Ripheus23 Posted August 8, 2018 Posted August 8, 2018 I feel like the magic systems are, for lack of a better phrasing, geographically tied, in some cases to planet-Realm associations, on Sel to subregions of the planet, too, and so on or whatever. Like, there's either no magic system just "floating in space" between Shardworlds, or maybe the homeless Shard has one, or something. So, I feel like Adonalsium, having directly created Roshar (the entire system or just the planet???), would have left behind an old magic system there. Following the Scadrian trichotomy: Surgebinding - Voidbinding - Fabrials Spiritual - Cognitive - Physical And the artifabrian magic system is the one left behind by Adonalsium, when he called the spren to Roshar in the first place (the whole system is like a "crystal trap" for them, in that they show up at all in this area). When Cultivation inherited the auspices of the spren in general (so to speak!), this established the legendary association between the Nightwatcher and the Old Magic.
Quantus he/him Posted August 8, 2018 Posted August 8, 2018 Well, we know of a Yolen magic system that predates the Shattering that was strikingly similar to the Lightweaving Surge. Perhaps each of the shardic magics has some relic element of adonalsium's era? There certainly seem to be at least superficial echos of that era (or rather the shattering) present in the Metallic Arts.
Weltall Posted August 8, 2018 Posted August 8, 2018 24 minutes ago, Ripheus23 said: So, I feel like Adonalsium, having directly created Roshar (the entire system or just the planet???), would have left behind an old magic system there. Adonalsium created the entire system. Quote And the artifabrian magic system is the one left behind by Adonalsium, when he called the spren to Roshar in the first place (the whole system is like a "crystal trap" for them, in that they show up at all in this area). Adonalsium didn't 'call' the spren to Roshar from anywhere, they're Splinters which are a Cosmere-wide phenomenon and the 'common' spren or things like them could exist on other worlds. Why they're so prominent on Roshar likely has to do with the world being so 'Investiture rich' and the constant highstorms blurring the lines between the Realms. Plus Adonalsium probably had a hand in making things turn out that way for reasons we can't fathom. Anyhow, we know that things like the greatshells evolved as they did because of spren bonds and this predated the arrival of the Shards. Similarly, we know that the pairing of Surges was fundamental to the system. These natural bonds include things like gravity manipulation (how greatshells can exist) so it's likely that rather than creating new systems per se, the Shards arriving on Roshar simply co-opted what was already in place and made it possible for people to interact with the magic directly. This is in fact the key difference (after 'the presence of a Shard') between a major and minor Shardworld. Quote I still consider one of the major dividing lines between "major" and "minor" shardworlds (other than Shard residence) to be in strength of access to the magic, and control over it. I intend the minor shard worlds to involve interactions with the magic as setting--coming back to spren, you could have a minor shardworld with people who use, befriend, even bond spren. (Or the local equivalent--Seon, Aviar, etc.) But you'd never see power on the level of the city of Elantris, the actions of a Bondsmith, or even the broad power suite of a mistborn. source So I don't think we can point to anything on Roshar and say 'that's Adonalsium's magic, completely distinct from the magic of the Shards'. By now, it's been altered by their presence and is no longer exactly what it once was.
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