Honorless
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Ah, for the level of munchkinry you want, I suggest you turn to Sel rather than Nalthis
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asmodeus
If the only variable we change, during the creation of Nightblood, is to use a different allomantically viable metal (say, Iron or Bronze instead of Steel), but keep everything else constant (the same breaths, same people doing the same visualization, and whatever other factors were involved), would it have manifested different powers/capabilities?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. Most likely.
YouTube Spoiler Stream 3 (Dec. 16, 2021)I think it might be more appropriate to look at metal's properties to filter Investiture, like in the Metallic Arts and Fabrials.
I think whatever happened was something more fundamental. Like with Raysium and Hemalurgy, they're built on the same principles, it's these principles that were tapped in the creation of Nightblood
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Ixthos had a similar theory about how Shapeshifting worked for Yolish Dragons that you might find interesting:
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I think so! You'd have to know the original Command, not the person that Lifeless used to be. A single Breath isn't all that much Investiture either, so easier to overcome too.
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AndyGranny
If you used a Lifeless body, would a Lifeless be able to access an untapped metalmind...
Brandon Sanderson
An unkeyed type of metalmind?
AndyGranny
Thank you, I could not think of that word. Would they be able to access an unkeyed metalmind if the intent when the Lifeless was created, if the intent was that they could...
Brandon Sanderson
Right, I see what you're getting at. Yes, they could. As they could access and use any tool that is appropriate for what they're Commanded to do, they could indeed access a metalmind in the same way.
In fact, doing so may, depending on the metalmind, be dangerous for keeping your Lifeless a Lifeless.
JordanCon 2021 (July 17, 2021)QuoteOudeis16
If Bob the Awakener Awakened fifty straw men to dance around, then died, then Returned as FormerBob the Appropriately Named, would FormerBob be able to reclaim the Breath from the straw men in the normal fashion (once he learned the "Your Breath to Mine" Command)?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. He has enough of his original Identity, and the spiritual connection would remain.
sonofstannis
What if he instead were reincarnated as a lifeless? Is there a way he could reclaim it then?
Brandon Sanderson
Lifeless have someone else's investiture replacing their own. (As opposed to Returned, who are augmented.) Depends on how much of them is left, and if they can achieve sapience again, but I'd say this is unlikely.
WeiryWriter
What if the Lifeless is Awakened with their own Breath? (i.e. they gave it away right before they died and the person they gave it to then used it in the Awakening)
Brandon Sanderson
This has happened already in the world, and it does help.
-Nayrb
Did this happen "on screen"?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
/r/books AMA 2015 (July 30, 2015)hidden for length
SpoilerBrandon Sanderson
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vivenna and the Mercenaries Wait in the Safe House after the Lifeless Attack on the Slumlords
Why does Jewels bother sewing up Clod? Why fix Lifeless at all? Denth's answer is a fairly good one, but it could use some more explanation.
You see, when one makes a Lifeless, the reason the Breath stays and won't come back is because the body of a recently deceased person is too "sticky" for Breaths. One Breath attaches to it, and because the body so clearly remembers being alive, it can use that Breath to power it. (Assuming you have the right Commands and can picture them correctly in your head when you make the Lifeless.)
However, the more the Lifeless is damaged, the less like the shape of a living person it is, and the more difficult it is for the Breath to keep that body going. Powering a body with only one Breath is hard—it requires the body to work mostly on its own. When you power a cloak or something like that, the Breaths need to provide a lot of energy, since there's no real muscles to use or skeletal structure to rely on.
So the more wounded a Lifeless becomes, the less well its Breath can keep it going. Eventually you'll need to stick a second Breath into it, then a third, all the way up until that Lifeless is nothing more than a bunch of bones you've Awakened. At that point, you might as well be using sticks or cloth.
Warbreaker Annotations (Dec. 9, 2010)SpoilerDylanHuebner
I was wondering how the animation of the lifeless statues worked, in regard to the use of Susebron's Breath. If they were lifeless, then vasher wouldn't have been able to take his Breath back out of them, nor would susebron have needed such a great deal of breath to revive them—he just would have needed a password. But if they were simply Awakened, no password would have been necessary to animate the statues, just Breath and Command.
It seems like the statues could be neither lifeless nor awakened. Are they unique, because of the use of bone, or am I missing something? The only other explanation I could think of was that they were lifeless, but Susebron's breath wasn't used to activate the statues, he simply had it passed down from vasher, in addition to the statues. If that's the case(and then I've simply been confusing myself with unnecessary, convoluted logic), why was it necessary to keep the breath safe for all these years?
Brandon Sanderson
Wow, there are a lot of questions in there. If you follow the drafts, I think you can see the evolution of what became of the Lifeless army. Originally I had planned for the statues to simply have been placed there so that you could Awaken them—just in my original concepts, before I started the writing—and then that became the army.
I eventually decided that didn't work for various reasons. Number one, as I developed the magic system, Awakening stone doesn't work very well. You've got to have limberness, you've got to have motion to something for it to actually be stronger. So a soldier made out of cloth would be more useful to you than a soldier made out of stone, if you were just Awakening something. At that point, as I was developing this, I went back to the drawing board and said okay, I need to leave him a whole group of really cool Lifeless as the army. But that had problems in that the ichor would not have stayed good long enough. Plus they already had a pretty big Lifeless army, so what was special about this one? Remember, I'm revising concepts like this as the book is going along. You can see where in the story I could see what needed to be there. So I went back to the drawing board again.
I think the original draft of WARBREAKER you can download off my website has them just as statues, though at the time when I was writing that I already knew it would need to change. I was just sticking to my outline because I needed to have the whole thing complete on the page before I could work with it. A lot of times that's how I do things as a writer—I get the rough draft down, and then I begin to sculpt.
I eventually developed essentially what you've just outlined in the first part, before you started worrying if you were too convoluted. I said, well, what if there's a hybrid? What happens if you Awaken bones? Can you create something? The reason that you can't draw the Breath back from a Lifeless is because the Breath clings to it. If the Lifeless were sentient enough, it could give up its own Breath, but you can't take it, just like you can't take a Breath from a person by force. You have to get them to give it up willingly. So it sticks to the Lifeless. A Lifeless is, let's say, 90% of a sentient being. The Breath doesn't manifest in them, because they aren't alive, yet they're almost there. A stone statue brought to life would be way down on the bottom rung.
Is there something in between? That's the advancement I had Vasher discover—what if we build something out of bone, but then encase it in stone to make it strong, and build it in ways that the bone is held together by the force of the Breaths? That's really what you're getting at there, that you need a lot of Breath, a lot of power, to hold all that stone together. There are seams at the joints. What the Breath is doing is clinging there like magical sinew, and it's holding all of that together.
Vasher left the Phantoms Invested with enough Breath to hold them together but not to move. You needed another big, substantial influx of Breath in order to actually make them have motion, to bring them enough strength to move and that sort of thing. So it's kind of a hybrid.
Goodreads Fantasy Book Discussion Warbreaker Q&A (Jan. 18, 2010)I think it depends on the Lifeless. If they are Awakened with their own Breath, it would be easier for them to access their Metalminds. A Full Feruchemist... try to keep them away from certain metals, I guess. It could work but a bit risky.
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On 12/26/2021 at 1:05 AM, Trusk'our said:
Well, they do have a higher degree of intelligence than other animals. Plus, you can communicate and make deals with some creatures telepathically, like when Dusk 'talked' with those mouse creatures (can't remember their actual name).
Meekers and yes, F-Tin can be used that way:
QuoteBartimaeusTrilogyFan
Can Feruchemists store more than the five ‘traditional’ senses, and does Allomantic tin enhance more than the traditional five senses?
Brandon Sanderson
More is possible.
QuoteNewbSombrero
Can Feruchemical tin store Allomantically granted senses like bronze sense?
Brandon Sanderson
Possible.
QuoteHA2HA2
Ooh, I think that's a really good point, Marsh probably should have flared steel or iron or something? /u/mistborn ?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, you're right. Good catch, /u/Thevulgarcommander! I believe we caught this already, however, and tweaked future printings.
Stormtide_Leviathan
So does this mean that tin doesn’t enhance Allomantic senses when burned? You’ve said before that windwhispers can store Allomantic senses, so I’m surprised at the difference there
Brandon Sanderson
I just think the passage is confusing, and was better of being tweaked. The new version, if you find it, makes it clearer--I believe he flares both tin and steel/iron.
The Aviar do seem to be very intelligent. Sak understood Dusk's intent and understood speech to a high degree.
We don't yet have much about artificial Metallic Arts confirmed though, do keep that in mind. Incl if parts of the process include Hemalurgy but just in case that it does:
QuoteVegasdev
Would Hemalurgy work on animals?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, it would.
Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)Hopefully that doesn't just mean stealing attributes but giving attributes.
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2 hours ago, Marukka said:
I know! It was the first thing that came to mind when I took a closer look at the places that might be considered "conurbation".
Great clues! They were so fitting to the library that I would have given up if it had been wrong. And a really nice choice, the place is an integral part of the story and not some easily missed alley or puddle or something.
1. This place is not easy to reach.
Thank you! But these lines... they tempt me, mwahahahahaha!
Patji's Perpendicularity?
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Huh, I don't think their Gemhearts would just heal with time, no. I think they would turn to Dullform though, not Slaveform. Slaveform isolated them from the Rhythms too somehow.
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From what we've seen, a person in the Cosmere is naturally Connected to the resident Shard(s), if there are multiple Shards, they are Connected to the one whose Investiture they use and whose Intent they're more aligned with.
They are also Connected to the land they're born in and live in. And they're Connected to their loved ones.
It seems Fortune is also involved somehow as people who've not yet met can also have a bit of Connection.
Connection seems to be a force in the Cosmere signifying relation and affinity. Yes, interaction and amount of time spent seems to increase Connection (greater Connection to people close to you). Greater emotional value would mean stronger Connection.
How something is perceived seems to be a part of its Connections, and that seems to be how a Bondsmith's power of repairing inanimate objects works. So, yes Connections should work in a similar manner for people and objects.
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I don't think we know the answer. Iirc, the only kind of F-Connection we've seen in the books was in BoM, Allik tapping Connection to the Elendel Basin via mechanical Feruchemy to speak the associated language:
Quote"Clever, but it won’t work on you.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re in your lands,” he said. “The visitor always has to wear the medallion. It’s filled with Connection, yah? Blank Connection, to no place. But Connection can’t just be connected to nothing, so when you tap it, it reaches out and connects you to the place where you are. Makes your soul think you were raised in this place instead, so your language changes.”0 -
It's possible that you should be able to but it might require some kind of trick to pull off. You might be in the Cognitive Realm but you're still human, this does not make you something like a spren or a Shard, who can whisper through the holes in a person's Spiritweb. Spren are Cognitive entities, yes but this might not necessarily be something inherent to the Realm.
It had occurred to me before that stronger emotional manipulation might be possible to pull off in the Cognitive Realm, like what you're thinking. There are some hints pointing towards it, such as Kelsier as a Cognitive Shadow was able to talk to someone who was mentally handicapped. I think he was only able to talk to Spook after Ascending, using their strong Connection. Soulcasting also takes the person's mind into the Cognitive Realm. Plus, the mind sensing predators of First of the Sun, it's hinted that their Cognitive Realm might be dangerous too near the Perpendicularity. The spren of emotion are Cognitive entities, though possibly as a counterpoint, they manifest partially in the Physical Realm while... feeding?
Plus, the Rhythms seem to be capable of influencing emotions to some degree, and could even be the underlying mechanism for emotional manipulation.
In conclusion, I think that this is possible but it might require a bit more than being on the Cognitive Realm, and would not be all that stronger an effect without a lot of power and skill, and the main benefit would be that you'd be hidden (assuming who you're manipulating can't just peer into the Cognitive Realm)
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That's what I assumed, yes
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Aside from all those factors mentioned by StanLemon, there's also the simple practical factor that you'll have to purchase Breaths, and those are going to be more expensive than a simple band of copper, iirc and there's also the ethical considerations. Purchasing Breaths means someone, multiple someones, become Drabs
QuoteBrandon Sanderson
Vivenna's Thoughts on Being a Drab
A lot of what happened to Vivenna—how she saw the world and how she acted—was influenced by being a Drab. As I've said before, the Hallandren aren't right when they say losing your Breath does nothing to you. Most Drabs struggle with depression, and the fact that they're almost always sick doesn't help either.
And so, Vivenna's time on the streets was artificially made more dreary and terrible than it truly was. Being a Drab, being sick, the shock of being betrayed—these things combined to give you the person you saw in the previous two chapters. It's a way to cut a corner. I wanted Vivenna to feel like she'd been on the streets for months, but for it only to have been a few weeks.
She is able to make her hair change colors again. This is a representation of the fact that she has started to pull out of the nightmare. She's slightly in control of her world again, and the roughest time for her has passed. There's also a clue in that hair, one that Vasher mentions. Because of it, and her heritage, and something very mysterious in the past, every member of the royal line has a fraction of a divine Returned Breath in them. That makes it much easier for them to learn to Awaken than a normal person.
QuoteBrandon Sanderson
Vivenna at the Safe House
Vivenna is right about what happens to a person when they lose their Breath. It is a part of your soul, and without one, you are more prone to depression, you get sick much more easily, and you're generally more irritable.
I included this mention here because I'm betting that most people who read the book side with Denth and assume he's right when he talks about these things. But don't be too judgmental about the Idrians—yes, they're biased, but the Hallandren are too in a lot of ways. It's not as simple as one side always being right and the other wrong. In this case, the Idrian teachings are correct, and most Hallandren are looking for justifications when they say that giving up one's Breath isn't all that damaging to them.
QuoteBrandon Sanderson
Denth's Speed
Yes, Denth is inhumanly fast. He's a Returned, after all, and has all of the physical enhancements that come with that. Even when he's chosen not to manifest most of them, he's still got an edge, just like Vasher does.
How do they hide that they're Returned? Well, it comes down to mastery of their ability to change their appearance. They can't shape-shift entirely; they can just alter some things about their appearance. They can change their weight, their hair color, and things like that at will. Vasher doesn't do this often, but Denth has been known to use it as a disguise. The problem, after you do this once and someone realizes it, your nature becomes very suspect.
They have learned to suppress their divine Breath. This allows them to hide, but they must be careful never to give away all of their Breath. Denth has been a Drab before—he's not completely lying—but never for longer than a few days. And his divine Breath is always there, suppressed. So he doesn't know what it's like to be a true Drab, which is why in this chapter he says he doesn't think it changes you that much. He's never felt it.
QuoteBrandon Sanderson
Chapter Forty-One
Vivenna, Sick and Disoriented, Gets Turned Away by the Restaurant Keeper
One of the ways I decided to make Vivenna's sections here work better was by enhancing the fuzziness of her mind. By giving her this sense of numbness, I hope to indicate that something is not right with her.
It's common for someone who suddenly becomes a Drab to get sick almost immediately. For a time, her immune system was magically enhanced and warded, in a way, to keep her from becoming ill. With that removed suddenly, sickness can strike. She hasn't built up immunities to the sicknesses going around, and by becoming a Drab, her immune system suddenly works far worse than that of other people.
These things combined made her come down with something pretty nasty the very day she put away her Breath. This would have killed her, eventually, if she hadn't done something about it. She would have grown so dizzy and confused that she wouldn't have even been able to walk.
By sending men to find her, Denth saved her life.
Anyway, I feel that these scenes work much better now. We can look at Vivenna's time on the streets in the same surreal sense that she does. They happened in the past, in a strange dream state. In that way, they can seem much longer than just two chapters and a couple of weeks.
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PrinceofMagnets
What is Cosmere sentience? By this I mean what does it require and what does it entail?
Brandon Sanderson
In the cosmere, most things are sentient on some level. Basically, anything with even the smallest amount of investiture. (Which is all matter, and most cognitive creations.) Sapience is something different, of course.
/r/books AMA 2015 (May 16, 2015)QuoteArgent
You've said that Investiture tends to develop sapience on its own. Is this a function of the amount of Investiture alone (i.e. any pile of Investiture large enough will develop sapience eventually), or does the process require extra effort (e.g. a Command from an Awakener, an action by a Shard, etc.)?
Brandon Sanderson
Under the right circumstances, a pile of investiture will eventually become self-aware. But there is no specific timing. The more investiture clumped together, the more likely--and the closer to human-level intelligence it is likely to obtain.
Of course, if you leave matter alone long enough (on a galactic scale) it will eventually end up becoming sapient too. So this isn't that different. (Well, okay, it is.)
Boogalyhu34
Are humans already sapient and intelligent because their Spiritual DNA tell their innate investiture what connections to make or what weird soul pattern to go into.
Brandon Sanderson
Let's RAFO that for now.
Stormlight Three Update #4 (Oct. 4, 2016)Oh and also
QuotePod
The combination of a Shard and its Vessel leads to sapient mind with access to a virtually infinite pool of Investiture. Are avatars the product of a similar combination of a mind and a pool of Investiture, only on a smaller scale, with less power?
Brandon Sanderson
I would say that is an accurate representation of what an avatar is. It’s not the only way, but it is an accurate... some avatars are that. I would say that’s the standard.
Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)Quotehidden for length
SpoilerReadAndFindOut
In 2014, Brandon said First of the Sun - the planet in Sixth of the Dusk - is a minor Shardworld, in that it does not have a Shard present (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/103-salt-lake-city-comic-con-2014/#e1010). However, we've now gotten a WoB saying that Patji - the Father island - IS a Shard (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/256-oathbringer-london-signing/#e8606). Patji was a Shard, but isn't during SotD? Or did we finally get confirmation on that elusive "Survival Shard"? What do you guys think?
Brandon Sanderson
I stand by them. Though, as always, quotes and WoBs at signings aren't always as deliberately thought out as I'd like them to be. Answering questions on the fly can be challenging, and my phrasing can be bad in retrospect.
But no Shard was in residence on First of the Sun during the events of that story. The Investiture on that planet is residue, normal Investiture from Adonalsium. Everything happening there could happen with or without a Shard present. Indeed, I would say that no Shard was ever "in residence" on First of the Sun.
The being called Patji still exists, and is a Shard of Adonalsium. Shards in the past have been interested in First of the Sun, and have meddled in small ways there. (Like they have on a lot of Shardworlds.)
Note that I might have been a little misleading in the first quote by bringing up Threnody, which is a real corner case in the cosmere because of uncommon events there.
That said, I'm sure that every story I write about a planet will bring up the quirks and unusual interactions of the magic there, because that's kind of what I do. (First of the Sun has its own oddities, as mentioned in Arcanum Unbounded.) Every planet is likely to end up as a corner case in some way, just like every person is distinctive in their own way, and never fully fits expectations.
I still consider one of the major dividing lines between "major" and "minor" Shardworlds (other than Shard residence) to be in strength of access to the magic, and control over it. I intend the minor Shardworlds to involve interactions with the magic as setting--coming back to spren, you could have a minor Shardworld with people who use, befriend, even bond spren. (Or the local equivalent--Seon, Aviar, etc.) But you'd never see power on the level of the city of Elantris, the actions of a Bondsmith, or even the broad power suite of a Mistborn.
But, as ever, the cosmere is a work in progress. The needs of telling a great story trump things I've said about what I'm planning. (I do try as much as I can to avoid having two texts contradict one another. And when they do, that's often a lapse on my part.)
Oversleep
Wait.
I'm confused.
So the Investiture on First of the Sun is associated with a Shard or is it residue, normal Investiture from Adonalsium?
Cause the question was a follow up (on this) where you revealed that all Investiture in Cosmere got assigned to a Shard even if it wasn't part of a Shard.
And then you said that the one on First of the Sun is directly associated with one of the Shards (and since later you revealed Patji to be an avatar of Autonomy (also, what are avatars and how do they work?)) we took it to mean that at one point Autonomy Invested in First of the Sun.
But now you're saying it didn't?
If there was no Shard ever on First of the Sun but Patji is a Shard/avatar of a Shard then where is Patji, actually?
Could you please clarify all that?
Brandon Sanderson
So the Investiture on First of the Sun is associated with a Shard or is it residue, normal Investiture from Adonalsium?"
The reason I have so much trouble answering these questions (and you'll see me struggling to get an answer in the 10-15 seconds I have when someone asks me in a signing line) is because this isn't an either or. Is this computer I'm using matter associated with Earth, the Big Bang, or such-and-such star that went supernova long ago? Well, it's probably all three.
When people ask, "What Shard is this Investiture associated with" it gets very complicated. Shards influence and tweak certain Investiture, giving it a kind of spin or magnetism, but all Investiture ever predates the Shattering--and in the cosmere matter, energy, and Investiture are one thing.
I always imagine Investiture having certain states, certain magnetisms if you will, associated with certain aspects of Adonalsium. So it's all "assigned" to a Shard--because it's always been associated with that Shard. To Investiture, Adonalsium's Shattering meant everything and nothing at the same time.
We generally mean the term "Invested" to mean a Shard has taken permanent residence in a location, a kind of base of operations--but at the same time, this is meaningless, since distance has no meaning on the Spiritual Realm, where most Shards are. So imprisonment of a Shard like Ruin or Odium is a crude expression--but the best we have.
Autonomy never "Invested" on First of the Sun. But even answering (as someone else asked) if they created an avatar without visiting is a difficult thing to explain--because even explaining how a Shard travels (when motion is irrelevant) is difficult to manage. It's a subject that I intend to be up for debate, discussion, and argument by in-world philosophers and arcanists.
You can see why I have such troubles explaining these things at signings--and why I fail when I try to, considering the time limitations and (often) fatigue limitations placed upon me. These are concepts I intend to spend entire, lengthy epic volumes explaining and exploring.
Let's say you were Autonomy, and you have--through expanding and exploring your understanding--found a gathering of Investiture that has always been there, you always knew about, but still didn't actually recognize until the moment you considered and explored it. (Because even though your power is infinite, accessing and using that infinity is beyond your reach.) Were you "Invested" there? No, no more than you're Invested on Roshar, where parts of what were Adonalsium still exist that are associated with you (in the very fabric of matter and existence.) But suddenly, you have a chance to tweak, influence, and do things that were always possible, but which you never could do because you knew, but didn't know, at the same time.
And...I'm already into WAY more than I want to be typing this out right now. If it's confusing, it's because it's practically impossible for me to explain these things in a short span of time.
I'm going to leave it here, understanding that no, I haven't fully explained your question. (I didn't even get into what avatars are, what Patji was, and what happened to Patji the being--and how that relates to Patji the island.) But hopefully this kind of starts to point the right direction, though I probably should have just left this question alone because I bet this post is going to raise more questions than it answers...
Overlord Jebus
You've confused things so much now. We thought we had a pretty good grasp of this whole Patji situation (Autonomy visited the planet at some point, got themselves all Invested and created an avatar which is called Patji by the locals).
Now you're saying no Shard has ever visited there? And that the pool would have existed if no Shard had ever interfered? But that Patji still exists and is a Shard?
Does that mean Autonomy edited First of the Sun from afar without actually going there? And that the pool would have already existed without any intervention? Does this mean it was associated with Autonomy from the beginning? I'm really confused now.
Brandon Sanderson
I don't believe I said no Shard had visited. I said no Shard was there during the events of the story.
Investiture on First of the Sun predates any Shards fiddling with it.
Shards have fiddled with it by the time of the story.
I think fandom might be going down too far a rabbit hole on this one.
Chaos
Are you saying here that Patji is an avatar of Autonomy, or is it a separate Shard and not an avatar of Autonomy?
Brandon Sanderson
When I said Patji was a Shard, I was meaning Automony--but it is not quite that simple.
Take this post to mean "no, you should not be looking toward another Shard for Patji's origins. Autonomy is the one relevant." But Autonomy's relationships with entities like this (not sure entity is the right word, even) is complex. I'm not trying to confuse the issue, though.
General Reddit 2018 (March 18, 2018)QuoteQuestioner
Spren. The phenomenon that creates spren. Is that Roshar-specific or is that a general effect?
Brandon Sanderson
Well, yes and no. So the question is, the effect that creates spren, is that Roshar-specific or is it general. The general fundamental rules that create spren are cosmere-wide. Spren are pieces of Investiture, usually pieces of Investiture that come straight from one of the Shards of Adonalsium, split off in some way, that because of human or other sapient creatures thinking about it or interacting with the power, the power starts to take on a life of its own. Develops personalities and comes alive, so to speak. And this can happen on any pla-- in any place where there is Investiture. So it could happen on any planet in the cosmere with significant amounts of free Investiture. The places you've seen this happen most commonly are on Sel and Scadri-- err Roshar. You haven't seen it on Scadrial, and you've seen little kind of hints at it on Nalthis, but not quite. And so-- But it's possible for it to happen anywhere. Seons and spren are basically the same thing with different powers-- powers kind of pushing them in different-- growth out of them-- That said, the non-sapient spren, so the spren that are not quite as-- They're not going to stand up and talk to you. Those all existed-- not all, but most of them existed on Roshar before the Shattering of Adonalsium.
JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)Any amount of Investiture left alone long enough can develop some amount of sentience on its own. Less Investiture means it would take more time, more Investiture means less time.
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By the few things Brandon has said about Breaths, Lifeless and metalminds, it seems possible
QuoteTurtletheFlsh
What would happen if you created a Lifeless with more Breath then is necessary? Would they be more or completely human or just a Lifeless that's holding more Breath?
Brandon Sanderson
Lifeless with more Breath are an interesting situation. It's quite possible for the BREATH to start taking on a personality, much like a Cognitive Shadow, related to the individual. Whether or not it is actually them, though, is a big question. Note, this doesn't always happen. Often, dumping a lot of Breath in them is like sticking it in an inanimate object with no Command.
/r/books AMA 2015 (June 24, 2015)
Oudeis16
If Bob the Awakener Awakened fifty straw men to dance around, then died, then Returned as FormerBob the Appropriately Named, would FormerBob be able to reclaim the Breath from the straw men in the normal fashion (once he learned the "Your Breath to Mine" Command)?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. He has enough of his original Identity, and the spiritual connection would remain.
sonofstannis
What if he instead were reincarnated as a lifeless? Is there a way he could reclaim it then?
Brandon Sanderson
Lifeless have someone else's investiture replacing their own. (As opposed to Returned, who are augmented.) Depends on how much of them is left, and if they can achieve sapience again, but I'd say this is unlikely.
WeiryWriter
What if the Lifeless is Awakened with their own Breath? (i.e. they gave it away right before they died and the person they gave it to then used it in the Awakening)
Brandon Sanderson
This has happened already in the world, and it does help.
-Nayrb
Did this happen "on screen"?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
/r/books AMA 2015 (July 30, 2015)
Joeh42
In Warbreaker, is Clod the Lifeless body of Arsteel? I like this idea because Arsteel would have had some Breaths within him when he died, as this is how Vashir defeated him and Denth, and this could help explain why he seems to be a little more self-aware than most Lifeless. Could you respond to this idea?
Brandon Sanderson
I confirmed in the Warbreaker annotations that Clod is Arsteel.
Clod is more self-aware than most Lifeless. There is something left of Arsteel within Clod. The Breaths that Vasher gave him when he killed him do have an effect on this.
QuoteQuestioner
Can a coppermind be Awakened?
Brandon Sanderson
This is possible.
Questioner
With the memories already in it?
Brandon Sanderson
This is going to be harder because those memories are going to be keyed to someone else, who, by nature, would not be the individual that it was made into. You would have to key those memories to who the metalmind was becoming. There would be an extra step in there; It wouldn't just naturally be that way. We're talking wild, wild, these are possible, but far out, stuff. Possible, but there is an extra step in there.
Identity should take care of the metalmind keying problem
This WoB gives the most hope for your project:
QuoteAndyGranny
If you used a Lifeless body, would a Lifeless be able to access an untapped metalmind...
Brandon Sanderson
An unkeyed type of metalmind?
AndyGranny
Thank you, I could not think of that word. Would they be able to access an unkeyed metalmind if the intent when the Lifeless was created, if the intent was that they could...
Brandon Sanderson
Right, I see what you're getting at. Yes, they could. As they could access and use any tool that is appropriate for what they're Commanded to do, they could indeed access a metalmind in the same way.
In fact, doing so may, depending on the metalmind, be dangerous for keeping your Lifeless a Lifeless.
The shapeshifting via Identity idea is interesting but we don't yet know what Spiritual Identity is. It could very well just be a marker for your Investiture. Though all the bits about the importance of perception in the Cosmere - with spren, with the Heralds, with healing and restoring, with the Cognitive aspects of objects - do suggest something like this might be possible, it might not necessarily be Identity though, it could be Connection. If the theory of the Spiritweb being your web of Connections is correct, the line between the two may be fuzzy.
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2 hours ago, Marukka said:
I think I got it!
Galladon's hidden library in Elantris?
Yeah, you did! It's the hidden library in Elantris. It had a tunnel that led to the Pool.
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Yup! This
QuoteQuestioner
So, I don't know which one it's in, but when Nazh was analyzing Bridge Four--
Brandon Sanderson
Nazh was analyzing Bridge Four, yes.
Questioner
Why?
Brandon Sanderson
Why was Nazh analyzing Bridge Four? Well, you will find clues to that in the pieces of art in The Stormlight Archive, that he was trying to obtain...they are very interested...certain elements of the Cosmere are very interested in the progress of the Nahel bond as the Knights Radiant are making them.
FanX 2018 (Sept. 8, 2018)plus the art pieces in the book, as mentioned by Brandon within the WoB above, seem to confirm that this was Nazh
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On 12/26/2021 at 3:19 AM, Szeth_Pancakes said:
*looks up “conurbation”*
hmmmm…urban sprawl, basically. There's another term that's closer but it would give the game away
The term was satellite towns
On 12/26/2021 at 0:51 PM, Marukka said:The Kandra Homeland?
Ooh, nope, pretty good guess though
I would normally give a bonus clue if more than a single guesser proved me wrong in assuming that all my clues taken together can only provide one valid answer but... I really can't this time, because anything more would make it insta obvious, so sorry!
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9 hours ago, AonEne said:
The gemstone pillar room?
Oh! Very good guess, but nope!
1) This place is hidden, accessible to only a few
2) This place exists to provide access to another place
3) This place held some things of significance to the Shardworld, its history and its magic
4) The place that this place provides access to, provides access to yet another place
5) This place is located in what can be considered a metropolitan conurbation
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3 hours ago, Frustration said:
the disease based magic system is surgebinding.
I'm also really intrested to see the WoB linking Ashyn to Voidbinding
Are you asking if there's a WoB that you can find by those two keywords, I'm afraid not. But Brandon has confirmed that Ashyn used to have a form of Surgebinding, that Odium is associated with Voidbinding, that Odium is connected to the destruction of Ashyn (apparently he didn't just fuel the Surges but tempted Ishar somehow, as per RoW)
QuoteBlightsong
In Oathbringer it is revealed that the humans who originally came to Roshar were the first ones to be named Voidbringers and that they carried magical powers. The Stormfather also implies that modern Surgebinding didn't exist before the Heralds. Were the original powers that the humans possessed Voidbinding?
Brandon Sanderson
So, we're getting into lots of interesting definitional problems here. And also the ways that different entities perceive the definitions of different terms. I will answer this question specifically as we do the flashbacks from Ash and Taln's viewpoints. So you've got a long ways to wait. But understand that definitions are not always-- the way that people define things cannot always be trusted. That said, humans were not using powers from Honor originally.
Skype Q&A (Oct. 8, 2018)QuoteRyan
Like how Bondsmiths have stronger versions of their Surges, is it possible to have stronger versions of the other Surges, as well?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. This is what happened to Ashyn. You can have some very dangerous manipulation of Surges.
Waterstones RoW Release Event (Nov. 18, 2020)QuoteR'Shara
So on Ashyn, was the magic system always diseased based?
Brandon Sanderson
That was the diseased based magic.
R'Shara
Yeah, before-
Brandon Sanderson
I'll RAFO that. It isn't exactly the same as it was.
Skyward release party (Nov. 6, 2018)0 -
54 minutes ago, Frustration said:
Actually that was Cultivation
Questioner
You have talked about writing a book about Ashyn, the first planet in the Rosharan system. You said that they have a magic system based on disease, but they are currently without a Shard. Can you tell us what the source of that magic system is?
Brandon Sanderson
A lot of the magic systems in the cosmere, I kind of in my head differentiate kind of the primary worlds and the secondary worlds. And even on the secondary worlds, there is magic. And any place that a Shard has been in presence is gonna leave behind an aftereffect, but it's not always that. I would call most of the magic on Ashyn Cultivation-based, most likely. And Cultivation's in the system, but has only briefly been to that planet. But it doesn't mean that... basically, it's kind of the level of Investiture. If you go to Scadrial, on Scadrial, you're gonna have a high percentage of the population, cosmereologically, that are gonna have access to one of the Hemalurgic [Metallic] arts, right? Same thing on Roshar. And indeed, the people are going to be Invested on a level that is beyond the others. This is my in-world canon reason that people just don't come down with colds very often or have tooth decay very often, and things like that. On the primary Shardworlds, we're talking about people who are just naturally, highly Invested.
All the other worlds, though, you're still gonna have the occasional pop-up of magic, here and there. You're still gonna have effects of being in the cosmere, and things like that. Just much smaller chances. And the magic's probably going to be less likely to be planet-destroying potential, and things like that, like happened on Ashyn.
He's talking about the disease-based magic system there, not the Surges. Both the in-world legends and WoBs support that Voidbinding itself originated in Ashyn and that it is associated with Odium.
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She'd be... not okay with it exactly but willing to use it for the greater good. Kinda like the forum discussions on the possibilities of ethical usage of Hemalurgy, I think.
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I think so. Spiritual DNA can alter far too many things for it to not have any Physical effect, imo. If it can alter eye colour, it can alter other genetic stuff too.
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6 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:
But you'd still get basically the same effect, wouldn't you?
Yes, because it still is the same effect
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Questions on Ascending
in Cosmere Q&A
Posted
What Dalinar did was referred to as an Ascension, iirc, what Elend did was also compared to Ascension. I think it's just a metric ton of Investiture, not necessarily becoming a Vessel of one of the Shards... or Avatars