Forbidden Surgebinding *WaT spoilers*

[GG0z He/Him]

During WaT, Shallan combines her surges, Transformation and Illumination, by Soulcasting her lightweavings. My question is why it’s forbidden and if it hadn’t been forbidden before. On the Coppermind page for the Order of Lightweavers, it says that the ability was forbidden to humans. I want to know why.  Was it just forbidden on Roshar after the Oaths, because on Ashyn, Odium allowed people to surgebind unoathed.

Also, are there any other forbidden surgebinding techniques for other Orders of Radiants?

[Frustration]

We aren't sure. The only thing we know is that after Shallan uses it for the first time Abidi the Monarch says something along the lines of

Quote

"So you have learned substantiation. I thought that was forbidden to your kind, Odium will want to hear of this."

Personally I think it has to do with the restrictions Honor placed on Surgebinding, but even that's speculation.

[earthexile]

It seems to be the ability to imagine something and then, from scratch, make it real enough to matter and exist in the Physical world. Like a version of what a Shard does when they conjure life on a world, only it might be even crazier than that, because it seems like something that's not easy for them to do. Honor's account mentions discovering the Singers, and shepherding Humans from somewhere else, and finding them in places, but not making them. The beings he creates with Cultivation are primarily Cognitive, only kind of touching on the Physical world where "real people" exist. The sentient lifeforms of the Cosmere seem to be either Adonalsium's work, or there's some other reason they exist in places, but it's not the Shards doing it.

You can convince something that already exists to Transform, you can puppet an illusion around, you can bring random things to a semblance of life, you can bring a just-murdered guy back to life. But what Shallan did is take nothing and make there be a whole armored knight with a sword instead.

That's getting into the kind of divine shenanigans that could really wreck a planet if you started being silly with it. 

[Immortal Platypus]

15 minutes ago, earthexile said:

The sentient lifeforms of the Cosmere seem to be either Adonalsium's work, or there's some other reason they exist in places, but it's not the Shards doing it

I wouldn't say it's necessarily hard, just risky. Preservation didn't seem to struggle with making humans, it's just that Leras had to give up a significant portion of power in order to make them sentient. When Odium and Autonomy and others are out there, giving up enough of yourself to make you noticeably weaker than other shards isn't a great idea.

[Frustration]

53 minutes ago, Immortal Platypus said:

I wouldn't say it's necessarily hard, just risky. Preservation didn't seem to struggle with making humans, it's just that Leras had to give up a significant portion of power in order to make them sentient. When Odium and Autonomy and others are out there, giving up enough of yourself to make you noticeably weaker than other shards isn't a great idea.

Some are better than others.

Endowment probably can make life, but Taravangian admitted that he can't.