An Interesting Term

[Tacitus he/him]

So I recently heard a rather interesting term, which was 'Divine Investiture of Authority'.

What that term means is basically exactly what it says. A god or deity, summat, putting the authority to act in their name, into someone else. 

Sounds a lot like cosmere Investiture actually. Investiture could just be a physical representation of Adonalsium's authority over the universe (Or whatever it is exactly Adonalsium had power over), being put into other beings.

'Investiture' isn't exactly a common word. Especially considering it has been said that Adonalsium is the source of all investiture in the Cosmere, this could make sense as to why that's the word Brandon chose for his magic energy stuff.

(There might be an actual WoB or something on why the word 'investiture'. I don't know, but I just typed this out so too late for extra research now.)

[Flaming Coinshot he/him]

The only time I've heard of Investiture in our world was the Investiture crisis between the HRE Emperor and the Pope. And I think Investiture is the outcome of a Shard's effect on a Shardworld. 

[+ShardlessVessel]

On 08/07/2022 at 0:00 PM, Tacitus said:

So I recently heard a rather interesting term, which was 'Divine Investiture of Authority'.

What that term means is basically exactly what it says. A god or deity, summat, putting the authority to act in their name, into someone else. 

Sounds a lot like cosmere Investiture actually. Investiture could just be a physical representation of Adonalsium's authority over the universe (Or whatever it is exactly Adonalsium had power over), being put into other beings.

'Investiture' isn't exactly a common word. Especially considering it has been said that Adonalsium is the source of all investiture in the Cosmere, this could make sense as to why that's the word Brandon chose for his magic energy stuff.

(There might be an actual WoB or something on why the word 'investiture'. I don't know, but I just typed this out so too late for extra research now.)

That seems to be exactly the case:

Quote

Pod (paraphrased)

You said at the Starsight release that [Adonalsium] was intentionally preventing the spren from accessing Surges through fabrials and such pre-Shattering. Was this a passive or active effect?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It was kind of both - the way [Adonalsium] worked was just that the way he saw the world [magic] was the way the world [magic] worked. He didn't want the spren to be able to do that, so they couldn't.

American Fork High School Signing (Dec. 12, 2019)

Edited July 12, 2022 by ShardlessVessel
Trimmed parts of quote irrelevant to the discussion

[cometaryorbit]

Iirc there's a centuries old Chinese text usually translated as "The Investiture of the Gods".

Investiture in its RL meaning basically means being given a position of power/honor/authority.

I think the cosmere idea is basically fragments of divinity being given to mortals.

[Duxredux he/him]

I've heard the term "Divine Investiture of Authority" before, and in that particular usage it was referencing when someone, particularly a prophet, operates and talks as if they were the being that they represented, doing so by delegated (or invested) authority. For example, in order for a diplomat or ambassador to have any effectiveness whatsoever, they have to be given authority to act as if they were the organization, group, leader, or other source of authority, meaning that the entity that they represent will back or otherwise make good on whatever the diplomat or ambassador does in their name, to the extent of the authority that they are given.

How does this relate to the Cosmere? Investiture is more or less the 3rd component of the Cosmere, along with mass, energy, but beings that have more Investiture (or another way of looking at it, authority over Investiture) can influence or otherwise command Investiture to respond. A Coinshot can move a metal (and at the high end, maybe even fundamental forces), and a Shard can move a planet. The amount of Investiture or "authority" also impacts the extent that you can influence others, the God King for example can break Commands.

All of this we know, but what struck me, and is probably obvious, is that if we look at this as matters of authority, there can be a distinct difference between the quantity of Investiture in an object and the "authority" it has. My example would be Vasher's Lifeless squirrel, which only had a single breath but Lightsong's priests noted that had an incredibly strong Command. The squirrel took weeks of torture and Breath to break. Why does this squirrel matter? It means that the amount of Investiture does not have to correlate with strength of the Command, though sheer Investiture can overwhelm a Command, and this becomes relevant because of Dawnshards.

In essence, I wonder if there has been a division between the Power (Investiture of the Shards) and the Authority (Dawnshards) in the Cosmere, and if a Dawnshard can override, augment, or break the Commands of people manipulating Investiture. I'm not just talking the Commands of a Lifeless, but something to the extent of altering a Soulcaster commanding something to change. There's a bunch of jargon that has probably resulted in hair being pulled out, but this is related to all the ideas that Invested abilities are related to Intent/Commands/focus/etc., that a Dawnshard with Invested abilities can influence even those Commands that you wouldn't think are a Command and wouldn't consider breakable, such as a Coinshot Pushing on a clip. Basically, I'm wondering if Commands and Intent are a fundamental component of the Cosmere and when a Dawnshard has Investiture they can manipulate those Commands that are related to the Dawnshard.

Anyway, that's my rambling from your interesting term. Interesting thought!