Confused

This is addicting! Pretty soon, I'll start to talk in limerick.... Two more: I agree that the Stick is annoying, And I think all us Sharders too cloying To a dumb clump of wood, Who told Shallan he would Not make fire she might be enjoying. An Idrian princess named Siri Was sent to Hallandren to marry Its God King – a monster. Bluefinger, war’s sponsor, Was the one who was actually scary.

Here's one for Lift: Lift was from Rall Elorim. That City of Shadows was dim. She saw the Nightwatcher, Who said, “Now I’ve gotcha," And made Lift become so awesome!

These are SO much more entertaining than theorizing! All of the entries are excellent, but I especially like Calderis's "good night" message and Taravangian ditty. Shards are a piece of the whole Of the cosmere’s very first soul. Adonalsium they called him Before they destroyed him, And now Shards fulfill his role. Leras and Ati were friends Who decided to follow a trend. A planet they made, But the plans that they laid Would lead to that planet’s end. Honor was a very fine fellow. He bought drinks to make his friends mellow. But Odium came, Honor’s death to proclaim, And vibrated Honor to jello. [I hypothesize Honor’s death created the Shattered Plains.] Did Shashara Awaken a sword? Or was it a spren from abroad? She commanded “Kill evil,” What an upheaval When Nightblood received his reward!

These are fun! My entries: A young boy named Kal was depressed. The rain between years made him stressed. His brother then died, But Syl came to his side And now they all call him Stormblessed! As forgers go, Shai was the best. An emperor owed her largesse. She painted with Dor Her soul stamps galore - So many things left to Invest! Jasnah and Ivory could Cast Their souls anywhere but the past, Desolations they knew Would soon come anew. How can humanity last?

Ha! At least I’m engaging you! You might consider this Mark Twain quote: The irony is, we’re not disagreeing that much. For example, I think I HAVE misinterpreted the “no thoughts and personalities” epigraph. On reflection, “originally” may refer to the brief period between Adonalsium’s death and the Vessel’s ascension. During that period, when no one held the Powers and no mind directed them, they lacked “thoughts and personalities.” I assume you agree that a dead “person” has no “thoughts and personalities.” (I suppose you could argue Adonalsium was a cognitive shadow…) If you do agree that dead people don’t think or have personality, then Adonalsium cannot be the source of Mandates. That moots most of your comments. The OP cites two WoBs where Brandon distinguishes between Mandates and the Powers. Here they are again: “The means of getting powers…are related to the Shards, but not the powers themselves.” That same WoB says, “the powers granted by all of the metals—even the two divine ones—are not themselves of either Shard. They are simply tools.” The second WoB says, “The 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do.” The Powers are not “related to the Shards…They are simply tools.” Brandon also says Spiritual Realm Investiture is “consistent.” If the Powers are unrelated to the Shards and are consistent, then Mandates aren’t a “Spiritual aspect of Investiture.” Your interpretation would mean each Shard’s Powers intrinsically differ. But that would “relate [the Powers] to the Shards,” contradicting the quoted WoB. That leaves the Cognitive Realm as the place that imposes Mandates. Since we know Mandates eventually overwhelm personality, that makes sense. The mind determines how the Powers are exercised. In broad brush, Mandates affect the Powers in the same way Kaladin’s self-perception affects his healing. Mandates are cognitive filters, not intrinsic to the Powers. @Djarskublar, you’re entitled to your feelings. I feel differently. I feel I’m trying to build a coherent, cosmere-wide theory from the ground up. I study text and WoBs to develop magical hypotheses and then re-read text and WoBs to find support. I honestly feel my theories are grounded in more textual, subtextual and WoB evidence than most. No theory is perfect or should be expected to account for all evidence. Otherwise it would be "law" (like thermodynamics) not theory. Brandon himself is inconsistent and ambiguous. What you say is conflicting evidence is often just ambiguous evidence or leads to an interpretation you disagree with. I feel I take fresh looks at things. Fresh ideas are a good thing regardless of whether people agree. They lead to a re-evaluation of “received wisdom” and “group think.” I feel I do change my theories based on comments. In this thread alone, I change my interpretation of what “no thoughts or personalities” means. I feel you help in this process, not only on this thread, but also in how I think about Preservation’s Connection to Allomancers and my understanding of Adonalsium. Others also help refine my theory. @The One Who Connects, for example, has pointed out some factual errors I made. I feel my theory sustains itself despite these changes. You point out some apparent inconsistencies and feel the whole must suffer the fate of the few. I feel I remodel a house whose structure is sound. I feel my theory has two pillars. The first is the distinction between the Powers and Unique Investiture and their different magical effects. I edited that post to get past our nomenclature debate. Beyond some disputes about thermodynamics and other extraneous matters, and some disagreements on specific examples, I feel the central premise of this pillar stands. The second pillar is the role of Adonalsium’s Investiture in current magic systems. I feel I’ve proved Adonalsium’s Investiture is “inherent” on every planet and remains there post-Shattering mixed with Shard Investiture. I feel I’ve found lots of support that Adonalsium’s inherent Investiture is the “catalyst” – the consumed Investiture – in non-Scadrian magic systems that Connect to the Powers. I feel everything other than these two pillars is helpful, important, and worthy of attention; but are corollaries unnecessary to the central theory. If you are right that Mandates are part of the Powers’ Spiritual aspect, for example, it doesn’t change the theory’s main thrust. Mandates still exist and act as they do, regardless of their source. If you and @Yata are right about how cosmere thermodynamics works, the theory still holds. I state in the OP’s first paragraph the post is “my opinion.” In a forum entitled “Cosmere Theories,” I feel it’s odd the statement is necessary. I feel everyone’s posts are their opinion, with different interpretations of both WoB and text. I feel I do distinguish between “theory” and “speculation.” My “theories” cite numerous sources. I feel I mark the places I lack evidence with verbs like “speculate,” and “suspect” and “suspicion.” If I continue to engage you going forward – and I hope I do because you add a lot to the conversation – please note this usage. Regards and thanks for you ongoing contributions!

@Pagerunner, thank you for your post. You raise important points. Thank you also for your thoughtfulness and civility. I agree that the Second Letter is the strongest contrary evidence to my theory. Before addressing that, let’s discuss the idea of “elements of deity.” I’ve always thought it presumptuous (and contrary to faith) for humans to think they understand God and his “elements.” (That’s a general statement, not directed at you.) “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan / The proper study of Mankind is Man.” (A. Pope, An Essay on Man,” Book 2, lines 1-2.) It’s a topic that continues to confuse theologians and philosophers, and answers vary. Brandon acknowledges the confusion in Mistborn, through Sazed. I’m not bold enough to address deific elements. Philosophical questions aside, there are “in-world” reasons to equate “elements of deity” with “personal characteristics.” Brandon’s main cosmere theme questions what mortals do when they become gods. In Brandon’s cosmere, “personal characteristics” like human character are “elements of deity.” The fallible Shards are all “Gods.” Mandates have magical meaning, not theological meaning. This is key to understanding Mandates. The Shards are not “good” or “evil,” which Khriss confirms (AU, Kindle p. 17). They’re simply representations of the Powers filtered through their Mandate. Brandon discourages attempts to impose theological meaning on the cosmere. He says terms like the “God Beyond” reflect people’s perceptions, not necessarily a cosmere “truth.” I think “God’s own divine hatred” is an ambiguous phrase. Each Shard is a “God” in its own right. Every God’s Mandate “is separated from the virtues that gave it context.” Frost may not have been referring to Adonalsium as you suggest. That phrase also conflicts with Sazed’s statement that the Powers originally had no “thoughts and personalities.” Adonalsium did have a mind, since he could direct the Powers. That doesn’t mean “God” had emotions like “hatred.” And even if I’ve read this wrong, as you and Djarskublar believe, Adonalsium was dead before the Shattering occurred: “He Shattered because he was killed.” The Shards couldn’t have received their Mandates from Adonalsium unless the Mandates inhered in the Powers themselves. That can’t be the case because the Powers are independent of their Mandates. This is confirmed by two WoBs I quote in the OP. Brandon also says Investiture is “consistent” in the Spiritual Realm. The Powers cannot be independent of Mandates and “consistent” if Odium’s and Honor’s Spiritual Realm Powers differ from one another. The difference must instead arise in the Cognitive Realm, where each Vessel’s mind modifies how the Powers manifest. Mandates have the same effect on the Powers as Kaladin’s self-perception has on his ability to heal his slave brand. The Vessel’s mind determines the Shard’s magical effects, but the Powers remain consistent from Shard to Shard. The OP states Mandates arise from a Vessel’s dominant character trait. A dominant trait is not a person’s sole trait. I posit that Mandate compulsion over time squeezes out the Vessel’s personality and all other traits except that dominant trait. In your words, the “conflict with their character” is between two different aspects of their character – their dominant trait versus all the others. You say, “each Vessel took a piece of God that they were compatible with (much like the Ascensions we witnessed throughout Mistborn).” First, the Mistborn Ascensions occurred after each Shard had already been imprinted with its Mandate. That’s different from the initial imprinting. These “secondary” Ascensions are examples of taking the piece of God a Vessel is compatible with. But the initial imprinting had to come from the Vessel. As I said above, Adonalsium lacked “thoughts and personalities” either because he never had them or because he died before the Vessels assumed his Powers. The Powers themselves couldn’t have conveyed “compatible pieces of God” because they are “consistent” and exist independently of their Mandates’ Cognitive filters. @Djarskublar, thank you also for your civility. I think I addressed most of your questions in my response to Pagerunner and will address the others below. The most interesting issue you raise is how sixteen individuals each became a different Shard with a different Mandate. It doesn’t seem that hard to find sixteen people of divergent character on an entire planet. And some of the Shards do match somewhat with others, like Ruin and Odium, at least in their destructive magical effect. I think it would be much harder to find sixteen people who will be “compatible” with sixteen separate “pieces of God.” How would you even know what “God’s pieces” are, let alone match those pieces with mortals? And if you match them based on “Ambition,” “Honor,” etc., then what’s the difference between your and Pagerunner’s idea and mine? Some odds and ends: 1. Sazed only has hints of Adonalsium and doesn’t yet know there are 16 Shards. He doesn’t know what the “red haze” is or where it came from. 2. The OP does explain why Mandates are permanent: 3. Leras’ metaphor explains how magic works in the three Realms. Why would non-magical mortal minds affect how objects appear in the Physical Realm? How is that any different from what you and I can do on earth? Roshar’s non-magical humans collectively do affect (certain) spren, but that’s just Roshar’s unique magic system. Again, thank you both for your courtesy and civility. Regards!

This post is another in my periodic series, “A Theory of Cosmere Magic.” As with all my posts, please preface each statement with “In my opinion….” SUMMARY 1. The Powers originally lacked “thoughts and personalities.” (HoA, Chapter 55 Epigraph.) I interpret Sazed’s comment to mean “Adonalsium” lacked thoughts and personalities. 2. The Vessels did have “thoughts and personalities.” When the Vessels Ascended, the Powers had to accommodate themselves to their new directing minds. That created Mandates. 3. Mandate “permanence” and Mandate “compulsion” help the Powers maintain their efficiency. These Mandate properties imprint and widen the Internal Connection between the Vessel’s mind and the Powers (that is, between its Cognitive and Spiritual Realm aspects). THE MEANING OF MANDATES Sixteen Colored Lenses. In Preservation’s metaphor of the Realms (M:SH), the Cognitive Realm distorts the Spiritual Realm’s perfection on its way to the Physical Realm. Pre-Shattering, there was no distortion – Adonalsium had a clear lens, allowing the perfect “white” light of the Powers to shine through to the Physical Realm. The Shattering replaced Adonalsium’s perfect white light with 16 different colored lenses. Doesn’t Affect Powers. The Powers themselves are still “perfect,” though divided into 16 originally equal Spiritual Realm parts. As Spiritual Realm Investiture, the Powers are “consistent” regardless of their Mandate. Post-Shattering the Powers pass through a Mandated Cognitive lens that “colors” the magic on its way to the Physical Realm – a “color” caused by the Vessel’s dominant character trait at the moment of Ascension. Mandates affect only the use of the Powers, not their Spiritual Realm perfection: “The means of getting powers…are related to the Shards, but not the powers themselves.” Similarly, “The 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do.” ORIGIN OF MANDATES Connection to Vessel’s Soul. The Shattering created Mandates. They arose because, unlike Adonalsium, each Vessel already had a Spiritweb and was part of “Creation” (the sum of all Spiritwebs and their corresponding aspects). That meant the Powers had to Connect to the Vessels’ souls. Evidence of this Powers-Vessel Connection: Vin, Leras and Ati’s bodies re-materialized after their deaths. Cognitive Connection. The Powers Internally Connected to their Vessel’s mind and vaporized their Vessel’s body. The Powers took each Vessel’s mind as it was. This imprinted the Shard with the Vessel’s dominant character trait – Brandon says the Shattering could have spawned different Mandates, different Cognitive filters. Each Vessel became the Shard of that dominant trait: Ambition, Autonomy, Cultivation, Devotion, Dominion, Endowment, Honor, Odium, Preservation and Ruin. Example: Preservation tells Kelsier in M:SH that "Everything passes, nothing is eternal. That is what Ati always claimed. [Emphasis added.]” Ati “always” saw things through that prism, always identified with Ruin, even before his Ascension. He may have been a “kind and generous man,” but he believed in decay, in the inevitable destruction of all things. This example highlights the difference between “personality” (Ati’s kindness) and character (Ati’s strong belief in “decay” that became Ruin’s Mandate). In a description of cognitive shadows, Brandon says, Cognitive shadows are not Shards, and their creation process is not the same. But Brandon’s description of cognitive shadows seems to apply to the Ascension of Vessels: Ascension results in a mind “infused with Investiture.” This infusion permanently imprints a Shard with its Vessel’s pre-Ascension character “like minerals with petrified wood.” PROPERTIES OF MANDATES Mandate Permanence. The imprint on the Powers of each Vessel’s dominant character trait at the moment of Ascension became that Shard’s permanent Mandate. The Vessel’s character seems to attune the Powers, allowing them to be held or used only by someone with precisely the same character: Examples: Kelsier, Vin and Sazed all held the Powers. Kelsier couldn’t fully use Preservation’s Powers because he was too Connected to Ruin and didn’t match Leras’ character, as the Preservation Shard required. Vin could fully absorb Preservation’s Powers after her “attuning” at the Well. Sazed’s balanced character had no trouble picking up both Preservation and Ruin. Mandate Compulsion. Mandates initially don’t affect the personal behavior of Shards, their “personalities.” But the Powers WANT to be used with their full force, with little resistance. They push to widen the Connection between the Shard’s Cognitive and Spiritual Realm aspects. Eventually the Powers may widen this Connection until the Mandate overwhelms the Shard’s personality, aligning it with the Mandate. This happened with Ati. Brandon suggests some Vessels resist the Mandate’s compulsion better than others. Harmony himself distinguishes between personality and Mandate (SoS, Kindle, p. 134): Mandate compulsion resembles a Knight Radiant’s Nahel bond (though the mechanism is different). The Nahel bond strengthens as the Knight and its spren come into closer alignment through the Knight’s expression of his/her ideals. The strengthened bond increases the Power a Knight Radiant can wield. The Shard likewise can more forcefully assert the Powers as the Vessel’s personality and the Shard’s Mandate align. Relationship Between Mandate Permanence and Compulsion. Together, Mandate permanence and compulsion increase the Shard’s Power efficiency. They create one wide permanent pipeline for the Powers. Mandate compulsion widens the Internal Connection between a Vessel’s mind and the Powers by aligning “personality” to Mandate. Mandate permanence locks in that Connection. Otherwise, changes to the Vessel’s character or the Ascension of a new Vessel for that Shard would alter the Connection, defeating the effects of Mandate compulsion.

@Argent, we know Brandon loves foreshadowing. He’s shown his endings in his beginnings in other novels – HoA and SLA. I think he does so here. Do you really think a shape-shifting dragon (as many believe Autonomy Is) and a shape-shifting kandra who dreams of autonomy is coincidental? The kandra religion is about autonomy. (WoA, Chapter 33, Kindle Locs. 16424-38.) I credit Brandon too much as a writer to take this as coincidence. Mandates arise from a Vessel’s character, not from “common attributes and emotions.” None of the known Mandates express an emotion, which is why Brandon uses words like “Odium” and “Devotion” instead of “Hate” and “Love.” Emotions are ephemeral. Character imprints a person the way Mandates imprint the Shards (Brandon’s point IMO). Many people, fictional or real, share character traits. The characters in these books also set out to kill their God – and both “crews” succeed. These characters try to save their worlds from an unknown evil (the Deepness, fainlife). And (I speculate) they use a Shardpool to ascend. We don’t see this narrative in Elantris, Warbreaker, or SLA. Mistborn isn’t Dragonsteel, but I believe it does foreshadow it. I take your point about “confirmation bias.” I chose not to lard an already long OP with the hundreds of quotes I highlighted that establish each character’s “character.” In most cases, textual support is overwhelming. You can certainly “disagree with some of [my individual] choices.” But there’s a lot to back up the overall pattern – Mistborn characters foreshadow the Shards and their Mandates. Elend: More than any cosmere character (including Dalinar and Kaladin), Elend represents an “honorable” person. Everyone describes him that way. Elend’s character reflects each Herald’s Primary Divine Attribute: Protecting, Just, Brave, Loving, Learned, Creative, Wise, Resolute, Dependable, and Pious. Elend binds his people with a code of law to implement his ideals. He refuses to lie to save his kingship. He honors his promise to the Church of the Survivor though its political support doesn’t save his kingship. He is the epitome of “oaths, promises and nobility,” what Syl says she is the “spirit” of. Vin: I posit in the OP that Cultivation’s Mandate is “adapting,” specifically for human use. “Cultivation” changes something from its raw, natural state to a more humanly usable state. Making spren bondable to humans is an example. (You can also call this “Change” or “Growth” or “Progression.”) In Vin-like fashion, Cultivation’s adaptation “weaponizes” spren. No character in any book adapts as much as Vin. She rises from abused street urchin, to Mistborn, to Empress, to God. Vin’s relationship with Elend fortifies her foreshadowing of Cultivation. And don’t discount Brandon’s fondness for puns – not just the one in the OP, but also that Wyndle, Cultivation’s literal “scion,” is a vin[e]. Rashek: The connection to Odium/Rayse seems clear (to me). Brandon describes Rashek as “hateful” (or some derivative) more than any other adjective. Since the Well replenishes every 1,024 years, Rashek isn’t the first Scadrian to ascend, as Khriss suggests. But he may be the most divisive of that group. Rashek destroys the world he inherits – physically, economically and culturally. He commits genocide against his own people and forces them into breeding programs to dilute Feruchemy. He separates society into owners and slaves. My OP states Odium’s Mandate severs Connections. That’s what Rashek does. It is the nature of hate. Devotion: Raoden hears Devotion’s voice as a “comforting parent [like] his mother.” (Elantris, Kindle p. 463.) Devotion as “mother figure” encompasses the aspects of Tindwyl’s character: Devotion to her children, to her people, and to Sazed. Sazed says of her (WoA, Chapter 30, Kindle Locs. 16010-17, emphasis added), Tindwyl also acts as Elend’s surrogate mother, scolding and inspiring him to become a man and king. Her devotion to Sazed is obvious: Tindwyl helps Sazed with research she doesn’t believe in and stays in Luthadel with him – for him – knowing she will die. Sazed: “Dominion” encompasses all aspects of Sazed’s character. Self-Control: Only Sazed has the perfectly-balanced temperament to be the Hero of Ages and hold both Shards at the same time. Brandon marks Sazed’s self-control in small things like his calm, his fastidiousness, and his unfailing politeness. Control of Others: Sazed several times recalls when he was steward in charge of households of servants. Political Control: During Vin’s weeks of unconsciousness and Elend’s absence, Sazed serves as head of government, guiding the subject kings of Elend’s newly established empire. Control of Events: Sazed is the only Keeper rebel. Tindwyl loves him because Sazed sought to change their world – and he did. Sazed helped set his people free, giving them self-Dominion. Control of Everything: Sazed ascended to become Harmony – God (on Scadrial). He’s the most powerful entity in the cosmere. You can’t have more “dominion” than that. OreSeur and TenSoon: There’s room in the cosmere for more than one shape-shifting species. Kandras’ desire for autonomy, however, is an important part of their narrative, even in the Era 2 books. The “Trell” plot line has Era 1 antecedents. There’s too much commonality between kandra and Bavadin/Autonomy to ignore Brandon’s foreshadowing. Yeden: I address the main similarities between Yeden and Endowment in the OP and don’t have much to add. Both Yeden and Endowment Invest in ideals: Yeden Invests in skaa freedom and pride. Endowment Invests in the ideals each Returned represents. Again, Brandon likes puns. I think the idea of a “Returned” on “Investment” amuses him. Kelsier: We don’t know anything about the “Survivor” Shard beyond its name. A “Survivor” Shard does fit the foreshadowing pattern. The OP suggests the “Survivor’s” Mandate is “leadership.” Text establishes leadership as Kelsier’s dominant character trait - even to the point of self-sacrifice. The “Survivor” vessel might be the leader of the Dragonsteel conspiracy. (That last is “tenuous” – just some idle fluff to spin…though it may be true.) Straff: I characterize “ambition” as a willingness to use any means to achieve one’s goals. We say ambition is “blind” and call hyper-ambitious people “ruthless.” Straff exemplifies Ambition’s ruthless amorality. Other nobles wish to become king. Straff wishes to replace TLR and become emperor. He will destroy anything in his way, including his sons and Luthadel’s entire population. Scores of passages support “ambition” as Straff’s dominant character trait. I won’t defend my choice of Marsh to foreshadow Hoid. There isn’t much to go on there, and Hoid isn’t a Shard anyway. I do think the Dragonsteel “crew” will have one non-magical member. @john203, the Returned need a Breath per week to stay alive. Most Returned get their Breath from worshippers – people who believe in the Returned and feel spiritually rewarded for their donation – “inspired” by them. The Returned are their “gods.” If no one gifts their Breath to their god, the god dies. I believe Brandon metaphorically expresses this idea in financial terms: If “Endowment” does not get an adequate “Returned” on her “Investment,” she terminates that Investment. Like other “Investors,” she hopes to make a better “Returned” on a different Investment – she re-Invests a Divine Breath in a different mortal who represents a different ideal. (I don’t know whether Divine Breaths are re-usable, but it fits the metaphor.) I just think Brandon’s word choice is too provocative to ignore. That’s my only point. Vasher is not a typical Returned. He has his own trove of Breaths, which he now replaces with Stormlight.

Disclaimer: I’ve not read Dragonsteel and have no private information about it. This post is speculation only. It is another in my periodic series, “A Theory of Cosmere Magic.” Thinking through the Shattering’s mechanics reminded me of the Well of Ascension. That in turn reminded me of a post some time ago that compared Mistborn 1 characters with some then-known Shards. (I can’t find that post to link to and credit its author. If that was you, please step forward.) I’m now convinced Brandon intended Mistborn 1 to foreshadow Dragonsteel and the Shattering. Comparisons between the Shards and the Mistborn 1 characters show this intention. There isn’t a one-to-one correspondence between each Shard and Mistborn character. Honor is not Elend. But the Mistborn character personalities, abilities and interests match well with Shard Mandates and Vessel personalities. (A later post will address Shard Mandates. I suggest you hold your comments on my one-word Mandate descriptions until I publish that post.) Some names incorporate or reference their counterpart. Elend resembles “Nahel” (with the Vorin “h” wild card), Rashek resembles Rayse, and Yeden resembles Endowment. OreSeur has some assonance with Autonomy. Sazed may not resemble Skai, but he does resemble “skaze.” “Vin Cultivation” probably still makes Brandon chuckle – “Vin” is French for “wine.” Honor – Elend Honor binds (his Mandate). Elend wants to bind nobles and skaa into a single, fairly administered political entity – “unite them.” He prefers political solutions to conquest, though conquest becomes inevitable. (In this, he resembles Dalinar, bound to Honor.) Also like Dalinar, even Elend’s enemies view him as an “honorable,” idealistic man. He wears snappy uniforms, like Dalinar reports Honor wearing in WoK. Honor loves Cultivation. Cultivation – Vin Cultivation adapts (her Mandate). Khriss says, “the bonding of spren to humans is merely an expansion of what already exists in the nature of the planet.” (AU, Kindle, p. 535.) Cultivation adapts Adonalsium spren to make them bondable to humans. (Honor does the actual bonding.) Vin is a living symbol of adaptation – she is Mare’s flower, blossoming from street urchin to Ascendant Warrior. Hoid doesn’t get along with either Vin or Cultivation. Vin killed Rashek – will Cultivation defeat Odium? Cultivation loves Honor. Odium – Rashek Odium severs Connections (his Mandate). Hate corrodes and divides. Alendi’s journal repeatedly describes Rashek as hateful. His Final Empire works by dividing nobles from skaa. Rashek tries to destroy Terris Keepers like Tindwyl and Sazed. Odium killed Devotion and Dominion. (I recently proposed Aona and Skai may have been Rayse’s parents. Mistborn foreshadowing suggests the three might at least be ethnically related.) Devotion – Tindwyl Devotion loves (her Mandate). Tindwyl unconditionally loves Sazed, despite the impossibility of intimacy. She prefers death beside him than to leave Luthandel for safety. She “devotes” herself to Sazed and his research. She also devotes herself to her people – the Synod planted Tindwyl as a Breeder at age 14 to pass her Feruchemical genes to twenty children. That devotion made Tindwyl the magical “mother” of a large segment of Scadrial’s Era 2 Feruchemical population. Dominion – Sazed Dominion controls (his Mandate). Sazed seems an unusual choice, until you think about his self-control. He defies the Synod and frees the Terris people – he gives them self-dominion (another word for “autonomy.”) Tindwyl loves him because Sazed works to “change the world” – to control rather than to accept his circumstances. He is fastidious, formal and measured. Sazed lives with exquisite balance, an act of great self-control. Sazed is the perfect Vessel to simultaneously control Ruin and Preservation. Sazed loves Tindwyl. Autonomy – OreSeur (TenSoon) Autonomy constructs his/her own many-faced pantheon of deities. I agree with posters who believe Bavadin was a shape-shifting dragon. Who better than kandra to foreshadow such a creature? Kandra served Rashek – Hoid believes Bavadin helped Odium. TenSoon “finished” (literally) what OreSeur had begun. TenSoon showed his “autonomy” by resisting his masters and fellow kandra. Endowment – Yeden Endowment gives life (her Mandate). She measures her gifts in relatively equal units of Breath. Breaths are the currency by which Endowment calculates her “Returned” on “Investment.” If a Returned can’t inspire the faithful to “Invest” him/her with a weekly Breath, Endowment terminates that “Investment” – the Returned dies. Yeden “endows” Kelsier’s crew. He is the source of funds the crew relies on to finance their rebellion. Yeden “gives life” to the Skaa dream of freedom, the return on his investment. “Survivor” Shard – Kelsier Enough said. Brandon says the Survivor Shard’s Mandate is not “surviving.” Based on Kelsier’s attributes – vision, charisma, team-building and delegation – “leadership” may be this Shard’s Mandate. How that translates into a magic system is unclear. Ambition – Straff Venture Ambition…is ambitious? We don’t know how Ambition’s un-splintered magic works, but we do know Straff is the most “ambitious” character in Mistborn 1. Ambitious people seek “ventures,” risky or dangerous activities with high return. Straff pursues power at all costs without scruples. He is willing to sacrifice both sons to gain power. Straff’s ambition made him ruthless, rapacious. Odium feared Ambition for a reason. Preservation – Leras (as himself) Ruin – Ati (as himself) Hoid – Marsh? Both Hoid and Marsh have acquired many magics they weren’t born with. Both have highly distorted, barely human souls. I’m guessing on this one. Hoid’s regret about participating in the Shattering also sounds like Kwaan, Rashek’s uncle who discovered Alendi. Either way leaves five Shards for the five remaining Mistborn crew members. My broad-brush speculations about their corresponding Shard’s magic: Ham – skeptical magic. Spook – passionate magic. Breeze – manipulative magic. Clubs – artistic magic. Dockson – organizational magic. Dockson’s the only non-magical original crew member. Brandon hints Leras may have been a pre-Shattering magic user. Hoid was a pre-Shattering Lightweaver. If the Mistborn pattern persists, all Vessels in the Dragonsteel “crew” except one will use pre-Shattering magic.

The Shattering is the singular event in cosmere history. Brandon says, “The great writing question of the cosmere, the underlying theme is, what do men do when given the Power of the Gods? How do they act? What do they do?” This post speculates how the Shattering might have happened mechanically. It is another in my periodic series, “A Theory of Cosmere Magic.” Unlike splintering, which leaves an indeterminate number of differently sized splinters, the Shattering produced precisely 16 Shards of originally equal Power. Khriss says the Vessels “divided [Adonalsium’s] essence between them.” (M:SH, Part 3-2, Kindle Loc. 938.) Brandon uses the word “essence” to mean the Physical Realm manifestation of “the godly powers.” (I use the term “Powers” to describe the “godly powers” – Spiritual Realm Investiture that isn’t part of a Spiritweb.) The Vessels could easily divide Adonalsium’s liquid “essence” if he had a “godpool.” Shards leave perpendicularities on planets they Invest. I think Adonalsium left a single “godpool” at the place he Invested the entire cosmere. That place was Yolen. “Killing” Adonalsium meant erasing his mind, his capacity to direct the Powers. His godpool gave the Vessels access to his mind. I speculate the Vessels dropped an aluminum “bomb” into the godpool. Aluminum is “magically inert” and acts as an “Investiture sink.” The aluminum neutralized Adonalsium’s Cognitive Realm Investiture – his mind – making him “brain dead.” The Spiritual Realm Investiture – the Powers – survived undamaged. After the aluminum “bomb” killed Adonalsium, his liquid “essence” lay in the godpool. The Vessels quickly sluiced his essence to 16 separate pools of equal volume. The Vessels entered their pools and ascended, emerging as Shards of equal Power. When Rashek and Vin immersed themselves in the Well, their ascensions were partial and temporary. The Vessels’ ascensions were full and permanent. I attribute this difference to the fact that Adonalsium was dead when the Vessels entered their pools, but Preservation was still alive when Rashek and Vin entered the Well. The Well also didn’t represent all of Preservation’s power, since he created it from his own mind to trap Ruin’s consciousness. After Preservation died, Vin did fully ascend by absorbing the mists, the “condensed ‘essence’ of [Preservation’s] godly powers.” Did the Shards hide Yolen to prevent someone like Vin from using the godpool when it replenishes? That’s why Rashek hid the Well. In an accompanying post, I speculate Mistborn foreshadows Dragonsteel. Perhaps Odium wants to kill the other Vessels to become the “one god” when the godpool is full again…16,000 years after the Shattering? Is this what Hoid fears?

Brandon’s explanation for “corrupted” Investiture – a “mixing of different Shards” – raises a question about Nightblood’s history. How could Nightblood acquire another Shard’s Investiture before he left Nalthis? Warbreaker occurs before WoK. Following is speculation built on “black smoke.” I think Nightblood isn’t some piece of “steel” shaped like a sword. I think Shashara took a “dead” spren Shardblade from Roshar when the Five Scholars visited. Honor and Cultivation are the other Investitures comprising Nightblood. Here’s the text description of Nightblood’s creation from Vasher’s point of view (Warbreaker, Kindle p. 569-70, emphasis added): Brandon further addresses this last bolded statement in his Warbreaker Annotations (emphasis added): Analysis Vasher suggests Shashara competed with Yesteel for scholarly preeminence. I think she borrowed one of Vasher’s “tricks” – she took a Shardblade home from Roshar to experiment on and told the other Scholars it was “steel.” The Scholars were among the earliest Worldhoppers. They may have heard stories of Shardblades, but didn’t know what Shardblades actually were: “Nightblood is an attempt by someone who didn’t know how Shardblades were made to create a Shardblade using a different magic system.” The other Scholars wouldn’t recognize Nightblood as a “god metal” made from a spren of Honor and/or Cultivation. They’d just accept that an unrustable hard metal is “steel.” (Or maybe Shashara shouted to her colleague, “Yes – steel!” and they misunderstood her? Da-dum…) Every other source stating Nightblood is Awakened “steel” derives from the quoted text, including fan questions and Brandon’s responses. If Nightblood really is steel, that forecloses my speculation. But maybe Shashara felt shamed Yesteel had “shown her up.” Maybe she found her own “trick” to prove herself. Consider the following evidence. 1. Brandon says Nightblood needs to feed on Investiture because he is “leaky.” But Endowment’s Investiture “sticks.” Stormlight “leaks.” Nightblood’s “black smoke” looks like the black smoke streaming from the eyes of those killed by a Shardblade. 2. 1,000 Breaths seems too few to Awaken and give consciousness to “steel.” “This process shouldn’t have worked…. Nightblood should not be alive.” Maybe 1,000 Breaths IS enough to Awaken the “dead” – unconscious – spren that comprises the Shardblade. There are two paraphrased WoBs about this that may refer to the same conversation. One says “a piece of stone or wood or cloth or plain metal” with 1,000 Breaths “needs more” to be as Invested as Nightblood. The other RAFOs a similar question. 3. “Nightblood is one of the most heavily Invested things in the cosmere that is not a Shard.” If I am right, Nightblood permanently holds the Investiture of a full Radiantspren plus Breaths equivalent to half a Returned. Radiantspren themselves constitute a large amount of Investiture: “The Investiture in a Shardblade is much greater than your average Allomancer.” Shardblades also exceed the Investiture in the Bands of Mourning. Radiantspren and Breaths both naturally bond with humans and should have no problem bonding with one another. Breaths adjust to their holder’s Identity, even when the holder is a barely Awakened spren from Roshar. Brandon says he can’t accurately compare Nightblood’s power with a Shardblade’s power, but “when he is fully consuming Investiture he can do some really freaky things.” A footnote to that WoB says, “In the past Brandon has described Nightblood as being ‘magnitudes more invested than a shardblade’.” I’ve not seen that description. “Magnitudes” implies logarithmic orders of ten. That seems unlikely unless some of the Investiture Nightblood consumes adheres to him – making him “fatter” as one poster puts it. Without seeing Brandon’s description, I’m inclined to discount the footnote. Even without absorbing new Investiture, holding a Radiantspren and half a Returned would still make Nightblood “one of the most heavily Invested things in the cosmere….” Brandon RAFOs questions about what happens to the consumed Investiture. 4. Nale treats Nightblood as the equivalent of a highspren Shardblade. Nightblood might have started as a highspren, a Skybreaker’s spren. But Shashara’s Awakening command to “Destroy Evil” permanently overwrites the spren’s original “ideal.” Discerning “evil” is Nale’s primary Divine Attribute – “Just.” “Justice” is a moral judgment, the weighing of good and evil. Nale attunes to an Investiture that wants to “Destroy Evil.” He wouldn’t have kept or given Szeth the sword if he didn’t sense the spren – and not just the Breaths or Awakened “steel” – inside Nightblood. Taln recognized Pattern inside Shallan when she visited him in the ardent hospital. 5. Nightblood “speaks” like a child, much like Syl did before her bond with Kaladin developed more fully. Vasher notices incipient maturity in Nightblood, as if Nightblood’s bond were also developing. I speculate below that Nightblood and Szeth will bond fully now that Nightblood’s back on Roshar. 6. The Frankenstein image of Nightblood as a patchwork of magics fits nicely. The full WoB is ambiguous. “A bunch of souls” might refer only to Breaths, but the "something" they are stuffed into could be a "dead" Shardblade - a spren. Szeth Will Bond Nightblood-Spren The spren constituting Nightblood is sufficiently Awake as to bond with its holders. Szeth’s soul is more broken than most – he’s been wrongfully made Truthless and then killed. Lift sees his soul’s “after-image.” This opens opportunities for Nightblood to begin a more intrusive bonding process. I believe he will learn morality from Szeth – a warrior-priest turned unwilling assassin. Szeth has lived evil. He will know how to direct Nightblood to destroy it. In Szeth’s hand, Nightblood will become the “Sword of Retribution” pictured in WoR. Can he direct Nightblood to consume only the voidspren inside the listeners? Nightblood will tell Szeth his spren-name. On Roshar he can form a Nahel bond with Szeth and give him the Skybreaker power to bind the Gravitation and Division Surges. Szeth will become a Knight Radiant, and Nightblood will be his Shardblade. “Nightblood can feed off Stormlight, but Szeth can't draw in Stormlight right now. So Szeth better not draw that sword, for a while at least. [Emphasis added.]” * * * * * That’s a lot of speculation to build from “black smoke.” Is there any fire there?

I’ve edited the OP to clarify the presentation and use consistent terminology. I did not make any substantive changes or amend the theory. If you’ve already commented on the theory, there’s nothing new here. But if you’ve not yet read the theory, I invite your review and comments. Regards all!

Spren Subastral @The One Who Connects, @Spoolofwhool, and @Djarskublar, I looked again at the Jasnah outtake and see why you think she appears physically in the place of glass beads. You may be right, but that view creates a conundrum: If spren are ideas and “live” in the same subastral as other ideas, where do spren ideas go? The same subastral as the spren themselves, right beside the spren? That seems…awkward. Jasnah tells Shallan in WoR (Kindle p. 42), Spren are…the ideas of collective human experience…somehow come alive. Shadesmar is where that first happens, and it is their place. Though we created it, they shaped it. They live there; they rule there, within their own cities…. Spren are wild in their variety. Some are as clever as humans and create cities. Others are like fish and simply swim in the currents. Here's how spren are “born”: Spren are pieces of Investiture, usually pieces of Investiture that come straight from one of the Shards of Adonalsium, split off in some way, that because of human or other sapient creatures thinking about it or interacting with the power, the power starts to take on a life of its own. Roshar and Sel are the only known planets with Invested ideas (though Nalthis has “hints,” but “not quite”). The Cognitive Realm otherwise represents only non-Invested ideas. “Sapient creatures” collectively think about something, and (Shai says in TES) the idea develops a Spiritweb with aspects in the Spiritual and Cognitive Realms. Spren are Invested ideas. Roshar’s inherent magic system (described in my Pre-Shattering Magic post) causes power to “leak” into the Cognitive Realm. Sapient creatures “thinking about…or interacting with the power” causes the power “to take on a life of its own” – spren. Brandon says, “on Roshar Shadesmar there are spren cities, and a spren ecology [Wyndle and his gardening circle?]” That doesn’t sound like the “place of glass beads.” Unlike non-Invested ideas, spren in Shadesmar may not appear as glass beads. Pattern and Ivory don’t appear in Shadesmar as a glass bead. Jasnah (in the WoR Prologue) and Shallan (in Kharbranth’s Palanaeum) both drift into Shadesmar to see other spren of the same type as Ivory and Pattern, none of whom are glass beads. Elhokar also sees “number head” creatures at the corner of his eyes. Ivory’s Physical Realm form (the one Shallan sees on the Wind’s Pleasure), differs from his Cognitive Realm form, which differs from his “spren subastral” form. This suggests each of these appear in different “planes.” “Clever” spren, presumably the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher, Cusicesh and other sapient spren like Radiantspren, “create cites.” These may be the “great ones” of the spren who live in their “far realm.” (WoR, Chapter 53 Epigraph.) Among the “ideas” these spren invented was Surgebinding. Honor tells Dalinar that the spren surprised him when they copied the Honorblades. Spren did this on their own. We’ve not seen mortals on other planets enter their subastrals cognitively, only physically. The Powers Surgebinders wield aren’t unique to Roshar. They’re simply expressed through Roshar’s pre-Shattering spren-based magic system. Shallan and Shai’s magic both “transform” souls, for example. Magic users elsewhere could have the ability to enter their subastral cognitively, but there’s no evidence they have. Putting this together, I conclude that the “place of glass beads” is the subastral for the ideas of both Roshar’s Physical Realm sapient species and its sapient spren. These spren, the “great ones” whom Brandon would consider “people” because of their sapience, reside in a separate subastral. That subastral is the equivalent of a “physical realm” for living ideas like spren. Brandon says “Roshar is special and a key on Shadesmar.” I think Brandon means Roshar’s pre-Shattering inherent magic system uniquely allows two subastrals to exist. That’s my theory, anyway, even if down the road you do turn out to be right. Shards and Spiritwebs @Djarskublar, I think we agree on a lot of things, but I must not be clear. I address your comments in the order you present them. I understand you to mean Spiritual Realm Investiture that isn’t part of a Spiritweb. Brandon uses many terms to describe this Investiture: “power,” “raw power,” “the godly powers,” “true Investiture,” a “Shard’s energy,” a Shard’s “energy of being,” and (my favorite) the “powers of creation.” My posts call this many-named substance the “Powers.” I want to make sure we’re talking about the same thing. If we are, then we agree this substance is different from “the state of the Shard's power” that IS “manifest in someone's personal spiritweb or the CR/PR.” I call this “manifest” substance “Unique Investiture.” I believe all forms of Investiture in the Cognitive and Physical Realms are Unique Investiture – each is different from every other form of Unique Investiture and from the Spiritual Realm Powers. The Investiture “in someone's personal spiritweb” (what I call “Spiritweb Investiture”) likewise differs from the Powers. I think we agree that Sazed has equal amounts of Ruin and Preservation in him. The confusion arises with the meaning of “Connection.” I view the Spiritual aspect of Creation (existence) as consisting of souls and Connections. Souls hold the lifeform/object’s inherited Spiritual DNA, just like human bodies hold inherited Physical DNA. Feruchemists like Sazed are born with “innate” Investiture genetically encoded into them – it is part of their soul just like blood has a Spiritual aspect encoded into their soul. Feruchemists don’t Connect to the Shards to draw the Powers because their Investiture – Ruin and Preservation’s Unique Investiture – is “internal” to them. We thus agree Sazed’s soul holds Ruin and Preservation’s Unique Investiture in equal amounts. We disagree that Shard Investiture is “inherently connected to the souls of everything it contacts.” I think “inherently” refers only to the Spiritually inherited parts of a soul. Investiture can later be grafted onto an existing soul, like Radiantspren graft themselves to Surgebinders through the Nahel bond. A bond is a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) Connection. That is different from inheritable innate Investiture that is part of a magic user’s soul. Some may call this distinction “semantics”; I consider it a different mechanic. Allomancers’ inherited innate Investiture is also form of Unique Investiture, Preservation’s. Like Feruchemy’s Investiture, this Unique Investiture is genetically encoded into an Allomancer’s soul. I think this innate Investiture doesn’t Connect the Allomancer to Preservation’s Powers, but instead grants the Allomancer the capacity to Connect to the Powers. I understand you to define “Connection” to include any form of relationship. I limit “Connection” to relationships bound by Spiritweb Investiture strung between the souls. If no Investiture binds souls together, then IMO those souls aren’t “Connected” – the relationship hasn’t been sufficiently “idealized” to create a Connection. (I address below the related question you raise – a Shard’s Connection to “everything it contacts.”) Brandon does say lerasium “gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)” If Brandon means a string of Spiritweb Investiture runs between the Allomancer and Preservation, then I concede your point: “connection” in this context means “Connection.” Without an Investiture string between the person and Shard, it remains a mere “connection.” Maybe we can agree to call this a “latent” Connection – like preparing a road surface before applying tar so cars can drive on the road. Burning non-Investiture metal conduits (the temporary “tar” in this awful metaphor) IMO turns a latent Allomantic Connection into an actual one. Merely holding a Shard’s Investiture does not by itself make you capable of fully ascending. Kelsier was an Allomancer, but his many “Ruinous” aspects – psychological traits that Connected him to Ruin – prevented him from fully exercising Preservation’s Powers when he briefly ascended. Brandon says Vin’s Well experience “attuned” her so she could later ascend in full. She too was already an Allomancer, but that by itself wasn’t enough. We thus disagree Sazed could ascend even if he “was Connected to R/P.” You need something more. Like Vin could, but Kelsier couldn’t, Sazed ascended because of his mind’s Connection to the Shards, not (solely) because of his innate Investiture. He was temperamentally attuned to the Shards. Not every Feruchemist could have been the “Hero of Ages.” Tindwyl suggests other Feruchemists weren’t as “balanced” or even-keeled as Sazed. I agree: Magic users who Connect “to their local Shard” Connect to the “full body of [the Shard’s] power.” That’s why systems like Allomancy and AonDor need “focuses” to constrict the full flow of the Powers’ force. I’m uncertain I understand your point or know who “their portion of people” is. I assume you refer to people who live on the planet the Shard currently resides on. Do you mean everyone on that planet (and not just magic users) is Spiritually linked to the Shard, or only magic users? I’ll address “everyone” and “magic users” separately and assume you mean a Shard’s “essence” permeates human souls. First, “everyone”: Your statement is clearly true on Scadrial because the Shards created humans there. The “essence” of Ruin and Preservation (and Harmony) permeate every Scadrian’s soul. Shard “essence” in human souls elsewhere is more attenuated, since “Adonalsium” created most of the cosmere. Khriss says there are planets with humans that no Shard has ever visited, as in the Drominad system. Those humans have no “connections” (lower case “c”) to Shards. Even people on Major Shardworlds may have more “Adonalsium” in them than their local Shard – “[t]he effects of Adonalsium permeate everything.” Second, “magic users only”: All magic users hold innate or bonded Shard Investiture, including catalytic magic system users. If that’s what you mean, then we agree. I assume you intended your statement “Shards are more like the central hub of their portion of people in the SR” to be metaphoric. Shards exist everywhere in the Spiritual Realm, since location has no meaning there. You state the Shards are not “off to the side disconnected.” We agree. The Shards do have various Connections. My main point, though, is the difference between a Connection and something built into a magic user’s Spiritual DNA. “Inherent” and “innate” Investiture are not “Connected” to a Shard even if the Shard is the source of that Investiture (except possibly in some latent way). I do think “Adonalsium” was “off to the side disconnected.” That’s why there were no pre-Shattering catalytic magic systems. Agreed with caveat. I think changing your “actions and beliefs” can also destroy your Connection to the Shards, at least on Roshar. The Recreance proves that. I assume you compare magic users to “ordinary people.” Again, I distinguish between “Connection” and the Spiritual DNA incorporating Shard Investiture into one’s soul. I also distinguish between a Connection to the Shard’s Spiritual Realm Powers and a Connection to the Shard’s local Unique Investiture. Only catalytic magic system users Connect to a Shard’s Powers. Other magic users hold or Connect to a Shard’s local Unique Investiture. “Ordinary people” on Sel (through the absorption of Unique Investiture from the ground, IMO) and Nalthis (Breaths) do hold Shard Investiture in their souls. Other than the “spark of life,” it’s unclear whether “ordinary people” on other Major Shardworlds hold any Investiture. We just conceptualize this process differently. I think metal forges the Connection through which it “channels power.” I offered a compromise view above where we describe an Allomancer’s innate Investiture as forming a “latent” Connection. Brandon says the metals are Preservation’s “concentrated essence, a pathway to Power.” (BoM, Kindle p. 359.) Lerasium Mistborn are powerful because they have MORE of Preservation’s Unique Investiture inside them, undiluted by a millennium of genetic dispersal. More Investiture does enable them to form a stronger Connection. I think we agree the amount of Investiture available is directly proportional to the amount of power the Investiture can generate. This is an example. Agreed, although I don’t see much difference between your straw and your pipe other than diameter and the shape of the straw. * * * * * In the end, I think we have equally workable models. Yours claims Shard “essence” is in everything, and therefore everything is Connected to the Shards. I try to add some precision and uniformity to that view, so terms will have the same meaning wherever they apply. Does it make a difference? Who knows… Regards, all!

@The One Who Connects, to be clear, I do conclude Adonalsium was a living being, since he had consciousness and the ability to act as his consciousness directed. My real point is that he wasn’t a “person” in the way the Shards are “people” because he lacked “thoughts and personalities.” I’ve not seen Forum discussions address how one can be a “person,” yet not have “thoughts and personalities.” I suppose it’s possible. Adonalsium’s absence of personality is why I believe the Shards’ Mandates arise from them, who did have personalities, as opposed to Adonalsium. Splinters are “self-aware” – “sentient” – but they don’t “think.” They’re capable of directing the Powers (like Roshar’s sentient spren do inside fabrials), but they have no “thoughts or personalities.” This contrasts with sapient spren, as Brandon describes in the OP. In part this is a function of the amount of Investiture involved. More Investiture expands the mind. Adonalsium had near limitless power available to him and should have a limitless mind. But Adonalsium still wasn’t a “person” (as I define it) because he had no interactions with other sapient entities. He had no peers and maintained no Connections to his creations. That’s why there were no pre-Shattering catalytic magic systems. A being develops personality – some combination of personas – based on such interactions. If the cosmere considered him “God,” Adonalsium might have developed this "god" persona the way spren develop theirs, through personification of an idea. Perhaps this is what Hoid meant in Warbreaker when he tells Siri he comes from a place where gods died, as @Thanatos notes. There may have been many cosmere personifications of “God,” much like Bavadin has her own pantheon. Collectively, these were “gods” the Vessels caused to "die." Did any of these "gods" have “personality” even so? Sazed says "no." That’s good enough for me. Regarding the anagram, what do you mean “went nowhere”? I believe @runyan_ft was the first to point this anagram out, in a comment on an early version of my theory last April. I don’t believe it’s been debunked (although maybe I missed something). I saw Brandon’s statement about “Adonai.” Why can’t both statements be true? Brandon was inspired by the name “Adonai” but added letters to it to create an apt anagram.

The spren subastral appears in the withdrawn Oathbringer chapter. Jasnah Elsecalls there to save herself from the Wind’s Pleasure assassination attempt. She hadn’t been there before. Ivory says painspren “harm more” in the spren subastral. The in-world “Words of Radiance” also mentions the “far realm of spren.” (WoR Chapter 53 Epigraph). Only Elsecallers are “the true masters of that realm.” These references to the "far realm" suggest that "realm" is not in the human Cognitive Realm. I agree about the Coppermind. That’s why I put the onus of the assertion on them. I’ve found no other references for this assertion, and the Coppermind doesn’t state a source. But I’ve found no refutations either. Perpendicularities do mediate among the Realms, and the Cognitive Realm is the “intermediary.” Most perpendicularities we’ve seen are composed of a Shard’s “liquid essence.” The Coppermind’s statement may be true. Perhaps I should have prefaced the quote with “FWIW.” You make two points about perpendicularity location: (1) how Shards being “mostly Spiritual” affects the “location” of perpendicularities, and (2) perpendicularities “can happen naturally just by [the Shard] being there.” First, I don’t think Shards being “mostly Spiritual” affects the “location” of perpendicularities. Once Investiture leaves the Spiritual Realm for the Cognitive and Physical Realms, location does become relevant. Khriss says perpendicularities form because of a Shard’s “presence” on a planet. The Shard chooses the planet to be “present” on, its “location.” Second, I agree with you: perpendicularities “can happen naturally just by [the Shard] being there.” Shards have too much “Investiture mass,” and if they linger too long in a specific location, their “Investiture mass” descends into the other Realms forming a perpendicularity. But Shards choose their Shardworld. They’re only “there” if they choose to be. I doubt we’ve seen an incidental, unintentional Investiture of a planet, even on First of the Sun. I speculate a perpendicularity is the site of the Shard’s Investiture of a planet for two reasons: First, we’ve only seen planets with one perpendicularity per Shard. If “Investiture mass” were the sole cause, I would expect more than one perpendicularity per Shard on some planet. There would be multiple “tunnels” as Khriss describes them. Second, Brandon’s description of a “spike-like hole” sounds to me like a hypodermic needle injecting Investiture into the planet. But this is all speculation, and labelled so in the OP. Re Aona, I wasn’t confusing anything, I was flat-out WRONG! Thank you for raising this. I just missed it. The death of the Shard’s Vessel does not cause divestiture of its Investiture. (Ironically, I’ve made this argument myself elsewhere.) Bad example. I will edit this to fix. The relevant WoB says, “There are Shards whose Shardpools are not on a planet they currently inhabit. At least one.” I interpret that statement to mean the Shard left its Investiture on that planet – “abandoned” it there without intending to come back. It is not the only interpretation, but it is a fair one. Like the poster of that WoB, I believe the planet is First of the Sun and that this Investiture is Autonomy’s.

Another in my ongoing series “A Theory of Cosmere Magic” Classification of Magic Systems Pre-Shattering Magic In the Beginning – The Cosmere’s Origin I include this topic because my views on Realmic theory underlie the over-arching cosmere magic theory. While most of my views are canon, you shouldn’t be surprised some aren’t. I changed from “Realmatic” to “Realmic” to follow Khriss in AU. I am concurrently posting “In the Beginning – The Cosmere’s Origin,” since that post provides some background to the conclusions I reach in this post. THE THREE REALMS Preservation’s Metaphor. In M:SH, Preservation metaphorically describes the Realms to Kelsier. The Spiritual Realm shines a beam of “perfect” light that the Cognitive Realm “filters” before the light “pools” on the Physical Realm’s “floor.” The Spiritual Realm is the place of perfection, of Spiritual energy (the Powers) and structure (Spiritwebs). The Cognitive Realm is the place of perception, filtering the Spiritual Realm’s perfection. The Physical Realm is the place of material existence, where perceived objects and lifeforms take shape. I use the term “Creation” to describe the sum of all Spiritwebs and their corresponding Cognitive and Physical Realm aspects. Kelsier himself calls this description a “metaphor.” (M:SH, Kindle Loc 530, Part 2-1 .) The description does not address the mechanics of magic. Brandon intends this metaphor to help us understand Realmic differences, not how the magic works. Spiritual Realm. The Spiritual Realm consists of two types of Investitures: the Powers (Spiritual energy) and “Spiritweb Investiture” (Spiritual structure). Spiritweb Investiture constitutes the Spiritual aspect of Creation (the sum of all Spiritwebs). The Spiritual Realm holds the most Investiture because of the Powers: Shards are “mostly Spiritual.” Location “isn’t particularly important” in the Spiritual Realm, only Connection. Cognitive Realm. The Cognitive Realm is the collective mind of the sentient entities on each planet (an idea Brandon expressly borrows from Carl Jung). Non-sentient objects exist in the Cognitive Realm as the perceptions of the collective mind, since such objects have no cognitive function of their own: “Whenever a planet has enough thinking life on it that's considering it a planet, it drops into Shadesmar.” The collective mind includes the conscious and the unconscious. (WoR, Kindle p. 40.) a. Correspondence to Physical Realm. Brandon describes the Cognitive Realm as relatively flat, but not two-dimensional – a plain, not a plane. He contrasts its topography with the Physical Realm’s, which is three-dimensional. The SLA maps and the Dor show there is a one-to-one correspondence between locations in the Physical and Cognitive Realms. b. Subastrals. Each collection of sentient minds has its own “subastral” – the term Hoid uses in M:SH to describe Scadrial’s Cognitive Realm. Each Shardworld with a sentient population has at least one subastral. Roshar has two subastrals: one for its Physical Realm sapient population (humans, listeners and Aimians), and a second subastral for its sapient spren. Brandon calls all sapient entities “people.” Sapient spren are ideas that have ideas. These spren have their own politics and cities. The discarded Oathbreaker chapter where Jasnah first Elsecalls shows the Rosharan spren subastral. Braize also has a subastral – Khriss says there are splinters and Cognitive Shadows there. Cognitive Realm distance is measured by thought, and the distance between subastrals compresses minds. c. Shadesmar’s Sun. I believe the “sun” in Roshar’s and Scadrial’s subastrals represents those planets’ collective perception of the afterlife – the place the spirits of dead people go. Brandon refers to these collective perceptions as “cultural.” The Cognitive Realm sun is like the “light” that Earth people see during near-death experiences. That “light” is the Cognitive Realm’s collectively perceived Connection to the Spiritual Realm. The “clouds” that trail towards the sun represent the collective mind’s perception of the souls of the dead moving towards the Spiritual Realm. Everything in the Cognitive Realm “moves towards the light,” including shadows. This movement is how the collective mind perceives entropy: “all things must pass.” Physical Realm. The Physical Realm is the material world sentient life actually experiences. It consists of the matter and energy into which the Powers convert plus the Physical Realm aspect of each planet’s Unique Investiture – one can see Stormlight, Breaths and the mists. Adonalsium’s Creations comprise most of the Physical Realm cosmere: “The effects of Adonalsium permeate everything.” SPIRITUAL REALM INVESTITURE Spiritweb Investiture. Spiritweb Investiture composes the Spiritual aspect of Creation – Creation’s “Spiritual matter.” Spiritweb Investiture gives Creation its Spiritual structure. Each use of the Powers creates new matter, energy and/or Unique Investiture. That new part of Creation either has its own Spiritweb or is part of other Spiritwebs. a. A Spiritweb consists of a soul and its Connections. Each soul has unique Spiritual DNA and unique Connections – a unique Spiritweb. b. Connections bind the cosmere together – not only between souls (“External Connections”), but also between the three Realmic aspects of each soul (“Internal Connections”). Kelsier could not return to Scadrial’s Physical Realm because his death severed his Internal Connections to that Realm. (i) Internal Connections maintain mind-body-soul unity. They “vertically” link the Realmic aspects of each attribute of a lifeform or object. The Feruchemy sections of recent Ars Arcana list many human attributes. Each attribute has an analog in all three Realms. (ii) External Connections “horizontally” link a soul to other souls. These Connections can extend between people, between objects, between a person and a planet, a person and other objects, and a person and Unique Investiture. A temporary Connection can extend between a person and the Powers – that’s how catalytic magic systems work. c. A Shardworld’s Unique Investiture is encoded into the Shardworld’s soul and is part of its Spiritual DNA. Unique Investiture is thus a form of Spiritweb Investiture. Sazed says a Shard’s Unique Investitures are its “flesh and blood.” (HoA, Chapter 14 Epigraph.) d. Connections link to different Spiritual “genes” of an entity’s Spiritual DNA. A planet’s soul includes as Spiritual “genes” each location on that planet. When Allik Neverfar in BoM uses his language-translation medallion, he Connects his soul to a different “Spiritual gene” of Scadrial’s soul – a different birthplace location on Scadrial. Allik retains his accent because his soul still knows he is Malwish. Allik explains, “My soul thinks I was raised here, in your lands, but it knows that I am Malwish by descent…so I cannot help but have an accent…” (BoM, Kindle p. 302.) e. Brandon says Connections are not “on/off” switches. They can widen or narrow over time. f. “Identity” refers to the relationship between a mortal and the Unique Investiture of his native Shardworld. Unique Investiture is “keyed” to the mortal, enabling the mortal to perform “Unique Investiture Magic” on that Shardworld: “The Spiritual self is tied to the Investiture of the world that you come from.” Identity is embedded in the mortal’s Spiritual DNA. It can develop over time as part of an adaptive, evolutionary process. Non-natives must “hack” local Unique Investiture to use it (except for Breaths, which automatically “key into” their holder’s Identity.) Non-natives’ Identity is not “keyed” to the local Unique Investiture. Feruchemists’ Unique Investiture is “internal” and personal to them. BoM shows their Identity relates to the use of their personal Unique Investiture inside their metalmind. The Powers. The Powers are the cosmere’s “Spiritual energy,” the “the energy of Shards.” Under Brandon’s “one substance” principle, the Powers are the source of everything else – they convert into all of the cosmere’s matter, energy and other Investiture. The Powers are “raw” undifferentiated Investiture awaiting a directing mind to tell them what to do. Brandon also calls this form of Spiritual Realm Investiture “true Investiture” or “raw power.” COGNITIVE REALM INVESTITURE Unlike Spiritual Realm Investiture, Cognitive Realm Investiture is different everywhere – it is a form of Unique Investiture. If the Cognitive Realm is the collective mind of a Shardworld, Cognitive Realm Investiture is the collective mind’s ideas. These ideas have a Spiritual Realm aspect with their own Spiritwebs. Shai describes how this happens in TES (Kindle p. 74). Splinters are bits of the Powers that become “self-aware.” That means a splinter (including spren) has its own Cognitive function. Bits of the Powers that become splinters convert into Cognitive Realm Investiture: splinters are “less physical, more a blend of the other two [Realms].” PHYSICAL REALM INVESTITURE Differences Between Shardworlds. Like Cognitive Realm Investiture, Physical Realm Investiture is also a form of Unique Investiture. It is different everywhere. Roshar, Nalthis and Scadrial have gaseous manifestations of Investiture: Stormlight, Breaths and the mists. Lerasium and atium differ from Autonomy’s Investiture of microflora. The Tears of Edgli differ from Devotion’s perpendicularity. Each Physical Realm manifestation of Investiture reflects the Mandate of the Investiture’s Shard plus the planet’s “inherent Investiture.” Minor Shardworlds continue with whatever Unique Investiture Adonalsium and/or a Shard left there. States of Physical Realm Investiture. Brandon says the liquid state of a Shard’s Unique Investiture (its “shardpool”) is the most “potent.” The Coppermind asserts, “the liquid essence of a Shard is said to be related to the Cognitive aspect.” The solid state of Physical Realm Investiture (metals) is the least potent, and each metal has a single function. The gaseous state of Physical Realm Investiture is somewhere between the two in potency – it can directly fuel a Connection to the Powers like the mists did for Vin. PERPENDICULARITIES Realmic Conduits. Perpendicularities are conduits between the three Realms. They permit Worldhopping. The only Worldhopping we’ve seen so far is between the Cognitive and Physical Realms. Formation. Khriss says perpendicularities arise from a Shard’s presence on a planet. (AU, Kindle p. 477.) The weight of the Shard’s Investiture punches a “spike-like” hole through the planet’s Realmic aspects, forming the conduits between Realms. Brandon states the existence of a perpendicularity means the Shard cannot easily divest itself from its Shardworld: “Once you’ve got a Perpendicularity, you are starting...That’s trouble for going other places.” Speculation: Investiture Residue. I speculate a perpendicularity is the precise spot where a Shard Invests in a planet, where its Investiture “enters" the planet’s three Realmic aspects. That’s where the Shard “is present” and why the perpendicularity is “spike-like.” Otherwise, the weight of Investiture seems like it would form multiple perpendicularities per Shard on that planet. When Investiture is complete, residual unused Investiture remains – like water dripping from a turned-off hose. These attuned “catch-basins” collect a planet’s recycling Investiture. Brandon says perpendicularities “normally” disappear when a Shard divests itself from a planet, but “there are circumstances that could prevent the shardpool from disappearing.” Since Sazed says Physical Realm Investiture (like a shardpool) is the “body” of a Shard, I speculate the Shard Vessel’s death might be one such circumstance: Aona’s shardpool didn’t “disappear” after her death. I also speculate that a Shard can choose to leave Investiture behind when it divests. (Brandon recently confirmed this speculation when he stated at least one planet has a shardpool the Shard abandoned (voluntarily or not).)

Another in my ongoing series “A Theory of Cosmere Magic” Classification of Magic Systems Pre-Shattering Magic Basic Realmic Theory Brandon deflects questions about the cosmere’s origin and the nature of the “God Beyond.” He states the “God Beyond” and related subjects depend on one’s religious attitudes. But Brandon does provide some hints. The most important comes from Sazed [HoA, Chapter 55 Epigraph (emphasis added)): I read the word “originally” to refer to the period pre-Shattering, before the Shards ascended. These “powers” (the “Powers”) at that time lacked “thoughts and personalities.” To me, this comment means the ability to direct the Powers does not require “personhood.” “Consciousness” means you’re “alive,” but it does not make you into a “person” with a self-identity largely formed by social interactions. The Powers had no social interactions. We see the same distinction between splinters (self-aware bits of Cognitive and Spiritual Investiture) and spren (splinters that do have their own “thoughts and personalities”). Brandon describes the “spren-making” process: "because of human or other sapient creatures thinking about it or interacting with the power, the power…develops personality and comes alive.” “Adonalsium” is the name the cosmere gives the anthropomorphized pre-Shattering Powers. Since Adonalsium was not a “person,” he couldn’t have been human or any other species that became a Shard – the Shard Vessels did have “thoughts and personalities.” I believe Adonalsium was the self-directing Powers. Brandon says, “Somebody needs to hold the magic. If no one holds the magic, the magic will start to gain sentience. Interesting and bizarre things happen then.” The Powers developed sentience and “bizarrely” created the cosmere. Khriss is unsure whether that made Adonalsium a “force” or a “being,” though she thinks the latter. (M:SH, Kindle Loc. 938, Part 3-2.) “Adonalsium” is an anagram for “a mind, a soul.” Brandon also says “Adonalsium shattered because he was killed.” I interpret this WoB to mean “shattering,” like “splintering,” happens when the mind that controls the Powers “dies.” Posters read this WoB to mean Adonalsium was “alive” and “male.” Since Adonalsium was “conscious,” he was “alive.” Spren prove being “alive” does not require corporeal form. While Brandon uses the male pronoun to describe Adonalsium, both here and elsewhere, I’m not sure we can conclude “he” was male. Divine gender tends to be masculine in many cultures (an observation, not a sexist assertion). The male pronoun in this context may or may not be significant. After the Powers acquired consciousness, I believe they – Adonalsium – Invested the cosmere’s three Realms in a single act – a “Big Bang.” Under Brandon’s “one substance” principle, Adonalsium converted part of himself into Creation. The Powers are the raw material of Creation (which I define as the sum of all Spiritwebs and their corresponding Cognitive and Physical Realm aspects). When the Powers Invest, they become the created matter, energy or Investiture. As a creative force, the Powers WANT to be used, MUST be used. Magic users feel this compulsion – the Powers push a directing mind to action. This creative compulsion explains why mindless Powers become self-directing. It also explains why I believe the cosmere’s Creation occurred in a single moment: once Adonalsium became the Power’s directing mind, the Powers exploded with pent-up creative energy. After Creation, the remaining Powers (the Powers that didn’t convert into Creation) were confined to the Spiritual Realm. Though they formed everything, they were un-Connected to Creation. That’s why there were no catalytic magic systems before the Shattering – there were no Connections through which a magic user could access the Powers (Adonalsium). In this sense, Adonalsium was a “heavenly” God, a “transcendent” God. But Adonalsium was also an “immanent” God, present in Creation. “God is in everything” is another idea Brandon borrows from Spinoza. This idea appears in Brandon’s statement that Investiture is the “Condensed ‘essence’ of the godly powers.” Marasi says metals are the “concentrated essence” of Preservation. (BoM, Kindle p. 359.) This idea also underlies the cosmere’s version of the thermodynamic laws, the inter-convertibility of matter, energy and Investiture.

@Knight Oblivion, we agree: Breath is variable. But lack of “precision” in measuring a “unit” is different from recognizing the “specific unit” exists. That’s why the OP says the Heightenings are a “quantization” of Breaths – they “restrict a variable quantity to discrete values rather than to a continuous set of values.” I also think you overstate Breath variability – Breaths differ at the edges, not in orders of magnitude. Even Divine Breaths translate into approximately 2,000 Breaths. Here’s what Khriss says in the Warbreaker Ars Arcanum: @Djarskublar, what you say about color is true. I agree with everything you say except your conclusion. Color is how the human eye perceives sensations produced by the way an object reflects or emits light. The object possesses this property, not the light. I’ve not claimed there’s anything peculiar about color itself that makes it Awakening’s catalyst. Color is a human-interpreted perception of the reflected or emitted light. I HAVE claimed that Adonalsium Invested Nalthis’ electromagnetic radiation. Objects not only reflect light, they also absorb it. Endowment added “color” to the Tears of Edgli as a portable marker of Adonalsium’s Investiture (held in the “sticky” dyes the Tears produce). The Tears’ absorption of other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation causes them to continue to hold Adonalsium’s Investiture. Absorption is “the way in which the energy of a photon is taken up by matter…” When an Awakener touches a colored object, the object turns gray (unless you’re a God King, in which case it turns white). A thread a few years back compares this color loss to what happens when a Shardblade severs a limb. The OP there concludes the colored “object's Spiritual Aspect” powers Awakening, rather than color. This poster is “on the right track.” I think the object’s loss of Adonalsium’s Investiture changes its color to gray, just like what happens with Lifeless and limbs when a soul (a form of Investiture) severs. IOW, color marks an object as holding Adonalsium’s Investiture. When an Awakener drains that Investiture, the object turns gray because of that loss, not the loss of “color.” @The One Who Connects, I believe Devotion and Dominion added their Investiture to the inherent Investiture Adonalsium left on Sel. Brandon’s OP statement that there’s “inherent investiture in every world created” is unequivocal. Where is Sel’s inherent Investiture, if not in the ground? Why would the Shards use topographic features as their magical “language” if the inherent Investiture were located elsewhere? They chose their magical language before they were killed (obviously). That means they installed their “one” magic system with its topographic language before the Dor became location-dependent. Not definitive, but pretty probative… Consider how catalytic magic systems function. Every other Major Shardworld has “people with magic” who consume local Unique Investiture to tap into Raw Investiture and achieve their magical effects. The OP and my first follow up post give examples of the ground-based Unique Dor Investiture acting as a catalyst. If it’s not the catalyst on Sel, what is?

@Yata Yata, thank you for your responses. They help focus our discussion. My starting point for the theory is Brandon’s statement last February he hasn’t told us yet what Investiture is. That means none of us really know. My theory presents a concept: “Catalytic magic systems” differ in their Realmic interactions from other magic systems. The OP explores those differences. It classifies magic systems based on the source and behavior of their Investiture. You say “True Investiture” where I say the “Powers of Creation.” Your word stresses the Spiritual Realm’s perfection. Brandon has called Spiritual Realm Investiture “True” Investiture. In line with Leras’ M:SH metaphor, you see True Investiture’s “perfect light” “filtering” through to the other Realms where it manifests. You describe Shards “moving” Investiture from one Realm to another, including back into the True Investiture of the Spiritual Realm. You have text and WoB support for your conclusions. I use the term “Powers of Creation” because Brandon says power without a mind to direct it becomes self-directing. I envision Adonalsium – an anagram for “a mind, a soul” – as the cosmere name for the self-directing “power of creation.” Shards are “pieces of the power of creation.” Some protean “power of creation” that becomes everything else comports with Brandon’s “one substance” principle. I also have text and WoB support. How about “Raw Investiture”? We both see Spiritual Realm Investiture as capable of becoming – “manifesting as” – something else. Spiritual Realm Investiture is “consistent.” If you’re okay with this, I will formalize that term and contrast it with “Unique Investiture,” the specialized Investiture that manifests in the other Realms. The definition of “Unique Investiture” is where I pick up our conversation. Question 3: “Unique Investiture”: I do mean the different “box types” of Investiture. These are the Investitures that differ from Shardworld to Shardworld. For that reason, I view them as part of the Shardworld’s sDNA, part of its soul. Your “filter” metaphor is another way of saying the same thing – Raw Investiture “filters’’ down from the Spiritual Realm, through the Cognitive Realm, to manifest in the Physical Realm. That’s how it becomes Unique Investiture. We agree Unique Investiture exists in all three Realms. Otherwise people wouldn’t be able to see it in the Physical Realm. Here’s where we may diverge: My model makes a Shardworld’s Unique Investiture part of the Shardworld’s soul, the same way the planet’s unique combination of matter and energy are part of its soul. The Shardworld’s soul is its Spiritual Realm blueprint. Its Unique Investiture is built in. Unique Investiture isn’t “fed” by Raw Investiture any more than some force outside our bodies continually supplies us with blood. Unique Investiture’s only Connection with the Spiritual Realm is to its own Spiritual Realm aspect – the part of the Shardworld’s sDNA that corresponds to it – and not to Raw Investiture. Raw Investiture is not yet part of a Spiritweb. Raw Investiture doesn’t become part of Creation until it “filters down” to create or manifest as something. “Hacking”: I define “hacking” as changing a soul’s Identity and/or Connections to enable a non-native to use a planet’s Unique Investiture. Brandon says Vasher is a hacker. Vasher has changed some aspect of his soul to use Stormlight instead of Breath to stay alive. He could make further changes – “hacks” – to do the same thing on Taldain. These are “easier” hacks than using the vast Investiture near a perpendicularity. “Raw power is dangerous.” Hacking does not refer to the normal workings of an Invested object, even when it uses non-native Investiture. Re-Investing black sand is not an example of “hacking.” Brandon says any Investiture can charge black sand wherever you take Taldain’s microflora. (Hoid may have done this on Nalthis.) A non-Nalthian receiving Breaths is also not “hacking” because Breaths automatically adjust to the recipient’s Identity. Nightblood was made with the ability to feed on any Investiture – that ability comes from the way Shashara and Vasher Awakened him. Brandon compares him to a larkin. Nightblood’s not hacking, he’s just performing his magically-assigned task. Question 4: “Need for More…”: I think we agree Raw Investiture represents the capacity to create new stuff. It’s a LOT of capacity. The Shards are “mostly Spiritual,” and the “energy of the Shard’s being is mostly in the Spiritual Realm.” The OP states that every use of Raw Investiture creates something, either matter or energy or Unique Investiture. That’s how catalytic magic systems work. When Kaladin “falls up” to fly, he adds energy that changes his Connection with gravity. Lightweaving and Forgery add Investiture to change souls. Is magic “needed”? That’s a philosophical question. But the use of Raw Investiture to perform catalytic magic always adds something to Creation. “Kind of Investiture” vs. “Location”: Here again I think we’re saying the same thing. You describe a Shard “moving” his Investiture from one Realm to another. I describe a Shard “converting” from one kind of Investiture to another (based on the “one substance” WoB). Same phenomenon, different metaphor. We may part company about “moving back again” into Raw Investiture – although this doesn’t affect the theory (see below). As @Djarskublar says, the cosmere is “magic” – anything is possible. There’s no reason the cosmere can’t pick up its pieces and try again. But Brandon has emphasized the cosmere’s Thermodynamic laws. He accepts the concept of entropy. If your model is correct, it may violate that concept. That’s my only hang-up with Raw Investiture renewability. FWIW, when asked whether some magic systems are “stronger” than others, Brandon said “Yes…Definitely.” He concluded, “The powers [of magic systems] are not equal. Shards were generally equal. Some have given up more power than others.” I read this WoB as favoring my interpretation – by “giving up” more of their Raw Investiture to power magic systems, Shards reduced their own “power,” their remaining pool of Raw Investiture. I agree my interpretation doesn’t foreclose yours. Regardless of which view of the conservation laws is correct, Raw Investiture renewability doesn’t affect the OP’s theory. The theory is about magic systems, not the cosmere’s conservation laws. Even if you are right, the catalytic systems would still behave the way they do. That’s why I said in an earlier post the answer doesn’t matter to the theory. Khriss in her AU Scadrial essay describes how metals cause “an Investiture” of an Allomancer. This and other scattered bits of evidence make me think that “an Investiture” is the result of using Raw Investiture to make Unique Investiture. IOW, the process of converting – or “filtering” or “moving” – Raw Investiture into Unique Investiture is “an Investiture.” (Would “moving” Unique Investiture back into Raw Investiture be a “Divestiture”?) The Dor: This is another issue where I think our differences don’t matter. You look at location and say the Dor is not Raw Investiture. I look at function and conclude it is, even though Odium mashed Devotion and Dominion’s Raw Investiture into Sel’s Cognitive Realm subastral. I think we’re both right. The Dor is a hybrid. It’s Cognitive Realm location makes it Unique Investiture, but it functions as Raw Investiture, just like it did before. The only thing that’s changed is magic system location-dependency (which I don’t mean to minimize). I describe the Dor as the exception that proves the general rule: Raw Investiture can do anything even outside its normal Realm. This again doesn’t affect the validity of the OP’s theory. Sel’s catalytic magic systems still work like other catalytic systems. Selish catalytic systems still Connect to the Dor to make magic. All that’s changed is where the magic user Connects to the Dor. Question 5: I understand you to say that “moving worlds” depends only on the amount of Investiture. I agree, which is why my question assumes you have “enough of it.” Is this what you meant? I don’t understand the rest of your statement. Do you mean a magic user can “edit” – hack – the local Unique Investiture to achieve the same effects that Raw Investiture produces? If so, I don’t agree with that. I believe catalytic magic systems need Raw Investiture to perform Creation Magic even on Sel. Brandon says Vin uses the mists as a substitute for metals – meaning as a catalyst to make the Connection to Preservation. He does not say the mists convert into Preservation’s Raw Investiture. You say if only Raw investiture is involved, “We will see directly into the Realmatic Interactions.” (FWIW, I now call these “Realmic” interactions, following Khriss in AU.) I think all magic involves Realmic interactions, since all magic affects all three Realms one way or another. I’m not sure what you’re saying here. You also say “If everytime someone used the Well, that Powers is turned into Investiture. New Powers is needed every time to refill the Well....Preservation will become weaker and weaker and Ruin will be steady stronger with or without the Atium.” I’ve been unclear. Atium and the Well are both Unique Investiture. Unique Investiture does recycle under the cosmere conservation laws. I just think it recycles only into matter, energy and other Unique Investiture and not back into Raw Investiture. Lifeforms die, planets erode, and these substances become some other form of themselves. Eventually Unique Investiture reforms into atium or the Well. But this all occurs within the confines of Creation. Again, I don’t feel strongly about the conservation laws because I don’t think it affects the OP’s theory one way or another. “Complexity”: My model predicts how magic systems behave. You can apply this model to known and unknown magic systems. It explains the structure of every magic system. Our only real difference is something the OP doesn’t address and isn’t part of or necessary to the theory – Brandon’s cosmere conservation laws. That aside, all we may be left with are different metaphors for the same phenomena. Metaphors are more than “semantics.” Metaphors ARE the models theorists use to describe things. The “truth” of any model/metaphor is found in how accurately the model can predict. * * * * * @iohn, thanks for your observations. I predict magic systems based on Vax’s Unique Investiture will affect only the souls that are the objects of its magic – “Investiture Magic.” Vax’s Unique Investiture may also build a catalytic magic system that Connects to Raw Investiture in the Spiritual Realm. THAT system will be able to do anything – it will perform “Creation Magic.” The theory also predicts the “catalyst” on Vax will be the Unique Investiture Adonalsium left on that planet – Adonalsium’s Investiture shares a “resonance” with Raw Investiture. (That’s beyond the OP – I begin to develop this idea in the Cosmere Theory’s second part – “Pre-Shattering Magic.”) “Natural Law” in cosmere terms is our universe’s physics plus magic. The “general” cosmere rule is magic can do anything – it supersedes all other “rules” provided the magic works consistently with its own rules. Odium’s magic pushed Devotion and Dominion’s Raw Investiture into the Cognitive Realm. I say above that makes the Dor a “hybrid” Investiture – it’s no longer in the Spiritual Realm and to that extent is “Unique,” but it continues to function just like Raw Investiture except for its location-dependency (which again I don’t wish to minimize). To me, that’s the exception that proves the general rule: magic can do anything if it’s consistent with its own rules. The magical rule here is “Raw Investiture is Raw Investiture no matter where located, subject to the magical rules of that location.” You say, “the powers of creation are one thing, and Investiture is just its current state.” I agree with this (subject to my qualms about Raw Investiture renewability). I understand your definition of “Investiture” as near-identical to mine – just a different metaphor – with one exception discussed below. You say “Investiture is a mechanism for holding the powers of creation…. The state of investiture shapes what is possible for that power to do.” I agree. Investiture “transcends the Realms.” In the Spiritual Realm, it is “consistent.” I interpret this to mean “unformed, unused, protean – “raw,” as in “Raw power is dangerous.” When this kind of Spiritual Realm Investiture “moves” or is “filtered” or “converts” into matter or energy or other forms of Investiture, it becomes “unique” to the created object in all three Realms. The “uniqueness” of each Invested object – including Shardworlds – is its “state of investiture” and does “shape what is possible for that power to do.” You also say, “investiture is not power, it in and of itself cannot move objects or be magical, it’s just a term used to discuss something that is currently holding or shaping the power of creation.” I agree: “Investiture is not power,” but I’ve given up that battle. Now I say “Unique Investiture” is not “Raw Investiture.” I also agree it’s “a term used to discuss something that is currently holding or shaping the power of creation.” I cite a WoB in the OP that says so. But that doesn’t mean it “cannot…be magical.” (I do agree it can’t move objects.) The OP states Unique Investiture can affect souls that are the magic’s object. Syl is Unique Investiture that bonds to a chosen human. A Divine Breath is Unique Investiture that bonds with a chosen Returned. Aviar form Cognitive bonds with chosen humans. Scadrial’s inheritable Investiture is a randomly-distributed Unique Investiture of humans. Breaths are Endowment’s innate Investiture of every Nalthian. This “Investiture Magic” is all “magical,” it just isn’t the kind of magic that “moves objects.” That kind of magic is “Creation Magic” and requires a Connection to Raw Investiture to perform. Brandon compares Allomancy with Feruchemy. He says Allomancy uses an “external” source of “power” – Allomancers use metal conduits to draw down Preservation’s Raw Investiture - while Feruchemy relies on an “Internal” source – a Feruchemist’s Investiture is “built in” to his Spiritweb. He also says “it’s a phrasing that could be useful as a tool but doesn’t scale well to the other magics.” Your Nahel bond question shows the difference between Raw and Unique Investiture. Spren are Unique Investiture, including Radiantspren. Spren are Roshar’s “platform” for Connecting to Raw Investiture. Radiantspren meld to their human host through the Nahel bond. The Nahel bond enables the Surgebinder to “process” Stormlight. As the bond deepens, the Surgebinder can consume Stormlight to Connect with Raw Investiture. The Raw Investiture is “external” to the Surgebinder. The Nahel bond enables the Surgebinder to direct this Raw Investiture through the intermediation of the Radiantspren. Radiantspren are a form of Cognitive Investiture. Their ability to command Raw Investiture distinguishes them from most other splinters. Thanks to all for your continued interest!

Thanks to you all for your responses. I will address specific comments in a bit. First, some background on this theory. My first thread in the “Cosmere Magic” series presents the idea magic systems differ based on the source of their Investiture and their behavior. Some magic systems use only local Shardworld Investiture for their magic – like Feruchemy, the Old Magic, and the Aviar. After extensive debate on that thread, I now call that type of Investiture “Unique Investiture.” Unique Investiture is part of the Shardworld’s soul, built into its Spiritual DNA. Other magic systems Connect with what I now call the Spiritual Realm’s “Raw Investiture.” These magic systems use “catalysts” to Connect with Raw Investiture, like Allomancy (metals), Awakening (color), Surgebinding (Stormlight), and Sand Mastery (body water) do. I theorize magic systems that Connect to Raw Investiture in the Spiritual Realm can achieve more spectacular magical effects than Unique Investiture by itself can achieve. These systems use Unique Investiture to create the means to tap into and use Raw Investiture. Posters didn’t like the term “Powers of Creation” for that Spiritual Realm substance, though that term comes from text and WoBs. Calling it “Raw Investiture” instead (also from WoB) spotlights its “consistent” nature and how it converts (or “moves” or “filters”) from this “raw,” generalized form into Unique Investiture, matter and energy in the other Realms. This thread looks at the magic of each Shardworld before the Shattering, when Brandon says catalytic magic systems didn’t exist. That means all pre-Shattering magic systems used what Brandon calls “inherent Investiture” – the magic built into each Shardworld. “What’s past is prologue” – I infer from the present what these systems looked like in the past. The points I make in the OP are informed speculation. Except for Scadrial, this “inherent Investiture” comes from Adonalsium. The Shards didn’t yet exist. I believe the Shards subsequently created their catalytic magic systems on top of the pre-existing magic Adonalsium left on each Shardworld. To your comments: @john203: Thank you. I should have said non-Elantrians can make the same patterns as Aons, but they cannot draw actual Aons – splinters of Devotion. (Chapter 7, not Chapter 4.) The point is the same, though – without the Dor, the form of an Aon doesn’t become an Aon. Another example, as you point out, are the Aon-inscribed metal plates. They’re not “Aons” – splinters of Devotion – until the Dor infuses them and makes them Aons. These examples support my theory: What I call “Unique Dor Investiture” catalyzes an Elantrian’s Connection to the Cognitive Realm’s “Raw Dor Investiture.” Unique Dor Investiture uses its magical energy to draw an Aon, like its ripping a hole into the Cognitive Realm in the shape of that Aon. Raw Dor Investiture flows through the Aon – which shapes and “focuses” it – to perform the desired magical effect. I explain this in more detail below. @Mr. Staccato: Thanks for your kind words. I only wish others might agree with your new name for me…. @dgenio8: The relevant stuff is at the end of the cited WoB. Brandon compares Roshar with Scadrial. He says the Scadrian Shards could do some "goofy things," but the Rosharan Shards couldn't do those things because they didn't create Roshar. I interpret that to mean the Rosharan Shards were "constrained" by what they found on Roshar. The example of spren-based magic supports that interpretation. Another WoB states that "the effects of Adonalsium permeate everything." That also supports the interpretation. Your second point is an astute one. I was lazy and compressed sources here. Brandon describes pre-Shard Roshar in a few WoBs consistent with my interpretation of what Khriss says. I thought this was the easiest way to express the idea. These WoBs confirm the listeners are a pre-Shard people. Adonalsium created them, and they – and the ecosystem the listeners depend on – would have to exist on Roshar before the Shattering. @The One Who Connects: You raise some excellent points. Thank you for editing the post to provide your support. Raw Investiture resides solely in the Spiritual Realm. Unique Investiture exists in all three Realms, since it’s part of the Shardworld’s soul. Khriss says of Taldain, For years we had assumed that our Shard, Autonomy, had Invested only Dayside, through the sunlight itself…. It is not as simple as this, though the mechanism is best explained under those assumptions. The Investiture beats down from the sky, and is absorbed by a microflora…. (AU, Taldain essay, Kindle p. 369.) Autonomy Invested Taldain’s larger sun, rather than Taldain itself. His/her Investiture is part of that sun’s soul, an example of Unique Investiture. Autonomy used his/her Raw Investiture to Invest the sun, thereby creating the sun’s Unique Investiture. Dayside gets the benefits of Autonomy’s Unique Investiture, but Darkside doesn’t. I theorize Darksider’s abilities must come from Taldain’s inherent Investiture. Adonalsium is the source of Taldain’s inherent Investiture, since he created the planet. Taldain is a good demonstration of my theory. That planet has two types of magic systems. One (Sand Mastery) allows the Master to use his body water to Connect with Raw Investiture and direct the growth of microflora to shape the sand. This is catalytic magic. The other system uses only Adonalsium’s Unique Investiture inherent in the planet. Its effects are less spectacular, more an “interaction with nature” and not “people with magic” like Sand Masters. Nalthis: 1. Thank you for the WoB that humans transfer Breath using their “own color.” Any guesses what that means? To me, it sounds like the transferor uses his “own color” because he’s reduced his innate Investiture, which the recipient then gains. That reduces his “aura” and increases the recipient’s. That’s a natural effect of Heightening the recipient’s soul – an example of what I call “Investiture Magic” (magic that relies solely on Unique Investiture), and not “Creation Magic” (magic that uses Unique Investiture to tap into Raw Investiture). 2. I don’t think the Heightenings “top out.” The quality of Breath varies based on factors like age and health. It’s possible you need more Breaths than a Heightening’s top limit to achieve its benefits. To me, everything about Nalthis’ magic screams “quantum physics” – from the Heightenings themselves, to Lightsong’s description of Nalthis’ Cognitive Realm subastral, to the nature of Breath Transfer and Awakening’s use of color. No other magic system is so measured or uses Investiture divided into specific units like Breaths. 3. The photon bit is the most speculative of all my speculations on pre-Shattering magic. It just seems to fit the quantum physics aspect of Nalthis’ magic. There’s a metaphoric reason why “Endowment” doles out her Investiture in measureable units: she seeks a “Returned” on her “Investment.” Breaths are the currency unit to measure her “Returned.” If the Returned fail to inspire the faithful to “Invest” a weekly Breath in them, Endowment terminates her Investment – the Returned dies. To me, her need to measure is why she chose Nalthis. Its pre-existing quantum-based inherent Investiture was capable of being measured. The OP’s premise (supported by WoB) is that Shards did not remake their Shardworlds, they adapted to them (except for Scadrial). That’s what “Shard-Shardworld interactions” means. Thinking through the backward implications of Breaths in a quantum physics setting based on “BioChroma,” and accounting for Endowment’s Mandate, I came up with photons. The OP states why I think that makes sense. 4. You’re right, people can Awaken at the Ninth Heightening without physical contact. IIRC (and I may not), physical contact is always required for simple Breath Transfers. 5. Neither “focus” nor “catalyst” is a canonical word. There’s “general” agreement that some magic systems use “catalysts” like Stormlight, body water, metals, etc. There’s less agreement about the meaning of “focus.” I define it as a “nozzle” that restricts the flow of Raw Investiture into the magic user and “shapes” the magic user’s magical effects. In that WoB, Brandon identifies only two focuses: metals and Aons. This WoB says the same thing. I define “catalyst” as the substance that Connects a magic user to Raw Investiture. On Scadrial, the metals serve as both a focus and a catalyst. On Sel, Aons are the focus and Unique Dor Investiture is the catalyst. Roshar’s Stormlight, Nalthis’ color, and Taldain’s body water are each catalysts, but none of them is a focus. The catalysts all share something the focuses don’t – the catalysts not only hold Shard Investiture; they also hold Adonalsium Investiture (except for Scadrial). Sel: 1 - 2. I’ll try to answer your first two questions together. Khriss says “At this point, the bulk of the Investiture that made up the powers of Dominion and Devotion is trapped in the Cognitive Realm. Collectively, these powers…are called the Dor.” (AU, Kindle p. 17.) To this extent, we agree – Odium caused this to happen. I call the Dor “powers” Raw Investiture. @Yata asserts in the theory’s first thread the mere “movement” of Raw Investiture into the Cognitive Realm turns Raw Investiture into Unique Investiture. I think we’re both right – the Dor is “hybrid” Investiture. Its location makes it Unique Investiture, but it still performs Raw Investiture’s function. The only difference (which I don’t mean to minimize) is catalytic magic system users Connect to this Investiture in the Cognitive Realm rather than the Spiritual Realm. That causes “location-dependency.” Adonalsium created Sel before Odium killed Dominion and Devotion (a semi-serious post). I posit Adonalsium Invested Sel’s ground with his inherent Investiture. The strongest text evidence is the Shard’s use of topographic features as the gateways to the Dor. This “one system” predates the Shards’ murder. Odium turned Sel into a magical “Tower of Babel,” where local landscapes became the local magic system’s language. I conclude Shards on every Major Shardworld Invested the same “substance” Adonalsium Invested in. On Roshar, that’s highstorms. On Taldain, it’s the oceans (that Autonomy Invests through solar radiation). On Nalthis, it’s electromagnetic radiation. And on Sel, it must be the ground. Why else would the Shards have made topographic features their magical gateways? Sel’s ground-based Unique Investiture is a mix of Adonalsium’s and the two Shards’ Investitures. Any magic user on Sel can use that ground-based mix of Investitures. In-world characters sometimes name this ground-based mix of Investitures the “Dor.” It’s a different “substance” than the Cognitive Realm “Investiture that made up the powers of Dominion and Devotion,” though it bears the same name. To distinguish them, I call one “Unique Dor Investiture” and the other “Raw Dor Investiture.” One piece of evidence omitted from the OP: Khriss’ description of Selish Investiture (AU, Kindle, p. 18 (emphasis added)): This overlap between language, location, and magic on the planet has become so integral to the system that subtle changes in one can have profound effects on how the Dor is accessed. Indeed, I believe that the very landscape itself has become Invested to the point that it has a growing self-awareness, in a way unseen on other planets in the cosmere…. I’ve begun to wonder if something greater is happening on Sel than we, at the universities of Sliverlight, have guessed. Something with origins lost in time. Khriss ignores Adonalsium. His name comes up only five times in AU, and three of those refer to the “Shards of Adonalsium.” I believe the “something with origins lost in time” is Adonalsium’s inherent Investiture. Sel’s ground – its heavily Invested “landscape” – continues to hold its Unique Investiture just like Roshar’s highstorms hold its Unique Investiture, etc. Khriss’ description of the landscape’s “growing self-awareness” sounds suspiciously like the Stormfather – maybe a “Mother Sel” with multiple personality disorder? Khriss’ observation foreshadows a significant Selish development, the “spren-ification” of Sel’s Unique Dor Investiture. The OP identifies text references to ground-based Unique Dor Investiture. You reply I confuse cause with effect, since the quoted religions arose after the Shards’ deaths. I interpret the first sentence in Khriss’ quote to mean cause-and-effect on Sel entangle. Brandon as craftsman would not place unintended references to ground magic. Regardless, I think the evidence I discuss above is sufficient. But you are 100% right on Aon Rao. Great point. Disregard that bit. 3. I think the Dakhor support my theory. There are strict hierarchies of Dakhor monks. The lower monk orders transform their bodies to increase their strength and speed. My first theory predicts those magical effects derive solely from a planet’s Unique Investiture. I re-state: anyone on Sel can use its Unique Investiture anywhere on Sel. It’s not location-dependent magic because people don’t need to Connect to Raw Dor Investiture. Dilaf does appear to be Connected to Raw Dor Investiture. In one scene in Dakhor itself, Hrathen recalls Dilaf receiving a monk’s sacrifice to teleport Dilaf a short distance. Dilaf uses the monk’s Unique Dor Investiture – infused into the monk’s body and soul – to fuel his Connection to Raw Dor Investiture. It’s possible some form of “Connection-switching” spell is inscribed on Dilaf’s bones and gives him the ability to use Dakhor Dor anywhere. That spell might work like Southern Scadrian medallions. (How Dilaf uses the Dor in Arelon probably deserves its own thread.) I agree we have “one system” on Sel that uses Creation Magic, that taps into the Raw Dor Investiture in the Cognitive Realm. Sel’s Investiture Magic systems don’t tap into Raw Dor Investiture and can be used anywhere on Sel. Examples are ChayShan, Forton’s potion and the lower order Dakhor monks. These systems also seem to arise from specific locations – JinDo, Hrovell and Dakhor – as you mention. But they are not location-dependent. So…Shuden does glow, but from Sel’s Unique Dor Investiture, not its Raw Dor Investiture. Stormlight-infused objects also glow when Invested, and Stormlight is clearly Unique Investiture. “Is it a stretch to assume that ChayShan movements are a visual representation of the land of JinDo in some way?” I think so. Brandon in this Annotation emphasizes the increased speed of the motions – and not the motions themselves – as the means of “gaining power from them.” Also, ChayShan’s dance forms move in three dimensions. What must JinDo look like to be so represented? Other “form” representations flatten their topographic features into two dimensions, like a topographic map does. Is it even possible to see Raw Investiture in the Physical Realm? Once it hits the Physical Realm it’s already matter, energy and/or Unique Investiture. We do see the effects of Raw Investiture in the Physical Realm – steelpushing, windrunning, forgery, etc. 4. I’m uncertain what you’re saying here. The OP acknowledges that Khriss’ reference to “Dor and Investiture” is “interesting,” but “I don’t want to read too much into this phrasing.” I stand by my analysis of the rest of her statement. 5. Sel’s Unique Dor Investiture, Roshar’s Stormlight, and Taldain’s water all do “permeate everything,” including their planet’s lifeforms. That’s what Unique Investiture does – it’s part of a planet’s “nature.” Investiture Magic involves “interactions with nature.” In Sel’s case, Dor-infused organic tissue acts as the catalyst for its Creation Magic. The OP provides examples. Creation Magic on other planets uses that planet’s Unique Investiture as its catalyst. I already discussed Aons inscribed on metallic plates and the misdrawn Aon Rao. (Excellent research throughout your post, btw.) Your other examples have a different cause. The misdrawn Aon Rao keeps closed the floodgates of Unique Dor Investiture that Aon Rao amplifies; but Unique Dor Investiture still presses against Raoden, still causes him headaches. The Shaod itself and Elantrian immortality shows how the Dor infuses even Reod Elantrians. They just don’t get enough of it. Raoden’s experimentation with Aons causes “Doric” pressure and his headaches. Eventually, Raoden releases this pressure by writing the Aons you mention. Brandon describes this in the Elantris Annotations: The reason that Raoden was subject to the Dor attacks was because he spent so much time practicing with the Aons. He began to make a bridge between this world and the Dor, and because of that, he gave the Dor a slight opening into his soul. I imagine that he isn’t the first one to suffer something like this during the ten years that Elantris has been fallen. Other Elantrians probably practiced with the Aons, and the Dor eventually destroyed them. When it was done, they simply became Hoed. By finally using the Dor effectively, Raoden relieved a little bit of the pressure, letting the nearby buildup of the Dor (the one that he himself had created by practicing so much) rip through him and fuel that single Aon. 6. My comments on “motion” are more an observation than a conclusion. I thought it worthy of mention, an interesting avenue to explore since motion appears part of the actuating mechanics of all the Selish magic systems, whether they perform Investiture Magic or Creation Magic. Again, the fact that ChayShan, Forton’s potion, and the lower order Dakhor monks can all make or use magic far from their birthplace is powerful evidence that this magic is different from Selish Creation Magic systems that Connect to the Cognitive Realm’s Raw Dor Investiture. These magics may relate to bloodlines, and hence place, but they are not location-dependent. Semantics or not, the text does mention Elantrians “brushing” the plate. Maybe motion isn’t relevant – I’m not pushing this idea, just pointing it out. Regardless, touching the plate allows the Dor infusing an Elantrian to summon the Aon focus for light or heat or whatever: Unique Dor Investiture is the catalyst, and the Aon is the focus. I hope I answered everyone’s questions. Thanks, everyone, for your interest!

@Weltall, I agree with everything you say (except for the “putting words in Brandon’s mouth” part). You correctly state the context of the cited WoBs: “where a manifestation of Investiture appears to act in a way that doesn't fit the Intent of the Shard whose power the individual is drawing on….” Brandon’s explanation in both WoBs is that a Shard’s Mandate – its “personality/role” – doesn’t limit what the Shard “can do.” You conclude this is “opposite of [my] point.” My theory states the type of Investiture I call the “Powers” is functionally different from the unique Shardworld Investitures. The local Investitures are unique mainly (but not exclusively) because of their Shard’s Mandate. Yet the Shards, despite their Mandates, are still capable of expressing all the Powers. That’s why Brandon says, “the energy of Shards can fuel all kinds of interactions, not just interactions based on their personality/role.” I believe his reference to “the “energy of Shards” refers to the Powers. So…Mandated Investiture (Stormlight, the mists, Breaths, Taldain’s solar radiation) is unique to its Shardworld. But the “energy of Shards” (the Powers) can still “fuel all kinds of interactions” despite the Shard Mandates. Further, “[t]he 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do.” My conclusion: local Mandated Investiture provides the means to access the Powers. But the Powers, once accessed, “can fuel all kinds of interactions.” I think these WoBs, even with your context, support my theory. @Extesian, I care deeply about collaborative theory-building. That’s why I asked six different long-time Forum members to review earlier drafts of the theory. The OP publicly acknowledges how their help “sharpened the theory’s focus and presentation.” A couple of those reviewers acknowledged the theory’s improvement. They’re still not persuaded, but that’s okay. Poster comments express interpretive differences. We all review the same evidence. We just reach different conclusions based on that evidence. There’s no “right” or “wrong” about such matters. That’s why we have Forums, to debate such issues. Let the future of the cosmere decide the theory’s “truth.” Thank you sincerely for your other comments. I do hope you and everyone else keeps reading. This post is the first installment of my “Cosmere Magic Theory.” The second is “Pre-Shattering Magic.” The third will be “The Structure of Catalytic Magic Systems.” @Yata, I hoped you would answer my “Agree?” questions. Their purpose was to try and isolate the link in the logical chain where we diverge. That might make our discussions more focused and fruitful. @Djarskublar, I appreciate all your comments. Thanks for your continued interest.

Yata, I asked you to review an early draft of the full theory because I respect your opinion. But I feel you (and others) are the ones arguing “semantics.” You’re not looking at the “Big Picture.” There is “existence,” that thing we call the cosmere and its Realms. Agree? “Existence” has three components – matter, energy, and some magical substance we call “Investiture.” Agree? Unlike matter and energy, this “Investiture” is unique to each Shardworld. People from other Shardworlds must “hack” the unique local Investiture to use it. Agree? There is also a potential for more “existence,” some magical substance that can convert into more matter or energy or unique Investitures. Agree? Unlike the unique local Investitures, this magical substance can do anything – enough of it can move worlds. No matter where you are, this substance is the same – “consistent” – and can be reached from anywhere (except for the Dor). Agree? I believe the cosmere’s term for this consistent magical substance that can move worlds is the “Powers of Creation.” (You don’t have to agree with that. Call this magic anything you want.) But whatever you call this magic, how can you say that it is functionally identical to the unique Investitures of each Shardworld? If you’re not persuaded by the several dozen WoBs and textual passages I cite to support the theory, explain these two: “The means of getting powers…are related to the Shards, but not the powers themselves.” “The 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do.” The “powers” are NOT “related to the Shards.” How much clearer can that be? Local Shardworld Investiture (the Shard’s “role”) provides the platform by which magic users can “get the powers.” THEY ARE NOT THE POWERS THEMSELVES. “Small” picture, might there be magic systems I consider “Investiture Magic” (like Feruchemy) that turn out to actually use the Powers? Sure (although I don’t think so). But that just means I mis-categorized that system. It doesn’t make the classification “deeply wrong.” What I call the “catalytic magic systems” – the ones that require consumption of a catalyst – are empirically different in scope and effect than the non-catalytic systems. Brandon makes clear that these catalytic systems – “like Allomancy and Surgebinding” – didn’t exist before the Shattering. You really think there’s no functional difference between “Investiture” and the “Powers” by whatever name you choose to call them? Your specific objections [edited for clarity]: “If Powers [can convert into] Investiture, and Investiture [can convert into] Powers, your theory has no sense. If this two are interchangeable, there are no sense to specific a set of rules and limitations for both of them.” This is your statement, not mine – I don’t believe Investiture can convert into the Powers. Even if these two magical substances were fully interconvertible, each would still retain its unique properties while it was in that state. This is no different than Investiture, matter and energy being fully interconvertible, yet each retaining its unique properties. I address below the “cosmere conservation” implications of this, in response to your other question. “If Powers [can convert into] Investiture alone, you need to explain [to] me how it's possible for Preservation to regain his ‘powers’ once he expends in Allomancy. Preservation's Power is explicitly used and turned into matter/energy so for your model it could be recovered only as Investiture. “The same thing is true for the Dor, The Elantrians have to diminish the amount of Dor with their AonDor (also the others Selish Magic Users), but Elantrians have the highest Dor output.” You’re addressing issues I wanted to defer to a later post. Oh, well…. Short answer: It’s NOT possible to recover the Powers once they’ve been used. Using the Powers creates something else – new matter, energy, or Investiture that can convert into each other but not back into the Powers. Disclaimer: I don’t believe this is a significant point for the Cosmere Magic Theory. Even if “reconversion” into the Powers is possible, it just makes the Powers infinitely available. They’re still the Powers, with their own magical function. I’m not a scientist, engineer or mathematician, so please excuse my tortured understanding of thermodynamics. Brandon’s “Cosmere Conservation Law” states “Investiture cannot be created or destroyed. It follows its own version of the laws of Thermodynamics.” This means the sum of all matter, energy and Investiture (including the Powers) is constant. These elements may change form, but the total amount of the “one substance” in the cosmere doesn’t change. The cosmere can thus obey its Conservation Law regardless of which elements at that moment comprise the cosmere. That raises your question: Can matter, energy and Investiture convert back into the Powers or only into each other? Are the Powers a renewable resource or a dwindling one? In 2012, Master_Moridin asked Brandon, “Why does Preservation fueling Allomancy not weaken Preservation compared to Ruin?” Brandon answered, “Because the power, once used, returns to him – much as water, after passing over a turbine, continues on in its system.” This statement seems contrary to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. If elements of “Creation” (the sum of all Spiritwebs and their corresponding aspects) can re-convert into the Powers – “return to [Preservation]” – the Powers can create more energy. The cosmere in this scenario becomes a perpetual motion machine and can never obtain entropic equilibrium. The alternative is that matter, energy and Investiture, once created, do NOT convert back into the Powers. The Powers are the cosmere’s raw material – they don’t renew. Instead, matter, energy and Investiture only recycle into one another. The Cosmere Conservation Law still applies in this scenario: Creation grows as the Powers diminish. Does that help? Don’t get tripped up on the words “Powers” and “Investiture.” Think of their meanings in the “Big Picture” context.

This post speculates about magic on the Major Shardworlds before the Shattering. I think pre-Shattering magic gives insight into post-Shattering magic. I exclude Scadrial because it didn’t exist pre-Shattering. Based on the following WoB, I believe the planets that became Shardworlds each incorporate “magic aspects to the setting” that allows mortals to “interact with nature.” Pre-Shattering, there were no “people with magic” like Mistborn and Surgebinders who could direct the magic’s effect. Brandon thus confirms that Adonalsium’s Investiture is on every planet except Scadrial. Because this Investiture is “inherent,” it remains on each planet even after the Shattering. I believe Adonalsium’s Investiture is encoded into its planet’s Spiritual DNA, part of its soul just like the planet’s mountains and oceans are. Shards later Invested to change these planets into Major Shardworlds. I theorize they Invested in the part of the planet that I believe already held Adonalsium’s Investiture: Roshar’s highstorms, Taldain’s oceans, Nalthis’ electromagnetic radiation, and Sel’s ground. I discuss each Major Shardworld’s pre-Shattering magic separately below. I think Adonalsium’s pre-existing magic constrained what the Shards could do. The Surgebinding and Fabrial magic systems, for example, are built atop Adonalsium’s pre-existing spren-based magic. IMO, this is what Brandon means when he says that magic systems result from the “interaction” of a Shard with its Shardworld – the Shards adapted their magic systems to their Shardworld as they found it. Adonalsium’s effects permeate the cosmere. I believe we can deduce many of the elements of each Major Shardworld’s pre-Shattering magic by looking at the Shardworld’s current magic and applying a retrograde analysis – what are the Shards’ magic systems built on? ROSHAR – Highstorm-Invested Magic Roshar’s pre-Shattering “interaction with magic” system is spren-based. Khriss describes current Rosharan magic as “an expansion” of pre-Shattering magic (AU, Kindle, p. 535): Stormlight. I believe Adonalsium created and Invested Roshar’s highstorms. When Brandon says the highstorms began as “natural” meteorological events, I think he means Adonalsium’s Investiture of the highstorms is “natural.” Everything Adonalsium created is “natural” – meaning “in its original state.” I think Stormlight began solely as Adonalsium’s Investiture. Though Honor later added his Investiture to the highstorms (IMO), I believe Stormlight continues to hold Adonalsium’s Investiture. The pre-Shattering spren types still appear on Roshar. “Stormlight is essential to the ecosystem of Roshar.” Stormlight “makes plants grow.” Native lifeforms could not exist without Stormlight. Many like the listeners and greatshells change form through spren symbiosis. Stormlight evaporates and disperses quickly. Brandon says that’s by design – part of Roshar’s natural ecosystem. He cites the amount of “free” Investiture on Roshar. Realmic Compression. Because Roshar is “heavily Invested,” Brandon says the Realms “compress” there. Bits of Spiritual Realm Investiture “leak” into the Cognitive Realm as splinters, meaning they become self-aware. These splinters in turn “leak” into the Physical Realm. Eshonai confirms such transformations occur during highstorms, when the listener’s “Rider of Storms” (later the humans’ Stormfather) appears. For this reason, I theorize Realmic compression precedes Honor’s Investiture of the highstorms. Personification. Brandon’s above quote states that “minor spren…like lifespren” can exist on a world like pre-Shattering Roshar. IMO this statement confirms the listeners, the Aimians, and other native sapient beings personified natural phenomena before humans arrived, ascribing their own thoughts and feelings to such elements. Lifespren and other “minor spren” are the result. Thought Becomes Reality. I theorize Realmic compression, personification and the availability of “free Investiture” cause Cognitive Realm splinters to become spren and gain access to the Physical Realm. Jasnah says spren are thought made living reality – “living ideas.” I believe the “touch and design” of this system was already in place when the Shards arrived. TALDAIN – Ocean-Invested Magic I theorize Adonalsium placed his Investiture in Taldain’s oceans. Darkside has magic, but it’s “not nearly as explosive and obvious as the magic on Dayside” where “most of the Investiture [is]…but there is some stuff going on [in Darkside].” We haven’t seen Darkside’s magic, so it’s difficult to speculate about it. Hints of Adonalsium’s Investiture come from an examination of Dayside’s magic. 1. Sand Masters’ dehydrate to perform their magic. I believe their body’s water is Sand Mastery’s Catalyst, the consumed substance that causes Autonomy’s power to Invest the Sand Master. Khriss’ Sand Mastery description IMO confirms this (AU, Taldain Essay, Kindle p. 369): 2. Brandon says, “white sand can be charged in the presence of any Investiture…But it's not really using the magic, it’s just charging it with other Investiture (at [58:20]).” This statement, together with Khriss’, IMO confirms Sand Mastery (the “magic”) configures the sand at the Sand Master’s direction. But “white sand can be charged” with any Investiture, since that part of Sand Mastery is “not really using the magic.” The magic happens when Sand Masters use “the water from their own bodies…to control the sand” – drawing power “directly from the Spiritual Realm.” The pattern of other Major Shardworlds suggests if a Sand Master’s body water is Sand Mastery’s Catalyst, then that water holds Adonalsium’s Investiture. 3. Brandon adds in the cited WoB that “it would be very easy…to use Breath to fuel...Windrunning right? Because the oath and the bond and things like that make it pretty easy.” I interpret this statement to refer to a Returned’s bond with its Divine Breath, like Vasher’s. Each Returned represents a human ideal, like Lightsong “the Brave.” A Returned whose ideal is “Protection” (a Windrunner’s Primary Divine Attribute) might be able to use Breath to Windrun. That’s the “oath” part. I also think Brandon means the bond between a Returned and its Divine Breath and a Windrunner’s Nahel bond are similar. Both bonds allow mortals to process gaseous Investiture like Breath and Stormlight. The SLA Ars Arcana says that the “body focus” for Windrunners is “Inhalation,” though Khriss cautions us not to rely on “body focuses.” 4. Brandon elsewhere says “Roshar is really the easiest place in the cosmere for [Vasher] to consistently get [Breath]. Taldain would not be bad either...” [Emphasis added.] IMO, Vasher could only get “easy” Breath equivalents on Taldain if he could absorb Taldain’s Investiture like he does Breath and Stormlight – through his lungs. That suggests there’s Invested water vapor on Taldain. 5. I theorize Adonalsium Invested Taldain’s oceans. When the sun “beats down” on Dayside, it causes the water, and Adonalsium’s Investiture, to evaporate and enter the atmosphere. From there, the natural Water Cycle (Evaporation-Condensation-Precipitation, etc.) circulates that Investiture through the ecosystem and into human lungs and stomachs. “Certain people” can then use that water to control the lichen’s reactions. NALTHIS – Electromagnetic Radiation-Invested Magic I theorize Nalthis’ electromagnetic radiation holds Adonalsium’s Investiture. Endowment later Invested Nalthis’ electromagnetic spectrum and the precursor to Breath. I believe before Endowment’s Investiture of Nalthis, each Nalthian’s innate Investiture consisted of a single photon attached to their soul, a quantum of electromagnetic radiation. IMO, Endowment’s Investiture added its “life-giving” Mandate to that photon – the “Bio” in “BioChromatic” Breath. 1. Starting point: IMO simple Breath transfer to other people and objects doesn’t need Endowment’s power like Awakening does. Unlike Awakening, which IMO drains the Invested EMR that colored objects absorb, simple Breath transfer is end-neutral. A command and physical contact with the recipient suffices. That suggests the mechanism for Breath transfer pre-exists the Shattering. 2. I believe one Breath equals a quantum of Endowment’s Investiture, its smallest usable fragment. Souls “Heighten” as they accumulate more quanta of Breaths. The Heightenings are a “quantization” of Breaths – a “continuous set of values” (because of Breath variability) turned into a discrete set of values. This suggests a magic system related to quantum physics. 3. A photon is a quantum of light, the smallest usable unit of electromagnetic radiation. I believe Breath is a quantum of Endowment’s Investiture because Endowment Invests a quantum of Adonalsium’s Investiture – the photon attached to each person’s soul. 4. I theorize those photons are responsible for Breath transfer. Physical touching is necessary to close the “circuit” between the transferor and recipient of the Breaths. Breaths are unique among Investitures in that they automatically adjust to the Breath holder’s Identity even if the Breathholder isn’t from Nalthis. I speculate this ability relates to the Invested photon at Breath’s core. Photons are a cosmere-wide phenomenon and (presumably) everywhere the same. Movement of photons from person-to-person appears to be the “ambient magic” underlying Breath transfer. 5. I theorize Endowment Invests the Tears of Edgli, vivifying the flowers’ color, to mark the colored object as a source of Investiture. Color is reflected light, but an object absorbs the unreflected electromagnetic radiation. Draining “color” from an object to Awaken leaves the object looking gray (or white for the God Kings). I believe this happens because the Awakener has drained the object of Investiture. The color resembles the effects of a Shardblade slicing a human limb. IOW, I think Endowment vivified the Tears with saturated color both to mark them as repositories of Investiture and to restrict the reflected EMR (color) to a narrow spectrum. That leaves most of the Invested EMR available as Awakening’s Catalyst. SEL – Ground-Invested Magic I theorize Sel’s location-based magic grows from Adonalsium’s pre-Shattering ground-based magic. Just as Honor later Invested Roshar’s highstorms and Autonomy Invested Taldain’s oceans, I believe Dominion and Devotion later added their Investiture to Sel’s ground to create the one “Dor” magic system. Evidence Text. The main evidence is where the Shards chose to Invest. The Shards created Sel’s “one” magic system by using topographic features as their programmatic forms – features rooted in Sel’s ground. I also point to Raoden’s completion of Aon Rao. As a Reod Elantrian, Raoden couldn’t draw any lasting Aons. Yet he could draw the chasm line to complete this Aon with a stick. I believe the ground contains the Investiture that “catalyzed” Aon Rao, infusing Elantris and Elantrians with the Dor. Otherwise, Raoden could simply have drawn a correctly shaped Aon Rao in the air with the same effect. IMO, the now Dor-infused, “mostly Spiritual” Elantrians can draw other Aons without further catalysis. The ground continues to catalyze Aon Rao, which continues to Dor-infuse Elantris so long as Aon Rao retains its shape. Other textual evidence: Derethi prophesy Jaddeth will awake from his slumber “in the earth.” Uncontrolled Dor caused the chasm explosion. Arelenes use the phrase “Domi below.” Forgery soulstones are rocks. The only better soulstamp material is crystal. Khriss (in AU, “Sel Essay,” Kindle, p 18) says This sounds like the ground is becoming the equivalent of a giant spren. Beware of Mother Sel…. Selish Lifeforms Absorb the Dor. I believe Sel’s ground Investiture acts like the Patji’s Eye ecosystem on First of the Sun. The Eye leaches Investiture into the ground. Patji’s Fingers absorb the Investiture through their root systems. Parasitic worms consume the Investiture in the Fingers’ fruit. Aviar eat the worms…. I think Sel’s ground Investiture likewise leaches into the soil and become part of the food chain. Sel’s lifeforms absorb this Investiture. As Khriss says above, “every being on Sel has some Spiritual connection to the Dor and Investiture.” (Note “being,” not “person.”) IMO Khriss describes the bones of Adonalsium’s “interaction with nature” system, the “magic aspects to [that system’s] setting.” I believe Selish magic users consume the absorbed ground Investiture as the Catalyst for their Magic. Shai uses squid ink for her soulstamps. The Bloodsealer uses Shai’s blood. Dakhor monks transform their bones. As stated, I believe Raoden’s completion of Aon Rao relied on Sel’s ground Investiture, opening the pathway for the Dor to infuse Elantris and Elantrians. Motion. Sel’s magic systems seem to require motion for activation. Sel’s Catalytic” magic systems rely on motion plus strict programmatic forms. Shai and the Bloodsealer twist their Investiture-infused stamps a half-turn to make them “take.” AonDor needs the movement of drawing Aons as much as the strict form itself: an imprecisely drawn Aon still pulls in the Dor, just imprecisely, as we see with Dilaf’s wife. I think Sel’s non-Catalytic systems use only motion: “ChayShan focuses on speeding up the motions and gaining power from them.”

This post explains my use of the word “Mandate” to describe what most everyone else describes as a Shard’s “Intent.” After this, I’ll link to this post instead of writing “Mandate (Intent)” a gazillion times. I’m not trying to sell anyone on “Mandates” – the word “Intent” has currency on the Forums. I just want to explain my usage. 1. “Mandate” is the only textual word Brandon has used to describe this phenomenon. In the HoA Chapter 79 Epigraph (emphasis added), Sazed says that power without “a consciousness to direct it” has “only a vague will of its own, tied in to the mandate of its abilities.” TRANSLATION: “Undirected power acts according to its mandate.” 2. In AU (Kindle, p. 17), Khriss describes magical “rules of perception and intent.” In Elantris (10th Anniversary Edition, Kindle p. 487), Khriss says As in other forms of Investiture, intent is very important. An Elantrian can’t accidentally draw an Aon…. One must wish to draw an Aon, and have an inkling of the required shape, before anything will happen. The Coppermind says one needs “an intent to create a Hemalurgic spike.” Otherwise, the spike will simply rip a hole in a person without transferring any magical attributes. This “rule of intent” refers to a mortal’s state of mind, not something that attaches to Investiture. The mortal must “intend” the desired magical result. Otherwise, nothing happens, whether with an Aon or a hemalurgical spike. That is a different concept than a Shard’s “intent.” Brandon would not use the same word to mean two different things, particularly when “intent” as Khriss uses it IS “canonical” (at least to her as a scholar). 3. @Chaos first observed Mandates in early 2011. He coined the term “intent” to describe them. Brandon has used the term “intent” in conversations with fans but never in a book. He has also used the words “role” and “personality” to describe this phenomenon. Until Brandon makes a different word canon, I'll use "Mandate" despite “intent’s” currency. Besides, it’s easier to say “Mandated Investiture” than “Investiture subject to an Intent.”

@Yata, you asked three questions: 1. Can the Powers become Investiture? Yes. It happens all the time. 2. Can Investiture become the Powers? Unclear. I haven’t addressed Brandon’s “Cosmere Thermodynamics” laws yet. There is a WoB that appears to say “yes” to your question. But if Investiture can convert back into the Powers, it seems like the cosmere would become a perpetual motion machine in violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The Powers could convert into new energy indefinitely, and never enter entropic equilibrium. I’m not a scientist, so I’ll leave others to debate this, but it seems like an issue. 3. Could the Powers exist outside the Spiritual Realm? “Yes,” since they exist in Sel’s Cognitive Realm. Aside from their location-dependency, the Powers there seem to work exactly as they do elsewhere. Under “normal” circumstances – when a Shard (Odium) doesn’t intervene – I think the answer under my model is “no.” The Powers cease to be the Powers once they become something else: matter, energy or other Investiture. At that point, the Powers “specialize.” They “differentiate” like embryonic cells. The Powers lose their capacity to create. I disagree with you about Wax and Marasi’s Realmic “ignorance.” Wax didn't experience the Bands' power until AFTER he died and talked to Harmony. He learned about the cosmere and its Realms from an actual Shard who pointed things out to him. He'd certainly know the difference between normal Allomancy and Feruchemy compared to the Bands. And if the Bands were as powerful as the kandra believed, both Wax and Marasi's minds expanded commensurate with their power. That's why they each saw through matter and energy to Brandon's "one substance.” They would KNOW they were dealing with the Powers of Creation. There’s also an "outside the book" reason to believe them. I think Brandon is not just an excellent storyteller, but an excellent writer. Craftsmen like Brandon don't waste lines. Everything has meaning. Thus, when Wax sees “mist,” “snow” and “wind” swirling around him (see the OP for the cite), I think Brandon INTENDED this to be the Investiture, matter and energy the excess Powers converted themselves into. That fits perfectly with my theory. Take another look at these BoM passages. So, yes, I do believe "ignorant' Wax and Marasi. They know a lot. @SpoolofWhool, the Dor in the Cognitive Realm is an “exception” Brandon “built in” that proves the general rule: Shard intervention (the Powers) can change anything. And I said in the OP the Dor began in the Spiritual Realm, not the Cognitive. Please don’t accuse me of things I didn’t say. Your WoB (which I also quoted in my second post above) doesn’t say that Feruchemy “manipulates the Powers.” It’s just a description of the Metallic Arts as “manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch to powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard….” The second clause – “the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them” – modifies the first clause. It describes what “manifestations of this power in mortal form” means. Such manifestations are “how people’s physical forms interpret the use of the Shard.” Since Investiture is the “condensed essence of the godly powers,” using Investiture IS “touching and using” the powers of creation in that interpretive way. That is NOT the same thing as Feruchemy directing the raw Powers like Allomancy and the other catalytic magic systems do. IIRC, there are no textual instances of either Hemalurgy or Feruchemy “touching” and “using” the raw Powers directly. Only Allomancy. I am glad you’re “far less opposed” to the theory now. That’s a start. It’s been tough slogging trying to persuade people. The earlier drafts of the theory you read always stated that post-Shattering the Powers are a form of Investiture. When Adonalsium Shattered, the Powers Invested the Vessels. The Powers became Investiture, part of “Creation.” Sel: I don’t “sub-define variations” of Creation Magic as Investiture Magic. Dominion and Devotion’s original Creation Magic system has been fragmented. But systems like ChayShan and Forton’s potion were never part of Sel’s Creation Magic. They are separate and independent and do different things. Nalthis: Where do I say “you can’t change other people” with Investiture Magic? The opposite is true. Investiture Magic works on the soul that is the object of the magic, and only on that soul. That soul may be your own (Feruchemy or ChayShan) or someone else’s (Forton’s potion or Breath Transfer). Breath Transfer “heightens” the recipient’s senses, etc. The recipient is the magic’s “object.” That why Breath Transfer is Investiture Magic. The transferor doesn’t tap the Powers for this magical transaction. You ask whether “colour as a property is somehow being turned into investiture to draw upon Powers from somewhere else.” The answer is “close but not quite.” (“You’re on the right track?”) The next two topics of my Cosmere Magic Theory – “Pre-Shattering Magic” and “The Structure of Catalytic Magic Systems” – will address this. Please excuse me if I don’t discuss it here. I can PM you if you can’t wait. Breath is necessary for Awakening. The Awakener must move these fragments of Endowment’s Investiture into the target. Draining color draws down the Powers from the Spiritual Realm to animate the object holding the Breaths, but color is not “turned into Investiture.” Nightwatcher: I think some form of the Old Magic predates the Shards’ Investiture of Roshar. That in itself suggests the Old Magic is Investiture Magic, since mortals could not access the Powers pre-Shattering. But the main point is, look from the perspective of the soul that is the magic’s object. Mortals who visit the Nightwatcher don’t touch the Powers, don’t command the Powers, and don’t command the Nightwatcher. I also think the Nightwatcher herself doesn’t touch the Powers. Aviar don’t touch the Powers – they become Invested through the Patji perpendicularity ecosystem. Aviar change mortal souls by installing a Cognitive bond, just like Radiantspren do. Aviar, Radiantspren and the Nightwatcher all graft Investiture onto the mortal soul without using the Powers. Each such grafting is Investiture Magic. @Djarskublar, thank you for acknowledging the theory’s “self-consistency.” We still disagree on the interpretation of the cited WoBs. I don’t know how you come by your interpretation of the 2008 WoB. It does not equate the Powers with massive amounts of Investiture. You’re reading that into the WoB because you feel “it is easier to understand that way.” You say, “when [Brandon] talks about the Powers of Creation, he just means the vast quantities of Investiture that Shards have access to and that mortals can tap into.” Exactly! The Powers ARE the “vast quantities of Investiture that Shards have access to” – undifferentiated Investiture that has not yet been Invested anywhere. The Shards are “mostly Spiritual” for this reason. I believe there are two types of Spiritual Realm Investiture. The first type is what I call “Spiritweb Investiture.” It’s the material that comprises souls and Connections. Spiritweb Investiture defines “Creation,” which is the sum of all Spiritwebs and their corresponding aspects. The Powers are the second type of Spiritual Realm Investiture. They have not yet been folded into Creation. When directed, the Powers create new matter, energy and Investiture. Khriss says of Allomancy, “The metal is a catalyst…that begins an Investiture and keeps it running.” (BoM Ars Arcanum, Kindle p. 396, emphasis added.) “An Investiture” causes the Powers to flow into the Allomancer through the metals, Investing him or her. The Allomancer then uses the Powers to perform Creation Magic. The Investiture process is the same regardless of the amount of the Powers the Allomancer summons. Normal Allomancy “taps into the powers of creation just slightly.” Vin’s use of the mists as “super-fuel” causes the Powers to cascade through her, “ripping troughs” and vaporizing her. The Bands’ Investiture of Wax and Marasi is somewhere in between. In each case, the Powers Invest the Allomancer to the extent of the Allomancer’s available “fuel.” * * * * * * * Phew! Lots of questions… Thanks for your continued interest!