Highstorms and Refilling Investiture

[TheFrugalWizard he/him]

So, highstorms refill Investiture, as shown by the fact that gemstones are refilled when left out in them and Radiants like Windrunners can fly indefinitley as long as they're close to the storm. However, I have a question about refilling other forms of Investiture, specifically feruchemical metalminds. How would other Investiture users be benefitted by highstorms? Would a metalmind be at all refilled by one? What about other Scadrian forms of Investiture?

[alder24]

59 minutes ago, TheFrugalWizard said:

So, highstorms refill Investiture, as shown by the fact that gemstones are refilled when left out in them and Radiants like Windrunners can fly indefinitley as long as they're close to the storm. However, I have a question about refilling other forms of Investiture, specifically feruchemical metalminds. How would other Investiture users be benefitted by highstorms? Would a metalmind be at all refilled by one? What about other Scadrian forms of Investiture?

They would not be benefited at all. They can't use Stormlight, Stormlight doesn't "fill" metals. Metals are a Scadrian thing, Stormlight is Rosharan. Unless a Feruchemist is also a Surgebinder and has a means of unkeying Stormlight - which is hard as nobody ever did that - they can't use Stormlight in combination with their Metallic arts. Lots of WoBs for you:

Spoiler

Questioner

If I'm a Mistborn and I change planet-- if I go over to Roshar, do I have to bring metal from Scadrial with me?

Brandon Sanderson

No, you do not.

Questioner

Could I use Stormlight, and just have the same power?

Brandon Sanderson

Not-- not-- It would take some work.

Questioner

Yeah, okay. Okay, but I could use steel from Roshar, and you can-- Okay, thank you sir.

Orem signing (Dec. 21, 2017)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

So you said that different Investitures from different worlds can fuel different Investitures, right? Would that mean that you could potentially use Stormlight for Allomancy and/or Feruchemy?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, a little harder with the Metallic Arts than, for instance, Nightblood is the easiest example. He can just feed on whatever Investiture is around.

Questioner

Could he feed on the Dor from...

Brandon Sanderson

He could totally feed on the Dor.

Questioner

Would you need to have a special sheath to do that or?

Brandon Sanderson

No, what you would have to do for him on Elantris is you would have to open some conduit to the Dor that's persistent, like a light or something, and he will suck through that, he would probably end up sucking the whole aon.

Questioner

City of Elantris itself?

Brandon Sanderson

City of Elantris itself would work, yeah, but you're gonna be in trouble if he sucks up the whole thing and destroys it, which is totally possible.

Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 (June 11, 2016)

 

Spoiler

shoeties

Since Stormlight and Breath are both investiture, would it be possible to use Nightblood with the former rather than the latter? Would it be possible to store Stormlight in metal using Feruchemy?

Brandon Sanderson

Mixing the magics is possible, but some are easier and more natural than other. Feeding Stormlight to Nightblood is easy. Storing stormlight in metal is tough.

/r/books AMA 2015 (June 25, 2015)

 

Spoiler

Badger1289

If Investiture can’t be moved beyond a certain point away from its world/solar system, how in the Cosmere did three Awakeners end up on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

Investiture from different systems acts in different ways. Certain people have managed, for example, to get some kinds of Investiture to leave their home world through the use of a kind of magical pipeline. Breaths attach to the identity of the individual, and are fully given away--freely, which removes some of this Connection. It's a nature of Endowment that the gift is given without strings attached, so to speak. But while it's a renewable resource, it's a difficult one.

Roshar is extra "sticky" so to speak with Investiture. It's part of the nature of Honor, Cultivation, and oaths. So getting it off is a problem, though collecting it is not.

Echono

Wouldn't consuming it also be a problem? You need a direct or secondary Bond to take in Stormlight Investiture. It's not like metals or Breaths that anyone could absorb. Although a certain grouchy ardent might have found a way...

Brandon Sanderson

You are right in that Stormlight is more being seen as a power source, since certain systems in the cosmere can work on a variety of different kinds. Not just anyone could make use of it, at least not unless it is refined.

Rhythm of War Preview Q&As (Oct. 8, 2020)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

As far as the Lord Ruler goes, how did he use the Twinborn thing? Feruchemy and Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

What he had to figure out how to do is: Allomancy is powered by Spiritual power directly from the Shard of Adonalsium. Whereas Feruchemy is powered by your own Investiture and effort being transferred into the thing. What he needed to do was figure out a way to power Feruchemy with Allomantic power, right? You could have done the same thing by fueling it with the Dor, or with Stormlight, or another external. But he only had access to three magics. So what he had to do was figure out that.

So what he's doing is, he's basically taking metals, (since he's a Feruchemist and an allomancers), and he is burning metals that he has Invested himself, but then using... basically, switching it so he gets a burst of Allomantic power that is charged with a Feruchemical attribute. So it's powering Feruchemy with Allomancy by burning the metal that he himself has Invested.

Questioner

So he was essentially putting stuff into the metal?

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, priming the pump. He puts it in with Feruchemy. Then he burns it with Allomancy. But that fuels Feruchemy with Allomancy, which allows him to draw on the powers of the Shards, rather than himself. So it's not really a perpetual motion machine, because he's drawing the power from someone else. But it's external, which allows him to break the rules of Feruchemy.

The big question I have is: that works in the book, because you can dig into the technicalities of the book. But that's not gonna work in the movie, right? That explanation right there, that's so many levels over the heads of the audience. So I have to figure out a way to not break the cosmere magic, but make it simpler to understand in the movie. Which is the big headache in writing the screenplay. That's probably the biggest challenge in the screenplay is to figure out how to make that all work.

LTUE 2020 (Feb. 15, 2020)

 

Spoiler

Aneesh

If there's a Forger like Shai who plausibly had an opportunity to ingest lerasium and become Mistborn, but she passed it up, could she create a stamp that makes her temporarily a Mistborn?

Brandon Sanderson

She would have to have access to enough Investiture to make that happen. The stamp saying, "Hey, I'm a Mistborn!" doesn't actually give her the Investiture to do that. She could rewrite her past so that she took that bead. She would not actually be able to use the power, until she got an infusion of Investiture, which could be done with a stamp in the right manner, but most of the time you're gonna have to have some external source. Basically you're gonna have to take a hit of Investiture, a large amount of it, and then use the stamp, and then it will feed on that to change you into basically any of the other magics.

Aneesh

Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson

If you could get a hit of Stormlight, that'd work. The problem is, Stormlight's not easy to get off of Roshar, and it still is technically keyed. You could get it a lot more easily-- Stormlight would work fairly well, but what you really want is some pure, unkeyed Dor. That stuff, you could do all kinds of things with. But, you know, it's kinda dangerous. But that's the stuff you're gonna want, or something like unto it.

Dragonsteel Mini-Con 2021 (Nov. 22, 2021)

 

[alder24]

3 minutes ago, TheFrugalWizard said:

Okay, let me set the stage. 

The alleyverse is a planet in which all planets of the cosmere exist together. Scadrians, Rosharans, Nathalians, etc. Every so often, there is an event called the alleystorm that is seperate from normal highstorms in its nature and origin, which refills Investiture in a similar way to a highstorm. Mainly in that it refills stormlight, like a highstorm. The stormlight is concievably unkeyed, so therefore I would be able to use it for compounding? I understand that purified, unkeyed Investiture is required for something like this, but at the storm originates on a third part planet that's purpose is purley for the interaction of different Cosmere characters.

Sorry, I had no idea what the Alleyverse is. In that case it sounds like you can use that investiture from the Alleystorm to fuel your Feruchemy, as long as it's unkeyed. 

[Lord Spirit he/him]

I don't think metalminds would be filled during a highstorm because they are keyed to specific people and really aren't usable except to the person who created it. even with an unkeyed or unsealed metalmind, it requires intent to fill them and the highstorm doesn't have an intent beyond being a storm. Most other magic systems aren't great at absorbing investiture. I guess it would recharge sand from Taldain, but the only real use would be if the investiture user was able to absorb stormlight somehow directly from the storm to fuel awakening, power Aons, compound feruchemy, or maybe use allomancy, but the latter seems the least likely. I think you would need some kind of connection to roshar to be able to use stormlight directly from a storm, which would be very hard to get if you're an elantrian or mistborn or a feruchemist. The "easiest" way would be to become a radiant, but that has its own challenges. the best way to harness a highstorm would be to leave out gemstones.

 

[TheFrugalWizard he/him]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

They would not be benefited at all. They can't use Stormlight, Stormlight doesn't "fill" metals. Metals are a Scadrian thing, Stormlight is Rosharan. Unless a Feruchemist is also a Surgebinder and has a means of unkeying Stormlight - which is hard as nobody ever did that - they can't use Stormlight in combination with their Metallic arts. Lots of WoBs for you:

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Questioner

If I'm a Mistborn and I change planet-- if I go over to Roshar, do I have to bring metal from Scadrial with me?

Brandon Sanderson

No, you do not.

Questioner

Could I use Stormlight, and just have the same power?

Brandon Sanderson

Not-- not-- It would take some work.

Questioner

Yeah, okay. Okay, but I could use steel from Roshar, and you can-- Okay, thank you sir.

Orem signing (Dec. 21, 2017)

 

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Questioner

So you said that different Investitures from different worlds can fuel different Investitures, right? Would that mean that you could potentially use Stormlight for Allomancy and/or Feruchemy?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, a little harder with the Metallic Arts than, for instance, Nightblood is the easiest example. He can just feed on whatever Investiture is around.

Questioner

Could he feed on the Dor from...

Brandon Sanderson

He could totally feed on the Dor.

Questioner

Would you need to have a special sheath to do that or?

Brandon Sanderson

No, what you would have to do for him on Elantris is you would have to open some conduit to the Dor that's persistent, like a light or something, and he will suck through that, he would probably end up sucking the whole aon.

Questioner

City of Elantris itself?

Brandon Sanderson

City of Elantris itself would work, yeah, but you're gonna be in trouble if he sucks up the whole thing and destroys it, which is totally possible.

Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 (June 11, 2016)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

shoeties

Since Stormlight and Breath are both investiture, would it be possible to use Nightblood with the former rather than the latter? Would it be possible to store Stormlight in metal using Feruchemy?

Brandon Sanderson

Mixing the magics is possible, but some are easier and more natural than other. Feeding Stormlight to Nightblood is easy. Storing stormlight in metal is tough.

/r/books AMA 2015 (June 25, 2015)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Badger1289

If Investiture can’t be moved beyond a certain point away from its world/solar system, how in the Cosmere did three Awakeners end up on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

Investiture from different systems acts in different ways. Certain people have managed, for example, to get some kinds of Investiture to leave their home world through the use of a kind of magical pipeline. Breaths attach to the identity of the individual, and are fully given away--freely, which removes some of this Connection. It's a nature of Endowment that the gift is given without strings attached, so to speak. But while it's a renewable resource, it's a difficult one.

Roshar is extra "sticky" so to speak with Investiture. It's part of the nature of Honor, Cultivation, and oaths. So getting it off is a problem, though collecting it is not.

Echono

Wouldn't consuming it also be a problem? You need a direct or secondary Bond to take in Stormlight Investiture. It's not like metals or Breaths that anyone could absorb. Although a certain grouchy ardent might have found a way...

Brandon Sanderson

You are right in that Stormlight is more being seen as a power source, since certain systems in the cosmere can work on a variety of different kinds. Not just anyone could make use of it, at least not unless it is refined.

Rhythm of War Preview Q&As (Oct. 8, 2020)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Questioner

As far as the Lord Ruler goes, how did he use the Twinborn thing? Feruchemy and Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

What he had to figure out how to do is: Allomancy is powered by Spiritual power directly from the Shard of Adonalsium. Whereas Feruchemy is powered by your own Investiture and effort being transferred into the thing. What he needed to do was figure out a way to power Feruchemy with Allomantic power, right? You could have done the same thing by fueling it with the Dor, or with Stormlight, or another external. But he only had access to three magics. So what he had to do was figure out that.

So what he's doing is, he's basically taking metals, (since he's a Feruchemist and an allomancers), and he is burning metals that he has Invested himself, but then using... basically, switching it so he gets a burst of Allomantic power that is charged with a Feruchemical attribute. So it's powering Feruchemy with Allomancy by burning the metal that he himself has Invested.

Questioner

So he was essentially putting stuff into the metal?

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, priming the pump. He puts it in with Feruchemy. Then he burns it with Allomancy. But that fuels Feruchemy with Allomancy, which allows him to draw on the powers of the Shards, rather than himself. So it's not really a perpetual motion machine, because he's drawing the power from someone else. But it's external, which allows him to break the rules of Feruchemy.

The big question I have is: that works in the book, because you can dig into the technicalities of the book. But that's not gonna work in the movie, right? That explanation right there, that's so many levels over the heads of the audience. So I have to figure out a way to not break the cosmere magic, but make it simpler to understand in the movie. Which is the big headache in writing the screenplay. That's probably the biggest challenge in the screenplay is to figure out how to make that all work.

LTUE 2020 (Feb. 15, 2020)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Aneesh

If there's a Forger like Shai who plausibly had an opportunity to ingest lerasium and become Mistborn, but she passed it up, could she create a stamp that makes her temporarily a Mistborn?

Brandon Sanderson

She would have to have access to enough Investiture to make that happen. The stamp saying, "Hey, I'm a Mistborn!" doesn't actually give her the Investiture to do that. She could rewrite her past so that she took that bead. She would not actually be able to use the power, until she got an infusion of Investiture, which could be done with a stamp in the right manner, but most of the time you're gonna have to have some external source. Basically you're gonna have to take a hit of Investiture, a large amount of it, and then use the stamp, and then it will feed on that to change you into basically any of the other magics.

Aneesh

Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson

If you could get a hit of Stormlight, that'd work. The problem is, Stormlight's not easy to get off of Roshar, and it still is technically keyed. You could get it a lot more easily-- Stormlight would work fairly well, but what you really want is some pure, unkeyed Dor. That stuff, you could do all kinds of things with. But, you know, it's kinda dangerous. But that's the stuff you're gonna want, or something like unto it.

Dragonsteel Mini-Con 2021 (Nov. 22, 2021)

 

So you're saying that I can't directly refill a metalmind with stormlight, because that power comes from myself (this is a character for the Alley verse btw), but I can simulate drawing that power from stormlight by compounding. Because from what he said, I can use stormlight to compound. So... I can put power in, and then use stormlight to compound, using the stormlight to fuel the feruchemy. Is that right?

[Lord Spirit he/him]

23 minutes ago, TheFrugalWizard said:

So you're saying that I can't directly refill a metalmind with stormlight, because that power comes from myself (this is a character for the Alley verse btw), but I can simulate drawing that power from stormlight by compounding. Because from what he said, I can use stormlight to compound. So... I can put power in, and then use stormlight to compound, using the stormlight to fuel the feruchemy. Is that right?

You can compound, but only if you can absorb the stormlight somehow. 

 

Edit: This is my thousandth post! Yay!

Edited April 22 by Lord Spirit
1000th post!!!

[alder24]

14 minutes ago, TheFrugalWizard said:

So you're saying that I can't directly refill a metalmind with stormlight, because that power comes from myself (this is a character for the Alley verse btw), but I can simulate drawing that power from stormlight by compounding. Because from what he said, I can use stormlight to compound. So... I can put power in, and then use stormlight to compound, using the stormlight to fuel the feruchemy. Is that right?

No, you can't if you can't breathe in Stormlight and UNKEY it. Even being both a Radiant and a Feruchemist might not be enough. We don't know yet, but from those WoBs it seems like you need more than that. Look again at the last WoB - Stormlight is keyed to Honor, you need to unkey it fully, you need to have the same situation as with purified unkeyed Dor. Only then you will be able to use unkeyed Stormlight to fuel Feruchemy, in the same way compounding works. But Stormlight on its own won't fill metalminds, it has to go through you where you will give it a form - turn it into an attribute and just store it. It's technically compounding, but this doesn't work like typical compounding - you don't burn anything, you just somehow turn it into attributes. But unkeyed Stormlight is a must. TLM ch 40:

Quote

“I appreciate the sentiment,” Kelsier said. “You and Moonlight are to assist Miss Colms. In fact, I think it is time to do something drastic. Take the stores of purified Dor"
[...]
“What is it?” Marasi whispered.
“Concentrated Investiture,” Moonlight said. “Unkeyed from any Identity. This is an energy source that can power things like your Metallic Arts.”
“Those are powered by the gods.”
“Exactly,” Moonlight said. “This power comes from a god’s corpse. Two of them actually, intermingled. It’s exceptionally difficult to recover. The things that you could do with this … well, that I could do with this. You’d only be able to use it as a hyperefficient replacement for your metals. You don’t know how good you have it here on Scadrial, being able to power your abilities with something so common.”

If you're not a Radiant and capture Stormlight in a gemstone, then you somehow unkey it, only then you can use it to power other Invested Arts, just like Pure Dor can. But this is something that even Ghostbloods haven't done that yet, they are close, they know how to, but they have no ability to do this as for now. It's easier to just use purified unkeyed Dor, even if it's a struggle to get it compared to Stormlight.

Unfortunately it's not as easy as getting any kind of investiture and fueling your Invested Arts in it, you have to tamper it, you have to purify it, you have to unkey it first. Some might work easier than others (like you easily use Breaths to fuel Surgebinding), others, particularly Metallic Arts are hard to outsource. It works with Feruchemy and Allomancy probably only because all three Metallic Arts came directly from Ruin and Preservation, they are keyed to them and those two Shards can easily fuel them if they want to.

Spoiler

Ilkhan2016

Breath and Stormlight are both forms of Investiture. AFAIK you can power any of the magic systems from any form of Investiture. Zahel is on Roshar, I believe, primarily due to how easy Investiture (Stormlight) is to come across.

AFAIK the form of Investiture doesn't change anything about the abilities. For example, Szeth was sucked out of Stormlight when he drew Nightblood; and Azure used Stormlight to Awaken in Shadesmar.

/u/mistborn is that right?

Brandon Sanderson

A lot of this depends on the Investiture and the magic in question. Azure was legit using Breaths, for example--ones she'd brought with her. But Szeth was able to feed Stormlight to Nightblood, much as Vasher uses Stormlight to keep himself alive.

To Awaken with Stormlight, the easiest thing to do would be to first change Stormlight into Breaths--something that Azure doesn't know how to do. (Admittedly, Hoid doesn't either, so it's not like it's a simple thing to achieve.) You could also theoretically use some magical (or mechanical) means to power your Awakening with a different form of Investiture.

Extesian

This is very interesting. Is it possible then in the Cosmere for the 'intent' (spin or however described) of Investiture to be changed? And I mean within reasonable limits (not the powers of six shards or any of that). Can a Shard effectively grow in power in a place (e.g. toward an avatar) through another Shard's Investiture being changed (not just corrupted)? Or is it just making one type ('intent' - you should canonize a word for this :D) of Investiture mimic the properties of another?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of the ways of accomplishing what you're talking about would involve either 1) fooling/overwriting your spiritual makeup somehow. (This is what Hemalurgy does, for example.) 2) Refining the power somehow into a more pure form.

But there are a lot of variables. The way magic from Nalthis works, for example, the system is just looking for any available Investiture to power itself--and so basically anything will do, regardless of the source. This includes consuming your own soul, in some cases...

You'll see terminology coming along eventually that facilitates talking about all of this. I'm not yet decided on some of it.

Celestial_Blu3

How many Breaths does [Azure] have by her final appearance in OB?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO, I'm afraid.

General Reddit 2019 (April 25, 2019)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

You've mentioned in the last couple of afterwords that you get interesting results when you mix types of Investiture.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Twinborn and Surgebinders on Roshar. Can you mix a form of magic with a source of Investiture? Can say Vasher use Stormlight in place of Breaths or would that require tampering via Hemalurgy or something like that?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of them require tampering. Some of them are a little bit easier than others. It depends on really what you mean. For instance, white sand can be charged in the presence of any Investiture right? It's just-- But that's not really using the magic, it's just charging it with other Investiture. But, you know, it would be very easy, for instance, if you can get yourself Invested-- Like, for instance, it'd be very easy to use Breaths to fuel Windrunning right? Because the oath and the bond and things like that are going to make it pretty easy. However fueling Allomancy with something else is going to be a lot harder. So it really depends on the magic. It's the sort of thing that there will be lots of science in the books dedicated to making happen in the future and you will find some of the processes these work easier than other ones.

DragonCon 2016 (Sept. 3, 2016)

 

Spoiler

Czanos

Preservation can fuel Allomancy, (minus atium.) but can Ruin fuel Hemalurgy? (Or atium?) And could Sazed fuel all three Metallic Arts?

Brandon Sanderson

Both gods could, if they wanted, fuel all of the Metallic Arts. Preservation is stronger at fueling Allomancy, Ruin stronger at fueling Allomancy or Feruchemy when it has been given via a spike. Both are balanced when it comes to Feruchemy. But this rarely comes up in the books, as it required expending power in a way that the gods were hesitant to do.

Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)

 

[TheFrugalWizard he/him]

38 minutes ago, alder24 said:

No, you can't if you can't breathe in Stormlight and UNKEY it. Even being both a Radiant and a Feruchemist might not be enough. We don't know yet, but from those WoBs it seems like you need more than that. Look again at the last WoB - Stormlight is keyed to Honor, you need to unkey it fully, you need to have the same situation as with purified unkeyed Dor. Only then you will be able to use unkeyed Stormlight to fuel Feruchemy, in the same way compounding works. But Stormlight on its own won't fill metalminds, it has to go through you where you will give it a form - turn it into an attribute and just store it. It's technically compounding, but this doesn't work like typical compounding - you don't burn anything, you just somehow turn it into attributes. But unkeyed Stormlight is a must. TLM ch 40:

If you're not a Radiant and capture Stormlight in a gemstone, then you somehow unkey it, only then you can use it to power other Invested Arts, just like Pure Dor can. But this is something that even Ghostbloods haven't done that yet, they are close, they know how to, but they have no ability to do this as for now. It's easier to just use purified unkeyed Dor, even if it's a struggle to get it compared to Stormlight.

Unfortunately it's not as easy as getting any kind of investiture and fueling your Invested Arts in it, you have to tamper it, you have to purify it, you have to unkey it first. Some might work easier than others (like you easily use Breaths to fuel Surgebinding), others, particularly Metallic Arts are hard to outsource. It works with Feruchemy and Allomancy probably only because all three Metallic Arts came directly from Ruin and Preservation, they are keyed to them and those two Shards can easily fuel them if they want to.

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Ilkhan2016

Breath and Stormlight are both forms of Investiture. AFAIK you can power any of the magic systems from any form of Investiture. Zahel is on Roshar, I believe, primarily due to how easy Investiture (Stormlight) is to come across.

AFAIK the form of Investiture doesn't change anything about the abilities. For example, Szeth was sucked out of Stormlight when he drew Nightblood; and Azure used Stormlight to Awaken in Shadesmar.

/u/mistborn is that right?

Brandon Sanderson

A lot of this depends on the Investiture and the magic in question. Azure was legit using Breaths, for example--ones she'd brought with her. But Szeth was able to feed Stormlight to Nightblood, much as Vasher uses Stormlight to keep himself alive.

To Awaken with Stormlight, the easiest thing to do would be to first change Stormlight into Breaths--something that Azure doesn't know how to do. (Admittedly, Hoid doesn't either, so it's not like it's a simple thing to achieve.) You could also theoretically use some magical (or mechanical) means to power your Awakening with a different form of Investiture.

Extesian

This is very interesting. Is it possible then in the Cosmere for the 'intent' (spin or however described) of Investiture to be changed? And I mean within reasonable limits (not the powers of six shards or any of that). Can a Shard effectively grow in power in a place (e.g. toward an avatar) through another Shard's Investiture being changed (not just corrupted)? Or is it just making one type ('intent' - you should canonize a word for this :D) of Investiture mimic the properties of another?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of the ways of accomplishing what you're talking about would involve either 1) fooling/overwriting your spiritual makeup somehow. (This is what Hemalurgy does, for example.) 2) Refining the power somehow into a more pure form.

But there are a lot of variables. The way magic from Nalthis works, for example, the system is just looking for any available Investiture to power itself--and so basically anything will do, regardless of the source. This includes consuming your own soul, in some cases...

You'll see terminology coming along eventually that facilitates talking about all of this. I'm not yet decided on some of it.

Celestial_Blu3

How many Breaths does [Azure] have by her final appearance in OB?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO, I'm afraid.

General Reddit 2019 (April 25, 2019)

 

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Questioner

You've mentioned in the last couple of afterwords that you get interesting results when you mix types of Investiture.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Twinborn and Surgebinders on Roshar. Can you mix a form of magic with a source of Investiture? Can say Vasher use Stormlight in place of Breaths or would that require tampering via Hemalurgy or something like that?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of them require tampering. Some of them are a little bit easier than others. It depends on really what you mean. For instance, white sand can be charged in the presence of any Investiture right? It's just-- But that's not really using the magic, it's just charging it with other Investiture. But, you know, it would be very easy, for instance, if you can get yourself Invested-- Like, for instance, it'd be very easy to use Breaths to fuel Windrunning right? Because the oath and the bond and things like that are going to make it pretty easy. However fueling Allomancy with something else is going to be a lot harder. So it really depends on the magic. It's the sort of thing that there will be lots of science in the books dedicated to making happen in the future and you will find some of the processes these work easier than other ones.

DragonCon 2016 (Sept. 3, 2016)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Czanos

Preservation can fuel Allomancy, (minus atium.) but can Ruin fuel Hemalurgy? (Or atium?) And could Sazed fuel all three Metallic Arts?

Brandon Sanderson

Both gods could, if they wanted, fuel all of the Metallic Arts. Preservation is stronger at fueling Allomancy, Ruin stronger at fueling Allomancy or Feruchemy when it has been given via a spike. Both are balanced when it comes to Feruchemy. But this rarely comes up in the books, as it required expending power in a way that the gods were hesitant to do.

Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)

 

Okay, let me set the stage. 

The alleyverse is a planet in which all planets of the cosmere exist together. Scadrians, Rosharans, Nathalians, etc. Every so often, there is an event called the alleystorm that is seperate from normal highstorms in its nature and origin, which refills Investiture in a similar way to a highstorm. Mainly in that it refills stormlight, like a highstorm. The stormlight is concievably unkeyed, so therefore I would be able to use it for compounding? I understand that purified, unkeyed Investiture is required for something like this, but at the storm originates on a third part planet that's purpose is purley for the interaction of different Cosmere characters.

[Koloss17 She/They]

2 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Sorry, I had no idea what the Alleyverse is. In that case it sounds like you can use that investiture from the Alleystorm to fuel your Feruchemy, as long as it's unkeyed. 

hehehe that's fair. If you ever want to RP or like creative writing, I'm the head mod. It's really fun!

[TheFrugalWizard he/him]

3 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Sorry, I had no idea what the Alleyverse is. In that case it sounds like you can use that investiture from the Alleystorm to fuel your Feruchemy, as long as it's unkeyed. 

Okay, that helps a lot. Thanks