Timewaster's Guide Archive

Hey im new here and although Ive found a lot on cosmere theories, I havent really seen much on theories regarding roshars particular magic system(s), so heres what I think is going on and Im wondering what you guys think:

1: I cant remember where i read this, but I remember seeing somewhere that Brandon said that the stormlight archive was going to have at least 30 magic systems

the first 10 I think should be pretty obvious, but just to give my reasoning:
2: Looking at what kaladin can do, Im pretty sure that most people will agree that the magic system he uses is somehow related to the first of the 10 essences, due to his protecting/leading personality traits, the fact that he needs to "inhale" stormlight to access his powers, and that his wind related powers are in line with the zephyr essence.
3: keeping in mind that Kaladin had to form some sort of bond/agreement/relationship something with a spren to gain these abilities, Im pretty sure shallan's dealings with the symbol-headed creatures, which are also supposedly spren, means that she is also forming abilities based on one of the ten essences, in this case the 6th.
4: this is also supported by the fact that she appears to be learning natural abilities that use stormlight (soulcasting without a fabrial), the fact that the first thing she soulcasts is blood, the 6th essence, the fact that she first sees these spren through creative means (aka her drawings) which is the first personality trait, and lastly, to strengthen this bond with the spren, she has to be honest by telling them a strong truth: that she killed her father, which is the second personality trait. This process is also very similar to how Kaladin strengthened his bond with syl, and thus made it easier for him to use stormlight, by saying something that demonstrated the 2nd personality trait: to protect people.
5: Therefore, it appears that strongly displaying one of the 10 personality trait combinations listed in the ars acanum is at least one of the prerequisites for attracting a corresponding spren, after which one must demonstrate/say the different ideals upheld by each of the 10 orders of radiants (keep in mind that supposedly the 1st ideal is the same for all 10 orders while the 0ther 3 are different depending on the order). Doing this then gives the person one of 10 abilities that uses stormlight. Im not sure if all these abilities are considered variations of surgebinding, or just the first essence, but if I had to guess I would say they are, and that windrunning is just an essence-specific subset of abilities.
6: This is less provable at the moment, but if i had to guess, I think Jasnah either has abilities related to the 6th essence, due to what appears to be similar abilities to shallan, or the 2nd, due to her personality and that fact that she is always using smokestone.

As for the next 10:
7: In the ars arcanum, the narrator mentions that voidbinding also should have a corresponding set of abilities for each of the ten essences. This seems to make pretty good sense considering the similarity in terminology between surgebinding and voidbinding.
8: To support this, also remember the gemstone with black light that Gavilar had when he died. It seems highly probable that if all 10 of the surgebinding magic systems use stormight from gems, then i would assume that voidbinding would use this "voidlight."
9: This is also likely considering that the parshendi are thought to be descendants of the original voidbinders, and gavilar had this stone during a time when he was interacting with the parshendi a lot.

Then for the last 10:
10: This is only mentioned briefly, but the narrator in the ars arcanum states that he thinks there is also another set of abilities, possibly the old magic or maybe something even more esoteric, that are also linked to the 10 essences.
11: Although there is no clue as what kind of "light" or energy these abilities may draw from, I am fairly certain there is a 3rd power source.
12: This is because is appears that roshar, at least at one point in time, had 3 shards, as stated in one of the epigraphs where they say something along the lines of "where once 3 0f 16 once reigned, only odium rules now" (sorry, I dont have the book on me and dont know the exact wording). This is also supported by the fact that in Dalinar's last vision, the "almighty" obviously talks about odium, but he also mentions a, presumably, 3rd shard: cultivation.
13: Lastly, keep in mind that, just as in mistborn when Leras died, or in elantris with the death of Skai and Aona, the magical system a shard fuels can still be used if there is no living conciousness attached to it; so even if cultivation and the almighty have both been killed by odium, each of there shards still be the source of a type of light: the almighty/stormfather, being the source of highstorms, also must obviously produce stormlight, odium would presumably be the source of "voidlight," and cultivation could maybe be the source of this last esoteric set of 10 abilities.

and there you have it: 30 magic systems! what do you think??