Internal vs. external

[Stormgate he/him]

In the Cosmere, there seem to be two types of magic: ones where the practitioners' manipulation of Investiture happens outside themselves and inside themselves. The internal magics seem to be more instinctual, and perhaps in some ways more unreliable, than external magics, which often act less like magic and more like technology, but work more reliably. Surgebinding, for example, is mostly instinctual. A Surgebinder needs to train their powers, but the actual execution is usually instinctual. However, Surgebinding that by necessity requires mental focus (Soulcasting and Lightweaving) are more difficult to perform successfully than using the Gravitation Surge (I cite Kaladin's awesome fight with Szeth. He noticed that Lashing the right way was easier when he didn't think about it as much). So, apparently, internal magics have a more challenging time with more cognitive tasks, with less precise results (whether they're Cognitive or Spiritual is another discussion).

AonDor, Forging, and Hemalurgy, however, seem to be the most difficult to learn, and they're external. Without prior knowledge of bind points likely gained during Rashek's Ascension, the koloss, kandra, and Inquisitors would be impossible. Yes, many practitioners of Hemalurgy have spikes themselves, but it is not a requirement to be a Hemalurgist. AonDor and Forging, similarly, are incredibly difficult to learn. Raoden was lucky in that he was trained in Aons from a young age. However, the results from AonDor are much more precise than other magics, especially compared to internal magics. The Transportation Surge, used by Jasnah in WoR (I'm sorry if it's a spoiler, but spoiler tags aren't required on this subforum. At least, not for WoR) is shown to be very difficult without experience. The Aon for travel (I forget which one it is), however, provides much better results, provided you know the distance to your destination. External magics give better results for tasks that are difficult to keep track of. However, they are less useful in many situations, mainly ones that by necessity cannot wait while you whittle a Soulstamp or draw an Aon (Raoden manages to draw Aons fast, but he isn't the baseline). These are mainly combat situations, where, unless you can do it quickly, turning your enemy into cheese or his sword into a plow isn't practical.

My point is that there is a trade-off between precision and whether they're weaponizable. Sure, Aon Daa (I think that's the one) basically makes Star Wars style blaster beams, but you have to redraw the Aon every time. It's like old-fashioned guns you have to manually reload after every shot. Mistborn, however, can kill a man two different ways if he has a coin. (Either use the coin as a bullet or kill with a snap of the neck or something.) In a normal situation, a Mistborn could kill a cat all nine ways in a matter of minutes.

So, why is there this trade-off? What is going on so that Soulcast food is bland, while Elantrians can turn dirt into a nice steak with some complicated waves of the hand?

[CaptainRyan he/him]

While I do not know the answer in full I would speculate that one reason is because each shard is only a piece of the whole (Adonalsium). So, each shard has unique properties that distinguish it from another. Kind of like how siblings can vary greatly in looks, physical/mental abilities etc. and yet still be from the same source.

 

On top of that, Brandon has stated that the magic systems are not created directly by the shards but rather are interactions between the shards and the worlds they choose to invest in. This means differences between the shards can be magnified even further by difference between the various planets they have invested on and the people/creatures that are there.

 

I think that might account for some of it eh? Well that and the fact that Brandon likes variety in his magic systems!