Confused about Investiture and Spiritwebs

[Richard Kopelow he/him]

This may get a little long. Let me start off with what my impression of how things work is. Investiture is power and the Spiritweb lets an individual use Investiture. i.e. the ability to use Allomancy is coded into the Spiritweb and the actual magic is Investiture shaped by the Spiritweb. Stormlight is Investiture and the ability to Surgebind is written into the Spiritweb by the Spren bond.

These are the causes of my confusion. Nicrosil is said to store Investiture but it seems to store the ability to use it, not the Investiture itself. I was reading that the Innate Investiture from Preservation allows people to use Allomancy, is the power of Allomancy Investiture itself. If a Feruchemist got some Breath and nicrosil what would he be storing? The breath itself or the ability for his body to use the breath for heightenings and such.

Can someone set me strait? Thanks!

[Spoolofwhool]

The spiritweb, or at least parts of it, are made out of investiture as well, called innate investiture. Nicrosil, as far as we've seen, stores innate investiture giving you the ability to use a manifestation of investiture (magic). Stormlight, allomantic power and probably feruchemical charge is kinetic investiture, which I doubt can be stored in nicrosil. I think breath is kinetic investiture as well, but there are other who don't see it that way. 

Edited November 26, 2016 by Spoolofwhool

[Oversleep]

What you think of as "coded in Spiritweb" is what is also "Innate Investiture". These traits are made of Investiture as well.