Investiture in a Circuit

[Silverblade5 he/him]

Note: This is a repost of a theory I had in general Brandon discussion.

Imagine that investiture was like the behavior of electricity in a circuit. Think of each shardworld as an electric circuit, each Shard of Adonalsium as a power source, and each invested object as either a resistor or capacitor. When used passively, the invested object acts as a capacitor, storing the charge. When used actively and intentionally, it becomes a resistor, where the amount of investiture a person has is a voltage, the inverse of a person's ability to access their investiture is a resistance, and the amount a person can use their investiture to change and interact with the world around them is a current.

Earlier, I said that circuits could be used to model a shardworld. Scadrial could be modeled by a circuit in a series. While the amount investiture each person has varies, their ability to use it to interact with the world around them is generally consistent. Nalthis could be modeled by a circuit in parallel. Each person in born with the same amount of investiture. However, their ability to use it to interact with their surroundings is only limited by their imagination.

[Blightsong he/him]

When a person uses a magic system (besides awakening) they aren't using the investiture that they are made up of, but other sources of investiture.

[kenod]

When a person uses a magic system (besides awakening) they aren't using the investiture that they are made up of, but other sources of investiture.

 

Feruchemy?

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Also surgebinding (one gets stormlight from a highstorm but before using it, the investiture is physically stored in the user)

 

But anyway, the analogy is viable, seeing that investiture isn't too unlike other forms of energy.

 

In the case of something like stormlight, people are acting more like capacitors, soaking up investiture from a source and discharging it. In the case of allomancy, they are more like resistors (or maybe inductors?), channeling a current from somewhere else through themselves, the only limit to their output being their own internal resistance.