Post-Honor Surgebinding is "less checked"?

[+robardin]

In Oathbringer, when Notum (the honorspren captain of Honor's Path) is talking to Kaladin, he is surprised how Kaladin seems to know or to easily accept the idea that Honor is dead, then explains that Sylphrena "the Ancient Daughter" is so named because she was one of the first honorspren that the Stormfather created, rather than Honor himself, as deputized to do shortly before his Splintering. Then later he adds, "Your ability to change your minds, to go against what you once thought, can be a great advantage. But your bond is dangerous, without Honor. There will not be enough checks upon your power - you risk disaster."

This has echoes of the phrasing that Syl used when she spoke to Kaladin about Szeth wielding Jezrien's Honorblade: "He is something far more terrible [than a Radiant]. No spren guides him", and then, "with this sword, someone can do what you can, but without the... checks a spren requires."

Notum may have meant that honorspren bonds specifically are now "less checked" than before with Honor's death (because they're the spren most directly linked to Honor); or perhaps all spren Radiant bonds are, because some key component of the the way that Surgebinding worked (with its required Ideals for progression in Surgebinding abilities) relied upon Honor (the Shard) as a driving force.

The Stormfather commented that Dalinar's ability to touch and "unite" the Spiritual Realm with the Physical/Cognitive ones to renew spheres is not something previous Bondsmiths bonded with him had ever been able to do. I had assumed this had something to do with the Stormfather now possessing a Splinter of Honor that he had not had before. But maybe it's also to do with some general "unchecking" of Surgebinding?

[Quantus]

3 hours ago, robardin said:

In Oathbringer, when Notum (the honorspren captain of Honor's Path) is talking to Kaladin, he is surprised how Kaladin seems to know or to easily accept the idea that Honor is dead, then explains that Sylphrena "the Ancient Daughter" is so named because she was one of the first honorspren that the Stormfather created, rather than Honor himself, as deputized to do shortly before his Splintering. Then later he adds, "Your ability to change your minds, to go against what you once thought, can be a great advantage. But your bond is dangerous, without Honor. There will not be enough checks upon your power - you risk disaster."

This has echoes of the phrasing that Syl used when she spoke to Kaladin about Szeth wielding Jezrien's Honorblade: "He is something far more terrible [than a Radiant]. No spren guides him", and then, "with this sword, someone can do what you can, but without the... checks a spren requires."

Notum may have meant that honorspren bonds specifically are now "less checked" than before with Honor's death (because they're the spren most directly linked to Honor); or perhaps all spren Radiant bonds are, because some key component of the the way that Surgebinding worked (with its required Ideals for progression in Surgebinding abilities) relied upon Honor (the Shard) as a driving force.

The Stormfather commented that Dalinar's ability to touch and "unite" the Spiritual Realm with the Physical/Cognitive ones to renew spheres is not something previous Bondsmiths bonded with him had ever been able to do. I had assumed this had something to do with the Stormfather now possessing a Splinter of Honor that he had not had before. But maybe it's also to do with some general "unchecking" of Surgebinding?

I think this part, the second possibility is what Notum Thinks is the case and was generally trying to say.  I dont think he's really worried about the radiant being as unrestrained with their powers as the Heralds, but I do think he is worried that without the direct guidance and direction of Honor himself the Radiants will harm/kill another generation of Spren, either with a repeat betrayal like the Recreance, or else simply the spren being forced to Choose Sides in a radiant/spren Civil War without Honor there to be a unifying force for them.

 

But at the end of the day I dont think anyone, not Notum and not even the Stormfather, actually know how things are going to work this time around: There has never before been a Bondsmith bound directly to the Ghost of a Shardic Vessel.  From the Unity Event on down, things are going to get weird for everyone and shatter expectations on all side.

 

[Weltall]

We do know that Honor was communicating directly with the Radiants of the past, which would have served as a guide for how they should act. It's when Honor was dying and no longer lucid that the Radiants of that era who discovered the truth of humanity's origins made the decision to abandon their oaths. One imagines that Notum is worried about what might happen this time, now that they don't even have that much to guide the Radiants. Say, another mass-murder of bonded spren when the current generation finds out just who were the original Voidbringers.

Relatedly, there may have been more agreement among previous generations of Radiants about what their various Ideals meant, when Honor was there to guide them and set an example of what, say, 'Life before Death' should mean. The Gem Archive and the in-universe Words of Radiance imply that divisions between the Orders grew over time, at around the timeframe that Honor would have been dying and thus less able to get involved with the Radiants. Thus, with no Honor at all there's more potential for Radiants to do Bad Things, kind of like the early surgebinders before Ishi forced organization upon them.

Since we only know of one Radiant who's currently doing things that havent' been done before and that's Dalinar, he's probably not a good basis to judge whether all the Radiants are going to be similarly less checked in their powers than before. If we see Kaladin or Shallan doing things their spren think weren't possible before, then we'll have a better way of gauging things. Well, we have a second Radiant doing the impossible in Lift but that's also due to unusual circumstances...

[+Child of Hodor]

This reminds me of what Ishar warned Nale of as a justification for murdering surgebinders. 

Quote

"Ishar warned me of the danger. Now that Honor is dead, other Radiants might upset the balance of the Oathpact. Might undermine certain ... measures we took, and give an opening to the enemy." OB Ch. 106

Now I don't think the Honorspren and Ishar are necessarily talking about the same danger and I think Ishar is probably wrong or lying to Nale, but it's interesting that they both think Honor being gone makes the Radiants more dangerous. 

[Vissy]

Honor was the one who regulated Stormlight and a Radiant's access to Surgebinding. Without that active director behind the Investiture, you could technically tap into as much power as you managed to gather. So, someone with the surge of Division and a lot of Stormlight could do something like, say, create the Shattered Plains. 

Edited November 5, 2018 by Vissy

[Quantus]

6 minutes ago, Vissy said:

Honor was the one who regulated Stormlight and a Radiant's access to Surgebinding. Without that active director behind the Investiture, you could technically tap into as much power as you managed to gather. So, someone with the surge of Division and a lot of Stormlight could do something like, say, create the Shattered Plains. 

Stormlight yes, but I was under the impression that Honor was not directly involved with the emergence of the Radiants and the Nahel Bond?  I thought they'd said that the Spren had observed the Heralds and themselves learned to mimic what the Honrblades where doing.  I thought that was the main reason some of hte heralds did not immediately support and/or Join their corresponding Order, until Ishar imposed some organization on them in an effort to mitigate the danger they posed. 

 

4 minutes ago, Weltall said:

We do know that Honor was communicating directly with the Radiants of the past, which would have served as a guide for how they should act. It's when Honor was dying and no longer lucid that the Radiants of that era who discovered the truth of humanity's origins made the decision to abandon their oaths. One imagines that Notum is worried about what might happen this time, now that they don't even have that much to guide the Radiants. Say, another mass-murder of bonded spren when the current generation finds out just who were the original Voidbringers.

Relatedly, there may have been more agreement among previous generations of Radiants about what their various Ideals meant, when Honor was there to guide them and set an example of what, say, 'Life before Death' should mean. The Gem Archive and the in-universe Words of Radiance imply that divisions between the Orders grew over time, at around the timeframe that Honor would have been dying and thus less able to get involved with the Radiants. Thus, with no Honor at all there's more potential for Radiants to do Bad Things, kind of like the early surgebinders before Ishi forced organization upon them.

Since we only know of one Radiant who's currently doing things that havent' been done before and that's Dalinar, he's probably not a good basis to judge whether all the Radiants are going to be similarly less checked in their powers than before. If we see Kaladin or Shallan doing things their spren think weren't possible before, then we'll have a better way of gauging things. Well, we have a second Radiant doing the impossible in Lift but that's also due to unusual circumstances...

For what it's worth, I think Lift, Renarin, and Venli are all pretty unusual in their own ways, ways that many in-world might find troubling.  Malata and Spark too, I think, given how open they are to siding against the rest of the Radiants. 

[Weltall]

...derp, I completely overlooked Renarin. Which seems to be his lot in life. Sorry Renarin!

Though it's not entirely clear that what Renarin does is new, just extremely uncommon. One of the gems in the archive is from a Truthwatcher who claims that they foresaw what was happening around them and they have to whisper so the others don't hear them as they make the recording. That suggests at least one other Radiant has been in a similar situation to him.

Malata/Spark and pretty much the entire Order of Skybreakers don't seem to be unchecked in the same way, they're following their Ideals as they understand them (bearing in mind that we have no idea what Dustbringers swear) and that just happens to go against the other Radiants. I think this is a factor of what I mentioned: There's no organization in place like previous generations had and no Honor around to tell the Radiants what he thinks is the way they should act, so they're acting at cross-purposes to the main characters. That the Skybreakers are led by a man who admits he's insane isn't helping them, nor is the fact that many of them actually swore to follow him personally. But I think that's more a lack of good guidance than a fundamental shift in how surgebinding is working in the present era. For now at least.

[+robardin]

And then there's Venli somehow bonding Timbre, who's able to live in her gemheart and "imprisoned" the voidspren which had lodged itself there earlier, which apparently had never been possible before (it's implied that the Radiant spren bonded humans in the first place because they couldn't do so with listeners in the same way, which drove them to Odium's voidspren, not the other way around).

Who knows, maybe Adolin's nascent bonding to a (mostly) dead cultivationspren could also be a facet of this "unchecking" effect with the death of Honor. Like there's more power leaking into the spren bond than before.

Edited November 5, 2018 by robardin

[Guest Edonidd]

15 hours ago, Weltall said:

We do know that Honor was communicating directly with the Radiants of the past, which would have served as a guide for how they should act. It's when Honor was dying and no longer lucid that the Radiants of that era who discovered the truth of humanity's origins made the decision to abandon their oaths. One imagines that Notum is worried about what might happen this time, now that they don't even have that much to guide the Radiants. Say, another mass-murder of bonded spren when the current generation finds out just who were the original Voidbringers.

Relatedly, there may have been more agreement among previous generations of Radiants about what their various Ideals meant, when Honor was there to guide them and set an example of what, say, 'Life before Death' should mean. The Gem Archive and the in-universe Words of Radiance imply that divisions between the Orders grew over time, at around the timeframe that Honor would have been dying and thus less able to get involved with the Radiants. Thus, with no Honor at all there's more potential for Radiants to do Bad Things, kind of like the early surgebinders before Ishi forced organization upon them.

Since we only know of one Radiant who's currently doing things that havent' been done before and that's Dalinar, he's probably not a good basis to judge whether all the Radiants are going to be similarly less checked in their powers than before. If we see Kaladin or Shallan doing things their spren think weren't possible before, then we'll have a better way of gauging things. Well, we have a second Radiant doing the impossible in Lift but that's also due to unusual circumstances...

0

I just talked about this in a post the other day, but I absolutely believe Kaladin is doing things that haven't been done before, and that spren didn't believe was possible.  All of the surgebinding we've seen (and we've seen a lot) has been kind of a silent magic system.  I mean you can see the effects of what they do with it, and you can see the stormlight or in the fused's case voidlight that is infused in them that allows them to surgebind.  But there's no way for other surgebinders to see your weave or anything like that, no telltale shimmers of magic bubbles or colors changing or anything.  We've even in flashbacks seen full on Knights Radiants.

 

However going against that grain we have seen 3 instances where a surgebinder/KR has drawn minor spren to them.

1.  Dalinar doing his unity thing draws lots of glory spren.  Accepted by everyone to be something new that Bondsmiths couldn't do before.

2.  Kaladin holding back the High Storm draws lots of (though less than Dalinar) wind spren.  This is unlike every other instance of surgebinding we have seen, but has a lot in  common with something we know is new.  Syl, his spren who always seems to know what he is doing with surges and with oaths and ideals is genuinely surprised by what he did.

3.  Kaladin draws wind spren to himself while on the Honor airship.  Despite knowing and being completely upset that he bonded Syl, plus being in the cognitive realm so there has been no loss of knowledge in transition or anything the Honor spren are all shocked and awed by the wind spren.  Syl talks in his head and knows he is close to the 4th ideal, but seems genuinely surpised by what he is doing.  He has no stormlight st all, so this is definitely not surgebinding.  While people seem to generally accept that those windspren represent Kal's armor/shardplate that will come with the 4th ideal.  However we have seen that "dead" shardplate can be completely regrown from just stormlight, in other words it is completely made from stormlight.  There is no stormlight st available for Kal to have done anything with those windspren.  Doesn't necessarily rule out that theory, but it still feels a lot more like #1 & #2 above. 

 

I don't know if what Dalinar and Kaladin are doing is like a higher form of surgebinding, or something else from Honor that was held in check while Honor was alive/whole.  Or possibly its mysterious 3rd form of magic on Roshar.  Either way I think Kaladin is lumped solidly in with Dalinar in "doing things that haven't been done before."

[Leyrann]

15 hours ago, Vissy said:

Honor was the one who regulated Stormlight and a Radiant's access to Surgebinding. Without that active director behind the Investiture, you could technically tap into as much power as you managed to gather. So, someone with the surge of Division and a lot of Stormlight could do something like, say, create the Shattered Plains. 

Shattered Plains are more likely from lightweaving though, considering their symmetry.

Also, Brandon has said before (though in relation to allomancy at the time) that a Shard can't purposefully hold back their Investiture; if someone meets the requirements to use it, they can do so no matter what the Shard wants.

[+Child of Hodor]

2 hours ago, Leyrann said:

Shattered Plains are more likely from lightweaving though, considering their symmetry.

Also, Brandon has said before (though in relation to allomancy at the time) that a Shard can't purposefully hold back their Investiture; if someone meets the requirements to use it, they can do so no matter what the Shard wants.

That's a really good point, there is a Pattern to the shattering. I made the connection that was intentional and magical, but not to Lightweaving.  Lightweaving by itself couldn't do the damage, since it is illusion magic. Perhaps a combination of surges were used? A Lightweaver could lightweave and then soulcast the stone, but it seems like one Radiant wouldn't be powerful enough to do that much by themselves. 

We've seen Stormfather and Pattern's powers combined when Dalinar and Shallan worked together to create the 3D map, other radiants can combine powers for unique effects. 

I think Division could also do it. It would look a little like what happens in Dalinar's vision of Kholinar falling into dust. Their surge of decay allows them to turn things to turn things to dust and they can burn patterns with that surge, like when Taravangian's dustbringer burns a pattern into a table. Big difference, between a table and the plains. It would be very hard to do it on one's own. 

Quote

• Decay: Using the Surge of Division, the Surgebinder can touch an object and cause it to burn, turn to dust, or decay in other ways. The Surgebinder can exercise significant control, such as to burn a pattern into a piece of wood. It can also be used on humans.^[32] This splits the molecular bonds of the object the Surge is used on, but not the atoms themselves.^[33]

 https://coppermind.net/wiki/Surgebinding#Division

 

Quote

Marks spread out from the point of contact, little swirls of blackness etching themselves in the wood ... The swirls and lines extended across the tabletop, a masterwork of engraving accomplished in moments.  OB Ch. 107

 

I know every theory on here is about the Dawnshards , but in his dying days Honor raved of surgebinders using them to destroy Roshar like they did Ashyn. Maybe they amplify surgebinding enough to do what was done to the Shattered Plains. 

Quote

"He raved, speaking of the Dawnshards, ancient weapons used to destroy the Tranquiline Halls. Honor ... promised that Surgebinders would do the same to Roshar." - OB Ch. 113

 

[Leyrann]

2 minutes ago, Child of Hodor said:

Lightweaving by itself couldn't do the damage, since it is illusion magic.

I disagree. It creates light, which isn't an illusion, it's just intangible. However, on a deeper level it seems related to waves, and, well, cymatics does the rest. We even got a nice piece of foreshadowing about the Plains with that .

4 minutes ago, Child of Hodor said:

We've seen Stormfather and Pattern's powers combined when Dalinar and Shallan worked together to create the 3D map, other radiants can combine powers for unique effects. 

Isn't that (likely to be) a Bondsmith unique thing though?

[Guest Edonidd]

Head cannon has always been the shattered plains was where Odium shattered Honor.  I guess I never realized that we haven't actually been told that though have we?

[Weltall]

53 minutes ago, Edonidd said:

Head cannon has always been the shattered plains was where Odium shattered Honor.  I guess I never realized that we haven't actually been told that though have we?

It's mentioned in Way of Kings that the city of Stormseat is believed to have been destroyed during Aharietiam. That's over two thousand years before Honor's death around the time of the Recreance. Even if his death was a protracted affair, I don't think it was that drawn out.

[+Child of Hodor]

22 minutes ago, Weltall said:

It's mentioned in Way of Kings that the city of Stormseat is believed to have been destroyed during Aharietiam. That's over two thousand years before Honor's death around the time of the Recreance. Even if his death was a protracted affair, I don't think it was that drawn out.

1 hour ago, Edonidd said:

Head cannon has always been the shattered plains was where Odium shattered Honor.  I guess I never realized that we haven't actually been told that though have we?

It's implied by a Listener song that humans did the shattering.

Quote

They blame our people, For the loss of that land. The city that once covered it, Did range the eastern strand, The power made known in the tomes of our clan, Our gods were not who shattered these plains - From the Listener Song of Wars, 55th Stanza WoR Ch. 26 Epigraph

I interpret this as saying it wasn't our gods that did it, it was yours. Who do the Listeners view as the humans gods? Listener gods were the Fused ancient cognitive shadows who are reincarnated over and over, the Heralds are the closest equivalent and are still worshipped as gods by some humans in modern times. They could mean also mean radiant spren / radiants. 

"Isn't that (likely to be) a Bondsmith unique thing though?" @LeyrannGood point! Also, you jogged my memory there is a heavily paraphrased WoB where Brandon discusses Lightweavers being able to create lasers or mini-nukes though creating the mini-nuke effect would ultimately kill them due to heavy amounts of radiation exposure. 

 

Quote

 

Miscellaneous 2016 (Jan. 1, 2016)
#1July 3, 2016

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

[Discussion of Lightweavers manipulating other forms of electromagnetic radiation]

But the ultimate form (That Brandon said would be too much to be practical both in needed stormlight and application) would be the control of Gamma Radiation. If this could be harnessed, Lightweavers could literally become mini nukes, or death guns. The biggest downside to making Gamma radiation would be the damage the lightweaver would most likely suffer. So gamma radiation is impractical but its a fun thought experiment. 

The best part of this whole speculation was how excited Brandon was about my train of thought. I don't know if anyone had brought up this train of thought before. But he was happy to remind me that things will get pretty interesting when Lightweavers discover lasers and start using them in combat.

 

 

 

[Rakei]

I'm not sure that's at all what he's implying.

We learn later when the dawnchant is translated that Honor went to great lengths to keep the truth from the KR so that they wouldn't foreswear their oaths as he was certain they would. Notum likely think it's much more likely to happen again when it's rediscovered that Humans are the actual Voidbringers and that they destroyed their own world. Supposedly with Surges.

[Calderis]

23 hours ago, Rakei said:

I'm not sure that's at all what he's implying.

We learn later when the dawnchant is translated that Honor went to great lengths to keep the truth from the KR so that they wouldn't foreswear their oaths as he was certain they would. Notum likely think it's much more likely to happen again when it's rediscovered that Humans are the actual Voidbringers and that they destroyed their own world. Supposedly with Surges.

Honor did not lie to them. With his intent, I don't even know if he was capable of that. 

The Stormfather says that when previous generations of Radiants discovered the truth, Honor reassured them and bolstered them. He didn't prevent them from finding out, he just mitigated the backlash. 

Quote

In the past, Honor was able to guard against this, the Stormfather told him. He convinced the Radiants they were righteous, even if this land hadn’t originally been theirs. Who cares what your ancestors did, when the enemy is trying to kill you right now?

 

Edited November 8, 2018 by Calderis

[Quantus]

For what it's worth, gamma radiation is extremely directional and not prone to reflecting off much, so the Lightweaver themselves should been fine so long as they dont aim it at themselves. 

 

Also, there is an Interesting and Roshar-relevant application of Gamma Radiation:

Quote

Gamma-induced molecular changes can also be used to alter the properties of semi-precious stones, and is often used to change white topaz into blue topaz.

Granted Soulcasting is probably a lot easier, but it's still an interesting alternate possibility. And if anyone where going to be able to grasp the crystalline patterns of a gem sufficiently to change it by physical brute force, I think it would be a Lightweaver. 

Edited November 8, 2018 by Quantus

[Subvisual Haze]

Yes that's basically my reading of it.  Humans with out of control surges already nuked Ashyn, the fear is that they'll do the same to Roshar.  I think that's Odium's ultimate gameplan.  Not destroy Roshar himself via bruteforce, manipulate angry and victimized humans to do it for him.

[Fanghur Rahl]

On 2018-11-08 at 8:06 AM, Quantus said:

For what it's worth, gamma radiation is extremely directional and not prone to reflecting off much, so the Lightweaver themselves should been fine so long as they dont aim it at themselves. 

 

Also, there is an Interesting and Roshar-relevant application of Gamma Radiation:

Granted Soulcasting is probably a lot easier, but it's still an interesting alternate possibility. And if anyone where going to be able to grasp the crystalline patterns of a gem sufficiently to change it by physical brute force, I think it would be a Lightweaver. 

Forget gamma rays. Honestly, I think that if Cosmere physics is similar to real-world physics, then Soulcasting could quite possibly be the the single most potentially destructive magic system in the entire Cosmere, to the point that a lone Soulcaster could potentially obliterate huge portions of a planet. If someone were to inadvertently Soulcast a sizeable object into antimatter, if that’s even possible, and I see no reason to assume it isn’t, you’d basically have a  Peter F. Hamiltonian quantumbuster on your hands.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Fanghur Rahl

[Quantus]

21 hours ago, Fanghur Rahl said:

Forget gamma rays. Honestly, I think that if Cosmere physics is similar to real-world physics, then Soulcasting could quite possibly be the the single most potentially destructive magic system in the entire Cosmere, to the point that a lone Soulcaster could potentially obliterate huge portions of a planet. If someone were to inadvertently Soulcast a sizeable object into antimatter, if that’s even possible, and I see no reason to assume it isn’t, you’d basically have a  Peter F. Hamiltonian quantumbuster on your hands.

You definitely arent wrong, though I think most of them have severe potential to break various worlds.   The metallic Arts have enough temporal manipulation and eventually developed magic-tech that I fully expect them to be able to recreate all the most destructive things we have on Earth, plus a whole host of FTL-based dangers. Sel is literally hacking reality using several different programming langauges.  Greater Roshar has multiple magics, races, and planets that are proven world-breakers, and I would still not be surprised if Dawnshards turn out to be something as simple as Soulcasting fusion/star-matter.  Oh, and Nalthis made Nightblood....

[HSuperLee]

11 minutes ago, Quantus said:

You definitely arent wrong, though I think most of them have severe potential to break various worlds.   The metallic Arts have enough temporal manipulation and eventually developed magic-tech that I fully expect them to be able to recreate all the most destructive things we have on Earth, plus a whole host of FTL-based dangers. Sel is literally hacking reality using several different programming langauges.  Greater Roshar has multiple magics, races, and planets that are proven world-breakers, and I would still not be surprised if Dawnshards turn out to be something as simple as Soulcasting fusion/star-matter.  Oh, and Nalthis made Nightblood....

Nalthis had some people that basically said, "Let's stuff a piece of metal full of investiture." And created Nightblood.

Scadrial had a guy that basically said, "Let's stuff a piece of many metals full of investiture." And created the Bands of Mourning.

Roshar, very often says, "Let's take a bunch of living investiture and turn it into metal."

What I'm saying is, it doesn't seem all too complicated to create super weapons within the Cosmere.

Edited November 12, 2018 by HSuperLee

[Leyrann]

21 hours ago, Fanghur Rahl said:

inadvertently

That's not gonna work, due to the requirement of Intent. Once they know about anti-matter though...

38 minutes ago, Quantus said:

plus a whole host of FTL-based dangers.

Even disregarding everything else, just the sheer impact of an FTL object (and the inability to see it coming, literally) is a deadly weapon in itself:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

[Quantus]

38 minutes ago, HSuperLee said:

Nalthis had some people that basically said, "Let's stuff a piece of metal full of investiture." And created Nightblood.

Scadrial had a guy that basically said, "Let's stuff a piece of many metals full of investiture." And created the Bands of Mourning.

Roshar, very often says, "Let's take a bunch of living investiture and turn it into metal."

What I'm saying is, it doesn't seem all too complicated to create super weapons within the Cosmere.

Most of those scare me a lot less because they are just different versions of "Cram tons of Investiture into a thing to make it Dangerous"; but I equate that with more the fact that anything with sufficient mass becomes dangerous, regardless of it's purpose or function.  It's the efficient uses of Investiture that scare me, like somehow sparking off Nightblood with a mere 1000 Breaths but somehow creating one of the most Invested Objects in the cosmere.    Or any of the conceivable tricks you could pull with the various Dor.  Hell, the radiant ability to create mini-perpendicularities to World-hop, rather than needing natural Perpendicularities, is an ability equated with creating Singularities, and I suspect that's not a common ability across the cosmere.

 

Also, I still have a nagging feeling that Invested Aluminum (apparently only possible in the Metallic Arts) is going to be significant somehow. 

 

13 minutes ago, Leyrann said:

That's not gonna work, due to the requirement of Intent. Once they know about anti-matter though...

Even disregarding everything else, just the sheer impact of an FTL object (and the inability to see it coming, literally) is a deadly weapon in itself:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

No kidding, more than half the functionality surrounding Time Bubbles seems to be Doylistic balance issues more than narrative needs. 

[Fanghur Rahl]

21 minutes ago, Leyrann said:

That's not gonna work, due to the requirement of Intent. Once they know about anti-matter though...

Even disregarding everything else, just the sheer impact of an FTL object (and the inability to see it coming, literally) is a deadly weapon in itself:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

You could know what antimatter is and yet scoff at the idea that anything could possibly be that destructive. Though whether soulcasting it under those circumstances would count as ‘inadvertent’ or not is I suppose a matter of semantics.