Does Investiture have Physical, Spiritual and Cognitive Aspects?

[Isomere]

The term Investiture is very hard to define, and seems to be divided into various types. Brandon has called all of these the Power of Creation, but has also made clear distinctions between the various subgroups. I am wondering if these correlate to Spiritual, Physical and Cognitive Investiture. 

 

1) Chunks of Adonalsium: So far this includes Shards, Splinters, innate Investiture, and the residue in Slivers. At conception, humans are given innate Investiture from all the local Shards. This stuff is permanent which makes me think it is almost purely spiritual. It can be stolen by Hemalurgy which also suggests a spiritual nature. It does not directly fuel anything, but rather allows access to the other two types of Investiture. 

 

2) Physical Body of a Shard: Each shard leaks energy into the physical world where it becomes Liquid, Gas or Solid. This can be used as fuel for any type of magic on any planet. Expending this weakens the Shard temporarily, but the Body can be reformed over time. Accessing the Shard's Body provides temporary Investiture. For example, picking up enough Liquid Essence in a Shardpool can turn someone into a Co-Shardholder. Once the pool is used up they lose Investiture and only retain the residue of a Sliver.

 

3) Focus-Accessed Investiture: Using a Focus is the most common method of Magic that we read about in the books. It does not weaken the Shard, but provides Investiture by forming a link to the Power of Creation. As soon as the link is cut the Investiture ends. 

 

The realm grouping seems a little bit forced, but I would like to hear other people's thoughts about it. I'm sure there are other theories about how to organize these, and there could be other types of Investiture that I haven't learned about yet. 

 

 

[Senor Feesh]

I'm pretty sure inhabitants of Sel DON'T have Innate Investiture actually... I'd have to find the quote, but I believe it stated something along the lines of how people in Mistborn had innate Investiture, whilst on Sel Investiture was accessed by symbols. So on Sel Investiture is something you access, rather than something you have.

[Windrunner he/him]

I'd have to disagree with you on that. Innate investiture is the little part of the Shard inside of people that gives them sentience and consciousness. Metalborn on Scadrial may be born with more innate investiture than a regular person on Sel, but they still have some.

[Leuthie]

Unless the people on Sel were there before Shards showed up. It is known that Scadrial humans were created by Shards. This isn't known about Sel. Interesting conversation to be had there.

[Windrunner he/him]

I'm afraid that I still disagree. I don't think there's a person in the cosmere that is without innate investiture, even those created before the Shattering. Their investiture simply wouldn't belong to a specific Shard.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Here's the quote.  Doesn't say anything about dudes on Sel one way or the other

Chaos

Is there a cosmere-specific term you use to describe, say, a Shard’s power inside someone? For example, people on Scadrial had little bits of Preservation in them that made them sentient (and, with enough Preservation, Allomancy). This obviously doesn’t make these people Slivers or Splinters, so I was just wondering if you had a word for it.

Brandon Sanderson

In my own terms, I refer to all of this as types of investiture. The degree, and effects, can be very different--but those people are invested. I term this Innate Investiture, and it is similar to what happens with people on Nalthis. That is also innate.

 

 

Though this one

 

3.) The amount of investiture is relatively low on Scadrial, whereas worlds like Sel and Roshar are pushing around "high power" according to Brandon. I interpreted this to mean that hemalurgic spikes and metalminds have low amounts of investiture compared to Shardplate and Shardblades.

Kinda implies Selish people might have more investitture

Edited May 30, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Windrunner he/him]

I think I'm starting to sound a bit like a broken record, so I hope I don't come across as too negative when I say that I still tend to disagree with that statement. I interpret that quote as referring to the Investitures, the magic systems, on those worlds, not the innate investiture of the people on those worlds. I'd say that your average Misting or Mistborn has more innate investiture than your average Selish man, but only due to the fact that their powers are due to having a higher amount of Investiture. If the Selish man was taken by the Shaod, I'd expect him to have more innate investiture then.

[Isomere]

on Sel Investiture is something you access, rather than something you have.

This is exactly what I'm trying to tease out Senor. I think you DO access investiture on Sel through Aons. But I also think the people there have innate investiture from both Dominion and Devotion. As a parallel, we know people on Scadrial have innate investiture from both ruin and preservation, but they also access investiture that requires burning metal to keep running. 

 

Every single person on the world of Scadrial has a bit of Leras in them—a bit of the power of Preservation. Every single person has a bit of Ati in them. Source

 

Though the metal is consumed in the process, the power itself doesn’t actually come from the metal. The metal is a catalyst, you might say, that begins an Investiture and keeps it running.  (Alloy of Law Ars Arcanum)

 

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Here's the MAG quote about investiture

 

Feruchemists use Nicrosil to store “investiture,” or their connection to the source of metaphysical power (in Feruchemy, this means the deepest recesses of the self). Even the most learned Feruchemical scholars don’t fully understand the nature of this ability, but some believe stored investiture is the rawest form of personal potential — the primal root of a Feruchemist’s ability.

 

Not sure if that 'connection to the source of metaphsyical power' really helps though.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I agree with Windy on the whole innate investiture, people no matter where they are have innate investiture.  So does everything that is alive, Preservation and Ruin gave animals innate investiture as well as humans. 

[Senor Feesh]

That's not actually the quote I was looking for... Assuming the one I think I remember even exists I'll see if I have time to find it later. Could be misremembering.

[Pechvarry]

I'm pretty sure inhabitants of Sel DON'T have Innate Investiture actually... I'd have to find the quote, but I believe it stated something along the lines of how people in Mistborn had innate Investiture, whilst on Sel Investiture was accessed by symbols. So on Sel Investiture is something you access, rather than something you have.

This sounds like you're thinking of the alloy of law ars arcanum, wherein the author is saying Scadrians access their power via their innate investiture, as opposed to the form-based methods one finds on Sel.