Arcanist Lupus

Ooh, that's a good question -

According to my theory, Nahadon was referring to the colloquial honorspren, just like Syl was.

How much choice did the Shardholders get when they took up their Shards? (ie, did the choose which Shard to take, did they choose to take a Shard at all, or were they forced to take the Shards?) How do you have a shadow that goes backwards? Also, did the spren-hunter guy imagine alespren, or are they real?

I found a quote in the Brandonology: This strongly implies to me that there is one author for the Ars Arcanum. Another Brandonology quote:

I've been thinking... I think that "honorspren" is a colloquial term which Syl picked up from her past life. I don't think it means the same thing as Honor does when referring to the shard's Intent. Consider the following hypothetical: The Interlude with the spren-hunter guy indicates that spren are commonly named by their discoverers. Assume for the moment that Syl is more properly called a "protectionspren" (seems reasonable, considering Kaladin's second oath). The first person to interact with a protectionspren would have likely been a Windrunner like Kaladin. To him/her, protecting others and honor would have been indistinguishable. He/she thought of the spren as being connected to his/her honor, so he/she called it an "honorspren". Since protecting others is commonly regarded as honorable, the name stuck. So in a sense, all the types of spren involved in the Nahel bond are "Honorspren", but only Syl and other Windrunner spren are "honorspren". They all represent facets of honor, but only the Windrunner spren got the name.

I don't think it's been said, but I suspect that they're being written by someone off-world, probably either Hoid or the 17th Shard. My reasoning: 1. There's been an Ars Arcanum in every book. That makes it difficult for Jasnah or Shallan to write them if they all have the same author. If they don't have the same author, how is a text called Ars Arcanum appearing on every world? It seems unlikely. 2. The Ars Arcanum mentions Voidbinding, which has not been mentioned in the book, and I suspect that the characters haven't ever heard of it. So they couldn't have written about it.

I think that any piercing eventually becomes hemalurgically charged, at least slightly. That's how TLR got corrupted.

I'm pretty sure that Preservation was grooming Alendi the same way she groomed Vin to take her power. I'm not sure what this means with regards to the current question, though.

It's a pretty puzzle. However, I'd like to point to the quote that Zas found: This heavily implies that Alakavish was a surgebinder with a spren which was not an honorspren. Also, I believe that Brandon has confirmed that Soulcasting (what Shallan does) is a subset of surgebinding. Which leads me to the conclusion that the type of spren providing the Nahel bond is independent of the type of surgebinding someone has.

Rock can see Syl, right? I wonder if he'll be able to see Shallan's Truthspren?

True. Certainly it would be difficult to unconsciously draw an Aon or say a Command. But it does mean that it might be possible to use the Surgebinding focus without it's presence being obvious.

Yes, but she didn't know she was using a specific type of Luck. She burned brass intentionally, maybe zinc as well, and Pewter unconsciously. But she never realized there were multiple types of Luck until Kelsier prompted her.

I did consider that, but I don't think that blinking can be the focus.Here's why: The focus is what the magic user chooses to distinguish what facet of the magic they are using. To clarify, a mistborn chooses which metal to burn. This determines the power they use. An Elantrian chooses which Aon to draw, and an Awakener chooses which command to say. Blinking doesn't seem like it's choosing anything. Another (slightly seperate) idea: In Warbreaker, they say (or at least imply) that if you've reached the 10th Heightening you don't need to speak in order to awaken things. So if inaudible commands are possible, thought as a focus begins to seem less far-fetched. Also, at the beginning of Mistborn, Vin used allomancy without realizing what she was doing. She "used Luck" without consciously choosing her focus. She was still using the focus, but it wasn't a conscious decision. So the focus for Surgebinding doesn't have to be obviously present or used for it to still be important.

It seems to me that each magic system has 4 parts, which I shall call Eligibility, Trigger, Fuel, and Focus. I shall explain how I'm defining these terms, then address each magic system we know of. Eligibility: This is the condition that a person must have in order to become a magic user. It gives them no intrinsic ability to preform magic, but is a necessary component. Trigger: This is the trigger that "turns on" magic using abilities to a person. Fuel: The source of the magical effects. Is consumed by using magic. Often tied to the body/power of a Shard. Focus: The topic of our discussion here, the focus directs what the magic does. As has been noted, the magic user usually has control over their magic beyond choosing a focus, but the focus determines the type of effect. In some cases, the user has control over the focus (e.g. details on the Aon, how fast they burn the metal, etc), and sometimes they have control beyond the focus (e.g. visualization of commands, choosing which metal to pull or push, etc). And here are the magic systems: (warning. Not every system fits perfectly. This is mostly just speculation) AonDor Eligibility: If I recall correctly, only people from Arelon and the surrounding regions were ever chosen by the Sheod. Trigger: The Sheod. I don't know what causes this. It might be random. Fuel: the Dor. This would be the power of the Shard. Focus: the Aons. All Elantrians can use all the Aons, as far as we know. Dakhor Priest Magic (mostly extrapolated (i.e. guessed) from what little I remember from the few scenes we see of them.) Eligibility: Don't know. Trigger: Some sort of ritual, I think. Fuel: Death, possibly suicide. Focus: Chanting rituals? Allomancy Eligibility: Having a Allomantic ancestor. Genetic inheritance. Trigger: Being Snapped, ie strong emotion and/or the mists. Fuel: Metal is consumed, but I think Brandon has been pretty clear in saying that the actual fuel is Preservation's body/power. Focus: Metal. It's worth noting that some allomancers can only access part of the focus (one type of metal). Also, the focus is consumed by the magic. Feruchemy Eligibility: Having a Feruchemic ancester. Genetic inheritance. Trigger: It's a bit of a stretch, but I'm going to say that their trigger is storing their attribute. After all, if they don't store their attributes, they can't reclaim them later. Fuel: Feruchemic charge, i.e. previously stored attributes. Focus: Metal. Some feruchemists can only access part of the focus (one type of metal). Hemalurgy Eligibility: Everybody is eligible, provided they're willing to stick a spike in their self. Trigger: Having a hemalurgically charged spike stuck in you. Fuel: The hemalurgic charge of the spike, gained from the blood of the murdered person. Actually, I'm not sure on this one, because I don't think that hemalurgic charge is consumed by using hemalurgy. If this was the fuel, than Inquisitors would have to replace their spikes periodically. It is possible that the user's own body takes over fueling the hemalurgic spike. The Inquisitor viewpoint in the first book does mention having to rest a lot. Focus: Metal. The placement of the spikes would be a control over the focus. BioChroma Eligibility: Anyone, I think. Trigger: Having Breath. Fuel: Color. Focus: Commands. Surgebinding Eligibility: Acting in a certain manner (being honorable certainly, but there are possibly other triggers as well.) Trigger: Having a Spren bonded to you. (the Nahel bond?) Fuel: Most likely stormlight, except that stormlight doesn't seem to be consumed, only lost. Focus: The crux of this thread. I'm going to go with spren, but not Syl. Different spren. See below. And that is my overall theory of Cosmere Magic. My theory on the Surgebinding focus: I think there are (at least) two types of spren. There are the "Nahel" spren, which bond to people who act in certain ways in order to grant them access to magic. The other type are ordinary spren, which the surgebinders can control/direct with stormlight. This would mean that the bindspren that Syl and Kaladin observe when Kaladin sticks a rock to the wall are actually causing the rock to stick, rather than being attracted to the stickiness. Also, Navani's notebook indicates that spren are used in fabrials. Also, Syl's comment about spren being one individual would explain how a bond to Syl could give Kaladin at least some control over spren.

I want to see Syl's reaction to Szeth. I feel that whatever it is, it will give us loads of information while raising about five times as many questions.

Nice to meet you, I'm Introducing Myself, I'm Sir Read-a-Lot. I'd be happy to suggest some good books that you might like.

I feel there's a kind of atom/molecule effect going on here. Ruin and Preservation are "atoms" - individual Shards with distinct properties, while Harmony is a "molecule" - using the two Shards together has different properties than accessing them separately does. I don't think that Sazed can use the two Shards separately. If he doesn't use them in concert, they would destroy each other.

I suspect that each spren is personalized to whatever it inhabits, but they tend to be characterized by the broader elements that make up the object. So there is a table spren, but it's mostly indistinguishable from a chair spren, and both are called wood spren.

I'm reminded of the book A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula LeGuin. In that book, magic is based on knowing the true name of something. One of the scenes in the book talks about how there is a name for "ocean", but then the seas in the ocean have their own names, and then the bays have their own names, etc etc. In that story the names are mutually exclusive (nothing could have more than one name), but I don't think that's the case here. The giant spren could be the spren for the "ocean", but there could also be waterspren, rainspren, riverspren, etc. Also, are spren a cause or an effect? Do rotspren cause infections, or do infections attract rotspren? Syl fought off the deathspren, and it was implied that if they had reached Kaladin, he would have died. Does that mean that deathspren cause death? Also, Syl is confirmed as causing Kaladin's abilities. But flamespren are thought of as being attracted to flames, not causing them. New theory: the giant water spren appears regularly. What water related phenomenon happens periodically? Tides. I think the giant spren might be a tidespren.

One thing that's always bugged me: There's a line on the back cover of that says: "The world can change. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return; the magics of ancient days can become ours again." So, if we assume Shardwielding to be related to the Shardblades, then that implies that there is something special about the way the Knights Radiant wielded the Shardblades (probably related to them glowing).

I think it was because Atium was concentrated in solid form, whereas Lerasium was found in the mists, in the pool, and in the beads.

I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned, but what is Odium's goal? Ruin's goal was to ruin things. Preservation's goal was to preserve the things Ruin was trying to ruin. Odium's goal is to... make things odious? What would that entail, exactly?

I think the glyphs on the side of the warcamps pic represent the 10 Highprinces, and the King. Part of this is that there are 10 smaller glyphs, with the slightly larger one in the center. Also, I can't think of any other reason for them to be there. On the other hand, this means I have no idea what the glyphs are for the Tower battle. Maybe the warcamps glyphs represent the provinces, while the tower glyphs represent the Highprinces?

I would guess that there were 16 beads total. That's a lot of missing beads.

I just noticed the two creatures in the background of the Surgebinding chart. What could they be? Also, I'm referring to the picture as the Surgebinding chart because Mad Scientist referred to it as the Surgebinding chart. But why did Mad Scientist refer to it as the Surgebinding chart? Did Brandon say something about it, or is it just a theory?