Djarskublar he/him Posted March 25, 2017 Report Share Posted March 25, 2017 It is 2 a.m. here, so I will just get this out there while the idea is fresh, and then I can flesh it out and find sources tomorrow when I have more time and am a little more sane. My idea is that Roshar is actually the (relatively) normal planet, foci wise, and the other two multi-Shardic planets we have seen are exceptions. The thing is, both Scadrial and Sel are exceptions to the rule. Scadrial was created by two Shards working together, and this theory guesses that they deliberately chose to have the same foci for their systems, and feruchemy just used the same focus since it is a magic that results from the Shards being there and uses the same focus as the other two it is made of (kinda like a resonance, actually...). Sel only has one focus-- programmable homeland symbols-- because the Dor is effectively one Shard now and is stuck in the CR. I hypothesize that before Odium came and ruined the fun, there were actually multiple foci on Sel depending on the specific system. They were probably highly form dependent foci as they are now, but the homeland stipulation came from the Dor getting stuffed into the CR so that location mattered. Other planets are governed by one Shard or no Shard, and the focus is only related to one system (? maybe not Taldain, haven't read White Sand beyond the excerpt in AU), so there is only one focus. This is the normal way of things. On Roshar, on the other hand, there are 3 Shards, each with their own systems. Plus one of the Shards is broken and melded into the Storm and mixed with some of the power of another Shard, so it is still over-complicated, just more normal. Surgebinding is a combination magic of Honor/Cultivation governed by the spren of both, so it only has one focus in the bonds. Honorblade Surgebinding was presumably originally powered directly by Honor, so it didn't need a focus beyond having the blade. Fabrial science, on the other hand, has its own focus as a completely separate system. This focus is similar to the metals or Dor forms in that the shape and gem type of the fabrial matters, though I could also see an argument for it being related to the spren trapped in the gems. Presumably voidbinding either continues the bond-with-spren trend, or has a completely separate focus because it is Odium's system. All the systems on Roshar, if I am right, should have a similar yet different focus. Whereas other planets only have one focus due to exceptional circumstances. The general category of the focus seems to be influenced by the native planet, not the Shard. R/P made Scadrial, though, so they could effectively choose exactly what its focus was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oversleep Posted March 25, 2017 Report Share Posted March 25, 2017 This (at least for me) highly points to the spren being focus: Quote Q: So I'm just gonna run with that right now. Is Surgebinding in general a melding of Honor and Odium ala Feruchemy being in some senses being not directly of Ruin or Preservation? A: Honor and Cultivation is what you mean? Um, there are spren of all three shards. And those spren can work within the bounds of the magic that has already been set up on Roshar. source So any spren can interact in any magic system of Roshar much like every metal can be used in any magic system of Scadrial. (Disclaimer: when I say "any metal" or "any spren" I mean those viable for it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+hwiles He/Him Posted March 25, 2017 Report Share Posted March 25, 2017 Do we have hard confirmation that hemalurgy uses exactly the same foci as the other metallic arts? Also...I would argue that Sel and Scadrial have many foci. Tin and aluminum and different Aons can't exactly be used interchangeably, similar to Honor spren and Cryptics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yata he/him Posted March 25, 2017 Report Share Posted March 25, 2017 (edited) 9 minutes ago, hwiles said: Do we have hard confirmation that hemalurgy uses exactly the same foci as the other metallic arts? Also...I would argue that Sel and Scadrial have many foci. Tin and aluminum and different Aons can't exactly be used interchangeably, similar to Honor spren and Cryptics. I don't understand what you mean The Scadrial's Focus is Metal and the Metallic Arts works under this assumption The Sel's Focus is Form and the Selish Magic works under this assumption The Nalthis's Fucus is Command and the Awakening works under this assumption. (We know others possible focus but without confirmation I will avoid to cite them here) This don't mean there are multiple foci per planet...simply a subset of the focus is buond to the actual magic systems set on the planet. You may notice how on Scadrial ALL the metals are reactive to Investiture, also the one useless for the Metallic Arts. Edited March 25, 2017 by Yata 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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