Isomere

I believe you need four things for a magic to function: Two types of investiture, a physical vessel, and cognitive control. Temporary investiture acts as fuel, powering the magic and being consumed in the process. Permanent investiture acts like a key, granting access to the power. The physical vessel harnesses and filters the power, then a cognitive control directs how that power will be used. Fabrials: Stormlight = temporary investiture Spren = permanent investiture Gemstone = determines the color of stormlight (ie. specifies pulse width and frequency of the stormlight) Stormlight pattern = cognitive control to determine effect Allomantic Machines: Mists = temporary investiture Hemalurgic charge = permanent investiture Hemalurgic spike = the metal type specifies pulse width and frequency of the allomantic force ??? = cognitive control Temporary investiture I really like the idea of using the mists to fuel these machines. Seems plausible, but very limited since the mists are not always available. Perhaps long term mist storage would be possible? It would also cause trouble if you used these machines away from the planet since there are no mists anywhere else in the Cosmere. We know that allomancers can use the mists directly as a power source, but there is another option. They can use a metal focus to open a temporary investiture that lasts until the metal is consumed. I'd much rather own a machine that burns metals rather than be dependent on gathering mists, but I suspect you could get them to function with either power source. That opens up another interesting line of thought since we still don't know the Roshar equivalent of burning a metal. I'm still convinced it's sound and would love to see a sound based Fabrial that doesn't need stormlight. Permanent Investiture We know this exists in spren since Brandon has told us they all contain a piece of the Almighty. On Scadrial there doesn't seem to be any loose investiture roaming the planet, so we'll need to spike it out of a living soul. Physical Vessel Stormgems trap spren, absorb pure stormlight and emit colored stormlight. Hemalurgic spikes steal investiture directly from a soul and trap it. Could they also absorb the mists? If they can, it would seem reasonable that the spike would emit only the "color" of allomantic power associated with the base metal used for the spike. Cognitive Control The stormlight patterns determine how a Fabrial will use the power. Known patterns can create a diminisher, augmentor, conjoiner or reverser. I'd assume that when creating a mechanical allomancy device the craftsman will need to create a similar pattern. Perhaps the case holding the spike will need to be carefully tooled or some such.

My reason for calling TLR a full shard while he held the power of the well is based on this quote: There are some conflicting ideas. Holding all the power makes you a shard, but holding a little bit of it for a short time also makes you a shard. I am left to believe that holding the power of a Shardpool allows you to become a temporary co-shard with whoever has the permanent investiture. So TLR and Leras were both Shards of Preservation at the same time, but once the energy of the well is consumed TLR is left a Sliver.

The cut and color determine which type of spren are attracted and bound in the gem. The metal setting creates a Surgepattern so it knows to be a reverser and not, say, a diminisher Fabrial. Without the metal setting no magic happens, so I personally don't call it a Fabrial.

How do you come to that idea? I thought urithiru was in use up till the Recreance.

This is great new info and it will be fun to see what this type of spren can do. Ive never heard a formal definition, but for me a Fabrial must have a gem, a trapped spren, and a metal frame to filter the stormlight into a Surgepattern. Without the metal setting, the light wouldn't make one of these patterns and it couldn't create an effect: In the top left of navani's notebook page you can see how the metal setting creates shadows in the stormlight and forms the Surgepattern. To access magic I think you need a component from each of the three realms, and the metal functions as the cognitive component in a Fabrial.

A few more possible questions: Did Tanavast survive after Honor was splintered? (Likely RAFO) Do all the spren we see in WOK have investiture? Are there spren without investiture? Do all spren linked to KR Orders have investiture from both Cultivation and Honor? (he has been more generous with spren questions recently, may get something) Do splinters on Sel take the shape of Aons because local people associate the Aons with fundamental forces? /i.e. are cognitive forms involved in what a splinter looks like? Was the investiture that formed a Seon associated with the same Aon before the splintering? Was odium one of the three who ruled before the broken one started his reign? (RAFO-bait)

Other other way around Argent. The faster an object is moving the more energy it takes to increase the speed by 1 MPH, which means mass effectively increases with velocity. The mass approaches infinity as you near the speed of light, so you could dump in all the energy in the universe and it would not accelerate noticeably. Light is an exception since it has seemingly no mass. I have never studied changes in how gravity interactions are altered by speed, anyone know?

While this could be similar to the death rattles of WoK, there are other explanations. I believe Miles is an Allomantic gold Savant and developed the ability to gather information about the world by studying his gold shadows. One example: lets say you know there is buried treasure somewhere in a huge field. So you roll some dice to pick a dig site then go excavate that plot. The treasure isn't there so you start burning gold. After skimming through hundreds of gold shadows in various empty holes, you run across yourself discovering a trunk full of Jewels. Look for landmarks around the gold shadow and now you know exactly where the treasure is. I'm guessing the men of red and gold are from the Southern Continent and one of miles' shadows managed to find his way down there.

here. Bear in mind there is a lot of wiggle room in interpreting this answer. Was the Almighty still alive when the Heralds packed it in, and did the Radiants pack it in in direct response to what the Heralds did? BRANDON SANDERSON The Radiants did NOT abandon their post as a response to the Heralds. The Radiants abandoned it for some other reason which will become evident eventually. The Almighty was still around when the Heralds did their thing.

I think the fence looks like a nice place to rest. The data works with objects as mental crutch, and with objects as a power transference tool. Since epics can't use tensors it doesn't seem consistent if the power is purely between gifter and object.

Lets speculate the dead guys Breath gets additional investiture and is then Retuned, but the rest of the persons soul stays somewhere else, maby similar to where Kelsier is. That could let the Divine Breath actually have experienced the events of his life, but still represent a new consciousness.

Lets suppose the gifting is direct, but the object works like a mental crutch. You don't believe you can access the power without it, so you can't. I think this fits all the data we have. Now lets suppose the object is gifted. Wouldn't that provide a workaround so that other epics could use the tensors? Unless the object needs to temporarily gift the wearer or form some kind of epic power-sharing gig. Someone should really ask Prof about that.

I believe spren that bond with KRs were intentionally formed by a merging of Honor and Cultivation's investiture prior to the splintering of honor. The more numerous spren visible throughout the planet were created as a consequence of unbound investiture. I'm not certain they are splinters, but feel confident the spren we see all possess some investiture. The Aons are just a bunch of lines. I think the reason they are important is because the symbols became associated with powerful cognitive forms. There is no inherent reason why the lines and dots of Aon Ehe are linked to Fire, but on Sel that association is so well established that the cognitive form of fire Fused with that symbol. My theory is that unbound investiture naturally binds with local cognitive forms. This could be random and the investiture just gets bound to whatever forms are "nearby". Another possibility, the investiture that deals with Fire would seek out the cognitive form of Fire and bond with it. On Sel that would create a glowing Aon Ehe, on Roshar that would create a flamespren. One reason these are so different is due to the way local people conceptualize fire. I don't really know why Roshar doesn't have the same problems as Sel. Perhaps Honor was splintered differently, or perhaps someone is controlling most of the investiture that was released. Could be related to differences in cognitive forms, the Oathpact, Cultivation interfering, Odium investing in the planet, the Heralds mitigating the damage etc. Too many variables, not enough data.EDIT: just noticed the new post- "So, according to your theory, the Aons merged with something to become Seons." According to my theory, the unbound investiture merged with a cognitive form and took the shape of the corresponding Aon. The Seon seems to be a combination of the investiture, a cognitive form and a human soul-bond. I'm speculating these correspond to the three realms and only with all three can you control the shardic power.

I'm still suspicious that radiant blades only make you a Lighteyes while the sword is wielded. We know the legends say you become a Lighteyes if you win a set of shards, but there are no actual examples of that in the text. In fact, the only set we hear about being won by non shard-bearers was claimed by a Lighteyed archer who probably didn't get the killing blow. Those shards likely should have gone to one of the darkeyed spearmen that were swarming over the downed warrior.

We have seen the aftermath of splintering on both Sel and Roshar. In both cases we ended up with some pretty strange magical entities with semi-sentience: Spren on Roshar and Seons on Sel. Why were these created? I've been wondering if raw investiture naturally seeks out cognitive forms to merge with. So when any shard is splintered the unbound investiture combines with things like spren or Aons which represent that planet's cognitive forms. It could be a random thing and not really directed by anyone. Another possibility, the investiture could already have a spiritual form and would seek out the cognitive form that matches best. Perhaps splintering creates an imbalance where pure investiture doesn't have enough substance in the cognitive or physical realms. It needs to combine with a cognitive form and a human host to restore realmatic balance. Without this balance the Shardic power cannot be controlled and if left unchecked will lead to catastrophic consequences.

It makes me smile actually. Dalinar is becoming the type of man Honor would respect. Perhaps that is the whole point of these visions, to help potential Radiants grow closer to the almighty so he can more fully Invest them.

Memory definitely has links to Cultivation rather than Honor and works without stormlight. Shallan doesn't view it as Magical and she has never ventured far from home, but the Nightmother could be a possibility if someone else asked for the boon. Shallan as a Lightweaver... I'm not yet convinced, but can't argue strongly against it. I really wanted to keep Lightweavers linked with order 4 since it fits so nicely with Eyes, Lucentia, and Crystal that have strong ties to focusing/creating/scattering light.

Is the discussion of memory not being a surge part of the Assuredness Movement, or is there solid evidence to discount it?

@Gloom: thanks for the work clarifying known and speculated details. I agree with everything you have said with one small detail. I remember reading a quote where Brandon implies that since Taln is still bound, the Oathpact is still in force. I can't find it and could be mistaken, will keep looking and get back to you if I find anything concrete. @DocHoliday: You are implying that if an Oathpact theory doesn't have Odium a willing participant it is wrong. I find this arbitrarily limiting. Some alternate oathpact theories that do not require Odium to participate but fit all known facts would include: Honor shows the Heralds a way to stop Odium from destroying the Cosmere. It unfortunately involves an eternity of torture and the eventual splintering of Honor, but the universe will be saved. They nobly sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Honor was captured by Odium, the Heralds independently formed a pact to rescue Tanavast and trap Odium. Honor and Cultivation are defeated by Odium and driven out of the Tranquiline Halls. They flee to the Roshar System where a third shard has already set up camp. The three shards form an Oathpact to protect their worlds. As part of this, they empower Heralds with a way to trap Odium should he ever follow them to Roshar. Same as above with only Honor and Cultivation involved. They form a magic system together as part of the deal. Many others... I'm not convinced Odium was part of the Oathpact, but neither am I sure he was not. Odium seems likely to participate if it suited his long-term goals, especially if he could exploit or betray someone as part of the deal. @Maximus: I'd like to know what Odium would have managed without the Oathpact restricting him. It could have been staggeringly catastrophic, bad enough that Honor was willing to tolerate Desolations and expose his Heralds to Odium's whims. If this was an agreement between Odium and Honor they both would get something valuable out of it or the deal would never have closed.

Looks like I need to update my personal isomere table too since it's pretty clear that I can't lean on Scadrial magic as much. I'm impressed with how much detail Sabrina packed into that image and love seeing so many people working on surge theories. There is some discussion about the Honor / Cultivation split. I could definitely get behind a top=Honor / bottom=Cultivation arrangement. The way i see the two pupils of the dual-eye has Honor on top and Cultivation on bottom, and the color shift from brown to grey could reflect the investiture of each spren. I'm still going to support Jasnah as order 5, but that forces me to give travel to someone else. I'd probably arrange them like this: Surges: 1 Gravity 2 Pressure 3 Light 4 redacted 5 redacted 6 Transformation 7 Memory 8 ?? It's metal and oil so perhaps magnetism would work here. 9 Travel 10 Strength Orders: 1 Windrunner 2 Dustbringer 3 Brightcaller 4 redacted 5 Jasnah 6 Shallan 7 ? 8 ? 9 Stoneward 10 Skybreaker

I'm poor so I don't I want plate that will shatter my precious Stormgems. Gimme a nice invincible Shardblade.

With most magic systems such as Forgery I can buy that extra energy comes from the Power of Creation. But I believe all the energy you get while tapping a metalmind comes from what was previously stored, with no net addition of energy from any shard. Of course compounding changes that since you borrow energy from Allomancy.

@Meg: Thanks for looking up those citations in Elantris. I don't own a copy and last read it several years ago, so I was limited to memory and quotes I could find online. As you point out, the reference to Dilaf being a Svrakiss is much less concrete than I had remembered. However, it seems my poor quoting skills distracted from the real point of the post which is unchanged regardless of Dilaf's nature: -There is a thing called a Svrakiss on Sel that uses possession to control people. -There is a thing called a Voidbringer on Roshar that uses possession to control people. -Since they do similar things and work for the same guy perhaps they are related in some manner... We know Kelsier was able to claim the Shard of Preservation and affect the world even after his death. I speculate that Odium can force his victims into a similar state after death and bind them to his will.

Theory disclaimer: my thoughts on Splinters are not cannon. From what we have in the books, Hoid is collecting the physical body of Adonalsium. This could be the precursor to a splinter, but I'd suggest something quite different may be going on here. The basic problem for me is defining different types of investiture. I see a fundamental difference between what Sazed picked up in book 3 and what LTR picked up at the Well.mThey both make you a Shard, but Sazed is a shard permanently while TLR was only a shard until the power ran out. So we have at least two types of Investiture, permanent and temporary. Permanent Investitures: these include Shards, Splinters, Slivers and the innate investiture granted to all humans at conception. Examples include Breath, Hemalurgic spikes, spren, Aons, whatever Sazed picked up in HoA, etc Temporary Investitures: The first three types are the body of a shard and correspond to it's cognitive, spiritual and physical aspect. 1) Shardpools like the Well of Ascension, the pool beneath Hathsin, and the pool of Aona in Elantris. 2) Intangible power sources like the Mists of Preservation, the Black Vapor of Ruin, Stormlight, and the Dor. 3) Solid substances that can directly fuel magics: Atium, Lerasium, and the Moon Scepter. 4) The Ars Arcanum of AoL says that using metals for Allomancy starts a temporary investiture that ends once you stop burning the focus. To create a Splinter, you need a certain threashold of the permanent type of investiture. Hoid should already have a tiny portion of Adonalsium's investiture as his innate gift at conception, but he would need much more of it to create a splinter of the God. To do this, he would need to collect permanent investiture from all the 16 shards. Breath, spren and Seons would be pretty easy. For the others he may need to use Hemalurgy to repeatedly collect people's innate investiture until the spike reached Splinter threshold. Now what he is actually doing is collecting the Physical Body of the various Shards. If you somehow melted them together into a single alloy it would be the body of Adonalsium. I believe that using this as fuel for any magic system would destroy it, so he is probably planning something more grand in scale than a single bang would warrant. Well, unless it was the Big Bang he is after...

Dakhor monk bones seem to already do what you are suggesting. It should work.