The "scale" of amount of invested-ness

[bbQchickennn]

Hey everyone! I've spent the last few years going from being introduced to the cosmere to getting nearly caught up ( haven't read a couple short stories, Yumi, or the new new one that just came out).  

I read Sunlit Man and Warbreaker one after another and I'm very confused about "how invested" people from different planets are.  It was suggested that Nomad being sort of "topped off" on investiture is only a handful of Breath Equivalent Units, but on Nalthis five or six breaths is hardly enough to do anything at all and we see characters with hundreds and thousands of breaths who don't seem particularly "more magical" than a full Radiant.

 

What's going on here?

[Treamayne]

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5 hours ago, bbQchickennn said:

Hey everyone! I've spent the last few years going from being introduced to the cosmere to getting nearly caught up ( haven't read a couple short stories, Yumi, or the new new one that just came out).  

You've posted this to the Arcanum Section, which is for discussion of the Coppermind Arcanum (the site for indexing Words of Brandon (WoB)). The topic belongs in Cosmere Discussion (the section for discussing two or more Shardworlds). The main forum page has these descriptions right next to the name:

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5 hours ago, bbQchickennn said:

I read Sunlit Man and Warbreaker one after another and I'm very confused about "how invested" people from different planets are.  It was suggested that Nomad being sort of "topped off" on investiture is only a handful of Breath Equivalent Units, but on Nalthis five or six breaths is hardly enough to do anything at all and we see characters with hundreds and thousands of breaths who don't seem particularly "more magical" than a full Radiant.

Invested, in these cases, are referring to different things. For example, a Mistborn is invested to about the same amount as a Radiant (both magics are End-Positive, and the Investiture is coming from an outside source - Metal and Light respectively). Whereas Vasher is highly invested in Warbreaker because of the breaths he holds, but Lightsong is more invested - despite only having a Single Divine Breath, that breath is much stronger than normal BioChromatic Breath. An Elantrian is more invested - but that is because they are constantly Connected to the Dor (which is why they glow faintly in darkness and why they can survive without food - because the Dor sustains them).

So, "Invested" could mean the investiture being held in one of the realms (Physical like Breath, Cognitive like Dor, Spirtual like Divine Breath/Nahel Bonds), it could mean the amount of change to a character's Spiritweb (A Misting is more invested than a normal Skaa - since their Spiritweb has the extra bit that allows them to burn metals). Invested could also be a temporary change in one of the realms due to applied investiture (like Soulstamps). Without knowing the specific chapter and quote you are referencing, I'm afraid I cannot be more concrete in the answer that applies to your reference in Sunlit Man. 

Hope that helps

Edited September 26, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[DoctaDajman]

9 hours ago, bbQchickennn said:

Hey everyone! I've spent the last few years going from being introduced to the cosmere to getting nearly caught up ( haven't read a couple short stories, Yumi, or the new new one that just came out).  

I read Sunlit Man and Warbreaker one after another and I'm very confused about "how invested" people from different planets are.  It was suggested that Nomad being sort of "topped off" on investiture is only a handful of Breath Equivalent Units, but on Nalthis five or six breaths is hardly enough to do anything at all and we see characters with hundreds and thousands of breaths who don't seem particularly "more magical" than a full Radiant.

 

What's going on here?

I would say a large part of why breaths seem to be so costly to use for awakening is because you are literally making an inanimate object act on its own. That take a bunch of Investiture. We have seen kinetic Investiture do some really wild stuff but making a completely inanimate object behave as if it has intention to do something it was never meant to do takes a lot.  

Not to mention you are working on that object in a different way. If a windrunner or coinshot wants to shoot an object forward they are using magic directly on the object to make it move. Like throwing it. An awakener can launch a rock with devastating results... in fact they used to be walking talking siege engines with some rope, breath, and boulders. But the way they throw the object is by making another object be so invested that it can precieve its command and the world around it. 

How does the cloak know where the arrows are? Because it has so much innate investiture it gains invested sight of sorts! Without which it would be unable to fulfill its command. 

A lashing on a rock doesnt require any of that. Just raw magic.

The rope that throws the rock once it is loaded up with breaths is closer to a human than it is the rock itself. That is why Vasher has his list of invested object types. To quantify the scale they exist on. 

While awakening is unremarkable in terms of raw power as the other invested arts, there is something so beautiful about that final scene where the banners and tapestries come to life at a ranged command and take out an entire squad of people before they can process what is happening. The ground turning white instead of the gray is just the icing on the cake, especially paired with his aura throwing off a prism of colors off of whites specifically.  Give that man gold compounding and I dare say you have a contender for top 3 scariest nonshards in the Cosmere easily. 

[Nitpicking]

16 hours ago, Treamayne said:

... Whereas Vasher is highly invested in Warbreaker because of the breaths he holds, but Lightsong is more invested - despite only having a Single Divine Breath, that breath is much stronger than normal BioChromatic Breath ...

Spoiler below for Warbreaker:

Spoiler

Vasher is also Returned, though, he has a Divine Breath. He just knows a trick to conceal it.

 

[Treamayne]

4 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

Spoiler below for Warbreaker:

  Hide contents

Vasher is also Returned, though, he has a Divine Breath. He just knows a trick to conceal it.

 

True, should have referenced Vivenna instead - though the point of regular breaths compared to Only a divine breath stands. 
It's what I get for posting tired

Edited September 27, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

...Did someone just correct Treamayne?

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

16 minutes ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

...Did someone just correct Treamayne?

WHAT

HOW DID SUCH A THING HAPPEN

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

26 minutes ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

...Did someone just correct Treamayne?

10 minutes ago, Kansas Stormcursed said:

WHAT

HOW DID SUCH A THING HAPPEN

Guys

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

...Did someone just correct Treamayne?

It's not the first time, and won't be the last. . .