Surge affinity

[Ironeyes he/him]

So this is a little assumption I've had in my head for a while and I'd like a second opinion (or a twentieth, no restrictions on that). I've been assuming that each of the orders, while having access to two surges, has a particular affinity toward one of them. That would be the surge that they learn most easily, or the one in which they attain greatest mastery. Upon thinking about it, I think that it's most likely that each order's "favorite" surge would be the one they share with the order counterclockwise to them on the chart. So Elsecallers own Transformation, Edgedancers are best at Friction, Windrunners at Adhesion, etcetera.

The reason I thought it would be counterclockwise stems from a few examples: Lift learns friction way before progression, Kaladin's first surgebinding was sticking rocks to a wall with adhesion, Jasnah masters transformation before even attempting transportation, and Shallan picks up illumination easily while struggling to soulcast. Ym could also support this because he learns progression first, and I think there's a WoB from one of the Chicago signings confirming that he was a Truthwatcher. 

What makes me doubt myself is that the names of some of the orders don't seem to reflect this. Why would Elsecallers be named for their non-dominant ability, and same goes for Windrunners? Lightweavers fit the pattern, though. 

Anyway, I may be completely off base but what do you all think? 

[Spoolofwhool]

Few points. Kaladin was unconsciously performing surgebinding of the surge of gravity for a awhile before we saw him use full lashings. He was using reverse lashings on the bridge so that the arrows would miss him. In any case, he learned both concurrently, but it seems fairly clear that he favours gravity surgebinding.

There's an unreleased chapter about Jasnah and elsecalling.

Spoiler

She couldn't elsecall properly before the ship attack because Ivory wouldn't help get to Shadesmare properly. So it seems like she learned soulcasting first because she was mechanistically unable to elsecall because Ivory was limiting her, not because she had an affinity to one.

Also, there's the fact that Elsecaller were referenced as being the better liaisons for the spren than the adjacent orders, in the in-Roshar book Words of Radiance.

 

[Full Metal Rithmatist]

3 hours ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Few points. Kaladin was unconsciously performing surgebinding of the surge of gravity for a awhile before we saw him use full lashings. He was using reverse lashings on the bridge so that the arrows would miss him. In any case, he learned both concurrently, but it seems fairly clear that he favours gravity surgebinding.

There's an unreleased chapter about Jasnah and elsecalling.

  Hide contents

She couldn't elsecall properly before the ship attack because Ivory wouldn't help get to Shadesmare properly. So it seems like she learned soulcasting first because she was mechanistically unable to elsecall because Ivory was limiting her, not because she had an affinity to one.

Also, there's the fact that Elsecaller were referenced as being the better liaisons for the spren than the adjacent orders, in the in-Roshar book Words of Radiance.

 

Elsecallers are the liaisons to the spren because they possess both of the surges that let someone travel into or affect shadesmar. whereas the adjacent orders only possess one each

Edited December 11, 2016 by Full Metal Rithmatist

[Spoolofwhool]

10 minutes ago, Full Metal Rithmatist said:

Elsecallers are the liaisons to the spren because they possess both of the surges that let someone travel into or affect shadesmar. whereas the adjacent orders only possess one each

This is true. But chances are that they are also better at Elsecalling in general, so that they can access Shadesmare more easily, and therefore be effective liaisons. 

[BlackYeti he/him]

4 hours ago, Ironeyes said:

So this is a little assumption I've had in my head for a while and I'd like a second opinion (or a twentieth, no restrictions on that). I've been assuming that each of the orders, while having access to two surges, has a particular affinity toward one of them. That would be the surge that they learn most easily, or the one in which they attain greatest mastery. Upon thinking about it, I think that it's most likely that each order's "favorite" surge would be the one they share with the order counterclockwise to them on the chart. So Elsecallers own Transformation, Edgedancers are best at Friction, Windrunners at Adhesion, etcetera.

I've had a similar idea to this, however in my mind it was the surge shared with the Order clockwise, not anticlockwise, to them on the chart.

My reason for thinking this was that the Windrunners gained two abilities tied to Gravitation (Basic and Reverse Lashings), but only one to Adhesion (Full Lashing). And similarly the Edgedancers appear to have two abilities tied to Progression (Growth and Regrowth), but only one tied to Abrasion (removing friction). We've not really seen enough of the other Orders abilities to know whether this pattern holds for them yet, but it does seem pretty likely.

[Full Metal Rithmatist]

17 hours ago, Spoolofwhool said:

This is true. But chances are that they are also better at Elsecalling in general, so that they can access Shadesmare more easily, and therefore be effective liaisons. 

well some of the  ability to enter shadesmar from transformation probably bleeds into their elsecalling so yes.

 

on that thought Elsecallers probably have a strong "resonance" since both their surges do similar things and probably synergise well

[thejopen27 he/him]

On 12/10/2016 at 5:03 PM, Spoolofwhool said:

Also, there's the fact that Elsecaller were referenced as being the better liaisons for the spren than the adjacent orders, in the in-Roshar book Words of Radiance.

 

I think this is because both of their abilities are related to Shadesmar while Willshapers and Lightweavers only have one ability that related to Shadesmar.

 

I think the general surges work the same in both orders that have them. I think what differentiates the orders is how the abilities combine and the unique special abilities each order has. Shallan has a perfect visual memory and can draw events she has never seen or known about, Kaladin has super fast reactions and can move with small changes in the air, Lift can understand people perfectly, the truthwatchers can see the visions of the future, the Skybreakers could aparently tell the innocent from the guilty. 

Edited December 12, 2016 by thejopen27