How does Investure work on different worlds?

[Steven]

Let's say you were born on Roshar and were a radiant. Then, somehow you worldhopped to Scadrial, how would your Investure work? Would it change so you could burn metals? Would you not have any powers at all? Or would it stay the same, with you using Stormlight as you would on Roshar?

This question has been bugging me for a full 30 seconds, and it is killing me! Please help!

Edited June 13, 2017 by Steven

[+Extesian he/him]

Welcome to the Shard @Steven.

So a couple of points about how investiture works in magic systems. Each magic system stems from a particular Shard (or more than one Shard) investing their power in a planet, which gives rise to a magic system based on the combination of that Shard’s Intent and the natural rules of the planet itself. Once you are magic user, you can only use the investiture from the Shard that created that system, to power your magic. If you go off-world, generally, you can continue using your magic if you still have access to ‘your’ Shard’s investiture. You cannot power your own magic system by using another Shard’s investiture, without ‘hacking’ the system to enable the different ‘flavour’ of investiture to be used.

For example, an allomancer can burn metals on another planet because the metal gives them direct access to Preservation’s investiture, no matter where they are.

Magic systems that are end-neutral, that (typically) use investiture internal to the user, can also generally be used anywhere. Breath, for example, can be used to Awaken anywhere, as you are not accessing an external investiture source, you are using your own. The same with feruchemy.

Selish magics are different as its Shards’ power is stuck in the cognitive realm, which is location dependent, so even though an Elantrian can worldhop, they can’t access the power of the AonDor from another planet, without hacking it to enable a new source of investiture. Devotion and Dominon’s power cannot be accessed offworld without some other option (an option that comes up in Secret History).

Knights Radiant are an unusual case. It is end-positive, and nothing about Honor/Cultivation’s investiture stops it being accessed from another planet. However, that magic is accessed through a spren, and we do know that it is hard to take a spren offworld. Their investiture is somewhat tied to the planet. But if you can get your spren offworld then you can continue to surgebind IF you have access to stormlight. If you have no stormlight, then you need to hack the system to enable it to be fuelled by another source of investiture. If you are a Knight Radiant and want to be an allomancer though, you can’t fake this. Allomancy is genetic (hereditary) and the only way to access the powers is through birth, through lerasium, through hemalurgy or (perhaps) through Southern Scadrian technology.

Moral of the story – some magic systems can be used anywhere, particularly end-neutral ones or end-positive ones not from Sel, if you have access to that Shard’s investiture. If you don’t, a hack is required to use different investiture. But either way a magic user traveling to another planet cannot automatically use that planet’s magic system.

I hope that helps. It's a quick summary so I haven't used references and a couple of those points could be up for debate, but that's a rough idea.

[Calderis he/him]

It should work the same. We've seen Allomancy used on Roshar and it still involved ingesting metal. And the Heightenings from Breath continue to function as well, which implies Awakening should work if you have the breath. 

The problem for a radiant is the need to hack a way to fuel surgebinding. Stormlight isn't exactly available anywhere else. 

[Steven]

13 minutes ago, Calderis said:

It should work the same. We've seen Allomancy used on Roshar and it still involved ingesting metal. And the Heightenings from Breath continue to function as well, which implies Awakening should work if you have the breath. 

The problem for a radiant is the need to hack a way to fuel surgebinding. Stormlight isn't exactly available anywhere else. 

When was allomancy used on Roshar? I've read the books and never saw it used... did I miss something? Because if it is holy he** I need to reread the books again! This just adds another layer to Sanderson's cosmere, and I will NOT miss out on it!

Edited June 13, 2017 by Steven

[+Extesian he/him]

3 minutes ago, Steven said:

When was allomancy used on Roshar? I've read the books and never saw it used... did I miss something? Because if it is holy he** I need to reread the books again!

It's extremely subtle, in Shallan's flashback scene where she's youngest and meets Wit. There's a part where Wit (she didn't know his identity at the time) is talking with Shallan's father and drinks a vial of something. As it's ven confirmed that Hoid has used allomancy the universal view is that's the moment. I don't believe there's a WoB giving proper confirmation but it's a safe bet. 

[Calderis he/him]

@Steven exactly what @Extesian said. Wit/Hoid is also the proof of the heightenings, as he refers to having Perfect Pitch when speaking to Kaladin in the jail cell. 

[TeleWorms]

I don't have a full answer at the moment, but I'm assuming you want to know if investure allows you to use all of (or at least several of) the magic systems in the cosmere? 

Edited June 13, 2017 by TeleWorms