Chromium Compounder Posted March 26, 2019 Posted March 26, 2019 Ever since I first read Shadows of Self, I've had an interesting thought. I hadn't heard the term resonance applied to mixed investitures yet, but I had this thought that won't leave me alone. I mentioned it on here a long time ago, but all of the replies basically said I was an idiot and that I was looking at it wrong. I don't think we have enough data about this yet for the idea to be fully fleshed out, but I still think that I'm on the right track. So, we know that when a person possesses two types of investiture it creates a resonance in them which allows them to do things that aren't directly related to either investiture, but together they passively give the person a new ability. We don't have all of these outlined to us. Stormlight references a few of them with radiants. For Lightweavers its their mnemonic abilities, and it's believed that the Windrunner resonance allows them 'strength of squires', which is generally believed to mean they get lots of squires while others get few. I don't think we've definitively heard what any others are, but Khriss in mistborn era 2 ars arcanum mentions them in relation to twinborn. Anyway, my theory is that while there are these passive (not directly powered by investiture) abilities that come through resonance, but I think there may be a psychological effect that comes with resonance as well. The idea stemmed from a few things in SoS. When Wax talked to his grandmother she says that it's dangerous to combine Allomancy and Feruchemy. He says it's only dangerous when they can compound, but she disagrees. She implies that it's why he kills people. He disagrees, but what she said got me thinking. We've only seen a few twinborn, but an argument could be made that they all have psychological issues. Name - Allomantic Metal - Feruchemical Metal - Possible Psychological Issues Wax - Steel - Iron - Obession with doing what's right Wayne - Bendalloy - Gold - Cleptomania Miles - Gold - Gold - Megalomania? God complex? Sociopathy? Forch - Steel - Pewter - Homicidal Mania (tortures and plans to kill a little boy. Probably did it before.) Set's twinborn on the train - Steel - Pewter - We don't see much of this guy, but he's working with the Set, and seems like he certainly enjoys killing. Could be homicidal maniac like Forch. It's possible that these issues were all pre-existing or developed as a side effect of having a different world view brought about by having more power than others, but it seems odd that every single twinborn we've seen doesn't think like a normal person. It's possible that this isn't really connected to resonance but instead to a threshold of investiture. You could make similar arguments for Vin, Kelsier, and the Lord Ruler despite the fact that you're not supposed to only get resonance with 2 types of investiture, and that the effect goes away with larger numbers. That would make sense with how vessels lose more and more control of their choices over time, and simply become manifestations of their shard's intent. For mixed investitures with mortals this effect would be less predictable and smaller in scale, but still noticeable. It's also possible that these issues being pre-existing could be why they're able to manifest two types of investiture, similar to how Syl says that all the radiants were broken. For radiants their psychological issues seem related to the ideals of their order. I could see that as a point against my original theory. It may be in line with some aspects of it though. Anyway, that's what was in my head today.
Calderis he/him Posted March 26, 2019 Posted March 26, 2019 Eh. I really don't think so. I definitely think the things that a resonance do could have minor conditional effects, but I don't think they'd the cause. I also don't think that resonance is unrelated to the powers. I'm not sure how Shallan's powers result in a mnemonic device, but the Windrunner one is confirmed as "Strength of Squires" and it makes perfect sense if you look at Kal's Surges from a spiritual perspective. Quote Argent There is a person on the forums who noticed that Shallan has this awesome Memory thing going on, Jasnah seems to have a really powerful, kind of, geolocation thing going on, Kaladin is a really good fighter - are those just their traits, or is there something supernatural going on? Brandon Sanderson There is something supernatural going on. Each Order... Well, how about this. If you look at the scholar interpretations, there are some scholars who think that these things are not supernatural, in the past, and some who said they definitely are. But many, if you look, many Lightweavers had powerful mnemonic abilities. Argent So it's definitely tied to the Orders? Brandon Sanderson It's tied to the Orders. Now, I am not going to say that you've got them all 100% correct, but each Order, there are things that come with Order, things that do not add up from simple the "you get this power plus this power," there is something else going on. And I would say that for Windrunners, watch the number of squires and the power of the squires... is abnormal for the Windrunners. Argent And each Order's squires are somehow different from the other Orders'? Brandon Sanderson Yeeeaaaah... some Orders don't have them, [that] is the difference. Argent But some have more? Brandon Sanderson Yeah. Words of Radiance Chicago signing (March 22, 2014) Quote Ray745 You have stated that each Knights Radiant order gets their own unique ability, for lack of a better word, due to the combination of their surges. For instance, you have stated this ability for the Windrunners is strength of squires. My question - is this due to the Nahel bond, or just inherent in the surges combining. Would a non-Radiant get these abilities from the Honorblades, or would they be out of luck due to no Nahel bond? Brandon Sanderson Good question! The unique abilities have more to do with the powers interacting, same as how twinborn will often manifest some odd side effects of the powers interacting. But there are limitations. For example, Jezrien didn't actually have any squires, as none of the Heralds did. General Reddit 2016 (Oct. 4, 2016) Gravitation to draw people in more quickly, and Adhesion to bond them to you.
Chromium Compounder Posted March 26, 2019 Author Posted March 26, 2019 I didn’t say they weren’t related to their powers. I said they aren’t directly related to either power. It’s more that they’re tangentially related to both.
Bigmikey357 he/him Posted March 26, 2019 Posted March 26, 2019 The way the Cosmere works in regards to magic systems is that you take an intact soul, put a crack in it, and some flavor of Investiture spackles over said crack, adhering and becoming a part of the spirit web. In practical terms this means that any magic user has issues. The issues are more pronounced and more highlighted in SA but it's almost a given that any magic user in the Cosmere is somehow damaged to a greater or lesser degree. It reminds me of Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires series where all the magic users were insane, though there are differences both in severity and the causal chain. Amyway, I believe that's what we're observing.
Karger he/him Posted March 26, 2019 Posted March 26, 2019 Perhaps the resonance just magnifies an already existing worldview. Wax's abilities are what make him morally or at least spiritually so durable and because of that he has trouble empathizing with others who do not share his fortitude. I don't think any full mistborn is a good example as so many powers might contradict each other but all mistborn seem obsessed with preserving something either themselves or someone or something else. Wayne's ability's might make him more patient and less likely to care about consequences.
Recommended Posts