Heightening Theories

[ChaseBakes]

So, as mentioned in Dawnshard, and later confirmed by Brandon, high levels of investiture give Heightenings as seen most prominently in Awakening, and now in being a Dawnshard.  So Brandon confirmed that it is being very invested that gives Heightenings and it is NOT limited to holding a lot of Breaths.  So we saw Rysn with perfect pitch and color suggesting she has at least the Third Heightening.  I theorize that that will increase as she holds the Dawnshard for longer because agelessness is the Fifth and we see that with Hoid being a Dawnsliver but Rysn makes no mention of life sense which reaches its peak strength at the Fourth, so she probably only has the Third at this point.

But anyways, to the main question I am curious about, what about later Heightenings that seem specific to Awakening?  Specifically the Sixth, instinctive Awakening, the Eighth, Command breaking, Ninth, greater Awakening and audible Command, and Tenth, perfect invocation and mental commands.  I am really curious how those translate to other systems of magic.  

Any thoughts, theories, provoking questions?

[ftl]

So, one thing I'd want to do is distinguish between Heightenings and whatever effects the Dawnshard or other concentration of investiture gives. It feels like Rosharans calling all birds chickens - Heightenings are specifically the effects of having different quantities of Breath.

Some of the effects of having a lot of Breath are going to be the general effects of having a lot of Investiture (and that'll be the stuff that's similar between Heightenings and holding a Dawnshard) but other effects will probably be Breath-specific - and I would guess the ones that specifically have to do with Breath and Awakening are going to be granted only via Heightenings, not through holding a lot of any Investiture.

[Syntal]

I agree that simply holding a large amount of investiture for a long time would not grant you the ability to break Commands or perform Greater Awakening, but I think we would still see similar effects. The idea that magic systems rely on basic principles such as Intent suggests that possessing the 8th or 9th heightening really gives a person greater or finer control over these basic principles, which in the case of Awakeners translates to breaking commands, etc. but in the cases of users of other magic systems would translate to different effects. Regardless, holders of Dawnshards are explicitly forbidden from possessing the investiture of shards (e.g. forming a nahel bond), so it seems these abilities would be low on the list of cool/rule-breaking things somebody holding both a Dawnshard and some other form of investiture would be able to do.

[ftl]

3 hours ago, Syntal said:

 Regardless, holders of Dawnshards are explicitly forbidden from possessing the investiture of shards (e.g. forming a nahel bond)

Well, at least Rysn has been told by the sleepless not to make a Nahel bond.

We don't know whether this is common to other Dawnshard holders, and we don't even know whether Rysn will listen (though I suspect she will.)

[Syntal]

5 hours ago, ftl said:

Well, at least Rysn has been told by the sleepless not to make a Nahel bond.

We don't know whether this is common to other Dawnshard holders, and we don't even know whether Rysn will listen (though I suspect she will.)

You're right, I was jumping to conclusions from the line that said the Shards had made a binding oath not to directly use the Dawnshards and interpreting that to mean no invested person could use the Dawnshards. Considering the humans used the Dawnshards previously in the desolations, I find it unlikely that no Knight Radiant ever held a Dawnshard.

[ChaseBakes]

Obviously it wouldn't give greater awakenings or stuff like that, but the way I understood it is Heightenings are are NOT something specific to Awakening:

tskyeguye

From Rysn's observations in the epilogue, it seems like she has a lot of the same aspects of a Fifth Heightening/Returned at the least. Is this because her Dawnshard is particularly connected to Endowment or because the effects of a certain level of Investment result in similar effects?

Brandon Sanderson

The latter.

Skrimyt

Interesting. So are actively Surgebinding Radiants or metal-burning Allomancers just not Invested enough to gain those passive effects, or do they not experience perfect pitch/color/etc. because their Investiture is just not as tightly bound to their Spiritweb as Endowment's Breaths or a Dawnshard would be?

Brandon Sanderson

Be aware that the two groups you mention don't generally hold much Investiture themselves, at least not in large quantities over time. More in Surgebinding. Almost none in Allomancy.

But RAFO to specifics.

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020)

So my question is how the Heightenings that do seem Awakening specific translate to other forms of Investiture.  Some are obvious like detecting Breath quantities is just Investiture in general, like detecting if someone is burning metal or holding stormlight.  But others seem to be less obvious translations so I just wanted some theories.

Also, side note, I wonder what Zahel (A.K.A Vasher) will think when he sees Rysn as he would be able to detect her Investiture with the Breaths he has.