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Hey, this is my first post, but I’ve hung around the forums for a while. I thought for a while about how other forms of Compounding -other ones than Allomantically powering Feruchemy- and I came up with a few ideas that made a lot of sense to me - I also created it, so it might sound completely ludicrous to someone else - and I decided to make this theory about them. I apologize for the length of this post in advance. So I worked off of 5 basic conjectures. I will explain them more fully and their implications later, but here they are: Each Metallic Art has specific benefits and disadvantages to using it. Compounding doesn’t change the output of the magic, only the form in which it comes. Compounding gains Both the disadvantages and the benefits of the transit magic system. Compounding is done by beginning one magic system, then, before completing it, beginning a second system, then utilizing the Investiture. Both magic systems must be able to be used by the initiator and the utilizer of the power (who are the same person until you add Hemalurgy in to it). First: Each Metallic Art has specific benefits and disadvantages to using it. This is kind of obvious, but is important later on, so I thought I’d point out the specific qualities that distinguish them. Allomancy - Benefits: Allomancy is end-positive. You gain power in the process. - Disadvantages: Allomancy consumes the metal uses. Feruchemy - Benefits: Feruchemy allows you to store an attribute until you need it. You can also tap it at a much higher rate than you stored it. - Disadvantages: You can only tap as much as you store. Hemalurgy - Benefits: Hemalurgy can steal attributes, or in other words, grant something to you that you didn’t have originally. - Disadvantages: Being end-negative, Hemalurgy has a lot of these. You have to spike someone; you have to stab yourself; you lose power due to Hemalurgic decay; you have to know the bind points or its useless. Second: Compounding does not change the power output, only the form. In other words, if you begin with Feruchemy, you will end with Feruchemical power, though it might be in a different form (Allomantic, Hemalurgic). This is basically saying, “If you store Speed and burn your metalmind, you’re still going to be getting Speed out of it, not Steelpushing. However, it will be released in a burst of power, as you are working with Allomancy.” Third: Compounding gains Both the disadvantages and the benefits of the transit magic system. Transit here refers to the second one you do, the one you are compounding with. This explains why you would Compound. Allomantically powering Feruchemy (the kind in Alloy of Law) gains the benefit of Allomancy (a boost in power) and its disadvantage (the metalmind is consumed in the process). The reverse, Feruchemically powering Allomancy, would come out in Allomantic powers, but you would be able to store it and then tap it much faster than normal, so you would be able to boost your Allomancy without duralumin. Fourth: Compounding is done by beginning one magic system, then, before completing it, beginning a second system, then utilizing the Investiture. So, in Alloy of Law compounding, they begin Feruchemy, storing an attribute, but before “completing” it by tapping the power, they begin Allomancy by burning the metalmind, then utilize the power automatically because it is Allomancy. Feruchemically powering Allomancy would be begun by Allomantically burning a metal, and then storing the power in a metalmind. They could then tap it to utilize the stored coppercloud or whatever. Fifth and Finally: Both magic systems must be able to be used by the initiator and the utilizer of the power (who are the same person until you add Hemalurgy in to it). So the Compounders in Alloy of Law must be both a misting and a ferring in their metal. The same is true for Feruchemically powering Allomancy. So here are the six kinds of Compounding and how they should work according to the above ideas. 1. Allomantically powering Feruchemy -> Store attribute, burn metalmind, gain powers! - Gains Benefits of Extra Investiture - Also consumes metalmind - Must be a Twinborn for the same metal. 2. Feruchemically powering Allomancy -> Burn metal, somehow store power in a metalmind, tap to use. - You can tap without the need to burn a metal. You can also tap it at an increased rate, so you don’t need duralumin. - However, you do have to burn all this metal sometime. You don’t get free power. - Must be Twinborn for the same metal 3. Allomantically powering Hemalurgy -> Spike someone, burn spike, gain power! - Major Boost in Hemalurgic quality stolen - Consumes Spike so you can’t have the ability forever, just until it runs out. Now you have to go spike someone else. - Must be Misting of metal Spike is made of 4. Feruchemically powering Hemalurgy -> Spike someone, store power from spike, tap from metalmind to use. - You can tap it without the need to have a spike in yourself. (I’m not sure if you have to stab the spike in yourself and gain the power first, or if you can store it from the spike itself.) - You might (IDK) be able to tap without running out, but you might only have a limited amount of power in a Spike you can store. If you do have to stab yourself, then if the spike is in somewhere vital, removing or even possibly by storing away the energy might kill you (You have a big hole stabbed in you by a chunk of metal without Shardic power to keep you alive). - You have to be a ferring of the spike metal. 5. Hemalurgically powering Feruchemy -> Store attribute in metalmind, stab someone with your metalmind (you might want to use a pointy one) and they can tap it (?) for the attribute. - Someone else can use the attribute you stored. So your good Bloodmaker buddy is slowly dying, and you (a Bloodmaker) store some health by being miserable for a while, stab him with the metalmind, and then he taps it, healing from what seemed certain death. - You need to both be the same kind of Ferring. - You don’t get anything out of the time you spent weak or sick or blind.You also have to know bind points for this, which are probably pretty obscure. 6. Hemalurgically powering Allomancy -> You burn a metal, somehow storing it in a spike, then give it to someone else, who then gets the Allomantic power for however long you burnt the metal. - Someone else can not burn metal and have a massive amount of power in one spike. - You have to spike people, know bindpoints, lose power, etc. - I think you both have to be the same Misting.

The most Masculine of all the Masculine Arts: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

I really like the idea of a "good" Thrill, this passage immediately came to mind when I read the OP: Also, for the sake of conversation, how about calling it "the Drive"?

"Rutabaga".

I already think Vedeledev is in Taravangian's death room, because her icon is on the chapter. And if she's anything like Darkness and Shalash, she'd be drawn to her thing, like justice or art, but "doing it wrong". Being in a death room in a hospital fits. Then I remembered Lift's Second Ideal: I will remember those who have been forgotten. And this, She could be in the room because she's bound by the same oath Edgedancers are, and even more important than healing to her is to remember these forgotten people. Even as she helps kill them. If this is how it works, then Nohadon didn't create the Ideals, but discovered a way for Surgebinders to access them. Spren had figured out how to bond with humans, but it might have been a human who found out how to add the Ideals to make it stronger. It should be easy to confirm or deny, once we see more Radiants and Heralds. In Shallan's arc especially, if her Second Ideal doesn't help explain why Shalash destroys art but feels a Shardblade would make it too easy, then the theory's probably wrong. Also Jezrien would have the Windrunner oaths, and would have to protect those who cannot protect themselves. The Shin, maybe?

This is a neat idea and may be fundamentally true, but I believe there is at least a semantic issue. There is WoB that Kaladin is immune to the thrill. It has been speculated that this is due to his relationship w/Syl. I doubt that Kaladin would be immune to Honor's thrill, so your hypothetical "thrill" should probably have a different name to fit with canon terminology. The case for your theory would also be stronger if you could provide an instance of someone possibly under the influence of "Honor's Thrill" in your OP. from the Spokane signing:

Renarin's laugh making the spheres glow just a little bit brighter...Feather, how do you do it? Each chapter you write is fantastic and each chapter also has one or two lines that hits me right in the feels and I love it.

I have a feeling that Lift just walked up into the Nightwatchers valley and asked to be "Awesome." Then, Cultivation laughed her divine chull off and happly obliged.

Could you imagine... "Bureaucracy", the middle management shard? The focus of the magic system would be filling out forms...

So I noticed on my profile that I have "Reputation Points." Where on earth did they come from? How do I earn more? What can I do with them?

I did a brief search, but as simplistic as this theory seems, I didn't see it posted elsewhere. Kelsier is now a Sliver, but a completely different kind than TLR was. He has no physical aspect (unlike Sazed, for example), but possesses a deific Cognitive (further augmented by the existence of Survivorism) and Spiritual aspect. Is this very much different than Ruin-when-chained? With his expanded powers and a meddlesome personality, he would want to get involved with something. Not really much of anything to do on Scadrial, though. Sazed's got stuff under control. Time to explore Shadesmar, as pretty much the only thing he CAN do. So he gets involved with other planets. Now he needs a physical aspect. Being dead and all, he'll need someone else. An avatar. Someone who he trusts, and has absolute faith in him. I got it! Demoux! So you have a being like a shard, but not quite a shard. Let's call him, for argument's sake, The Seventeenth Shard. But unlike a true shard, he'd need a physical aspect. While other Shards use their body - their energy - this one uses men blessed with the power of other shards. This one uses proxies. This means Demoux isn't just a member of The Seventeenth Shard. He's the founding member. While the recipient of "The Letter" is most certainly not Kelsier, it could be an ally of his. The biggest issue is The Recipient insisting on non-intervention, which Kelsier is diametrically opposed to. But if Kell owed him big. Like, by being able to help him syphon off more of Adonalsium's power, maybe Kelsier would reciprocate by allowing The Recipient the use of his Seventeenth Sharders. This could help explain why Kelsier and Hoid don't get along. EDIT: if we have proof of SS' existence pre-HoA, then my theory adjusts to incorporate a body of Cognitive Aspects lingering in a similar manner to Kelsier. For example, the minds of now-dead, previous shard-holders.

Something that came to me: when sazed fixed the ashworld and brought back the old world, he used all the accumulated knowledge from his metalminds. Brandon said somewhere that the technology of pre-final empire scadrial was early industrial. So, what kind of knowledge did they have, and what was he forced to improvise? Of course they knew nothing of genetics, or even the existance of bacteria, but I assume sazed used the knowledge of the shards to figure it out and fix the dna of everything. On the other hand, there's no way he could have gotten informations on the different kinds of bacteria. even if he figured out biodiversity was required for the long-term stability of life, he would have had to rework most of the bacteria from scratch. As for humans, knowing the internal structures of organs ddoes little to tell the chemical mechanisms of the body. As the lord ruler altered those mechanisms to cope with the ash, sazed had to revert them, but without a reference of what they were supposed to be. he surely did something that worked, but there's no guarantee that it's exactly the same biochemistry humans had before. probably scadrians have a few modified proteins or receptors. as for the general shape of the world, at early industrial age the shape of the continents was roughly known, but there were still many blank areas. the antartica region was still unexplored. greenland had been recently rediscovered, after all the colonies there had died centuries before. many places of siberia were still unexplored, and many small islands in the middle of the ocean were yet undiscovered. So, I guess sazed had to improvise a lot there. And then, even today there are remote places in the middle of rainforests were no white man ever set foot. We still don't know most of the creatures that live there, despite sending lots of scientific expeditions. in older times, the knowledge of those inaccessible areas were even less. So I don't think sazed had more information than "and here was jungle". He had to reinvent all the plants and animals there, using at most some physical descriptions. So, while the new scadrial looks quite like the pre-ash world, there are huge differences in the fine details. I wonder exactly how much sazed had to just invent on the spot, and if all that is going to make any difference.

I have read Mistborn several times now and the last time around I noticed something: When the Renoux convoy was raided by imperial soldiers none of the crew wondered about how the soldiers knew something illegal was going on, because they assumed Marsh told them. Marsh however never told anyone anything (At least that is what I think), so how did they know? I have theorized about Jastes Lekal having something to do with it, or perhaps Straff Venture, assuming the spy Ellen used reported to Straff as well nad while both are plausible enough I want to know for certain. So is there anything I overlooked?

If the Feruchemy powering Allomancy thing would work, I either think that it would involve Nicrosil, or it would require god metal alloys. If either of those work, then I think that you really have something. Either way, good work!

This has now been rectified, sorry for the inconvenience. We have to turn it on and off manually and it had slipped my mind. It was not intentional.

The biggest thing that attracts me to the Stormlight Archives is the whole Categorical Imperative feel to it. For those of you who don't know or who aren't interested enough to investigate for yourselves, the Categorical Imperative is a system of moral philosophy proposed by Immanuel Kant. Kant proposes that there are certain actions, duties, or moral responsibilities that are absolute. They are both a means and an end. Most moral systems are Hypothetical Imperatives which are very situational. Something like, "Don't ever kill anyone. Except in self defense. Or in the defense of another. Or to defend your property." A Hypothetical Imperative is very situational. As you can see in my example, there are a lot of exceptions to the Imperative. You could even add more to it than what I listed. Like a Utilitarian twist to it. Something like, "Never kill an innocent person unprovoked. Unless the killing of that individual will save multiple other individuals." Human beings are NOT rational creatures. We are rationalizing creatures. Much like the Alethi, with enough thought we can do despicable things and convince ourselves that we're good and noble. Not so the Categorical Imperative! It is black and white. Do and do not. A Categorical Imperative might be something like, "I will defend those that cannot defend themselves." There's no wigggle room there. It's an Imperative that is both an End and a Means. And it's such an unnatural way of thinking that I'm sure most people are entirely unfamiliar with the concept. So, to watch characters struggle with this and not just automatically do it like an automaton, is really captivating, compelling, and it feels authentic. Even Kaladin struggles with his Ideal. He was very hesitant to help Dalinar Kholin at first. Not because he didn't want to, but because Categorical Imperatives, which will be referred to as Ideals from here on, are such an unnatural way of thinking that you cannot help but try to rationalize them. In this case, Kaladin thought it would be a lost cause that would accomplish nothing. He was still seeing his Ideal as a End whose Means influenced it and not as both a Means and an End simultaneously. Sorry if that was too lengthy and/or boring. But it's a really fantastic concept that I have difficulty talking about without getting in depth. The second biggest thing I love about the Stormlight Archives is its portrayal of the many faces of leadership. I spent four years as an Infantry Marine and am very, very well acquainted with both exceptional and incompetent leaders. I don't know if readers without a similar background would find it as enjoyable, but when I saw Dalinar Kholin dig a latrine...I swore that if some dark magic sent me to Roshar, I would follow Dalinar Kholin to the ends of the Cosmere. That small act meant more to me than his reputation as a legendary warrior. It told me, "This man cares about his men. They are more than just resources to be used economically and numbers in a ledger to him." That type of leadership is precious and rare. In my experience, more leaders are concerned with, "What extra or dangerous duties can I volunteer my men to perform in order to make myself look better to my superiors?" Or, at best, indifference. Not a small amount are petty and bullies and they use their authority to show their dominance because that is their only sense of self worth. Brandon Sanderson has done a remarkable job portraying leadership. For those of you who are inexperienced with it - take my word for it. He does it so well that its sublime. The third reason slightly contradicts the OP's instructions but...do you see my Avatar's mustache? A mustache that size plays by its own rules. That being said, the third season I love SA is this website. It's an excellent community and I now have a pathological need to check this site for new theories evey few hours. If I wake up in the middle of the night to take a leak, I'll check 17th Shard. Edit: Spelling.

Oh, man! Where to begin? -Wit. Just Wit by himself. -My signature has a couple from Steelheart. -Strength does not make one capable of rule, it makes one capable of service. -Teft -Authority doesn't come from a rank...it comes from the men who give it to you. -Kaladin -Dalinar, Kal, Kel, El, and Saze also have quite a few more. -Many, many others!

Not really. There are some nice guesses but most of the stuff about Kel being 17thshards founder is just too far-fetched imo. I mean, he could be, but with same amount of proofs that could be said about other characters. For example it could be Harmony simply because nonintervention(openly) isn't as much unbelievable for him as much as for Kel and creating 17thshard would've been easier for him. + IMO 17th shard is a more scholarly organization than some kind of Cosmere Police for catching worldhoppers and/or saving the world. And as far as I know Kel wasn't that type of a character. Founders of 17th shard could easily be Elantrians and Returned simply because they are immortal or at least got a really long lifespan, most of the characters from those books were scholarly and it wouldn't surprise me if they found out about Cosmere. Not to mention that Elantrians(those before Reod) could've been aware of Cosmere. So I'm not saying your theory is wrong, there are just too many other possibilities you can't prove wrong and you don't have any proofs to put "Kelsier is a founder of a 17th shard" above those guesses. But if this was all about Kel being one of the candidates then you're right. He could be and you got some nice guesses about how he could've pulled it off. Edit: After remembering how much I love Kelsier I'll just have to go with it... So followers of survivorism affect his Cognitive and Spiritual realms which both were expanded/upgraded/whatever by holding Preservation for a time hence shaping him into an actual god. So he COULD be considered as a Shard. He just lacks adonalsiumness therefore he's not as powerful as other gods and can't face them in an old fashioned Kelsier style. Most likely he created 17th shard with Sazed because why not. And 17th shards main purpose is to pull of some sick heist to get something real important done, what that thing is I don't know though This also could be a reason why they're against open interventions, because they're doing something behind the scenes just like Hoid but they need Hoid to stop whatever he's doing because: A. He might accidentally(or not) undermine their plan. B. Most likely Hoid is trying to recreate Adonalsium, which might not be as fun as it sounds. As far as we know it might as well destroy whole Cosmere. Kel would be against that. Especially if he developed his own intent: Survival. Now if Hoid knows what Adonalsium's revival will bring and he's still trying to do it then he might be our main antagonist which I hope he isn't. Ahh but two greatest masterminds of Cosmere clashing in the final battle of minds... Sorry Hoid, you'll have to die bro ;(

Regarding the TES comment -

The Shard of Death: Your powers become stronger the closer you are to dying, but you cannot use them to save yourself. We probably would have a whole lot of main characters in a story with this guy.

I enjoyed this. There's a certain ambiguity about the nature of the angel that's quite intriguing, and his take on human society is quite humorous. It's curious, I remember in the other chapter, there was a bit where the narrator referred to someone with the name "Epic-beard" and I commented that it was a bit odd. Here though, when the angel calls the guy Mustache or Unkempt-Mustache it seems to fit with his detached, inhuman perspective. That said, I wonder if the set-up with this intro is going to make the first chapter seem like too much of a slowdown in tempo. We start off with bam, aliens ripping people apart and then, the stranger in town moseys into a bar. Not saying it couldn't work, but it's something to think about as you go back and revise. Looking forward to the next bit ~NMW

pg 1: "It was likely best that the angel lacked a digestive tract; the urge to vomit was overwhelming." --yes, this is for humor, but if the angel lacks a digestive tract, then it could not even have an urge to vomit... pg 1: You're hiding the name/gender of the angel or it doesn't have one, but there are a lot of repetitions of "the angel." You might want to find some other word. "It" can be used for something you don't know about. (And you do use "it" later) Otherwise, I like it. It's always hard to present the morals of an alien being (whether it's elves, or angels, or actual aliens) and I thought this one went well. I haven't seen "There will be Blood," but I liked that the angel was a physical presence, rather than insubstantial, and that it was very factually relating to God, rather than through religious means. Having this before the first chapter also gets the reader ready that there is something magical/supernatural going on, where in the first chapter, Elmer only walks into a bar and then goes to sleep. It lets us know to Wait For It and see what comes later.

I'm the cute one. The Seons look better in the dark, and a bit more close-up so you can see their Aons. I only have this one pic on my phone, maybe Paperclip can post his pics, and I'll try to get them from my friend. Between the hugest signing line, and the only fans who brought props, I like to think Brandon "won" this multi-author signing...

I've long been a proponent of the theory that the drained gems were a result of Elhokar unknowingly draining them himself. Note, though, that he doesn't have to actually do anything useful with that stormlight though, in order to drain the gems. He probably simply held the stormlight for a short time and let it drain out without using it for much. At his stage of development, he can probably hold it for only a few seconds, much like Szeth. And regarding the Cryptics - we have no confirmation at this point that they are the spren exclusive to the Lightweavers. In fact, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to the contrary, in my opinion. Every other Radiant order we've seen so far (which is 3; the Windrunners, the Edgedancers, and order 5) bonds with a spren that resembles a "regular" spren, but has awareness and directly communicates with the Radiant. The Cryptics are markedly different on several fronts; they travel in a group rather than singly; they have no resemblance to "regular" spren types; and at least for Shallan, they seem to require an "exchange" in order to produce a surgebinding effect. Also, Elhokar and Shallan perceive them very differently; she sees them subconsiously in her drawings while he sees them in mirrors. Now, it's possible that this all has to do with the somewhat unique nature of the Soulcasting surge. But it's also possible that the Cryptics are an entirely different class from Honorspren, and may represent a separate way of becoming a surgebinder. My point here is that just because Elhokar sees Cryptics doesn't mean he's going to be a Lightweaver.

Not sure I agree with this simply because truth by its very nature is wholly subjective and dependent on the belief of the observer. Being a murderer is how Shallan sees herself, but given what we know of her character, I double that the act of killing her father as as clean cut as that statement would imply. For example, if someone were killing her Father and she witheld some aid that would have saved him she could still believe that she killed him. Or, if she hit her father over the head wirth a vase to stop him beating her brother to death and he died because of that. Is that murder? Shallan could certainly see herself as one and so her statement can be true from her persepctive even though others might not agree. Also, a large theme of Shallan's tutalage with Jasnah is about the lack of any absolute. Look at Jasnahs killing of the three thugs... I doubt Jasnah sees herself as a murderer, even though she deliberately sought out an killed them. Indeed the whole nature fo Shallan's study is about the abiguity surrounding the nature of the act.

An alternate title would be: "In Which Feather Considers Giving Shallan And Renarin A First Kiss But Wusses Out And Goes For Hand-Holding Instead Because She Is Embarrassed To Write Romance-y Things." Why am I writing shipping fic again? I am such a dork when it comes to writing these two. These fictional characters had better appreciate the embarrassment that I go through for them...

*drops a new chapter in and flees* http://featherwriter.tumblr.com/post/67318367285/a-strange-mix-of-both-5-overestimation

Shard of Tipsiness - Alcohol-based magic. Different kinds of drinks give you different powers, and mixed drinks can do weird things - but if you pass out or get too drunk to do anything (or hit anyone) you're screwed in a fight. Some people are incredibly alcohol-resistant, chugging rum and whisky for pure power, while others less able to hold their drinks make up for it with original drink mixes and cocktails. The book would include a scene where the main character tries to take a swig of his 299 proof superpowered mixed drink to start knocking holes in mountains or something as a last resort, and - gasp - someone replaced it with non-alcoholic beer. Then he passes out from all the alcohol he already ingested during the preceding climatic extreme drinking contest with the big bad vodka superconglomerate CEO, and wakes up in a dungeon beneath the planets largest, highest security vodka distillery. The operation is in fact producing black-market non-alcoholic beer, which it is using to sabotage Alcomages everywhere. The Shardpool of Tipsiness is in fact a literal lake of Invested alcohol. It rains beer. There are ginmists, scotchstorms, and underground coffee rings. The Bartenders Union is second only to the Federated Distilleries in terms of political power. The religion is oriented around attaining a state of drunkenness so perfect that everything becomes clear, and the priests have a holy obligation to never be sober. Liver failure is unsurprisingly the foremost killer on the planet, even though through Tipsiness's shaping, their livers can handle many times what one of us could. Alcohol related birth defects don't happen for this reason as well. Strong Alcomages, or many weak ones working together, can turn literally anything into alcohol.

I maybe be wrong. But Teft said that which order had different ideals based in the "Way of Kings" that had 40 parables. So 10 order x 4 unique ideals( the fist one are shared among all) = 40 ideals. One ideal for parable. This make sense given the fact that Nohadon wrote the book was a guide book for the KR. What is futher confirmed given the fact that Gavilar was "studying" the book to understand what are the "Most important words that a man can say" AKA the 40 (plus one) Ideals. So Jasnah ideals wasn't revelead yet =)

TES? You guys have so many acronyms.

You shouldn't talk to strangers, and there is nothing stranger than a storm-face. I say we ignore the storm-face entirely and pretend it never happened.

Just a random thought that popped into my head: What if the honorblades were given to the KR at the end of the last desolation? Doesn't tell us where they are now, but I can see a conversation like this: Jezrien: Hey guys we won! You can keep our swords as a symbol of our great victory!! KR: That's awesome! You guys rock! Random KR: Hey, what about Taln's honorblade? Does my order get that one too? Jezrien: Umm... No.

I don't know, I suppose that by definition he would be binding surges, but is that what a Surgebinder is? Just someone who can bind surges? If that's the definition you want to go with, then sure, Szeth binds surges. I don't necessarily agree with that definition though because Szeth is the exception to the rule. Everyone else (except maybe the Heralds) needs to be bound to a spren to be a Surgebinder as far as we can tell. If the Heralds are the exception to the rule, and Szeth uses bindings the same way and from the same source as the Heralds, would it be fine then to call Szeth a Herald?

Well, Honor could have turned them immortal, like TLR made the kandra immortal. The Damnation torture is part of the Oathpact. Most of us assumed that the Oathpact was created to stop Honour and Odium fighting, or something like this. But what if that's not true? TIME FOR A CRAZY THEORY! What if the Oathpact was actually an alliance made between Honour and Odium? To fight together against the voidbringers? Where fight together = they will both invest in Roshar into objects of power. Like Odium would create the shardblades, and Honour would create the plates. Then somehow Honour grew weaker (maybe because of the KR) and Odium took advantage and killed him. That's why then Syl (Honour) now hates blades (Odium). TIME FOR ANOTHER CRAZY THEORY The Oathpact was made between Honour, Cultivation, Odium and the other shard in the system, and basically determined that each shard would stick to their own planets and not interfere on another planet. Cultivation made Roshar from a barren land (like the other planets) into ... well, that it is today), and Honour created humans... Again, the voidbringers are not aligned with shards.

In the Jasnah prologue, there is some guy that seems to talk like a Herald, and seems to look like Darkness. Talking with some other guy that seems to be a Herald too, that some bloke has their lord's (Jezrien's) own blade.

LOL!

I like Gloom's theory that the shardblades of today are different than the shardblades before the recreance, and that event is what created our third type of blade (honorblade, radiant shardblade, modern shardblade). Stealing his quote, this is from the recreance: This also helps explain why Syl seems to hate a weapon that probably used to belong to a Knight Radiant. Shardblades seem to be "off" in modern Roshar, however no one seems to question shardplate. Looking back at Dalinar's flashbacks, modern shardplate seems to be less capable than the radiant's shardplate. The radiant's plate was covered in glowing glyphs and the helms at least seemed to disappear and reappear whenever the radiant wanted. During the chasmfiend fight it seems that Dalinar's plate may have glowed a bit. Szeth thinks he can't use his lashings while wearing plate because he thinks it will interfere with the gemstones in the plate. In Dalinar's vision, one of the radiants "falls upward" back to the town. It seems like he is lashing himself in order to fly. I think there was a theory that only people in plate felt the "Thrill" but I think that was debunked as not being only limited to plate. Looking over the Recreance vision again, the swords were glowing and faded, but there is no mention of armor glow or any change. Kaladin didn't just reject a blade, but also the plate. However, he only thinks about the blade. So, is anything up with shardplate? If something is wrong with shardblades, and it was caused by the Recreance, would it have also affected the plate? Maybe the Recreance only corrupted (or allowed a certain odius presence to corrupt) shardblades. We don't seem to have any indication that shardplate is bad in any way, no recreations or revulsion to it. But, if it doesn't elicit the same reactions as the shardblades, can we assume that whatever causes Syl and Kaladin to hate the blade did not happen to the plate (IE, if Syl and Kaladin hate blades, but not plate, can we assume the Recreance didn't cause the issue with shardblades?) I thought that maybe shardplate was just not working because no one in modern Roshar seems to be able to make it glow or disappear, so its corruption just wasn't seen. However, when Kaladin kills the shardbearer, Amaram states that the shardbearer is dead: It looks like shardplate is bonded to its wearer in some form, and when the wearer dies, it just falls off. So, it seems that shardplate is still working, at least in some minimal form. We also have Dalinar, who seems to almost glow when protecting Elhokar from the chasmfiend, so the shardplate seems like it might still be connected to the ideals of honor, and it might still work if worn by a KR. Where does that leave my ideas when it comes to shardplate? Confused! The quote from the Recreance makes it seem like something really bad happened there, but it doesn't seem to have done anything to shardplate, and I like the idea that it is the cause of modern shardblades being disturbing to Syl. I also like the idea that shardplate and shardblades are related to the oaths of the KR, but modern shardplate seems to be just waiting for honorable people to pick it up and put it on, while the shardblades are being rejected by our two main honorable characters. It would make more sense if both plate and blade were corrupted, or if both plate and blade could be made to work properly by an honorable person. Am I missing something that might imply plate is also bad in some way? Could the difference between the two mean something important?

I like that. It would also explain why the people of Roshar feel more betrayed than abandoned by the Radiants. Because they did betray them, sometimes quite violently.

All else being equal, more humanoid objects are easier to Awaken. I'd expect this sort of thing to always remain relegated to short-term tactical use or artistic/scientific curiosities, though. They'd be really breath-intensive to set up and not terribly flexible. Let's say you wanted to make one for a factory. At a minimum, you would want to be able to tell it to become inert when the operator is done for the day, and probably you'd want to switch who is controlling it so you can have multiple shifts. You might also want to only allow authorized personnel to use it, but then again modern bulldozers don't have any usage controls. Still, you need at least two conditional statements. You could withdraw the Breath at the end of each shift, but Vasher's Commands are actually rather difficult and very few people would be able to use them. Furthermore, transferring Breath in sub-units is a rather complex and time-consuming process requiring multiple Commands, and finally enough Breath to activate an industrial robot would be valuable, portable, and untraceable, thus tempting workers to walk out the door with it and never come back. That said, they'd be pretty useful for a lot of research and rapid-prototyping applications by allowing people to assemble very small/large objects "by hand", so I would expect to see them around high-end labs.

Maybe you guys remember a while back when Brandon posted a bit of Amaram dialogue in Morse code on reddit? Well, he's done a similar thing again, here! Pretty sweet, no? Unless I'm mistaken, we haven't seen much of present-day Shallan from WoR, yet.

That's how theories have worked around here in the past month, Windy... But now, on a side note (that oddly takes us away from the previous side note), I have to wonder whether the Honorblades look like the ones you can see in the backgrounds of the part divider pages (of the hardcover?). They look pretty distinctive and their hilts strongly resemble the glyphs symbolizing the Radiants' orders.

Sorry but this is a huge pet peeve of mine, Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are not the same sword. The Sword in the Stone was pulled from the stone by King Arthur which proved his right to the throne. Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake many years later after the Sword in the Stone was broken.

If this is true and Szeth does die, I'm betting he at least has a TON of gold to spend while waiting to respawn.

Clarification of quote in question (earlier in the topic): Brandon has clarified that the shard or splinter is needed in order to understand how to create and utilize some of the alloys. Understanding realmatic theory... well, we listed quite a few people who could do that.

I'm sure you could. The only caveat, though, is that if they do count as valid metal-minds, they probably also count as valid spikes! Two-edged sword and all that.

Problem is, every full Windrunner that has appeared has been wearing Shardplate. So there's obviously some way around it. I think that there's indication that Plate was once bound to individuals like Blades are still, so that could be a potential solution. Another is perhaps that, while Szeth uses the powerset of the Windrunners, he is not himself a Windrunner and is not bound to an honorspren.

The blood being in motion is part of it. Because the power, once used, returns to him--much as water, after passing over a turbine, continues on in its system. If they tried to actualize their Aon, it would have an undesirable result. In addition, the chasm broke their bond to the humans they were tied to, and you can see the result of that. So they were affected.

I have him as a guy right now, but that could change. (It has before.) Yes. Yes. Yes. Separate summoning. He has a home base. Perhaps. I've got a few more chapters than I've posted. Including some viewpoints from the most powerful magical sword ever created. Most powerful...in that he has the most powers. Thousands of them. All useless.

True, it's not perfect, and it's easy to interpret that line other than how I decided to. But also, 8 months is closer to a year in Roshar terms than it is in Earth terms, they only have 10 months. So, if he disappeared two months before the battle with Kaladin, and then word came to the Davar family within the month of his death, it would all be much closer together than what you're considering. Honestly, the biggest thing going for this theory is that it ties the characters together in an unexpected way. There's so little to go off of, but what there is links up decently well. I think you've pointed out the single biggest thing that counts against it in the text, the ambiguity of that particular line. Another possibility is that the father considered him dead to the family even before his actual death, which Kurkistan touched on, but that runs a bit counter towards all the rest of the evidence, that he was being groomed to take his father's place.

Someone must have been getting too close to the truth and Peter threw a red herring through a window. Quick, look the other way.