skaa

I don't think the Surges are necessarily of either Honor or of Cultivation. I say this because we have WoB that the Metallic powers are not really of Preservation or Ruin: My conclusion from this is that the specific powers granted by Investiture (metal-pulling/pushing, gravity-manipulation, destruction, illusion magic, reanimation of corpses, etc.) are all from Adonalsium. The Shards, being parts of Adonalsium, can access all these powers. It's just a matter of which powers a specific piece of Adonalsium chooses to grant people, and how it wants people to access those powers. That depends on the piece of Adonalsium's Intent.So yes, I wouldn't be surprised if Nightblood, a Splinter of a Shard and therefore a piece of Adonalsium, can give Szeth access to the Surge of Division, since it fits his Intent ("destroy evil"). Division is the Surge of destruction, after all, and is the same general power that Nightblood has been using even while on Nalthis. What I'm not quite sure of is whether Nightblood will grant Szeth access to the Gravitation Surge. Perhaps there's a special aspect of Gravitation that Nightblood is using, like, maybe it's how he makes "evil" people gravitate towards him. Seems like a stretch, though.

Yeah, I can somewhat vaguely recall that WoB. You wouldn't happen to have a source for it, would you? The term is problematic, yes. I'm still thinking of a more accurate alternative. "Self-Commands" might not work since most of the examples we've seen of this phenomenon do not involve a spoken Command. As Weiry pointed out, Mental Commands is a Tenth Heightening thing.How about "BioChromatic Self-Modification"? Too clunky?

That is very intriguing, Pechvarry! I'm currently sifting through every single mention of both blood and Awakening via the forum's search function, but so far I can't find a source of that WoB. I'll keep looking! If that's true, then it might explain why regular Lifeless last longer with a blood substitute like ichor-alcohol than without, even though they don't need to eat or breathe. Distribution of oxygen and nutrients is the main function of blood IRL, and Lifeless don't need those, so the reliance on ichor-alcohol only makes sense if blood has a special Realmatic purpose in BioChromatic Investiture. Edit: By the way, I'm starting to get a bit uncomfortable with my term "Self-Awakening". I mean, is it still Awakening if your target is already "Awake" (i.e. already contains active Breath) so to speak? There has to be a better term for using BioChromatic Investiture on yourself. What do you guys think?

Thanks! I guess I should've read the annotations first. So all the Returned have a heightened Spiritual connection with animals and children. I wonder if Vivenna could learn to access that ability somehow. Yeah, I left it out because I was confused about the supposed connection of what the girl did and the issue of Breath transfer, since it wasn't clear at all to me that the girl lost any part of her Breath. I decided to leave it out so I could focus on what was clear: that Awakeners can use Commands on themselves. But if Self-Awakening does weaken Breath somehow, perhaps you're right about the Returned. Their Divine Breath must be performing a constant Self-Awakening on itself to keep its host sentient, after all. Perhaps that's why Lifeless can last for so long on a single Breath while the Returned can't. Note also that a Lifeless will eventually require another Breath to continue working, but that's only after having to heal itself several times, which is again a kind of Self-Awakening. Or perhaps we should be saying that Self-Awakening makes a person's connection to his Breath a bit weaker, not that the Breath itself is getting weaker. The Returned's Divine Breath is still Fifth-Heightening strong even after a week-long fasting, after all. And once they've feasted on their weekly Breath, that single Breath is enough to strengthen their connection to their Divine Breath once again, at least for another week. I'll have to finish reading Mythwalker before I could comment on exactly how much of the ideas behind Kkell Powers were also used in Self-Awakening, but there obviously is a similarity in that both abilities allow the user to modify something in their own self. Since Mythwalker is considered as "Warbreaker Prime", one would suspect that Brandon consciously added the self-modification aspect of the Mythwalker magic system to that of Warbreaker. I don't see what your point about Feruchemy is since I wasn't trying to say that Feruchemy isn't aligned to Kkell Powers. In fact, I explicitly stated in my post that Brandon thought of Feruchemy because of the Kkell Powers. Are you saying that Self-Awakening and Feruchemy can't possibly be both inspired by the Mythwalker magic system? Because I don't see why not. LOL, us skaa can get tired too, you know?

Hey! I think this might be my first ever thread in the Warbreaker forum after more than a year in the 17th Shard. I think I'll need to celebrate this momentous event later. This is not meant to be a theory post. I'm planning to just gather facts about something I noticed while re-reading Warbreaker. Still, there will be some bits of speculation, because that's what I do best! Anyway, during my re-read, I stumbled upon a scene that I've totally forgotten: So there is a Command that can make someone forget certain memories. What's interesting is that the Command targets the Awakener himself; he uses his own BioChromatic Investiture to erase his own memory. The girl was both the Awakener and the target of Awakening in that scene above. Vasher just had to tell her what Command to use. Later on, Vasher offered to share that Command with Denth so that he could erase his traumatic memories and become the good person he was before the Manywar. Unfortunately, Denth declined. Anyway, this got me wondering what other forms of Self-Awakening there are. The Divine Breath of the Returned seems to allow for instinctive though limited body modification (which the Idrian royalty have inherited to some extent). I also think Vasher knows a Command to modify his own Spiritual Connection, akin to Duralumin Feruchemy, which is why he can make people and animals let their guard down when around him. (Edit: As PorridgeBrick pointed out below, the special Spiritual Connection thing exists in all the Returned. I still consider it a form of Self-Awakening, though it apparently is part of the Divine Breath's Intent). Mythwalker spoiler: In all the instances of Self-Awakening that we've seen, there doesn't seem to be a color-draining aspect. This implies that you don't have to use colors when Awakening yourself, which is weird. Another weird thing is the flickering effect Self-Awakening has on one's aura. Vivenna seemed particularly troubled by this. Does anyone have an idea what that could be about? What other instances of Self-Awakening have you guys detected? Edit: Due to Tempus' contribution below (I swear, that guy has given me more theory ideas than any other Sharder) I've come to the conclusion that Self-Awakening weakens one's connection to one's Breath, and that this is the reason why the Returned lose a Breath each week.

Just a heads-up to the two other people watching this thread. Thanks to Tempus, I've started reading a bit about electronics today, and I've come up with a much better term (in my opinion) for the attunement or imprinting of Investiture patterns: Investiture resonance. I believe that metals are the best Investiture resonators, even though other materials might have this property as well. I have renamed this thread accordingly. Also, I edited the original post to mention the use of silver on Threnody. That is all.

Eh, you're right there, Tempus. I remembered too late that resistance is not the same as insulation, and I wasn't able to edit my post since by then I was already on the train going to my workplace (yes, I'm currently multi-tasking between the 17th Shard and the code I'm fixing; I'm a bad code monkey). Anyway, that was an embarrassing mistake, and I apologize. The concept of Investiture "resistance" of metal is a bit more appealing to me now, but I wonder if Investiture "reactance" would be a better fit. According to Wikipedia, electrical resistance and electrical reactance are similar concepts, but differ in that resistance opposes the passage of electric current, while reactance opposes the change in current/voltage. Since we're talking about keeping an Investiture pattern inside metal, opposition to Investiture change seems more fitting. In that case, metals in the Cosmere can either be Investiture capacitors or Investiture inductors. Or they can be both... in other words, they can be Investiture resonant circuits. Now that's more like it! Don't you think this idea, that metals can act as Investiture resonators, making a specific Investiture pattern resonate more strongly, is an elegant way of describing what we've seen so far in terms of metal-based Investiture? I almost forgot you there, Moogle! Well, I'm fine with the complaint that my proposal for Awakening technology is too simple. It probably is. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to speculate on how Investiture patterns on metal could be used with BioChromatic Investiture. About the "implicit vs. explicit magic" thing, I personally wouldn't assume that Awakening is always strictly limited to relying on mental pictures. Lightweaving is shown in the WoR Ars Arcanum as deeply desire-based, but we know that there are fabrials that use the Illumination Surge at least to some extent. Similarly, I wouldn't be surprised if there is at least a subset of Awakening Commands that can be stored as a pattern in metal.

You're going to have to read my thread on fabrial metal settings, NutiketAiel, because I've already addressed that exact issue there. I think you guys missed the point of the Essence Mark metal plate quotes I included above, because that's the same issue we have here, the issue of Investiture patterns on metal not acting like Investiture patterns on other objects. Most Soulstamps transform something as soon as they are used, but stamping a metal plate for the purpose of linking it to an Essence Mark does not transform the metal plate. The metal plate simply holds the pattern, the Intent, of the Soulstamps stamped on it, which will later be coupled with an Essence Mark that is stamped on the actual targeted person. The same goes for AonDor. Most Aons we've seen used in the story of Elantris produced an effect on a target upon completion (e.g. when the chasm line was added to them post-Reod). The gigantic Aon Rao that is the city of Elantris, for example, actively targets the Regional Investiture of Arelon, amplifying the said Regional Investiture. In most of these cases, the Power of the Dor flows constantly through the completed Aon, affecting its target (which is oftentimes the Aon itself) as long as the Aon exists. The reason why solid material is sometimes used to create Aons is to allow for a more long-lasting and constant flow of the Dor's Investiture. But this is not the case with the special metal plates scattered throughout Elantris. The flow of the Dor through the Aon Ashe metal plates, for example, is not constant, for it can be stopped or started by an Elantrian touching the plate. The Dor won't even affect an Aon Tia metal plate unless an Elantrian is activating it, again via touch. It is apparent that these metal plates are simply holding the pattern for a particular Investiture; they are simply attuned to that form of Investiture, the activation of which must first come from an outside trigger. There is no non-metallic solid Aon that behaves like this. You can't just go to the center of Elantris and touch the ground to deactivate Elantrian powers, for example. If you want to deactivate the Aon that is the city of Elantris, you have to render that Aon wrong somehow (e.g. start another Reod-like event). So, unfortunately, I will still maintain my position that metal is special in this way. I'm sadly finding it difficult to grasp the difference between "holding a pattern" and "containing a pattern". They seem to be synonymous phrases to me. Perhaps you might want to clarify that, Tempus. Anyway, I think it might be more conceptually appropriate to think of metals as having a high Investiture conductivity, not resistivity. Metal is an excellent conductor of electrical and thermal power IRL. I think it might be the same with Invested power. First, please note that the Allomantic inertness of aluminum is not an indicator of resistance to Investiture in general; otherwise aluminum can't be burned by an Allomancer at all (nor be used in Feruchemy or Hemalurgy). The Allomantic inertness of aluminum is therefore more accurately described as a quirk of the Intent of Allomantic Investiture mapped on aluminum, just like the difficulty of metal Awakening is a quirk of the Intent of BioChromatic Investiture (which prefers targets that were once alive). The Aluminum Allomantic Intent does not allow other Allomantic powers to affect aluminum, but allows aluminum to be used in Allomancy by Mistborn and Aluminum Gnats (albeit with a lame effect). This quirk obviously does not affect how aluminum is used in Feruchemy and Hemalurgy. Next, the fact that metals can be burned by Allomancers is not an evidence of Investiture resistence, but is in fact the exact opposite. The easier it is for a form of energy to affect something, the less resistance it has to that form of energy. For example, when you pass enough electric current through a metal wire to make it melt, you don't attribute that melting to electrical resistivity, but rather to electrical conductivity, of which metal wires are known for having a high amount.(Edit: Wrong, as Tempus so kindly pointed out below.) On the other hand, the theory I'm trying to put forth in this thread is only tangentially related to the Investiture conductance of metals. I'm more interested in the Realmatic malleability of metals. I think the "imprinting" effect I've described is due to how Investiture can mold the soul of a metal without necessarily changing it physically, allowing it to hold a certain Investiture pattern. Of course, this does not mean that non-metallic objects do not exhibit Realmatic malleability; metals are just the best when it comes to this specific aspect.

(Note: This post was originally titled "Investiture-Attunement in Metal", but I have since decided, due to the discussion below with Tempus, that "Investiture Resonance" sounds much cooler and can be tied with the scientific concept of a resonator.) This little idea came to me while I was reading Tempus' Focus Pattern theory. Tempus' main idea is that a Focus of Investiture contains a pattern through which Invested Power can be modified. One of his examples is the Stormlight pattern found in fabrials. Each Stormlight pattern corresponds to a particular fabrial effect. Several weeks ago, I posted a theory in the Words of Radiance sub-forum stating that a fabrial's Stormlight pattern is imprinted on its metal setting. That theory was meant to explain why fabrial gemstones always have some sort of metal setting attached to them. After reading Tempus' pattern thread, I realized that it could be the key to generalize my fabrial metal setting theory into a Cosmere-wide theory. Basically, I would like to propose that metal (or at least, certain types of metal) is Realmatically special in that it is possible to either imprint an Investiture pattern on a piece of metal or map an Intent of Investiture to a metal, making the piece of metal attuned to that particular Investiture. And this can be done anywhere in the Cosmere. Fabrials are the manifestations of this metallic Investiture-attunement phenomenon on Roshar. On Scadrial, it is of course manifested by the Metallic Arts. Metalminds and Hemalurgic spikes are attuned to specific Invested attributes taken from humans. Regular metals (while not necessarily Invested themselves), are attuned to specific Allomantic powers. The God Metals lerasium and atium (and any other God Metals that might exist) are attuned to their specific Shard. Note that the specific types of metal that can be used in this way may differ across the Shardworlds. On Threnody, for example, silver (which doesn't seem to have an Allomantic use) seems to be the only metal attuned to Hell-type Investiture, although there may be others we haven't seen. But is that all? What about the other Shardworlds? Am I once again committing the sin of taking a specific form of Investiture on one Shardworld and applying it to the Cosmere with little basis? Well, not this time. Here is a WoB about aluminum: And that's not all. From Elantris: From the Emperor's Soul: That leaves us with Nalthis and BioChroma. In Warbreaker, we find that metal can only be Awakened by people with the Ninth Heightening. This is because things that were never alive are extremely resistant to Awakening. Can this fact be used as proof that my theory on metals isn't universal after all? Not really. For one thing, the Scadrian Metallic Arts show that a certain metal might only be attuned to a specific subset of a particular form of Investiture. We don't know what specific metal is attuned to Awakening, or if each type of Awakening Command has a specific metal on which it can be used. More importantly, the limitation of metal Awakening is not necessarily a limitation of Investiture-attuning, because being attuned to Investiture does not necessarily mean being targeted by it. A fabrial's metal setting is not the target of the fabrial's effect. The metal plate linked to an Essence Mark is not the target of the Essence Mark. The problem is that all attempts to use metal objects in Awakening so far have been targeting the metal objects themselves. The sad reality is that unlike Sel, Roshar, and Scadrial, we haven't seen anybody try to use metal as a mere Investiture pattern-holder on Nalthis. (Edit: Come to think of it, Nightblood's silver sheath is capable of keeping his destructive impulses in check. Perhaps it's a pattern-holder for anti-destruction Investiture.) What if an Awakener could store a relatively complex Command, say, "Upon call, become my fingers and grip that which I must" on a metal plate, but without intending to Awaken the plate? The metal plate then becomes a pattern-holder for the Command. Now, if there is a simple Command (preferrably requiring very little Breath) to link other objects to a Command pattern-holder, then that metal plate suddenly becomes something that other Awakeners can use to create a specific type of BioChromatic entity (in this case, one that acts as an extra hand) with less Breath. I'll leave it to you guys to imagine what types of BioChromatic technology can be created using that technique. Edit: Here's an idea I got from the discussion below: A metal attuned to a specific Investiture pattern can be seen as the Realmatic version of a resonant circuit, or at least an Investiture resonator. If you don't like to think about electronics terms, you could instead visualize an Investiture-attuned metal as something like an Investiture tuning fork, resonating only a particular Investiture Intent/pattern/frequency when hit by raw Investiture.

First of all, I wholeheartedly agree that the pattern represented by a Focus is what matters. I think Kurkistan, our self-proclaimed resident expert on forms (of which patterns are an example), will agree as well. My only (very minor) issue, I guess, is that you missed the opportunity to link this concept of patterns with the idea of Intent. In my understanding of Realmatic Theory, an Intent must always be defined first before Investiture can be used. One way to do this is via the pattern found in a Focus (something I mentioned in my Realmatic Theory thread, though I phrased it as "mapping the Intent to an attribute of a Focus"). I believe that Shards and other highly-Invested beings can specify an Intent just by thinking about it, so a pattern is no longer necessary in that case because the Intent is defined directly from a Shard's mind. A Focus is just a way for weaker beings to be able to specify an Intent for Investiture, or at least a way to reinforce their mental Intent (as in the case of Awakening, for example).

As others (including the OP) have pointed out, the ten Polestones are strongly connected to their Soulcasting properties. I sometimes wonder, though, if it's possible to combine two or more gemstones to produce a result normally associated with a totally different gemstone. Like, what if you can use both ruby and garnet in a single Soulcasting command to turn something into steam (normally a property of smokestone)? In the case of the ship in WoR, perhaps the combination of all the gemstones activated by Shallan's Soulcasting somehow added up to just plain water. Also, Shallan talked of Soulcaster fabrials that are basically universal Soulcasters, capable of turning anything into anything else, and there seems to be an implication that such a Soulcaster only needs three gemstones: a smokestone, a ruby, and a diamond. That would only make sense if there is such a thing as Soulcasting property-mixing.

Invested Investigations Realmatic Experiments The Nexus of Speculation

You're right. I guess it just can't be helped.

This is a great change, Chaos! I have a suggestion. Since Brandon's non-Cosmere works now have their own category, I think it would make sense to rename the Brandon Sanderson category into something like "Cosmere Works".

I will have to disagree. Here's a WoB: Here's another WoB: In other words, the Allomantic powers (Iron-pulling, Steel-pushing, etc.) are not of Preservation. What is of Preservation is the way people currently access the Allomantic powers. I hope that's clear now. Edit: I apologize for the way I worded this earlier, Weiry. I think this thread has gone a bit too Cosmerey for the Stormlight Archives board (it's all your fault, Tempus! ). I might have to ask you guys to wait until I post a more generalized theory in the Cosmere section of the forums before we continue this discussion. Thanks!

Well, it did take a whole week just to finish writing the first draft of the theory. Real life is just too much of a distraction sometimes. Eh, you already acknowledged that entropy in Investiture is a thing, so that's a start. Let me try another approach (I call this one the flippancy approach). Tell me if there is any problem in the following line of thinking: On Roshar, entropy manifests as Stormlight dissipation. On Roshar, entropy can be augmented by harnessing a Surge that was eventually named "Division" (but is also described as "Destruction" and "Decay"). Stormlight is the Unified Surge, containing within it the aspects of all the Surges. (Take note: This is the main idea of my theory in this thread, and you did not outright reject it in your initial response.) Stormlight contains within it the aspect of entropy that was eventually named "Division" (but is also described as "Destruction" and "Decay"). This follows from item 3. The cause of Stormlight dissipation has... absolutely nothing to do with the aspect of entropy within it. No siree. Nope, not at all. It's got something to do with its gaseous form and its pressure, things that don't seem to make Scadrian Mist dissipate, but no matter! It's not Division! It's... something else! See any problem there? Yeah, item 5 doesn't fit the pattern. It might not contradict the other statements, but it does not fit them either. Denying the role of Division within Stormlight breaks the pattern.The thing you have to remember, Tempus, is this is a theory thread about a fantasy world invented in the mind of Brandon Sanderson. Being in the sad, unfortunate state of not being Brandon Sanderson, I have to make do with consistent speculations, speculations that fit a pattern. I mean, what fun would it be otherwise? If I speculate that the Unified Surge contains the potential of all the Surges, then I am allowed-- nay, I am compelled, by the mighty gods of fantasy logic-- to use the Surges to explain the behavior of the Unified Surge. Because that fits the pattern. Because if the premise of this theory (that Stormlight contains all the Surges) is true, then it sure as damnation would be really weird if the Surges did not influence Stormlight at all. Please review the WoB I put in Part I above. Brandon said that the Surges are his way of taking the real world fundamental forces and going off on them "in a fancy way". Those are his words. Technically, the Surges are not exactly the same as the forces they are named after-- Brandon said that explicitly as well in the same WoB I quoted-- but the concept of the fundamental forces is the inspiration behind the Surges. That was in the introduction of my theory, Tempus. The fact that the Surges are fancified fantasy forces that are subject to magic was obviously clear in my mind from the start. I hope you understand now that quoting Syl's (admittedly awesome) lines about being able to ignore gravity didn't do much good in attacking anything in my theory. Thank you, Tempus, for giving me more evidence that the Surge pairings of the Knights Radiant are artificial in nature, as I proposed in my other Surge-related thread in the WoR forum. As for its impact on this current theory of mine, well... it doesn't really do anything, I'm afraid. The excerpt just described how the Nahel bond of the Knights Radiant were formulated. Before the Radiants, there were the Heralds who, it turns out, also had access to the Surges. Obviously the Surges existed before the Knights. The Heralds accessed them via the Honorblades. I don't have a theory about what the Honorblades are yet, but they make it clear that you can't just point at that little excerpt and say "Aha! The Surges were invented by Rosharian humans!" or something. In fact, I don't really get why you mentioned that quote at all. Perhaps I'll realize your point when I'm not so sleepy. I think you mean Adhesion. And no, being an "expression of the greater forces of Investiture" does not preclude Stormlight decay via Division or Stormlight sticking through Adhesion. One does not contradict the others. Like, at all. Why do you think so? Wrong. According to the WoB you yourself quoted, "the 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do." The Surges would exist on Roshar no matter which Shard/s went there, just like how the Metallic Arts would exist on Scadrial even if Preservation went somewhere else. The role of the Shard is to choose how the manifestation of Investiture is accessed. If Honor wasn't there to create the Honorblades, then some other Shard would create his own way to allow humans access to the Surges. Hey, I didn't exactly "go down" as you claimed I would. Thanks anyway for forcing me to think more deeply about my theories, Tempus. I really appreciate it.

Yes, I agree that we do indeed approach Cosmere theories quite differently, Tempus. But I'm open to doing things differently, so let me see if I can use "your way" to convince you of at least one of the points in my theory that you crossed out. Let us go back to the idea that the Division Surge is the cause of Stormlight dissipation. Your main argument against it, I believe, is that Stormlight is gaseous. Is that right? We've seen gaseous forms of Shardic power on other Shardworlds. The obvious example is the Mists on Scadrial. I suppose Nalthian Breath could also be considered gaseous. In both cases, whenever those gaseous forms are used for Investiture, we don't see them dissipating away like Stormlight does. The exception is Returned Breath (which dissipates weekly, one Breath at a time). So, what makes Returned Breath and Stormlight special? I've already talked before about my idea that Investiture will always decay unless a soul accepts it fully, but why would it decay in the first place? Why does entropy affect some types of Investiture? Let us "frame this within our understanding of the larger Cosmere". Here's the WoB that I linked to above: So, from the WoB above, Ruin is the embodiment of entropy within Adonalsium. That is why Investiture in Hemalurgic spikes decay. We've also heard several times that Ruin can influence any Shardworld. To me it seems rather simple to conclude that Investiture decay on any Shardworld (no matter which Shard is on it) must be caused by this aspect of entropy that existed within Adonalsium and is now personified by the Shard Ruin. This aspect of entropy is obviously in Hemalurgy, but other forms of Investiture also have their own manifestations of it. It can be seen on Sel, and is the reason why Forgeries are usually impermanent. On Nalthis, it manifests as the weekly Breath-loss of the Returned. On Roshar, entropy manifests as the Surge of Division (which the Ars Arcanum author calls "The Surge of Destruction and Decay"), which is part of the Unified Surge called Stormlight. Since Stormlight dissipates after a while, this dissipation must be caused by the aforementioned entropic aspect of Adonalsium, which already exists within it as the Surge of Division. Therefore, Stormlight dissipation is caused by the Surge of Division within it. So, Tempus, what do you think of that approach? Did that work on you? As you can see, I am not constrained by a single approach to theory making. In fact, allow me to tackle another problem using three angles of attack: The Knights Radiant have the legendary reputation of being able to hold Stormlight perfectly. This means there is probably a way to overcome Stormlight dissipation. I can frame my solution to this using my Cosmere theory of Innate Investiture. The souls of full-fledged Knights Radiant view Stormlight Investiture to be part of themselves, this makes Investiture stick more fully and is enough to fight Investiture entropy. This is the same solution seen in all other Shardworlds. Everywhere we see, Innate Investiture does not decay. Now, why is a Radiant's soul different from that of other Rosharians? Simple. The Radiant's soul has been transformed by the Nahel bond. I can also frame this in terms of Rosharian Surge interactions, as I did in Part I of my Unified Surge theory by saying that strengthening Adhesion (via the Nahel bond) also strengthens Cohesion, allowing it to counteract Division more fully. You can review my defense of the Nahel bond=Adhesion idea here. Invoking Brandon's fascination with the four fundamental interactions, I can also frame the problem of perfect Stormlight infusion via the neutron analogy (which I also used in Part I). Neutrons are subject to decay via weak interaction, and this decay happens pretty quickly when a neutron is isolated. But neutrons stuck with other nucleons inside an atomic nucleus via the strong nuclear force are much, much more stable. This means that internal decay can be counteracted via strong external bonds. On Roshar, strong external bonds include the Nahel bond, which is strengthened by each spoken Ideal or Truth. This is why Knights Radiant can hold Stormlight perfectly. So, you see, I can go at this problem from multiple angles, resulting in solutions that are consistent with each other.

I want to be a Lightweaver because of their cognitive abilities, but I'll probably attract a Truthwatcher spren instead because I relate with Renarin the most out of all the Radiant characters. Like Renarin, I try to be useful to others even when the required task isn't something I'm particularly good at, which sometimes leads to me looking a bit inept. I also tend to worry about offending people, so I can understand why Truthwatchers would rather not divulge the terrible secrets they hold.

I'd like to clear up a few misunderstandings here. First, this theory does not involve my larger theory on Shardworld Essences and Roshar's role as an Investiture prism. My Surge theory is consistent with my Essence theory, but neither depend on each other. The theory that will actually try to merge both has not been written yet.Second, when I say that entropy, transformation, and bonds are aspects of Adonalsium, I am not trying to make Roshar seem special, because those things exist on other Shardworlds as well. Balance (the theme of Scadrian Investiture) is also an aspect of Adonalsium, I believe. Each and every manifestation of Investiture in all the Shardworlds are shadows of Adonalsium's power, so you can't just isolate one system and insist that it must be unrelated to other things in the Cosmere.

Good points. Apparently the division, decay, and entropy in Investiture is not always negative. It is what gave us the cool magic systems, after all. In fact, without division Investiture is impossible, because a Shard would have to separate itself from part of its power in order to Invest it. As a matter of fact, I believe the fabrials fit the Surges perfectly. I am currently developing a new fabrial theory in my Coppermind user page. There's still some problems in it that I have to fix, but the theory already fits most fabrials we've seen so far.

First of all, thanks for taking the time to go read through all that craziness I've written, Tempus! Your comments are well appreciated. I'll try not to sound cranky in my replies below, but pardon me if some abrasiveness shows up. It's nothing personal. I just like defending my theories, and I can get a bit intense sometimes. Ah, but I must disagree, Tempus! I think the Stormfather is a housekeeper. A big, grumpy one with a dangerous temper, but an obedient housekeeper nonetheless. One of the Stormfather's many duties is to revert the dissipation of Stormlight by transporting them collectively back into gemstones. I believe the highstorms are connected to Transportation (among other things) and that this is what the Stormfather is using, but I suppose you knew that already. Yeah, I'm sure not every single instance of the word "transformation" in every single Cosmere book will necessarily be connected to the Rosharian Transformation Surge. Nonetheless, I shall insist on the particular Transformation connections I made in my theory. Remember this little conversation in WoR? I now believe that all instances of the word "transformation" in the Stormlight Archive in the context of Investiture is going to have something to do with that particular Surge. In fact, I suspect that Adonalsium's transformative aspect connects every single transformative Investiture in the Cosmere, including all ten Surges. Yes, I'm aware that this includes virtually all forms of Investiture that we know of, and that's perfectly okay. The Vorin religion talks of Elithanathile, "He Who Transforms", a title they gave Honor. But I believe that title is more suited to the Being from which Honor came, Adonalsium, the real Almighty in the Cosmere. After all, both Adonalsium and Elithanathile are words rooted in the same Judeo-Christian concept. Transformation is what Adonalsium does, and that's what Investiture is all about. Remember, Roshar magic is part of the magic system of the whole Cosmere. It cannot be isolated. It looks like you've caught a few more connections between Rosharian Investiture and that of the other Shardworlds, Tempus. Why you think that's a reason to deny Illumination's connection with Stormlight glow and Division's with Stormlight decay I cannot fathom. As I said in my Conclusion, I suspect that Division is from Adonalsium's entropic aspect, which is now held by the Shard Ruin. I believe every single instance of Investiture degradation in the Cosmere is from Ruin's Intent, including Hemalurgic decay and Stormlight dissipation. I sense a pattern here. Well, before I go for the Cosmere connection, let me ask: Don't you think it's the Adhesion Surge that is behind Ishar's and the Bondsmiths' ability to bind Surgebinders? If not, then allow me to try to convince you. On two separate occasions in WoK, Syl describes what kind of spren she is. Here's the first instance, when her memory was still mostly blank: That obviously refers to the Adhesion Surge, right? She has no recollection of the Nahel bond yet at that point. All she knew is that she could stick things together. Then here is the second one: Given that Syl, a Windrunner spren, is the "daughter" of the Stormfather, the recorder of Oaths and a spren connected to the Bondsmiths, Surgebinders who share the Adhesion Surge with the Windrunners, I think the only conclusion is that the Adhesion Surge is the thing that binds Surgebinders. The Nahel bond is a manifestation of Adhesion. As for Cosmere significance, you know what I'm going to say: The Adhesion Surge, the Nahel bond, and the bond that Seons and other Splinters make are all related to the same binding aspect of Adonalsium. I mean, why won't they be? The behavior of Investiture foci across the Cosmere is connected to the transformative aspect of Adonalsium, which is also the root cause of the Transformation Surge. Again, let us not needlessly isolate Roshar from the rest of the Cosmere. Okay. That's one criticism I can accept. I'll think of better ways to describe the transformative nature of Division. Any suggestions? What do you think Division transforms?

Conclusion Let me summarize the main ideas of this theory: Stormlight is a Surge containing the aspects of all ten Surges. It is a Unified Surge. The aspects within Stormlight is symmetrical with two exceptions. First, it has more Division than Cohesion, which is why Stormlight eventually dissipates. Secondly, it has more Illumination than Gravitation, which is why Stormlight glows. The influence of Division on Stormlight can be resisted by bonding Stormlight to a soul via Adhesion. This is what the Nahel bond does. The stronger a Radiant's Nahel bond is, the better he is at holding Stormlight and keeping it from dissipating, until he reaches the point where holding Stormlight becomes hardcoded as part of his Innate Investiture. The Surges are forms of magical energy, the transfer (or "investiture") and transformation of which is mediated by the spren, which are transformative cognitive entities. The transformation from the general, unified Surge into particular Surges by the spren is why fabrials work. This is also how Surgebinders can access the Surges. In the end, I believe Roshar Surge-based Investiture is dominated by three themes: The struggle between cohesion and division The transformation of Stormlight in general The universality of Energy Transformation in particular Note that this theory does not claim to be a "theory of everything". The reason behind why the Honorblades work, the explanation for the Voids, the connection between the Surges and the Essences, and the connection between Rosharian Investiture and the rest of the Cosmere are all out of the scope of this theory. As for the last bit, suffice to say that I suspect Division is the manifestation of Adonalsium's aspect of entropy, which is now governed by the Shard of Ruin. Perhaps all of the Surges are tied to specific aspects of Adonalsium. But really, that idea deserves its own thread. I have already discussed how Honor and Cultivation have influenced the Surges on Roshar in a different (spoilerrific) thread. I will need to revise some things there in light of this Unified Surge theory. Furthermore, I still have to work on my theory about Odium (now that will be a crazy one, I promise!); I will try to tie that one into this theory as well. Stay tuned!

Part III: The Unified Surge and Energy In Part I described the role of Division in Stormlight. In Part II I showed how Transformation is related to all the Surges. But there is still another unifying theme at work here, and that is energy. Energy can be defined as the thing transferred when a force is applied. This thing can be transformed from one form into another, but is ultimately conserved. If you think about it, all forms of Surgebinding (indeed, all forms of Investiture) can be seen as the manipulation, transformation, and transfer of magical energy. When we say that spren transform Stormlight into various Surges, we are basically talking about energy conversion as applied to magic/Investiture. Just as radiant energy can be converted to chemical energy, for example, the Unified Surge can be converted into, say, the Tension Surge with the mediation of the right spren, and the Tension Surge in turn interacts with the energy within objects, creating stronger molecular bonds. In Part II, you might have noticed that I described the Illumination and Progression Surges as Energy Transformation, with Progression specializing in life energy and Illumination dealing with the more general idea of waveforms. Now, since I claim that energy transformation in general is a unifying concept behind the Surges, does this mean those Surges are somehow special compared to the others? Before I answer that question, let us go back to the nature of raw, untransformed Stormlight. I mentioned in Part II that the balance between conflicted Surges makes Stormlight inert. That isn't completely true, though. We know from Part I that there is an imbalance between Division and and Cohesion within Stormlight, which leads to eventual Stormlight decay. But there's another imbalance that I haven't yet mentioned. The Gravitation Surge is supposed to be capable of distorting and even absorbing light (this is from real life physics, as well as all the talk of Nalan being "Darkness"), which should counteract the light-augmentation of the Illumination Surge. Stormlight therefore ought to be completely transparent, or some other result of balancing light and dark (grey? dull white?). But what we see in Stormlight is the exact opposite of light-dark balance. Stormlight glows. In fact, even when Stormlight is transformed by spren into specific Surges (as I described in Part II), it still glows. I think this confirms my claim above that Energy Transformation is still happening even when other Surges are supposedly at work. The same is true about Progression. Any Surgebinder holding Stormlight will gain healing properties, meaning the transformation of Life Energy is granted to all of them (to an extent). I think life energy manipulation, though, is secondary in importance when compared to Illumination, which could affect all waveforms, including matter itself (due to mass-energy equivalence and wave-particle duality). So yes, Illumination is special. This doesn't necessarily mean, however, that Illumination Surgebinders like Shallan and Renarin could mimic the other Surges by manipulating the proper waveform. Brandon is quite clear about the importance of limitations in his work. Just as Soulcasters seem to be limited by what they could Soulcast and into what, Lightweavers (who are basically Energy Soulcasters) are probably limited as well. I don't know what this limitation is (if a limitation does exist), but it shouldn't be surprising if Lightweavers and Truthwatchers will never be able to transform waveforms in such a way as to mimic the other Surges. (Wouldn't it be cool if there's a way around their limitations, though? )

Part II: The Unified Surge and Transformation I've discussed the natural division/decay of Stormlight (and how to counteract this decay), but there's obviously more to Stormlight than just decaying uselessly by itself. The Surges within Stormlight are marvelous things. The weird thing is, we don't really see all the Surges being used at the same time. If Stormlight truly contains all the Surges, why can Surgebinders only harness two Surges? Another weird thing is that there is a lot of conceptual conflict within Stormlight. Cohesion resists Division. Friction resists Transportation. Gravitation resists Illumination. This makes Stormlight mostly inert (until Division overcomes Cohesion and Stormlight starts to dissipate). So when a Surgebinder tries to harness Transportation, why doesn't the Friction in Stormlight counteract that? And since we've established that Division is somehow stronger than Cohesion, how could the Cohesion Surge possibly be harnessed? The answer to these problems is spren. How does spren-based Investiture work? The WoR Ars Arcanum author describes spren as "transformative cognitive entities". This implies that they transform something. What do they transform? Isn't Transformation the Surge of Soulcasting? I propose that spren can transform Stormlight itself, converting Stormlight from a Unified Surge to something more specific, depending on the nature of the spren. This allows for specific Surges within Stormlight to manifest individually. Take for example the fabrial phenomena. When a water attractor fabrial (for example) is infused with Stormlight, the spren inside transforms the essence of Stormlight itself into the Transportation Surge. This transformation manifests as a particular pattern in the Stormlight caused by the spren. And so what was once the Unified Surge is transformed into a subset thereof, as if Stormlight itself has been Soulcast. And this new "Transportation Stormlight" is the thing that moves water towards the fabrial. If there is any doubt that Stormlight itself is transformed into particular Surges, then let us look instead towards the more well-attested spren-mediated Surgebinding for proof. When Kaladin wants to stick a sphere to a wall, he transfers some Stormlight into the sphere before pressing it against the wall. Normal Stormlight, though, would not make the sphere stick, so it is obvious that something happened to the Stormlight that Kaladin himself has infused into the sphere. Stormlight itself became the Adhesion Surge, and this is what sticks the sphere to the wall. The Surgebinding and Fabrial phenomena can therefore be described as manifestations of Transformation in Stormlight, mediated by transformative cognitive entities. To put it in a more sensationalist way (because I can!), all fabrials are Soulcaster fabrials. They all transform Stormlight itself. All Surgebinders are Transformation Surgebinders, or more precisely, their Nahel spren are Transformation "Surgebinders". Each Nahel spren transforms Stormlight into two types of Surges. This is why Surgebinders can only access two Surges. The connection between the Surges and the concept of transformation doesn't stop there. If you think about it, all ten Surges can be described in the context of "transformation", not just the so-called Transformation Surge. Here is a list of Surges and the things they transform: Adhesion: External bonds ("strong" ones) Gravitation: External bonds ("soft" ones, like gravity) Transformation: Identity (Cognitive essence) Division: Identity (Cognitive wholeness) Transportation: Relative motion (displacement) Friction: Relative motion (resistance from it) Progression: Energy (life) Illumination: Energy (light and other waveforms) Cohesion: Internal bonds ("strong axial") Tension: Internal bonds ("soft axial") As you can see, "transformation" or "change" is the sort of theme for all the Surges. Also, strictly speaking, all Surges transform the Cognitive Identity of things in some way. It is just that the Surges called "Transformation" and "Division" transform Identity on a more fundamental level than the others.

(Warning 1: I will try my best to avoid talking about the plot of Words of Radiance here, but if you think new magic system-related revelations are spoilers, then I suggest you stay away from this thread. Warning 2: I am not a physicist. Do not take physics lessons from code monkeys posting on fantasy fiction fansites.) IRL, Most physicists believe that the four fundamental physical interactions (the electromagnetic, weak, strong, and gravitational forces) were once combined as a single unified force. A "unified field theory" is one that tries to explain how these fundamental interactions (that seem to work in their own fields) can be described within the framework of a single field, as a single unified force. According to the currently-accepted model of physics, the unified force first split into the gravitational force and the electronuclear force. Then the electronuclear force split into the strong force and the electroweak force. Finally, the electroweak force split into the electromagnetic and weak forces. All of that supposedly happened well within the first second after the Big Bang. Cool, eh? So why am I talking about real world fundamental forces in the Stormlight Archive forum? It's because I think the ten Surges on Roshar are Brandon's way of playing with the concept of fundamental forces in a fantasy setting. Here's a WoB from a Seattle signing last year: So, if Brandon thinks fundamental forces are cool, then maybe he finds the idea of a unified field theory to be cool as well. I'd like to propose that he somehow incorporated that concept into his Surge system. With that, allow me to present my own take on a Unified Surge Theory. Table of Contents Part I: The Unified Surge and Decay Part II: The Unified Surge and Transformation Part III: The Unified Surge and Energy Conclusion Part I: The Unified Surge and Decay IRL, the apparent breakdown of the hypothesized unified field into its separate aspects is explained by theories filled with all sorts of crazy (but fascinating) math. Fortunately, Roshar is a fictional world where things (e.g. the mechanism by which a Unified Surge separates into the ten Surges) can be made a lot more simple using fantasy logic. *commences fantasy logic* Since a Unified Surge should contain the potential of all the Surges, it must have the power of Division inside of it, by which it could divide itself. Simple, eh? Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. A Unified Surge would also have the power of Cohesion, and therefore resist Division. But the fact still remains that there are ten separate Surges instead of just one. It means that the forces within the hypothetical Unified Surge cannot be perfectly symmetrical, and it is therefore not perfectly stable. This suggests that the Surge of Division is stronger than the Surge of Cohesion on Roshar, and that the Unified Surge decays via a series of divisions occuring right after Division overcomes Cohesion. Still with me? So far we've determined that a hypothetical Unified Surge combines all the Surges, and that it somehow decays. Have we seen anything like this? Why, yes. We have seen something like this. I think it's very likely (if not obvious) that Stormlight itself is the Unified Surge. It is through the infusion of Stormlight, after all, that Surgebinders and fabrials access the Surges. Also, we know that after a certain period of apparent stability, Stormlight eventually degrades, dissipating into the atmosphere. This is consistent with the previously described decay of the Unified Surge. This fits really well with the fact that Stormlight is a form of Investiture. I believe that the Surges are manifestations of various aspects of the Power of Creation that Adonalsium Invested on Roshar along with his spren, and Stormlight is the concentration of those aspects. In other words, Stormlight is exactly the thing that Surgebinders bind. Stormlight is the Surge. Now, the fact that the Unified Surge dissipates is definitely a problem for Rosharian Investiture. Szeth complains about losing Stormlight so quickly. Even Kaladin has to deal with this, although to a lesser extent. We know that the Stormfather regularly collects the dissipated Stormlight and and transports them into gemstones every highstorm, but won't it be nice if people could somehow make Stormlight stay put on a more permanent basis, like the Breaths on Nalthis? How do we fight the decay of Stormlight? I've mentioned in another thread that this impermanence of Investiture might be solved by transforming it into Innate Investiture. This, I think, is the purpose of the Nahel bond system that Honor's spren invented. I believe the Nahel bond is a manifestation of the Adhesion Surge applied to both Stormlight itself and a human soul. The stronger a Nahel bond is, the more Innate the act of Stormlight-holding becomes, the better the bond between Stormlight and the Radiant. To make another physics analogy, this is akin to how neutrons are a lot more stable when bound inside a nucleus than when it is free. By boosting Adhesion between Stormlight and the Surgebinder, the Nahel bond actually boosts the aspect of Cohesion within Stormlight, which is normally unstable, allowing it to fully counteract the natural dominance of Division and become stable.