Random Cosmere Questions

[StrikerEZ he/him]

So, I just finished WoR, and I've got some random questions floating about in my head (not all of them are related to just Stormlight, but the majority of them are).

1. I can't remember the exact WoB, but I remember reading that magic in the Cosmere is based a lot around how things are perceived and what you expect from the magic. I was wondering, if you were a steel misting, and you were told you entire life that burning steel allowed you to pull on metals instead of pushing, would you be able to pull on them when you burned steel? Or does it not work that way?
2. I've heard that there was allomancy in WoR, but I don't remember it anywhere. Where was it?
3. I thought I've also heard something about a letter from Hoid in WoR. Was that just from some of the epigraphs in both WoK and WoR?
4. Is there anything noteworthy beyond the Cosmere? Like, perhaps other inhabited galaxies or something. Maybe even another Adonalsium-like being?
5. Could you store Stormlight in a metalmind? (can't for the life of me remember which metal stores Investiture right now)
6. If you could manage to get Stormlight all the way to another planet, would you still be able to Surgebind?
7. Could you give your Breaths away to someone on Roshar, for example, and then they could use them for Awakening?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1. All types of healing are based on perception(why Kal's brands don't heal, maybe why Kel's scars are back) and Awakening requires a mental image to work, but we don't know how much is really changeable. I'm fairly sure that the powers themselves are immutable though.
2. It's Hoid in a flashback (hint: he drinks an odd flask)
3. Yep, it's the epigraphs in part 2 of WoK & part 4 of WoR. They are in full-text form here.
   Clarification, it's two letters: One from Hoid & One to Hoid
4. No answers any which way, besides maybe a RAFO about life on other worlds.
5. It's tough.

   Quote

   [–]mistborn[S] 4 points 1 year ago 

   Mixing the magics is possible, but some are easier and more natural than other. Feeding Stormlight to Nightblood is easy. Storing Stormlight in metal is tough.

6. The bigger issue is getting your Spren to the other world, but yes.

   Quote

   [–]mistborn[S] 8 points 1 year ago 

   Surgebinding will work off-world.

7. You could give breath to literally anyone with the basic command, and they could awaken with it provided they learn the commands. Strangely, Breath seems to work a bit like Hemalurgy, where you can do/give it to anyone, anywhere and they can use the power it provides.

Edited May 30, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[+Extesian he/him]

The one who connects answered beautifully, I'll just add a couple of things in my item head-canon. 

1. My belief of how the cognitive realm influences magic that doesn't have an intent component is that it's almost always a limitation. With healing (with the exception of Returned, which I covered my beliefs for in a recent post, your cognitive aspect will limit the healing. The body uses investiture to try to match the soul, but if the cognitive aspect has something that does not match the soul, that won't be healed (eg Kaladin's glyphs). It's probably the case that if you have an incredibly strong cognitive side you may be able to alter your own soul/force your body to match it, as the Returned can (see Vasher suppressing his Divine Breath by simply believing he is not a god). But I think generally it's a limitation. I don't believe realmatically that you can believe something and thereby change the fundamental effect the magic has. That can only be done where intent us the focus, like for Awakening and sandmastery. But there are other limitations, such as Szeth taking ten heartbeats to summon the honorblade when it should be instant, because he wrongly believes it's necessary. That will limit it, but you can't do the opposite, call a dead Shardblade instantly just by believing it's possible. 

7. Just on the point if Breath being universally transferable and usable, like hemalurgy, this seems to be mainly because it is of Endowment

Quote

ARGENT

--except Breaths seem to stick to things better--

BRANDON SANDERSON

They do.

ARGENT

--than Stormlight. So when you are holding the Breath it doesn’t expire when you put it in something it doesn’t go away. Can you tell me something about why that’s happening?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Part of this is kind of inherent to the Shard and the power it’s coming from. I mean the power of Endowment is just going to stick, that’s part of the nature of its magic. Does that make sense?

Because you get the magic by it being gifted to you, it's designed to stick and it attaches to your Identity. And because it's end-neutral, it isn't limited by needing to draw Investiture from am external source, you use your own stored investiture, so it's completely portable. 

[StrikerEZ he/him]

Thanks guys. I figured most of these questions didn't have straight answers, and I didn't really think my first question would work either. You guys helped clear things up for me.

[Staterus he/him]

4. There is speculation that Adonalsium had an opposing force to it.

[Calderis he/him]

2 minutes ago, Staterus said:

4. There is speculation that Adonalsium had an opposing force to it.

I think we have confirmation that the opposition was the group that became the Shards Vessels 

[Weltall]

@Staterus@Calderis We do. Brandon has told us that the people who killed Adonalsium (and went on to become the sixteen Vessels) could very easily be thought of as an 'opposing force' and that we shouldn't have been reading as much into his original response as we have.