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Aura Recognition


Oudeis

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I've always gotten the sense that Aura Recognition basically came down to a mix of, your enhanced ability to distinguish color tones, and an instinctive knowledge of how much a BioChromatic aura affects color.

 

In the books, it's usually shown as a function of sight; your "life sense" lets you know someone with a strong Aura is nearby/looking at you, but the first time Vivenna sees Vasher, she doesn't recognize the exact amount of Breath he has until she looks at him.

 

Can you recognize auras in the dark? Could you tell the difference between a normal Scadrian, a Misting, and a Mistborn? A Ferring? A hemalurgist? Nahel bonds? Spren, themselves? An Elantri-... okay maybe some of them are no-brainers...

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Now this is all random speculation, but I think you'd be able to recognize Allomancers while they burned metals, Feruchemists while they tapped or stored, etc etc.

 

But I also think you wouldn't be able to recognize auras in the dark, and here's why:

Color, obviously, is important. Color needs light--color is reflected/absorbed light. In the dark, there's no color, and so, I assume, no aura recognition. 

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Can you recognize auras in the dark? Could you tell the difference between a normal Scadrian, a Misting, and a Mistborn? A Ferring? A hemalurgist? Nahel bonds? Spren, themselves? An Elantri-... okay maybe some of them are no-brainers...

You probably cannot recognize them in the dark, ate least not as well as in the light. Siri doesn't notice anything much unusual in God King in his bedchamber, while in the daylight he is quite distinctive. While she doesn't have extra Breaths, is still probably means that auras are harder to tell without light.

Likewise, I highly doubt you'd be able to tell misting/mistborn/ etc. Certainly not by Aura Recognition of the first Heightening. The God King sight, maybe. Spren.. maybe, but also, not on the first Heightening, I think. Elantrians away from Elantris don't glow as much, but that still is a visual cue, so, if they knew what to look for, they should be able to recognize it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Large amounts of Investiture seem to make you glow or otherwise change in physical appearance. Awakeners have a color aura, Elantrians are obvious, Surgebinders tend to glow...

 

I think that anyone using Investiture likely changes color or has some other visual cue - it's just really, really hard to see in the case of Allomancers. Aura sight should therefore let an Awakener detect anyone using Investiture, but they'd need to know what to look for.

 

I think they could detect spren, too. Maybe not see them, but know they are there. WoR spoilers:

Wyndle leaves behind dust sometimes, apparently, and these minor visual cues by Nahel spren being partially in the Physical could probably be picked up by an Awakener.

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It actually makes sense that Investiture has these effects on light: if you imagine it as pure Spiritual energy, then it's probably going to manifest in the Physical as the closest analogue, Physical energy. And a great deal of that is then emitted as EM waves. It's the only shared characteristic of Investiture that seems fully explainable, really. Any effects on age, health, etc, are much less intuitive.

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Large amounts of Investiture seem to make you glow or otherwise change in physical appearance. Awakeners have a color aura, Elantrians are obvious, Surgebinders tend to glow...

 

I think that anyone using Investiture likely changes color or has some other visual cue - it's just really, really hard to see in the case of Allomancers. Aura sight should therefore let an Awakener detect anyone using Investiture, but they'd need to know what to look for.

 

I think they could detect spren, too. Maybe not see them, but know they are there. WoR spoilers:

Wyndle leaves behind dust sometimes, apparently, and these minor visual cues by Nahel spren being partially in the Physical could probably be picked up by an Awakener.

Allomancers mess with the mist around them. They swirl differently when they burn their metals. At least, that is the only visual clue I can think of, though mist isn't as prominent now after the first Mistborn Trilogy.

Edited by cris34b
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