Voidlight consumption

[Calderis he/him]

In certain cases with the Fused, most notably the Shanay-im, we are seeing a phenomenon where they seem to be able to use their abilities without any seeming cost. I have an idea for how this may be happening. 

Imagine that using a surge functions like a water wheel. Windrunner performs a lashing, and stormlight flows past the water wheel performing work. The entire time this happens, stormlight flows away and is depleted. 

You would expect voidlight to work the same, and in some cases it seems to, like when Moash was lashed into the air to meet with Leshwi in OB. But this only appears to happen when the shanay-im lash something other than themselves. 

When they lash themselves, the effect seems to be ongoing. I think that they've replaced the water wheel with a closed loop system. A feedback loop. Voidlight flows out over the "water wheel" and right back into the reservoir. So long as they don't push that power outside of themselves(lashing, slicking.,or placing an illusion on something other than themselves, possibly realmatic transition if they were to make a perp though I think Lezian is using the power somewhat differently here that relies in the Fused's spren like nature) or use it for the creation of matter, as healing does, there is no loss.

The downside to this, I think, is that the upper limit of how much voidlight they can carry is much lower, which means that again, using the shanay-im as an example, the maximum number of lashings they can use at once is much lower, giving Windrunners and Skybreakers a distinct advantage in the short term. And it makes the choice to lash something else or a need to heal much more relatively costly. 

If a Fused can outlast a Radiant without the need for external uses or healing though? They can just keep on going. 

I'm interested to see if I'm correct here. Regardless, their mechanics are intriguing. 

[Karger he/him]

1 hour ago, Calderis said:

there is no loss.

That seems to violate thermodynamics.

[Calderis he/him]

48 minutes ago, Karger said:

That seems to violate thermodynamics.

It does. But to quote @Master_Moridin from this same discussion that were having on discord at the moment

Quote

Brandon's outright said his get out of thermodynamics card is the Spiritual
He breaks energy conservation by not creating it, but pulling it from somewhere else...
And then he breaks conservation rules anyways by having that energy somehow return

Just look at awakening and this is minor in comparison. 

[Karger he/him]

22 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Just look at awakening and this is minor in comparison. 

What about Lezian?  He had more voidlight then he could carry with him.  He had to use spheres to teleport more then three times. 

[Calderis he/him]

37 minutes ago, Karger said:

What about Lezian?  He had more voidlight then he could carry with him.  He had to use spheres to teleport more then three times. 

He also created a new body with every Teleportation. He's creating matter, just like with healing. That's clearly not doing the same thing. The transition itself maybe, but the body definitely not. 

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine he/him]

2 hours ago, Calderis said:

When they lash themselves, the effect seems to be ongoing. I think that they've replaced the water wheel with a closed loop system. A feedback loop. Voidlight flows out over the "water wheel" and right back into the reservoir. So long as they don't push that power outside of themselves(lashing, slicking.,or placing an illusion on something other than themselves, possibly realmatic transition if they were to make a perp though I think Lezian is using the power somewhat differently here that relies in the Fused's spren like nature) or use it for the creation of matter, as healing does, there is no loss.

I think the simple answer to this closed system is that the Fused have gemhearts, investiture applied to themselves returns to their gemheart unless it is an application that is consumptive because it is the creation of new matter (like you said when healing, or when Lezian grows carapace daggers).

33 minutes ago, Karger said:

What about Lezian?  He had more voidlight then he could carry with him.  He had to use spheres to teleport more then three times. 

I think the answer here is that Lezian is not really using the surge of teleportation, he's rather dropping his physical form (the husk that blows away like dust) moving quickly in his pure spren form (which we found out in Chapter 14 that all Fused can do) and then using something akin to spiritual regrowth to regrow his body. The fact that he can shape weapons out of his carapace makes me think he's one of the class of Fused we saw at the Battle of Thaylen fields that could manipulate their carapace.

[Calderis he/him]

11 minutes ago, hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

I think the answer here is that Lezian is not really using the surge of teleportation, he's rather dropping his physical form (the husk that blows away like dust) moving quickly in his pure spren form (which we found out in Chapter 14 that all Fused can do) and then using something akin to spiritual regrowth to regrow his body. The fact that he can shape weapons out of his carapace makes me think he's one of the class of Fused we saw at the Battle of Thaylen fields that could manipulate their carapace.

I partially agree with you, but definitely think he is a distinct type and he's using Transportation. 

I do think he's "abandoning" his body like you say... And only using transportation to redesignate where his physical body is supposed to be... Which "heals" him a new one, including healing shard severed hands and regrowing broken carapace spikes, but it's technically healing back the "same body." which is why the old one crumbles to dust, just like growing shardplate in a separate location. It's the same body and can't exist in two places at once. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Calderis