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Vasher and Stormlight

RenHeowein

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RenHeowein

RenHeowein

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Is there an official explanation as to how Vasher survives Roshar by substituting Stormlight for Breath?

The basis of my question is due to my current understanding of investiture. I've always thought of investiture as analogous to electricity. At electricity's core it's the basic principle of moving charges, but each country/region has differing outlets for that electricity and you have to have the right cord or adapter in order to access that outlet. Thus in my mind, investiture is the power, and the shard/shards of each world dictate how that power is accessed by the general populous. Hoid is a good example of someone who's accessed multiple adapters in order apply investiture in different ways, but Vasher is not shown (to my knowledge) to exhibit anything other than his native Breath/Awakening magic. So how is Vasher able to adapt to Stormlight to fulfill his constant need for investiture to keep himself alive? Does he have to actively absorb stormlight or is he a sort of "ground" that investiture just wants to flow into? Does he have to stand out in the highstorm with all the spheres in order to recharge, or do spheres seem to go dun a little faster around him? How does he survive the Weeping? Can he also pull investiture from the Everstorm/Voidlight?

Also, as I write this I'm starting to wonder. Is there yet a cosmere unit of investiture? Do we know the "voltage difference" between one breath versus spheres?

Thanks,

-Ren

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Shqueeves

Shqueeves he/him

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Questioner

Are you going to explain how Vasher gets to the Stormlight...

Brandon Sanderson

I will.

Questioner

Is that gonna be Warbreaker 2?

Brandon Sanderson

Warbreaker 2 is where I'm looking to do it.

Questioner

Okay, cool.

Brandon Sanderson

Yep. *pause* I will at least give hints.

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R.E. (paraphrased)

Does Vasher have a different way of getting access to Stormlight than everyone else? Given that he has no spren, no honorblade and he isn't a squire?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. He can use Stormlight to stay alive, but it doesn't let him Surgebind.

R.E. (paraphrased)

Could Szeth get access to this method?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes

R.E. (paraphrased)

And use it to fuel Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes he could.

R.E. (paraphrased)

Can you tell me what that method is?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

*smiles*

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Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Do you have-- Or have you determined an equivalency between how much Breath it takes to make a certain gem's worth of Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

I have recently assigned Peter to this task, and he is feeling overwhelmed by it. It was actually during the writing of Oathbringer where I finally said, "Yeah we need to standardize this, so start working on it." So it was like, "Oh great". Which means he has to read through all the books for references and start figuring it all out. And we're going to need like an equivalent of a jewel or something like this, right? *gestures to a sphere that a fan made* And we've been putting it off because it sounds like an awful lot of work. 

So the answer is no, we don't have it yet. It's something I've known for years we're going to need. And on this book, I just started saying, "All right.  I'm going to have them do all the stuff they need to do. And then you're going to tell me how many spheres they need to start with." Right? Like, I write the book, and then we retrofit how many spheres they needed to have how much Stormlight, so that we could be consistent with that.

But we haven't done across magic systems calculations, yet.

source

These WoBs are the ones you're looking for

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Weltall

Weltall

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To add a couple little details

26 minutes ago, RenHeowein said:

How does he survive the Weeping? Can he also pull investiture from the Everstorm/Voidlight?

Also, as I write this I'm starting to wonder. Is there yet a cosmere unit of investiture? Do we know the "voltage difference" between one breath versus spheres?

He probably can't pull Investiture from the Everstorm given that Brandon said that it signals sometthing bad for him and he'd probably hide from it, but if Voidlight can be accessed without needing Odium to corrupt Investiture in some way (the 'red eyes' thing) it's possible he could feed off it in the same way that he can feed off Stormlight. We also know that Vasher could get Investiture out of Taldain easily, except the planet's interdicted so that wasn't an option for him. So which Shard powers the Investiture is less important than how easy/safe it is to access.

Brandon has said that there is a quantum of Investiture, in addition to the above WoBs about how Team Sanderson is in the middle of working out equivalencies and such in the real world.

Edited by Weltall
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MonsterMetroid

MonsterMetroid

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Zahel says in his interlude that

Quote

Oh, right. One of those storms had come, Invested to the hilt and looking for a place to stick it all.

From this I just have understood it as the storm fills the cracks in zahels soul like a gemstone since it has room for it. That he doesn't actively have to seek the investiture.

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Isilel

Isilel

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On 15.3.2018 at 7:50 PM, RenHeowein said:

 How does he survive the Weeping?

Well, he might still  have the remnants of his Breath stockpile and use 1 during the Weeping every other year when it continues for 4 weeks straight, without a highstorm in the middle. We know that larger spheres can keep their stormlight for 2 weeks, so any other times shouldn't be a problem for him. OTOH, the monasteries and such are also quite likely to be illuminated by big gemstones, that can keep their stormlight for the whole 4 weeks. Maybe it is one of the reasons why Vasher became an ardent in the first place - because it allowed him to have access to stormlight during the Weeping without becoming conspiciously rich, so that he could own such a large gemstone himself without exciting questions?

The stormlight shortage in Urithiru after the highstorm schedule abruptly changed must have been a very unpleasant shock and may have been a close call - or cost him a precious Breath or 2.

P.S. Having now seen this excellent WoB provided by @The One Who Connects in another thread:

 

 

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The_Carpathian

Can aluminum be used to take liquid from a Shard pool, and will it stay Invested?

Brandon Sanderson

That would work.

 

source

it occurs to me that if Vasher stored his charged spheres in an Aluminium container, they would either keep their stormlight indefinitely or lose it at a much slower rate than normal, so that he'd have no problems with surviving without highstorms even for an extended period of time.

Edited by Isilel
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