Andrew the Great

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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and screamed, "Why

came crashing through

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

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

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

a large wombat