Magic System Components - User

[Confused]

I suggest you read Magic System Components – General Theory before reading this post.

Introduction

I define a User as a “person” (a sapient being) whose mind directs the Fuel. “Fuel” is the power or local Shardworld Investiture that causes a magical effect. “Power” is Spiritual Realm Investiture that’s not part of a Spiritweb – IMO, the cosmere’s Spiritual energy.

I think Users should exercise some control over the magical effect. Otherwise, magic happens to them. They don’t make magic happen even when they expose themselves to magic, like First of the Sun’s trappers and Nightwatcher boon seekers.

I believe the “people with magic” systems have Users, but the “interaction with nature” systems don’t. IMO Dusk is not a User but a passive beneficiary of Aviar magic. His Aviar choose to encompass him in their protective shield. For the same reason, I think Nightwatcher boon seekers are not Users – they have no control over the magical effect, only the decision to seek her out.

IMO, “User” includes the magical concepts “Identity,” “innate Investiture,” and “Initiation.” I discuss these concepts below.

Users Are Sapient Beings

Sazed and Brandon say power needs a mind to direct it. I think a User must be a sapient being – in Brandon’s words a “person.”

I’ve seen suggestions that non-sapient objects can also be Users. I think a non-sapient object is incapable of directing magic. Mere sentience involves feeling, not thinking. Brandon says commanding magic is “like your mind reaching into the Spiritual Realm and you have to like conceive something.” IMO, non-sapient objects can’t conceive and, thus, can’t be Users.

I believe understanding the magic is a critical aspect to using it. This idea underlies Khriss’ definition of magical “Intention” (Elantris, 10^th Ed., Ars Arcanum, “Intention”), that a User must intend to perform magic before his actions can cause magic. In this WoB, Brandon hints that even Shards, whose Vessels were mortal, have trouble understanding the divine concept “omnipresence.” Sazed also says how difficult it is to use power without experience.

Identity

I define Identity as the relationship between Users and their native Shardworlds’ Investiture that enables Users to use that Investiture. Brandon says, for example, “People born on Scadrial have an Identity tied to it and its magic.” I believe this “lock-and-key” relationship is built into each User’s soul. Scadrians normally can’t use Stormlight, and Nalthian Returned normally can’t survive on Roshar or Taldain. Vasher instead must change some aspect of his soul to survive on those planets.

Identity and Hacking

I define “hacking” as the method by which non-natives of a Shardworld use native Investiture to achieve some magical effect. I believe hacking always involves changes to the User’s Identity. Hacking may also change other magical attributes, but to use non-native Investiture I think hackers must change their Identity in some way. Breath, though it meets my technical definition, IMO is not hacking because it automatically adjusts to its holder’s Identity.

IIRC correctly (and I may not), Vasher is the only known cosmere hacker. I don’t consider Hoid a hacker because he is Spiritually unique and seems capable of acquiring any magic. IMO, others can’t do what Hoid does. I also don’t consider Worldhoppers hackers because AFAIK they don’t perform local magic on their journeys. Magical entities inherently capable of absorbing any Investiture, like Taldain’s lichen, is also not hacking as I understand it. If hacking were always this easy, Brandon wouldn’t call it “jumping through hoops.”

Identity and Awakening

I think comparing Awakening with simple non-Awakening Breath transfers highlights how Identity works. Some background: starting with the third post of this thread, posters discuss whether it’s possible for a non-Nalthian to Awaken objects. The third and most recent WoB quoted there seems to say a non-Nalthian Breath holder can Awaken on Nalthis, contrary to what the first two WoBs suggest. I think that third WoB is wrong, and Brandon didn’t mean to say what he said. Let me explain.

The first two WoBs confirm it’s possible to transfer Breaths anywhere to anyone; but an apparent ambiguity can be reconciled to suggest non-Nalthian Breath holders can’t Awaken, even on Nalthis. I see Identity as the reason for this distinction. I believe only Nalthians have the Identity to consume Awakening’s Catalyst that summons Endowment’s power. IMO, Awakening’s Catalyst is the Invested electromagnetic radiation (EMR) colored objects absorb (not the EMR those objects reflect, the color itself). I think objects drained of this Investiture turn gray, like a Shardblade-severed limb disconnected from the soul.

I think non-native Breath holders lack the Nalthian Identity needed to consume Nalthis’ Invested EMR. Breaths are separate from the soul, where Nalthian Identity resides. Without the EMR’s Catalytic Investiture, non-Nalthians can’t summon and Invest themselves with Endowment’s Awakening power. That’s why non-Nalthians IMO can’t Awaken, though they otherwise get the benefits of Breath’s Heightenings.

I think Brandon made a misstatement in the third WoB. There he says a non-Nalthian can Awaken on Nalthis because “It’s the easiest of magics to get the magic from, and then to manipulate. Because it has keyed into it Identity.” We know Awakening requires detailed visualization of the command to the Awakened object. I don’t think that’s “easy,” as Nightblood proves.

That makes me think Brandon was talking about simple Breath transfers, not Awakening. Breaths are “the easiest of magics to get the magic from, and then to manipulate.” Breaths do have Identity “keyed into” them. It would be nice to ask Brandon this question again and hear what he says.

Identity and Feruchemy

We know, as a rule, that metalminds are keyed to the Identity of the Feruchemist who stored them. This makes sense, since the metalmind holds the Investiture representing that Feruchemist’s personal attributes – his strength, weight, senses, etc.

IMO, this fits with my definition of Identity: “the relationship between Users and their native Shardworlds’ Investiture that enables Users to use that Investiture.” With Feruchemy, that relationship is between the Feruchemist and the native Shardworld Investiture representing his converted attributes.

Innate Investiture

IMO, “innate Investiture” is the Investiture grafted onto a User’s soul that makes them a User. Brandon says, “innate Investiture is when a person is a conduit to/from the Spiritual Realm.” That WoB seems to limit innate Investiture to the Catalytic systems, since IMO only those systems use Shard power as their Fuel. My definition more broadly includes Feruchemical and Hemalurgically-implanted innate Investiture.

Brandon elsewhere defines innate Investiture as the Investiture a soul is conceived or born with, like Breaths and the inherited Investitures of the Metallic Arts. This definition would not consider Radiantspren, for example, innate Investiture. By whatever definition, innate Investiture seems to me an aspect of being a User.

Initiation

I define “Initiation” as the process by which a potential User becomes an actual User. It seems to involve the creation and/or strengthening of the Connection between the User and the Shard whose power the User relies on as Fuel. Initiation thus seems limited to Catalytic system Users.

The clearest examples of Initiation are Allomantic snapping and the Elantrian Shaod, both of which are “all or nothing” events. I think Initiation may also be an ongoing process that strengthens the Shard – User Connection over time. On Roshar, for example, soul cracks allow temperamentally compatible Radiantspren to begin the bonding process. IMO, strengthening the Nahel bond through the Oaths is also part of Initiation. (This is definitional and not a big deal either way, but I throw it out there, FWIW.)

Conclusion

Only sapient beings are Users.
Their mind directs magic and chooses
The magic’s effect,
And what they select
Through their Spiritweb outpours and oozes.

(Oh, @Calderis!)

You can read the other magic component posts at General Theory, Fuel, Focus, and Catalyst. Regards!

Edited August 28, 2017 by Confused
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