Potentially huge revelation in the Elantris bonus chapter

[Ba-Ado-Fisherman]

So I recently bought the Elantris leather bound, and it turns out that Brandon released a two-page, bonus chapter for Elantirs' 10th anniversary that I never read...

 

Reading this after Rhythm of War, something stands out to me.  In the scene, Hoid is talking to a Skaze.  Per a couple WoBs, Skaze are described as "evil Seons" and they are Splinters of Dominion.  What caught my attention is the way it's described by Hoid.  He says it's "a hovering dark sphere, about the size of a melon.  It somehow sucked in the light, and didn't have distinct edges Hoid could make out--it just kind of blended out into the air, warping everything around it like a stone dropped onto a sheet of silk stretched tight.  It was ringed with a pattern of misty symbols"

 

In Rhythm of War, Navani describes the sphere of anti-Voidlight as, “Like the ordinary Voidlight sphere, its blackness expanded, making the surrounding air dim. But there was an added effect with this sphere, one she hadn’t noticed right away. It warped the air around it.”

 

Both the Skaze and the anti-Voidlight are explicitly described as "warping" the air around it.  Sel is also "the most realmatically knowledgeable of the known Shardworlds" (Coppermind).  I think there are people on Sel that are not only aware of anti-Investiture, but have also figured out how to create anti-Investiture Splinters of Dominion, called Skaze.

[Bejarden he/him]

3 minutes ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

So I recently bought the Elantris leather bound, and it turns out that Brandon released a two-page, bonus chapter for Elantirs' 10th anniversary that I never read...

 

Reading this after Rhythm of War, something stands out to me.  In the scene, Hoid is talking to a Skaze.  Per a couple WoBs, Skaze are described as "evil Seons" and they are Splinters of Dominion.  What caught my attention is the way it's described by Hoid.  He says it's "a hovering dark sphere, about the size of a melon.  It somehow sucked in the light, and didn't have distinct edges Hoid could make out--it just kind of blended out into the air, warping everything around it like a stone dropped onto a sheet of silk stretched tight.  It was ringed with a pattern of misty symbols"

 

In Rhythm of War, Navani describes the sphere of anti-Voidlight as, “Like the ordinary Voidlight sphere, its blackness expanded, making the surrounding air dim. But there was an added effect with this sphere, one she hadn’t noticed right away. It warped the air around it.”

 

Both the Skaze and the anti-Voidlight are explicitly described as "warping" the air around it.  Sel is also "the most realmatically knowledgeable of the known Shardworlds" (Coppermind).  I think there are people on Sel that are not only aware of anti-Investiture, but have also figured out how to create anti-Investiture Splinters of Dominion, called Skaze.

But could Sel keep this secret from the entire Silverlight?

Khriss says in the Ars Arcanum of RoW that this  is is the first evidence of A-Light

I doubt Hoid would know something about investiture before Khriss does

[Ba-Ado-Fisherman]

10 minutes ago, Bejardin1250 said:

But could Sel keep this secret from the entire Silverlight?

Khriss says in the Ars Arcanum of RoW that this  is is the first evidence of A-Light

I doubt Hoid would know something about investiture before Khriss does

Well Khriss is actually wrong about anti-Investiture in the Ars Arcanum.  Gavilar had a sphere of it 7 whole years before RoW, but Khriss didn't know about it until after Navani figured out how to make it.  

 

From stormlightarchive.fandom.com: "She's begun to wonder if something greater is happening on Sel than they, at Silverlight University, have guessed. Something with origins lost in time.  She believes that there is a link between entities known as seons and skaze and the puzzle of Sel's nature".

 

So Khriss clearly doesn't fully understand what's happening on Sel, and she doesn't know how Seons and Skaze are linked.  I guess it could be possible that Skaze are essentially anti-Seons too, based on this passage.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Ba-Ado-Fisherman

[Bejarden he/him]

1 minute ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

Well Khriss is actually wrong about anti-Investiture in the Ars Arcanum.  Gavilar had a sphere of it 7 whole years before RoW, but Khriss didn't know about it until after Navani figured out how to make it.  

Well this was a secret conspiracy between Gavilar and and multiple thousand year old heralds which is much easier to keep secret than a Skaze that Hoid can bring into Arelon and just talk to

Is that quote from AU?

[Ba-Ado-Fisherman]

Just now, Bejardin1250 said:

Well this was a secret conspiracy between Gavilar and and multiple thousand year old heralds which is much easier to keep secret than a Skaze that Hoid can bring into Arelon and just talk to

Is that quote from AU?

I have no idea where that quote came from.  I got it from this page https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Khriss#Sel

Khriss says that anti-Investiture has been "long theorized".  It isn't that she was unaware of the possibility, only that she didn't know how it could be made.  If a group of people on Sel figured out how to do that, it makes complete sense that they would keep that knowledge hidden. 

[Bejarden he/him]

2 minutes ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

I have no idea where that quote came from.  I got it from this page https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Khriss#Sel

Khriss says that anti-Investiture has been "long theorized".  It isn't that she was unaware of the possibility, only that she didn't know how it could be made.  If a group of people on Sel figured out how to do that, it makes complete sense that they would keep that knowledge hidden. 

I can’t open links from other websites for reasons so I can’t fact-check that

I don’t think that Hoid could see a Skaze without Khriss seeing one 

even factoring in the dangers of going to Sel I think she would at least acquire  a description or drawing which would include all those details

And if she’s seen one and knows what A-Light should look, because of the theories, I don’t think that she wouldn’t connect the two

But I’m not discounting your theory it is very valid I just happen to not agree

[Ba-Ado-Fisherman]

1 minute ago, Bejardin1250 said:

I can’t open links from other websites for reasons so I can’t fact-check that

I don’t think that Hoid could see a Skaze without Khriss seeing one 

even factoring in the dangers of going to Sel I think she would at least acquire  a description or drawing which would include all those details

And if she’s seen one and knows what A-Light should look, because of the theories, I don’t think that she wouldn’t connect the two

But I’m not discounting your theory it is very valid I just happen to not agree

I don't understand why you think Hoid wouldn't know more than Khriss?  He has been alive since before the Shattering, knows each original Vessel personally, was previously a Dawnshard, and his been to every world that a book has taken place on, except Threnody (that we know of).  

[Green chicken]

46 minutes ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

So I recently bought the Elantris leather bound, and it turns out that Brandon released a two-page, bonus chapter for Elantirs' 10th anniversary that I never read...

 

Reading this after Rhythm of War, something stands out to me.  In the scene, Hoid is talking to a Skaze.  Per a couple WoBs, Skaze are described as "evil Seons" and they are Splinters of Dominion.  What caught my attention is the way it's described by Hoid.  He says it's "a hovering dark sphere, about the size of a melon.  It somehow sucked in the light, and didn't have distinct edges Hoid could make out--it just kind of blended out into the air, warping everything around it like a stone dropped onto a sheet of silk stretched tight.  It was ringed with a pattern of misty symbols"

 

In Rhythm of War, Navani describes the sphere of anti-Voidlight as, “Like the ordinary Voidlight sphere, its blackness expanded, making the surrounding air dim. But there was an added effect with this sphere, one she hadn’t noticed right away. It warped the air around it.”

 

Both the Skaze and the anti-Voidlight are explicitly described as "warping" the air around it.  Sel is also "the most realmatically knowledgeable of the known Shardworlds" (Coppermind).  I think there are people on Sel that are not only aware of anti-Investiture, but have also figured out how to create anti-Investiture Splinters of Dominion, called Skaze.

According to several WOBs skaze are splinters of Dominion:

Argent (paraphrased)

Ashe says to Sarene "your god". Do seons (and skaze) have a religion/god?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

They have an inkling of the nature of their original Shards, which they would consider their gods.

Argent (paraphrased)

Kind of like a first, a prime, a parent?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. They kind of know what happened that created them, and they also know this is not the god being worshiped (by Sarene), so...

Steelheart Chicago signing (Oct. 5, 2013)

 

 

mathota123

Is the creation of skaze end-negative?

Brandon Sanderson

So, you're not quite using the term right.

The terms "end-negative" and "end-positive" refer to a specific system--in most cases, we're talking about the individual(s) using the magic. Do you draw more magic out, or is it powered by your own native Investiture?

Awakening is what we call end-neutral, despite the fact that (obviously) the Breaths came from someone else in the first place. That's not the point in contention here--do the same number of Breaths (the same amount of Investiture) continue to exist in the system as you're manipulating the magic.

In something like AonDor, you are drawing out much more power than you put in--end-positive. That power is put to work doing something, such as healing a body, or creating a blast of power.

The skaze, like the seons, were created when a Shard was Splintered. The terminology doesn't quite work there, at least not in the way that scholars in the cosmere would use it.

The question from the physicist in this thread about where Investiture goes, and what it means for a Shard to have access to certain amounts of power, is related to all of this. I'm hoping to be able to find some time to craft a response there, as there are some fundamental understandings of the magic that are relevant to the discussion that I should point out.

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 21, 2016)

 

 

 

Questioner

[Does] the expansion of Jaddeth’s empire have more to do with greed and hunger for power, or the innate nature of Dominion?

Brandon Sanderson

Both. I would say both. The innate nature of Dominion probably caused the greed and hunger for power.

Questioner

What would you say percentage-wise?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, one caused the other. It definitely started with Dominion. The Skaze are pretty thirsty for power.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)  

 

Chaos (paraphrased)

This is other information we overheard while we were there. Skaze are the evil seons, and are related to Skai. Seons are related to the AonDor and thus Aona.

Ancient 17S Q&A (May 1, 2010)

[Bejarden he/him]

WoB

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/222/#e5623

1 minute ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

I don't understand why you think Hoid wouldn't know more than Khriss?  He has been alive since before the Shattering, knows each original Vessel personally, was previously a Dawnshard, and his been to every world that a book has taken place on, except Threnody (that we know of).  

 

[Ba-Ado-Fisherman]

19 hours ago, Bejardin1250 said:

WoB

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/222/#e5623

 

Well damn there you go lol.  I will say that Hoid talking to a Skaze doesn't imply that he would know exactly what it was.  I stand by my theory.

19 hours ago, Green chicken said:

According to several WOBs skaze are splinters of Dominion:

Argent (paraphrased)

Ashe says to Sarene "your god". Do seons (and skaze) have a religion/god?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

They have an inkling of the nature of their original Shards, which they would consider their gods.

Argent (paraphrased)

Kind of like a first, a prime, a parent?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. They kind of know what happened that created them, and they also know this is not the god being worshiped (by Sarene), so...

Steelheart Chicago signing (Oct. 5, 2013)

 

 

mathota123

Is the creation of skaze end-negative?

Brandon Sanderson

So, you're not quite using the term right.

The terms "end-negative" and "end-positive" refer to a specific system--in most cases, we're talking about the individual(s) using the magic. Do you draw more magic out, or is it powered by your own native Investiture?

Awakening is what we call end-neutral, despite the fact that (obviously) the Breaths came from someone else in the first place. That's not the point in contention here--do the same number of Breaths (the same amount of Investiture) continue to exist in the system as you're manipulating the magic.

In something like AonDor, you are drawing out much more power than you put in--end-positive. That power is put to work doing something, such as healing a body, or creating a blast of power.

The skaze, like the seons, were created when a Shard was Splintered. The terminology doesn't quite work there, at least not in the way that scholars in the cosmere would use it.

The question from the physicist in this thread about where Investiture goes, and what it means for a Shard to have access to certain amounts of power, is related to all of this. I'm hoping to be able to find some time to craft a response there, as there are some fundamental understandings of the magic that are relevant to the discussion that I should point out.

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 21, 2016)

 

 

 

Questioner

[Does] the expansion of Jaddeth’s empire have more to do with greed and hunger for power, or the innate nature of Dominion?

Brandon Sanderson

Both. I would say both. The innate nature of Dominion probably caused the greed and hunger for power.

Questioner

What would you say percentage-wise?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, one caused the other. It definitely started with Dominion. The Skaze are pretty thirsty for power.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)  

 

Chaos (paraphrased)

This is other information we overheard while we were there. Skaze are the evil seons, and are related to Skai. Seons are related to the AonDor and thus Aona.

Ancient 17S Q&A (May 1, 2010)

That's what I said... I'm theorizing that they could be anti-Investiture Splinters of Dominion.  And if this were the case, then there's no way Brandon would hint at that being the case in previous WoBs.  He has a long history of dodgy and misinterpreted WoBs in the past.

[Bejarden he/him]

23 minutes ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

Well damn there you go lol.  I will say that Hoid talking to a Skaze doesn't imply that he would know exactly what it was.  I stand by my theory.

Yah...you could definitely wiggle out of it but I usually go with most likely

Well to each his own (theory)

[The Technovore he/him]

Go the Arcanum Unbounded and take a look at the Khriss entry for the Sel System. She mentions the Dominion and Devotion have "polarized powers", which in my mind is a clear hint that they had a relationship just like Preservation and Ruin. Now, not every Shard has a polar opposite, and Anti-Light might be different than just "Investiture from the opposite Shard", but, Preservation and Ruin's Investiture do destroy each other. They do in Era 1, and Ettmetal is explosively reactive in Era 2, and in both eras Hemalurgically Spiked individuals repulse the mists. Brandon has said in a few Post-RoW wobs that Preservation's Anti-Tone is Ruin's Tone. It stands to reason for me that Skaze would look like Inverted Seons, then. It would also help explain why Sel's Cognitive is a firestorm of plasma and Investiture--Odium stuffed two Shards that react explosively to each other in the same place.

Edit: Okay, it seems like the original assertion is that Skaze themselves are Anti-Dom investiture. I dunno about that. We know that similar effects are going to look different on different worlds due to various "Perceptions and beliefs of the residents" mumbo jumbo reasons. It could just be that Domi-Light looks that way, because it's the inverse of Dev-Light, which is what the Selish are used to. (I haven't read Elantris in a while so I might be wrong that they're just using Dev-Light.)

Edited May 26, 2021 by The Technovore

[Bejarden he/him]

3 minutes ago, The Technovore said:

Go the Arcanum Unbounded and take a look at the Khriss entry for the Sel System. She mentions the Dominion and Devotion have "polarized powers", which in my mind is a clear hint that they had a relationship just like Preservation and Ruin. Now, not every Shard has a polar opposite, and Anti-Light might be different than just "Investiture from the opposite Shard", but, Preservation and Ruin's Investiture do destroy each other. They do in Era 1, and Ettmetal is explosively reactive in Era 2, and in both eras Hemalurgically Spiked individuals repulse the mists. Brandon has said in a few Post-RoW wobs that Preservation's Anti-Tone is Ruin's Tone. It stands to reason for me that Skaze would look like Inverted Seons, then. 

The Polarized Shards can seem like A-Light but I don’t think they are A-Light like I think you said

And Ruin and Preservation do combine in HoA and Ettmetal only explodes on contact with water

 

[The Technovore he/him]

1 minute ago, Bejardin1250 said:

The Polarized Shards can seem like A-Light but I don’t think they are A-Light like I think you said

And Ruin and Preservation do combine in HoA and Ettmetal only explodes on contact with water

 

Honestly I think saying Ruin and Preservation are each other's Anti-Tone or Anti-Investiture doesn't really work on a few levels (If Scadrial is made by both of them, all humans included, then how the rusts is everything not exploded?), so Brandon might backtrack on those wobs a bit. There's also the fact that Anti-Voidlight is still Voidlight. It's not suddenly Mercy's tone or whatever the opposite of "Divine Wrath" would be. On the surface it's shown to still be recognizably Odium's tone. So something different is going on there, it seems like, that can't be just summed with "Perception reasons"

[Honorless he/him]

For Preservation and Ruin, close to each other's anti-Rhythms is how I see them. Their Investiture did repel and harm one another upon contact. They have been described as opposites, more than most Shard pairings, a bunch of times by Brandon. Probably why Harmony is having so much trouble... harmonizing them.

A correction: in era 2, the Mists didn't withdraw from Hemalurgy iirc, but Hemalurgy using Trellium spikes

Huh, Mercy does sound like if could be an opposite of Odium, like Devotion. I suppose that's a bit more support on her fighting Odium than fighting with Odium in the Threnodite System.

The Skaze do seem like they resemble anti-Investiture a great deal. I don't think just being Dominion's Splinters would make them anti-Investiture somehow. Seons and Skaze were both created when their Shards, Devotion and Dominion were Splintered, so they're not artificially created by humans using magic. Why would Dominion's Splintering create anti-Investiture? Well, Odium killing other Shards using their anti-Investiture could be interesting, I guess.

Was Khriss alive or Worldhopping during D&D's Splintering? I don't think so, this was way earlier in the timeline and they were Odium's first victims.

Lots of guesswork. But yeah, that similarity in appearances between anti-Lights and the Skaze could definitely lead to something substantial.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Honorless

[ScadrianTank he/him]

The Aon Elantrians used as their primary weapon also had a warping effect and caused explosions. That said, I don't like the idea of Anti-Investiture occurring naturally.  

[apepi]

5 hours ago, ScadrianTank said:

The Aon Elantrians used as their primary weapon also had a warping effect and caused explosions. That said, I don't like the idea of Anti-Investiture occurring naturally.  

Is it possible that Odium used anti-investiture to splinter Dominion and Devotion, and this is a side effect?

Trying to remember if he knew about anti-investiture before.

 

This could be caused by the Dor being stuck in the cognitive realm, because it isn't in the spiritual realm(the warping effect, not that it would make it anti-investiture).

[mathiau he/him]

14 hours ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

Both the Skaze and the anti-Voidlight are explicitly described as "warping" the air around it.  Sel is also "the most realmatically knowledgeable of the known Shardworlds" (Coppermind).  I think there are people on Sel that are not only aware of anti-Investiture, but have also figured out how to create anti-Investiture Splinters of Dominion, called Skaze.

No, Skaze are described as sucking it, which is very different.

13 hours ago, The Technovore said:

Go the Arcanum Unbounded and take a look at the Khriss entry for the Sel System. She mentions the Dominion and Devotion have "polarized powers", which in my mind is a clear hint that they had a relationship just like Preservation and Ruin. Now, not every Shard has a polar opposite, and Anti-Light might be different than just "Investiture from the opposite Shard", but, Preservation and Ruin's Investiture do destroy each other. They do in Era 1, and Ettmetal is explosively reactive in Era 2, and in both eras Hemalurgically Spiked individuals repulse the mists. Brandon has said in a few Post-RoW wobs that Preservation's Anti-Tone is Ruin's Tone. It stands to reason for me that Skaze would look like Inverted Seons, then. It would also help explain why Sel's Cognitive is a firestorm of plasma and Investiture--Odium stuffed two Shards that react explosively to each other in the same place.

The main difference being that Dom and Dev saw themself as complementary (yin and yang) while Pres and Ruin saw themself as opposite

Quote

Edit: Okay, it seems like the original assertion is that Skaze themselves are Anti-Dom investiture. I dunno about that. We know that similar effects are going to look different on different worlds due to various "Perceptions and beliefs of the residents" mumbo jumbo reasons. It could just be that Domi-Light looks that way, because it's the inverse of Dev-Light, which is what the Selish are used to. (I haven't read Elantris in a while so I might be wrong that they're just using Dev-Light.)

I don't like the idea of calling Light a gaseous Investiture that doesn't behave light Roshar's lights, no one would call the Mist Harmony-light.

Anyway they're using the Dor not gaseous Dev or Dom

10 hours ago, Honorless said:

For Preservation and Ruin, close to each other's anti-Rhythms is how I see them. Their Investiture did repel and harm one another upon contact. They have been described as opposites, more than most Shard pairings, a bunch of times by Brandon. Probably why Harmony is having so much trouble... harmonizing them.

How could two sounds with different frequency be almost opposite?

Quote

A correction: in era 2, the Mists didn't withdraw from Hemalurgy iirc, but Hemalurgy using Trellium spikes

The reason being that Saze see Trell as an enemy, like Lera saw Ruin

Quote

Huh, Mercy does sound like if could be an opposite of Odium, like Devotion. I suppose that's a bit more support on her fighting Odium than fighting with Odium in the Threnodite System.

Mercy is just as much opposite to Honour as she is to Odium, while Devotion is basically love.

8 hours ago, ScadrianTank said:

The Aon Elantrians used as their primary weapon also had a warping effect and caused explosions. That said, I don't like the idea of Anti-Investiture occurring naturally.  

I don't see your point, there are many way to do explosions

[Frustration he/him]

13 hours ago, The Technovore said:

 Brandon has said in a few Post-RoW wobs that Preservation's Anti-Tone is Ruin's Tone. 

Where did you find that?

[Infinity Sliver]

7 minutes ago, mathiau said:

 

The main difference being that Dom and Dev saw themself as complementary (yin and yang) while Pres and Ruin saw themself as opposite

 

arent complementary often opposites? especially yin and yang where its essentially light and dark which are opposites

[ScadrianTank he/him]

21 minutes ago, mathiau said:

I don't see your point, there are many way to do explosions

I understand that, and it is in part a point I wanted to make. A thing described as warping air and causing explosions doesn't have to be related to Anti-Investiture, but because it looks and acts similarly to it, saying that Aon Daa uses Anti-Investiture is a viable supposition until we know better.

Edit:

4 hours ago, apepi said:

Is it possible that Odium used anti-investiture to splinter Dominion and Devotion, and this is a side effect?

Trying to remember if he knew about anti-investiture before.

Personally, I think that Splintering uses Anti-Investiture or Anti-rhythms to separate individual Splinters and to make it so that a Shard under attack can't simply take it back.

Shards have an understanding of the cosmere and the way it works on a fundamental level, so saying that all Shards know about it wouldn't be much of a reach. 

Edited May 26, 2021 by ScadrianTank
Added a response

[mathiau he/him]

Just now, Infinitysliver said:

arent complementary often opposites? especially yin and yang where its essentially light and dark which are opposites

Devotion and Dominion aren't that opposite, and yin and yang are far more than just light and dark. Preservation and Ruin are stillness and irreversibility and saw themselves as irreconcilable enemies, despite that when Ruin's work is finished everything is still.

Just now, ScadrianTank said:

I understand that, and it is in part a point I wanted to make. A thing described as warping air and causing explosions doesn't have to be related to Anti-Investiture, but because it looks and acts similarly to it, saying that Aon Daa uses Anti-Investiture is a viable supposition until we know better.

"Aon Daa uses anti-Investiture" is a conceivable supposition but it require the supposition that AonDor can modify the Dor itself (because since the Dor is the same everywhere, even if it's Dev+Anti-Dom, there's nothing in the Dor that can spontaneously explode otherwise it would already have exploded) and "it just put energy in the air, which result in an explosion" is another supposition that require less other suppositions and aligns better with the fact that Daa means energy

[The Technovore he/him]

54 minutes ago, mathiau said:

because since the Dor is the same everywhere, even if it's Dev+Anti-Dom, there's nothing in the Dor that can spontaneously explode otherwise it would already have exploded)

Well, it kind of is already exploded/exploding. Sel's cognitive, which contains the Shards, is an extremely dangerous firestorm. Is that just simply because it's a ton of Investiture? Or is it because that Investiture is igniting itself because Dom is anti-Dev? I get what you"re saying about them seeing themselves as complimentary, but we're not just talking about Intents, but the wavelengths involved. Devotion and Dominion sound like inverted forms of the same concept: The Ruler, and the Rule-ee. Even if they saw themselves as complimentary (and they are, kinda), their wavelengths could plausibly be the inverted form of the same tone. 

I'm not saying "this is definitely what it is", but it seems like enough narrative clues are in place that it's plausible to me. (It's at least going to be my headcanon for a while lol)

Also you mentioned earlier that they're using the Dor, not gaseous investiture... is the Dor not gaseous investiture? It's the power in the Cognitive trying to get to the Physical, is it not? It's described as plasma, which is the phase state above gas... it seems to make sense to me that the Dor is just the (very combustible) cocktail of Dev-Light and Dom-Light. Again, haven't read Elantris in a while.

Edited May 26, 2021 by The Technovore

[apepi]

1 hour ago, The Technovore said:

Well, it kind of is already exploded/exploding. Sel's cognitive, which contains the Shards, is an extremely dangerous firestorm. Is that just simply because it's a ton of Investiture? Or is it because that Investiture is igniting itself because Dom is anti-Dev? I get what you"re saying about them seeing themselves as complimentary, but we're not just talking about Intents, but the wavelengths involved. Devotion and Dominion sound like inverted forms of the same concept: The Ruler, and the Rule-ee. Even if they saw themselves as complimentary (and they are, kinda), their wavelengths could plausibly be the inverted form of the same tone. 

I'm not saying "this is definitely what it is", but it seems like enough narrative clues are in place that it's plausible to me. (It's at least going to be my headcanon for a while lol)

Also you mentioned earlier that they're using the Dor, not gaseous investiture... is the Dor not gaseous investiture? It's the power in the Cognitive trying to get to the Physical, is it not? It's described as plasma, which is the phase state above gas... it seems to make sense to me that the Dor is just the (very combustible) cocktail of Dev-Light and Dom-Light. Again, haven't read Elantris in a while.

We have learned a few things about putting shards in different realms. We know that Odium put Dev/Dom in the cognitive realm and that he did so to make sure others couldn't get the power. Power in the cognitive realm make it pressurized and hard to escape, making it dangerous and plasmaish. Also because it is in the cognitive realm, the power is location based. We also learn that Honor was prepared to be splintered, and merged himself into a cognitive shadow with the storm father(who's on the physical realm?). But Brandon also talks about Honor, who could have had the same problem as the Dor, but with the spren, they act as relief valves so Honor doesn't have that problem(there aren't enough seons to help the Dor). So maybe the power can get wild on the physical realm like the Dor, but doesn't.

We also know that Odium could have put the Dor in a better position, but didn't know how. And in RoW we learned that Odium put the Unmade(At least Sja-anat, spell check) in between the physical and the cognitive realm. I think this is what Brandon meant by Odium could have done it better.

That's all I know about a shard being put in a different realm other than the spiritual realm. I do have a theory that Honor/Odium could be invested physically or cognitively, like the Dor is, which is why those shards can't leave Roshar? 

 

2 hours ago, ScadrianTank said:

I understand that, and it is in part a point I wanted to make. A thing described as warping air and causing explosions doesn't have to be related to Anti-Investiture, but because it looks and acts similarly to it, saying that Aon Daa uses Anti-Investiture is a viable supposition until we know better.

Edit:

Personally, I think that Splintering uses Anti-Investiture or Anti-rhythms to separate individual Splinters and to make it so that a Shard under attack can't simply take it back.

Shards have an understanding of the cosmere and the way it works on a fundamental level, so saying that all Shards know about it wouldn't be much of a reach. 

Now think I am thinking about it, I am wondering what splintering a shard with anti-investiture would look like. Because if you meet it with an equal amount of power as a shard, then both would just die. You might be able to splinter a shard with less than that, with maybe just killing the vessel with it. I don't know if you could splinter a shard with it, though we don't know what it takes to splinter a shard. Kill the vessel or weaken the shard by it lying in a agreement. Even throwing Ruin and Preservation together didn't immediately splinter them(?), though they probably would have splintered after a while not having a vessel(or I guess it is possible they could have became sentient).

One idea I have is that the Skaze aren't anti-dominion, but maybe corrupted with another anti-investiture. I mean, why not? Though I don't think they have red eyes.

[miqius he/him]

Here's my take. I agree with OP that Brandon's description of the Skaze is too similar to Anti-Light in RoW (sucking in light, warping effect) and both were released recently (the Skaze bit is from the 10th anniversary, so 2018). So I say it's safe to assume it's intentional.

If the relation is real, with what you all have said we don't have many options left.

The Splintering of Dominion with some of his Anti-Investiture sounds feasible for Odium, but since Inv and A-Inv annihilate each other, I think there shouldn't be remnants of the A-Inv. Side note: I believe the polarity or opposition of pairs of Shards like Pres-Ruin or Dev-Dom are a different concept from Investiture and Anti-Investiture. The first seems something Brandon would have had laid out since quite early on, while Anti-Investiture is more of a narrative tool he's come up with to be able to threaten or kill the overpowered Knights Radiant and Fused (as he himself has admitted).

So, being Skaze splinters of Dominion, the only explanation of the "Anti-Light feel" I can think of is that, at some point in the distant past, some Selish Cosmere-aware group (like Elantrians) inverted all existing Skaze much like Navani inverts Voidlight. The reason for doing that might had been a way to be protected from them, but it could be anything. This is obviously pure speculation. And I know it's farfetched, but I really think there's a reason behind the similarities in Brandon's descriptions. So I agree with @Ba-Ado-Fisherman in everything except that Skaze must have originally been normal Splinters of Dominion and somehow were later inverted.

Elantrians were very old and quite secluded in their city, I find it perfectly plausible that they knew stuff like that and Khriss hasn't been able to peek into their library or find any forthcoming Elantrian. It would be fun to see Raoden sharing Elantris secrets with Khriss.

Also, Skaze are quite rare (Sel is pretty vast and with a lot of civilizations, maybe some secret cult monopolized Skaze for all we know, and that's why nobody knows anything about them), I see the ever-traveling Hoid acquiring one more easily than Khriss and her scholars, even if they are more knowledgeable overall (she doesn't dare wolrdhop to Sel). Although I admit it's weird for the Skaze and Hoid to meet out in the open beside the pool.

There could be some other explanation as to why Skaze and Anti-Voidlight are so similar other than being both Anti-Investiture, but I can't think of any. If someone has ideas please tell :).