical diseases, totally on the board, but the big plague they're dealing with in Roshar is the common cold that got brought across by some of the members of Seventeenth Shard, and that's going to die out pretty quickly. They will get over it and their immune system is... The common cold has come over multiple times before for reasons like that, colds just from another planet. Roshar, they've got three Shards. Basically if you want something like this to happen you go to a planet that's not quite as highly Invested where they might have a few more diseases, you pick one up, you bring it, and it spreads a little bit but then it dies off. That sort of thing happens a lot in the Cosmere. You do not have to worry about during the space age that people are going to be bringing lots of diseases across planets.

Thoughts to expand or contradict this theory?

I don't believe "dissonance" is the correct word, otherwise I mostly agree; I would phrase it more along the lines of, "a discontinuity or scar at the interfaces between the PR/CR/SR."

What is a "crack?"

It is a scar leftover from a past stress-concentration which resulted in a sufficient magnitude of strain to push an object/material beyond its breaking point. Breaking in this way, technically speaking, relieves said stress (supersonically in many cases...). In the cases where such breakage is non-catastrophic, an object/material might mostly return to its initial appearance after cracking, but it will forever bear a deep blemish and subtly altered flexibility, susceptibility to stress, internal friction, and many other properties.

Being bullied can cause stress/strain, living with schizophrenia can cause stress/strain, torture can cause stress/strain, and even common processes like the daily labors of being a skaa in the final empire was shown to capable of causing adequate stress/strain to initiate spiritual cracking...

Edit: to your points on the intended poetic nature of spiritweb cracks, I think that the interpretation I'm trying to suggest would make someone like kelsier, who is both literally and figuratively riddled with scars inside and out, even more iconic.

Edited October 28, 2024 by hwiles

What are Spiritweb cracks?

Recommended Posts

Trusk'our he/him

Brandon Sanderson

Oversleep

Brandon Sanderson

Luke Beartline

Brandon Sanderson

Adam

Brandon Sanderson

Through The Living Grub He/Him

Trusk'our he/him

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Djarskublar (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Questioner

Brandon Sanderson

Questioner

Brandon Sanderson

Questioner

Brandon Sanderson

Questioner

Brandon Sanderson

Questioner

Brandon Sanderson

Questioner

Brandon Sanderson

Argent

Brandon Sanderson

Argent

Brandon Sanderson

Argent

Brandon Sanderson

Argent

Brandon Sanderson

Through The Living Grub He/Him

Trusk'our he/him

therunner he/him

Trusk'our he/him

therunner he/him

Trusk'our he/him

Questioner

Brandon Sanderson

Kurkistan

Brandon Sanderson

Kurkistan

Brandon Sanderson

Aurimus

Brandon Sanderson

Aurimus

Brandon Sanderson

Aurimus

Brandon Sanderson

Oneyespike (paraphrased)

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

therunner he/him

+Lewis Nethur He/Him

Brandon Sanderson

Oversleep

Brandon Sanderson

Luke Beartline

Brandon Sanderson

Adam

Brandon Sanderson

Recently Browsing 0 members