Andrew the Great

Just to be clear, I wasn't originally trying to claim that the Heirocracy was a bad thing by suggesting that the priests were a bad group to receive the visions. I'm not saying anything about the priests personally. I'm just stating that they were a poor choice of people to receive the visions, as evidenced by the fact that the Heirocracy failed. Or, there's also the distinct possibility that the priests did make it all up, in which case they were almost certainly what I would consider a bad group in the other sense of the word. I have to say, though, I really do like the idea that the Heirocracy wasn't inherently an attempt to take over, but just wasn't successful in the reforms it wanted to make.

I tend to disagree with that statement, as it implies that Breaths are in fact pieces of souls. The fact that people are capable of living normal lives without Breaths makes me think that this is not the case, though your opinion on what exactly constitutes a soul will definitely affect your view of this. I think of it like this. The people each have a soul, without which they will die. They also each have a Breath, which I believe to be a tiny fragment of Endowment, which heightens their sentience. Without it, they become less aware of people around them, less aware of colors and the world around them, but they don't die. Nightblood has sentience because he's been given enough Breaths to heighten his natural sentience, which is virtually nothing. However, since Nightblood can't actually be killed, so far as we know, he can't really be construed as being alive. Also going along with this is the fact that Nightblood doesn't seem able to change himself - No matter what he may think, his fundamental nature is to destroy evil, whatever that may mean. I would also say that this is argument against him being truly alive. Interesting to note, however, is that humans on Scadrial are just the same thing, in a way. They weren't sentient until Preservation sacrificed part of himself to make them so. Apparently Preservation's gift of sentience was less of experimenting and more actual knowledge than Vasher's was, though, based on the results.

I'm also of the opinion that Aona and Skaze were dead for a while before the Reod, though I admit that it's possible that Odium caused the Reod. In answer to your original question, unless users of Skai's magic systems are somehow tied directly to Arelon in the same way that Aona's magic users are, they probably didn't see too many major effects. However, if the Reod was a result of Odium's visit, it seems quite likely that Skai's magic users had a similar event. In the end, however, as you say, we just don't have enough information to say for sure.

I'm also really liking the idea that Stormlight is the focus for both Honor and Odium's magic systems. It's entirely possible that Odium thinks that providing more fuel for users of Honor's magic systems is completely inconsequential, because really, so far as we know, there are a grand total of around five magic users in the world at this point. Though I'm not counting any of the people who Soulcast with fabrials. Still, if both Odium and Honor use stormlight as a focus, it makes sense that Odium would want more Stormlight in the world, assuming that there are active Voidbinders and Odium is actively working to make sure that there are more of his magic users in the world.

.....Unless Roshar is flat..... just had to throw that out there. Also, if you remember, in one of Dalinar's vision he sees a Desolation (or at least he thinks that's what it is, though we're not sure IIRC) and says that it looks very much like a highstorm, but much worse. Not that that necessarily means anything, but the Highstorms do seem like they could be of Odium. As to why Odium would fuel the Almighty's magic system....ummm.....so they could get used to the power, and then he could withdraw it? Or maybe it's Honor taking advantage of Odium's storms (which seems far more likely). But yeah, Stormlight is kind of throwing a bunch of my theories down the drain.

Yeah, this is pretty much my favorite pet theory of late. Though I still do think magic use is tied to fragments of the Shards, same as before. I have now given up on the idea that all magic users are splinters, though. Also, Chaos, those quotes I was going to get you that I thought would help back this by last Tuesday? Yeah, they're still coming. I have most of them now, but my life exploded this week, and I'd prefer to post them all in one block. I'll give you my nitpicks then too.

I would agree with you that it's seeming less likely that each magic user is a Splinter. I'm still of the opinion that in order to use magic, you have to be connected with a fragment of the Shard in some way, though. Maybe it's just me remembering wrong, but I thought that preservation was what gave humans sentience at all, not just free will. Their free will was a direct result of that sentience. And yes, I would say that sentient life requires a Shard of some sort (though obviously not all Sentient life came from the Shards - We do know that there were humans around before Adonalsium shattered. However, it's also quite likely that said humans were, in fact, created by Adonalsium).

The ability to

and screamed, "Why

came crashing through

5096 Words, from the point where I start breaking it into sections to the second to last paragraph. The last paragraph and the introductory ones also add a bit on, but I'm too lazy to go see exactly how much at this point. And what's this about no complaining? You can't seriously have expectations that high. Especially from me.

See, now that's just mean. You can't tell me that you've come up with a compelling alternative to my theory right after I mention the fact that I have yet to see a compelling alternative and would very much like to, and then refuse to say anything about it. I expect a write-up by tomorrow night at the latest. Or at least a PM with basic details so I can start wildly speculating on a new line as well. I'll be honest, a big part of the reason for this post was that I just couldn't see another way for everything to work, so I was trying to make everything fit. If you've got a different way, I'd be thrilled to try that line of reasoning as well. I will admit though, I'm curious to see what you've come up with this time.

Good catch, Morderkaine - I'd completely forgotten about that first quote. It does shed a different light on things. He seems to be defining a Sliver as someone who has held all of the power of a Shard at one point or another. He says very definitively that Elantrians are not slivers, but the one that I find interesting is that he feels the need to say that normal mistings are "probably" not a sliver, and Lerasium Mistborn are "getting closer." This makes it seem like he's defining it to be more like Splinter. I do want to point out, however, that he confirms that the people on Scadrial all have a bit of Ruin and Preservation in them, which lends a little credibility to my thoughts on BioChroma, and he implies that the more powerful a magic user, the more likely that they could be considered a Sliver. This seems like a distinction of terminology more than anything else to me - the point I was trying to make was that magic use is directly connected to Splinters (which I was defining to mean fragments of a Shard, not necessarily fragments of a given size) in some way, and that larger/better Splinters meant more power. I do find it exceedingly curious that he mentions that Elantrians are certainly not Slivers, though, especially since they're the ones who I originally thought it was quite likely that they were Splinters. Again, like CrazyRioter says, someone needs to ask him what the exact distinction between a Sliver and a Splinter is. Really, if I could corner Brandon for ten to fifteen minutes and just ask him this stuff, it would be so marvellous.... Also, CrazyRioter was correct in asserting that Snapping happens to overcome the bit of Ruin inside each person. The relevant quote, from the Hero of Ages Chapter 70 Annotation: I also found a quote that I found extremely interesting in the Chapter 17 annotation for Hero of Ages: So, since it has been stated that Snapping is a means of overcoming the piece of Ruin, this has interesting implications. Especially combined with this, from the Hero of Ages Chapter 38 annotations: So the level of power of the Allomancer directly corresponds to the level of Preservation present in the person. Yet, in order for it to be harder for the person to Snap and more dangerous, that would also entail a proportionately increased amount of Ruin present in the person, if not a slightly more heavily increased amount of Ruin. Just a thought. For now, I'm still going to maintain that most of the major magic systems are somehow based around the interactions between people and fragments of Shards, whether they're technically large enough to be termed Splinters or not. I simply haven't seen a convincing alternative theory yet.

a large wombat

My post was 29,000 characters, give or take a few, so it's a safe bet that you've got at least ten thousand more characters than before.

Meanwhile, on the

Really? I don't actually remember ever hearing this before. Is that something that's in the book and I just missed it, or in the annotations somewhere, or just something Brandon said at one point? Anything you can give me would be greatly appreciated. If this is true, it does modify things slightly. Not that I mind much. I'm not too attached to the idea of Snapping being a universal thing - it was just something I noticed. Something else that I just was thinking about: Nalthis is the only world we have seen in which the primary Shard fueling magic is not either dead or incapacitated. On Sel, Aona and Skai are both very much dead, their shards splintered. On Scadrial, Leras had sacrificed much of himself to give humans Sentience, and to imprison Ruin. He wasn't really capable of anything more than instinctive action any more. By the third book, he was actually entirely dead. On Roshar, Honor is dead by the time of the story. Not sure what effects that might actually have on the magic systems, but it's something.

Yeah....didn't think about that at the time, or I likely would have split it up. Of course, I was having difficulty thinking about much of anything at the time, but still....

while flipping the

caused the universe

Having just posted my epically huge theory, I've come to the conclusion that any post longer than a certain number of characters should be counted as more than one post. I'm pretty sure that particular post should count for at least ten regular posts.

Preface: This post (or series of posts, as it will likely turn out) was 8 full pages typed out in OpenOffice, Times New Roman, font size 12. It is also completely full of wild speculation, much of which has only slight basis in the books. There is a great deal of logic involved, but not much consideration given to counterarguments. You have been warned. So, a little while ago, I suggested that it might be the case that all magic users were either Splinters or connected to them in some way. I started this post in the effort to prove that. After the amount of thought that went into it, I'm no longer sure I believe that statement exactly, but I am quite firmly convinced that Splinters have to do with magic. With no further ado, my musings, broken down into sections (most frequently by book and magic system). Warbreaker: Returned: The Returned are the only confirmed Splinters. It's the fact that they hold Splinters that allow them to see bits of the future. Biochroma: This is one argument that seems pretty strongly against the idea of magic users being Splinters. After all, everyone on Nalthis has a Biochromatic Breath – it seems like a bit of a stretch that every one of these people could contain a Splinter of Endowment. However, I will now point out several similarities between BioChroma and the Returned that should at least show that it is possible for this to be the case. First of all, let's look at the Returned. They have, instead of a regular Breath, one Divine Breath. This single Breath is enough for them to reach the fifth heightening. However, in order to continue to survive, they have to consume a single regular Breath each week, or else they consume their divine Breath and die. In this case, it's possible that each person's Breath is a Splinter. A Divine Breath is enough to reach the Fifth Heightening – 2,000 Regular Breaths. This suggests that a Divine Breath is of considerably better Quality than the Regular Breaths. Now, think of Breaths as a Splinter, and it makes sense – a Divine Breath is simply a larger portion of the Shard from which it splintered than is a regular Breath. Also, looking at the amount of change a single regular breath can cause, it's fairly consistent with what we would expect for power being diluted so much. A single regular breath? Can't do much with it. It takes a good number of Breaths before an Awakener is able to do much of anything – they can't even recognize other powerful Awakeners until they accumulate fifty of them, the First Heightening. Vasher throws them around like they're nothing throughout the course of the book, routinely throwing a couple hundred breaths here, another couple hundred there, etc. This raises an interesting question, then: Why don't individuals of greater than the Fifth Heightening share the ability of the Returned to predict the future? This particular question is difficult to answer, but I don't find that it's impossible. The biggest problem presented is the complete lack of individuals of the Fifth Heightening or greater who aren't also Returned. I can't recall a single one discussed in Warbreaker, let alone discussed in enough detail to be helpful here. The point is, it's actually possible that they do have the same ability. We simply don't know. The other thing, along those same lines, is that not all individuals are equally skilled at predicting the future. In The Way of Kings, the Almighty tells Dalinar that Cultivation is better at predicting the future than he is, even though they are both Shards. It's a bit of a stretch, but in Mistborn, the closer a mistborn is to the Lerasium-eater, the more powerfully they are able to push and pull, riot and soothe. Logically, then, it follows that a powerful mistborn would be able to see further into the future using atium than would a weak one. Then there's the question of how the actual skill of the mistborn affects this, and whether certain mistborn are able, all other things being equal, to get more power out of the same amount of metal. I would say, given how many times other characters remark on how Vin is stronger than she should be, even given how powerful a Mistborn she is, that skill is a factor in the amount of power retrieved from the metal. Anyway, back to the point at hand, it is entirely possible that something about Returned simply makes them better suited to predicting the future than regular humans, especially given the fact that they don't actually function the same way as humans do. They don't require food, they do require Breath, their appearance is “perfect,” etc. Their nature, while showing some similarities to humans, is fundamentally different from humans. I don't see why that nature shouldn't be better suited to predicting the future than humans. Now, if the Breaths are Splinters, or manifestations of Splinters, what are the implications of that on the act of Awakening itself? It seems a little odd to be able to temporarily bestow an inanimate object with life, and the fact that the Breaths actually enter the object in question seems to be evidence that, if the Breaths are in fact Splinters, Splinters don't need a live person as a host. This really doesn't make any sense. However, when we think about the Breaths as not actually entering the object being animated, but rather simply being occupied with their continued animation of it, things make more sense. For example, if I recall correctly, one Awakener cannot recover Breaths from an object that another has awakened – they have to be given by the Awakener. If Breaths are Splinters, this makes sense – they haven't actually entered the object, but are rather tied up keeping it animated. They're still bonded to the Awakener who originally invested the object with the Breath, which means that only that Awakener can recover them. This also has interesting implications for death. What happens to a person's Breath when they die? If I had to guess, I would say that Endowment absorbs the Breath again, recycling it to be given out to another person when they're born. Otherwise, there would be no way that there would be Breaths remaining to give to new people. In fact, it's possible that this could be the intended function of the Returned – to gather breaths and allow them to be absorbed back into Endowment so the new Breaths can be given to new people. That would explain why they need to consume a Breath a week in order to stay alive – when they consume the Breath, it gets absorbed back into Endowment. When they begin to fail to collect the requisite breaths, they are no longer serving their purpose, and Endowment is better served by absorbing their divine Breath and giving it out again. Note that the fact that this theory requires that Endowment constantly be giving out Splinters of itself also fits in very closely with the Shard – almost constantly giving of itself, but in such a way that it never runs out of things to give. At this point, I've wandered far into the realm of speculation, but I think I've raised some good questions here. Plus I've been typing about Warbreaker for nearly an hour now, and I still have to get Mistborn, Elantris, and Way of Kings done. Elantris: The Elantrians are actually relatively easy to see the connection. They're functionally immortal, living either until they are killed by someone or until they choose to enter the pool. The only other group of magic users we have seen this kind of life force with is the Returned, who have to consume a Breath a week to stay alive, and who are known to hold Splinters. Thus, it follows that in order to remain alive without using some sort of trick of the magic system (a la the Lord Ruler and atium), the Elantrians must hold a similar amount of power to the Returned. The fact that they are able to sustain themselves even without an extra Breath each week could be argument for the fact that they must be more powerful than the Returned. But even in their magic use, the Elantrians are insanely powerful. They draw a couple of lines in the air, and bam they're five hundred miles away. They can heal injuries that no one else has a hope of healing. They can do anything they want to, so long as they can think of a way to describe it using Aons. Part of this could be the fact that Aona is dead, her (I'm assuming Aona is a woman, no reason why) Shard actually Splintered. These Splinters, created when Odium further Shattered Aona, could very well be significantly larger than those created when Endowment intentionally splits off pieces of herself (I'm also assuming Endowment is a woman, with as little to support it). Now, there is a slight problem with this – why don't the Elantrians' Aons work as well when Elantris itself isn't complete (I'm referring to the Aon it forms here), if they hold the Splinters themselves? The telling part of this is that Elantrians also don't complete the Shaod when the city Aon is't complete. So, I would argue that they haven't yet bonded with their Splinter yet, or that they have only a very tenuous connection to that Splinter. Elantris functions in some way to amplify that bond, or to allow them to form it in the first place. If I'm recalling correctly, though, the Elantrians all pretty much shriveled up and died when the Reod took place, so that would suggest an amplifying affect for the bond as opposed to actually forming the connection. It's interesting to note, however, that even when Elantris wasn't complete, Elantrians still lived forever, or at least until their body ceased to function, the equivalent of someone killing a regular Elantrian. This implies that whatever is keeping the regular Elantrians alive also works with the not-yet-transformed Elantrians. I would submit, then, that this means that these Elantrians still have a connection to a Splinter, and a substantial enough one that it can keep them alive, however tenuous that connection may be. It could also be that the effort that goes into keeping the Elantrian alive takes a large enough portion of the Splinter's power that without the amplification effect of Elantris, the bond between the Elantrian and their Splinter is not sufficient to create powerful magic. When an Elantrian enters the pool in Elantris, they are told that they can find relief, and they are allowed to die. It is my opinion that what is actually happening here is that their Splinter is returning to the Shard as a whole, the same as I predicted happens in Warbreaker. When an Elantrian dies, their Shard is absorbed in the same way. Though perhaps absorbed is the wrong word, as it implies that the Shard is becoming whole once again. Instead, I believe that these Splinters are then given to new people who undergo the Shaod and become Elantrians. This could also explain why the world was never overrun with Elantrians, even though they were functionally immortal – new people were only taken by the Shaod when the old ones died. Elantrians seem the most likely candidates of any of Brandon's magic systems to hold Splinters in my opinion, so I'll leave it at that, though there are some interesting questions about the Dor that I'll address later. Mistborn: This is by far the messiest magic system for this theory. The first and biggest problem with it is that being a Mistborn is hereditary. This doesn't seem at all in order with what we've seen of Splinters. However, we also know that by consuming Lerasium, anyone can become Mistborn. I may be remembering incorrectly, or imagining this, but I believe Brandon has said several times that Lerasium doesn't “make you Mistborn,” per say – it teaches your body how to burn metals, and is the only metal that everybody instinctively knows how to burn. Thus, the hereditary predisposition to being mistborn could actually be explained by this. If either of your parents' bodies knew how to burn the extra metals, there would be a chance that you could inherit the ability from them. Otherwise, the only way your body would gain the ability to burn metals would be to burn Lerasium, the only metal that all humans on Scadrial can instinctively burn. We also see that the closer we are to the person who ate the Lerasium, the more powerful the Mistborn. This also makes sense. Over time, the genes that allow for the burning of metals would mutate, perhaps causing the Mistborn to become less efficient in the way they burned metals or perhaps forgetting how to burn them entirely. As to why a person either has the ability to burn all of the metals or only one, I have no idea. The point is, however, that the hereditary part of being Mistborn doesn't come from the Splinter, but rather just from your body knowing what to do with the metals. It would be, in my opinion, theoretically possible for someone to Snap, but not have the genes necessary for allomancy, and thus never actually see any signs of being Mistborn. It's also important to note that Mistborn don't actually have any power until they Snap. The heredity alone isn't enough to guarantee them the ability. They have to go through some sort of traumatic experience that causes them to Snap. In my opinion, this is likely the time when they become bonded to the Splinter that allows them to use Allomancy. There's also the question of Lerasium. Do people who eat Lerasium have to snap still? Elend isn't much help to us – yes he ate Lerasium, but he was also lying on the ground dying when he did so. It's entirely possible that he snapped at this point. It's certainly a suitably traumatic experience. It's also possibly that Lerasium includes some sort of auto-snapping mechanism, so that as soon as you eat it, it not only teaches your body to burn the metals, but also bonds you to a Splinter. All of the powers shown by Mistborn could certainly be accounted for by the possession of a Splinter. Are there other possible sources of that power? The only other theory that I've seen that really accounts for everything in Mistborn is that Allomancy is like a pipeline directly to the power of Preservation. I'll discuss that toward the end of this post, along with the Dor. Feruchemy: Feruchemy is weird. It's different from every other one of Brandon's magic systems, most notably in that all of the power involved comes from oneself. I honestly have no idea how they would fit into this theory, and am actually prepared to admit that feruchemists are not, in fact, Splinters. There could be some weird convoluted explanation for how they could be, but I've got nothing off the top of my head, and anything that's not off the top of my head is probably way too complex to be feasible. As an example, most of the ideas presented earlier in this post were, in fact, off the top of my head, though many of the ideas about the Elantrians had been there for a while. Hemalurgy: Hemalurgy is also slightly strange, in that all it really does is steal allomancy. The primary question here then is whether or not stealing an allomancer's power involves stealing his Splinter. We know that Hemalurgy is the magic system associated with Ruin. We also know that the process of creating a Hemalurgist involves killing an Allomancer in very specific ways, with very specific materials. It is possible, then, that the process of killing the Allomancer in said ways, with said materials, somehow prevents the Splinter bonded to the Allomancer from returning to Preservation. Instead, it is trapped in the spike or enslaved to the hemalurgist in some other way. However, this explanation also requires that the powers lent to a hemalurgist by feruchemy be explainable in the same terms, which I'm currently unable to do, since I have no explanation for how feruchemists could be Splinters. The other explanation I've come up with makes sense for both Allomancy and Feruchemy, though I don't like it quite as much as I do the first. The basic idea is this – the magic of hemalurgy is actually in the process of harvesting the genetic material from others. When the spike is driven through the allomancer or feruchemist in question, it somehow picks up the genetic information about how to burn metals or use them to store attributes for later access. Then, when this spike is placed in specific locations inside of a person's body, they gain the ability learned from the spike, picked up directly from the person it was stolen from. Feruchemy, then, if it is totally genetic (which actually might be suggested by the fact that it was around well before allomancy was), is accounted for. The person learns the abilities from the genes of the person the abilities were stolen from, or some other similar process. Allomancy is a little more difficult. In this case, they would either have to steal the Splinter from the Allomancer as well, or they would have to use Ruin as a power source for the abilities stolen from the Allomancer. In this case, they would actually be bonded to a Splinter of Ruin. Then of course, there's the hybrid theory, where the spike teaches the genetic abilities and enslaves the Splinter of the Allomancer, and gives the genetics necessary for Feruchemy. Also, as a weird side question, is it ever addressed whether Feruchemists go through something similar to Snapping? Something else that I just thought of: It's also possible that the hemalurgist gains the genetic ability for allomancy through the spikes, and then the trauma of actually having the spikes placed in the correct locations in their body Snaps them, bonding them with a Splinter of their own. This is actually my favorite theory yet on the subject. The issue of where the power for the magic itself actually comes from is a bit hazy. I'll address this a bit later. The Stormlight Archive: And finally, we have magic in the Stormlight Archive. I'll start with Windrunning, since it's more similar to Mistborn and I can use that as a jumping off point. Windrunning: The basic mechanics of Windrunning are very similar to some of the abilities granted by Allomancy. Essentially, there's an intense alteration of gravity, or, perhaps, on a broader level, a manipulation of natural forces (for example, highly increased friction in combination with slightly altered gravity could account for things sticking together) around the magic user, causing the strange effects we see. Stormlight is used as either a focus, or a power source, or both. It's unclear at this time. On Roshar, there are several known forces that could fuel magic – The Old Magic, The Almighty, Cultivation, and Odium. There could potentially be more, but those are the ones that we know of. The Almighty is by far the strongest candidate for the source of any of the magics of the Radiants, simply from their association with him. Odium seems unlikely, as he would likely want to interfere with men's abilities to protect themselves. The Old Magic seems unlikely, as Windrunning doesn't seem similar to anything we've seen of the Old Magic yet, and we know virtually nothing of Cultivation, making it difficult to tell anything about her. (As a side note, has anyone considered the possibility that the Old Magic is somehow related to Cultivation? The Nightwatcher doesn't really seem like Cultivation, but then again, maybe giving men boons and then cursing them is some form of cultivation – though I don't know what she'd be cultivating) Anyway, back on topic, it seems likely that all of the Magic Systems of the Radiants are fueled in some way by the power of the Almighty. Now, the Almighty claims to be dead, which seems likely given that were he alive he could have just talked to Dalinar rather than using the recording-ish type method he did. Given that he states that Odium is the one who killed him, and that this also seems likely given everything we know about Odium, it also is extremely likely that the Shard the Almighty held has been Splintered, since this is what Odium did to both Aona and Skai. This puts the Radiants in a similar position as the Elantrians, in terms of the ability to bond Splinters. It also raises interesting questions as to what happened before the Almighty died, though. When exactly did the Almighty die? Were there Radiants or Heralds before then? It seems likely that there were, given the Almighty's line to Dalinar about “Return to men the Shards they once bore.” Unless he's talking about actual Shards, which seems unlikely, he has to be talking about Shardplate and Shardblades, which we know were associated with the Radiants (and in a different way that we don't yet understand, the Heralds). However, it is also possible that the Almighty is talking about actual Shards, and by Shards he means Splinters. We know from Endowment that it is possible for a Shard to be alive and still Splinter, giving pieces of itself to others. It's entirely possible that the Almighty did this for the original Radiants, which enabled them to fight the voidbringers. Why there has been no magic for the last couple of thousand years is difficult to explain. The Splintering of the Almighty's Shard by Odium might have interfered with it, or possibly it just took the pieces of the Shard a while to adjust to bonding to humans without the Almighty being there to direct the process. Another interesting question – Allomancers have to Snap before coming into their powers. Is there a similar event for Radiants? Based off of Windrunning alone, we might argue so, since Kaladin didn't come into his power until he was betrayed and lost those closest to him time and time again, and Szeth very definitely has had a rough past. Soulcasting presents some interesting possibilities, though. We know that Shallan murdered her father, presumably in a confrontation, and that she has somehow acquired a Shardblade. These experiences could very likely have been traumatizing enough to snap her. We know virtually nothing of Jasnah's early Soulcasting days, so we have little to go on there. Elhokar, however, seems to be coming into his power as a Soulcaster as well. He's begun seeing the Truthspren, as I call them, which means he will likely Soulcast on his own soon, if he hasn't already. The question is, have there been any experiences in Elhokar's life traumatizing enough to Snap him? The more recent the better, as they would explain why he hadn't been seeing the Truthspren earlier in life. I believe he first mentions the Truthspren shortly after nearly being killed by a Chasmfiend, but it's ambiguous as to how long he's been seeing them. Snapping actually seems to be a theme of sorts – when we consider AonDor, realize that Elantrians have to go through the Shaod before they can become Elantrians. The only systems we've seen so far that don't incorporate snapping in some way are BioChroma and Feruchemy (and possibly Radiants and Hemalurgists as well). Back to whether Radiants being able to use magic because they possess Splinters works, Syl mentions something to Kaladin fairly early in Way of Kings: This, when I first saw it, prompted me to suggest that perhaps Spren are, in fact, Splinters of Honor/The Almighty, or embodiments of Splinters in some way. We see no sign of them in any of Dalinar's visions, all of which ostensibly took place before the Almighty's death. More importantly, however, they seem to be directly related to the magic systems of the Stormlight Archive. Consider: We know for a fact that Kaladin's bond with Syl is, in fact, what is causing the changes in him. She tells him so. So, in my theory, Kaladin has come to be bonded with Syl in some way or another, whether it involves Snapping or not. He is bonded, either to her, or through her, with a Splinter of the Almighty. It is this that allows him to use his abilities. Further evidence of this, however, can be seen in Shallan. Her ability to Soulcast directly coincides with the time she begins seeing Truthspren. She bonds with them when she tells them her truths. One of the Spren even explicitly calls it a bond. From The Way of Kings, US Hardcover, page 969: It continues like that, but the point is that Shallan is bonding with the Spren in some way. It's also interesting that this bond, unlike all of the others that we've seen, seems to be entirely temporary. She has to tell a truth each time she enters Shadesmar, whereas it seems that being truthful all of the time would be required to create a permanent bond with a Truthspren. This might actually be what's going on with Jasnah, though I have no evidence to back that up. The deal-breaker for me, though, is fabrials. From the translated pages of Navani's notebook, we learn all kinds of interesting things. Here's the quote: It goes on for a while, but that's the most significant part. Fabrials are powered by Spren. The only other means of magic we have seen, aside from actual magic users, are powered by the Spren. So, apparently, the Spren have become trapped or enslaved in some way. The reason different types of gemstones are used for different things in soulcasting is because the Spren trapped inside of them are different types of Spren, with different abilities. Once the gem is infused with Stormlight, we have all of the necessary ingredients for magic – the focus and/or power source, the person to direct it, and the Spren – in my belief, a Splinter, else anyone with access to Stormlight would be able to Soulcast. Note that this is another explanation for how Jasnah soulcasts – the Spren she uses in her magic are trapped within the gemstones that also supply her Stormlight. Since these Spren have been enslaved, she doesn't have to form a bond with them to use magic, she simply has to direct them. And now, I've pretty much covered Soulcasting as well, so I'll just leave it at that for now. Though I do want to return to the question of what happens to Kaladin at the end of Way of Kings. He speaks one of the ideals of the Knights Radiant, and suddenly becomes substantially more powerful. This is actually a very great deal like what Elantris does for the Elantrians. In my opinion, the Ideals work somehow to magnify the bond between person and Splinter, allowing them access to more power. A side comment – I've heard Brandon mention thirty magic systems in the Stormlight Archive, but so far, we only know of ten with the Radiants. However, there are Three Shards on Roshar. Ten each? With the Old Magic thrown in to make thirty one? Or perhaps the Old Magic actually is related to Cultivation, or even Odium? But now I'm off track. I've mentioned something several times now, and said I'd discuss it later. The time has now come. The Pipeline Theory, The Dor, Allomancy, and Stormlight: The primary theory I've seen used to explain where power comes from, if not from a Splinter, is that magic users have a direct pipeline to the power of the Shard. There are pluses and minuses to this theory as well. I'll start with the pluses: My theory isn't very clear about how having a Splinter allows you access to power. Everything gets a little hazy when you try to figure out how a Splinter can access the Energy from Ruin or Preservation, or Aona, or the Almighty. The only thing that I can suggest is that having a Splinter is necessary to use the power, but that it isn't the primary source of power itself in most cases (though Warbreaker seems to be an exception). The pipeline theory, on the other hand, is very clear about what actually fuels the magic. It's just rather vague on why only specific people have pipelines. Much of it could be genetic, but some things make no sense whatsoever in terms of genetics. Like the fact that virtually all of the magic users in Way of Kings are first generation magic users, none of whom have had ancestors that could use magic (well, at least for quite a few generations). There are also problems with the Shard's power as a whole being the source of Energy for magic, however. Consider, for example, Aona and Honor, both of whom have been Splintered. There is no Shard as a whole. The only remaining power of that Shard is found, according to everything we know, in its Splinters. Unless, of course, Splinters simply are a means of gaining access to the power of the Shard as a whole, and the largest of these would be the Shard itself, but then, this also supports my theory quite nicely as well. I've now been typing this up for nigh on three hours, and I'm starting to become incoherent. I'll post this up and try to come back and elaborate later. This started out mostly as me trying to prove that all magic users were Splinters or were bonded to them in some way, but it really ended up as just mostly me musing about magic and Shards for a while. I'm well aware that I've very likely contradicted myself a couple of times, and that this post is all over the place. Please bear with me in my musings, and absolutely tear them apart. Have fun!

No, he has a valid point. It's not the speculation that he's taking issue with, but rather with the fact that I assumed that my own speculation was correct to the point where I stated my point in such a way that it was consistent with what I believed, but not necessarily how everyone else interpreted it. He's simply asking me to state my point in such a way that everyone else will be sure to understand it the way it was stated. As to the portion of his post where he gives arguments against my theory, that's just standard discussion. And it was actually very helpful, as it made me really step back and look at where each magic system fits in under my theory. But we've already thread-jacked this discussion too much as it is. I'll leave that discussion for a bit later when I give this issue its own topic.

Duly noted. I'll whip up a topic later today citing all of the arguments for or against, and will curtail my use of my own speculation.

It's entirely possible that Odium just considers the other Shards to be worthless. I'm more inclined, however, to agree that it's just not possible to take a Shard after you've possessed a Shard for a while, whether it be because you can't take more than one Shard (and Sazed was only able to because he took both at the same time), or because you have become fundamentally incompatible with other Shards due to the changes from your own Shard. Of those two reasons, I'm more inclined to believe that you just can't take more than one Shard, since it explains why Odium hasn't tried to take Shards even extremely similar in nature to his own, such as Ruin. However, you do have a valid explanation for the same thing in Odium considering all of the other Shards worthless. My problem, then, is why Odium considers them enough of a threat to justify destroying them. It seems to me that if he sees them as dangerous enough to destroy them, he sees them as powerful enough to justify taking the shards rather than destroying them, if he could.