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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...

As an exercise in the ridiculous, my friend and I decided to see if we could think of some Shards who would make the world they Invested just unbearably awful. Here are a few of our suggestions, what does the audience think? Misery. Denial. Sarcasm. Clowns. Pranks. Paranoia. Irony. Boredom.

This theory is motivated by dramatic irony more than evidence. Szeth thinks that when he dies, he'll be tortured forever. Well, Heralds get exactly that as an afterlife between Desolations. How ominous will it be if Szeth dies, and the PoV hints that he's beginning an eternity of torture but at least he's content that the killing is over. The reader is then in a position to realize this is really bad because it means exactly the opposite: the killing isn't over at all, and Szeth is still a threat. He'll be back. So start with the theory that Szeth has Jezrien's Honorblade, and upgrade it to Szeth taking Jezrien's place completely, and being a Herald. Sure he's a bad Herald, but 90% of Heralds are bad these days so he'll fit right in. Shallash is destroying art as Creative/Honest. If Szeth kills world leaders as Protecting/Leading, that's fine too. One problem is that Taln already respawned at the end of WoK. If it only happens once per Desolation, Szeth missed it. That's where dramatic irony comes in. Szeth has to die and be tortured, so that he can interpret it as Stone Shamanism while the reader recognizes it as the Herald afterlife. That's too cool not to work, so we can infer that Heralds get to come back multiple times during a Desolation until it's over, or something.

What are some of your favorite quotes for sanderson's work? Any bits of wisdom, humor or awesomeness that particularly stick out to you? some of mine are: "Always another secret" "Somebody has to start, son. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right because it is right. If nobody starts, then others cannot follow." "Power was not in wealth, but in control--money was worthless before a man who refused to be bought." “By now, it is probably very late at night, and you have stayed up to read this book when you should have gone to sleep. If this is the case, then I commend you for falling into my trap. It is a writer's greatest pleasure to hear that someone was kept up until the unholy hours of the morning reading one of his books. It goes back to authors being terrible people who delight in the suffering of others. Plus, we get a kickback from the caffeine industry...” And just about anything Lightsong said.

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.

The Inquisitors spiked Sherlock Holmes and had him working on the case, duh. "Alamantary, my Dear Watson"

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!

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!

Nice one again =) Keep going Lady Feather =)

I like the theory but I think we need just a little more information to either confirm or refute it. Umm...it's a stretch, but maybe Illumination can...bequeath Stormlight? Like Dalinar catches the claw and, rather then being serial crushed by a huge friggin' claw and having his armor and body exploded, Elhokar infuses his Stormlight into Dalinar's Plate. Think of it like your bank automatically transferring some money into your Checking account from your Savings account to prevent you from overdrawing.

I don't mean to back out of what I said earlier, but I had really muddled #3 in my mind. What I thought was suggested was not even close. We are both late to the update, but Meg's post above clarified what was being asked for me. EDIT: That is to say, I am proven wrong by my ignorance of the actual question and accept my fate. But would still like an explanation by someone who knows how it was settled. Also 4 I would give a Yes to, but 5 I need to pass on as I know nothing about that bird. Anyone able to reference a thread about it?

Does the Cognitive Realm function the same as the Physical Realm in terms of Time? It didn't seem to effect Shallan, but she was only there for a short time. Could account for the seemingly instantaneous transport to a destination.

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...

Upvote for the transcription style (especially "blah, blah") And the Adonalsium question is quite new, as far as I can tell. And that is why, on each signing, there should be a member from 17thShard giving out "official 17thshard question cards" flyers for people without their own Completely mandatory optional, of course I am rambling, am I not? (goes away) P.S. Where are the Seons pictures?

TES? You guys have so many acronyms.

I was looking for info about Szeth when I noticed something odd. We see a lot of spren, but there are only a dozen or so explicit mentions of how spren appear. While searching through the novel for them I noticed a pattern. Here are all of the instances where spren are appearing that also include how the spren is appearing. I've bolded the method in each case. We see two broadly different types of spren; spren that represent emotions and spren that represent concepts or things. Almost all of the emotionspren seem to come directly out of the stone (ground, walls, or masonry), or out of something sitting directly on the stone as in the case of the fearspren in chapter 6 crawling from the bridge. The only exception here is the gloryspren, which are said to "pop into existance" or "wink into the air". The third gloryspren instance is "sprouted around him", which could mean either coming out of the ground or just appearing out of the air. In contrast, the lifespren and rainspren appear out of or nearby the things they represent; the rainspren sprouts out of a puddle, and the lifespren fades into existance beside a plant. There are many mentions of creationspren, musicspren, etc, that don't explicitly say where they're coming from but I believe they're in this second catagory. They represent things. The second catagory makes sense; if Spren represent things, they appear near said things. It works. The emotional spren, on the other hand, confuse me. Why do all but the gloryspren manifest themselves in stone before appearing? After some thought, I may have an answer. "Glory" isn't really an emotion at all, but something attributed to a person, group, or event by others. You feel pain, anger, fear, and anticipation. You would also feel pride and satisfaction in victory. However, you wouldn't walk up to someone on the bus and say "I feel glory-full today". They'd look at you funny and edge backwards. If glory is a thing rather than emotion, then we have a pattern. And so, I present the following theoryspren: Emotionspren emerge from stone. Thingspren (for lack of a better word) emerge around the things they're drawn by.

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.

Thunderclasts also emerge from stone - probably from a corrupted (emotion) spren. Edit: emotion being hate/odium?

(1) In this case there is no immortality - shards are not immortal, since they can be splintered, shardholders are not immortal, since they can be killed. Instead of reserving the word for a concept that does not exist/will not exist/it's impossible, let's use it for something that exists - which is something like "capable of living forever". Heck, even the "deathless" can die in Brandon's work Such as kandra would live forever if not bathed in acid, shardholders would live forever if not killed by other shards, and heralds would live forever, if not [... this thing that we will probably see in SA book x]. (3) yes, well, some things should surprise everyone, right? We all love a plot twist. (4) Per WoB, there are 4 shards in the Roshar greater system: H + C on Roshar, Odium on another planet, and a fourth shard on yet another planet. There has been talk about why the 4 orders in the corner of the radiant map have one extra connection, and my theory is that those orders use a spren that is full splinter of a shard, e.g. windrunners spren is 100% honorspren, edgedancer spren (wyndle) is 100% cultivation, shallan's cryptic is 100% maybe adonalsium, leaving the great unknown for the stonewardens.

Technically, yes, that is the "correct" definition of immortal and we shouldn't use "immortality" to describe people who are in reality "ageless". However, we do it anyway. This is one of those weird things in the english language, where everyone knows that we are using the wrong word, but we don't care because people understand we are trying to say. Basically immortal when used colloquially, like we are using it here, does not differentiate between true immortality, like you describe, and agelessness because if a person is ageless they are effectively immortal.

We all get to choose our own definitions. Ultimately, whatever Brandon says will prevail on this site. For me, it's common sense that if lashings are an example of binding a surge, then Szeth is a surgebinder. It's an ability, so how he gets it doesn't matter. Then we have different kinds of surgebinders: Nahel-bond surgebinders, Szeth-type surgebinders. Darkness can infuse, but can he surgebind? If so, then we have Darkness-type surgebinders. Some believe that Heralds will end up being surgebinders also. If they do, it could be innate, from the Honorblades or some other means that we are ignorant of so far. Some believe that storm-form Parshendi will turn out to be surgebinders. With Heralds and Parshendi, that gives us five different types of surgebinder. If the Honorblades provide surgebinding and both Szeth and Darkness have Honorblades, then we have only three kinds of surgebinder. Does this make sense? But if being a Herald provides surgebinding, that does not mean that surgebinding provides heraldry. If Szeth has an Honorblade and the specialness of a Herald is entirely bound up in the sword, there might be an argument for Szeth being a Herald (although he still lacks the history and knowledge). I think the Heralds are innately different. So far, I can only point to the Heralds being immortal (assuming that Szeth isn't immortal) and Honor talking about forming the Heralds (Purelake vision) as differences, but I believe more differences will become known and I am not convinced that the Heralds aren't innately surgebinders. But this all fantasy until March and, as you well know, I know nothing.

I think Meg was referring to the statement that Szeth is not a surge binder. This is news to me as well. He does not have a nahel bond, and is certainly not a windrunner, but I don't think we have confirmation that what he is doing is not surge binding. (Apologies to the "szeth is a void binder" crowd) I think the argument still holds that darkness is not interested in szeth because something is different about his surgebinding, just not that it is because he is not surgebinding.

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.

Given that Syl was getting the dumb when Kaladin was thinking of killing himself, and Kaladin's powers increased when behaving more like the ideals that attracted Syl, I think the Nahel bond is something that evolves based on continuous behaviour. I think that the only way to sever the bond is to act in a way that is exactly the opposite of the ideals. This leaves me to believe that either: * the KR just dropped their shards, and did not actually sever their Nahel bonds * the KR severed their bonds by doing something that is very much against their ideals... leading/protecting and dependable/resourceful for windrunners and stonewardens at the feverstone keep. This might be why these 2 orders dropped their shards - e.g. windrunners stopped leading (by leaving the battle) and stopped protecting -- by facilitating a massacre when the fighting over the shards broke. The other orders had to sever their bonds in a different way - e.g. taking instead of giving, destroying instead of building, killing instead of healing, etc... Maybe this is why there are so many things lost from the Radiants time.

Hi everyone, first time poster here. I will just toss this as an idea, I have no idea if it has been proposed before (or if it should be discussed here): I don't have any real evidence, but I think that the torture is not more intensive just longer than usual. If I had to guess, I'd say 10 times longer since he was the only Herald in Damnation (or wherever they actually go between Desolations) this time round. It would also explain why this Desolation is so long in coming, say, if the Heralds need to be subjected to a "fixed" amount of torture between Desolations (in accordance with the Oathpact perhaps?) and there is only one instead of ten... It's just an idle thought, so don't be upset if this is outright wrong or something...

What are the chances that the only thing she asked of The Nightwatcher was "I want to be awesome" ?

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.

At the moment the different Cosmere-"magics" and such are rambling around in my brain: Ash - Shallash - Lightweavers - Illumination | Light/Illuminaton - Aon Ashe Unfortunately I'm not a Returned ... I can have headaches. Edit: This thought comes, too, from a quote which says that all languages in the Cosmere kind of derive from the same (I might have a look for it later).

Just for future reference, it appears that Brandon reads a little bit further each time he re-reads a section of the book. If he appears to be reading something that was already read, it might be a good idea to record it anyways if you brought the equipment.

Can I use this quote as my sig? Or do I have to wait until stuff from the WoR spoilers are allowed to be discussed on the whole forum?

Let's look at all potential KRs - they all somehow show the traits, but are in conflict about it. Shallan has issues with telling the truth. (she lies/does not want to tell the truth) Kalladin has issues with protecting/leading due to Tien (he does not want to protect/lead) Lift obviously had issues with caring/remembering (talking to Darkness: "I tried to be like you" - only after she stopped being like Darkness would she have been able to get Wyndle) All potential KRs are defined by their conflict with their KR attributes. They do not start with these traits, they acquire/perfection/come to live with them. What is Dalinar in conflict with? He's in conflict with his beliefs about the Almighty because of his visions (pious). He is in conflict with guiding. He wants to give up his house's leadership. He does not want to guide anymore. He does not trust himself. He's been a highprice for a long time, but not truly "guiding". He's been complacent with things on the shattered plains. Now, he wants to guide. He wants to unite them. Now, he is attracting the spren.

I think that the part of "all" of the Shards being on Roshar is clarified in a recent signing.

IIRC, the Well itself wasn't the prison, but rather, the prison was at the well (as seen by the cloud of smoke that Vin and Elend saw there). The well was an accumutation of the power of Preservation. When Vin released the power, the rush of power broke the prison. I don't have a problem with a Shard manifesting physically. What could they do in physical form (ultimately) that they could could not do in some other form? Kill you? If they wanted/needed to, couldn't they kill you, regardless of what form they are manifesting as. Ruin couldn't do it because he was incomplete as a result of not having his 'body'. I doubt a physical manifestation would be necessarily accompanied by a substantial weakness that could be exploited by humans(oids?). Other Shards, perhaps. Even in Ruin's weakened state, he was not able to be harmed by humans. All they could do was frustrate his plans. It took Vin-Shard (Vinservation? PreserVin? ) to kill him.

What if the NightWatcher is the physical representation of the Oath Pact? It honors all agreements, and curses all who visit. That would be Honor and Odium, still not sure where Cultivation would come into it. Perhaps the ability to see the long term affects of the curse and limit the damage it can do, or the ability to alter and rearrange things to meet the requirements of the punishment, IDK. It's been speculated that a control of some sort must exist in order to keep all parties bound to the Oath Pact. If a Shard can manifest physically as a pool, why wouldn't the power invoked by such a pact also have a physical manifestation. This manifestation could be sentient or it could have been given a guardian in order to better arbitrate violations of the pact. The NightWatcher doesn't easily fall into any one category, but could far more easily fall into a mixture of the three.

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.

You might be able to use a very thin wire made of a specific metal. Not necessarily a tattoo, but the artwork applications would be interesting. It seems I have actually heard of this actually being done.

If you take all the metal in a tattoo, even a very large one, it wouldn't amount to much. Which means it wouldn't be able to store much. Still though, it's a very good last resort reserve, not to mention a surprise one. So, for replacing normal metalminds? no. But as an added ace in the sleeve? yes.

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.