Are cognitive shadows too much invested for gaining additional investiture from different Shards?

[Sythrin]

Like if you would give a Herald, Returend or Fused a piece of Lerasium or some biochramatic breath. Would their natural physiology resist it?

[Trusk'our he/him]

10 hours ago, Sythrin said:

Like if you would give a Herald, Returend or Fused a piece of Lerasium or some biochramatic breath. Would their natural physiology resist it?

Returned, such as Vasher or the Godking can have a significant surplus of BioChromatic Breath, ranging at minimum in the tens of thousands.

Returned in general would be Invested enough with their Divine Breath to make notably harder to form a Nahel Bond with a Radiant Spren, but it is still achievable under the right circumstances.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/3-firefight-chicago-signing/#e69

Argent

Can a Returned like Lightsong go to Roshar and form a bond with a spren?

Brandon Sanderson

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.

We know from Nale that Heralds can form Nahel Bonds, possibly because they're generally counted as being less Invested than Returned (though I assume this discounts their consumption of Stormlight and some of their innate Heraldic abilities).

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/518-shardcast-interview/#e16173

Argent

If we are looking at very highly Invested beings, we have Yumi, and we are told that she is more Invested than Elantrians, more Invested than Returned. Let's compare Yumi, Elantrians, and Heralds. Who is most Invested, who is least Invested?

Brandon Sanderson

Of those, probably Heralds... The thing is, the Heralds varied. How in tune and aligned they are with their oaths, their promise... It wasn't Oaths, but they did promise certain things when they became Heralds. It was pre Knights Radiants, it's not as formalized as Oaths. How in line with the power of Honor, how in line with the kind of natural Investiture of Roshar--which is separate from Honor, Cultivation and Odium--are they, how can they draw upon that. I will call them the least of the three though.

Argent

So Heralds on the bottom, and Yumi on top, and Elantrians in the middle?

Brandon Sanderson

Yumi on top, but Yumi's very close to an Elantrian. They're within the same conversation. And most of the yoki-hijo were traditionally in the past less, they've gained Investiture over time.

Hope this is enough to satisfy your question!

Edited October 18, 2025 by Trusk'our

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

2 minutes ago, Sythrin said:

Like if you would give a Herald, Returend or Fused a piece of Lerasium or some biochramatic breath. Would their natural physiology resist it?

We do know that dragons are too invested for surge binding, implying that there is such thing as ‘too invested’ but we are not sure what else this applies to (treamayne is going to come over in 2 seconds and not only quote the WoB I am thinking of, but also 50 others)