Bondsmith Boons

[Trusk'our he/him]

The Old Magic (at least the more modern rendition directly stemming from Cultivation and the Nightwatcher) seems a bit like it is hand-wavy on just how it works. Presumably there is an infusion of Investiture in many cases, but other than that it's pretty mysterious.

I wonder though, isn't it pretty convenient that the only known Spren to be capable of giving Boons and Curses (Cultivation doesn't count) is also a Bondsmith Spren?

I hypothesize that the Boons and Curses are merely a matter of complex Bondsmithing, adding, changing, and deleting Connections in order to shape the person receiving the boon/curse and their Investiture appropriately.

[Frustration]

Well that would explain a lot of the boons, such as being able to change someone's race, or to make people almost spren. That doesn't explain how she could get cloth or gemstones, make someone immune to fatigue, or a few of her other abilities.

[Trusk'our he/him]

13 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Well that would explain a lot of the boons, such as being able to change someone's race, or to make people almost spren. That doesn't explain how she could get cloth or gemstones,

Well, for material items it could be done via trading with other people. Cultivation has followers and agents. Or, I suppose it could be Soulcasting and that would muck things up a bit for my original idea assuming it cannot be replicated with sufficient Connection fiddling.

14 minutes ago, Frustration said:

make someone immune to fatigue, or a few of her other abilities.

Personally, I think it could.

My current thought process is that most forms of magic rely on some form of Connection manipulation at their core.

Elantris spoilers:

Spoiler

AonDor for example appears to work in many ways by harnessing Connection.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/508-dragonsteel-2022/#e15860

Questioner

Could you use AonDor to manipulate Connection? If so, would a real AonDor smarty be able to do something similar to a Bondsmith?

Brandon Sanderson

The short answer to your question is: yes. Let me give some explanation.

Even when you are seeings some things happening in Elantris itself, you are seeing them manipulate Connection. It is mostly reinforcing Connection, but it is, in a way, manipulation. Rewriting Connection, rewriting Identity are both things that they can do. So with enough power, with enough smartiness, what a Bondsmith can do can be done.

In fact, we have seen short-range Elsecalling done by… Obviously Elsecalling’s not Bondsmithing, but you know that a Bondsmith powered a big Elsecalling [to migrate from Ashyn], one of the big things you’ve seen a Bondsmith do is get people between planets. And you have seen people use AonDor to Elsecall. You’ve seen them Lightweave, you’ve seen them do a lot of these things. They also could do some of this same stuff.

Basically, rule of thumb is: almost anything in the cosmere that is possible can be replicated with AonDor with the right program. But you may need an injection of Investiture in certain ways.

 

It does appear after re-reading the WoB though that it is not purely Connection manipulation though, so I may have to drop that previous assumption of mine down a peg. Still comes into play for most magics though, I'm thinking.

[Treamayne]

10 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

I hypothesize that the Boons and Curses are merely a matter of complex Bondsmithing, adding, changing, and deleting Connections in order to shape the person receiving the boon/curse and their Investiture appropriately.

Personally, I always thought Boons/Curses were more like a very advanced (Selish Spoilers)

Spoiler

version of Forgery. Where forgery mostly edits Identity, Boons and Curses seem to make changes to two or more spiritual attributes:

• Identity
• Connection
• Fortune
• Innate Investiture

 

[Oranjejuicemonki He/Him]

31 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Personally, I always thought Boons/Curses were more like a very advanced (Selish Spoilers)

  Hide contents

version of Forgery. Where forgery mostly edits Identity, Boons and Curses seem to make changes to two or more spiritual attributes:

• Identity
• Connection
• Fortune
• Innate Investiture

 

I've never thought of that before but it makes sense.

Plus, since your rank is Nightwatcher right now you'd be the one to know.

[Returned he/him]

I always thought about it as being a channeling of Cultivation's power, granted to the Nightwatcher by Cultivation (whom Cultivation allows to hold court in her stead). That conduit to a living Shard is why boons are possible for the Nightwatcher, while we never see the Stormfather nor Sibling do anything similar. The boon Dalinar asks is beyond the Nightwatcher but I interpreted that as being beyond her ability to understand more than her ability to grant.

The material goods I assumed were things the Nightwatcher/Cultivation obtained in more conventional ways-- she offered Nightblood only because she happened to have it (or had the ability to get it) at the time. Supernatural abilities seem accessible via enough Investiture, not unlike how Harmony just made Spook Mistborn. I like the Connection angle, especially since Connection does increasingly seem to be one of the most fundamental and consequential elements of the Cosmere. But the boon/curse setup is, I think, not unique to a Bondsmith spren so much as it is unique to a Shard/Splinter duo in close proximity and general agreement with one another.