CygnusRising

I suppose that's fair -- every Radiant spren is unique, as they're... individuals.

Or, just... bear with me for a second... He's completely insane. Joking aside, Ishar strikes me as a very driven, 'ends justify the means' kind of person. I think it's likely that Odium did Odium things and manipulated Ishar's natural proclivities into tinkering with Surges that allowed Odium to bring about the destruction of Ashyn, that otherwise could not have happened had Ishar not be tempted. It seems like his MO while Rayse was the Vessel; I didn't particularly like the flashbacks in RoW as much as other books, but it really reinforces that Rayse as Odium loved to manipulate natural aspects of sapience to his means... To brand it a bit more closely to home, you might say that he... manipulates a person's passions? Ishar probably really wanted to discover new and exciting things, and Odium was like, "Hey man, you wanna see something really cool? Check this out!" Like giving a curious kid who doesn't really care about rules a pack of Red Bull and a big red button and telling them not to push it. Now he's just insane, and that insanity is driving that same passion. Ishar probably has some measures of perfectionism where his mind refuses to concede failure; it just means he has to keep trying to fix it, and storms, he's going to fix it right this time... this time... this... time... It's okay if some spren have to give up their lives, right? Right?

I think it's less to do with the Stormfather being a Splinter of Honor specifically, as all Radiant spren are an infinitesimal Splinter of Honor, and more to do with the fact that Dalinar is bonded to a unique Splinter. The Sibling is likely of similar power to The Nightwatcher or The Stormfather, just very clearly has a finite domain of power. She can suppress all Surgebinding of the Fused, and those less than the Fourth Ideal. That's... whooof. I mean, apparently pretty much whatever they want, where humans are concerned. Cultivation has only intervened directly to do some pretty crazy things. Windrunners have all the access to Investiture they can get their hands on... Bondsmiths are just Connected to a completely different kind of spren; notably, unique ones (although, yes, opening a perpendicularity to the Spiritual Realm does kinda allow them to drink Investiture from a fire hose). However, it's like comparing a Ford Focus to a Ferrari Enzo. Yeah, they're both cars, so they have plenty in common... They've got four wheels, and a power train, and suspension, they run on fuel, they have a steering wheel... but they're in totally different categories otherwise... There's also potentially only three Bondsmiths in existence at a time...

That's not a minor correction, that's a huge correction, and a big error on my part. I should have said, "Ishar would reasonably have the powers of a Radiant who had sworn the Fifth Ideal."

That's where my mind went. He's fiddling with their Connections somehow. Whether or not he needs to Oathblade is up in the air in my mind, but could be part of it. We have no idea the extent of a Bondsmith's full power, and if Kaladin is any measuring stick, the gulf between power levels as each Ideal is sworn grows significantly (ie, the difference between Kaladin after swearing the third Ideal and and fourth Ideal is clearly wider than between his first and second or second and third.) It's reasonable to assume that Ishar has the abilities of a Bondsmith who has sworn the Fifth Ideal, and is also a Herald, so it would track that not only is the raw power gap between Ishar and Dalinar enormous, but Ishar just understands his powers better. You see this in their little sparring match where technique that Knights are just starting to toy with is childsplay for Ishar, and he concedes he's not even that good. It would track that he is the most highly skilled Bondsmith in existence... All of this to say... We don't even know the extent of Dalinar's powers at the Third Ideal and his understanding, and Ishar is orders of magnitude beyond Dalinar's in both measures... There's a lot of room for Ishar to do all sorts of things we don't understand with Bondsmith powers.

I feel like that speaks more to consistent worldbuilding and magic systems, more than my own intelligence.

Posted in RoW because anti-light. My curiosity was piqued while thinking about the potential existence of pure tones for other Shards. This leads to a lot of questions... Is there a pure tone for, say, Harmony? If there is, does that pure tone only exist on Roshar, or does it also exist on Scadrial? Tangential question: would someone invested with Breath to the 2nd heightening be able to perfectly reproduce a pure tone? Does Intent matter here? If there is a pure tone for every shard, does that imply that there's also potentially a light for every shard? A metal for every shard? I guess I'm trying to figure out which 'direction' the magic system as we know it goes, and whether we're diving down towards foundational aspects, or deriving up as complexity and variables are introduced. I currently see three potential foundational possibilities for the aspects of Investment, listed from what I see as least likely to most likely: Intrinsic to the Shard itself (Implying that Ruin/Preservation/Harmony have metals because their Investiture drives Hemalurgy/Allomancy, Cultivation and Honor's Investiture drives Light, Endowment's Investiture drives Breath.) Intrinsic to the place that the Shard is Investing (eg, Shards on Roshar have pure tones and can Invest Light; implying Harmony would have a pure tone and corresponding Light if present/Invested on Roshar) Intrinsic to all Shards (Implying there is always a godmetal for Honor, etc, there is always Light for Harmony, etc. This would imply that every Shard has many aspects of Investiture.) The first seems unlikely. There are too many discrepencies. While Hemalurgy and Allomancy are distinct although similar arts, and are clearly separate aspects of Investiture for Ruin and Preservation, there is crossover with, for instance, Atium being burnable. Cultivation and Honor clearly have the same aspect of Investiture in Light. Odium was not native to Roshar, and has a pure tone that can create Light, as well. This second is slightly counter pointed due to the presence of Breath on Roshar; Zahel, who we see clearly is Invested with Breath, and is fully capable of using it on Roshar. I recall a mention that the farther you get from the source of Investiture, the harder it is to hold, however, which lends some support to this paradigm at least being relevant, if not absolute. If nothing else, it clearly suggests that the farther you are from the place a Shard has Invested, the harder it is to hold their Investiture, regardless of its aspect. My current thinking leans to the third. There are some gaps, however. Is this a 'sometimes, but not always,' rule? Perhaps only Endowment has Breath, but every Shard has a Light, a pure tone, and a metal? For instance, are their other kinds of Breaths that we just haven't seen? A 'sometimes, but not always' rule doesn't add up as much for an otherwise rocksolid magic system. It seems more likely that we just haven't seen Harmony's Investiture expressed via the aspect of Breath ("BioHarmonic Breath"?)... which may add some reasonable credence to point 2 above suggesting the location somehow being important. Additionally, it seems likely that Anti-Light is being built as the ultimate Cosmere-wide danger for Investiture as a means for Sanderson to have a 'perma-death' mechanic, which he discussed during a recent signing, so it would follow that there should be some kind of universal aspect of Investiture that is common to all Shards, I'm just not sure how deep the rabbit hole goes. Granted, I'm new to the wider Cosmere discussion, and am likely missing a ton of details that explain this, so I might just be rehashing existing dogma here. Thoughts?

WHO'S NEXT? EPIC RAP BATTLES OF COSMEEEEERE!