Vasher and Stormlight

[Quantus]

Do we know how Vasher goes about consuming Stormlight to fuel his Divine Breath?  Does it just naturally reach out to the nearest spheres like a radiant when it's ready to absorb another breath?  Does he have to swallow charged spheres to internalize the Investiture (like that thing that time)?  Maybe he just has to have stood out in a Highstorm within the last week to top off his Divine Breath and can get on a looser "eating schedule" based on the local Investiture ecology instead of the strict 1 per week on Nalthis?  And how does he deal with the Weeping where he would have to go 2-4 weeks without a Highstorm?

 

Can he fuel his Divine Breath with the Everstorm?

[Calderis]

He uses the same part of his Spiritweb that breath would normal attach onto. I'm guessing he just breaths it in like everyone else. 

Quote

BlackYeti

With most magic systems, you've said that you need some sort of gap in your soul for the Investiture to get in. On Nalthis, there's obviously a bit of it that they can give away. Is this how Vasher is able to get Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, is this-- Yeah.

source

Which implies that anyone sufficiently cracked could learn to draw in stormlight, spren or no spren.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Calderis

[Weltall]

Vasher has a Breath reserve so even if he's completely incapable of getting Stormlight during the Weepings, he's got that to fall back on. Given what was confirmed in Oathbringer about perfect gemstones however, it's possible he's keeping one or more of those handy for the Weeping. Brandon's implied that Vasher still feeds weekly (presumably still on the Nalthian cycle, which leaves more than enough time for a Highstorm to roll around) by way of confirming that when Vasher tells Kaladin that he makes a distasteful choice every day he chooses to keep breathing, it's not meant literally. I don't think Brandon's confirmed how Vasher consumes it but I can't think of any reason why he wouldn't work like a Radiant and thus 'inhale' the Stormlight from gemstones. They're really just an intermediate storage method between storm and surgebinder anyways, not unlike storing Breath in an object sans Awakening and later retrieving it. Except that the Stormlight does eventually leak out.

As for the Everstorm, Brandon said that it signals something bad for Vasher and we know that it didn't provide anyone else accessible Investiture a la Stormlight so it's possible Brandon meant that it was bad because it signaled an extended period where Vasher didn't have acccess to easy Investiture. If that's the case, he probably can't do anything with the Investiture in the Everstorm. On the other hand, Brandon added that it would make sense to us in a long time (he seemed to emphasize that point in the recording of that WoB) so he may have been thinking of something beyond Oathbringer.

[Quantus]

52 minutes ago, Calderis said:

He uses the same part of his Spiritweb that breath would normal attach onto. I'm guessing he just breaths it in like everyone else. 

Which implies that anyone sufficiently cracked could learn to draw in stormlight, spren or no spren.

Interesting, that makes sense.  Do you think it's literally anyone with a sufficently cracked soul, or does some form of Investiture use have to already be plugged into that sector of the spiritweb (in the Nicrosil Feruchemical sense of having some form of storable Investiture)?

 

The example Im looking at (one of the worst examples imaginable for being so unique) is Lift, who is still a Radiant but had her Investiture intake structures overwritten such that she metabolizes food into Investiture directly (feels like F-Bendalloy to me) and in so doing lost her ability to Inhale Stormlight.  If those were two separate actions by the Nightmother/Cultivation it's a useless test case. But if she lost the Inhalation ability as a direct result of getting that sector of her spiritweb reconfigured for food conversion, I feel like that would have implications on the hurdles any worldhopper would face.  

[Calderis]

8 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Interesting, that makes sense.  Do you think it's literally anyone with a sufficently cracked soul, or does some form of Investiture use have to already be plugged into that sector of the spiritweb (in the Nicrosil Feruchemical sense of having some form of storable Investiture)?

Yeah, I think it's something that just being broken could achieve... But it's going to need to be learned, and without a power to facilitate that I don't think it's something that's ever going to happen accidently. 

As for Lift, I think it's more along the lines of her ability to intake Investiture was changed. Not a specific thing, like breathing in stormlight. So like... If she'd been an allomancer and done the same thing it would be food instead of burning metal. I don't think it has implications beyond her boon/curse specifically. 

[Quantus]

42 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Yeah, I think it's something that just being broken could achieve... But it's going to need to be learned, and without a power to facilitate that I don't think it's something that's ever going to happen accidentally. 

When you say "learned" how do you mean exactly?  My hesitance is just that Id sort of expect there to be more accidental absorption with Rosharan natives, especially among those that are closer to the Spiritual realm like the Singers, the Horneaters, or any of the Fabrial savants.  So not manifesting Surges but maybe spontaneously absorbing it and healing, for example while trapped out in a Highstorm (a traumatic enough event for many to cause a Snapping).

EDIT: Wait, no, I dont think that would work because of Squires. We know several that were proven broken enough to bond their own spren, and they get firsthand experience drawing in Stormlight.  If a cracked spiritweb and the knowledge of How were all it took to Inhale Stormlight, they should always be able to draw in the Light and only loose the actual Surges if their Radiant moves out of range. 

 

Quote

As for Lift, I think it's more along the lines of her ability to intake Investiture was changed. Not a specific thing, like breathing in stormlight. So like... If she'd been an allomancer and done the same thing it would be food instead of burning metal. I don't think it has implications beyond her boon/curse specifically. 

I agree with that, though I am more wondering if a person has a natural limit to the number of different Investiture sources they could use (or maybe just a limit on the end-positive ones that reach out and connect to a specific Shard).  Meaning that if Radiant Lift were to go worldhopping as she is and gain access to new magic systems, would the Nightmother's fiddling be entirely restricted to Stormlight-type Investiture, or would it replace her ability to connect to any other Shard's Spiritual investiture store.  Put another way, Im wondering if she is still capable of making End-positive Connections to Shards at all or if her Spiritwebs entire Investiture handling system has been reworked to converted Food (arguably a much more End-Neutral type thing)

Edited October 31, 2018 by Quantus