demi

I finished Oathbringer last night, and few choice quotes sprang out at me while reading. With some recent threads as jumping off points, I decided that we need to fundamentally reassess how we view the nature of the Surges, Surgebinders, and their placement within the Double Eye of the Almighty.

The ten Surges we are familiar with reflect fundamental forces of the universe. Khriss, writing in "The Rosharan System" (Arcanum Unbounded hardback, p. 535), states:

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The most dramatic of [the symbiotic relationships exhibited on Roshar] is the relatinoship between humans and self-aware spren, which is the basis for the magic of Surgebinding. This magic has strong roots in natural physics, with the spren being personifications of the forces themselves (called Surges locally). Gravitation, the strong axial force, surface tension... these things have come alive, as have more abstract notions such as transformation and transportation.

My contention is that while we have mostly been shown the Surges being applied in the Physical Realm, they each have powers and applications that are unique to the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms, as well. There is precedent for this within the Cosmere, as each of the Allomantic and Feruchemical metals can be categorized according to its effects on the Physical, Cognitive, or Spiritual aspects of the user/target: Iron, Steel, Tin, and Pewter are Physical; Zinc, Brass, Copper, and Bronze are Cognitive; and Chromium, Nicrosil, Aluminum, and Duralumin are Spiritual. There is a fourth category that may overlap here, but which feels like an artifact of Scadrial's system being dependent on the number sixteen -- sixteen Shards with sixteen Intents, sixteen allomantic metals, etc. Dividing that number into four groups of four is nice and tidy, and makes numerological sense in a way that they don't on Roshar, where Three, Nine, and Ten (especially) are given precedence. But I digress.

While speaking to Dalinar in OB, chapter 65, the Stormfather says the following:

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"Don't be coy," Dalinar whispered. "I've spoken new languages in visions. You can make me speak Azish."

The Stormfather rumbled in discontent. That wasn't me, he finally said. It was you.

"How do I use it?"

Try touching one of them. With Spiritual Adhesion, you can make a Connection.

We have, at this point, seen multiple Physical uses of adhesion -- in WoK, Kaladin scales a chasm wall by adhering stones to the surface and using them as handholds; in OB, Dalinar similarly uses a spray of Stormlight against a wall to adhere a chair to its surface and climb into a ventilation shaft. We're familiar with this usage.

What we have yet to see until this scene is this specific naming convention (Spiritual Adhesion), and the revelation of a new set of abilities that applies to a person's Spiritual aspect. I think the existence of “Spiritual Adhesion” indicates that what we’ve seen before is “Physical Adhesion,” and implies that we may also see “Cognitive Adhesion.” If each of these abilities is different, it may imply why we seem to see a degree of fluidity in how Orders who share Surges utilize those Surges: if Jasnah and Shallan both utilize Transformation, but Jasnah excels at Physical Transformation and Shallan at Spiritual Transformation, then their approach may be completely different (and may lead to the development of different resonances as well). What appears to be certain characters' penchants for particular facets of their abilities may not just be a quirk of that character, but may be a fundamental aspect of their Order as well.

Below, I will list the three Realmatic variations of each Surge, as well as my best guess for how they function. Note that the following are merely some possible expressions of those powers, and not the only possible applications of the Surges in each realm. That is, Spiritual Adhesion has been depicted as being used to share language, but it could be possible to use Adhesion on the Spiritual plane for other, similar effects.

Adhesion

1. Physical: Stick two objects together
2. Cognitive: Make lots of disparate people start to view themselves as a group? Whatever Dalinar did at Thaylenah to bring the buildings back together (but that might be Tension).
3. Spiritual: Create a connection to another person’s Spirit, so that you can comprehend their language.

Gravitation

1. Physical: Basic and Reverse Lashings.
2. Cognitive:
3. Spiritual:

Division

Abrasion

1. Physical: Change the strength of friction between two objects
2. Cognitive:
3. Spiritual:

Transportation

Progression

1. Physical: accelerate the growth of plants
2. Cognitive: heals a person’s body so that it matches their own Cognitive Ideal of themselves
3. Spiritual:

Illumination

1. Physical: Create complex illusions, using a Memory as a base, and the manipulation of the electromagnetic field.
2. Cognitive:
3. Spiritual: Remotely view events happening around Roshar (Shallan sketches an image of Szeth’s assassination of the King of Jah Keved, an image depicting “...a lavish room with a thick, ornamented rug, swords on the walls. A long dining table, set with a half eaten meal. And a dead man in fine clothing, laying face-first on the floor, blood pooling around him.”) This is presumably where the “Watch” in Truthwatcher comes from as well. (Spiritual)

Transformation

1. Physical: Utilize Stormlight to transform the spren of an object into another object (Soulcasting)
2. Cognitive: Manipulate the spren of an object and force it to appear in the Cognitive Realm (Manifesting)
3. Spiritual: Transform a person by giving them aspects of their most idealized Spiritual form. (No name, but performed by Shallan multiple times in WoR).

Transportation

Cohesion

Tension

1. Physical:
2. Cognitive: Whatever Dalinar did at Thaylenah to bring the buildings back together (but that might be Adhesion).

Obviously there are a lot of blank spots in the list. Part of that is that we haven’t been granted a viewpoint from a representative of each Order using their own abilities. The other is that some of these abilities are probably mislabeled, or are just Resonances (as opposed to being a direct result of using a Surge).

What do you think.