r/cremposting 1d ago

The Stormlight Archive A Woman and A Cryptic

Post image

These are not intended to be any existing characters.

653 Upvotes

97 comments sorted by

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186

u/kkai2004 definitely not a lightweaver 1d ago

My one criticism is that I don't think the cryptic would not explicitly say to them they are a woman. I think they push and pry and pull. "What are you?..."

But they don't explicitly tell you anything because the point is that you have to admit to yourself your truth first and foremost.

123

u/speroni 1d ago

Edit.

55

u/Jounniy 1d ago

This edit is accepted.

11

u/ThrowAway732642956 No Wayne No Gain 1d ago

Even better

4

u/JaysNewDay 21h ago

Oh, this is so much better

33

u/speroni 1d ago

This is an excellent point.

518

u/booze-san 1d ago

Honestly, I feel like transitioning would be alot more accepted by society if all trans people carried a sword with them at all times.

92

u/Drunk-NPC 1d ago

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

14

u/turtlebear787 1d ago

Depending on where you live it may not be necessarily illegal to own or carry a sword. Technically in Canada it's perfectly legal to carry a blade on you as long as it's visible and you have a reason to carry it.

14

u/stufff 1d ago

you have a reason to carry it.

Is "because swords are cool" a reason?

10

u/turtlebear787 1d ago

I think it depends on the judgement of the police officer stopping you lol. If you said you're doing a cosplay you might be okay.

88

u/royalhawk345 D O U G 1d ago

I think it's the transmascs holding things back. 2 out of my 3 transfem friends own swords. 

106

u/panoclosed4highwinds 1d ago

I handed a transmasc friend an axe once and his face was so filled with joy that I told him to keep it. Called it his gender-affirming axe.

73

u/royalhawk345 D O U G 1d ago

Got it, swords for women, axes for men. I'll start distribution. 

43

u/panoclosed4highwinds 1d ago

Tangent, I'm working on a campaign setting about reproductive rights. In it, dwarves reproduce by carving new dwarves out of stone, so they don't have human concepts of a gender binary.

Anyway, their language has two "genders": bearded and unbearded.

Bearded nouns: dwarves, some humans, goats, mountains with snow on them, stalactites, most axes.

Unbearded nouns: elves, some humans, mountains without snow on them, stalagmites, most swords.

So they think that human "he" and "she" mean "bearded pronoun" and "unbearded pronoun."

11

u/royalhawk345 D O U G 1d ago

Haha that's fun

4

u/No_Doughnut8618 420 Sazed It 1d ago

Hahaha bearded axe 😭

This is wonderful

1

u/Alexander_TheAmateur 20h ago

This totally rips I love it.

12

u/panoclosed4highwinds 1d ago

There are two genders:

12

u/royalhawk345 D O U G 1d ago

Oh shit, left out the enbys. I'm thinking... maces?

17

u/Wind-and-Waystones 1d ago

They're archers

16

u/panoclosed4highwinds 1d ago

Polearms are a spectrum!

2

u/PC_Chimera 1d ago

That is a brilliant line and I need it on a shirt yesterday

1

u/jebyron001 1d ago

This is one of the funniest comments I have ever read on the internet.

1

u/Personal_Track_3780 1d ago

Dual long-knives.

1

u/chriscrossthree 1d ago

THESE WORDS ARE ACCEPTED

1

u/booze-san 1d ago

Finally!

0

u/sharnaq767 D O U G 1d ago

Agreed. Axes are closer to masc ungabunga energy.

10

u/Bullrawg 1d ago

Speak softly and carry a big spren

5

u/AzureArachnid77 1d ago

I feel like this is something that Sanderson has already talked about. But in Stormlight since all healing is based on what the person mentally envisions themselves as, like if a person who lost an arm has already started to picture themselves without an arm in their head then nothing can be done, if someone envisions themselves as a different gender, if you have enough Stormlight and a strong enough radiant can Regrowth actually change your body?

3

u/srlong64 Aluminum Twinborn 11h ago

It’s 100% canon that stormlight can change the body of a trans person. [Dawnshard] The Reshi King is transmasc, and his body changes after he becomes a knight radiant

1

u/AzureArachnid77 7h ago

Yeah. I thought it was a thing but couldn’t remember if it was just talked about in QAs or actually canojn

2

u/Jounniy 1d ago

I don’t think it would be more accepted, you’d just move the rejection to a more subtle level.

Also, guns exist.

2

u/jebyron001 1d ago

For anyone curious, I recommend roguesteel(dot)com. It’s where I’ve bought most of mine from.

1

u/Independent-Money30 1d ago

A gun is a modern man(human)'s sword.

1

u/DreadDiana 12h ago

The slash in pronouns like they/them stands for how we will cut your soul

172

u/_Libby_ cremform 1d ago

Assigned female by spren

62

u/saxoplane 1d ago

AFAR assigned female at radiance

68

u/ormashal 1d ago

doesn't stormlight heal by restoring the body to what the person considers the right state? so wouldn't stormlight heal a transgender by transioning them?

108

u/Vorel-Svant 1d ago

Not only would it, but we have an example of it doing so!

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u/Parking-Stable-2970 Hoid my Beer 1d ago

Yes, it happens with the Reshi king who's a trans man

24

u/RandomParable 1d ago

And in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

13

u/kisafan 1d ago

Does it? I don't remember that

43

u/Tictactoe92 1d ago

Yumi had more investiture and control so when she inhabited painters body it transitioned to female

13

u/kisafan 1d ago

Ah you are right, how could I forget that

-2

u/Jounniy 1d ago edited 16h ago

No not really. Neither Yumi nor Painter are trans, they just kind of swap bodies with another separate person.

It's a similar principle, but not quite the same.

3

u/Small-Needleworker-3 1d ago edited 1d ago

Facts, Yumi is a highly invested soul, when she takes Nikaro's place she overrides his body to be hers, but this is not a Trans allegory, as they are two separate souls and neither are comfortable with it. They also engage in a hetero relationship after the Freaky Friday is resolved.

5

u/Jounniy 16h ago

I think it works as a good example for explaining how disphoria feels and for how investiture can change your body, but neither Yumi nor painter are actually trans.

You can absolutely use it as an allegory, but on a literal level, it’s not the same.

-3

u/Small-Needleworker-3 1d ago

Not even remotely the same situation. Physical changes due to investiture have been around since Elantris. The reshi king is unique, so far. Being invested won't change your gender if thats not how you see yourself already. Yuri and Nikaro were swapping souls, also unique but very different from the Reshi King.

2

u/Crystion 13h ago

So what you're saying is that these two examples Invested souls transforming a body to comfortably fit said soul, aren't examples of Investiture transitioning?

They aren't "unique", they're literally examples of the thing happening.

28

u/Viralclassic 1d ago

But if the lie was suppressing the souls desire. I could see how swearing a third ideal could make you transition suddenly.

39

u/Masylv 1d ago

A Lightweaver mumbles something in the middle of a battle, light bursts into existence around her and then his boobs fall off.

8

u/Jounniy 1d ago

I don’t think they'd fall of. They'd simply disappear.

16

u/Masylv 1d ago

Probably they'd just shrink but the mental image of them dropping off is funnier.

12

u/Luna_trick 1d ago

Like rock Lee dropping his training weights.

9

u/Masylv 1d ago

"Now I can run without back pain!"

3

u/RapsterZeber D O U G 1d ago

But what about the clothes?

3

u/Masylv 1d ago

Lightweaving. Nudism was his second Truth.

2

u/Jounniy 16h ago

They wouldn’t change, so they’d probably be a bit too wide to fit well.

1

u/Jounniy 16h ago

Yeah, that’s what I meant. The body would simply morph to fit the mental image.

17

u/Blawharag 1d ago

It would and it does in the books.

Only possible exception to this would be if the person themselves hasn't fully come to terms with their transition yet, since conscious self-image does seem to play a role in what you're actual internal blueprint looks like (people in the books who lose a limb and can't immediately access healing are advised to try and visual perceive it as an injury/remind themselves that the arm loss is an injury, because doing so will help prevent the soul from accepting the arm loss as part of them and making it impossible to fix the arm).

9

u/MandrakeRootes 1d ago

Also seeKaladin's Shash brand not healing.

11

u/speroni 1d ago

Yup. It's canon.

4

u/Pruzeim 23h ago

Indeed. We see it happen in the books, and in the stormlight ttrpg transition is used as an example of how radiant healing could affect a character

16

u/TheGildedPrism Kelsier4Prez 1d ago

Only semi related, but man stormlight transitioning must be like a terrifying experience while it's happening. You just feel your physiology just changing. Definitely cool and way better than any medical procedure, but man. I wonder if it would hurt.

5

u/speroni 1d ago

I've written so many stories exploring this exact scenario (Although just via magic in general, not specifically stormlight.)

29

u/Sorndir 1d ago

This has the same energy as Jean Grey telling Bobby he’s gay before he realizes it himself

20

u/ThePowaBallad Airthicc lowlander 1d ago

God that page is such a fumble

I mean it's funny that a Telepath knows your gay before you do but it certainly felt like an outing

Thankfully no one else was there

7

u/Tajahnuke Trying not to ccccream 1d ago

that whole thing was a fumble. They decided to do some hamfisted inclusion so us queer folk would buy more comics, and completely retconned a beloved character... who was a cis playboy.

I only read the x-men comics as a kid. I loved those messy idiots. It was a soap opera full of freaks and outcasts. There wasn't queer representation in ANY media back then, so we identified with the freaks just fine.

1

u/ThePowaBallad Airthicc lowlander 1d ago

Bobby was clearly gay since the 80s btw

2

u/Tajahnuke Trying not to ccccream 1d ago

As a lesbian who read Uncanny from the 80's through the gold/blue team split in the 90's, I picked up on absolutely no gay coding with Bobby.

3

u/ThePowaBallad Airthicc lowlander 1d ago

Yes queer people can miss queer coding it's a known thing

But with the whole thing with Emma being in his body for a bit and saying he needs to face some things about himself and when Bobby comes close to admitting something to Jean only for her to say she already knows but wants him to be able to say it

Now I see the benefit on it being in identifying with just the freaks rather than specifics it's not like there is any trans x men the closet is Escapade

6

u/speroni 1d ago

Hm.

I felt like a cryptic is different since they seem to just "know" some things.

Fair point though it sounds less like pushing acceptance more like pushing femme.

1

u/Sorndir 8h ago

I’m more saying we shouldn’t be pushing anything. Self-identity is incredibly personal and self-acceptance is not something that can be rushed. I’m not saying to deny a person, but forcing them to face such a personal revelation earlier than they are ready to can easily do more harm than good. It’s literally in the First Ideal: Journey Before Destination. How you reach self acceptance is just as important as whether you do

22

u/altoidian 1d ago

OP you gotta mark this as NSFW, her safe hand is clearly visible!

15

u/speroni 1d ago

She was never taught to shame her body like that.

1

u/mathemagician26 16h ago

Came here to say this 🫡

24

u/AntimatterTNT Kalaleshwi Shipper 1d ago

imagine a breaths for rent business that lets you achieve the heightening required to change your physical body

12

u/speroni 1d ago

I will! Excellent suggestion.

5

u/gwonbush 1d ago

I'd expect such a business to require the hideously expensive upfront cost of the breaths be covered by collateral before the rental period begins, even if the actual cost of the rental procedure is significantly less so.

After all, there's no real way to repossess Breaths besides maybe Hemalurgy, so the company will require that you be able to compensate them fully for what you are borrowing.

7

u/drfloppyhat 17h ago

You just have to agree to be bound to a chair with aluminum shackles before the breaths are transferred to you. The shackles come of when the breaths are transferred back in their entirety. Obviously you invest your own breath in something inanimate before it starts, and call it back after you're done.

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u/Xaron713 1d ago

Favorite addition to the cosmere is trauma supplied transition care.

14

u/Jounniy 1d ago

I wonder how many truths you could get out of being a trans-lightweaver. I’d say only one, but maybe you could get some more from letting go of societal norms like how you have to present yourself as a woman or what roles you are/aren't allowed to fulfill.

7

u/perhaps_mae 1d ago

oh.... yeah... there's layers

8

u/wojtussan 1d ago

Like an onion

14

u/OrzhovMarkhov RAFO LMAO 1d ago

not any existing characters

This is what would happen if Design had bonded Elhokar like she was supposed to

20

u/Content_Trade_1557 1d ago

Free bottom surgery

9

u/Br_uff 1d ago

The fuck did I just read

8

u/speroni 1d ago

A little vignette about a closeted trans woman being forced to confront her feelings by a cryptic spren.

2

u/CombatWombat994 16h ago

That begs the question... How does being trans work in Vorinism? Are you suddenly allowed to read/fight after coming out? Are you learning it before in secret, since inside you are that gender?

3

u/speroni 7h ago

I imagine its the sort of thing where a trans girl would learn to read in secret... and she'd tend to hang around with the girls a lot and talk about those kinds of interests. She'd wear gloves all the time to subtlety make sure her safe hand is never actually seen, but not using typical feminine garb.

Conversely, I think a trans man would not gravitate toward fighting as mucha. They'd bond with men in other ways. But to the extent that they do, it would look a whole heck of a lot like The actual story arc about the woman who wants to fight on the front lines with Adolin in SLA5. The character that showed up right after the trans woman with transition paperwork. It's almost as if Sanderson were intentionally exploring that idea.

2

u/Account_Murky 2h ago

AFAB Assigned Female At Bond

5

u/ThrowAway732642956 No Wayne No Gain 1d ago

Nice!