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I've been banging together this theory in my head for a while now. WoB says that at the Shattering, each Shard took something with it. The intent of a Shard is a result of this "taking", and while the Vessel can filter this intent somewhat, there is a certain... truth to it. Practically all the intents we know are some sort of aspects of personality - Honor, Preservation, Ruin, Cultivation, Odium, Endowment, Autonomy, Devotion, Dominion, and Ambition. These all come from Adonalsium itself. Now, this raises the question - What was Adonalsium? My personal suspicion is on Adonalsium being a reaction to the evolving sentience and consciousness in the early cosmere. That as life developed and grew, the mechanics of the cosmere allowed it's perceptions and thoughts and general understanding of it's environment to reflect in the investiture of Yolen, forming a sort of imprint in the Spiritual: a proto-Adonalsium. This created a feedback loop, where as this proto-Adonalsium began to become more capable of affecting things in the cosmere, the more powerful it became - eventually becoming the Adonalsium of Yolen. A primal God of sorts, intertwined with the fundamental nature of the cosmere by the very mechanics of it's creation. This would imply that at the Shattering, each intent inherited some of his connections to the fundamental forces of the Cosmere - and that each element of his personality that was split off represented some of these forces as understood by those that, for lack of a better phrase, designed the Shattering. Moreover, as each Shard seems like it is some sort of a spiritual epicentre or focal point of all investiture associated with it, I think that investiture associated with each Shard also has a certain fundamental behavior associated with it, not unlike how we in physics define the four fundamental forces of the universe. It is this fundamental nature/behavior that informs the intent of any Shard, and gives it a kind of "Truth" - this is why Odium is fundamentally Odium and not Passion just because Rayse thinks it is Passion. To inform this, I've been trying to find hints of this across all published work in the Cosmere, and this is what I think is best indicative of each Intent-Investiture combination: Honor Represents external bonds? I put this first because it is by far the easiest to accept. Honor's investiture behaves as glue - it tries to bind things together. This could explain Unity as a different interpretation of the same fundamental investiture, where Honor was binding cultural rules, Unity is binding people together. The same investiture, the same fundamental force of binding, interpreted through the eyes of a different Vessel. This implies that even among the Spren, it is Honor's investiture that facilitates the Nahel Bond. There could be interesting implications for this in Voidbinding, which might need Honor's investiture to facilitate the bond, and so be replacing Cultivation's investiture with Odium's Preservation Represent Stillness Investiture seems to be "cold", focused on stillness, is suffusive, and I imagine forms a stabilizing matrix inside whatever it suffuses in its natural form, preserving it. A bit like how we find ancient organisms preserved in Amber, just this is more internal. There is some contrast here to Endowment, which seems to have an external aspect to it's suffusion properties, though they work differently. There isn't much evidence for this one, mostly because Preservation's own system, Allomancy is an odd one out among the other known systems. Practically every system highlights the Intent of their Shard, except Allomancy which only uses Preservation's investiture, and that only as a power source for a wide range of powers. Ruin Represents Entropy On the opposite end as Preservation, it is "hot" and dynamic Extremely destructive, and just breaks down things in general - I keep thinking of this as vibrations that shatter. The best example I have is Hemalurgy itself. There are two seperate acts in Hemalurgy The first is to steal something with a spike - here you use Ruin's investiture to cut away a piece of somebody's spiritweb. This isn't a clean cut by any means. In cases where the victim survives, it is traumatic and there seems to be damage to the spiritweb. I imagine this cutting process to "vibrate" part of the spiritweb hard enough to break the connections between the spiked part of the spiritweb and the rest of it. You then put this invested spike into somebody else. Because this spike is contains an actual spiritweb, it is invested enough to directly pierce the recipient's spiritweb. Because the placement is important, I suspect this placement is specific enough to automatically connect the two spiritwebs. Odium Represents Consumption? Odious investiture is not unlike fire - it burns and gives power but seems consumes something as fuel. In this it could be very close to Ruin in nature. Odium is always described as the Void, which while itself is not enough, combined with Odium's philosophy throughout OB is what gave me the idea. I suspect this is how Voidlight differs from Stormlight - Odium's light consumes, and creates a void. I think a good example is what seems to be happening when somebody binds to Yelig-nar Yelig-nar seems to constantly feed, like Nightblood. When a proper connection is made, Odium is directly able to power this Yelig-nar + Person entity with voidlight - staving off the hunger. However, when a proper connection isn't made, Yelig-nar starts burning off all non-essential parts of the person's spiritweb as fuel - I suspect this is what happened to Amaram at the end of OB. Endowment From here on out, things get harder to nail down. Endowment's investiture seems to bond to internal cognitive aspects (somewhat like Honor's Investiture), but then it also has a suffusing aspect to it, like Preservation's. Divine Breadths are what suffuse a Returned spiritweb and allow them to be cognitive Shadows, and Breadths are classic suffusive investiture. Endowment's magic systems have an external suffusion theme among them, although the name Endowment is probably a hint towards that. When a Returned gives up their Divine Breadth, it suffuses something else and facilitates healing to a spiritual ideal, like regrowth. In awakening, the Breadths carry the Command and suffuse whatever is being Awakened, and then try to interpret said command. As the Command shapes what the breadths try and do, it acts as the focus in this system. Moreover, Breadths seem to have a cognitive aspect to them - as drabs seem a bit "dull" (I do not mean dumb, don't bombard me for this.) And having too many Breadths also comes with cognitive enhancements - like perfect pitch, more nuanced sight, better capability to form Commands (which seems to be a very cognitive process, a cognitive imprint of sorts), etc. Cultivation, Devotion, Dominion, and Autonomy, Ambition I have no clue The Dor seems to acts as a battery, but that might just be because of the state it was left in. The Aons seem to do two things - one, they form a connection to the Dor (which requires incorporating location in the Aon) and two, tell the Dor what to do (not unlike the molecular structure of metal shaping Preservation's investiture). The Dor however is a mixture of both Devotion and Dominion oriented investiture, in someways not that different from Harmony's ettmetal, where the latter is power in condensed metal form in the physical, the former is plasma-ish in the Cognitive. Philosophies on Sel might indicate to the nature of Devotion and Dominion, but I don't think we have enough to guess on. Cultivation should logically be all about growth, but we've barely seen what she can do. There is the Old Magic, but why that would be attributed solely to her is a question I don't have an answer to. There is also the Nightwatcher, but I suspect just as the Stormfather technically predates Honor's arrival, so would the Nightwatcher and her boon-curse magic predate Cultivation's arrival. As for Autonomy and Ambition, again. I don't have very many guesses. Now I know this has holes in it, and I fully expect some of the experts here to break this. However, I think this explains certain other questions in the Cosmere we've had for a while. For example, Vasher is capable of living off of Stormlight. This is relatively easy, because the Returned seem to feed on investiture periodically as fuel - any investiture should do here, as the primary use is subsistence. However, powering Awakening with anything other than Breadths would be significantly more difficult, as you'd have to transfer the Cognitive Command through that flavor of investiture, and then make it try and interpret that - things I think can atleast partially be attributed to the very nature of Endowment-oriented investiture that constitutes Breadths. This also explains Brandon's comments on Odium lying to himself about being Passion. If his investiture was suffusive, and added to something else, maybe that would have been a fairer comment to make. Maybe Odium + Cultivation could actually be Passion. But Odious investiture on it's own seems to consume, and that is what defines him as Odium. There is also something interesting that comes up in OB - Renarin Voidbinding with Stormlight. The fact that Voidbinding, which seems to be Odium co-opting Surgebinding, can be powered by Stormlight, is telling. Perhaps Renarin's weirdness in Powers comes from this fact. Voidbinding may be Surgebinding modified to work with Voidlight, and Renarin's Illumination futuresight weirdness could be attributed to him Powering a Void surge with Stormlight, and the differences between the investiture constitution of Voidlight vs Stormlight. And perhaps this explains why Shards... "corrupt" their vessels over time - the Intents are fundamental forces intertwined with personality. Thus, anyone holding Ruin would eventually be dominated by that personality, and try to enforce that fundamental force (not my most well written sentence). I don't know if this is because over time, the Investiture of a Shard completely replaces the original investiture composition of the Vessel's spiritweb, ala Theseus' Ship, but maybe? The only other thing I'd like to add is, maybe the Shards have a personality associated with them because they hold a slumbering piece of Adonalsium's consciousness? I'm not too sold on this idea, but it could be a thing. What do people here think?

On Roshar, the people believe seeing the future is evil. The few instances we've seen of foresight are associated with Odium. At a recent signing, Brandon said this: I find the bolded part where he trails off to be amazingly fascinating. Given the rest of the conversation, I propose that seeing the future is dangerous because of the following possibilities: 1. It draws the attention of the Shard (or its agents as explained below) that is powering the foresight. 2. It is heavily influenced by the intent or motives of the Shard that's powering it. 3. It's an ability granted by the Shard on purpose in order to manipulate events toward a future that the Shard (or its agents) desires. 4. It aligns you to the intent or motives of the Shard. This can be short-term (see atium below) or long-term. Repeated uses may cause a more lasting efect. 5. There's also the always-present conundrum of trying to change the future after you've seen it. Without context, you have no idea if changing your actions will cause that future or if not changing your actions will cause that future. The true answer could be any of the above, none of the above, or some combination of the options I've given. In order to evaluate possibilities, I've discussed the instances we've seen of people seeing the future, either as a summary, or as specific text, or links. Atium: We know how atium fuels Allomancy. It lets you see a few moments into the future. It also increases your mental and physical capabilities in order to take advantage of that knowledge. Sazed speculates in one of the HoA epigraphs that This appears to correlate to possibility 4--That seeing the future via atium temporarily aligned a person toward Ruin, the essence of entropy toward destruction. It might also explain why, after using atium as a metal mind and burning it for so long, TLR had such Ruinous impulses--mass slaughters, willingness to let the nobility destroy each other, etc, etc. After a thousand years of compounding atium, it's likely that he was very Connected to Ruin. It might also tie into possibility 3, assuming the possibility of Ruin wanting Rashek to become such a despot that he's overthrown just as the Well is about to fill, opening the way for Vin to take and release the power. Endowment: Endowment appears to be able to see some of the future, and sometimes her Splinters, the Returned, can pick up on this as well. We see this in Warbreaker, when Lightsong has his dreams and visions of T'Telir burning. She appears to send her Returned back in order to do a specific task (or set of tasks) based on what she sees, giving rise to possibility 3. Endowment apparently wanted the Hallandren and Idrians to persist, and sent back some of her Returned to help prevent the coming destruction. She probably has multiple contingency plans for if one of them dies before his or her task is accomplished. Wyrn: In the Elantris Annotations Brandon says: And Given that the Seons are Splinters of Devotion, (Love) and the Skaze are Splinters of Dominion, it seems like the Skaze are manipulating Wyrn in order to achieve their goals (Goals hinted at in the new epilogue in the 10th Anniversary Edition of Elantris) , tying back to possibility 3. Devotion and Dominion are both splintered, but the Skaze may retain enough of Dominion's intent to want to have complete dominion over the world (or maybe re-assemble Dominion?). And we come to the Stormlight Archive! We have more examples of foresight in SA than we have in any other book. There are three primary examples of it: Moelach: On the bridge between life and death, Moelach grants visions of the future, that the person utters in a cryptic and strange way, a phenomenon coined as Death Rattle. We don't really understand much about how this works, but the Death Rattles have been startlingly accurate, if incredibly obscure, so far. However. Moelach is a Splinter of Odium (along with the other Unmade). The Death Rattles we've seen so far all seem to be related either to the conflict between Odium and most of Roshar, or related to the people that are in that struggle. I have no absolute proof of this, but it's not a wild assumption (imo) to think that Odium, via Moelach, is using the Death Rattles to affect people's behavior. I realize this is putting conclusion before evidence, but I feel that it's a credible conclusion. Moelach is one of the mindless Unmade, as far as we know, so he's unlikely to have motives of his own. As a Splinter of Odium, Odium must have created him for a reason. We know Odium has a pretty good grasp of possible futures. Creating an Unmade to give people glimpses of the future (in a rather morbid way) to get them serving his purposes isn't beyond the realm of possibility. Renarin: We know very little about how Renarin's abilities work, and what types of things he can see, or how they will affect events. We know that his spren, Glys, is a Truthwatcher spren corrupted by Sja-Anat, another Splinter of Odium, and that Glys is likely what grants Renarin the ability to see the future. Renarin has seen Jasnah killing him. This would end him as a Radiant and as a Kholin. I confess, I am unsure what purpose his death would serve in Odium's cause. However, Renarin also saw Dalinar turning into Odium's champion. This would obviously be quite a desirable outcome for Odium. Given that Renarin has done a few things in order to try and warn about or prevent the things he sees, did he, consciously, or subconsciously, take actions that helped to bring that set of events into reality? We don't know yet what effects this might have, so I'm unsure which of the above categories this could fit into. The Diagram: Taravangian believes that he wrong the Diagram out of pure human capability and insight, rather than foresight. However, according to this WoB: As we know, in the Spiritual Realm, all times and places are essentially one. Seeing into the future in all other instances has been seeing into the Spiritual Realm. If Taravangian was closer to the Spiritual Realm than the Cognitive Realm, then he's likely incorporating at least some parts of what he sees in the Spiritual Realm into the Diagram. What we've seen him do so far has seemed to align him toward Odium's desires and motives. However, he was granted this ability by Cultivation, who is at odds with Odium. There was a lively discussion in this thread about the Diagram being a plant (pun intended) put in place by Cultivation. That T's actions, although they seem at odds with Dalinar+co, actually are meant to help them; and that T himself is unaware of this. As you can tell, I subscribe to this theory myself. This would fit in with possibilities 2, 3 and 4 above. Cultivation seems very crafty and careful, playing the long game with Dalinar, with Lift, and probably with T. And finally, we have Hoid. He has an ability to know where he needs to be at any given time. We don't really know most of his motives, so there's no way to determine what "where he needs to be" means, exactly. We're also very unsure as to how he knows to be in those places. We do know he uses something similar to Chromium Feruchemy in order to tap Fortune, but possibly isn't Feruchemy itself. We don't know what Shard he draws on, what intent that Shard might have, or if it's even a Shard at all. If someone can manage to tap directly into the Spiritual Realm without intervention from a Shard, it seems like Hoid would be the one. I'm also sure he's self-aware enough to know when/if he's being manipulated by whatever power he's using. So in short, I have no conclusions to draw about Hoid's abilities, other than a reiteration of his own speech to Shallan: There's always the risk, in seeing the future, of bringing about the exact consequence you want to prevent. That might be the simple answer to this entire question. Won't my face be red if it is! So, there is my long winded theory about the dangers of seeing the future. Please feel free to add to it or rip it to pieces, and thanks for reading!

I've mentioned this in a few places, but I want an easy reference when talking about the idea, so here goes. When a Radiant breaks their oaths, a spren is transformed into a Deadeyes, robbing them of their sapience and leaving them in a state that they are trapped in the Physical form of a blade, like the Honorblades they mimicked. I think that we've seen a much lesser version of this phenomenon multiple times. When a living spren transitions to the Physical Realm in search of a Radiant, they lose much of their mental capacity. As Syl says, if Kaladin were to die, she'd "go stupid." I think that these occurances are quite literally the same effect, just at drastically different levels of severity. Spren are purely Cognitive entities. So much so that when they transition, even partially, into the Physical Realm their mind is degraded to the point of that they function nearly identically to the non-sapient spren that pervade Roshar. So what happens when that same spren is forced to manifest as an actual corporeal blade? So what I believe, is that as the bond with a Radiant progresses the spren comes more and more to rely on the Physical Aspect of their bondmate. Their presence in the Physical Realm becomes something supported by the merger of souls that is occurring, allowing them to retain the Cognitive functions despite lacking a real physical body. Once this progresses deeply enough, they can actually manifest as a corporeal object, piggybacking fully on the Physical Aspect of their bondmate. When a Radiant dies, or the bond is released, the sprens Spiritual Aspect reverts to normal and they need to return to the Cognitive Realm or their mind will once again degrade... But if the bond is abruptly severed through the breaking of oaths, then the connection to their Radiant is "ripped out" leaving them in a state that they are supposed to have a Physical Aspect, but lacking the actual parts to do so. When the blade forms, without the Connection to the Physical that allows it, that missing piece must be somehow provided, and it's taken from the only place the spren has to give it. Their mind. Just as a human in the Cognitive fully still has a Physical Aspect that allows them to transition back to the Physical Realm, the spren would still be broken while dismissed. In order to heal a Deadeyes, if I'm correct, would require a new bond to be established. This would allow the Investiture that makes up the spren to be redistributed properly, restoring their mind by returning a Physical Aspect that doesn't require the sacrifice of their own mind. With their previous Radiant this is simple. You just have to restore your oaths and the Connection of the bond is restored, because it never fully died anyway due to the Time independent nature of the Spiritual. But for someone building a new bond... How exactly do you achieve that with an entity that has basically been lobotomized? My only real question in regards to all this is what happens with the spren of radiants of lesser oaths when the oaths break? They should still be effected, as they clearly improve Cognitively after the point of bonding and well before the ability to become a blade. But if this is correct, they should be "less dead" than spren of Radiants who had attained their blades. We have no evidence that that is the case, but we've also only seen two dead spren in the Cognitive, both of which were bonded to people as shardblades. So on the whole I think it works, and want to ask Brandon about pre-blade Deadeyes.

I was just reading the Bands of Mourning Epilogue, and I came across this: I've been convinced for a while now that Autonomy's intention is to make things as "independent" as possible, taken to an extreme. As such, it is the exact opposite of Unification. If Trell here is indeed Autonomy, then its primary reason behind isolating Taldain would be to stop it from interacting with other planets - making life on Taldain stand on its own, independent of anything else. Because if you're capable of interacting with someone else, then pesky stuff like trade comes into play - which could be seen as a form of co-dependence. This is what it tried to do on Scadrial. But it realized that Scadrial is moving too fast, and with the guidance and protection of Harmony, would have space travel soon, way before Trell had any chance of taking control and isolating it/putting it in technological stasis. Maybe this is why it is helping Odium at all - from its perspective, Odium is taking out shards that are not "Independent", so of course it would lend a hand. Besides, shardless planets are prime targets for it to start making its own pantheons on (because all that investiture is just sitting around with no owner, allowing Autonomy to come in and start making mega-spren like separate and independent "avatars", like Patji on First of the Sun), allowing it to control advancement on the planet - exactly like it did on Taldain. That is, of course, assuming Taldain's isolation is Autonomy's doing. Speculation on the plot of the Lost Metal:

Hello friends. I've been thinking a lot about Shards over the last month or so, especially in advent of the upcoming Q&A on Reddit. It's been a while since I've seen one of these, so I figure there's no harm in putting this out there again (especially in light of new reveals in AU). I want to think about Shards, and possibly narrow down the six remaining Shards, and I would love some input from you guys (I've been driving my family crazy with questions on their thoughts in the last couple days). Firstly, here's what we know. We know ten of the sixteen Shards of Adonalsuim. Listed in order of reveal/publicity, they are Devotion, Dominion, Preservation, Ruin, Endowment, Honor, Cultivation, Odium, Autonomy, and Ambition. We know that Odium Splintered at least four Shards. We now know all four: Ambition, Devotion, Dominion, and Honor. Odium had a 'hit-list', and Ambition was #1. There is a Shard that just wants to hide and survive, but that Shard's intent is not 'Survival'. There is a Shard that is not on a planet. (This could refer to Ambition, depending on where it was finished off.) There are two Shards that aren't on a planet, Ambition, and one other. Here's some stuff we're I'm pretty sure about/think we know. (Please let me know if any of these suppositions were confirmed) Shards are based somewhat on "divine attributes" of a god figure. Shards have an opposite pairing, but most are not clear opposites.* * There's been a lot of discussion involving this, and it's looking more and more unlikely that there are pairings of Shards. However, since it's somewhat simple to use that supposition as a format for now, if nothing else. Here's some supposition/speculation I make on the information above. If the sixteen Shards of Adonalsium were all combined, the result would be a god figure. Because of this, we can assume that there are likely no duplicates (for example, there wouldn't be a Shard of Immutability, as Preservation already fills that role). Now onto the Big List. I'm going to attempt to fill in this list of Shards and their pairings, and I will update this list with our guesses. Confirmed Shards will be in Red, guesses will be green. Confirmed pairing will be bold, highly likely will be italicized, and unsure I will leave plain. Here goes. Preservation Ruin Dominion Autonomy Odium Devotion* Endowment Ambition** Honor Absolution?*** Cultivation Tribulation Enlightenment Enigma Purity**** Synthesis? * On the Odium/Devotion pairing. I put this one up because Odium is defined by hatred and jealousy, whereas Devotion is stuff like love and service. I find it to be a likely pair, but a good argument can be made for and Honor/Odium mashup as well. ** On the Endowment/Ambition pair, I find this one a bit of a stretch, I'll admit. It comes from the thought process of Endowment being giving to others, and Ambition looking to receive. It's a tenuous connection, but I'll leave it here for the time being until we find a better candidate. *** One of the possible Shards my family came up with is Mercy (or forgiveness) EDIT: Absolution involves both of these, also, you can be absolved of burdens and Oaths. It's also a God attribute so I like it better. I'm still not too sure I like it as a whole. I like the idea that it's a possible opposite to Honor, because the way we've seen Honor act sounds like a Judgement type, dealing heavily with Oaths. Forgiveness and Mercy sometimes happens in Honorable people in SA, but I haven't seen it represented in a Shard (though there is a case to be made that Endowment or Cultivation could involve it). **** Purity seems like a likely Shard to me. We haven't seen a Shard that represents the righteousness or holiness of god, and I think there's an argument to be made that Purity could fill those shoes. There is also a planet named Purity in the Threnodite System that breaks the pattern of funeral songs like the other planets. Now, let's discuss. Please bring forward an idea of the remaining six shards. Even feel free to argue my pairings if you like. Please keep in mind these things on looking for Shard possibilities. Divine attributes separated from the virtues that give them context (as Hoid would say). Attributes that aren't shared in another Shard. Shards that wouldn't logically be higher on Odium's hit-list that Ambition. Otherwise he would have targeted them first. Edit 1: Added Tribulation, added confirmed information about Ambition and the other Shard without a home. Edit 2: Absolution instead of Mercy, added Synthesis as an opposite of Purity.

Just a wild idea that came to me when I was reading a Brandon forum. There were 10 Heralds for the Oathpact, right? And supposedly 10 books will be published for the SA series, each book with a focal character. What if those 10 focal characters will be responsible for taking the place of the previous Heralds? It would be a suitably melancholy end to the series — I would be satisfied with it, anyway. Additionally, Brandon noted that the series will be split into two sets of 5. I think it'd make sense if the first half of the story was focused on the Radiants rise to power, and the last half was focused on their end. With their end would come the end of the Desolations, as well, which would make for a distinct close indeed.

Is Dalinar going to become the next Honor? There's something called a shard of Adonalsium involved somehow (but I've only read the three Stormlight books so far....) Is Kaladin (and other folks) gonna end up becoming Heralds in a new Oathpact? Probably they're gonna solve things so they don't need an Oathpact and they can all get along - at least the parsh and the humans, probably not Odium and anyone else though.

Alright I'm going to try this again. Here is how I think a medallion is made. Single Power Medallion To start, you need a medallion or spike to grant aluminum Feruchemy to the person who has the power you wish to put in a medallion. This person is a willing participant. They store their Identity, and the power needed is spiked out. You now have an unkeyed hemalurgic spike. Next, you need a person who has, through whatever combination of Spikes, medallions, and natural ability, all of the following. Aluminum, Duralumin, and Nicrosil Feruchemy, and the allomantic ability corresponding to the type of spike that stores the power stolen. This person Stores all of their Identity, and heavily taps Connection (whether this is a general thing, or a specific type of Connection I don't know. I don't think we know enough about it) imprinting their stores with Connection enabling the touch bond of the Medallions. Identity free, and heavily Connected, this person burns the unkeyed Spike, and immediately stores what is produced in a nicrosilmind. You now have a Hemalurgic charge, free of Identity and stored with connection to whoever holds it, tricking their spiritweb into believing that a spike has been properly placed to grant them the power (without the damage that normally occurs, avoiding the issue of hemalurgy's weakness). Multiple Power Medallions and the Reason for the Three Power Limit As you create these medallions, you'll eventually end up with a three power medallion that will give you all three types of Feruchemy needed to make them. No spikes needed in the maker. At this point, you just need to burn and store multiple spikes. No problem. Except for the limit of spikes that a human can have. Three spikes burned, three powers stored...and an attempt at a Fourth puts the maker above the threshold of control. Interference The Connection trick is why multiple medallions interfere with each other. By using Connection to convince the Spiritual Aspect that a spike has been placed, you create this limitation. Multiple medallions attempt to trick the Spiritweb in the same manner and it causes a mixed signal which interferes with both medallions. It's like trying to listen to two radio stations broadcast over the same frequency. Instead of one clear signal, you get a garbled mess of unintelligible noise. Assumptions There are two main assumptions made here, that I know some people disagree with. The nature of Nicrosil Feruchemy. Some people believe that Nicrosil is only capable of storing powers. I believe that Nicrosil can store any part of the Spiritweb, which is coincidentally what hemalurgy steals. If I'm incorrect, this method does not work. Duralumin Feruchemy. Connection is not, in itself, Investiture. It is a property of, or force applied to, Investiture per this WoB. So I believe that while tapping and storing Connection can have immediate effects, as seen with the translation medallions, I think it functions like Aluminum Feruchemy. It changes the level of Connection of the Investiture of the Spiritweb as a whole. As such that Connection, or lack thereof, would be preserved when the Investiture is stored, just as Identity is. Again, if this assumption is incorrect this method fails. Edit: adding in two wobs to this. First, one I asked of Brandon recently Doesn't tell us much, but it does show that the nicrosil in the medallions is not just standard Nicrosil Feruchemy. Next this, which I found while looking for something else, and I think reiterates the point above, and supports the need for Connection manipulation.

This is probably wrong, but I'm writing it down anyway just to have a record of it. Autonomy seems to be the most likely candidate to be Trell, and there is a decent chunk of evidence. So why is a Shard that is about "Freedom" ready to destroy all life on Scadrial because it can't be controlled? Because they are direct creations of a pair of Shards themselves. An extension of their influence. I believe that all of the intents are based off of some piece of the personality that was Adonalsium before its death. For Autonomy I think that this piece is a nearly direct oppositional force to Endowment. Endowment was Adonalsium's desire to give power to its sapient creations the wish to help them and see them grow in strength and ability, and provide them the tools necessary to do so. Autonomy then, isn't freedom in my mind generally. It was the desire every parent has to see their children grow and be capable of standing on their own. The feeling that aiding them to much will hamper them in the long run. I believe that Autonomy was Adonalsium's sense of restraint with respect to its children, it's sapient creations. As Odium is Adonalsium's sense of rage and hatred without context, this drive has also been altered due to lack of context. It views the intercession of any part of Adonalsium, which is all the Shards, into the lives of sapient creatures as anathema to their progression, and so it wishes to intercede on their behalf to end the meddling of the Shards. This is why she may have been willing to work with Odium in my opinion, because allowing him to Splinter shards does her work, and hopefully injures him in the process. I also think this is the reason for the existence of her Avatars. Bavadin swore a pact with the other Shards not to interfere with each other's plans. A pact in direct conflict with the version of her intent that I propose. Thus the Avatars exist precisely to circumvent that which she swore. She can do nothing directly to interfere because she is bound by her oath... But the Avatars, whether they are others ascended that she shares the power with, portions of her investiture seeded to become sapient themselves, or whatever else, are distinct Cognitive entities not bound by what she swore herself. Autonomy is not freedom. Any action performed grants Autonomy to some and impinges on the Autonomy of others... But Autonomy from the Shards themselves Edit: We've since gotten a WoB that tells us the pact between Shards was not a binding oath, which I'm happy about. It makes Odium’s actions require a lot less explanation.

As we all know Brandon says that some main characters will die over the course of the series. So my question is who do you think will die by the end of cycle 1 and by the end of cycle 2? For cycle 1 I could see Szeth being dead by the end of his book. It could almost be a full circle where he was 'exiled' by the Shin to become Truthless but dying to save them as a KR. Oddly I'm thinking Dalinar might be someone who is going to die by the end of either cycle. I'm also thinking one of the two Heralds we're getting will be killed off as well. It would be an interesting twist if Renarin, Lift or Jasnah were killed off during the gap years and shown as a twist for the flashback like was done in the one episode of Lost where Sun was giving birth. It would be a mean twist if Kaladin was killed off during the second cycle. As for non-flashback characters if Dalinar does die then Navani should go with him or have her death be the reason he goes out, similar to Vin and Elend. Roshone deserves a good death, preferably at the end of a Whitespine attack. Odium for sure should be dead by the end of 10 so I'll be shocked if he's still alive after that.

This might qualify as a tinfoil hat-type idea, but I’ve kinda been wondering whether it might be possible for a Shard to invest enough of their own power into another person to cause that person to ‘Ascend’ into something far less powerful than them but still effectively a post-physical entity like them? I mentioned it in passing on another post the other day, but the closest analogy I can think of would that if we think of the Shard as God, the person they invest would become loosely the equivalent to an angel/archangel. Regardless of whether it will actually happen, and I very much doubt that it will, at least in the way I’ve described here, but is there any reason that a Shard couldn’t do something like this if they wanted to? Or would it be impossible?

Listening to last week's Shardcast I had a pretty baseless theory on Vax. Theory: Vax is a planet* where a majority or at least large number of humans live in the Cognitive Realm. In Secret History, Ati, while confused, made a comment about Vax, which I believe is because he saw humans and also recognised that he was in the CR, leading him to assume he was probably on Vax because that's where you would expect to find people hanging out in the CR. So a similar concept to Silverlight, except not entirely based in the Cognitive, and on a distinct planet** *I'm taking Vax to be a planet as a base assumption, which it may or may not be (and Brandon has neither confirmed or denied), but is kind of integral to this entire theory. **I am unsure whether or not this is a contentious point or not but I don't believe Silverlight corresponds to a planet based on this WOB. Poke, prod and spike away!

This idea started for me during the sample chapters, it's evolved some to include more so I wished to expand what I started here. Much of what's in the old thread will be repeat here, but I think I've fleshed it out more for (hopefully) a different and more in depth discussion. The Forms I believe that the singers are born without a spren bond. This would mean that they are born without a "form" but have a base physiology that is unaltered by a Spren. This is not Dullform, but something distinct. I base this on the following words from Eshonai and Venli's mother in Words of Radiance This implies a coming of age ceremony in which a listener went into the storms to bond a spren for the first time. So I believe that this lack of form, or "Birthform" is the natural unbonded state of a singer. I think that this is the form that we see in the Singers that were healed by the Everstorm. I find it highly suspicious that we are never once shown a child of the listeners. The first time we see a child of the singer race is Sah's daughter, in the same form as all of the other restored Parsh. These seems to be an obfuscation to me. Next we have Dullform. It appears through the text that when a singer enters the storm to adopt a form, each Form is tied to a specific spren. Hence the search for creation Spren, and hopefully, Artform. If this is the case, why is Dullform an expected result of experimenting with new spren? I believe that Dullform is not a true "form" but a protective mechanism. When the Spren enters into the gemheart, I think that it merges with the spiritweb in a specific location, integrating into the Spiritual Aspect to alter the Physical form and thought process of the Singer, but only if the Spren is a viable option for a form. In the event that the Spren is not viable I think dullform occurs. The portion of the spiritweb that normally integrates with the Spren instead retracts, resulting in a dormant portion of their Spiritual aspect. This dulls the rhythms, reduces Cognitive function, and pushes them into a "form" very similar to another we've seen. Slaveform, or the Parshmen, also have reduced Cognitive function, and are completely incapable of bonding with spren or detecting the rhythms. I believe that this is because the same portion of the Spiritual Aspect that integrates with the Spren in a proper form, or retracts in Dullform, is fully excised. The physical similarities between Slaveform and Dullform are not coincidence. They appear similar because they are both nearly the same thing. Dullform is just more complete Spiritually. The Last Legion The group of Singers that became the listeners were a part of the "Last Legion." a group that now seems to have been composed of Regals, connected to Ba-Ado-Mishram to gain Voidlight in the false desolation, and Mateforms out of necessity. And with the knowledge of those two Non-Voidforms, a group from the Last Legion adopted Dullform to escape their gods, inadvertently saving themselves from the excision forced on the rest of their race. I believe this was possible precisely because of the protective mechanism of Dullform. The spiritweb retracts, and the connection that BAM had forged with them all through the use of the Voidforms was also withdrawn. Whatever Melishi attempted that imprisoned BAM and simultaneously crippled every other living singer, was unable to reach out and excise the Spiritual Aspects of those in Dullform. To this use of the Surges, just as to a non-viable spren, that section of the spiritweb was already gone. The Rhythms In the Slaveform singers, the rhythms are completely absent. I belive that this is because the portion that was excised and integrates with spren is the exact same piece of the spiritweb that allows for the rhythms to be detected. In Slaveform, it is absent. In Dullform they are diminished. In a true form, they are filtered through the Spren, in the variety that we have always seen listeners sense them. In a Voidform, they are altered by the investiture that has corrupted the Spren. I think this is why all of the "new" rhythms are tinged with anger and disgust. They are the old rhythms, twisted into something hateful. To attune one of the rhythms that are familiar to the original forms is difficult for someone in a Voidform, and the majority of the time that we see Venli do it is in the presence of Timbre, making me think that her proto-bond may have helped to diminish the influence of the Voidspren in her gemheart. That's it for now. Tell me your thoughts. Tear it apart. Discuss.

I mean...she had enough stress in her life before she decided to take the most wearisome occupation in Alethkar. (But really, I saw softness in Oathbringer when she saves Renarin, shows Dalinar respect and honesty to Shallan. I imagine queenship will harden her. How will being Radiant affect her position politically? And isn't the whole of Roshar pissing their pants the second she enters the room? I mean, I don't see the Alethi taking it well that a heretic will rule them.)

OK. Medallions have been discussed to death, and we know there's one pesky little thing about the nicrosil in them that just doesn't make sense. So I had an idea, based on a couple of things that I'm not even sure are possible, that I wanted to share. Both to hopefully Kickstart some new avenues of conversation concerning the medallions... and in the freak chance that I'm right I can say I called it... That said, the chances of this being correct are... Low. The question of how medallions work always comes down to the nicrosil. It's obviously storing the power itself, but how does it grant it to someone without the ability to tap nicrosil? Well, what if it isn't granting the ability to tap nicrosil? What if instead, it's temporarily imparting a Hemalurgic trait? Here's the breakdown. 1. A voluntary subject with whatever power needs to be stolen stores identity in an aluminum mind. 2. A unkeyed hemalurgic spike is created. 3. A person with the ability to burn the metal of this spike, store in aluminum, and store in nicrosil, burns the hemalurgic spike. 4. The now compounded hemalurgic power must be immediately stored in nicrosil, or the resulting spiritual changes will be... Nasty. 5. storages of the appropriate power are made in conjuction with the now "unsealed" nicrosil. Here's why I think this might work. Feruchemy has to be tapped. The nicrosil in every medallion we've seen is never tapped, save in the case of tapping the ability to use allomantic powers with the bands. We've never seen the need to tap the ability to use nicrosil. They also, while being tapped, deplete themselves. Spikes are placed, and work continually. You place them, and the power is permanent as long as the spike is in the bindpoint. So what if the hemalurgic/feruchemical equivalent of compounding is placing a Hemalurgic charge in a feruchemical metalmind? It still wants to be used. It still presses out word, but the Feruchemy aspect negates the bindpoint. It integrates automatically... At the drawback of interference with another medallion attempting to do the same thing. It's not depleted because it doesn't actually leave the metalmind. Its a longshot, based on the idea of be able to store a Hemalurgic charge feruchemically, and the ability to burn hemalurgic spikes to mass produce them... But it's the only thing I can think of for how the stupid nicrosil ring does what it does without the need to tap it.

Warning! Long post ahead! So I know that there has been a bit of buzz recently surrounding the Dark One adaptation news so I figured this was an appropriate time to discuss possibilities down the road for Cosmere adaptations. Plenty of users on this site worry about the slim chances of a successful adaptation so let me provide you with some.... Reasons for optimism: The movie industry follows trends where Hollywood execs get tunnel vision for certain genres. We've seen this with the vampire/zombie craze a while back and have seen it again with the super hero movie cash cow. I believe that high fantasy is the up and coming cash cow to be milked,and here's why: The Lord of the Rings trilogy shattered expectations regarding the difficulty of successfully adapting high fantasy. Following the success of LotR, George RR Martin received great interest in the rights to adapting ASoIaF. HBO find extreme success producing Game of Thrones, creating a huge following. Amazon plan LotR tv series with massive budget, scheduled for 2021 http://www.nme.com/blogs/tv-blogs/lord-of-the-rings-tv-series-release-date-plot-cast-2170413 Amazon confirm they are working on Wheel of Time tv series.https://www.tor.com/2018/06/12/the-wheel-of-time-tv-series-in-development-at-amazon-studios/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=tordotcom-tordotcomnewsletter&utm_content=na-readblog-blogpost&utm_campaign=9780765334336 KKC adaptation announced. If these adaptations experience success it will increase the confidence that DMG have in successfully adapting the Cosmere. Any project like this is a risk that requires a large investment to pull off and DMG would be more likely to shell out the money needed for high production quality movies if there were stronger precedent in place. Over the next few years we are going to witness the rise of high fantasy on the big screen. Relevant WoB: Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Are you worried, because of the length of the Stormlight Archive books, that the movies will not be able to encompass them fully? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] What a well-stated way to say that... So, movies. Hollywood. Bless them, they try. No, seriously, like, there are a lot of really creative people who really are passionate about books in Hollywood, just none of them have any money? I'm exaggerating, strike that from the record. But we've sold the rights to people that we trust. Otherwise, we wouldn't sell them. It's always a gamble. We're never sure if it's gonna work. Like, even people who are really well-intentioned. The Golden Compass movie is a great example of this. Really good intentions. Everything about that movie should have worked: great actors, great design. And the movie was boring. And, it's like everybody tried really hard, and it just didn't work. And I know how that feels. I tried really hard on Apocalypse Guard, and it didn't work. And, so, yes, I am totally worried about that. But the thing about it is, if I don't risk that, then I can't ever have a good movie, 'cause I'll never have a movie. Now, would we rather Stormlight be a television show? Probably. And I think the chances-- So, what I've been saying is, let's just hope that the other fantasy television shows do well. Let's hope the new Lord of the Rings one does really well. Let's hope that Pat Rothfuss's show goes really, really well. If a bunch of these things get made, and they're good, it improves our chances, and things like that. I've constantly said, I would rather a television show. But, you know, I wouldn't have thought that the Lord of the Rings films could be adapted as well as they were. And they worked. So, who knows. I'm willing to roll those dice, and see what we end up with. source What might a Cosmere timeline look like? To gauge this it is insightful to look at the Game of Thrones production timeline. http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Production_timeline Discussions for adapting the books began in 2005 and the first episode wasn't released until 2011. Subtract a year to account for the writers strike and you are looking at a >5 year timeframe. DMG purchased the Cosmere rights in October 2016 so I'd expect to see our first Cosmere production in late 2020 at the earliest. Movie? Tv series? Release order? Brandon has discussed the budget issues with making a tv series outside of big networks such as HBO, Netflix and Amazon, although this is his preferred storytelling medium. DMG are a movie corporation so we will see our first Cosmere adaptations as movies with the possibility of a tv series down the line. I think opening the Cosmere with Warbreaker would be the best choice as it is intro level Cosmere with a good story and great visuals. Some fairly straightforward visual effects could be used to show awakening and all of the sets are relatively low budget as these things go. Outside of a splurge on Nightblood special effects this could be a lower budget film that I feel would be well received. One issue I see with it is that it may be a little light on material for a full feature length film. This could be fixed by including content from the planned Warbreaker sequel and Nightblood book. Elantris would be a good follow up book as another self-contained story with a magic system which could be shown similarly to some of Dr. Strange's magic.Emperor's Soul could make a good standalone mini-movie or could be included as an episode in a kind of cumulative Cosmere tv series. Following up with a Mistborn movie trilogy would be the logical choice as the action scenes would translate beautifully to the big screen and the aesthetics of Luthadel would be fantastic. The magic system wouldn't require a high budget outside of some of the steelpushing/ironpulling. Some improvements could be made in regards to Book 2 but I could see the trilogy really taking off here with audiences loving Kelsier and picking up on Hoid cameos. After receiving success from previous entries a larger budget and greater options would be available for the magnum opus, The Stormlight Archive. Considering SA is far from completed, it being produced at a later stage would do it some good. Additionally, the popularity of the Cosmere will have increased by now such that a potential high budget tv series would not be out of the question, and I feel like only a tv series would do Stormlight justice.

I was reading on the Arcanum and came across a particularly interesting post. I was wondering what characters would fade and what characters would stay. My thoughts are this. Kaladin will stay throughout the series as well as Bridge Four. Those guys are too awesome to fade to the background. Lift will become more of a main character. Brandon said he was grooming her for an important part later. Dalinar will fade. He's older so I am expecting Brandon to kill him off. Adolin and Shallan will leave to have kiddos and might be seen occasionally. What are your thoughts? Full post here

Brandon RAFOed what Vivenna was doing while Vasher was on Roshar, so some theories came to mind. Firstly, Vivenna may have been Dalinar's wife... It would fit into some categories, as Brandon also RAFOed whether or not Dalinar's wife was still alive. Secondly, Vivenna could have joined the 17th Shard. No idea where I got this one from. Thirdly, we just haven't encountered her yet. She could be out searching for Nightblood... Thoughts and/or additional theories?

So I know there's a theory going that when Dalinar united the three realms, and Odium said "we killed you", he was referring to Adonalsium rather than Honor; that somehow (either in the spiritual realm or the beyond) Odium saw Adonalsium in the perpendicularity Dalinar created. I won't go into it all here, but I was thinking about the letters from various shards to Hoid in the epigraphs and started wondering about Hoid's motives. The letters seem to imply that Hoid has contacted multiple shards of Adonalsium and asked them to assist in the conflict on Roshar. On the surface it would appear that he wants their assistance in stopping Rayse, but is it really that straightforward? It seems very un-Hoidlike to simply ask directly for help, and he even contacted Autonomy (who he isn't on good terms with) and Harmony (who he doesn't really know personally). Dalinar's power allows him to bind together the spren of something that has been shattered but remember being whole, and we know from the Stormfather's reaction (and Odium's) that his ability to manifest a perpendicularity is unprecendented, and makes it possible that Dalinar has access to LOT of power in this department. I think it's possible Dalinar could restore a splintered Shard in the right circumstances, but could he do more and restore Adonalsium itself? If this is the case, and if Hoid knew this, then his attempt to lure the other shards to Roshar could actually be part of a plan to get Dalinar to "Unite" the shards, restoring Adonalsium. This is just wild speculation, I'm not actually 100% sold on the whole "Odium saw Adonalsium". I do think Hoid's letters tie in nicely with it, but I would also like to discuss some evidence that contradicts it. It's still quite possible that Odium was referring to Honor when he said "we killed you", the "we" implying that Odium wasn't acting alone when he splintered Honor. If this is the case, my money would be on him working with Autonomy, after all we do have this epigraph... ...which seems to suggest Autonomy's involvement. So what do people think? Was Odium referring to Adonalsium or Honor when he said "we killed you"?

Off the bat, I will state this idea is based off the premise of Bonds as the focus of Roshar. If you disagree with that premise, you'll probably disagree. The Sleepless, or as they are more commonly known, Dysian Aimians, are a hive minded sapient entity composed of swarms of cremlings. Here, I'll put forward a hypothesis for why they actually exist. On Roshar, Bonds appear to have a much greater significance than elsewhere in the Cosmere. Bonds are formed through Connection in the Spiritual Realm. Connecting people, objects, nations, etc. What is a hive if not a collection of individual entities bonded to each other en mass? All creatures in the Cosmere have a Spiritual aspect composed of their Spirit Web, encompassing their internal and external connections and bonds. I believe that the Sleepless have evolved Spiritually from the bonds of the hive itself. Each individual cremling is insignificant in itself. The sheer number of connections between members of the hive, and the nature of their bonds, makes them view themselves cognitively as a single part of a greater whole. On a world where Bonds are so significant, and the Cognitive Realm is so much closer to the physical realm, I believe these two facts have created a sapient creature built off of the artificial "spirtweb" created by the bonds of the hive. This writhing mass of bonds in the Spiritual Realm, effected by the Bond Focused magic of Roshar, evolved into an intelligence of it's own, separate from the cremlings themselves, but controlling them all as a single mind based primarily in the Spiritual, and bleeding over into the Cognitive Realm. Most bonds require an investiture source, like the Spren, or Stormlight for Soulcasters. The Spiritual Connections of the hive are composed of investiture though. So while they cannot express the surges as a Bond with a spren could, they were able to develop a personality themselves, and due to their spiritual nature can control their individual bodies regardless of distance. There is a WoB that I've been struggling to find (and if anyone can find it that would be amazing, cause I'm stumped) that says that the Sleepless will not die as long as a large enough portion of the swarm survives. I think this is specifically because the bonds of the hive are the spiritweb of the Sleepless itself. As long as enough connections remain to support the consciousness of the hive, they can recover. If however, too many of these connections are severed, the mind will collapse in on itself from lack of support. I also believe this is why Hemalurgy would fail to work on a sleepless (and now I can't find this WoB either, Bah). Hemalurgy warps the Spirit Web at the point where the spike is inserted. While an individual cremling is much the same as a bindpoint in a more traditional human species (a nexus point of connections), the individual spiritual aspect of the cremling cannot handle the level of disruption and its connection to the hive is severed. In any other world, where bonds are not magnified, and the barriers between the realms aren't so thin, I don't think the Sleepless would have developed. On Roshar though, where the Bonds are so much more, the amount of investiture involved in the interconnection of the hive itself gained sentience, and eventually sapience, resulting in the near immortal watchers we now know.

We know that Hoid/Wit bonded a cryptic at the end of Oathbringer So what truths do you guys think he must speak? Do you think he is self aware enough that he will be a full Lightweaver next we see him or does he still have a journey of self discovery to go on?

Ok, so I have recently been spending a fair amount of time thinking about spren weapons and the limits of their adaptability. Some known facts for consideration at the start: Spren weapons can take on a multitude of forms (Sword, spear, long knife, shield, and of a course a fork) Spren weapons are cognitive entities manifest in the physical realm with the following properties. They can cut through physical matter with little to no resistance, affecting the matter in the physical realm (i.e. cutting a convenient hidey hole to wait out a high storm or digging a latrine). They can block other spren weapons They can be blocked by shardplate (which seems to be another physical manifestation of a cognitive realm entity, or assemblage of cognitive realm entities). When they cut through a sentient being, they sever part of that beings connection to the spiritual realm, and if they cut through the beings spine, they sever the connection to the spiritual realm completely resulting in death (and the windows to the soul also turn into puffs of smoke) Some important preliminary considerations: When spren weapons change shape, is there some sort of conservation of mass that takes place? I.e. is there a limit to the volume that a spren weapon can occupy before it looses it's funcitonality? Does the inherent power of the spren blade change with the shape of the weapon (i.e. does a 40 ft long spear, with low density due to its mass being spread out into a large volume affect the object in the physical and cognitive realms with as much potential for change, as say a 1 ft long 1/64" diameter shard needle would (which would be far, far denser than the spear)? Is there an upper limit and a lower limit to the size that a spren weapon can take on? (i.e. could you use a microscopic spren weapon to sever the nucleus of an atom, or could you use a 200 foot long 40 foot wide at the head spatula with spikes to smite an entire enemy battalion?) How far away from the KR could the spren maintain it's manifestation as a weapon? (Could you with a powerful spyglass, and a spren arrow, take out an enemy fused from 300 yards like Teleb's arrow shot at Dalinar). If there are limits to the size of the spren weapon, can a KR use stormlight to increase the mass of their spren weapon to allow for larger more powerful spren weapons? Do spren weapons need to be based on in-world objects? (i.e. does there have be a cognitive pattern for a spren to be based on?) Can spren weapons have moving parts? (i.e. could you have a pair of spren garden shears, where the spren is both handles, the joining screw and the blades of the shears, or can a spren weapon only be a more unitary whole? It seems to me that a spren weapon mimicking a spear is comprised of at least 2 separate parts that make up the whole of the spear (the haft and the blade) so it seems logical to assume that spren weapons can be multi-part in design). All the preliminaries out of the way here is the fun speculation part: Spren Arrow: Imagine if you will, a suitably stormlight powered knight, with a shard bow and a never ending quiver of the same spren arrow. Convenient that the fused can all be taken down by a shot to the heart (there is wisdom in Bon Jovi). One KR so equipped, and also wearing unlashable shardplate could easily take out a legion of flying fused. Spren Cage of Death: Ok, so depending on if you can create more substantive matter for your spren weapon or not by feeding of Stormlight, here is another possibility. A KR, without access to shardplate, could conceivable instruct their spren to become a ball, shaped kind of like a land mine (with lots of sharp projecting bits), that would fully encapsulate said KR. This being done, a small eye slit is left in said ball so that the knight radiant can see and possibly some more holes to work their lashings. Then, like in Kaladin's fight with fused in Kholinar, cross purpose gravitational lashings are used to create motion and spin, and then the KR rotating spinning death ball crashes through a whole phalanx of the fused that can change their carapace). End of phalanx. Spren Kusarigama (or Ninja chain sickle): Imagine if you will, an edgedance gliding through a crowded formation of enemy fused, spinning like a freaking top, wielding a Kusarigame (that awesome weapon from Martial Arts movies that is a stick, attached to a chain which is attached to a sickle). Sounds like a gemheart breaker to me, of course this edgedancer would probably also need to be wearing shardplate. Death Needle: Say you have a KR with an uncanny ability to see (like a truthwatcher), looking at an enemy general 200 yards away. Why, just point your hand truthwatcher and have your spren death needle course the 600 ft of distance in the time it took you to think about it, to shatter that poor beast's gemheart. Tripwire: Say you need to capture an enemy, why not have your friendly neighborhood lightweaver paint herself into a corner where the target is known to frequent. As she sees said target approaching, she, with the speed of thought, sends out a razor sharp trip wire across the target's path and after the target's spiritual connection to his/her legs is severed, changes her spren weapon into an an anvil to comically knock said target out with. I could do this all day, but sadly I have to work. Looking forward to your ideas on pushing the envelope of what spren weapons could do.

When i first read WoR i assumed that when Listeners whet into stormform they all became like Eshonai. That they lost part of they minds, and something else took over. But looking back on it a lot of Eshonai's action in stormform don't add up with that assumption. If every Listener in stormform fell under the control of Odium then it seams like the first thing stormform Eshonai would do would be to gather all the smartest, freest thinking Listeners and get them into stormform. As a way to neutralize any opposition. Instead she dose the opposite. She seams afraid of anyone too smart going into stormform. She picks out people who take orders easily, and don't think for themselves as the first ones to take on stormform. At first i thought she didn't want strong willed people transforming because they might be able to brake out of being controlled. But then Eshonai super strong willed herself and that doesn't stop her from being controlled. I'm guessing that stormform, and the other 'forms of the gods' make Listeners more pron to hatred, and violence, and open up a doorway for Odium to control them. But that he can only control a few at once. Probably only 9. I think the 9 people Odium is controlling (both Listeners, and humans bonded to voidspren) are spread all over Roshar. And that Eshonai was the only Listener on the Shattered Plains directly under Odium's control.

I was processing books for the library at my school, and I decided to take a look at the beautiful endpaper maps and diagrams for the copy of The Way of Kings that had just come in. I noticed that on the "Double Eye" diagram of the radiant orders, the two orders in the center were the Bondsmiths and the Truthwatchers. This interested me, and got me to start wondering why the Truthwatchers are in the center with the Bondsmiths, who we know were the leaders and generals of the Knights Radiant. Here are a few of my theories: Truthwatchers are close to Cultivation like Bondsmiths are close to Honor - Some problems with this one: We don't really know if the Bondsmiths are specifically closer to Honor than other orders like the Windrunners. All we know is that Dalinar is bonded to the Stormfather, the godspren of Honor, and I think the prevailing theory is that there are three Bondsmiths, each bonded to a different godspren. We also know that Truthwatchers aren't bonded to a godspren - Renarin is bonded with a spren named Glys, not the Nightwatcher. A different direction with this theory would be that the surges, not the orders, are what's important on this chart. This would mean that some surges are more associated with Cultivation, and others with Honor, i.e. Feruchemy with Preservation and Hemalurgy with Ruin. This would just mean that Illumination and Progression just happened to be the most closely associated with Cultivation, and Adhesion and Tension with Honor. This still brings up some interesting thoughts about what this could mean for Truthwatchers. Like Bondsmiths, Truthwatchers are a key support Order - So far, what we know of the Bondsmiths' abilities seem to be providing support for other Radiants Following this idea, it would also seem to fit with the few details that we know about the Bondsmiths from Words of Radiance. According to their epigraph, they were the generals of the Radiants - leadership, but also support. From this, we can infer that by their placement on the chart, Truthwatchers are also a powerful support Order (although, the "powerful" part may just be wishful thinking about Renarin - wouldn't it be awesome if the character that everyone thought was weak turned out to be one of the most powerful?). Another thing that may hint at this is The key here is that it's not something that directly relates to Renarin - more so to Adolin. Therefore, it could be reasoned that this is a kind of "support" ability. It doesn't really mean anything and it's just how the diagram happened to be laid out - This is unlikely, considering it's Brandon we're dealing with here. Everything means something. E V E R Y T H I N G. As Kelsier would say, there's always another secret. Please tell me what you guys think, and if you have any theories about why the Truthwatchers are in the center of the Double Eye - I would love to read them!

I have been thinking about what was done to the Parshmen, and although I still don't have any idea about how the Bondsmiths were able to do what they did, I believe that I understand what was targeted in order to achieve it. In the WoR interludes, Eshonai says this while discussing the upcoming test of the storm spren. From this, it seems to me that when the Parshendi test a new spren, they get two possible results. Dullform, or a new form. To me this says that dullform is... Not a true form. I've been describing it as the listener OS safemode. If they take in a spren that does not result in a specific form, their body reverts to dullform to prevent unwanted/dangerous changes to their physiology. I believe that when the Parshendi bond with a spren, the part of them that detects the rhythms integrates the Spren into their spiritweb. Dullform, does not do this. They take in the Spren, and the part of them that would normal integrate with the Spren cognitively retracts as a form of self protection. When the Bondsmiths of old targeted the listeners, they reached out somehow and severed the part of the spiritweb that creates the listener bond. For the last legion, who had reverted to dullform to protect themselves, this part of their spiritweb was dormant, enabling them to retain the ability to change forms. This also explains why dullform and slaveform look so similar. In dullform, the portion of the spiritweb that allows the bond is dormant, and so they look similar to a form, or complete lack thereof, in which that portion has been literally removed. The Everstorm has now passed over and regrown the portion of spiritweb that allows the bond to occur in these listeners, and so for the first time they can hear the rhythms, but they don't know how to attune them and thus don't speak to them. They also have no spren to press them into safemode, so I think these newly freed Parshmen are what a listener looks like with no bond at all (I wonder if a Parshendi seeing them would think of them as babies grown large?).