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Standard disclaimer: If someone else has already connected these dots, please link me to the thread where its discussed, because I couldn't find this conclusion anywhere but I might have missed something. But something jumped out at me when looking at discussions of various splinters recently. In hindsight, it seems really obvious, but I haven't seen any attention drawn to it yet.... All the splinters we've seen thus far take the form of the 'focus' component of a world's pre-existing magic system. Breaths are a natural part of the magic native to Nalthis. But some Breaths (the Divine Breaths) are Splinters. Aons are a natural part of Sel's magic, but some of them, the ones at the hearts of Seons are Splinters. Recently Brandon confirmed that spren already existed on Roshar before Honor's shattering, but after he was shattered some were different, and some new ones were created. So essentially it seems to me that when a Shard is Splintered, or Splinters themselves partially, those Splinters are a super-charged or specially endowed version of the magic that already exists due to that Shard's interaction with their Shardworld. So if there were Splinters on Scadrial (which we know there aren't, via Word of Brandon), those Splinters would be metals of some kind. So post Splintering of a Shard, some focuses are natural, pre-existing ones, like human Breaths, and some focuses are supercharged (or super Invested?) Splinters. If I'm right, that tells us a couple things. One - That spren are the focus component of magic on Roshar, rather than the Oaths, Stormlight, or anything else that might have been speculated to fill that role. Two - My first thought was that meant that spren were definitely of Honor, not Cultivation. If some spren (but not all) were Splinters of Honor, that meant even the non-Splinter spren were his contribution to the magic of Roshar, right? But then I realized, duh, it means exactly the opposite. In the Reddit thread, Brandon referenced the aons at the heart of Seons AND Skaze. There's only one focus on Sel, despite the presence of two Shards: aons. Same as metal's the only focus on Scadrial despite two Shards. Roshar has three Shards. If spren are the focus of Roshar's magic, then they're of Honor, Cultivation and Odium equally. Ergo the presence of things like painspren and deathspren, which didn't make too much sense to be purely creations of Honor and/or Cultivation. So 'Alas, not all spren are as discerning as Honorspren' - of course not, if some spren (ie painspren, etc) are a result of Odium's presence on Roshar. Honorspren are the Splinters. If Odium did ever Splinter himself the way Endowment has on Nalthis with Divine Breaths, his Splinters would be Odiumspren. If Cultivation is Splintered, there are Cultivationspren out there as well. Three - Again, I refer to the 'Alas, not all spren are as discerning as Honorspren' line. We've been singling out the Honorspren, since they seem inherently connected to the Knights Radiant and their Surgebinding. But if spren are truly the focus of magic on Roshar, that means all spren can be used in Roshar's magic, not just the spren that are Splinters. Much like all aons and all breaths can be used in their worlds' respective magic systems, not just the Splinter versions of each. That's why surgebinding existed before the Splintering of Honor and the creation of Honorspren. That's why there's no sign of a sentient bond between Szeth and whatever spren might be fueling his surgebinding. Spren don't need to be sentient to fuel surgebinding, anymore than aons need to be sentient to fuel magic in Elantris. Now, my question if I'm right is - we've been told that the magic of each Shardworld has as much to do with the world itself as it does the Shard(s). But how much of the shape a magic system takes is due to the world, and how much due to the Shards? For instance, if Odium had left Splinters of himself on Sel for whatever reason (just a hypothetical, Brandon's already said he didn't), would those Splinters take the form of spren, or would they be a new kind of Aons? If Endowment came to Roshar for whatever reason, and left Splinters of himself/herself, would those Splinters be Divine Breaths, or would they be Endowmentspren?

Does anyone else think Renarin is a suspicious character who is up to no good? It seems like he is a character who is overlooked for the most part. And aren't those the ones that tend to go on to major roles in Brandon's books? I think he is the one behind the shattered gems in the kings shardplate. -There are several references to him being curious about fabrials making me think he understands about the workings of the gems. -He suppossedly rushes into the chasmfiend battle out of bravery but was it really to draw support away from the king and his weakened armor? Hoid/Wit makes it a point to pest him because he is less fragile than people think. Why can't his bloodsickness be soulcasted away? Jasnah is able to soulcast shallan's blood - why won't that work here? I think there is something more to this bloodsickness. How does Taravangian know so much about the recent events that make Dalinar's death inevitable? I think Renarin is working with him. What do others think?

So I got bored and decided to do some looking for any cosmere fan art that I haven't seen. I found a few goodies and thought I would share: Ear tattoo: http://insaneclassic.tumblr.com/image/15116318673 Vin sketch: http://annarosenfeld.tumblr.com/image/33367667162 2 inquisitors, a koloss, and Vin: http://jaspersandner.tumblr.com/search/mistborn

I'd buy it. I mean, Aona and Skai could have been romantically involved before they took up their Shards, after all. Then their respective Shards' intents split them up. I like that Shu-Keseg idea, but we really don't know how long ago Devotion and Dominion were Splintered, so it's really hard to tell. We have no idea if that was before or after, say, the prelude in Way of Kings. The actual events of Way of Kings definitely happens after Elantris, but the Prelude's location is far more unclear.

There is no onscreen "fit" and I don't recall him ever mentioning the timing. However there is the instance of Dalinar and Renarin riding into a barracks just in time for a highstorm. Dalinar wakes up to find a concerned Renarin and soldier's holding him down. I don't remember for sure, but there may be other instances of Renarin being present when Dalinar wakes up. I think if Renarin had fits during highstorms as well, he wouldn't be able to keep it a secret. That would certainly come up in discussions about Dalinar's visions.

Ok, from a science point of view, this is going to be a hideous mess of mixed analogies, but hopefully it makes sense as a visual analogy (inspired by the physics comments) and fits this theory fairly well; Imagine taking a whole bunch of little bits of string and tying them together in various ways to make a gigantic snarled ball of string. This ball of string is floating in space, and is considered a solid object. (There's your string theory ) Think of the knots in the ball of string as the nodes we've been talking about for the Spiritweb, while the bits between knots are the connections. Now place a piece of paper under the string, and shine a light on it from above. The light (more precisely, everything about it - angle, intensity, duration, etc.) is the cognitive aspect. (Look up the Holographic Principle if you want the physics side of that part as I'm really envisioning it. And probably a headache). The shadow cast on the piece of paper is the object's existence in the physical realm. Pretend for the moment that our concept of "shadow" allows for actions upon the shadow to have some effect on the object casting it. As I said, the analogy is meant for a visual connection between everything only. You can change the shadow both by manipulating the string while still keeping it a solid object (manipulation of the spiritual), and also by changing the aspects of the light (manipulating the cognitive). Various mixtures of the two are your normal forms of Investiture. It's possible to treat the ball of string as a collection of little bits of string, but for most basic manipulations, it's a single object. And, in special cases, you can punch through knots and physically remove/graft on different snarls of string. Voila, Hemalurgy! Oh, and sDNA is the instructions for making the ball of string in the first place. Edit: And Forms, I think, in this analogy, would be best thought of as sets of combinations of string and light that are similar, and cast similar shadows. For example, every combination that gives a stained glass window of the proper size and shape in Shai's cell. The lack of absolute specificity is what allows Forgery to work at all without needing to describe every single little bit of string and every photon of light.

Mm, I know they live in Utah. I would be entirely fine with them saying that they know it because Brandon said it to them. I've often seen people say "Brandon said x" referring to a quote on theoryland. I wasn't aware of their exact policy on that. Good to know. Edit. For the purposes of clarification, when I say "A quote on theoryland" I mean a quote that someone else got out of Brandon which they saw on theoryland or in an interview or whatever as opposed to something they heard directly from Brandon. I don't believe that theoryland makes a source more reputable on its own. And thanks for finding the quote. This clarifies the issue a lot.

Nepene. Josh (Rubix), as well as Mi'ch (firstRainbowRose), live in Utah, go to Brandon's events all the time. They're friends outside of this whole fandom, Brandon talks to them and sometimes mentions stuff that doesn't get directly recorded in a signing. They're not doing reports on every conversation they have. If Josh and Mi'ch tell you that Brandon said something, without providing a source, that means Brandon said it directly to them. In addition to that, this tweet answers both your questions quite nicely.

Well, you see, when a mommy and a daddy shardblade love each other very much...

Androl is what you get when you allow Brandon Sanderson to play with gateways. Which is part of why I enjoy Brandon Sanderson's magic systems just so much. All you can do is gateways? Well, gateways will win the day.

That could probably have been expressed just as effectively with like, 30% less sarcasm. I can read about a page a minute. 1000-page book pulls in at about 16 hours, but it's rare that I would read a book in one marathon session. I know I pushed through A Dance With Dragons in about 3-5 days. I usually blast through a Butcher book in two, sometimes in one, which is a combination of frustrating and satisfying ("oh, that was good. Too bad I gotta wait a year or more for the next one"). Same thing with Hiaasen. Some authors are easier to burn through than others, but I usually consume two or three novels in a week as a general rule of thumb.

Through methods involving the sacrifice of several people who didn't want to be sacrificed, I've decoded the song of the Parshendi. Read it here, and be amazed. Amazing, isn't it?

I don't think he's dead. I think he's a spy for Taravangian, and he left the Shattered Plains to report on the alliance between Dalinar and Sadeas. Why do I think this? Well, I was struck by something odd when reading Way of Kings again recently. Near the end, Taravangian orders Szeth to kill Dalinar to stop him from uniting the Alethi highprinces. Why? Why does Taravangian think Dalinar is a threat right then, and not before? He mentions "recent events," but what are those events? It can't have anything to do with Dalinar becomming Highprince of War, that hasn't been announced yet, and so no one but Dalinar and Elhokar should know that. And even if Taravangian did somehow know, would he really consider that a bad thing? Elhokar seems to think this is going to cause all the Highprinces to try to assassinate him and Dalinar, and Dalinar seems to kind of agree with him. It seems like any objective observer would feel there's a very good chance that Dalinar is going to bring about the complete collapse of Alethikar. But regardless, Taravangian shouldn't know about that yet. So what recent events was he talking about? Sadeas betraying Dalinar and nearly causing a war between the two most powerful Highprinces? Certianly not that. That would be something Taravangian would be happy about. The only "recent events" that make sense would be Dalinar and Sadeas's initial alliance, which seemed to be going well at first. This implies that Taravangian does not know about the most current events on the Shattered Plains. Either his spies have been lax in reporting to him about something as important as Sadeas and Dalinar's alliance collapsing, or Taravangian doesn't have enough spanreeds in his possession to give them to all his agents, and thus his Shatterd Plains contacts have to send him information the old fashion, and slower, way. What is the point of all that stuff I just typed? Well, I noticed that Gaz disappeared right after Dalinar and Sadeas formed their alliance. In fact, unless I remember wrong, the first bridge run where they worked together was the last bridge run Gaz ever went on. The timing seems a bit coincidental. Why would Gaz have disappeard right then? His old blackmailer was dead, he was specifically ordered not to murder Kaladin because it would make him a martryr(and thus Gaz wasn't likely killed by Wit or someone trying to protect Kaladin), and his current Lighteyes would have just made Gaz a bridgeman if Kaladin went too long without dying. Why would Gaz have disappeared then? Perhaps he had something to report to his master, something so important he needed to deliver the message in person (which of course provided an escape for him). I don't have too much hard evidence for Gaz working for Taravangian, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Taravangian wants to collect the visions dying people see. He's not going to be content just using people in his own city. He's going to want to have agents in places of death and bloodshed, to hear what other dying men say. But that presents a problem. A common soldier is going to be busy trying to stay alive and unable to focus on what his dying friends are shouting out, and is also has a high chance of dying himself on any battle. An officer who stays behind the lines in safety won't be near the dying as they gasp their last breaths. But Gaz? He's never in danger. Safest job in the entire army. And he goes on every run. And he's always around the bridgemen, who always die. Perfect position to hear the visions of dying men. Also, consider Gaz's eye. He lost an eye, and nearly died. Put another way, if he had not gotten some good medical treatment, he would have died. And who has the best doctors in the world?