Why is water so common in the different magic systems of the Cosmere?

[HoidMyDrink]

Water is a common theme in the Cosmere. Shardblades materialize from mist with water beading down their length, frost cyrstalizes when using stormlight, the mists on Scadrial are water vapor (I think), in White Sand and in Tress water is exchanged for use of investature. Water is a common element. I wonder if there is a connection. Haven't seen much talk of this. Maybe I am overhtinking. 

[Treamayne]

48 minutes ago, HoidMyDrink said:

Water is a common theme in the Cosmere. Shardblades materialize from mist with water beading down their length, frost cyrstalizes when using stormlight, the mists on Scadrial are water vapor (I think), in White Sand and in Tress water is exchanged for use of investature. Water is a common element. I wonder if there is a connection. Haven't seen much talk of this. Maybe I am overhtinking. 

I'll come back and exapand my response with WoBs and other references when I have time after work, but you may want to check out This Thread. We don't have all the facts, but it appears much of what you ask has to do with how Investiture assumes physical and energy forms. Processes like sublimation (Solid to gas without intervening liquid phase) and deposition (gas to solid without intervening liquid phase) cause temperature shifts (and like any normal Dew Point process, the result is condensation. 

Luhel Bonds (Sand Mastery and Aethers, possibly others) are different in that they specifically require water, not that the water is a byproduct of converting Investiture into Energy or Matter. 

Hope that helps

[morcey2]

On 10/25/2024 at 5:03 PM, Treamayne said:

Luhel Bonds (Sand Mastery and Aethers, possibly others) are different in that they specifically require water, not that the water is a byproduct of converting Investiture into Energy or Matter. 

Has it been confirmed somewhere that Sand Mastery involves a Luhel bond?  Not arguing, I just haven't seen that before, but it would totally make sense.  I've only done a quick search and haven't found anything.  I'll search again after I get my stuff ready for church tomorrow. 

[Treamayne]

7 hours ago, morcey2 said:

Has it been confirmed somewhere that Sand Mastery involves a Luhel bond?  Not arguing, I just haven't seen that before, but it would totally make sense.  I've only done a quick search and haven't found anything.  I'll search again after I get my stuff ready for church tomorrow. 

You are right, I don't think it has been officially confirmed by-WoB; just considered true until/unless contradictory evidence appears - since Sand Mastery matches the legend of the Bone Aether so well and the description of a Luhel Bond in TotES matches Sand Mastery so well. Discussed at-length in this thread. 

[Duxredux he/him]

I'm not sure if we have anything concrete, but I can give you speculation. Full Cosmere spoilers, including SotD2 reading , since I'm not sure how much of the Cosmere you've read:

Spoiler

We learn in TLM (The Lost Metal) that certain planets have fields of Investiture that entities can utilize. The known case is that Twinsoul is limited in what he can do with Rosite on Scadrial because it lacks such a field. One option I see is that this absorption of Investiture also lowers the temperature (or something like that) which creates the condensation that Treamayne noted.

In TSM (The Sunlit Man), we learn that Investiture can be fed into a spren while they are manifesting in the Physical Realm that directly increases their mass. It's not simply that spren becomes less dense and spreads out further, mass is temporarily added. My current hypothesis is that Roshar has a field of Investiture that not only fuels the ambient spren, but also Skyeel flight, Chasmfiend buoyancy, bolstered the Rosharan immune system, and also summoning Shardblades to an extent. I think Shardblades can be summoned without external Stormlight, but that it is easier on the spren on the wielder if ambient Investiture in close proximity is absorbed which may be tied into temperature. This absorption of energy causes the temperature to fall, forming water or ice. I somewhat expect that the Heralds reform bodies in a similar process as Taln looked as if he had been swimming when he entered Kholinar at the end of WoK.

I can't remember the relevant scenes from TSM when Aux is summoned (and again, generally an audio book consumer), but I can't remember if Aux is described as dew forming on him when he is summoned on Canticle. At least in the SotD2 reading, the summoned Shardgun is described as coalescing from mist or smoke, but there is no mention of dew formation - making me suspect that First of the Sun does not have same ambient fields that facilitate the process. I think this water formation is highlighted to describe a subtle phenomenon. 

With regards to Radiants, the next thought is if they are abnormally powerful on Roshar because they are often unconsciously harnessing the ambient Investiture to fuel their arts, something similar to how when you blow a stream of air, the surrounding air absorbs some of that momentum and creates a much larger volume movement of air than expected, or electrical induction. Perhaps this mass movement of power in high Investiture environment causes flows of power that increases the effect, like Kaladin throwing all of his power into his shield to draw Parshendi arrows, causing ice to crackle, or when a Radiant swears an Oath and gets a boost of power from the Spiritual Realm with their Order emblazoned in ice. 

 

The Luhel bond and the Aethers of Lumar have a distinct separation from this, as it is a substance that directly fuels the effect. Water is just special there - as it is in huge swaths of chemistry, biology, and life in general. 

 

[alder24]

On 10/26/2024 at 12:09 AM, HoidMyDrink said:

Water is a common theme in the Cosmere. Shardblades materialize from mist with water beading down their length, frost cyrstalizes when using stormlight, the mists on Scadrial are water vapor (I think), in White Sand and in Tress water is exchanged for use of investature. Water is a common element. I wonder if there is a connection. Haven't seen much talk of this. Maybe I am overhtinking. 

I think you are overthinking. Water is a necessary ingredient of life, so of course it's a common theme in Cosmere because everywhere where life is, water has to be as well. And while water is important for Luhel Bond and Sand Mastery specifically, that's mostly it.

Mists on Scadrial are not made out of water (mist on Earth are not water vapor either, they are water droplets suspended in the air, steam is transparent), Mists on Scadrial are gaseous manifestation of investiture in the Physical Realm - Mists are just pure investiture like Stormlight or Breaths are, not water. Investiture pulled into the Physical Realm manifests as solids (god metals), liquids (Shardpools), or gasses, but those are still pure investiture, not something that's made out of elements we know on Earth.

And the water appears when Shardblades materialize not because it's special, but because of coldness - a gaseous form of investiture is changed directly into a solid form, which makes things cold and that makes water vapor condense into liquid on the surface of the cold Shardblade. The same applies to frost appearing when using Stormlight. 

Spoiler

Questioner

Why does Stormlight make things cold?

Brandon Sanderson

It’s not the Stormlight, it’s condensation because something is going directly from a gas into a solid. The coldness is caused by that, it’s not necessarily that the Stormlight is making things cold, but that the Shardblade is condensing.

Boskone 54 (Feb. 17, 2017)