Radiant Eye-color

[SteelShaper]

So, I found a WoB that answers a little of this question (below), but still leaves questions for me.  If a lighteyes becomes a Radiant and gains the ability to summon a living Shardblade, how much (if any) does their eye color change depending on the order?  Like, if someone with blue eyes becomes a Willshaper, will their eyes turn purple? 

Because Brandon has implied that there could be a change, but that it might be subtle because the lighteyes are descended from people who were gradually but permanently altered by the bond/stormlight.  Presumably blue eyes would mean someone was descended from a Windrunner.  This leads to another question: If a change in eye-color has already occurred due to investiture exposure and been passed down through genetics, and a descendant joined an order that would normally have produced a similar, but different, change [like red or orange or purple], would the descendant's children have blue eyes or the eye color of their parent's order?

 

The WoB, quoted:

"Questioner

My question has to do with the color of Shallan's eyes currently, because we've noticed over the books that Kaladin's eyes, as he's continued to use his Surge, changed to lighter and lighter blue. Whereas one could argue that Shallan is farther in her Ideals than Kaladin is, yet her eyes have not changed at all.

Brandon Sanderson

Right, 'cause they were already light.

Questioner

'Cause they were already light? So it only affects lightness or darkness in the eyes, not necessarily any other color?

Brandon Sanderson

It's not like it is-- It's not like it's saying "Light minus 50%".

Questioner

It's not like Honor is blue and--

Brandon Sanderson

No. It is not. It is just kind of the way that the changes the Stormlight is making the body and certain people are already descended from people who had repeated, over time, changes by the body which stopped physically... That's not to say that all lighteyes that's where they came from. There are some that are natural mutations."

Edited June 26, 2020 by SteelShaper
typo

[Weltall]

I think that anyone who already has the (s)DNA for Radiant eye colors through heredity won't undergo a change if they become a Radiant themselves (Brandon's 'they were already light' comment) and they'd pass on whatever eye color they were born with to their children. The caveat to this is that we know that eye color genetics are really funky on Roshar and a child can inherit either parent's eye color or get one of each.

So based on that, if a 'natural' lighteyes and someone who became a lighteyes through the Nahel Bond had children, there's a chance that those kids could have either Parent A's 'natural' eyes or Parent B's 'Radiant' eyes. The former would be permanent, the latter might not be. Brandon mentions that people like Shallan are the product of a long line of people who had the changes and eventually the alteration stuck, so someone who inherited 'Radiant eyes' from a parent rather than 'natural' light eyes would probably still have sDNA that's malleable enough to undergo a color change if they themselves became a Radiant.

Likewise let's say Kaladin and a darkeyes have a child. That kid might inherit Kaladin's Radiant eyes instead of their mother's dark eyes but would probably still be able to change to something else if they became Radiant themselves.

For someone who's already a lighteyes and becomes a Radiant, since they already have the sDNA for one eye color, they'd pass on whatever color they were born with, in the same way that their eyes don't change. Whatever part of the spiritweb controls eye color on Roshar has already been altered so the changes that the Nahel Bond would normally impose wouldn't have anywhere to stick, and thus wouldn't be passed on to the next generation.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Weltall

[Weltall]

41 minutes ago, Luke Skybreaker said:

I'm confused where you got the implication that willshapers specifically have purple eyes and that windrunners are the only order with blue eyes. Could you post a book quote or WoB confirming this? I've never heard of anything like it.

First off, welcome to the Shard!

Second, each Order has an associated eye color, corresponding to the gemstone linked to that Order. Every Radiant we've seen who wasn't a lighteyes to begin with exhibits an eye color change matching their Order's linked gemstone and the ones seen in visions of the past follow the same pattern. It's something that we've known for quite some time.

Quote

Argent

When a Surgebinder's eye color changes when they Surgebind or have a Blade [out], is the color of their eyes corresponding to their Order? So Windrunners would do blue, and then--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. 

Argent

So each Order gets a different eye color?

Brandon Sanderson

Each Order does indeed have an eye color representation.

Words of Radiance Chicago signing (March 22, 2014)

 

[extremepayne he/him]

I'm confused where you got the implication that willshapers specifically have purple eyes and that windrunners are the only order with blue eyes. Could you post a book quote or WoB confirming this? I've never heard of anything like it.

[SteelShaper]

I made the assumption based off descriptions of radiants and their Shardplate in Dalinar's visions, and extrapolated from the polestones. In WoK, Chapter 19, where Dalinar faces the midnight essence, the Windrunner has blue eyes, and his Shardplate glows blue at the edges. His companion has tan eyes and Plate that glows amber.  In WoR, Chapter 4, fighting the thunderclast in the Purelake, the radiant's armor glows "a deep red", and she uses the surge of abrasion to move through the water more easily, though her eye color isn't mentioned.  She could be either a Dustbringer or an Edgedancer, but if the polestone association is correct, red [ruby] is associated with the Dustbringers. The polestone for the Willshapers is amethyst, so I guessed that would mean their armor, and maybe their eyes, would glow purple.

[extremepayne he/him]

Wow, cool! Thanks for that WoB, that's exactly what I was looking for. Makes me wonder what eye color a Skybreaker would have (smokestone), or an Edgedancer (diamond). Was either mentioned in the books? 

Back to OP's questions, the first one to me is 100% answered by the WoB. Shallan's eyes are blue and neither WoB nor prose indicates them turning red (garnet) whatsoever (IIRC). It's weird that lighteyes don't get this interaction while darkeyes do, but that appears to be how it works. The second question is more interesting, but there's a WoB where Brandon appears to not be ready to canonize exactly how genetics work for darkeyed Radiants. Really it boils down to whether the DNA of the Radiant is changed or simply the proteins that usually manifest as a result of DNA, which is largely immaterial to the story and might never be answered.

[Honorless he/him]

28 minutes ago, Luke Skybreaker said:

Wow, cool! Thanks for that WoB, that's exactly what I was looking for. Makes me wonder what eye color a Skybreaker would have (smokestone), or an Edgedancer (diamond). Was either mentioned in the books? 

Lift's eyes are described as pale, clear, and like glass in text