Heraldic Apotheosis and the Power of Mismatched Surges

[+honorblades he/him]

Intro

The Heralds, as we all know, were once normal men & women who were offered the chance to become something greater by Honor. They were granted the Honorblades, allowing them each the use of two Surges, along with other abilities. Upon death, the Heralds are returned to Braize to endure torture until one of their number breaks, which initiates another Desolation. We know that during the first few Desolations, many hundreds or thousands of years would have passed between the last time the Heralds returned to Roshar. Often, the Heralds would have to progress society rapidly in order to get them prepared for the coming war. This alone would have most likely been enough to convince many of the Herald's divine nature, however I suspect others would need a more direct demonstration. 

 

The Heralds have two distinct advantages when it comes to feats of unnatural power: First, the Heralds were directly powered by Honor. This means that they did not need to rely on stormlight stored in gems, and also implies that they would be able to use a greater amount of stormlight at once than a regular Radiant. Second, the Heralds occasionally swapped Honorblades. Additionally, it is possible to wield more than one Honorblade at once. 

My proposition is that this mixing of Surges greatly influenced the deification of the Heralds, due to the miraculous feats they could achieve, beyond that of a normal Surgebinder or even a Knight Radiant. Allow me to present some examples. 

 

The Surge of Transportation

Jasnah, an Elsecaller, uses her Surge of Transportation to Soulcast from a distance, without physically touching the object she is changing. I believe this application of Transportation would apply to any of the Surges that usually require touch, such as Cohesion, Adhesion, or Regrowth . . . 

This is actually an incorrect assumption, please disregard along with the following example. But my ultimate point about mixing Surges still stands, damnation it! 

Transportation & Progression

Regrowth is a powerful application of the Surge of Progression that allows healing and even resuscitation, but is limited to the user physically touching the recipient. However, let us imagine that the Herald Vedel (Progression & Abrasion) borrowed her Honorblade to the Herald Battar (Transformation & Transportation), allowing the latter to use both Honorblades at once. This, along with presumably unlimited Stormlight provided by Honor, would allow Battar to heal many people remotely. She could perhaps heal an entire army at once this way. 

 

Adhesion & Abrasion 

Adhesion, a Surge that sticks things together, and Abrasion, a Surge that can be used to ignite and degrade matter, including humans. Perhaps a Herald wielding these two Surges could stick many enemy's feet to the ground at once, locking them in place, and then use Division to set the ground alight. 

 

There are many different applications of these mismatched Surges, and I believe that these incredible feats of power (along with the Herald's normal prodigious use of the Honorblades) greatly contributed to their staying power in the minds of the people of Roshar. I would love to hear your ideas on the different ways the Surges could be combined in non-organic ways (that is, combinations that do not currently exist in the Radiant Orders). 

 

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope that you had to google apotheosis, a fun new word I learned today while researching this topic

Edited July 3, 2020 by vegvisr
I was WRONG

[Pathfinder]

1 hour ago, vegvisr said:

Intro

The Heralds, as we all know, were once normal men & women who were offered the chance to become something greater by Honor. They were granted the Honorblades, allowing them each the use of two Surges, along with other abilities. Upon death, the Heralds are returned to Braize to endure torture until one of their number breaks, which initiates another Desolation. We know that during the first few Desolations, many hundreds or thousands of years would have passed between the last time the Heralds returned to Roshar. Often, the Heralds would have to progress society rapidly in order to get them prepared for the coming war. This alone would have most likely been enough to convince many of the Herald's divine nature, however I suspect others would need a more direct demonstration. 

 

The Heralds have two distinct advantages when it comes to feats of unnatural power: First, the Heralds were directly powered by Honor. This means that they did not need to rely on stormlight stored in gems, and also implies that they would be able to use a greater amount of stormlight at once than a regular Radiant. Second, the Heralds occasionally swapped Honorblades. Additionally, it is possible to wield more than one Honorblade at once. 

My proposition is that this mixing of Surges greatly influenced the deification of the Heralds, due to the miraculous feats they could achieve, beyond that of a normal Surgebinder or even a Knight Radiant. Allow me to present some examples. 

 

The Surge of Transportation

Jasnah, an Elsecaller, uses her Surge of Transportation to Soulcast from a distance, without physically touching the object she is changing. I believe this application of Transportation would apply to any of the Surges that usually require touch, such as Cohesion, Adhesion, or Regrowth . . . 

Transportation & Progression

Regrowth is a powerful application of the Surge of Progression that allows healing and even resuscitation, but is limited to the user physically touching the recipient. However, let us imagine that the Herald Vedel (Progression & Abrasion) borrowed her Honorblade to the Herald Battar (Transformation & Transportation), allowing the latter to use both Honorblades at once. This, along with presumably unlimited Stormlight provided by Honor, would allow Battar to heal many people remotely. She could perhaps heal an entire army at once this way. 

 

Adhesion & Abrasion 

Adhesion, a Surge that sticks things together, and Abrasion, a Surge that can be used to ignite and degrade matter, including humans. Perhaps a Herald wielding these two Surges could stick many enemy's feet to the ground at once, locking them in place, and then use Division to set the ground alight. 

 

There are many different applications of these mismatched Surges, and I believe that these incredible feats of power (along with the Herald's normal prodigious use of the Honorblades) greatly contributed to their staying power in the minds of the people of Roshar. I would love to hear your ideas on the different ways the Surges could be combined in non-organic ways (that is, combinations that do not currently exist in the Radiant Orders). 

 

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope that you had to google apotheosis, a fun new word I learned today while researching this topic

Many people (including me for a time) thought soulcasting at range was due to a combination of transportation and transformation. Turns out elsecallers are just really good at soulcasting, and a lightweaver could learn to do the same thing with enough training.

 

Questioner

Is Jasnah being able to Soulcast at a distance the resonance of her two Surges or is that just a Radiant thing that's not with the fabrials. 

Brandon Sanderson

Jasnah's Order is better at that than others. It is not impossible that you could imagine a Lightweaver being able to do it.

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

[+honorblades he/him]

1 minute ago, Pathfinder said:

Many people (including me for a time) thought soulcasting at range was due to a combination of transportation and transformation. Turns out elsecallers are just really good at soulcasting, and a lightweaver could learn to do the same thing with enough training.

Nice I had no idea, thank you!  

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

I've always wanted Abrasion and Gravitation together, just so you can always be skating "downhill", even if you're on a wall or a ceiling. That just sounds like it would be badass.

[+honorblades he/him]

1 hour ago, Halyo_Alex said:

I've always wanted Abrasion and Gravitation together, just so you can always be skating "downhill", even if you're on a wall or a ceiling. That just sounds like it would be badass.

I love this. Very clever. 

Now I'm imagining a campy spy thriller about a Windrunner and a Lightweaver, and every time they almost get caught they just stick themselves to the ceiling 

[Eluvianii he/him]

Hmmmmm I wonder if one could swim on ground by combining Cohesion and Gravitation. Like, you make the ground liquid, dive in completely and then use Gravitation to fall in any direction and come out at another point. Seems tricky but it could confuse the enemy in battle or the user infiltrate themselves anywhere. There's just no way to watch the freaking ground for intruders, not with Roshar's technology anyway.

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

2 hours ago, vegvisr said:

I love this. Very clever. 

Now I'm imagining a campy spy thriller about a Windrunner and a Lightweaver, and every time they almost get caught they just stick themselves to the ceiling 

That sounds amazing, holy crap.

[theTruthshaper]

Gravitation and Abrasion together are very OP. The only limit to Kaladin's speed is air resistance, so with Abrasion you could travel very, very fast. On Earth, you could travel 200km in about 3 minutes.

Depending upon how exactly Division works, Division and Transformation could be very, very destructive.

[Watchcry he/him]

9 hours ago, The_Truthwatcher said:

Gravitation and Abrasion together are very OP. The only limit to Kaladin's speed is air resistance, so with Abrasion you could travel very, very fast. On Earth, you could travel 200km in about 3 minutes.

Depending upon how exactly Division works, Division and Transformation could be very, very destructive.

200km with one full lashing,  right? With two or three you'd go much faster.