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In my studies, a pattern has emerged concerning connection and Shards. I am certain you have all noticed it; it is not all that obscure. However, a question has arisen. When Kelsier sought to take up the Shard of Preservation, he needed to use an instrument like the Ire's Orb to Connect to Preservation. Could a Bondsmith or a Connector Ferring therefore use Connection to Ascend to a Shard? In addition, would it be possible to use connection in such a way to reconstitute a Splintered Shard and rebuild? Does anyone have any idea of any possible consequences or attribute of the reconstituted Shard?

Alright, so Dune’s been a bit popular lately and it sparked a thought as I was reading a thread discussing Breaths. Essentially, I am asking if there would or is a “best” planet to be born on. Replacing genetics with Connection here and imagining some hypothetical group as a parallel for the Bene Gesserit and their breeding. Unfortunately, Connection is not hereditary and is entirely reliant on the individual person (as far as I know) which removes the possibility of a “natural” tricking of a planet into believing that someone has a Connection with it (from their parents Connection, allowing for natural access to its magics) rather than being reliant on methods like Hoid’s to artificially manipulate Connection. We do have an example of someone gaining access to almost all forms of Investiture in Hoid and could use him as a case study but for the sake of making this interesting rather than just saying “do what Hoid does” we can restrict it to planetary magics. Meaning that your stuck to using whatever is on your planet. This does allow for magics that enable a person to manipulate Connection to do whatever shenanigans they want to in collecting as many magics as they can. Simply put, what would be the best planet to start from and with what magic system?

Quick thought here; If meddling with Connection can change your soul to think you've grown up in a different place, would a highly Invested person who meddled with their Connection physically change to fit said Connection? For example, if a Connector Ferring were to somehow Tap Connection saying that they had been born Nalthian and they had already obtained lots of Breath to become highly Invested, would their appearance change to look like a Nalthian too? I'm sort of basing this off of Yumi, as she was able to transform Painter's body when possessing it due to her high level of Investiture. I know Identity and perception are going to play a massive role in this, but I'm curious as to what others think.

So I've been wondering about Wyrn, specifically his strange ability to see the future. This was demonstrated when Wyrn anticipated Hrathen's betrayal and sent an assassin at the precise place and time to kill him. But if Wyrn could see something so specific, why didn't he anticpate anything else of far greater importance like, I don't know, Raoden fixing Elantris? So these facts plus the nature of all Selish Arts has led me to a hypothesis: Wyrn's futuresight only works on people from Fjorden. The only time we've seen it, is on Fjorden people, Hrathen and the priest guy who killed him. Perhaps this is due to Wyrn's future-sight working via Connection, he can see the future's of everyone so long as they are part of Fjorden, with the constantly expanding and conquering that Fjorden has done, perhaps this is done in part to expand the reach of Fjorden's Magics. Both Dahkor's and Wyrn's. It's all speculation with very little evidence but I don't see how anyone with future-sight would have fixated on something as small as a preist gong traitor over the restoration of the only beings on Sel that can truly win against Fjorden.

With another Dragonsteel convention, there are some new WoB, many of which have some very interesting implications. For instance, this one caught my attention: So here's a couple hypotheses that spawned from this: 1. Let's say Wax were to have his Allomancy stolen by the Set with a Hemalurgic spike. Harmony doesn't like that his Sword is now weakened, so has Marsh create an Unsealed Duraluminmind that holds Connection to Harmony and his Mists, then gives it to Wax so he can Tap the Connection and at least temporarily restore his Allomancy (yes, F-gold via Hemalurgy or possibly Unsealed Goldmind would be better, but this is a hypothetical), as he is quite familiar with the power; his soul has become permeated with its essence, and his Cognitive aspect remembers using it clearly. Basically, would you think this is enough for him to re-access his lost power, as he still remembers the input to command the Investiture and as a Scadrien he probably wouldn't have an Identity issue? 2. Here's another one to stretch the limits a bit more. What if a well-practiced Allomancer/Feruchemist were to store memories of them using their power(s) in an Unsealed Coppermind and they gave it to another Scadrien, though on that doesn't naturally have powers. That non-Metalborn then Taps those memories and draws on some Unkeyed Investiture. Do they have the ability to direct that Investiture in a similar fashion to the powers of person whose memories they Tapped? 3. If a Scadrien were to Tap lots of Connection to Scadrial's land, Harmony, or Preservation (might be a little interchangeable, as they Connect to each other so much) via Duralumin Compounding, could they draw in the Mists when in them to act in a similar fashion the Unkeyed Dor? If Identity to Harmony is still somehow an issue, then Blank Identity as well while you're at it.

We've seen that the Messengers in the CR can track someone via Connection, so could others who could see Connection use the same method to track someone anywhere they may be? Additionally, would one go about doing this by collecting objects that have value to the person perhaps, as those are more likely to have a Connection attached to them so they could have a trail to follow? Honestly, hiding from people in the future of the Cosmere may prove somewhat difficult without F-duralumin or A-copper. (Originally, the thought of the Returned being able to read people's paintings made me think of this possibility even though it's possible that isn't necessarily related to Connection)

As I understand it, the reason souls don't stick around after death for so long is due to a lack of viable Connections to the Realms. This can be negated as you could Invest yourself enough to give yourself some viable Connection (I think that's why the Investiture trick works anyway). Does this mean that a Connector Ferring could tap enough Connection to an ally who died near them to act as a functional anchor to the Physical Realm, letting the deceased person's spirit persist longer than normal in the CR, perhaps even letting them endure as long as the Connection can be sustained (i.e., theoretically an indefinite length of time)? Also, would all that Connection allow the deceased person to speak and interact with the living person? Yumi spoilers; You'd probably need Compounding to make any of this work though, as I imagine you'd need a strong Connection.

In Mistborn, it is stated that Duralumin Feruchemy stores Connection. The exact specifics of this are unknown, but this and related things have been seen to make you understand languages as if you were a native speaker from that area. But I, in late(ish)-night unable to sleep Cosmere Theorizing, wondered if Connection shenanigans could grant you access to the Selish Arcana, such as Elantrianism or Forgery, which are location-based Investiture systems dependent on where you were born. But using Duralumin could, if this theory is correct, make you able to be taken by the Shaod. And perhaps it could also give you a breath if you used Duralumin on Nalthis. Hemalurgically this is bound to have applications too. What do you guys think?

Scadrien's Investiture is tied directly to spiritual genetics, so their descendants should be able to leave Scadrial and still retain their Connection to Preservation and their Allomancy as long as they don't intermix with other non-Scadriens too much. This makes me wonder; could enough Scadriens being born on another planet cause the Shard of Preservation to Connect to that planet? If I recall correctly, in TLM Marasi said something about a Perpendicularity being easier to form around a large group of Metalborn, likely due to their Invesiture. Plus, we've seen that the Everstorm (a similarly large deposit of Investiture) can be used to Connect the Fused to Roshar so as to bypass the Oathpact, probably by acting as a large source to Connect to. Basically, if this were possible, I think it may be a way for Kelsier or perhaps even the Vessel of Preservation itself to travel between worlds, as there would be a Connection to anchor them to the other world in question.

We learn from TSM that the reason The Night Brigade is hunting Nomad is so that they can kill him and create a spike that will lead them to the Dawnshard. I think a reasonable guess is that they killed someone close to him and are using the resulting spike to track him no matter where he Skips to in the Cosmere, which might explain why he is trying so hard to avoid people that he cares about. The idea I had while considering this is that perhaps most exploration and navigation ends up using Connection for navigational purposes. So here's the basic idea. Develop tech or find abilities that allow you to see Connection even on a planetary or Cosmere level. As said earlier, apparently The Night Brigade can make a spike to track the Dawnshard from Nomad even with him hopping from planet to planet, so one of the harder parts seems to be solvable at some future date. Learn to isolate what specific Connection you are looking for, probably starting with native Investitures. Ideally isolate it from any Connection to you or your ship. Let's start with Ambition assuming you're living on Threnody, but this idea probably would work for most Shards and planets, so feel free to swap out for another. Find some Investiture heavily associated with Ambition and view the Connection it has to all other Ambition in the Cosmere. Launch yourself into space or enter Shadesmar and walk far away from the planet (depending on which actually works and lets you take Investiture from the planet), and then use Aluminum to block off the strongest Connections as those will lead right back to Threnody. The idea is that if this genuinely lets you see the Connection that Ambition has with itself within the PR or CR, then the remaining strongest Connections should point to the largest or closest concentration of Ambition Investiture. I assume any significant source of Investiture will be a major point of interest and most of the time would be an Invested planet just based on the scale of these things. Don't forget to bring something that specifically Connects you back to your home planet so that you always have a reference point. Maybe even a crate full of things Connected to your home planet so that you can leave a "guidance beacon" of sorts. Once you arrive, collect something that is intrinsically Connected to the specific planet you found, leave a guidance beacon, and make sure you label your samples. Travel to the next place and you can see identify the 'unknown' Connections by comparing the lines to the samples you have taken from each previously surveyed world. The simple advantage of this is that you will always be going somewhere that has Investiture that is more likely to be compatible with your own tech or abilities, and where there is Investiture, there's a high potential for life and other interesting phenomenon. You probably could outfit other ships with IFF Connections and track your fleet that way or make sure the Ambition you're following isn't actually your buddy Adonalsium-Will-Get-Us-Off-This-Rock (Identification Friend or Foe tags are transponders military groups use to identify allied ships, there could probably be some safeguards installed to prevent someone from stealing one and tracking all of your stuff, but that's another train of thought). With analysis, you probably would be able to use the "width" of the Connection to identify how close you actually are to the target and stop nearby so you don't just ram into it while going FTL. Thoughts? Any problems or alternative applications anyone can see?

Basically the title, YatNP and TSM have Connection as a major plot element and focus, and we see the ways Connection can be utilized and some of the dangers it presents. Some of these notes are probably pretty obvious, but I'm going to list them off anyway and aggregate them into this thread. In YatNP we have a spirit serving as an astral projection cord between a human and basically a super-invested Cognitive Shadow. Notably after Design listens to Yumi's explanation of the hijo, she confirms that she is more or less in a similar category as the spirits (buuut, this is Design we're talking about, I'm reserving 10-20% skepticism that she really understood what Yumi was talking about). We also learn that when a highly Invested being with a strong Spiritual Aspect inhabits the body of another person they will warp the body to fit their own self-perception, the more strongly Invested, the greater the change - Fused anyone? Importantly, we learn that it is absolutely possible for two people to share a single body without the Identity of the weaker getting destroyed or subsumed by the stronger, but presumably there needs to be a barrier or gap between them. Unbounded and unregulated Connection is dangerous, and it left Painter outside of his body and vulnerable to anything that could feed on emotion or Investiture. Direct contact, even briefly, had Yumi and Painter strongly experiencing the other's emotional state - it wouldn't have surprised me if Yumi would have absorbed Painter if they had tried anything more intimate like hugging or if Yumi had somehow deliberately used Investiture while still Connected to Painter (RIP Aux, thank you for serving as a warning). And there's my segue into TSM. In TSM, we learn several things about Connection. Using tech available to future Scadrians, they were able to modify existing Investiture sources to allow the Cinder King to gain control over the Charred via Connection. We learn that it's possible to drain and give people Investiture through special forms of Connection, even completely consuming them as the Cinder King does. Apparently this contact can be a very intimate sharing of Investiture (Yumi and Painter touching each other while sharing a body?), but can also be done forcibly. There are natural barriers that are formed between different peoples, but being adopted into a group like Nomad can remove those barriers on transference of Investiture - allowing him to both gain, give, and be stolen from. A question that I'm not sure I had ever really considered was the fate of the Fused in the war of SA. What is their end state? Extermination by severing their bond with Odium? Conquest of Roshar then letting themselves pass into the Beyond (if Odium lets them)? Their life as of now requires them to destroy the mind of the host Singer, and that's not a great end state. A cool one that came to mind if they were ever freed from Odium's claim to their souls was if they could form a 3-part bond with Radiant Singers, the Singer, spren, and Fused in a similar format to Painter, hijo, and Yumi. Not saying that there's a tidy happy ending in store for the Stormlight Archive, but this seems like a possible solution for disarmament for the Rosharan Human-Singer war, particularly if some Fused don't want to lay down and die. We also have the Oathpact, Heralds, BAM, Deadeyes, and a whole lot of broken and frayed Connections in SA. Anyone else think we got a crash course in Connection so we can better grasp the resolutions to some of these Connections (hopefully, we get some in SA5, and not just a big old RAFO, wait until SA 6-10)? Anyone have any theories on Connections they'd like to add in the context of what we've recently learned and the big wrap up of the first half of Stormlight?

So I'm reading through the Sunlit Man and up to the part where Nomad and Rebeke shot a scout and Nomad is calling the Greater Good over a radio and something big just hit me. Nomad, a Worldhopper with no ability to speak the local language, is talking just fine over the radio with his Connection shenanigans. I was under the assumption that it only worked in person and that you weren't actually speaking the language, just the 'Spiritual meaning' of what you're saying is getting across the language barrier. But no, you are just actually speaking a new language. It's not a huge thing in the grand scheme but it has upended one of my biggest assumptions. Connection works over the phone. Wow.

I made a thread before that talked about using Connection to conjoin two Hemalurgic spikes before (Multi-Pieced Spikes thread), allowing them to act as one distances, though long distances would probably make the process much less efficient. However, what if you tried something else, something more portable? I bet that you could fill a large chunk of flesh, probably your own back that was surgically removed (and grown back with F-gold, Wayne style) with lots of smaller pieces of metal that were Hemalurgically charged in order to prevent the Investiture from decaying. Then you'd inject an ethyl alcohol into it to prevent the flesh from decaying and wrap the whole thing in a plastic bag to prevent leaks. Then you put in in a vest that you wear and carry around with you (yes, it's sort of macabre, but it's efficient). The Invested metals- they don't have to be spikes, as those would probably pierce the plastic and make a mess- would all be Connected to a single spike in your body, linking them together and granting all of their power to you. This strategy would be particularly useful if Feruchemical and Hemalurgic storage is more efficient with lots of smaller containers than a single big one (as the storage size goes up and down non-linearly. We don't know yet whether it is more or less efficient to have a single large storage or many smaller ones).

I recently had a particular part of a WoB pointed out to me by @therunner; Before, I took this to mean that the reason Savants are so much more efficient with their Investiture because the warping of their Spiritwebs brought them closer to the SR, but now I think diferently; I believe the reason why Savants are more efficient with and have more control over their powers is because they have greater Connection to the Shard in question. The negative side-effects of their Savantism may not be necessary to get that extra power- perhaps only the Connection matters and Savantism is only one rout to obtaining it. This makes a lot more sense to me now, as we can actually see Connection working like this with other magic systems. Awakening requires less Breath to Awaken something with the more Breaths in total the Awakener possesses. Additionally, the Awakener gains a greater inherent knowledge of how to use their powers, much like how Allomantic Savants have a greater ability to control their powers. Radiants require less and less Stormlight to fuel their Surgebinding the stronger their Bond- which is mostly just an extra strong Connection to a Spren- grows. This would also help explain why Kaladin's embodiment of Honor's ideals made him stronger and therefore more resistant to Urithiru's corrupted suppression field- he not only had his Spren's natural Connection to the magic system, but he also had quite a few other more mundane Connections that drew him closer and granted him slightly more power as a result (WoB). The uses of artificially increasing Connection (such as through F-duralumin) could be interesting to see interact with different Invested systems; A Connector Ferring could potentially Awaken with fewer Breaths or learn more complex Commands, almost as if they possessed a higher Heightening. They could also possibly Surgebind more efficiently, though their Spren may not approve. It's also possible that F-duralumin could grant an Allomancer the benefits of Savantism without the downsides. Perhaps Connecting to a Metalmind's Investiture could help a Feruchemist tap it more efficiently, particularly if tapping it at an accelerated rate. In fact, the quote makes me think we'll see this in era 3 of Mistborn; And of course, I think that an aspiring Hemalurgist could gain a more comprehensive knowledge of and use for Hemalurgic Bindpoints, particularly if they can Compound duralumin.

I've been thinking about Koloss-blooded a lot more recently, and I had another thought regarding them; most humans on Scadrial have a greater amount of Preservation than Ruin, hence the reason Allomancy pops up occasionally. But what about Koloss-blooded? They were born of Koloss after all- creatures that have a stronger Connection to Ruin. So, would a Koloss-blooded have a larger amount of Ruin than Preservation inside them? Could Koloss-blooded Allomancers draw from Ruin instead of Preservation? And what about Hemalurgy? Could they bear more spikes than most because their Spiritweb wouldn't reject a higher level of spikes due to not having more Preservation present to suppress their Ruin (that's a guess, not a fact btw)? What are all of your guy's thoughts on this? I'd love to hear.

Warning: This post contains a single Stormlight 5 prologue spoiler, masked, and potentially significant spoilers should these theories prove accurate. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. Just as the Stormfather provides Stormlight and surgebinding powers to all of Honor's children, Ba-Ado-Mishram (BAM) became the Voidmother proving Voidlight and voidbinding powers to all of Odium's children, all of her Singers, during the False Desolation. One BAM to Connect them all One BAM aligned them One BAM to draw them all And with her Voidlight bind them One gem severs the whole One gem divides them One gem rips away souls And then the darkness finds them In the Land of Roshar Where the Singers die And Listeners live We'll explore much relevant history leading up to and beyond BAM's imprisonment (see Coppermind's BAM and False Desolation articles for supporting canon references) and theories explaining the magical science behind what happened with BAM, her Singers, and related events. BAM-SINGER CONNECTION HISTORY The lead up to and fall out from BAM's gemstone capture includes: Long, long ago, Odium unmakes 9 spren who fight during many desolations in which BAM serves as highprincess and commander of Odium's forces, The last desolation comes where all but Taln survive, Taln holds Odium and his Fused on Braize all by himself (spanning a total of 4500 years), During the long imprisonment of Odium and the Fused, BAM somehow gains the ability to pull Voidlight into the Physical Realm and to Connect herself with all the Singers of Roshar, a feat previously only managed by Odium, making herself a little god (RoW 847-848), Even though Odium and the Fused are still trapped on Braize, BAM's newfound powers give her the ability to provide Singers with forms of power including all the Regal forms plus stormform, which allows BAM to wage war against the Knights Radiant during the False Desolation, with no end in sight, The Listeners, tired of endless war and manipulation from both Odium and Honor, "cast off everything - including our very forms - to find freedom," which severs their Connection to BAM (RoW 159), Honor's long, slow death begins around this time, The Knights Radiant form a special Strike Team to imprison BAM inside a gemstone in order to end the False Desolation, Because BAM is a little god and holds strong Connection to the spren and souls of every Singer in Roshar except the Listeners, these tethered souls and spren get sucked along their Connection to BAM, ripping out pieces of their souls, removing both their Identity and Connection, and possible damaging or destroying their gemhearts in the ripping process, Somehow even Honor and Cultivation's spren and the Sibling get damaged by BAM's imprisonment, though to a much smaller degree that perhaps signals a much smaller Connection between the Voidmother and "all who belong to Roshar," affecting the Sibling's abilities to make Towerlight and crippling Urithiru (RoW 621), Close to dying, Honor cannot help the Sibling, Urithiru, or the Knights Radiant, The Battle for Feverstone Keep begins before BAM's imprisonment since the enemy still pushes for that ground and parshmen are anything but pushy (OB 809), BAM's imprisonment, if during the Battle for Feverstone Keep, would have caused all fighting Singers to experience excruciating pain and then simultaneously transform into docile, mindless parshmen, All Singers Connected to BAM become parshmen through a break in Identity and Connection; only the Listeners escape because of their previously broken Connections to her, Hundreds of Windrunners and Stonewards at Feverstone Keep become the first to abandon their oaths en masse as Honor says, "they are the first" (OB 547), Two thousand years later, the Everstorm travels to Roshar through the Cognitive Realm and is brought through to the physical realm, and The Everstorm restores both Identity and Connection by repairing the Singers’ souls and possibly their gemhearts. SCIENCE-MAGIC THEORY BEHIND CONNECTION, CAPTURING SPREN, AND THE SINGERS' SOULS From Newton, we know: Force = mass * acceleration From Jasnah (OB 1179), we know that "concentrated Stormlight has a faint mass to it." So the more we accelerate the physical mass of the Stormlight, the stronger the physical force we have acting on the Stormlight and anything Connected to and by the Stormlight. How do we move or accelerate Stormlight? Navani's lecture on fabrial mechanics includes details on sucking Light into a gemstone in order to trap a spren inside a gemstone. We first lure a spren into close proximity to a gemstone with something it likes (e.g., flames for flamespren) and by using the type of gemstone it prefers (RoW epigraphs, Chapter 1). Interestingly, we already know the type of gemstones preferred by each Order of Knights Radiant (and each associated herald). Moash's knife had a large sapphire gemstone hilt that gave a subdued glow after capturing Jezrien's spren-soul (OB 1205), which makes me wonder if the gemstone in Leshwi's spear (RoW 80) that drained Kaladin's Stormlight and nearly sucked out his soul (RoW 101) was sapphire, as well. The first questions we must ask ourselves would be 1) what would BAM be attracted to and 2) what kind of gemstone would she prefer? To answer the second, maybe the Voidmother would prefer a heliodor, as the Stormfather would. As for the first question, she appears to like war and commanding, and she has shown particular interest in Feverstone Keep (OB 809). One might imagine Melishi, the False Desolation's Bondsmith, and her Strike Team showing up at the Battle for Feverston Keep with a large and perfect (or nearly perfect) heliodor gemstone, knowing that BAM would be nearby commanding her troops and in search of something in the area that interested her. Navani's next stages in capturing a spren (RoW epigraphs, Chapters 2-5) would be filling the gemstone to around 70% full of Stormlight (Voidlight in BAM's case) and then quickly sucking that Stormlight out to create a vacuum that will suck in a nearby spren. Suppose you take a brown paper lunch sack and suck the air out. It collapses, right? The same would be true of a Ziploc bag. By collapsing to reduce the volume, the bag equalizes the pressure. But what about something that has a rigid structure like a gemstone, especially a gemstone that doesn't leak? If you suck all the air out of a glass, for example, you'd suction that glass to your face since you've created a vacuum of extremely low pressure. Because air and Light will always seek the lowest pressure possible, they'll get sucked into a vacuum until the pressure outside of the gem roughly equals the pressure inside the gem. Since volume is inversely proportional to pressure, the larger the gemstone, the lower the pressure (where the lower pressure goes the stronger the vacuum becomes). And finally, the tighter the seal, the less a gemstone will leak and the stronger the vacuum will be. So large, perfect gemstones make the perfect traps for these gods. At this point, you might be asking yourself, how does the spren gets sucked in along with the Stormlight? That's where Connection comes in. When the Stormfather gives Stormlight to his children - his spren and his surgebinders - an invisible cord of Stormlight will Connect that spren or that Radiant to the Stormfather. The same can be said for the Voidmother's children - BAM's spren and her Singers: they're all Connected to their mother by a physical force from the Voidlight she provides. Let's say you have a massive gemstone and a larkin quickly sucking a ton of Light out of your stone. The gemstone will quest out seeking to replace all or almost all of the light it just lost with a powerful force. Once it captures a nearby Stormlight Connection cord, the spren will be drawn in along with the Stormlight the spren is tethered to. Yes, the Connection is mostly spiritual, but there is a small physical Connection, too (because the Stormlight Connecting them has a small mass, as Jasnah said, and mass * acceleration is force, as Newton said). If we yank hard enough on that tether, the spren cannot help but be pulled in. We see this with spren pulled into fabrials, yes, but also with human and Singer souls, tethered to their home planet by their Connection to the Investiture there. We saw Jezrien's spren-soul sucked into Moash's sapphire knife and Kaladin's soul nearly sucked into Leshwi's gemstone-capped spear, both of which had metal that specifically draws in Stormlight including the Stormlight cords of Connection. Let me digress for a smidge to explain that Identity and souls are nearly synonymous. For instance, the Fused (where each Fused is the soul of one ancient Singer fuzed together forever to a surgebinding spren, granting surgebinding powers and immortality) maintain their Identities - and most of their intellect, knowledge, and memories - even though they constantly lose the rest of their bodies because Identity is stored in the soul. Connection for the traditional Singer bond appears to be stored in their gemhearts since that is where their spren and probably their souls reside. Now I said all that to say this: this, this, this is how Singers' souls were ripped away, how their Identity and Connection were stolen, and how they became mindless parshman slaves, by having parts of their souls that were tethered to their Voidmother ripped free, likely destroying their gemstones in the process, as BAM and all her many Connections were sucked into her gemstone prison. With Singer souls damaged, they were not quite soulless and mindless nothings but nearly so. And with Singer gemhearts damaged or destroyed, the parshmen lost their abilities to bond any other spren or to hear the rhythms of Roshar inside their gemhearts. The Listeners were spared, maintaining their Identity and their abilities to Connect with other spren because they had previously severed their Connections to BAM before her imprisonment. TRAVEL & WORLDHOPPING We'd be remiss if, while we're here with Connection, we didn't speculate on travel and worldhopping. Connection tethers Invested individuals to their home planet, not letting them escape lest they rip out part of their souls, their Identity, and destroy their Connection. But of course there is a way around this problem, a way out, because this is Sanderson, after all. The remainder of the post includes a little speculation about how off-world travel may be possible based on what we know of Connection above and a single spoiler from the Knights of Wind and Truth prologue that gives a bit more detail regarding the quote above. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. I've kept all non-Stormlight cosmere spoilers out of this post.

This is the rivalally cultclub to the F-tin cult, where we acknowledge the truth that Connection is the best power to be able to manipulate. the tin cult can be found here

In Row and even in OB, we see that Maya has more awareness and ability to act than other Deadeye Spren. I hypothesize the reason for this is Adolin's Bond with her. There are two reasons I can think of that would make their Bond unique, leading to at least a partial recovery for her mind. 1. Adolin exemplifies the ideals of the Edgedancers. We know that one of the reasons that Kaladin was able to resist the corrupt Sibling's suppression in RoW was because he was closer to Honor's ideal of the Windrunners than normal. From what we've seen of Adolin, he seems to naturally follow the ideals of the Edgedancers, which would create a stronger Connection to his Spren than other Shardbearers would have. I believe that this improved Connection is at least partially responsible for Maya's cognitive improvement. 2. Adolin has a more "personal" Connection with Maya than normal. Most Shardbearers see their weapons as precious, powerful tools. Adolin seemed to have a greater, more personal appreciation of his Shardblade than other did, with him talking to Maya even before he knew she was a cognizant being. This would also help form more Connections between Adolin and Maya, thus helping Maya's recovery. Minor Mistborn spoilers- In any case, these are the reasons I could find that would explain why Mayalaran has been healing to a degree and why no other Deadeyes seem to be doing that.

This is something I've thought I had understood several times already, but once again I'm considering my past assumptions. Okay, we know from the Ars. Arcanum that a Connector Ferring can form positive relationships more quickly with someone else by tapping F-duralumin (or reduce others' awareness of them by storing). I once took this to mean that F-duralumin had to store the ability to form Connections naturally, not Connection itself, since those friendships are formed and should presumably remain. However, we see in BoM that when you tap Blank Connection from a medallion to Connect to a different land and understand the language, the Connection only lasts as long as you tap it- it isn't a permanent formation of Connection, it's a temporary boost to a specific type of Connection, similar to how F-pewter only boosts your muscle mass as long as you tap it. So, I'm now thinking that F-duralumin does actually store Connections that already existed in the Feruchemist. Why is it that Allik can tap Connection to the Basin, allowing him to communicate with Marasi and the gang in BoM even though he doesn't have that Connection naturally (and neither do any of the Malwish who could have made the medallion)? It's Blank Connection (to land), which reaches out to the nearest location, in this case the Elendel Basin. As for friendships that get formed under the effect of F-duralumin? Well, technically we didn't get confirmation on them staying formed, just that they can be formed more quickly (that was a presumption I'm a bit embarrassed to have made, as it really hasn't been confirmed). If the friendships do stay, it likely would be like with Emotional Allomancy- the memories of the feelings made while under the effects of the Investiture stay, which continue to have effects on the behavior of those effected, even though the external effect has ceased. And as for the problem with Kelsier? He's trying to overcome his Connection limitation that binds him to Scadrial so that he can explore the wider Cosmere, and he's had over three-hundred years to obtain and experiment with the power. However, as we've seen in TLM, he can't use Hemalurgy to grant himself powers (medallions are dubious as well- probably doesn't work either based on his dialog, though that hasn't been confirmed yet). It doesn't matter if F-duralumin could be used to store his Connection to Scadrial enough to let him run free because he can't even use the power in the first place! In any case, I think that F-duralumin does in fact store Connection- I just overthought the problem a LOT. If anybody has any other information to challenge this, please let me know so that I don't get the incorrect impression again (and of course, as usual, I'd enjoy a good conversation/debate ).

We know that Kelsier is trapped on Scadrial due to his Connection. However, I think that if he were to use a Trellium spike on himself he might be able to Worldhop due to Autonomy's nature. After all, Trellium spikes try to repel other sources of Investiture making it seem likely that this is an inherent property of Autonomy's Investiture. In fact, I think that Autonomy's plan for dealing with Harmony was to Invest Scadrial heavily enough that her Investiture shoved Sazed out of the picture. In light of that, allowing a Sliver to travel off-world seems almost trivial by comparison. Beyond that... SA spoilers

The title says it all. To elaborate, I'm wondering if it is at all possible to use Emotional Allomancy to control an Inquisitor through the cracks of their Spiritweb, given that we have never seen it done before. Granted, there are some good reasons for this. Practically no one knew about this "Hemalurgic backdoor" and the ones that did couldn't and/or wouldn't try it. By the time this was discovered, Ruin had escaped, and no one could contest a Shard's hold. Inquisitors had access to Allomantic copper, possibly multiple times over, which was an excellent counter. Inquisitors have sapience and willpower, and if the Allomancer fails, Adonalsium have mercy upon them. I'm wondering if I have some of the facts wrong, or if there's a reason all its own for this to never happen. Otherwise, to cover all my bases, let's assume a group of several Soothers (or Rioters, but for the sake of argument, Soothers) with several Nicrobursts got together Post-Catacendre, and tried to overwhelm Marsh's copper and willpower with a combined Push. Excluding divine intervention, is there any reason this would not work?

I recently made a post talking about using Rhythms to program powers into Hemalurgic spikes made from non-Allomancers. I'm now wondering if perhaps one could change the actual Intent of the Investiture within the spikes, thereby changing the Connection from Ruin to another Shard. After all, we've seen in RoW that you can use Voidlight to fuel a Radiant's powers if they have a sufficient Connection to Odium, so the powers inside the spikes should be left unmarred. I think that this would work as another work around if you wanted to prevent Ruin specifically from taking control of you since Marsh and the Kandra weren't vulnerable to Autonomy's control, but those that were Connected to her via Trellium spikes were; Connection matters just as much as having an open soul if a Shard wants to control a Hemalurgic construct. It would also be cool to see if Trellium could be alloyed with another Godmetal to disConnect it from Autonomy, but still have Hemalurgic spikes made from the new metal protect from other outside influences.

Figgldygrak Welp. It showed up again. For those who aren't aware, Brandon blessed us with this term in the Way of Kings. Hoid, as Wit, was dropping some Cosmere wisdom on Dalinar, and used this funny looking nonsense word. While nonsense and balderdash are real words, that literally mean gibberish, Figgldygrak is a pure Brandon invention. Given Hoid's comment, fans began to suspect that perhaps Figgldygrak had some secret hidden meaning, and rapidly began to speculate. Curiously, Balderdash was found to be an anagram of Shardblade, which led many to suspect Figgldygrak could be one. However, those hopes were dashed by Peter Ahlstrom, who in reply to that thread, responded, That should have been the end of this. However, Brandon decided to troll his audience. The word made a triumphant comeback in Rhythm of War. As Navani narrates, This is specifically in regards to putting false ciphers in her own work to distract the Parshendi. Whether this is hinting at some deeper hidden meaning of the word, or if Peter was just having a laugh at our expense, again remains unclear. It was a fun callback, and I was ready to shelve it as a funny callback. However, Tress of The Emerald Sea has come out recently. Guess what word pops up in Hoid's narration? Once again, Hoid has deliberately used the word figgldygrak. Once was a turn of phrase, twice was a funny callback, but three times? Something is happening here. Where has this word come from? Could it be Yolish? Why do Cosmere characters keep using it? Is there some hidden meaning for us to discover? What if it's the sounds of some of the original shardbearers' names, chaotically shuffled? Could it be Hoid's true name, just chopped up and rearranged? Am I grasping at straws? Probably. I don't really think it has any hidden meaning. It's just a nice Easter egg for fans, who sometimes read way too much into what Brandon writes. Still, it's a fun coincidence. I wonder if it will show up in the other secret projects.

We've seen that Lifesense allows one to "sense" when others are nearby, and even tell when the practitioner is being looked at- with the exception of Drab individuals. We also see that Feruchemical duralumin can be used to reduce others' awareness of the practitioner by storing the ability to form Connections between peoples... almost like a Drab. And we see in RoW that as Kaladin's and Syl's Connection to each other grows, their innate "sense" of each other's location and mental state increases. My theory then is that Lifesense works by allowing one's spiritual and cognitive aspects are brought closer together, so the practitioner's cognitive aspect is more conscious of their Connection to others nearby, and perhaps that they Connect more easily and strongly. If one were to dampen or remove those Connections though (or prevent them from forming in the first place), the practitioner (the one with the Lifesense) would not be able to detect even non-Drab individuals. Conversely, an individual with a lower level of Lifesense were to increase their Connection to others nearby through Feruchemy or some other means, their awareness of those individuals would also increase as if they were of a greater Heightening.

So Brandon answered a question during the Secret Project 1 reveal livestream regarding the name of Tress's planet, and said this: I was thinking about this the other day and I realized that this would have some weird implications when applied to the rules surrounding Connection and how a worldhopper can use it to translate languages on the planet they are currently on. Theoretically, because the word for planet (assuming they just use the word for planet as their home planet's name) would translate into the native language on the world they are on, doesn't that mean that it's possible that say someone from Scadrial visiting Roshar could refer to their home planet, but the Connection would pick it up as Roshar as that is the word which has the same meaning in their present location? I mean yeah it's super specific but I'm sure it would have happened at some point, so is there any WoB guidance that explains this? I know Hoid has mentioned 'coins' on Roshar, even though that word doesn't exist there, but that only didn't translate because there wasn't anything to translate to. Something like 'planet' or 'world' would have an equivalent. I've got nothing left you guys I need some help here