Alethi codes of war surgebinding power in artwork

[Nepene he/him]

I was rereading way of kings when i noticed something curious in the artwork.

 

http://brandonsanderson.com/images/wok/tWoK_EPHEMERA-1_CODES-webres.jpg

 

You can see on the right that there is a robed man dodging a sword. He is presumably using a surge to bind half his weight upwards and meditating while dodging an attack.

 

On the left another man, also in robes, is catching a sword in his bare hands. It's possible that he is likewise using a surgebinding power, like the ability to reshape metal to make it dull, or the ability to bind their flesh to make it harder.

 

Either or both pictures also hint at something else. The surgebinding powers were used on humans, not just against whatever void monsters exists.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Unless that was training, of course.

[Nepene he/him]

Unless that was training, of course.

 

Perhaps, though if so I shall be sad at the lack of immersion since Mythbusters busted it being doable to safely catch a blade in your hand.

 

And given that he is also wearing a robe, I think it is unlikely he is a pure soldier.

[Inkthinker]

Mythbusters busted catching a katana blade, which is (to be fair) the sort most often seen in that myth. It doesn't work because A)the blade is thin, B)the blade is REALLY sharp, and C) when your hands come together around the blade, they get cut because it's a really thin, sharp blade.

 

Shardblades come in many shapes, some of which are wide enough that it might concievably work. Though I wouldn't want to try it. Rule of Cool still rules the school.

[Krelian]

You'd need a ton of force to instantly arrest the blade mid-swing, especially with a larger/wider sword with more mass. It's not physically impossible, but even with a very wide blade, it's incredibly unlikely.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Perhaps, though if so I shall be sad at the lack of immersion since Mythbusters busted it being doable to safely catch a blade in your hand.

 

And given that he is also wearing a robe, I think it is unlikely he is a pure soldier.

 

I meant more along the lines of 'they may have been training surgebinding' instead of 'they may have been fighting other humans with surgebinding'.

[Leuthie]

Omg. You can't catch a blade but you can swallow light and use it to switch the direction of gravity?

[Nepene he/him]

I meant more along the lines of 'they may have been training surgebinding' instead of 'they may have been fighting other humans with surgebinding'.

 

Ah yeah I agree, good point, they could be doing that as well.

[Truthless he/him]

I can't imagine a Surgebinder would keep from using his powers to defend himself, even against another human.

[Krelian]

Omg. You can't catch a blade but you can swallow light and use it to switch the direction of gravity?

 

Given Brandon's explanation of Roshar's magic thus far, yes 

[Cracknut he/him]

Those swords don't look like Shardblades. More like common swords used by common soldiers. It shouldn't be that hard for a skilled Surgebinder. 

[hoser he/him]

Good catch!  I completely ignored those illustrations.  In the one on the upper right, the indicated sword trajectory also looks strange.  Reverse lashing on the ground perhaps?

[Windrunner he/him]

If Dalinar's apparent "super-strength" is a Radiant power, perhaps this is someone using that to catch a sword.

 

The problem with a reverse lashing to the ground is that it requires physical contact, and that guy is clearly floating. Perhaps he simply double or triple lashed it to the ground, and the motion is the guy struggling to hold onto it?

[hoser he/him]

The problem with a reverse lashing to the ground is that it requires physical contact, and that guy is clearly floating. Perhaps he simply double or triple lashed it to the ground, and the motion is the guy struggling to hold onto it?

 

Given your name, I should just let you tell me.

To lash the sword, wouldn't he have to touch it? Which he isn't doing either. 

I assumed that he reverse lashed the ground before floating up.  The motion looks like a sweeping 150 degree arc, which is not how I would indicate a person struggling with something that is stuck to the ground.  A reverse lashing wouldn't affect the guy as much if he was in contact with the ground, but it would affect the free end of the sword most strongly.

[Windrunner he/him]

Well, reverse lashings require continuous contact. A basic lashing does not. So he could have touched the sword prior to the drawing, which is what I meant. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

 

I guess I view it differently than you, I see him as in the beginnings of a swing, but then finding the sword too heavy for himself.

[hoser he/him]

Well, reverse lashings require continuous contact. ...

Good catch.  So I'm clearly wrong.  Maybe the floating guy is demonstrating mad dodging skills.  If the guy was touching the sword to lash it during the swing, wouldn't the artist portray the hand trajectory also? 

[Windrunner he/him]

I dunno dude, I'm just making suggestions here. I'm sure the "in-world" artist could take liberties with his drawings if he wanted to. If his purpose was more to portray the existence of magic, rather than show precisely how it was performed.

[Alatar he/him]

I haven't noticed, thank you for sharing.

 

I've studied it a bit and the upper right one seems to me more like the sword is passing "through" the body of the levitating guy (monk?).

 

Also, the one in the upper left would be (to me) more consisten with a Shardblade. We were discussing in another thread about the possibility of someone investing themselves (as with stormlight) so that a Shardblade couldn't cut them. You may be strong enough (with stormlight or a surge) to hold a sword swing like that but, unless you harden you skin, you'd be cut anyway. With a Shardblade, it doesn't need to be true if you have invested your hands with enough energy to make them impenetrable to a shardblade.

 

OR... these two are surges we haven't seen yet, which is probably the most likely (well, apart from the levitation, that's for sure).   they refer to different surges :upper right refers to the lashings we saw in the book, but the others don't, maybe the lower ones refer to lashings we haven't seen yet.

 

What about the other two drawings? They're not obvious surges but see...

 

Upper drawings: unarmed against armed.

 

Lower drawings: armed combat, left blade vs blade and right blade vs spear.

 

Maybe it refers to lighteyes / darkeyes, you know that lighteyes are the only ones allowed to use blades. Darkeyes use spears (or, of course, unarmed combat). I remember Dalinar saying that there are parts of the philosophic writings he follows (I don't if TWoK or another writings) were it's stated that darkeyes are better than lighteyes. I've always wondered why, since I read it.

 

Not much speculation in my post, just ramblings...

Edited March 25, 2013 by Alatar