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I would like to announce... My mom is burning through Brandon's books! I'm still working on my dad... and sister... But, mom is oficially hooked!! Hopefully more theorizers soon!!!

edit 4/26/13 Updated for new information, might make it easier to read in future. And Peter kindly pointing in the right direction. Okay…I just cut about 2000 words from this because it was getting…out of hand. And also because I find it hard to believe that no one has discussed this before. So let’s get to it. All pages are hardback edition. You will need: Maps: -of pg. 12-13 map of modern day Roshar ( not silver kingdoms epoch) Thanks to Aiken, you'll need that map too! -of pg. 20 map of Alethkar -of pg. 182 map of Shattered Plains -of pg. 274 map of Alethi Warcamps -of pg. 454 map of Kharbranth -of Shadesmar (back cover/back of last page) And a bright light/lamp So grab your hardbacks or open some new tabs… Look at the map of modern day Roshar, pg. 12-13. -find Kharbranth. Just to remember where it is. -take a look at the compass (with (N)North, (St)Stormward, (S)South, (L)Leeward) and memorize the symbol in the middle. -take a look at Isasik Shulin’s stamp/royal seal (bottom right corner), just for future reference Now… Look at map of Alethkar, pg. 20 -find the Shattered Plains Look at map of Shattered Plains, pg. 182 -find the dueling arena (towards the top left if looking at it so writing is readable)…look VERY carefully, get out that lamp if you have to Look at map of Alethi Warcamps, pg. 274 -Look at left column of glyphpairs, right in the center (if words are readable) Look at map of Kharbranth pg. 454 -find the Palanaeum (top-most building)…look carefully -find the ship in the lower left corner, look at the sails And… Look at the map of Shadesmar (back cover…back of last page) -find where Kharbranth would be… -now look a little Stormward See it? It’s the same symbol! And it’s everywhere! Well…it could be the symbol for Kharbranth, though on the Shadesmar map it is so far off from the correct position that it’s hard for me to imagine without it being a misprint. On the map of modern day Roshar, the symbol seems like it would be located in between the ‘F’ in Frostlands and the last ‘H’ in Kharbranth. Not to mention the symbol being all over the drawings of the Shattered Plains. It has to be the symbol for the Royal High Cartographer, Isasik Shulin. He’s connected to every drawing except the pg. 454 one. Though the one on pg. 274 is a tenuous connection. But it seems like he is the creator of the ‘in world’ stained glass window of Shadesmar. So… Look at modern map of Roshar -find Isasik Shulin’s royal seal (lower right hand corner) -get out that light - find ‘1167’, now look THROUGH it. In between the ‘K’ in Isasik, and ‘S’ in Shulin you can see the claw from the same symbol I’m referencing in this thread. Take note: The royal cartographer seal appears to be the same as the symbols in the upper left hand corner (on modern map of Roshar), but if you look closely…those are just simplified, three-prong representations of the symbol inside N, St, S, L. But if it’s the royal cartographer seal…that doesn’t explain the Palanaeum having the symbol overlaid upon it. Not to mention the pg. 454 picture is surrounded by the 3rd symbol from the back cover. Oh, if Isasik is an in-world Ghostblood that could explain a few things. Though the ship and sail still has me stumped. So that gives us… Well I have no freaking clue, really. But this all seems so cool. I’m very confused though. Opinions? Also, most of what I cut out of this involves a weird clockwise tilt that several of the symbols take on. But my wife thinks I’m seeing things, so I’ll leave the theorizing to everyone.

I thought your nickname was lucidly clear- It's Marsh.

I always thought that you needed to contact a member of one of the Cantons. Dont know which, it was never mentioned. Only a few priests knew anything about the Atium drop in the Kandra homeland. so I assume that they were the ones who contacted them.

I noticed that Chaos was asking for people to rate other people's first lines, but it doesn't seem like there's been much rating going on. Hopefully I won’t offend, but I thought I'd go ahead and take up the gauntlet. However, I suppose I should give my creds, first. Or, more exactly, establish that I have none. I'll try to be helpful, but I can't promise that anything I'll say will be valid. And certainly, it won’t be all praise and flowers. I'll put everything under spoiler tags, so you can easily ignore the claptrap I'm about to spout if you don't care what some random guy with no verifiable experience has to say about your preciouses. First, Chaos Next, FeatherWriter Now it is time for Something from Silus Coltbug... Coltbug... Beuller-I-mean-Coltbug... And now the Leinton season is upon us... You all called me mad, but I'll show you! Or, at least, I'll talk about Mad Scientist To return to FeatherWriter: As for Frostbourne It's 2046, time for ReaderAt Now, in case people are feeling a tad violent towards me, I figure I'd go ahead and offer up one of my first lines for public ridicule. I cut it a bit ago, but it is fairly representative. Feel free to take your revenge!

Now I can't think of Honor without hearing the voice of William Shatner. "Honor's Log -- Sharddate 1.3" ...Dangit.

Nohadon Windrunner got me thinking about some things. And it kind of spiraled out of control. This is a flow of thought…which I tried to clean up and present evidence for. But I just had to get it down while it was crossing my mind. The first part is musings; leading up to a theory Windrunner had me thinking about. “Only honorpsren are bonded for surgebinding.” Okay. So can everyone agree that radiants are nothing more than surgebinders who have accessed higher levels of power? I know there is a lot more that goes into it…morality, theology, lifestyle…sanderson said himself, “on roshar, it’s about what you do.” But can everyone agree that at the base of it, radiants are surgebinders who have become more powerful with stormlight? But how? The way of kings obviously, but how the hell can words bring more power? It’s ideals to live by that seemingly grant radiants their power, however we’ve seen first hand how simply speaking the words can take you to the next level of surgebinding. Presumably if you’re ready…and living properly…like Kaladin. That’s my qualm. Why would these words be what brings power? And why didn’t surgebinders know these words? The words, ‘spark in Kaladin’s mind,’ though he had no prior knowledge of them…except for Syl seeming to know something is up. But surgebinders have always had spren, even honorspren, and even in Nohadon’s day. Why no ‘spark’ of words then? That’s pretty much spot on with the First Ideal. I mean eerily spot on. It’s tough to get closer to ‘Journey before Destination.’ And again, it’s the words that make you better with stormlight. But if the words existed before Nohadon…how did Nohadon hit it so perfectly by accident? More importantly, if the words are Immortal, why didn’t the Almighty just tell everyone this in the first place? I mean, the Almighty straight up tells Dalinar the Immortal Words…the First Ideal…in his last vision (or first, depending on the view), but also tells him to ‘read the book’ in a previous vision. Why mention Nohadon? Why read the book when you're handing out the words? Even if the Almighty couldn’t just hand them out, why would the Heralds not say anything? Because… Nohadon’s time… The Heralds were just there, I mean JUST there. Nohadon’s people are still clearing bodies, ‘heard initial reports…what will the heralds find when they next return?’ So everyone from then knew the heralds…Nohadon might have interacted personally with several of them. So why no mention of the Almighty, or of honorable acts leading to more power? Nohadon’s people obviously know the symbol for the Almighty’s double eye/hourglass that the radiants later used, but no mention of the Almighty or honor. The world even seems torn at that time…between people like Nohadon and the rest of the world, arguing over whether their power is proof of divine election to rule. (Nohadon’s beliefs are obviously of the minority) Why wouldn’t the Heralds set them straight? Why not tell them about the Almighty? Hell, why not tell them the Immortal words and help create the radiants? I’m getting to the Oathpact. Hold on. We'll get back to this. (Also, it seems important to remember that the Ideals the radiants used from tWoK are modeled after the Heralds…not the Almighty. With the Heralds representing one of the ten facets of the divine prism, and each order then modeling themselves after each Herald.) Now, Compared with… This doesn’t jive. There is no way the world can be in the shape it is, and Nohadon still consider it an easy life following the desolation. He would have nations to check up on, after securing and rebuilding his own. Foodstuffs and stockpiles to replenish. Try to convince other kings not to seek advantage over one another, or else to conquer them. Not an easy life. That’s not even easily manageable in an entire life. Much less be able to call it, ‘easy…following the desolation.’ No. Something dramatic changed shortly after the desolation. And it put Nohadon in control of everything. Sorry for the deviation... So we have simple words, unbeknownst to all, even the Heralds and spren, somehow instantly bring surgebinders more power with stormlight. But that doesn’t make sense. It would mean that the Almighty didn’t set these specifications. I mean, how could words written by Nohadon be what brings more power? Shouldn’t it just be living an honorable life; being closer to Tanavast/Honor in lifestyle that brings the graduation of power for a radiant? Instead it’s words written by a man that are the key to unlocking the next step. More so, you have honorspren that each bond to a model of a Heralds’ divine attribute…and without the Heralds knowing any of this? Wouldn’t the Heralds know it is all from the Almighty? Immortality, Honorblades, Surgebinding, etc. The people all know the Heralds’ divine attributes (of the Almighty)…presumably because the Heralds told them. Why not tell them, ‘live honorably, and maybe the Almighty will bless you.’ Or, ‘That honorspren requires something more of you, perhaps you should reevaluate your decisions in life.’ Which still doesn’t even account for the words being needed. During desolations and stuff…don’t you think the heralds would immediately hand out instructions to give allies more hope? Even if they’d forgotten everything? Something to give them better chances? To give them a chance? Nohadon’s entire world is gone. Population easily cut right in half, at the very least. And probably much more than that; entire countries/nations are dead. So why would the heralds not do anything? They fought for ELEVEN years. Why would they say nothing of surgebinders? And not a single surgebinder, even those with honorspren, ever ‘spark’ any words? Because the words didn’t exist yet, it has got to be as simple as that. Crazy, I know. Now, take the Oathpact…and if you get really crazy for a second… What explains how the simple words of a man can bring power to a surgebinder? And without the Heralds, the spren or the Almighty knowing these words prior? A new binding to the Oathpact. I think Nohadon found Honor and Odium. Okay…maybe not really like that. I think he found a Dawnshard. And this let him ‘find’ Honor, Odium, and the Oathpact. I think this is Nohadon. Hang with me. Now, I have no idea what a Dawnshard is. But even the Almighty thinks highly of them. And they seem to have an effect on binding the enemy. So a Dawnshard seems kind of like it allows an amendment to the Oathpact, doesn’t it? And that it would be very difficult without one? So what if Nohadon created the way for radiants? What if he found a Dawnshard, and changed the magic system/spren. What if that’s why his words are the key? So much so that the Almighty later references them? So if Nohadon could make a binding—add an amendment of his words—and change the magic system to how he thought it should be; well it would be precisely what it is today. Only honorspren will bond for surgebinding, and only honorable actions receive more power. Better yet…he would be the only one who knew the words. And every Nahel bond besides honorbound, would dissipate. And being a more honorable system… Not only could he offer surgebinders more power if they follow him, but by being tied to the honorspren, it also insured the wrong people couldn’t fake it. That they were already on the right path. And all of this would leave lots of spren in the world that aren’t needed for bonding anymore. They would just wander around…attracted to strong emotions and states of being. Specifically…maybe those they used to bond with. But like Kabsal tries to explain…the cosmere balanced out the good with the bad. The Oathpact. Odium got in on the deal. You change the rules and bind one side with the Dawnshard…the other side gets bound as well. Nohadon mentions Yelig-nar, Heralds, surgebinding, soulcasting…no voidbinding. The deal Nohadon made was bound to the Heralds, modeling the Ideals after their divine attributes; and in some way, this allowed modeling behavior after the Unmade an equally rewarding magic system. Boom, voidbinding. Rewrite the rules…pay the price of balance. The Oathpact. I spoke of more honor=more power. Somewhere in there Nohadon would have to account for the Blades and Plate. Now, if Nohadon found the Almighty/Odium and the Oathpact. Naturally, changing the magic system to be more honorable/only honorspren would bring everyone closer to Tanavast; making for much stronger surgebinders. All you would need is the words to restrict the most power to the most honorable. This plays into the eyes of some of the radiants ‘glowing’ ‘almost white.’ I think this could be the higher tiers of radiant powers. After the later Ideals. Brighter eyes=more honorable in life=more ideals spoken=more power with stormlight. The people with the lightest eyes would have been the most honorable, distorted through Vorinism and the passing of time, into what we have today—Lighteyes are the most honorable. So…Blades and Plate. I now postulate as the uppermost tier of radiants’ power: Investiture. The ability to throw stormlight earned (like in the eyes), into objects. To permanently change them, a sort of super soulcasting available at the highest tier. So that’s it. Quite a few problems. Worst of which is the spren would just be pawns in a big game, which makes me feel bad for them. But I just had to share that.

I'm okay with keeping it at Theoryland for as far as I can reasonably see in my mind. Both Matt and Terez have been super helpful on it. I suppose if we really had a desire to move it in a decade or two, we can figure it out. However, since it's coded by hand, there are technical difficulties involved. For at least the next five years, I'm very satisfied. Besides, we've always said we are the Theoryland for Brandon's stuff. This makes the connection even more obvious I really, really like the interview database. Terez and Theoryland have been amazing, and it's such an achievement. The most immediate benefit for us in the short term is the ability to link to individual entries. (Which means, Joe, that we need to make the Coppermind standard of citation.) But the searchability and everything... it's just so awesome.

DOH, of course I should've thought of fragment links for particular questions, silly me (considering I think I advocated such a solution >.>) *technojargon* the quickest way of making linkable tags (searches would automatically benefit from this) would be to change the form method from POST to GET. (though I dont see why the tags/etc were made as forms rather than just hyperlinks in the first place...) Thanks again

You actually can link to specific questions, which is something I didn't know until last night. For example, if I wanted to link to question 12 in the Alloy of Law Release (which is interview 689), I would just add a #12 to the end of it. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=689#12 Search results you can't link to, unfortunately. And since the tags are based off of a search function, you can't link to those either. We're hoping to change the tag link though. We really want to make that happen.