HWYB a water bender in the cosmere?

[DoctaDajman]

Simple question. How would you build a water bender esq character in the cosmere. 

I wish so badly that there was a water aether or something very similar. I fear it would be unlikely because if you could make water wouldnt that cause an infinite loop which is impossible?  

If an aetherbound existed in a place where their aether already existed naturally would they be able to control it even if they didnt create it? 

[First of the Tide He/him]

What about a verdant aetherbound with a soulcaster

grow the verdant in the direction you want to go, then soulcast it into water. since vines grow to a greater volume than that of the water put on them, this is an infinite water hack, with a flowingish shape. Obviously not exactly perfect, but I cant come up with a function that waterbending works for that this doesn't. Sandmastery is also close, but doesn't work as well(yes, I know you can do it, but i'm saying not as well) if you need to, for example, put out a fire. But I think this works pretty well. It absorbs all water present, then effectively triples it in a new place. There is the issue of getting investiture for the soul caster, but if it's happening on like Taldain, I think it'll work out.

[First of the Tide He/him]

Actually I'm sure you could do something with AonDor, and, if you have a body of water which is considered as 'one thing', like a tidal wave, you might could Awaken it with breaths. Of course, then you have to both touch a tidal wave, and get away alive.

Actually, just THE OCEAN might work.  

[Clarkmon22 He/Him]

3 hours ago, First of the Tide said:

What about a verdant aetherbound with a soulcaster

grow the verdant in the direction you want to go, then soulcast it into water. since vines grow to a greater volume than that of the water put on them, this is an infinite water hack, with a flowingish shape. Obviously not exactly perfect, but I cant come up with a function that waterbending works for that this doesn't. Sandmastery is also close, but doesn't work as well(yes, I know you can do it, but i'm saying not as well) if you need to, for example, put out a fire. But I think this works pretty well. It absorbs all water present, then effectively triples it in a new place. There is the issue of getting investiture for the soul caster, but if it's happening on like Taldain, I think it'll work out.

you have to add investiture though, which I think is more valuable than water, and makes it less than infinite. also if you want to post again people that care would tell you to edit your old post, but I'm not one of those people. 

Edited December 2, 2025 by Ookla the Nine-Fingered
spag

[First of the Tide He/him]

good point. But Canticle and Taldain both have investiture radiating from the sky, so i think it might work out there.
Also, it usually merges posts automatically when I send back-to-back, and I didn't realize that doesn't work for longer intervals until literally that post. will keep in mind though

[DoctaDajman]

59 minutes ago, First of the Tide said:

good point. But Canticle and Taldain both have investiture radiating from the sky, so i think it might work out there.
Also, it usually merges posts automatically when I send back-to-back, and I didn't realize that doesn't work for longer intervals until literally that post. will keep in mind though

Yeah it is an annoying rule to edit if it is any length of time between. I want people to see new thoughts!

[Jult]

The Surge of Gravitation can sort of be used on water (WoB). If someone managed to get very skilled at that, it could be close to water bending.

Or maybe some combination of attractor and repeller fabrials? We've seen one that collects water from the air already in WoR. I imagine you could build a similar one with Steel instead of Iron that repels water too. What I'm picturing would be closer to a self-refilling water gun than water bending.. But that would still be a pretty handy tool for a Sprouter.

[Aliroz-The-Confused]

Spoiler

How would I build a Water Bender in the Cosmere?  I wouldn't.

Because waterbending makes no gosh-darn conceptual sense to me and I hate it.  Magic that works on what one calls "fresh water" should NOT work on what one calls "sea water" or "salt water" because those are two different things.  If you think they are the same, try drinking the latter.  If you think they are the same, try giving one to plants that need the other.  If you think they are the same, see what happens to a place when all the wells have the latter instead of the former.

If we didn't linguistically call them both "water", they'd be as separate in our imagination as wood and flesh.  I'm sure that there are languages where they are separate, or where what we call "sea water" has connotations of sadness/curse/death while what we call "fresh water" has connotations of life/blessing/clean.

"Brackish water" or "swamp water", in my opinion, ought to be considered a third thing, which cannot be substituted for the other two because plants and animals simply cannot substitute it for the other two.  This stuff would be associated with stasis because it's found in wetlands (stagnancy) and destroys storms (wetlands are natural storm-breakers, like mountains or deserts, because, in the way I would have my three-water-magics world's people conceptualize it storms are hot and cold air/water dancing and the moderate temperature of the stagnant "swamp-water" breaks the dance, and because storms are typically made of either "fresh water" or "sea water" and get confused when they come up against this third thing).

Wait, dang it, you meant "how would you, in existing Cosmere Magic systems, build a waterbender" not "How would you worldbuild waterbending if you got to make up a Cosmere magic system".  Spoilered for answering a different question so as to not derail the thread.

 

I think I'd have someone do steelpushing and Ironpulling on the trace metals within the water.

[First of the Tide He/him]

Spoiler

 

57 minutes ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:

How would I build a Water Bender in the Cosmere?  I wouldn't.

Because waterbending makes no gosh-darn conceptual sense to me and I hate it.  Magic that works on what one calls "fresh water" should NOT work on what one calls "sea water" or "salt water" because those are two different things.  If you think they are the same, try drinking the latter.  If you think they are the same, try giving one to plants that need the other.  If you think they are the same, see what happens to a place when all the wells have the latter instead of the former.

If we didn't linguistically call them both "water", they'd be as separate in our imagination as wood and flesh.  I'm sure that there are languages where they are separate, or where what we call "sea water" has connotations of sadness/curse/death while what we call "fresh water" has connotations of life/blessing/clean.

"Brackish water" or "swamp water", in my opinion, ought to be considered a third thing, which cannot be substituted for the other two because plants and animals simply cannot substitute it for the other two.  This stuff would be associated with stasis because it's found in wetlands (stagnancy) and destroys storms (wetlands are natural storm-breakers, like mountains or deserts, because, in the way I would have my three-water-magics world's people conceptualize it storms are hot and cold air/water dancing and the moderate temperature of the stagnant "swamp-water" breaks the dance, and because storms are typically made of either "fresh water" or "sea water" and get confused when they come up against this third thing).

True, but a big part of MoIs is based on the Identity & Public Perception of a thing. If, for example, smth is not perceived as a single object, it cannot be awakened as a single object, the parts must(usually) be awakened individually. This can also be seen in soulcasting; The Stick's Identity cannot be changed with Shallan's unskilled soulcasting, since it is so universally considered The Stick. Similarly, since, in the public mind of so many people (At least in English, on Earth) water is all the same, the water's Identity might even resist not being considered one thing by the magic, and so, in an interesting turn of events, unskilled water benders might be able to more universally control water than a more skilled water bender.

Also, on a chemical level, they are both largely H2O Molecules, just some are more or less pure solutes/colloids, but I don't know how much of chemistry works in the cosmere, since subatomic particles are different there

1 hour ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:

Wait, dang it, you meant "how would you, in existing Cosmere Magic systems, build a waterbender" not "How would you worldbuild waterbending if you got to make up a Cosmere magic system".  Spoilered for answering a different question so as to not derail the thread.

Too late

[+Kelkamer]

Big waterbender fan and I've thought about this more than is reasonable.

I think there's a nonzero chance a Willshaper or Stoneward can do it through Cohesion. Water, like soil, has a Cohesion factor property (something not everything has) which I think puts it in the running to be manipulated by that surge (i know it'sdescribeda bit different, soft axial connection, in world, but still). I think the Willshaper could do it with ice only, but a stoneward could add tension to water water then use their surge combo to move it.

 

I also think there's a nonzero chance that a A-steel/F-Duralumin twinborn could do it. Burning steel "connects" you to metals to push/pull on. I speculate that someone who can manipulate connection with F-Duralumin could manipulate things enough to burn steel and use duralumin to connect to water instead (potentially also connect to stone, cloth, whatever, other materials besides metal) and then push those. A spike for A-Iron would complete the set. 

Also, an Elantrian could pull it off. Maybe make an item that gives the user ability to waterbend.