[OB Spoilers] Are Fused savants?

[LopenTheTwoArmedHerdazian]

As has been pointed out to me, the Fused are most likely Surgebinding, using Voidlight to fuel this. A common side effect if becoming a Surgebinding savant that we've seen so far is a severe change in appearance. We see such a change in Fused, which in my opinion is because they have become savants through thousands of years using their abilities. 

*Gets ready for theory being savaged by 10 WOB*

Edited March 10, 2018 by LopenTheTwoArmedHerdazian

[Calderis he/him]

I don't have any WoBs, but I don't believe it's Savantism. 

What I think is happening here, is that the Spiritual Aspect of the individual Fused is overwriting the Physical form of the body they inhabit. 

The physical changes that we see in Koloss are a direct result of their spiritweb being altered. So when a Fused, who is basically the Spiritual and Cognitive aspect of an individual, is placed into a new body, I think that the physical form is forced to conform to the shape that their spiritual aspect dictates. 

I think this would be true of any individual being put into any physical body, save a Kandra as their storming weird. 

Edited March 10, 2018 by Calderis

[LopenTheTwoArmedHerdazian]

On a side note, can you change the title of a topic? I meant Fused not Voidbinders. 

Edit: No matter. Found it.

Edited March 10, 2018 by LopenTheTwoArmedHerdazian

[BillLangdon he/him]

Can you remind me what physical changes we are referring to? Are they different than changes that would indicate a change in “Form”?

[LopenTheTwoArmedHerdazian]

An example of a Fused physical change that is different from a change in form is the three colour marbling on one of the Fused. The mental instability of some of the individual Fused may also be a form of their savantism, as i believe such a side effect was on the last Shardcast.

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, BillLangdon said:

Can you remind me what physical changes we are referring to? Are they different than changes that would indicate a change in “Form”?

The marbling pattern of an individual Parsh/singer/listener is as unique as a fingerprint. When the Fused possess a body the physical features, including the marbling patterns of their body, change to reflect the Fused, and not the body that they take over. 

Edited March 10, 2018 by Calderis

[LopenTheTwoArmedHerdazian]

But three colour marbling is supposedly unheard of in the singers?

[Steeldancer he/him]

I think spiritually they are. They're a mess from all the investiture use. Not savants perse, but absolutely warped by the investiture. 

[BillLangdon he/him]

I would not say they are savants. The changing of appearance in this case seems more to do with “identity” of the cognitive shadow that is the fused. I would think that the voidlight they use may have something to do with the marbling of skin color, like how stormlight aligns the physical with spiritual identity. 

[Sanderson-Savant]

We have also seen that with Kaladins scars, how you see yourself is important to how you physcially appear. So when the fused take over, they see themselves as how they always have been, and change the body accordingly. 

For the using abilities bit, I would guess they can't use them whilst dead, and they probably don't use them all the time when they are alive. So I say they have a much chance of being a savant as any other magic user.

[Wandering Investor]

Savantism in the cosmere is the resulting of power passing through your soul in such large quantities that it alters the shape of your soul. However, the fused are already warped far beyond what their original souls looked like. As such, I do not think a term such as savant can be applied to them accurately. Now the question of whether surgebinding can change their souls? A unknown, although I doubt it will do much beyond what Odium already did for them.

Also, the changes the fused create in a body when inhabiting are quite large. Its not just the skin color, but the actual shape of the body. When Venli's friend, I forget his name, is overtaken by a fuzed he gains a substantial increase in body size, in addition to the skin coloring. I suspect the facial features likely changed as well, basically a total remake to match the Ideal of the fused.

[RShara she/her]

6 hours ago, Wandering Investor said:

Savantism in the cosmere is the resulting of power passing through your soul in such large quantities that it alters the shape of your soul. However, the fused are already warped far beyond what their original souls looked like. As such, I do not think a term such as savant can be applied to them accurately. Now the question of whether surgebinding can change their souls? A unknown, although I doubt it will do much beyond what Odium already did for them.

Also, the changes the fused create in a body when inhabiting are quite large. Its not just the skin color, but the actual shape of the body. When Venli's friend, I forget his name, is overtaken by a fuzed he gains a substantial increase in body size, in addition to the skin coloring. I suspect the facial features likely changed as well, basically a total remake to match the Ideal of the fused.

I agree with the first part completely.  They've been so distorted that savantism really doesn't apply to them.

 

For the second part, we were actually just discussing this on Discord, and when Moash meets the Fused that he kills, he specifically notices that her skin patterns are the same, but her features are different.

Quote

The Voidbringer rounded the fire toward him, light glittering from her taut, muscular body. These weren’t like the Parshendi he’d seen on the Shattered Plains. They had deep red eyes and red-violet carapace, some of which framed their faces. The one facing him had a swirling pattern to her skin, three different colors mixing. Red, black, white.

Quote

“Moash,” the Fused said. Leshwi, the other had called her. She had a face that was all three Parshendi colors: white, red, and black, marbled like paint swirled together. He had rarely seen someone who was all three colors before, and this was one of the most transfixing patterns he’d seen, almost liquid in its effect, her eyes like pools around which the colors ran.

Quote

“When you killed me,” she said, “you were Lashed to the sky—but you responded quickly, with familiarity. I will say, without guile, that I was furious to be caught so unaware.”

“Wait,” Moash said, cold. “When I killed you?”

She regarded him, unblinking, with those ruby eyes.

“You’re the same one?” Moash asked. That pattern of marbled skin … he realized. It’s the same as the one I fought. But the features were different.