Isomere

From what I understand, everyone on the planet of Scadrial has Investiture from both Ruin and Preservation. This Investiture is what you use to access magic. Most people can't use that Investiture because they have the wrong spiritual Identity. Now for some theorizing. I think Lerasium just makes your Identity different so you can use the Investiture you already have to it's maximum potential. The 100% we have been talking about in this thread refers to how much of your Investiture you can access. Let's put Vin at 30%, a fairly strong Mistborn. The reason she can't fully use her powers is due to her Identity: she is half Ska which limits the access. If she were to eat Lerasium, her Identity would be re-written, and her Allomancy would go up to 100%: a much more powerful Mistborn. She can now make full use of her Investiture. Another example with a weak Coinshot misting who is using 3% of his Investiture. If he were to eat a bit of Lerasium mixed with Steel, he would become an extremely powerful Coinshot able to use 100% of his Investiture. His Identity would still be linked only to Steel, so he would remain a Misting. If this same man were to eat a pure sample of Lerasium, his identity would be rewritten to allow him access to ALL the Allomantic metals, and he would be a Mistborn with 100% Access to his Investiture. A few quotes from Brandon: Every single person on the world of Scadrial has a bit of Leras in them—a bit of the power of Preservation. Every single person has a bit of Ati in them. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=680/#26 To use Feruchemy or Allomancy... one must have the right spiritual and genetic codes, imprinted upon people during the creation of Scadrial by Ati and Leras. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=727/#66 By burning [Lerasium] you gain access to those powers. It rewrites your spiritual DNA, and there are ways to do really cool things with lerasium that I don't see how anyone would know. Were most Mistborn to just burn it, it would rewrite their genetic code to increase their power as an Allomancer. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=692/#24 If [Lerasium] were fused into specific alloys with certain metals, it could have instead created Mistings of each of the different Allomantic powers. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=727/#7 You're suggesting that repeated doses of Lerasium would increase your Allomancy above 100%. I don't think that's how it works. Once you perfectly attune your Identity to Preservation, I don't see how you can overwrite a better connection. I'd love to hear some ideas on how to manage that, but 100% is 100%. At this point, the way you get more power is to gain more Investiture. For example, Vin has an earring that trapped parts of her sisters soul. When she wears this, her Spirit is infused with extra Investiture, allowing her do do amazing things not normally possible.

Has Brandon ever confirmed that a "year" on Roshar is 1 rotation around their sun? They just seem to refer to the Weeping to measure years, and I am not at all convinced that is based on the revolutions of the planet.

I have been trying to make correlations between Allomancy and Feruchemy. It seems every type of feruchemical ability can be burned by Allomancy, then compounded. This makes me think the magic associated with a given metal is based on the same fundamental source power. Some Allomantic abilities, such as the external mental powers, don't seem to correlate to the feruchemical powers of the same metal. Allomancy: Zinc: Heats up emotions Brass: Cools down emotions Feruchemy: Zinc: Mental Speed Brass: Warmth Physical warmth is simply a measure of how fast each particle of a substance is moving. But why would physical warmth be related to cooling down emotions? If you want to heat something up, you need to add energy to the system. I propose the energy for this comes from the cognitive realm. Lets look at the other two: mental speed would mean that the cognitive realm has increased energy to perform it's tasks. If this theory is correct, that energy would come from the physical realm, and would leave an area a bit colder than before. Theory: External Mental powers transfer energy between the physical and cognitive realms.

There is a great theory out there about the Parshmen: The Radiants seem to be protecting a group of people during war times. This group somehow managed to enslave the parshmen, and the Radiants could no longer Honorably support their cause. They also couldn't Honorably abandon them to certain death in the current war, so they gave them shardblades to survive it without the aid of the Radiants.

“For now, know that the pure form of an Essence is quite easy to make; the eight kinds of blood are easier to create than water, for instance.” This makes me concerned about my groupings of the elements. The ars says 7 is oil, and I had a theory of how that could have come about. All the soulcasters we have seen use at least two different gems. My thought was that water really is a primary element, but not easily made with a combination of two different gems. That theory doesn't help here, Jasnah should have no trouble finding the 10 primary elements. I'm pretty disappointed since the way I organized them matches with colors and shapes, fits all the known parts of the ars except water and gives meaning to all the connections in the diagram.

I have trouble separating breath and investiture: to me they are the same thing. I think it has spiritual, cognitive and even physical aspects. Spiritually it is a fragment of Endowment, as Leuthie points out it seems to have cognitive aspects, and the physical form is a color-based standing wavepattern (Biochromatic Aura)

Your idea that cognitive is created by interactions of physical and spiritual has a lot of mileage, I love the concept, but I cant yet espouse it. The reverse seems more likely, that the physical is created by interactions of spirit and cognitive. Based on Brandon's quote mabe both happen and the nature of the Spiritual Form determines which occurs. I also think there is something else unique to humans in addition to cognitive/physical/spiritual . Splinters only seem to develop sentience (personalities) after they start bonding to a Human. I think they borrow something critical through that bond: intellect. Aons for example have no sentience without their master (they wander aimlessly if their master gets hit with the Reod), and Spren have no sentience until they bond with a KR. Devine Breath must attach to the soul of the host to function. Nightblood is frighteningly unique, but seems to have a permanent bond with his creator (Vashers wife).

I also feel that in order to merge, a fragment must be guided by an intellect, but I don't see good evidence requiring it. Just a gut feeling that a shard without intellect doesn't do much. That being said, very solid theory and internally consistent. I absolutely love the Vase analogy and the grey sand product.

I totally missed that interpretation, and it's fully consistent with the quote. I thought it meant the Seons existed before Odium came, when He came he disrupted the Seons, then after he left they came back into form. This interpretation implies the earthquake was related the loss of Seons during Odium's visit. Both seem to work to explain the quote, and I'll be interested to learn more. Seems more linearly consistent the way you and KChan are reading it.

This post is mostly for humor. I think the ideas are fun, and if they contribute to something else that actually works I'd be thrilled. As for space being very large, I'm kinda working on the (unfounded) supposition that you can control or channel your luck by using a mental focus of what you want it to do. If you focus on point B while channeling luck, it wouldn't really be chance when you successfully arrive. Because you have harnessed the finite improbability of chromium for that nanosecond, wherever you end up is where you will need to be for the best outcome. EDIT: There is a way to reverse compound to enhance allomancy, but I'm not sure how it is accomplished. You can also create concentric bendalloy bubbles that multiply the effect.

Check this quote about Seons from a Q&A. Found here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1 This is a very confusing quote, and very Aes Sedai. For Brandon, there is a connection between Seons, Odium, Earthquakes, and Splintering. Since the Seons were around before the Odium came, I'm thinking the two shards merged before Odium came as well, but it's hard to know. Correlating to Roshar is also interesting. My very unorthodox views on this aside, there seems to be some type of mingling of the energies happening on both Planets, and this could be explained by the the Shards merging either before or because of the Shattering.

We have been told that Scadrial technology will one day include the ability to travel faster than light. I didn’t want to wait for technology, so I theorized a way to do it now. Ingredients: 1 Hemalurgist 2 Chromium spikes 2 Bendalloy Spikes 1 Duralumin Spike 1 Pilot trained in Space-Time Events 1 Spinner Ferring (Chromium) 1 Leecher Misting (Chromium) 1 Subsumer Ferring (Bendalloy) 1 Slider Misting (Bendalloy) 1 Duralumin Misting 1 Metric Ton of Chromium 1 Metric Ton of Bendalloy 1 Bead of Duralumin Directions: Tie the Pilot to a table. Use the Hemalurgist to transfer the powers from each of the mistings and ferrings to the Pilot. This can be messy so use proper precautions. Have the Pilot’s stomach expanded over several years with an inflatable bladder. During this time, have him store Luck and Space-Time Contraction in two metalminds. Compound his Luck and Space-Time Contraction by burning the metalminds and storing the result in another metalmind. (Repeat as needed) Fill his now enormous stomach from your stock of Bendalloy metalminds, and put the Chromium metalmind within arms reach. Add one bead of Duralumin. Have the Pilot focus on your intended destination. Then, while tapping all the Luck he can manage, burn the Bendalloy in one Duralumin enhanced burst. This should generate enough Luck and Space-Time Contraction that you can travel through space-time to the correct Event without appearing in the path of a stray asteroid or accidentally porting into a nearby sun. (Note: due to the nature of Luck, you can sometimes end up in completely unintended Events, but we consider this a feature of the model rather than a draw-back) The theory: Perhaps Bendalloy contracts space-time, but it is just very hard to control so it sort of forms a bubble around you that doesn't have much form. If you could tweak your luck, the random bubble could be given direction and purpose allowing you to control the warp in space-time.

A couple questions: Q: Are we certain he was alive during the Recreance? The arguments I'm hearing have convinced me, but I can't find proof right now. In the last chapter you can interpret it to mean he was alive for the Recreance, but it is vague. Q: Are we certain the Shard Shattering on Roshar and the the death of Tanavast are the same moment in time? I see several ways to make them not match up. 1) Shattering a shard might not always kill the holder 2) Tanavast abandoned the shard when he saw Odium coming (as he was wetting himself) 3) Tanavast was not the original Holder of Honor There are all three very unlikely. I have always assumed they both happened at the same time, but there isn't any substantial evidence to push me either way.

I've been thinking about your reference to compounding. Could it theoretically be possible to use an aluminum spike to steal someone's Identity with Hemalurgy, burn the spike with allomancy to "splice" it into your DNA, store it in an aluminum-mind, and then compound it? Could be a fast way to get your link as strong as Lerasium can make it.

Great correlation CabbageHead, this ties in Allomancy in new ways we haven't discussed before. Using the spectra works perfectly with PaperClip's Filter-Theory. Since I'm quite biased by wave-theory I like to think of it more as a Surgepattern being represented by the quantum waveform of the atom. They really are the same thing though, just with different viewpoints. Wave-Theory:

I've only heard of three ways to mess with Identity: Hemalurgy can steal it, Feruchemy can store it, and Lerasium seems to be able to create it. I very much like the idea of forgery swapping your Identity to a different region of Sel. That could be much harder if you want powers from a different planet though.

I managed the marathon of reading the entire original thread and it's quite a mouthful to chew. First off, props for taking the time to develop this. It's meaty stuff and I still am unsure how much I understand. Before reading through this I'd always assumed a spiritual Form was immutable, but you definitely changed my mind. We know the spirit realm represents the "Ideal", but I hadn't really thought about how that Ideal could change over time or be influenced by the cognitive realm. I love how the terminology is growing here: sForms, uForms, sDNA - makes me feel like pulling out the old degenerate code for protein synthesis and tracking down a spiritual ribosome. I want to make sure I'm on the same page so lets go with the window example and see if I'm interpreting things differently than you. I'm hearing that Forgery works by remapping Spiritual Connections. So we have a window, and its Spiritweb has a connection to a bunch of Forms: clear glass, broken, wooden frame, ugly, neglected. These Forms literally become part of the window's soul due to these connections. So a soul is a big puddle of spiritual goop that takes on structure based on the interactions of the Forms it has incorporated. The Forms still exist separate from the soul, just like a function in a computer program exists separate from the object that calls it. Lets focus on clear vs colored glass. Through Soulstamping, all you do is create another bond in the Spiritweb that links the window to the Form "colored" and the window changes from clear to colored glass. Is it really that simple? The Form "colored" becomes part of the soul and when the cognitive aspect interprets it the physical window pops out as Stained glass?

Interesting. Your saying that if Hoid managed to collect a bit of investiture from each Shard he could melt them up, merge them together and get a "clear" lens that can access the original powers of Adonalsium? A terrifying thought if Odium could get a hold of something like that. I'm assuming you mean that once he had the merged investiture he would have to change his Identity to allow him to use it. Lerasium seems to be able to change identity, so that could work out...

I'd recommend rephrasing to "How many fragments would be created if Harmony were Shattered? How would these correlate to Ruin and Preservation?" I could also see him splitting into three shards corresponding to allomancy, feruchemy and Hemalurgy. Or splitting into 16 fragments based on the metal types, or splitting into 48 parts with all 16 of each magic type carving off a chunk.

I actually disagree with this theory too, after thinking about it more. I have been looking at the table and if my organization is correct Cultivation deals mostly with perception. It doesn't make sense for her to be Sending visions. This organic soulcasting idea is new to me, and is worth looking into. Two thoughts come to mind: 1) Jasnah is not Palah. She really does seem to be linked strongly with Smokestone, so maby she is really Nan and I have the surges wrong. 2) Being Palah only let's you easily create one bland but very healthy substance. She could then be Palah and still have trouble creating very complex stuff like strawberry jam. There really isn't enough evidence to know where Cultivation is. If they did merge into one Shard with two intellects then she probably died during the shattering too.

Hey Meg: I really don't want to discuss real-world religion on this thread. It was a mistake to include as a parallel, and I can make the same argument without the unexplained and unsupported comparison. Idea: earth air fire water doesn't work because the Ars Arcana says 7 is oil. Response: the Ars might be wrong. I do tend to say things that are complete speculation as fact. I'll be more careful about that in the future. This entire thread is based on nothing more than an analysis and interpretation of the relationships I'm discovering in the Tables. I don't think it is all correct, but the overall symmetry and symbolism starts to make sense if you assume the two shards merged. Organizing them for internal/external was accidental. The boring explanation of how it came up is here: Many people are displeased with this grouping structure because they feel each Surge is capable of affecting both internal and external things. I agree. So is the problem with the structure and we need to change the Surge grouping, or is the problem with our interpretation of what internal/external represents on Roshar. Perhaps the grouping is more just a reflection of how the 16 shards initially split apart. Another approach. I would argue that you can use the internal powers of Scadrial to affect outside things (Thug bashing your face in), and you can use external powers to affect yourself (coin push levitation). It seems to represent the source of the effect rather than the end result.

Overly Didactic/Precocious describes me pretty well, along with some less savory words you kindly left out. Humble isn't really one I play well with, but I'll try and be less attached to my theory and more open to people squishing it into better shape. And if I get out of line Rubix can always give me the SPECULATION hammer again. I edited the post you were discussing so it doesn't skip over half the argument, hopefully it makes more sense now. I left the overly didactic part there though, cause you pegged it so well. Now for an attempt to play nicely... @54: Let's see if other ways of looking at Transformation can work better. Lots of people are saying that Gravity is a Spiritual connection that Windrunners can change. Could Transformation be a way to CREATE similar spiritual connections? How could those connections be used to make something change shape. @57: Lets scrap Inertia and go back to Physical Strength.

@meg. I've never met or communicated with Sanderson except through his books. This is the first time I have ever posted on any public forum anywhere that I can recall. I tried to include my process for thinking up the theory, and all of the ideas come from trying to really GRASP the way this stuff works. My "ahah" moment was when Shallan's Memory was added as the very last Surge in the Table. It threw my mind for a loop, but once I understood the symbolism and forms it all went Click in my mind and I pretty much understood the entire thing right then and there. EDIT: In terms of "Traditional Vorin doctrine is well established as corrupt" Mea Culpa. I've been discussing the book for a couple years with people that all assume Vorinism is corrupt, and I didn't realize this forum hasn't generally accepted this idea. I think the guy that wrote the Ars Arcana was unsure if the information they have is accurate, which is why he wrote, "the preceding list is an imperfect gathering of traditional Vorin symbolism".

Duralumin is used to store Spirtual connection. While filling a duraluminmind, other people's awareness and friendship of the Feruchemist will be reduced. Tapping the metalmind will allow the user to form trust relationships with others much faster. Form a spiritual connection, ask it to change. Voila. Works just like a Soulstamp.

Soulcasting is internal. You change your own spirit to be charming and irresistible, then you can persuade things to follow your requests. Correlate it to Internal Enhancement on Scadrial. Gravity changes how the Planet affects something. Seth isn't changing how his own mass pulls on people.