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I just want to add a bit of the science I know to this discussion. "radiation poisoning" is not like a typical poison you would imagine. It does not "get stuck in clothing" per say. A radioactive material shoots out particles very fast. Think of them as atomic sized bullets. These bullets hit your atoms (in your body) and screw them up. It can brake down your DNA and other "building blocks" for your body. Thus, your body loses its ability to repair its cells to some extent and loses the proper function of other cells. The more radioactive something is the more little bullets that are shot from the material. The size of the particles also have an effect on the danger, which differentiates alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. So, fundamentally, provided the gold had all the DNA sequences stored, I could picture it healing you perfectly with no issues. If the gold relied upon your bodies DNA for the structure, and simply advanced cell repair, then you could be in trouble still. There is also the question of how will the radiation affect the metalmind. The particles emitted will do the same thing to the gold as it will to your body. It will get bombarded and it will be "damaged" in a sense. I wonder if this would be a way to corrupt metalminds or screw with sDNA. I would hope that sDNA is safe in the spiritual realm, but perhaps it is tied together.

Here's one: Chapter 26 "Stillness" p467-468 of the paperback. He is caught between the "Thrill" and a strange revulsion. I don't know whether the revulsion is from his spren or not, but then he experiences thoughts that seem alien to him: "Once these weapons meant protecting, a voice inside of him whispered." "Life before death. What was that voice?"

So, in another thread we are comparing the highstorms(body of honor) to the mists(body of preservation). I wonder if we could draw a similar parallel between atium(body of ruin) and gemhearts(body of cultivation). We know that atium is caused by the physical body of the shard leaking into the physical realm and manifesting in solid form. Also, they fuel allomancy. We've been told that the chasmfiends have a symbiotic relationship with some spren that allows them to grow to their enormous size. Perhaps that spren is feeding leaked cultivation essense into the gemheart and causing it to manifest and grow. We know that soulcasting consumes the stormlight, but perhaps there is a special power available that would consume the gem inself. Much like atium is only consumed if a specific power is used.

First, a bit of housekeeping. I am moving this topic to the Cosmere theories board, as it references Ruin and Preservation in the opening post. Moving on, I agree with Araris Valerian and hoser completely. The gemstones we've seen are no more fantastic than Scadrial's metals (and yes, I do believe that you could use any of the Polestones from any planet to hold Stormlight, or burn metals from any world in Allomancy). I do have an alternate idea though, that I may refine into a full theory.. Brandon's made allusion to the fact that metals that are burned returned to Scadrial in some way, they aren't gone forever. I believe a similar process is happening with color on Nalthis. The Tears are a supernatural way to return the color that is "used up," for lack of a better term, to Nalthis. I think this is simply the same process happening on Roshar. Gems are the Physical aspect of the investiture, just like metal or color. The gems are used up and broken (although smaller parts can be used and broken up further and so on) and then return in the form of gemhearts.

Gesundheit

Random thought... We know that Nohadon was having trouble figuring out how to deal with spren who were forming bonds with questionable individuals. We know that spren are somewhat chaotic in nature, but can be forced into a more ordered existence when something about them is written down. The example of this that we see is a flamespren that keeps changing size until its size is recorded. Then it stops changing size until the record is erased. What if The Way of Kings is Nohadon using item #2 to address item #1? Namely, the mere existance of copies of The Way of Kings prevents spren from fully bonding with individuals who don't adopt the relevent lessons from the book? Is that possible? I don't know. But it might explain why Kaladin's recitation of a phrase (i.e. the second oath) that he was already more or less living would have such a dramatic and immediate impact on the battlefield.

Hi everyone. Back when I got started sharding, I suggested that a compendium of Word of Brandon (WoB) be compiled to help new sharders get caught up quickly on the additional tidbits we love so much in our theorycraft. Nobody seemed keen at the time. The chief reason being that Theoryland in particular will be challenging to adequately mine the info from in a complete manner. However, I have begun to work on a compilation of WoB from as many Q&A sessions as we have available text. This compendium will have specific rules (that I hope people will be kind enough to follow for everyone's sake) about what can be posted and the formatting for posting. This will not be simply transcriptions of Q&A's. It will be filtered down meat (or tofu for the vegetarians). What I mean is, it will be only questions and answers which directly pertain to the cosmere. There will be no writing tips, interesting Brandon info, Rithmatist info, fanboy/fangirl gushing, etc. The thread will have no commentary allowed in the thread (again, since I have no enforcement power, I'll set rules and hope that everyone follows them). I want to have a one-stop shop thread where people can come and get an undiluted WoB feast. A single searchable thread that is unfettered from any commentary that gives false hits on our searches. Now, this is a big job to be sure. I have already compiled most of the info from the Events, Signings, and Stalkings thread (about 50 pages of WoB so far and much more to go). But, I will need help from people who are familiar with and skilled with searching and moving through Theoryland, the Brandonothology, Twitter, Reddit, other fan sites, and any other sources we can find. I am looking to put together a team of no more than eight people (probably about 6) to help me in this task. If anyone would like to be involved please PM me with which particular sources you would like to help searching through. This project will probably take a considerable amount of time to complete; but we will likely be posting stuff along the way (at the very least when a source has been tapped out). I look forward to hearing from you.

Has anyone else ever noticed that The symbol for Kaladin with the crescent and the spears looks like a horizontally transposed Allomantic Bronze symbol? Do you think he's going to snap soon? I mean he's been thru SOME bad stuff but I think he's due for a little more punishment. (Note this is totally facetious and I'm kidding) I've thought this since the first time I read the book so I'm a little surprised it's never come up here before.

It has been suggested somewhere that there may be two forms of the Thrill, one powered by Odium and one powered by Honor. I think that is true. Here's a little bit more: Honor's Thrill: Thrill used for a good purpose - fighting to save others, etc. This would be the Thrill that Dalinar is fueled by when Odium's Thrill: Thrill used for bad purposes - killing for killings sake, killing for more land, etc. This is the Thrill that sickens Dalinar. Now, we don't really have any proof that such thing exists, but I think that the Thrill is powered by a type of spren. Thrillspren arent seen because they are perhaps inside of the person feeling the Thrill. Dalinar's body has started rejecting Odium's Thrillspren and they make him sick, but Honor's Thrillspren don't. They are (if they exist) attracted to battling for whichever purpose.

This first came up in the Spren and Quantum Mechanics thread. To recap, in one of the interludes a pair of Ardents discover that Spren are affected by what is written about them. The relevant discoveries are as follows: 1. Spren vary in a number of attributes under normal conditions, the one in question being size 2. If a measurement is taken and written down, the Spren becomes locked in that size 3. If the measurement is then erased, the Spren begins fluctuating again 4. Taking or saying measurements has no effect, they must be written down. However, they don't have to be written down by the person who takes them 5. They have to be actual measurements, not random numbers 6. This definitely works in chalk on slate, other materials were not tested but are presumed to be the same. The following things are known to be unknown. They are of questionable direct relevance, and I'm mostly listing them so the main conversation in this thread won't be bogged down. If someone wants to theorise about them, please establish a dedicated thread. 1. Effect of taking multiple measurements and writing them all down from memory (not tested) 2. Effect of precision of the measurement (all were taken with the same tool and written down at the highest reliable precision) 3. Effect of inaccurate measurements, i.e. when the measurement is actually taken but the measurer reads it incorrectly. (not tested, though it might just work like an imaginary measurement) 4. Effect of outdated measurements (there was some time delay, but not much) 5. Whether this extends to other traits (according to the viewpoint character, this appears to be the case for Spren luminosity, but it wasn't tested) 6. The extent to which existing Spren are already constrainted by previous writings (inherently untestible, as of course it is impossible to be certain all written material concerning them has been found) Anyways, enough recap. On to... recaping Vorin religious practices. So, one of the central rites of Vorinism is burning prayers. As demonstrated with the huge Shash glyph, there appears to be no constraint on the form beyond that they must be written and lit on fire. The writing system generally used is glyphs, which is also the only system non-Ardent men are allowed to use. This is apparently considered the only way to actually communicate with the Almighty, which is mentioned to be kind of strange since he's supposedly all-knowing. Sometimes, unburned prayers are worn and ascribed supernatural signifigence, but this is apparently regarded as foolish supersition by the Ardentia. So, apparently the Almighty is incapable of recieving prayers until they are burned. And not merely in the sense that burning prayers is the proper way of doing things, as there is never any particular suggestion that alternate methods are acceptable if the Almighty has in his wisdom placed you in a situation where there is no fire. This, then, would imply that he actually cannot see the prayers before they are burned. And we know that the Almighty is actually the Shard Honor. The last bit of recap is the information on Shards from Hero of Ages. Ruin and Preservation were both functionally omniescient, with one exception. They were unable to see metal very clearly, instead seeing a blinding glow surrounding it. This was sufficent to prevent Ruin from being able to read the Lord Ruler's inscriptions. Finally on to the theory. Both of the Scadrial Shards were blinded by the focus of their magic system. It seems unlikely that this is a coincidence. It's unclear how much about them can be generalised to all Shards, since they were paired opposites and so probably had more in common with each other than with the other Shards. However, it isn't too much of a stretch to assume that other Shards also have difficulty percieving the focus of their magic system. So if Honor cannot read unburned prayers, that would imply that they contain the focus of his magic system. It could be specifically ink, except that writing in chalk had noticable effects on Spren. Taken together, those two facts suggest that writing is a magical focus. Of course, the Radiants don't appear to actually depend on writing to use their powers, but we've only seen a small portion of the powers of four orders. So there's easily enough Surges left for at least one of them to be entirely dependent on writing. What it does is an open question, though given Vorin gender roles I wouldn't be too terribly suprised if it were capable of biological alteration or saw heavy use in manufacturing. However, it's been thousands of years since anyone actually used it, and there's really no telling what parts of Alethi culture are actually sourced off the Radiants and what just sprung up over time. The big open question is what precisely constitutes writing as far as this is concerned. I suspect that burning prayers happens because the ink and paper burn at different rates, producing a glyph-shaped outline. The glyphs used in prayers are relatively simplistic, so the outline doesn't need to be too precise. The Alethi writing system is probably also impossible to percieve, since it's what affected the Spren. It's entirely possible that the Surge related to writing runs on rules similar to Awakening Commands, where the langauge doesn't matter so long as you know what you're writing. I doubt the prayers are actually examples of it in use, although I guess it's possible they'd have a specific magical effect if used by a member of the right order and backed by Stormlight. Personally, I figure they were always just prayers; whenever someone set some glyphs on fire Honor would read it and respond in whatever way seemed suitable under the circumstances. Now that Honor has lost its Shardbearer and is possibly Splintered as well, they're just paper.

Hello friends to everyone that don't follow tweet, I bring good news =) Brandon tweeted that he finished Word of Radiance (kind) and confirmed the release date =) Brandon Sanderson ‏@BrandSanderson2h So yes, the March 4th release date is pretty much set in stone now. It could shift by a week or so if marketing decides, but not much more. Brandon Sanderson ‏@BrandSanderson2 h For those wondering at Words of Radiance progress, I sent in the first chunk for copyedit yesterday. That means we're entering production. Michael Montazeri ‏@mamontazeri2h @BrandSanderson What does production mean? Brandon Sanderson ‏@BrandSanderson2h @mamontazeri Copyediting, typesetting, all of the things that take it from digital file to book on the shelf. And unfortunally WOR are bigger then WOK (such a shame) Brandon Sanderson ‏@BrandSanderson2 h I promised Tor that Words of Radiance would be shorter than Way of Kings. The new scene I added to day made it officially longer. Sigh. So, to soon to make arrangement to the release party ? PS: To everyone how gonna buy the hardcover, it's time to hit the gym and prepare yourself for lift an +1100 pages book for days =) Now it's official =) Brandon Sanderson ‏@BrandSanderson47 m Just sent the last revision of Words of Radiance to my assistant so he can format it and send it off to Tor. The book is officially done!

Well, this is my first time posting a theory on this site so be kind . Hopefully this is new to you and gives you more ideas for your own theories or helps you think of new ones. So my Topic title "Shins with Blades" is more focused on Shin warriors with Shardblades. I started looking into this theory when I came across the trade between Vstim and the Shin farmer via Thresh-Son-Esan. TWOK: Part 1- (Rysn) page 476 (sorry I have to type this as I don't have Ebook) "Wow "Rysn said. "He brought a lot of servants". "Servants?" Vstim said. "The fellows in brown." Her Babsk smiled. " Those are his guards, child." On that page she mistakes Shin warriors as servants. He who Adds, the Farmer lavished with attention and respected escorted by warriors without weapons seems like an uncommon thing. Although it doesn't say if they do or do not have weapons I believe Rysns observations indicates that they don't. As an merchant in training it's part of her job to observe her buyers to know how best to haggle with them, so seeing as she mistakes Shin warriors for servants indicates that they were unarmed. There are other things that don't hint at it but seem a bit out of place. TWOK: Part 1- ( A Work of Art) page 492 He was required to carry the Blade until his death, after which Shin Stone Shamans would recover it from whomever had killed him. (I Might be taking this out of context but hey that's theories for you ) Szeth is smart and he's a thinker. To say that so decidedly and not doubt one bit that the Stone Shamans will retrieve the blade from "whomever had killed him" makes you wonder.. HOW?!. We are talking about the assassin in white. he kills Kings and High Princes. to retrieve the blade from either one would be through war or endless amounts of wealth which the Shin most likely don't have as quoted from Vstim " I have offered them spheres but they find them worthless. Or unholy. Or too holy to use." But a Stone Shaman with Shin warriors with Shardblades wouldn't have a problem retrieving that Blade. TWOK: Part 1- (Rysn) page 476 "Here, warriors are the lowliest of men - kind of like slaves. Men trade and sell them between houses by way of little stones that signify ownership, and any man who picks up a weapon must join them and be treated the same." The Farmers warriors had no weapons, or did they? 2 main sins you read about Szeth is committing murder and walking on/ destroying stone. There is one item that can do both and it's a weapon hidden within the user.. Shardblades. Picking up a weapon such as this would seem like a quick way to make you lose respect in a place like Shinovar. As for all Shin warriors, carrying Blades seems impossible, but if you view the map of Roshar Shinovar doesn't seem as big as the rest of Roshar and seeing as being a warrior is frowned upon in Shinovar the amount of warriors might not be a great as most people think. There is a part in the book where Dalinar sees the Radiants give away their Shardblades. he quoted that there are less then 100 Blades and Plates in all of Roshar and that more then 300 Radiants gave up their Blades that day. So where are the rest? Shinovar is a place cut off from most of Roshar, foreigners aren't allowed near farms and it seems Vstim and Thresh-Son-Esans trade was away from Shinovar. It also seems like little is known about them so they could hide Blades from others. I talk a lot about Shin warriors having Shardblades so you might wonder why I don't mention them having Shardplate. Shardplate is powered by Gemstones and the Vstim quote I mention before says that they find then too holy or unholy to use. This theory has flaws and points, but it's something that's been bugging me. So don't be shy to point out those flaws, we are all here to find something solid so your feedback is much appreciated and will help myself and others to come up with better theories!

I've tested this on IE11 and I can indeed verify that this is a bug. There is a method in which you can still use the quote features, however. You do this by disabling the rich text editor, giving you the BBCode of a reply rather than the pretty, formatted one. To do this, click the button on the top left of the reply box. Once you do this, quote and multiquote functionality is returned as usual. I'm not quite sure what the problem is or why the rich text editor doesn't like it, but I will file a bug report and see what happens.

I have a solution to our predicament, but it will require some quantities of atium, bronze, brass, and the lives of at least 5 individuals. We have to get hemalurgic spikes charged with the following: Allomantic bendalloy, Feruchemical bronze, Allomantic bronze, Feruchemical zinc, and Allomantic zinc, somehow get them into Sanderson, so that he can simultaneously burn Bandelloy, compound Wake-fullness, and Mental Speed. I estimate an increase of at least 900,000% in writing output over time. Problem solved. Any volunteers?

I am unsure, Shardlet. You've obviously put a great deal of thought and effort into this, so might well have answers to my concerns, but I'd like to raise a few anyway, just in case: Why not lobby for an expansion of permissions for Theoryland, rather than start a somewhat-clunky setup here? The thing is, when you've got a few hundred WoB's, you need to be able to separate them out by keyword and subject and the like, which is what Theoryland is good for. Now Theoryland does have a flaw in that it lags behind on new WoB by a fair margin, but that's the kind of thing that can be worked on within the system (admins willing). I don't see Theoryland as a challenge to "adequately mine for information", but as a challenge to the need for a separate compendium to exist. --- On that note, such a thread might be helpful as an interim step to getting stuff into Theoryland. I'd like to think that my compendium of AMA answers relating to the Cosmere was helpful to those guys, and this could serve a similar purpose. Instead of being a copy-pasting of new WoB's, you could maintain a series of links to the relevant threads/posts, to be removed as Windy, Joe, and company get to them.

bronze is definetly not an on/off power even in the original trilogy. Experienced seekers can sense details as minute as the amount of metal still available to an allomancer, but there is a steep, steep learning curve.

This. Is. Gold. Not necessarily correct, though, but a VERY astute observation, and quite likely true (at least in my book). UPVOTES FOR junior PLZ! I would also like to indicate more clearly what other people already have mentioned. Geranid and Ashir's experiment is very clear that random numbers - even if it might approximately relate to a specific Spren - have no effect. It has to be the measured value of a specific Spren. Thus, by analogy, just reciting quotes from the way of Kings would in no way bind or affect any Nahel Bond related Spren. Unless the correct Words are spoken in the right type of situation by an ideal candidate matching the corresponding Ideals of his Order. I love how this would also give Nohadon means of binding or at least forming the bonding Spren to certain ideals without resorting to Dawnshards or contracts with Honour (or even rediscovering lost ideals). By writing the book, and intending each of the parables to refer to specific types of "Nahel Spren", he could alter how the Nahel bond worked. I am tempted to embrace this theory right her, right now (*frantically looking for the I told you so thread*).

My personal theory on the glowing Shardplate is that Dalinar is a very early stage Radiant, and when he acts properly Radiant-ish he causes his Shardplate to function better and begin glowing because it recognizes him as a Radiant and unlocks special features. But it's very subdued because he hasn't properly bonded with a spren. Also, it's not entirely correct to say there's been no sign of a spren hanging around. During some battles he hears a faint voice that might originate from an honorspren. If it hates the Shardblade as much as Syl, it's probably been keeping its distance. Given that the bond is pretty weak, the honorspren probably isn't particularly distinguishable from a typical spren of its apparent type at the moment, if it's even particularly visible. Plus, my current theory has Dalinar as a Stoneward, mostly because he's in the devotary of Taln and both visions with Radiants in them in TWoK had a Stoneward. We know from Shallan and Jasnah that other orders have different forms of spren, so Dalinar might have a less-visible one.

Ok, I was just saying that I wished we had more information about Seeking and Smoking because everyone just assumes that they are just on/off powers. I don't think that any characters who actually would know how would just tell someone everything. I'm hoping we see a bronze/copper savant who actually has experimented with their powers in the next trilogy. Or a bronze/copper twinborn to see how they intersect with the other metals feruchemically.

I got the distinct impression that possessing the Blade was what made Szeth Truthless. I believe it's the same principle as the warriors, but because he picked up an even deadlier weapon he has an even lower status. The warriors are slaves, Szeth was filth who was not even worthy of being sold. I believe that some number of Blades are stored in Shinovar, but anyone who picks them up becomes Truthless. I wonder if it might be a distorted form of the Radiant ideals; no one is to wield a Shardblade except to defend humanity from Voidbringers. But the Voidbringers allegedly don't exist/are all dead, so picking one up is in clear violation of that rule. I seriously doubt the Shin warriors make use of Shardblades. They must have fought off invasions at some point, and if they used Shardblades then people would have heard about it. The guards weren't visibly armed, but there are several possible explainations for that. It was a peaceful meeting with a long-time trading partner, so the guards were probably more a status symbol than a precaution. It could be that the highest-status guards are ones who fight unarmed, it could be that soldiers only carry weapons when their duty demands it, or it could be that openly displaying weapons would be an insult and they had concealed knives.

They all seem to be derived from verbs and have noun forms that can describe the product/act of performing the verb, come to think of it. Odium doesn't have a direct verb form in English, but it's derived from odeo, odire, odivi, which is Latin for "to hate". Well, technically, it's derived from a neuter noun, but I'm pretty sure that's because they used the gerund so often they made it an official noun. Also, except for Ruin and Preservation and arguably Cultivation they're all abstract and relate to human emotions and interactions. I actually theorized that they might have the same recursive paring pattern as the Allomantic metals, with pairs that are linked to another pair, and then that is linked to another quad and the resulting octets have some thematic opposition. Brandon has stated somewhere that Scadrial's system is an in-universe effort to impose order and does not necessarily reflect underlying reality, but given how Hemalurgy works, the quads seem to be meaningful, so I feel fairly confident in saying that the overall pairing pattern is actually a real phenomenon and could extend to the Shards. It would be rather appropriate if Preservation's system most accurately reflected the original, unaltered split.

For a minute I thought you meant Kaleft.

I like to imagine that Hoid uses Luck Feruchemy, a dartboard on top of a cosmere map, multiple dice for years and months and days, and another darboard on top of a phonebook to figure out where and when he should be, and who he should be talking to.

91.67 per hour? Just a word =)

It's possible, and for sure would explain why Shallan had dificult to find Jasnah, but that remain to be proved =) After all if Jasnah allways appeared without warning and at very distant places, that for sure, would be suspicius and she is very aware that there are people wacthing her. Edit: Ninja'd . And by the way, I always remember of Hoid speech about novelty when i'm ninja'd (now I'm derivative, don't I?)

Hoid is much older than 40 as shown here. Also, everybody who does magic does so with the power of Adonalsium which is the power of creation which is the power that all the Shards hold.

I actually wanted to post this myself I don't think gemhearts are just gems, and probably there are no "ordinary" gems on Roshar. If you would bring gems to Roshar, they might not hold stormlight. Gemhearts do one extraordinary thing: they store stormlight. And of all the shards, gemhearts coming from Cultivation fits best. Although, on other worlds, the shard's body did not have anything in common with the shard's intent. Still, you have an upvote for beating me in posting this

How about Kaladolin? Or Shallasnah? Edit!! Or Shalladolin! Dalift! Taravallan! Shallarinadoladinah!

I should mention that this source was a pain to track down.

Yeah pretty much agree with you on all of this. I think the initial gulf between their ranks when we first meet them are worth them getting together. Imagine Kaladin the lowest of the low Branded, sold, given a spot to take an arrow so another man could eventually charge over his corpse but secretly killed a full shardbearer, trained in surgery (and surge binding, lots of surging going on here ) trains his former arrow bait companions into a force capable of rescuing thousands of soldiers and a pair of full shardbearers, even though he has a serious hate-on for the lighteyes that comprise a good portion of it. Now imagine Jasnah a woman whom goes where she wants does what she wants is seen being asked for favors by other Kings and a noted spinster (of 34 HAH), and capable of vaporizing, crystallizing and other wise turning hardened murderers into corpsicles with a mere wave of her hand, sister to the king and academic whom has a short way with fools and cut-purses. Now what could they do together that would be awesome? Well My thought is if Jasnah gets Teleporting in some way and Kaladin has Windrunning I think they could be like playing Half-Life with the portal gun in one hand and the gravity gun in another. Yeah I want to see all of that and the looks of shock as Jasnah walks past any number of highprinces whom would like to woo her to take the arm of a man that has "Dangerous" Branded onto his forehead. Yeah that makes me chuckle a bit. Oh and yeah I also agree with Natans above me. If I see anything but Jasnah want to turn szeth into a pile of chull dung I would be a bit surprised and saddened.

Rock probably makes better food.

Marianmi - Kalift? Hah! Maybe Kaladin is just a little too old her for her. Lift wouldn't approve; she doesn't trust anyone who's older than 10. Now if Kaladin were to convince Lift that he's 10... for the 8th/9th time... Of course, Kaladin could always try to woo her by promising her some of Elhokar's dinner...

I think Jasnah x Kaladin is extremely viable. Probably because Kaladin is the only person I've seen up til now that is worthy of her and can keep up with her. Jasnah is extremely used to getting her own way, especially with men. I think she'll find a challenge in Kaladin. She'll either love him or hate him

I would agree that, from the get-go, Moash appears to have some dark secret in his past (...but then, don't all of the Bridgemen? ). I don't see your theory as impossible or even improbable; I just don't know if we have enough information at this point to really back it. I will say that in my multiple readings of WoK, I am consistently finding myself not trusting Moash's dedication to Kaladin's goals as much as the other Bridgemen's dedication. Moash seems to support Kaladin because of what Kaladin can teach and do for him (first he wants to learn the spear, then he is the first to ask to Kaladin to teach him how to Surgebind). I still am not convinced that Moash is as loyal to Kaladin and his goals; moreso that Moash sees Kaladin as a means-to-an-end; and as long as Kaladin's efforts positively impact Moash, Moash will go along with them. The Chapter 2 reading shows us that Moash still holds himself separate from the group (the tattoo) and also shows him trying to maximize the benefits of Kaladin's actions and new-found position for all of the Bridgemen as much as he can (his request to learn the sword). I just think we should pay more attention to what Moash wants and his actions in WoR...

I support the proposed “shipping,” but I'm not so much comfortable with the supporting arguments of the OP. I don’t agree with Kaladin being an “academic,” per se. He is fairly well educated for a soldier, but he’s not even a fully trained surgeon. Kal is honorable, I will give you that, but I also don’t know if he is the character who values peace the most in the Stormlight Archives; he just appears to be against senseless killing. I question the speculation of 1) Jasnah being sexually abused; and 2) Kaladin disabusing her of her notions about men. etc... (Argent has some good counters to the assertions of the OP, as well) Having said all of that, I can see the potential coupling of Kaladin and Jasnah. First, let’s assume that Kal will be paired up with someone in the series. I don’t see him getting back with Laral; I think that chapter of his life is closed. I reject the pairing of Kaladin and Shallan; I think it’s too “storybook romance” for the born-poor hero and the innocent noble heroine to find each other and band together to defeat the bad guys. I’d be shocked if Brandon did that (although he could always try to turn that trope on it’s head). Kal could end up with someone else we haven’t been introduced to yet; that’s always possible. But as of the end of TWoK, I think Jasnah is the best fit. Second, Brandon likes to challenge convention and I think the Jasnah/Kaladin pairing would do that. Why not have the mature/ educated/non-traditional princess who’s kind of a rebel pair with the once-naïve/hard-on-his-luck/now-empowered countryman with aspirations for doing the best for his people (the Bridgemen). Also, I believe that Jasnah could find Kal intriguing. He’s clearly not your average man. A dark-eyes who rescued her uncle and cousin from treachery, while being a slave? Who was then elevated to Captain and is personably responsible for the safety of her uncle, cousins, brother, and likely, herself? Plus, it is likely that he will be respectful and properly deferential, but I don’t see him being meek or timid around her. Kaladin has shown that he will stand up to Light-eyes and not blindly follow any fool notion. I could see someone like Jasnah respecting that. I could also see the puzzle of an educated, former-bridgeman who is trained in surgery as somewhat fascinating to someone like Jasnah. As for why Kaladin would be into Jasnah? She's intelligent, she's confident, she's resourceful, she speaks her mind (something I'm sure he'd respect), she's pragmatic, she's capable, etc. Assuming that WoR shows Kaladin's progression towards having-faith-in/trusting (certain) Light-eyes again, as well as showing his exposure to other Surgebinders, Jasnah would be a logical option (and yes, I know that Shallan would too, but I still reject that pairing ) So it's something I would pull for in The Stormlight Archive, and would love to see the genesis of it begin in WoR.

Time for another installment of Weiry's Pet Peeves! It would actually be "Knowledge by Diffusion" as the term osmosis refers specifically to the diffusion of water across a semi-permeable membrane. (source)

Knowledge by Osmosis!!

But again... you just presented those two things as fact, when they are not. You don't KNOW that Shards cannot appear to the unInvested, and in fact someone else has provided proof that they can, as Preservation did. And unless you have a source I don't, you're simply assuming that Wyndle is a cultivationspren because it seems obvious. For that matter, you're assuming that honorspren are the reason Roshar isn't suffering Sel effects. Yes, you present one theory, and you do clearly say "this is only a theory," which is swell. But then you provide reams of supporting evidence as fact when they are at best guesses, and as has been shown at worst actually false. I like talking a lot about the potential cosmeric uses of allomantic copper and bronze. When I do, I put up big banners at the start of each post warning people they are entering speculationland, and that nothing I say is supported. Obviously I think I go a bit overboard, but your policy seems to be to state your guesses as fact, and just trust that everyone else knows not to take you seriously. There must be some kind of middle ground that wouldn't take much effort on your part, but would let people know whether they are reading something you're speculating on (which again, I'm not against, speculation can be amazing fun) or whether they're reading something you think is actually supported by the source materials.

He's obviously a gold misting though. I mean, what else are we to make of this? (TWOK, Chapter 40)

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"?

Okay, actual explanation time. Basically Brandon describes Ruin as the embodiment of entropy and change while Preservation is the embodiment of stasis. Those are opposites. He has only ever referred to Ruin and Preservation as opposites, I've found nothing to suggest that they are not so. (So... That was not as long as I expected it to be.)

Man, you are full of confidence today On topic though, hair is weird. In some ways it's a part of the body, and it would make sense that its Cognitive aspect (if it has a separate one) would be entangled with its owner's one, but it is also dead matter. Does anyone know whether chitin is similar to nails or hair? If it is, then I'd imagine that one's hair would not be considered a separate entity (and thus will be useless for Awakening) on the account of Shardblades being unable to cut through the greatshells'... shells... while the creatures are still alive.

I just want to say that I hope Taln gets to do an infodump and saves us from several books of main characters being afraid to talk about whats going on. However, somehow I doubt Taln will be able to force everyone to sit down and have a KR committee meeting.

More characters than you would expect will become Knights Radiant. Then, during the Desolation, manybmore of our beloved characters than expected will perish. ATTN: Kurkistan. If Szeth isn't the POV Character who dies before his flashback sequence, I will purchase the next Stormlight Archive book and carry it around with me everywhere I go for 24 hours without even opening the book. How about that for an 'all in' kind of prediction. That's a cruel, cruel punishment I devised.

Or that's what they are called because the magic is still coming back and is not yet fully understood. The Mistborn: The Final Empire Ars Arcanum was nowhere near complete, after all.

Dalinavani is pretty amazing, though I've heard people trying to expand it into an OT3... Dalianr/Navani/Eshonai. I believe the current name for that little ship is "The Three-Way of Kings." Which amuses me to no end, though I don't ship it. Waynette might run into some canon orientation issues, but not that that's ever stopped anyone from shipping anything ever.

I agree, the example I linked is awkward as hell, it was really only appropriate to other things going on in that topic. It makes sense in my head, but I know it's not exactly an illuminating analogy... Yeah, Aons are the forms for Sel, but Elantrian intent is what births them. I guess when I say "intent" I mean conscious will from individuals who can tap Investiture? Ie, the decision to burn a metal, for allomancers? It seems trivial for some systems, but for AonDor I think it's an important distinction.

From the things I've read Mr. Sanderson saying, it seems to me he is more into taking several views of different ideas that do or could exist and putting them into his worlds' settings, then letting them all work around the plot. He seems like the kind of guy who is more interested in making an involved story without letting any character's bias be the 'right one'. When the story of the cosmere is all said and done, I believe the religious qualities of who or whatever created the universe will still be unanswered and people will still be enjoying contemplating it from whatever angles they like. Each book is a microcosm of the big picture, and all that I've read (all cosmere books to date ) leave things up in the air, but the protagonist learns and develops, the antagonist provides an obstacle that is overcome triumphantly to allow for that growth, and I a put down my copy of the book drooling for any news of the next one.

I believe I have discovered the identities of all the Herald images. First, if one looks in the Ars Arcanium, one may notice that the ten numbers for the ten essences are actually shortened versions of the Herald names. 1)Jes=Jezrien 2)Nan=Nalan 6)Shash=Shalash 8)Kak=Kalak 9)Tanat=Talenel (also known as Talenelat) 10)Ishi=Ishar Thus, we have the element association of each of the Heralds, as well as on abbreviated form of all of their names. Also, note that on the front inside cover, the image with all the symbols surrounded by the Herald images, if one starts with the blue symbol and moves clockwise around the image, the symbols appear to match, in order, with the Gemstones. 1)Blue-Sapphire 3)Red-Ruby 4)White-Diamond 5)Green-Emerald 6)Red-Garnet 8)Purple-Amethyst 9)Dark Yellow-Topaz Now, note that approximately above each symbol is one of the Herald images. My theory is that the Herald image above each symbol is the Herald of that gemstone. Supporting evidence: 1) The image easily identified, Jezrien, is associated with the sapphire symbol. 2) It is stated that the Heralds are 5 female, 5 male. Of those, Jezrien, Nalan, Kalak, and Talenel are all known to be male. The gemstone symbols connected to these 4 are all associated with male images. 3) Many believe that Ishar is a male-sounding name, and believe Ishar to be the fifth male. Ishar's gemstone symbol is associated with the fifth male image. 4) It is noted that whenever Hoid appears, his image appears. Assuming that there is some pattern to the appearing of the other images, another image can be positively identified. In the epilogue, the helmed image appears. Thus, it appears Talenel is the helmed image. Note now that the helmed image is associated with Talenel's gemstone symbol, Topaz. 5) From the specifics of Shallan's attributes, it has been thought that Shallan is of the 6th radiant order, Garnet, thus associated with Shalash. Note that each of the times she enters Shadesmar, the image of the lady with a jewel on her forehead appears. This image is the one associated with the garnet symbol. On a side note, there are only 3 non-Shallan chapters where the proposed-Shalash image appears. One of those is the Baxil chapter, where that image is the only one. It has been separately proposed that Baxil's mistress is actually Shalash, which fits well with that image being the sole one for the chapter.

That's mostly what I'm saying. Except, I don't think "lashing an object to another object" is a wholly accurate description of what's going on, since an actual physical anchor does not appear to be required for the process to work. It's just that Szeth seems to think of things that way most of the time, since it's an intuitive way to look at it (and, in honesty, the simplest way to describe the action). We've not seen anything in the behavior of Lashings that lets us distinguish between the point attractor and altered direction theories. The only thing that lends greater weight, at least in my mind, to the point attractor is the fact that Szeth always Lashes to a point, not a direction. But again, it could just be a matter of him using points as a mental focus, and not that that is how the magic actually operates.