Mechanics Matter: Are the Fused Really Surgebinders; Is Odium Really the Shard of Passion; and Are the Surges Connections?

[Confused]

“For ones so confused, they are somehow brilliant.”

[El’s Musings, RoW Chapter 108 Epigraph, bold added.]

Exactly!

I thought of these interrelated questions when recent posters scoffed at my Odious ideas. I try to take a technical, mechanical approach to cosmere magic. First, I want to address why mechanics matter, especially to me, before answering the title’s questions.

WHY MECHANICS MATTER

I believe understanding cosmere magic is the key to predicting the Stormlight saga’s direction. I’m probably the oldest active poster on the 17^th Shard. I graduated college and first met my wife 50 years ago. That summer the headline was “Nixon Resigns!” (I introduced myself to the group in Call Me Grandpa.) I’m actuarially unlikely to live long enough to read the story’s ending. I fill my wait with speculation and long-winded posts. (Since I’ve not posted a new topic since 2020, consider this “The Tome of the Unknown Poster.”)

I speculate Book 5 will end with Rosharans launching a cosmere-wide invasion of other planets, like the Fremen do in Dune. The Singer El envisions that “Roshar will be united in its service of the greater war.” (RoW Chapter 112 Epigraph, bold added.) IIRC, Brandon confirms this. (Maybe? My memory’s slipping...)

But Radiants have a problem with leaving Roshar. They are too Connected, too bound to the planet. The Fused may not be so bound. If Odium can break free from the Rosharan system, Voidlight will become readily available to magic users throughout the cosmere. El foreshadows a possibility:

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Humans are weapons. We singers revere Passion, do we not? How can we throw away such an excellent channeling of it?

El’s Musings, RoW Chapter 100 Epigraph.

Will Radiants become capable of using Voidlight as fuel? Will humans return to the magic and Investiture of Ashyn to destroy other worlds? If so, understanding the similarities and differences between the Fused and Radiants seems too important to blanket with the common name “Surgebinder.” Mechanical definitions matter.

ARE THE FUSED REALLY SURGEBINDERS?

Rosharans call all magic everywhere Surgebinding regardless of the Shard or magic system. The Fused manipulate (”bind”) the cosmere’s powers of creation (the “Surges”) to achieve their magical effects. But does that mean they’re really Surgebinders? And does it matter what name we give their magic?

What Is A Surgebinder?

I don’t think the name matters, but the magic’s mechanics do. Brandon seems to side with a more technical Surgebinding definition (emphasis added):

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Kimbobhi

Is it possible to Surgebind using gaseous Investiture other than Roshar's?

Brandon Sanderson

So here's the thing. It depends on your definition of Surgebinding. Surgebinding would be the Rosharan definition of all of the magics. They would call the Metallic Arts Surgebinding. You are binding the powers of creation, which the word "Surge" is that word translated from Rosharan into English, that's what the word means in Rosharan, is the powers of creation. The fundamental forces which inspired me to make this. So they would consider all of them to be Surgebinding. And that's just what you're doing, you are binding and using those powers.

Other people, including Khriss, would not agree with that definition. They would say: Surgebinding is specifically binding, through the Nahel bond, the spren, the specific manifestations of Investiture on Roshar, by using specific sets of oaths in order to gain access to those powers. So she would say: no, that is not Surgebinding when someone uses Allomancy. I would lean with her on that one, but the other one's a viable definition.

[...]

YouTube Spoiler Stream 1 (Dec. 17, 2020)

Spoiler

A month later Brandon created uncertainty by saying Khriss would agree that the Fused Surgebind. I prefer the earlier WoB because of its specificity, analysis, and the fact that it confirms previous WoBs. The later WoB’s questioner (Chaos himself) asked Brandon whether Khris would call the Fused Surgebinders. He answered with a simple “Yes.”

The 2020 WoB confirms three other WoBs. The first, in 2008, says: “The means of getting powers…are related to the Shards, but not the powers themselves. [Italics added.]” In 2011 he said, “The 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do.”

This makes perfect sense. There are only so many conceivable powers, that is, magical abilities. If you restrict powers such as flying to one Shard or magic system, you deprive other magic users of a basic ability. But how magic users gain their magical ability – how they access a Shard’s Investiture – does depend on the Shard that grants them the ability.

This idea underlies the third relevant WoB, from 2017: “Honor doesn’t belong to gravity. But bonds, and how to deal with bonds, and things like this, is an Honor thing.” IOW, flying can theoretically be achieved with any Shard’s Investiture. But accessing Investiture through bonds means the magic user relies on Honor’s magic. Using metal to fly (kind of) is the same magical ability achieved with Preservation’s Investiture. And we know most magic systems can manipulate feelings – again in their own unique way.

Rosharans may call the Fused Surgebinders. Based on these four WoBs, however, they are not Surgebinders, at least for purposes of Shard and magic system analysis. The Fused manipulate the Surges to perform similar magic as Radiants; but in Brandon’s terms, powers like the ability to fly are NOT “related to the Shards.” Only “the means of getting powers” is Shard dependent. Since the Fused draw their Investiture from Odium and don’t rely on either Stormlight or the Radiant bond for their magic, they are not Surgebinders (technically).

IS ODIUM REALLY THE “SHARD OF PASSION”?

I will assume for purposes of this discussion that Odium is the Shard of Passion, or Emotion or something similar. My question: What are the mechanics of his magic? How does the Shard heighten and dampen feelings?

People express their greatest passions when they feel least restrained. In crowds and in anonymity, emotions run amok. Odium says, “I am lust, joy, hatred, anger, and exultation. I am glory and I am vice.” (OB, Chapter 57, Kindle p. 551.) He seems the id to Honor’s superego: If Odium is unrestrained Passion, then Honor is the conscience, in Brandon’s words “the sense of being bound by rules, even when those rules, you wouldn't have to be bound by.” (I previously posted “Roshar’s Freudian Mind,” analogizing Cultivation to the ego, trying to balance the id and superego represented by Odium and Honor.)

Mechanically, I propose Odium manipulates two types of Connections to control emotion: He can directly manipulate emotional Connections; and he can indirectly affect emotions by manipulating a person’s internal restraints, their conscience. Through this dual mechanism, Odium can dampen an emotion to numbness or heighten it to ecstasy.

I believe Odium affects emotions by partially breaking and restoring these two types of Connections. Through this process, he acts as a throttle on these Connections. I have lots of text and WoB reasons for that conclusion, which I cite in other posts. Metaphorically, breaking these types of Connections seems like something the Shard of Hate would do. Someone disconnected from other people and society is more likely to be resentful and hateful. But the mechanics work too.

To be clear, I think breaking and restoring these two Connection types is how Odium manipulates emotion. But I think Odium’s magic can manipulate Connections of every kind, including the Surges. IMO, just as Honor is the Shard of Bonds, Ruin the Shard of Entropy, and Preservation the Shard of Stasis, I believe the “Broken One,” the nominal Shard of Passion, is mechanically the Shard of Broken Connections (maybe even the Shard of Connections period). And that raises a question...

ARE THE SURGES “CONNECTIONS”?

A poster recently asked this question, since it underlies my view of Odium’s Connection-breaking magic. IMO, mechanically the Fused are Surge-breakers, not Surgebinders. They break the Gravitation Surge to fly, the Abrasion Surge to glide, and the Progression Surge to speed carapace growth, etc. I think the Fused break and re-Connect each Surge with the same skill and precision as Kaladin adjusts his lashings. But this poster correctly argues that my theory only works if the Surges themselves are Connections. I want to address that question here.

What Is a Connection?

I rely on this 2015 WoB for my general take on Connections:  “[A person’s Spiritual aspect is] a mix of their connections to places, people, and times with raw Investiture. The soul, you might say.” This statement suggests that Connections are the cosmere element that changes “raw Investiture” into a person or object. When asked whether Connections are Investiture, Brandon said, “Connection is, like, the equivalent of a quantum connection in our world, so it's more like a force than something comprised of something.”

Here and here, Brandon mentions his fascination with “quantum entanglements” in our universe. Quantum connections, or entanglements, are the “phenomenon that explains how two subatomic particles can be intimately linked to each other even if separated by billions of light-years of space.” (Source.) This phenomenon explains the ardents’ flamespren experiment in WoK. Brandon acknowledges in these WoBs that his version of Connections does not precisely correspond with quantum entanglements, but he mimics them for his purposes. In our universe, for example, emotional attachments are not quantum entanglements, but they are cosmere Connections.

Because Connections change “raw Investiture” into a Spiritual aspect, I think of Connections as the cosmere’s data carriers. Without Connections, there can’t be a soul; raw Investiture would remain raw Investiture. To me, everything that isn’t Investiture, energy, or matter must be a Connection. Again, a Connection “is more like a force than something comprised of something.”

Are The Surges “Connections”?

The Surges are all forces of some kind. They are the “powers of creation” that purportedly formed and maintain the cosmere: Adhesion (to Radiants), Gravitation, Division, Abrasion, Progression, Illumination, Transformation, Transportation, Cohesion, and Tension. Each Surge represents some relationship between Spiritual aspects. IMO, that means the Surge is a Connection.

But there’s a better reason to view them as Connections. Connections reflect people’s perceptions and not the cosmere’s underlying reality. Brandon says human metaphors like space and time are “irrelevant” in the Spiritual Realm; but they explain the Physical Realm in terms humans understand. (I wrote about this in a post, “The Primacy of Perception: A Realmic Theory.”) Brandon specifically identifies space and time as Connections. Human perception and not Spiritual Realm reality makes them Connections.

Brandon says the Surges are Rosharans’ perception of the “powers of creation.” Yet the “powers of creation” themselves are human constructs:

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“I based [Roshar’s physics] on the idea of the fundamental forces, but this is kind of like a human construction. You could say that physics is pure and natural, but we're still putting things in boxes.”

Brandon says the same thing here.

Conclusion

The powers of creation themselves reflect human perception, putting unknowable things into some mathematical, semantic box. The Surges are Rosharan perceptions of the perception that is the powers of creation. Like all science, these ideas are replicable approximations of reality, not reality itself. The Surges are Connections because in Brandon’s cosmere (a) they are forces, not Investiture, matter, or energy, (b) those forces affect the relationship between Spiritual aspects, (c) and those forces reflect human perception of how the cosmere was created and continues.

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I’m going to take a nap now... Thanks for reading! C.

Edited July 17 by Confused
Clarity.

[Quantus he/him]

As far as I can tell "Connections" are the underlying Strings that literally create Reality (not unlike what String Theory says) but with a lot of extra hollywood-level entangle and such. But they are literally the Strings that comprise the Spiritweb, and Spiritwebs are what make Physical reality exists.   

But as far a Investiture Effects go, I wouldnt say that Surges Are Connections persay, rather that manipulating Connections will create Surges (or Surge Effects, to be more specific).  Investiture effects are made by Tuning Investiture to different patterns and/or Frequencies.  Allomancy does this via Burning Metals and letting them naturally resonate the Invesiture into specific forms in a magical equivalent to Spectroscopy to gain that frequency tuning. The corresponding analogy I see for Surges is that they are created by using a Bond Connection as a plucked guitar or harp string to vibrate the Investiture.  The analogy for AonDor is that Investiture flowing through specific physical Shapes will manipulate it with mechanisms closer to radio antenna frequency response.

All that to say I dont think Surges Are Connections, but I think Connections are the Realmic mechanism being used to create the Surge effects.  And I think in the case of some specific Surges, like Gravitation or Division, what the Surge is manipulating is itself also a Connection.  

Edited July 16 by Quantus
"Strong" theory?