Sensory abilities in the cosmere

[Sythrin]

I have recently thought about the ammount of different kind of abilities that manipulates their own senses or give them additional. And just for the fun of it, I wanted to make a list.
And yes, I know. I am thinking a bit too much about the Cosmere in my freetime.

Scadrial:
- Tinburning: Makes all your senses stronger. You can hear, see, smell better. But are also more sensbile against loud noise, bright light and pain.

- Bronzeburning: You can sense active investiture. Whenever somebody is burning a metal, tapping a metalmind or using a surge or another active invested art, than you can sense a pulse. Trained users, can distinguish the pulses and see what invested art is used, how strong or in some cases even in which applications, like knowing which emotion is being manipulated with emotional allomancy. They can also sense other investiture currents. Like Preservations wave of the well of ascension, the tones of roshar or the Current.

- Metalvision: Granted from 1 of 2 allomantic metals. Iron or Steel. While burning blue lines appear from your body pointing to metals (allomantic influencable metals, so almost everything except Aluminium, some of its alloys, and invested metals). Allowing you to sense metals around you. The upgraded version is the metalspike-vision, made by spiking ones eyes with certain spikes. Those can see metals more clearly, without burning too. They can see metals inside humans and small traces of it all around them. Making them even able to see someones heartbeat.

- Goldburning and Malatiumburning: Able to see past and alternatives lifes of yourself and others. This ability is not clear realy.

-Electrum and Atiumburning: The ability to see future vision in form of shadows of yours and others (depending on metals). And the capability to process it. Inclduing things that you dont see like attacks that come from behind you. Only other fortune telling abilities can interfere.

- Tintapping: You can store and tapping sensory abilites. Make yourself blind, deaf or painresistent for a while to make yourself see hear and similar better. It seems not to make one more sensible, like tinburning, but rather increases your range. Its not entirely clear how it differs. It can also store some other supernatural sense abilites, like bronzeburning and lifesensing (later).

- Duralumintapping: This one is a bit iffy. We dont know all things its capable of doing, but one of them is as a translation device. Under right usage. Somebody can understand and speak the language of a local land.

-Kelsiers mind reading abilites: As he became a cognitive shadow, he can touch the souls off people while he was in the cognitive realm. Seeing their inner thoughts and even influence them to a degree.

 

Nalthis:
- Perfect pitch and perfect color recognition. Not entirely sensory ability as more the understanding of the information you get to process. You can distinguish tones and colors perfectly.

- Lifesense: You get 3D like sense around you and you can sense life around you. In reality its probably the ability to sense static (and maybe innate) investiture. Investiture that lies dormant to be used for later. You can sense the base investiture of other humans and living forms. Though if they are drabs (less investiture than a normal human) they become unsensable. The stronger something is invested, generally the stronger the sense is triggered. People can as well sense Spren and other invested beings like items, if their lifesense is strong enough.


Roshar:

-Soulvision: The abiltiy to see into the cognitive realm. An ability that only soulcasters can do. They can look into the other realm. It also seems they can see to a certain degree the souls of other souls (but I am not sure.)

- Truthwatching: Not sure if its all Truthwatchers can do or only corrupted ones. It seems the later one. They can see different outcomes of the future in form of different visual cues. One of the Forms of power can do something similar. But the details are unknown.

- Stonetalking: The Willshapers (Maybe Stonewards too) can talk to stone and their memories. Learn from them. Not much explored so far.

- Bondsmithing: They have probably the widest area of possibility and changes from bondsmith to bondsmith slightly too. They can see connections between different things. Or can build connections to other things to learn about them. Like looking into their soul, see which object belongs to another and similar. The Highstorm-Radiant can also look through the eyes of the highstorm while the Siblings-Radiant can see and senese everything that happens in Urithiru.

-Envoyform: The Form of power, allows you to understand, speak and read different languages.

-Sprenvision: The ability to see Spren that otherwise would be invisble. Some Horneater and with some gemspikes in the eyes, you can see them.

-Fortunedrawing: Shallan has some fortune abilities, based on the ability to draw. She can draw potential future outcomes sometimes when she is in a drawzone.
 

Sel:
-Bloodseal-sensing: The only one that comes to mind from Sel. The ability to make trigger like reaction caused by blood. The only application is though the usage of fresh blood of a person on a door. If that person leaves through that door, a trigger signal is send to the caster.

Threnody:
-Blood/Fire-sensing: The cognitive shadows of that planet can sense too loud noises, sparks and especialy blood.

-Charred shared senses: The Charred can sense the emotions of their leader.

Drominad/ First of the Sun:
- Future Death vision: An ability granted and owened by a certain Aviar. The ability to see future possible deaths. Allowing the person to avoid this death.

- Mindsensing: Some animals on that planet can sense other people. Not entirely clear if its similar to life sense. But a certain kind of Aviar can shield the person from that.
 

Spoiler

-Current sensing: After consuming the worm paste from the perpendicularity. Some people get the ability to sense the current similar to Bronzeburning. But they have a more sofisticated sense. Allowing them disturbances in the current, to sense other islands in the cognitive realm. Having thuse the best navigation abilities in the cosmere.

Some unclear:
-There are some species that can sense Connection. Allowing them to find people with objects that they owned that builded a connection to it.
-Technic sense: People of the grand apparatus have the ability to interact with technology.
-Intent sensing: The primal aethers that can implent themselfs in people, can sense murderous intent to a certain degree to protect the host.


I think thats about it. Not including Shards for this list. They are a bit cheatery.

Edited October 16, 2025 by Sythrin

[Treamayne]

11 minutes ago, Sythrin said:

-Kelsiers mind reading abilites: As he became a cognitive shadow, he can touch the souls off people while he was in the cognitive realm. Seeing their inner thoughts and even influence them to a degree.

Just note, this does not seem to be about being  Cognitive Shadow, it has to do with touching a Cognitive Identity in Shadesmar - Also seen when Shallan touches Drehy's Cognitive Flame on Roshar.  OB Ch 89:

Spoiler

Living souls bobbed around, a swarm of them entering the Oathgate control chamber. One brushed Shallan. Drehy the bridgeman. For a brief moment she felt what it was like to be him. Worried for Kaladin. Panicked that nobody was in charge, that he would have to take command. He wasn’t a commander. You couldn’t be a rebel if you were in charge. He liked being told what to do—that way he could find a method to do it with style.

Drehy’s worries caused her own to bubble up. 

 

16 minutes ago, Sythrin said:

-Soulvision: The abiltiy to see into the cognitive realm. An ability that only soulcasters can do. They can look into the other realm. It also seems they can see to a certain degree the souls of other souls (but I am not sure.)

Not just people with access to the Suge of Transformation - as Venli can do it as well, thanks to the Surge of Transportation. 

 

17 minutes ago, Sythrin said:

Truthwatching: Not sure if its all Truthwatchers can do or only corrupted ones. It seems the later one.

Not just Renarin's Voidbinding, though that seems easier/more likely. We have this snippet from a pre-recreance Truthwatcher - OB Ch 85 Epigraph, WoB:

Spoiler

Quote

 

Don’t tell anyone. I can’t say it. I must whisper. I foresaw this.

—From drawer 30-20, a particularly small emerald

 

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Argent

Let's talk about Renarin, and Voidbinding. So, with that page we talked about, Renarin Voidbinds. I asked about visions, you pointed to Voidbinding chart, he Voidbinds. Is that using Stormlight to power abilities different from the Surgebindings we've seen?  

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. 

Argent

Is that what voidbinding is? 

Brandon Sanderson

No, but close. You're on the right track. We are gonna get into that, I'm not gonna tell you what the chart means, and things like that. But yeah, something really weird is happening there. 

Footnote: The chart referenced is the back endsheet in The Way of Kings.
Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017)

 

 

38 minutes ago, Sythrin said:

Sprenvision: The ability to see Spren that otherwise would be invisble. Some Horneater and with some gemspikes in the eyes, you can see them.

And most Singers (which is why some Horneaters inherited the ability) - RoW Ch 48:

Spoiler

Once across, Eshonai stepped up onto a boulder and took a deep breath, feeling the winds. Overhead, a few windspren swirled in the sky. Once the guards had crossed, some of the others started over as well. Everyone had wanted to come see the Plains where the monsters of the chasms lived.

One of the attendants was a curious woman who was the surgeon’s assistant. She climbed up onto the rock beside Eshonai, though her clothing—which enveloped her from neck to ankles and covered up her left hand for some reason—wasn’t particularly good for exploring. It was nice to see that there were some things that the listeners had figured out that the humans hadn’t.

“What do you see?” she asked Eshonai in the human tongue. “When you look at the spren?”

Eshonai hummed to Consideration. What did she mean? “I see spren,” Eshonai said, speaking slowly and deliberately, as her accent was sometimes bad.

“Yes, what do they look like?”

“Long white lines,” Eshonai said, pointing at the windspren. “Holes. Small holes? Is there a word?”

“Pinpricks, perhaps.”

“Pinpricks in sky,” Eshonai said. “And tails, long, very long.”

“Curious,” the woman said. She wore a lot of rings on her right hand, though Eshonai couldn’t tell why. It seemed like they would get caught on things. “It is different.”

“Different?” Eshonai said. “We see different?”

“Yes,” the woman said. “You seem to see the reality of the spren, or closer to it. 

 

41 minutes ago, Sythrin said:

Fortunedrawing: Shallan has some fortune abilities, based on the ability to draw. She can draw potential future outcomes sometimes when she is in a drawzone.

It's not about the Future, it's about Connection. The scene in the lait in WoR she draws Ash and Yalb, and both events were in the past (Ash's scene was WoK I-7), Similarly seen when Syl takes on Shallan's form in the Chasms, before She and Kaladin even meet Shallan. WoR Ch 9, WoB:

Spoiler

Quote

The pool in front of him glowed a deep violet. He’d noticed it earlier, but in the light of his sphere it had been harder to see. Now, in the dimness, the pool could reveal its eerie radiance.

Syl landed on the side of the pool, looking like a woman standing on an ocean’s shore. Kaladin frowned, leaning down to inspect her more closely. She seemed . . . different. Had her face changed shape?

“There are others like you,” Syl whispered.

She's channeling Connection to depict Shallan on the Beach in the Frostlands

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ccstat

In Words of Radiance, Shallan draws a picture of someone destroying a statue. If attentive, could that person have been aware of being "observed" at the time?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. I need more detail of what you're trying to get at here.

NeedsAdjustment

I think he's asking if Shalash(???) could have (or did) felt Shallan observing her.

Brandon Sanderson

Looking at it again, I realize I'm asking for more clarity than they'd be able to provide. I do understand the question, but at the same time, my answers can can confirm or deny things that are (sometimes false) assumptions underpinning questions. So when we get into something like this, that has to do with mechanics I haven't explained very well yet, I get very hesitant about answering.

So...I'll probably just RAFO this one. For now. Though look for a scene involving Syl where something similar happens, as they are related.

<Edited for Length and Relevance> Stormlight Three Update #4 (Oct. 8, 2016)

 

 

59 minutes ago, Sythrin said:

Charred shared senses: The Charred can sense the emotions of their leader.

As can Koloss under Hemalurgic Control. It is implied to be a Similar Emotion-based Control Bond. My Theory Here. 

 

1 hour ago, Sythrin said:

Drominad/ First of the Sun:
- Future Death vision: An ability granted and owened by a certain Aviar. The ability to see future possible deaths. Allowing the person to avoid this death.

- Mindsensing: Some animals on that planet can sense other people. Not entirely clear if its similar to life sense. But a certain kind of Aviar can shield the person from that.

IotED Spoilers

Spoiler

-Current sensing: After consuming the worm paste from the perpendicularity. Some people get the ability to sense the current similar to Bronzeburning. But they have a more sofisticated sense. Allowing them disturbances in the current, to sense other islands in the cognitive realm. Having thuse the best navigation abilities in the cosmere.

 

Please mark your SP5 Spoilers, it is still in the Spoiler Period.

Hope that helps