ChickenBonanza

Awakening and System Parallelism.

(A small drabble of WaT info inside.)

In my effort to understand of the system of Awakening (specifically referring to the process seen in Warbreaker, similar processes shall be appended appropriately), I missed a glaring question that one has to ask.

Before that, however, it must be explained that my extrapolate understandings of different magic systems is based upon ‘why?’ To ask oneself why a system works like it does, and whether that system is unique in its function, or adapts universal systems either in part or entirely.

The latter was how I considered Awakening, after the Father Machine’s status as a non-Breath Awakened Object influenced by Command became clear. That, if such an object was created wholly separate from the Awakening system seen in Warbreaker, then the Awakening system was not a true one. Instead, both examples of creating an Awakened Object would be an expression of a universal system in the Cosmere. That certain forms of Investiture (the Innate, permanent kind) could be subject to a Command, wherein it would attempt to fulfill that Command and result in the creation of an Awakened Object.

There were problems with this, ones I recognized even before my most recent thoughts. That there is no guarantee that the process which created the Father Machine operates at all similar to Warbreaker’s Awakening. That it could create the small-scale things we see Awakening accomplish, like a rope which attempts to grapple. (Even now, however, I would say that is plausible. Not guaranteed, of course, but just because we have not seen something accomplished does not mean it is inherently impossible. Though that is a very slippery slope, I admit.)

Though that is a smaller issue, relatively. Another would be the assumption of Investiture response to Command. Some Invested Arts respond to Command, and some do not. Breath as an Innate Investiture responds exceptionally well to Command. Other examples of the use of Command do not interface with a ‘raw’ Investiture as Awakening does. Soulcasting and Stoneshaping interact with external intelligences, not necessarily raw Investiture. Once more, Breath’s response to Command cannot be appended to any other Investitures without direct evidence. Theoretically, the Father Machine’s creation could have behaved exactly as using Breath would, it’s plausible, but not verifiable. Either option could be possible, depending on whether Awakening is a true system or not.

If Awakening is a true system, then its ability to exit the soul and respond to Command to create Awakened Objects would be a process restricted to Breath. Like Allomancy for Allomancer sDNA.

In such a case, the Father Machine would have to be created through a system utilizing the same common features as Awakening uses. I had not previously considered this option, assuming that Virtuousity’s splintering occurred under circumstances wherein Virtuousity had not spawned any magic systems by Investing a planet or planetary system, like Preservation or Ruin or all the rest.

However, if there indeed was no magic system which would influence Virtuousity’s Investiture to enable the creation of Awakened Objects utilizing Commands, then would it not be plausible to that all types of Investiture could achieve the usage and results of that process? (Specifically using Commands to direct Investiture create an Awakened Object. [Of course, that Investiture could already be pre-imbued, and merely be directed. There are a lot of considerations, man.])

As a note, there might be objects referred to as Awakened which might not of been subject to a Command, such as the Awakened Steelmind in Sunlight Man, so we have Awakened refer to objects that may merely be sentient Invested objects, as well as sentient Invested objects subject to a Command.

Of course, merely taking a sample of gaseous or otherwise amount of raw Investiture would not work. There are words that Stormlight on its own would not work to ‘fuel’ Awakening. That Word also says the easiest way to do such would be to subvert it to Breath, which might suggest that a system attached to the Investiture is required, or that just an Investiture possessed of some permanence is needed. The former is more likely, but how can we be certain?

Hopefully what I have written explains well my thought process. I am sure there are a million different thoughts I have forgotten to list. But, here is the gist, I suppose. I can always haplessly addend later.

So, in short, the introduction of the Father Machine has caused me to question what I previously accepted as true. Either the process seen in Awakening is not unique and truly possible with all Investiture under certain circumstances, OR Awakening is a magic system which utilizes common functions of Command and sentient object creation and parallels other legitimate magic systems, like the theoretical one which created the Father Machine.

Another item to possibly take into consideration is Battar’s crystal spike business. Whether a legitimate magic system is require to exploit the principles of Bindpoints (I am fervent this is not Hemalurgy, the system powered by Ruin.), or that universal principles such as Bindpoints are possible to exploit by pure human gumption. Such a clarification might help clarify this dilemma I find myself in.

Like, I begin to doubt whether this was a theory I personally believed in, for now it’s devolved to where I straight up do not know how Awakening works anymore. I despair. The wolf devours my thoughts.