ChickenBonanza

On the Naming of Parallel Systems

Its all about clearing away any confusion. Minor WaT stuff.

As we see in the naming of similar systems in the Cosmere, it is the norm to catalogue them under certain terms. Lightweaving. Awakened Objects. The notion that certain themes like perpendicularity-opening and other portal-shenanigans will be labeled things such as ‘Elsecalling’. (Personally, I do not like that last one. Naming systems according to a specific type of Invested Artist is asking for confusion.)

Of course, when naming functions that utilize the same principles of Realmatics, like Yolish Lightweaving and the Radiant Order of Lightweaver’s variation of the Surge of Illumination both manipulating waveforms or something like that, don’t quote me, it is only natural to do so. But one has to differentiate them. Like saying ‘Yolish’ Lightweaving.

To say ‘oh yeah that guy’s a Lightweaver’ in a Cosmere-aware setting tells us the vague capabilities of that guy, but little more than that. It adds little to any form of academic discussion. Instead, one should refer to them as a ‘Yolish Lightweaver’ or a ‘Rosharan Lightweaver’ (or, given how there are multiple expressions of the Surge of Illumination on Roshar, something like a ‘Cryptic Surgebinder’ or ‘Radiant Lightweaver’ or ‘Mavset-im’).

Thus, when talking about systems that utilize similar Realmatic Principles, like perhaps the method of using Commands which created the Father Machine, one could perhaps dub that ‘Komashan(?) Awakening’. (That method is never titled Awakening, yes, but it did involve the verb ‘Awaken’. I think is it reasonable to extend this system of naming parallel systems to it, as long as the appropriate term is used to eliminate confusion.)

More importantly, and most aggravatingly, we should also apply this to the system we see applied to Moash in WaT. Obviously, that interaction was not directly powered by Ruin, as crystal spikes are not the metal needed for traditional ‘Hemalurgy’. However, given how they both seem to interact with Bindpoints, perhaps they should be given parallel names. (Or perhaps not. Hemalurgy’s perhaps most notable feature is the stealing or otherwise interference of powers in foreign Spiritwebs before integration into one’s own. Something which those crystal spikes may not involve. However, the idea of inserting foreign Spiritweb-matter into ones own soul through the piercing of a physical Invested vessel through a Bindpoint probably warrants a similar naming scheme.)

Thus, one should talk about them in similar terms as to the ones above. Things like ‘Scadrian Hemalurgy’ and ‘Rosharan Hemalurgy’ or ‘Ruin’s Hemalurgy’ and ‘Crystal Hemalurgy’.