Biochromatic Resonances

[Trusk'our he/him]

There were no WoBs I could find on this specific subject, but if an Invested person were to collect Breath, would they potentially begin to manifest a new Resonance?

For example, let's say some Scadrian Metalborn mercenaries Worldhop over to Nalthis and use their powers to become a successful troop. They excel, particularly with no competing Metalborn, and get quite wealthy. They proceed to hoard Breath. 

There's definitely some reasoning for it going either way, but I personally think it's possible for the mercenaries to start manifesting new Resonances. 

Biochromatic Breaths are considered closer to raw Investiture than things like Allomantic or Feruchemical powers (as Breath is specifically proposed to be a target for H-nicrosil).

However, using Breath for Awakening requires it to become kinetic and take a more focused function, which I think might make it closer to a power in terms of Resonance production. Maybe using certain Commands could change the type of Resonance. Self-Awakening might also affect Resonance potential, depending on its versatility. 

It could also be that just having the Breath is enough, and holding it while using another power will Connect the two sources over time, generating a Resonance.

All in all, I'm quite curious to hear what others think of this.

Edited November 21, 2024 by Trusk'our

[Treamayne]

11 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

All in all, I'm quite curious to hear what others think of this.

We do have this WoB:

Spoiler

yulerule

Okay, so Twinborn have [resonances], but full Mistborn don't, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

yulerule

So then I assume that a nonmagical person, like someone who doesn't have magic, holding the Bands of Mourning will not have no perks.

Brandon Sanderson

I would say they would not.

yulerule

Will a Twinborn that's holding the Bands of Mourning still have their original perk?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

yulerule

Or, if a Ferring is holding the Bands, and they use just one ability, will they develop a perk, tied to the one second ability they are using?

Brandon Sanderson

The longer they use it, the more likely that this is to happen.

yulerule

Using Investiture a lot over a long period changes your Spiritweb. So what happens if a nonmagical uses the Bands for a while?

Brandon Sanderson

Same thing that would happen to someone else, um, it would have a definite effect on them. *laughter* It would change them, as... in similar ways. Not exactly the same, but in similar ways.

JordanCon 2018 (April 21, 2018)

So a Resonance, as we currently understand it, is developed when two powers are used regularly enough to cause changes to the Spiritweb. Based on that, I doubt just holding BioChromatic Breath will do anything - even if you have some other Manifestation of Investiture.

Then, when you look are using Breath - (known) Awakening isn't going through your Spiritweb - you are sending the Breath out to create a fake "Soul" for something (object, lifeless, etc.), allowing it to follow one or more Commands. So, again it's hard to see how the two poweres would interact in the Spiritweb to cause a Resonance. That said, if fan theories about other methods of using Breath (like the Memory Command) are correct, and that would allow the two to interact within the Spiritweb, then it might be possible.

Spoiler

Quote

Darth Vizious

Could you make a Lifeless out of someone killed with a Shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson

Shardblades sever the soul from the body, but Awakening makes a "fake" soul for a body, so how the soul left doesn't matter.

General Twitter 2015 (Nov. 1, 2015)

Quote

Questioner

So the lighteyes that get Soulcast into stone, can they be Awakened?

Brandon Sanderson

*pause* So… Yes, but their soul is gone. When they get Soulcast into stone it is only the corpse, so yes they could.

Questioner

Would it be a lifeless or a-- Would it be like Awakening something inorganic or would them once being alive help?

Brandon Sanderson

The fact that they were once alive will help. There's a Spiritual Connection that still exists on the Spiritual Realm and that is going to help. But you're not going to get the person back. The fact that it is the exact form of a person is going to be really helpful. It would be a lot easier to Awaken that than it would be to Awaken other stone.

Shadows of Self release party (Oct. 5, 2015)

 

Hope that helps.

Edited November 21, 2024 by Treamayne
SPAG

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

16 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

There were no WoBs I could find on this specific subject, but if an Invested person were to collect Breath, would they potentially begin to manifest a new Resonance?

For example, let's say some Scadrian Metalborn mercenaries Worldhop over to Nalthis and use their powers to become a successful troop. They excel, particularly with no competing Metalborn, and get quite wealthy. They proceed to hoard Breath. 

There's definitely some reasoning for it going either way, but I personally think it's possible for the mercenaries to start manifesting new Resonances. 

Biochromatic Breaths are considered closer to raw Investiture than things like Allomantic or Feruchemical powers (as Breath is specifically proposed to be a target for H-nicrosil).

However, using Breath for Awakening requires it to become kinetic and take a more focused function, which I think might make it closer to a power in terms of Resonance production. Maybe using certain Commands could change the type of Resonance. Self-Awakening might also affect Resonance potential, depending on its versatility. 

It could also be that just having the Breath is enough, and holding it while using another power will Connect the two sources over time, generating a Resonance.

All in all, I'm quite curious to hear what others think of this.

I'm struggling to find it off the cuff, but I believe there's a WoB that explains that Breaths are not 100% identity-less; they're generic enough to be freely passable between human bodies, but they do carry some innate "memory" of their original bestower. This isn't typically enough to have any meaningful effect on the recipient's soul, but I would expect it to completely preclude the creation of Breath-based Resonance phenomena on the basis that every cumulative breath is going to be slightly divergent from the others. From an alternative perspective...one could also argue that the Heightenings themselves are a foundational manifestation of Resonance rather than an "intended" consequence of participation in Endowment's system of Awakening.

(Highly speculative)

[Duxredux he/him]

Now this most likely wouldn't be considered a resonance, but we have at least one WoB of how an Allomantic Awakener could potentially pull off stunts unavailable to anyone else so far.

Spoiler

Questioner

In Awakening an object when you give it the sort of Command like, go get the keys, or something. How does that object perceive the world around it? Since it doesn't have standard human senses, how does it see? How does it touch?

Brandon Sanderson

It is not--

Moderator

Repeat the question.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh… go ahead.

Moderator

The question was, how do Awakened objects actually perceive the world.

Brandon Sanderson

…The closest correlation you have to this is how Inquisitors see.

Questioner

Okay, following up on that say, someone who has-- say someone with bronze who-- a bronze Misting managed to somehow get access to Breath and Awaken would he then be able to tell that object "Hey I sense this Allomancer over there, can you find it".

Brandon Sanderson

That is not outside the realm of possibility.

JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)

BioChroma is the power of life and it follows patterns of life. Just spitballing this, since there's a host of reasons why there could be conflicts and issues, but it wouldn't surprise me if a Feruchemist could place a seed of power into a Metalmind that makes it a valid target for a transfer of Breath (possibly with unknown prep). We learn from Nomad's experiments with Sunhearts that it is much harder to put Investiture into a non-living object, but putting a seed of power into the Sunheart made it a valid target for Commands as if to the living. This might make Awakening metal much, much simpler, though presumably it would still be a Type III BioChromatic entity without sapience, without the necessary core of power that formed Nightblood. The Command might need work too.

Again, not what I would consider a Resonance considering Resonances are still a big ol' question mark as far as I'm aware. We can look at possible combos with known powers. Here's some WoBs about Awakened Metalminds. Last one is has a spoiler that I redacted.

Spoiler

Quote

Questioner

Can a coppermind be Awakened?

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible.

Questioner

With the memories already in it?

Brandon Sanderson

This is going to be harder because those memories are going to be keyed to someone else, who, by nature, would not be the individual that it was made into. You would have to key those memories to who the metalmind was becoming. There would be an extra step in there; It wouldn't just naturally be that way. We're talking wild, wild, these are possible, but far out, stuff. Possible, but there is an extra step in there.

Skyward release party (Nov. 6, 2018)

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Brandon Sanderson

Awakened metalminds are a RAFO. Yeah, of course they are.

Secret Project #5 Reveal and Livestream (March 22, 2024)

Quote

Argent (paraphrased)

Between the Awakened steelmind from The Sunlit Man, and the Awakened metalminds mentioned in <REDACTED>, this is <REDACTED> now we've heard about Awakened metalminds in the future of the cosmere. What makes Awakening a steelmind valuable in a spaceship, presumably as some kind of ship AI, if regular steel metalminds store physical speed; I would've expected a zincmind instead, for its mental speed capabilities. 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO.

C2E2 2024 (April 26, 2024)

 

 

Edited November 26, 2024 by Duxredux

[Treamayne]

58 minutes ago, Duxredux said:

Here's some WoBs about Awakened Metalminds.

Just keep in mind that it is unlikely that those examples are using BioChroma (just as Father Machine was Awakened, but not with BioChroma):

Spoiler

Edited for Length and Relevance:

Argent

There's smoke involved, there's eating of souls, there's a whole bunch of things. So what I do want to ask is: one, was the father machine Awakened using Breaths, using Nalthian Awakening? Or are you using Awakening as Lightweaving or Bondsmithing which is an overarching system in the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

It's the second. This wouldn't exist in the pre-space-age as much; by space age there's a certain terminology that is going between... basically it's starting with the arcanists and moving to the general population. What certain themes in the Cosmere magics mean. And so when Hoid says "this is an Awakened machine" his audience understands what that means. It does not necessarily mean Breaths Awaken, but Breaths are one of the main ways that people see things be Awakened. You should be noticing those parallels, but that's a term that in the Cosmere is becoming genericized to mean un-living object being given some measure of sentience and even sapience by application of Investiture, Commands, and these sorts of things. By this point they've all interacted with various Awakened machines of sorts in the future Cosmere. They know what this means. They've talked to an Awakened computer.

Shardcast Interview (July 30, 2023)