Hey, so I'm about halfway through Words of Radiance, and I had this question itching since it was mentioned in the book.
They say there are 10 surges and 10 orders, and each order can manipulate 2 surges. However, all the possible combinations for 10 surges would be 10C2 which is 45 possible combinations, but there are only 10 orders. So are some surge combinations just not possible?
If I'm straying anywhere into spoiler territory please warn me lol, but this question has been on my mind for a while.
The surges are ordered, so order A gets surge 1 and 2, order B gets surge 2 and 3, etc. and the 10th order gets surge 10 and 1. The actual order of surges and orders is seemingly arbitrary ( from a writing perspective Sando arranged them to get the most fun / thematic combinations.) and while the pairings have a history which would be minor spoilers, we have never been given an impression that the ordering in universe was anything but arbitrary.
We did get an indication that there is some natural order that it was based on, but we don't know what they means still
Wait, what history? I’ve read all SLA books, but I am unsure what you’re referring to, is it the Heralds?. Could you summarize it with a spoiler tag?
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The orders don't represent every possible combination, just ten specific combinations with each order gaining access to two surges and each surge being shared by two orders.
It helps me to visualize it as a pair of concentric circles, each separated into ten segments. The outer wheel is the ten orders and the inner circle is the ten surges. In this representation the circles are offset so that the dividing line between each order bisects one surge into equal halves, resulting in each order sharing one surge with the order immediately before it and the other surge with the order immediately following it.
More details are obviously RAFO but visualizing it like that should help if I explained it correctly.
Each Order shares a Surge with its adjacent Order. So it's not that every possible combination of Surges gets an Order. You'll get the list of Surges in the Ars Arcanum at the end of the book
Yes there are only 10 possible combinations. You’ll find out why eventually
It’s all symbols without words, but I think it’s the inside front cover of the hardcover of my way of kings that has a diagram that arranges all the surges - some are “connected” others are “opposed”.
But any individual surge only manifests with 2 orders, one as primary one as secondary.
Primary and secondary? What does that mean.
I think it’s fair game to say there are surges that aren’t combined.
And also maybe we'll see wacky combinations at some point.
Could hemolergy type magic create all the combinations though? If so what would be the most powerful?
We haven't seen anything indicating that surge binding would be transferable in that way.
You could be a member of multiple orders via multiple bonds, which would grant you additional surges.
All cosmere including Emberdark Hemalurgy can be used to combine them most likely. We know Henalurgy is a net negative invested art where you take an invested art from one person and transfer it to another.
We in mistborn that based on where spikes are placed and who was used, an inquisitor can have multiple metallic arts. I’m pretty sure. Don’t quote me on that.
This is also one of the reasons that it’s spooky for Scadrial to control First of the Sun. If they get access to the Aviar, they can take arts like Sawk’s invested art which would be dangerous for basically everyone in the cosmere.
We haven’t seen Hemalurgy combine multiple invested arts (such as Aether and Iron feruchemy, for example. But I’m fairly confident we’ve seen people have access to multiple allomantic abilities through inquisitors.
So there are 10 surges and 10 orders, correct. However, it’s not “oh Order A has such W and X, Order B has W and Y, and Order C has W and Z.
It’s Order A has surges V and W, Order B has surges W and X, Order C has surges X and Y, Order D has surges Y and Z, and Order E has surges Z and V. Except there’s 10 orders and 10 surges, not 5 and 5 like in my example
I might be wrong, but orders share surge types? So each surge type is in two different orders. Each order has specific surges, it's not random.
Not every combo is explored
Same reason there are 16 base allomancy metals.
You must be an audiobook listener. Pick up a physical copy and read the last chapter. There are charts you are missing.
I am reading a physical copy, but its the white covered one, couldn't find the original cover for a reasonable price where I live. After the last chapter in the Ars Arcanum, there's only some text, which talks about Windrunning and Lightweaving, and has a chart only for the Ten Essences and mentions nothing of the other orders
Someone made an infographic here if you want to take a look without spoilers
Audiobooks have those