Brandon's Strongest Magic System

[Lord Meeker he/him]

I've read all of the cosmere so don't worry about spoilers for me at least. But I was wondering what the strongest manifestation of investiture was I.g. What I Brandon's strongest system of magic( including resonances and that good stuff) and why? If there is a factual answer to this I'd appreciate it but I'm asking this as an Opinionated question. 

If this is included somewhere else I apologise.

[StanLemon]

I feel like this question needs context as well. What is the context of 'powerful'? If you are talking about direct combat then I wouldn't put AonDor near the top because they still have to use precious moments to write the Aon they need unless the have the preparedness necessary to have inscribed Aons that have any modifiers they may need on their person whereas a Mistborn, Feruchemist, or Surgebinder just needs to have their metal/sheres ready and can use their magic pretty simply. Now if you are talking about fortifications, preparedness, infrastructure I would very much say that AonDor is the most powerful. 

[Agent34]

Since we don't know everything about every magic system a full comparison can't quite be made but based on what we know now I'd personally say either Surgebinding or AonDor.

[Yata he/him]

Well we have to put under context but if you consider only:

- Output of power

- Usability

I will agree with Agent34 and say Aondor.

Of course I am working under the assumption of "common usage" not some weird instance alone.

[Dunkum he/him]

14 hours ago, Yata said:

Of course I am working under the assumption of "common usage" not some weird instance alone.

This is a very important caveat.  Basically the strongest usage we have probably seen (outside of a shard) is The Lord Ruler in Mistborn, who has the full complement of both allomancy and ferruchemy (at pretty much maximum strength for allomancy at least), and all the resonances and compunding that entails.  but it requires combining 2 systems, albeit 2 systems from the same world, and doing so in ways that simply don't occur naturally.

so having said all that, in terms of pure energy/investiture output, and not including TlR, the strongest we have seen is still probably Compounding on Scadrial.  This is a rare, but naturally occurring, case, but again, is really 2 magic systems workign together, not one single one.  also they are extremely limited in what they can do.  basically they have practically limitless power, but only for one single thing.

counting both power and uses, I have to agree with previous posters that AonDor probably wins.  within Elantris itself the Aondor is extremely powerful, and i think it is fair to say that it has the widest variety of uses out of all the powers we have seen: one Elantrian is capable of emulating most, if not all, of the surges of the Knights Radiant with the right Aons, and with substantial power too.

[Calderis he/him]

16 minutes ago, Dunkum said:

and all the resonances and compunding that entails.

He does not get all the resonance. Resonance is a function of magic interactions, but to many powers negates the effects. Mistborn are above the threshold in themselves. 

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Yata

There is something that recently was debade by some fans and I hope you may give some clue about the "side effect of interaction between magic" as was pointed in the Twinborn and Surgebinder Cases: Are those "perks" stackable ? To say if I am a Fullborn like Rashek, wil I have all the possible Twinborn's perks or a specific "Fullborn's perk" ? And about the same topic, a Mistborn or Full Feruchemist has his own perk/perks ?

Brandon Sanderson

I've worked under the premise that if you hold too many of the powers, like a Mistborn, the result is a loss of these little quirks. The mechanics of it are interesting, but I'll leave you to theorize on that sort of thing.

source

This is why I operate under the musical chords analogy. A few tones mixed creates a resonant tone. Too many and it's just noise. 

[Weltall]

Yeah, under 'normal' conditions with the various caveats others have mentioned, AonDor is probably the most 'powerful' system in terms of both raw output (it's able to draw on the combined Investiture of two Shards and doesn't consume any 'fuel' from the practitioner other than time) and variety (there's a lot you can do with Aons and a sufficiently educated user can do all of it, contrast say a Surgebinder who's limited to two of the ten possible powers and has some potential restrictions based on their Ideals). That said, since their power also drops off substantially when they leave the immediate area surrounding Elantris and vanishes completely offworld, it's more limited than Scadrial's magic (usable anywhere, with metal sourced from anywhere) or other systems that still work offworld but require a bit of work (or system hacks) to get the Investiture needed to power them.

If on the other hand you consider exceptional cases then yeah, Rashek has the currently unbeatable combination of two magic systems that synergize really well, plus being at Savant-level in most if not all of the powers, plus being a Sliver.

So to summarize my thoughts, Rashek is an exceptional case but if you include him, he beats everything in terms of 'power'. Then an Elantrian in sufficient proximity to the city, then things get open to debate and argument over exactly what's meant by the 'strongest magic system'.

[Dunkum he/him]

2 hours ago, Calderis said:

He does not get all the resonance. Resonance is a function of magic interactions, but to many powers negates the effects. Mistborn are above the threshold in themselves.

Fair enough, I honestly forgot that resonance has that specific meaning in this context, I meant more to say that he still can access the basic synergies of mixing abilities together.  For example the sorts of things Wax does, as a crasher, that let him steelpush harder by increasing his weight, or push off from things harder because he can decrease it rashek would still be able to do, just not the specific resonance effect that Wax gets.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

On 4/3/2018 at 11:30 PM, Mraize said:

If there is a factual answer to this I'd appreciate it but I'm asking this as an Opinionated question. 

I agree with StanLemon. Given adequate time to prepare, nothing beats an Elantrian. AonDor is literally programming reality. Short of killing a Shard(or TLR), there is almost nothing that it can't do.

In terms of sudden and direct combat though, I'd give the edge to a Mistborn or Feruchemist. They have the largest spread of powers available to them, and that gives them the most versatility. All other things being equal, having more options usually wins out, because you have a better chance of having something able to counter the enemy.

That said, the most powerful magical item in the Cosmere (Nightblood) is a product of Awakening.