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I've been thinking, what if Skybreaker and Dustbringer Division both allow for propulsion? That way, Skybreakers would be like the fighter jets of the Knights Radiant. With Adhesion and Gravitation, Windrunners have flexibility and agility. So it could be that the Skybreakers fulfill another niche, especially once they get plate. This niche of less agile, less flexible, but more destructive and faster-over-distance combatants. Where they would potentially be able to use Division and the more oxygen-rich Rosharan air to generate propulsion and achieve supersonic flight. That way, a group of Skybreakers flying in formation passing a village wouldn't be unlike a flight of low-altitude fighter jets, giving you this idea of where their moniker of Skybreakers might come from. This also helps with the Dustbringers. Where Edgedancers can slick themselves but have to gracefully skate, a Dustbringer could slick themselves with Abrasion, and then be able to use Division-based propulsion to travel quickly over land, giving them this niche of fast, mobile, land corps that can cover ground and deliver destruction where needed. A kind of land cavalry that, 1) brings Division-based destruction, breaking things, and 2) leaves behind a trail of dust and fire, as they use Division on the ground for propulsion, leaving a wake of dust behind them. The Dustbringers.

Air being diatomic in general splittig its molecules apart roughly doubles air resistance. And you are flying through a cloud of oxygen and nitrogen radicals which happen to be quite poisonous. And you would leave a brown cloud of pollution behind yourself.

Dalinar murdered entire families, including children. He burned an entire city. Considering we know from Kaladin, that soldiers could be as young as 12-14 (Tien), we can also assume that Dalinar killed literally countless amounts of children. I think hating Moash no matter what, and liking Dalinar would be hypocritical, to be quite honest. Again, to the point I have read, Moash hasn’t done anything even approaching the evils Dalinar has committed.

Step 1. Ask if the number of words in a Stormlight book can be counted Step 2. Tell the community you're looking for the word "money" Step 3. ??? Step 4. Profit

I mean don't get me wrong here. I don't think Dalinar is done with his atoning, not by a long shot. I expect him to die doing what he's doing anyway, and even then I don't know if I'll consider him completely on the level. But I do regard him slightly higher than Moash still, solely for the fact that he made the choice (eventually) to turn around and actively attempt to make up for what he'd done instead of plunging deeper into Odium's service. If he hadn't, he'd be much worse than Moash in my view.

Similar to my last one, but still good.

I honestly dont know how to reply to this given where you are in the series. At the end of OB, I was exactly where the OP is. I didn't like Moash's actions, but I did feel that they were justified in a very real sense. I felt sympathy for his actions and feelings. I felt that his logic was fairly rational, if misguided. In any sense, he was no worse than Dalinar or Szeth. Then RoW. I don't even want to say why my opinion changed, because I want @Jash to go into it clean, but please ping me when you have read it, because I would love to go in depth with you as to my reasons.

I'm not sure... Szeth's highspren directly tells him he will need to "become the law" to reach the fifth ideal, so that's definitely the ideal. Now whether this directly means the Judge Dread sort of crazy it implies or of there is some more nuance there is up for debate. I think in general that 'becoming the law' could work with the tiny bit we've seen of the original Skybreaker philosophy. From Dalinar's visions (RoW Chpt 47) of sane!Nale. I think becoming the law is supposed to be like becoming a judge (and not Judge Dread lol more like King Solomon). The Skybreaker has shown that they can follow and understand a code, and are have proven themselves capable of interpreting that code. Sort of like the idea of living documents in the real world, the Skybreaker is a living example of the law that has structure but also has the flexibility to dole out true justice. The law cannot be moral but a Skybreaker can be.

DatS 12:

I was just thinking about how much theorising about the Fifth Ideal is based on what we know about the Skybreakers, so I went looking for the passage where we learn about it. Oathbringer, chapter 90 Context: Szeth and a bunch of other Skybreaker hopefuls are asking questions of some of Nale’s Skybreakers who are in charge of training new recruits. Notably, this description of the Fifth Ideal comes from people who have not sworn it. According to them, it is centuries since the last time someone swore the Fifth Ideal - which, unless I’m missing something, means that Nale is the only living person who has sworn the Fifth Ideal (for Skybreakers). He’s the only one who has done it in generations. Presumably he’s their only source for this information. And he’s insane. Couple that with how weird it sounds as a Radiant Ideal (the person who says ‘I am the law’ is usually not the good guy) and it looks like there’s something fishy going on. I think that what Szeth learns about the Fifth Ideal in OB is not actually true. Or if it is, it’s misleading.

How about: I will do anything to save my world, even to LIVE for it. To me that fits better thematically with Kaladin's arc, with his depression and everything. To choose to live every single day. Though it also makes me think of Kaladin potentially taking Jezrien's place in Oathpact 2.0, as that would mean him choosing to willingly live through heck without giving up...which is not necessarily a theory that I love.

Per very brand new information (last livestream on youtube), capturing mists into gemstones is theoretically possible (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67G4ObX7CM&t=6600s). Since clearly no has yet noticed it, it is most likely not as easy as on Roshar (i.e. leave them lying around and they will fill) but maybe if you pressurized the mist and put the gemstone nearby maybe?

Identity and perception shenanigans might prevent that from ever happening with this design of fabrial. As spanreeds take into account "frame of reference" because of how the spren perceives its surroundings, water attractor might only work with liquid in the air and pools, lakes, rivers, and so on that are in its reach. Now, because blood is one of the essences, you might be able to create a blood-sucking fabrial bomb, but you would have to use a lot more Stormlight to push through the resistance of a human body. Like an Allomancer has to be more powerful to push on metals inside a body.

I think the 5th Radiant ideals have to do with WHY. It’s an ultimate understanding of what the order is all about. For example, Nale talks about “becoming” the Law, but I think what this really means is understanding Law to the point where you can interpret it with perfect honesty and judgement. A second or third order Skybreaker is like a police officer, who makes an oath to enforce/uphold/defend the laws of the land. A 5th order Skybreaker is a Supreme Court Justice (apologies for the USA reference for those outside the USA). Recall the scene in Oathbringer where Kaladin is confronted by two opposing parties and he wants to protect both sides. Obviously this situation was beyond what 3rd ideal Kaladin could handle. I suspect even 4th ideal Kaladin, at the end of RoW, would still have trouble in that scene. That scene would have required a 5th ideal Windrunner, who would understand protection to the level of why. Right now Kaladin doesn’t know why. It’s why he’s no good at large-scale battle/war (remember the side-carry scene in WoK?) or politics. I think all of the orders (I could possibly argue even the Lightweavers follow this pattern) follow this pattern: 1. Basic understanding of what Radiants are all about. 2. Basic commitment to what the order is about. 3. Commitment to push through even when there is resistance. 4. Understanding of the limitations of the order. 5. Understanding the Why of the order. All of the orders we have seen so far fit this pattern (I could make a case for it, at least). Personally, I would like to see what a 5th Bondsmith ideal would look like. They would have to understand Connection and the Spiritual Realm on a very deep level. WHY are people/beings connected to each other the way that they are? Editing to add: remember Nale is not exactly his best self right now, so what he told Szeth is probably a tainted version of what the Skybreakers are really about. Kaladin probably still can’t answer Vasher’s question, but when he can in full confidence, I think he will say the Fifth Ideal. And I think Kaladin IS the character Brandon intends to exemplify the Radiant journey. The other main characters have weird exceptions/situations that make them not the best examples (which also makes the story that much more interesting).

Serious hats off for this! Goethe is great and I too love Faust, but part 2 is just too covoluted. Like a much longer version of the Walpurgisnacht in the first part and this one was largely just Goethe criticizing other autors of his time. And being written about 20 years after the first part it never really fit well for me. My list is not that classy, just the authors I really enjoy for one reason or another: 1. Sanderson - Probably more surprising to me than anyone else here. I really wouldn't have thought that an author I just recently discovered (last december) could move up that fast. 2. Neil Gaiman - American Gods will always be one of my favorite books and most of his other works are superb. The Sandman is still one of the defining works for a whole genre and an absolute must read for any comic enthusiast. 3. Terry Prattchett - I simply loves his Witches Series and I have yet to read a bad book by him. Extremely enjoyable and much deeper than anyone might expect. 4. Alan Moore - I really should not have to write much more here. If you know Moores work, there is no explanation needed, if not, it might not be for you. The only reason he isn't higher on my list is that his stories are a bit too wierd. The first chapter of Voice of the Fire might be a good index for that. 5. Simon Beckett - My favorite crime author. Nothing special, just simple murder mysteries with an emphasis on forensics. 6. Garth Nix - His books are kinda hit or miss, but when they are hit, they REALLY are hit. The Old Kingdom Series is my favorite, followed by The Seventh Tower. I could never really get behind the Keys to the Kingdom, but I'd really love a follow-up to Frogkisser. That one was really amazing. 7. Warren Ellis - Mostly for his work in comics and graphic novels, but I also really liked Crooked Little Vein. Gun Machine not so much though. 8. David Edings - Would be much higher on my list except I just really love The Belgariad and The Malloreon. Other books from him just never clicked for me. But those 10 books are really burned into my mind. I know the characters and places better than the world arround me. Feel free to interpret that any way you like. Noteworthy, but not great authors, no ranking: Terry Goodkind - The Sword of Truth is actually quite excellent, but I have trouble recommending it to anyone because of the rape fantasies. John Connolly - Another crime author. Very enjoyable, but it drifts into the supernatural very fast after the initiall great Every Dead Thing. Still nice though. J.K. Rowlings - I guess almost everybody likes Harry Potter, but I actually really like her works as Robert Galbraith. Of course, crime again, but excellent setting and characters! Timothy Zahn - If you're ever to read any Star Wars Novel, pick one of his. I probably forgot some, but that's it for now.

Great topic @BenduLuke! Fantasy: Tolkien, Brandon, C.S. Lewis (he wrote more than just Narnia), D.M. Cornish (he was inspired by Mervyn Peake), Brian McClellan (he was a student of Brandon's) [Wish I could put Stephen Lawhead on this list, but he (IMO) does not finish his series well: the final book always disappoints me.] Sci-Fi: Mark Van Name, Jack McDevitt, Andy Weir, John Scalzi I've also enjoyed some of Toby Buckell's writing in both genres: his eco-themed near-future novels are good, and his 2 novellas about a world infested by "the Bramble" were thought-provoking: If it was absolutely proven that using magic caused something extremely harmful in nature, would people give up using magic to save their own lives and the world itself? A few years back I branched out beyond the genre and found a couple mystery writers that I like almost as much as Brandon: Spencer Quinn and Christopher Fowler. Both have new releases this year - and with Skyward 3 also coming up, 2021 looks to be a great year of reading for me!

I suspect that Skybreaker Division will allow hypersonic flight, once someone figures it out. Windrunners have Adhesion, which affects pressure and vacuum. They shape the air, so they're able to do things like push back the storm, or create an air current that keeps the squad together. Skybreakers don't have that. If they fling themselves hard enough into the air, it will push them and slow them. The solution is Division. They could separate the molecules of air in front of themselves and fly without resistance. It's not like they need to breathe while they've got light anyway. And then we'd know what Sky Breaking refers to.

Elantris

Well, could also be that it could be this place Kaladin saw when riding the storm: That would probably be very shadowy. Of course, an Unmade could be possible too, and it would likely be close to where Mishram was captured, so she could very well be there. It seems a reasonable location to me. Just pointing out it's not necessarily the only reason it could be named that.

I was asking my followers about what theory I should do next when @Dannex suggested Ba-Ado-Mishram Which in my usuall style got me to go over everything we know for certain about BAM. And while I didn't get a theory on powers, I think I know where she is. In order to get to where Mishram is currently located we must first learn about the people who captured her, a quick read of the Gemstone Archive reveals two things related to BAM. 1. BAM had connected to the "Parsh" drawer 30-20 fourth emerald And something I think to be overlooked yet of more note 2.BAM's forces were going somewhere drawer 19-2 third Topaz Rall Elorim, is the only thing that this Radiant can think of after what appears to be multiple attempts to take Feverstone, I think it safe to assume this is the case. Now Rall Elorim is an intresting place, but at the same time very vauge, it has yet to be shown, in fact we only know a few things about it 1. It's called the city of Shadows for a reason, and Brandon won't tell us 2. It has an Oathgate 3. and it was one of the First places Odium took on Roshar. Now the only reason I could think of for a city to be called the City of Shadows was an unmade and currently only three are unaccounted for Chemorish Dai-Gonalthis and Ba-Ado-Mishram One of the first two was at the Davar household and one was so devestating that they caused the scouring of Aimia, but nothing like that has happened to either place, and was maybe in Shinovar. Another thing is the term Shadows, Shadows are created by a mixing of light and darkness, Light that is dark, or Voidlight, which happens to be something BAM could create. And nothing but shadows has been made known to us, almost as if the unmade were limited, or bound in some way. On top of that Odium's quick arival to Rall Elorim I believe is because he knows BAM is there, but has so far been unable to free her. Why? becasue his forces have only looked in the Physical realm. Knowing that Unmade have a large pressence in the CR The recreance Radiants knew this and did something clever, just like when a human is physically brought into the cognitive their CA is replaced so they brought the gem into the CR to hide BAM's cognitive presence. Aluminum gives an additional layer of protection and then place it in a convienent nearby city with access to the CR so as to hide any other oddities from the cognitive side, have the sibling keep the Oathgates from allowing CR travel, from any place but the Horneater peaks which is almost acrossed the enite continent, and you have yourself an airtight prision for an unmade. In addition WoK prime spoilers TLDR BAM is in the cognitive realm around Rall Elorim

I'm currently trying to make a Rithmatics simulator, and have an interesting predicament regarding lines of vigor and lines of forbiddance. What happens when a line of vigor hits a line of forbiddance with an axis parallel to its own? Does it just repeatedly skip across the line of forbiddance (GIF attached), or does something else happen? It's a weird edge case that won't occur in most Rithmatic duels, but it's something to think about. Could this potentially be a powerful method of destroying enemy lines of forbiddance? Or would the normally negligible energy loss from bouncing off lines of forbiddance make this not an effective strategy?

It's exciting to post my own topic for the first time! Something I’ve wondered about for a while now is how Helaran appeared on the battlefield from behind Amaram’s lines. It’s been theorized for a while now that Helaran was a Surgebinder. Primarily, this is because of a quick line from Taravangian discussing Shallan as a Surgebinder. Taravangian clearly believes that Helaran has some Surgebinding capability. But he’s absolutely startled by the account of an Alethi bridgeman spontaneously developing Surgebinding on his own. What did he think Jasnah, Shallan, and Helaran were up to, then? Shallan is at the Shattered Plains, but though he suspects her of Surgebinding, she doesn’t apparently warrant activating their agents. He breezes right past her miraculous survival. He doesn't fret about her coming into contact with Szeth at all. But that makes sense if Taravangian knows that the Honorblades are no longer in the Shin's possession, and haven't been for years. He may be assuming Shallan's Surgebinding ability, whatever it is, is granted by a Blade that she was trained to use. In RoW, Szeth learns that his father, who had keeping of the Bondsmith Honorblade is dead, and that Ishar took back his Honorblade at some point after Szeth’s banishment. Taravangian reveals that he knew Szeth’s father Neturo was dead prior to this revelation. My guess is that Ishar recovered his Honorblade about seven years before it’s spotted in RoW. This would coincide with him coming into power in Tukar. Nale seems to have been in contact with Ishar seven years ago, the same year that Gavilar and Shallan Davar’s mother were both killed. Did Nale's concerns, perhaps prompted by his conversations with Gavilar and Venli, influence Ishar's decision to take back his Honorblade? That’s a little bit out of the scope of what I’m thinking but pretty interesting. What I'm suggesting is that Ishar may have also taken custody of the other Honorblades as well. Helaran returns home with his new Shardblade about six and a half years ago, from the current position in the timeline. The descriptions given to this Shardblade closely resemble the Lightweaver Honorblade, which is something I never noticed until I looked at the art for the Honorblades. That gemstone in the pommel is the only thing that doesn’t seem to fit that description. How hard is it to move and set gemstones on a Shardblade? It can be done to regular Shardblades, though I don’t know if that necessarily proves anything. Sunraiser, for example, bears a pretty strong resemblance to the Bondsmith Honorblade, in my opinion. Possibly Helaran’s blade is a dead spren in a form that strongly resembles the Lightweaver Honorblade. But with the Lightweaver Honorblade, Helaran’s miraculous appearance makes more sense. He’d have used a Lightweaving to hide the fact that he was a Shardbearer mounted on a horse in the middle of an enemy army. It also might explain something that has meshed poorly for me with Helaran's being a Skybreaker acolyte, which was specifically his weird glowing effect. Shallan or the things she holds sometimes seem to glow, particularly when it’s implied that she’s using the Spiritual form of her Transformation surge. Tien’s implied bond to a Cryptic also uses the symbolism of things glowing or becoming brighter. To me this is more evidence that Helaran had some Surgebinding ability in that direction. Shallan mentions that there is no history attached to Amaram/Helaran’s Shardblade, in a world where every Shardblade known is recorded and named. It’s not out of the question that Nale would have access to an unknown Shardblade, but if he’s in contact with Ishar and seriously concerned by an oncoming Desolation, he might have access to another Honorblade and the motivation to arm someone who "impressed him" with it. Taravangian therefore might be working under the assumption that the same source (Nale) that gave Helaran his Honorblade might be supplying Shallan. This means that Amaram would have had possession of the Lightweaver Honorblade. If he perceived it as an ordinary Shardblade, perhaps he simply never noticed he was holding an Honorblade. I think this would be pretty deeply ironic for the villain who lies to himself about why he does what he does and truly believes his own lies to have the Lightweaver Honorblade. Someone who would have known, Restares/Kalak, seemed mostly to be in contact with Amaram via spanreed from afar. I doubt he’d share that information with Amaram, who I think he must have been manipulating--but it’s impossible to say. Other people who would recognize the Lightweaver Honorblade would be Szeth, Dalinar, Taln, and Ash. Szeth, Taln, and Ash don’t ever seem to witness Amaram wielding the Blade in combat that I can find, although all three are present at the Battle of Thaylen Field. Ash spends her time looking after Taln, and never mentions seeing her own Honorblade or Amaram. Szeth, likewise, spends a lot of his time occupied by other concerns, and never mentions seeing the Lightweaver Honorblade or Amaram that I can find in the text. It’s either not the one, or they miraculously miss it every time. Dalinar also saw both Helaran/Amaram’s Shardblade, when he confronted Amaram near the end of WoR, and the Honorblades in his visions of Aharietiam. Dalinar also pitched the idea of Shallan doing studies of the Honorblades seen in the vision. Dalinar has published written accounts of the visions, as I recall, but no mention is made of drawings. Quickly reading through the rest of the part, it's not clear to me if Shallan ever gets around to doing that. However, when Dalinar sees Ishar’s Honorblade, he doesn’t have the same recognition he does for Jezrien’s Blade, which is the most familiar to him; this could be a continuity error, or maybe indicative of something else. And during the battle, when Dalinar does the tally of people with him, Amaram wields Oathbringer alone. As far as I can tell, Amaram doesn’t use Helaran’s Blade until he fights Kaladin. Finally, there is the matter of Honorblades' behavior. When Taln drops his Honorblade, it doesn't vanish. This is meant to be a big clue as to its nature. Amaram drops Helaran's Blade twice in his fight with Kaladin, and it vanishes. Szeth also drops Jezrien's Blade in the fight with Gavilar, and the “bond” so to speak doesn’t appear to be broken. Szeth is able to resummon the Honorblade after being parted from it. No mention is made of where it ended up or if it vanished as he dropped it. My only explanation for this is that perception could be at work here. Szeth believes that the Honorblade should take ten heartbeats to summon, and it does. Perhaps Amaram likewise believes that a Shardblade should vanish when it is dropped, and so as it leaves his hand, it vanishes. Ishar demonstrates that the Honorblade, like a living Shardblade, can wink out of existence for a second and return in a flash. To summarize: I think it’s possible that Helaran was given the Lightweaver Honorblade by Nale, who gained access to it when Ishar reclaimed his own Honorblade. It’s not clear to me why he would do that, although Mraize says that Helaran was recruited with “displays of power” and that Helaran impressed Nale. Could Nale have shown Helaran how it would be possible to Surgebind without bonding a Cryptic? Then Helaran uses it to position himself behind Amaram’s lines. Maybe as an enemy combatant on the field of war, the kill is “legal?” This is still a mystery to me. Helaran is then killed by Kaladin. Eventually the Honorblade ends up with Amaram, who is completely ignorant of what it really is, and somehow it conveniently hopscotches anyone who could identify it. The Blades are awarded to then Rock, who "insists that they cannot be used" according to his daughter. They "gather dust in their box" until he returns to the Horneater Peaks. I find this idea extremely interesting, but a bit tenuous! I've done my best to cover all the things I can think of on my own, for and against. I specifically like Helaran's Shardblade being the Lightweaver Honorblade for the thematic connection to Amaram's lies, and because it's a simple, elegant explanation for the things about Helaran that don't quite make sense otherwise. But it seems to rely on those who could see it for what it is to simply not be around, for certain lapses of curiosity, and for Nale to be totally okay with losing an Honorblade. The gemstone is also located in the wrong place according to the art, which I am not 100% is really usable as evidence, and when it gets dropped, it vanishes ... Despite all this, I still thought it would be a fun theory to share.

-Bands of Mourning, ch. 28 So affecting metals inside someone seems to be a distinct possibility with the Bands, though seeing as Marasi notes how quickly the stores are used up a few seconds or so after she starts tapping you probably couldn't sustain that level of power for long. ¤_¤

It's not often people invite me to make a probably gigantic post spitting out all my thoughts, you know? Still I will seek to have mercy on you all and be concise, or at least as concise as I am capable of being whilst running on approximately 2 hours of sleep and a cup of mocha. I could probably make a couple extra boxings splitting it into many posts, but I'd rather have all of this in one place and posted immediately. I've already waited longer in the cycle than I wanted to post this. I warn you, there is a reason I sat on some of this. Some of it could help the eliminators. But I'm hoping it will help the village more. I need help making sense of all of this tbh. Part 1: Role Analysis Thankfully, I may omit all analysis on now dead players. Ashbringer - ??? Biplet - Confirmed Thug, which I kinda did not expect given how they reacted to the whole being threatened thing. Definitely not a Thief, probably not a Hazekiller or Investigator, but quite potentially a ferring of some kind. Szeth_Pancakes - Nicroburst + Subsumer Twinborn. I was able to confirm the former role D1. Lotus also had an anti-roleblock power, and I somewhat doubt the eliminators would need a second one of those, which is a slight point in Szeth's favor. On the flip side, while I don't take it personally that they stopped Nicrobursting me after our deal fell through, I am kind of curious what the heck they have been doing with their ability for the last few cycles since I've never heard any villagers report getting helped by Szeth. Matrim's Dice - Confirmed Thief. Will by now have also implanted a charged spike with a random unknown ability. It is mechanically possible that Matrim is concealing a second role they started out with, although my gut says Matrim was telling the truth about this particular thing. DrakeMarshall - Archivist. Sadly, just an Archivist, and not one that has found out anything terribly interesting, although I can share tidbits to confirm like how I know Archer stored bronze last night for some reason, or how I knew/suspected a lot of y'alls roles before you claimed. In your position, I would probably suspect me of having an allomantic ability hidden, but I do not. Archer - Sentry + ???. And I am fairly sure they do have a second role, specifically an allomantic one. That is something I gathered from their D1 role analysis and our PM. What that second role is, I do not know exactly. Dannex - Sparker + Duralumin Gnat. Neither of these roles are easily mechanically confirmable, so they could theoretically be totally lying, but I don't think they are lying. The strategy Dannex is claiming to have taken is pretty extreme and is one of the only logical explanations for their deliberate lurking behavior. Also the degree of detail Dannex is coming up with about the clarifications and misunderstandings they had about their role feel like they would be hard to make up. Conjectured Existence: Soother. Multiple people including myself have already pointed out that one probably exists. Leecher. Araris claimed to be roleblocked. Araris had no reason to lie about this. And what's more my Archivist power from N3 told me that Araris targeted nobody (a result the GMs confirmed was consistent with a player who had been roleblocked), which means Araris wasn't secretly just taking another action and only pretending to be roleblocked. Also note that blocking Araris was pretty much exclusively in the eliminators' interest and the Leecher is all but guaranteed to be an eliminator. So there are two unaccounted for allomantic roles. I know that it is only mechanically possible for these players to have allomantic roles I do not yet know about: Ashbringer, Matrim's Dice, Archer, Dannex. Of these, I think Matrim's and Dannex's claims both actually have a ring of truth. Therefore I think it is likely that the two allomantic roles Soother and Leecher are possessed by the two players Ashbringer and Archer. Also note that one of these players no longer has their previous role, due to how the Kandra conversion mechanic works. Part 2: Reads Ashbringer - They have always been on my sus list, and the way they are acting pretty calm and not apparently focused on catching eliminators today feels like strong evidence that they are Evil. Biplet - I feel like they are village. Partially because Biplet teaming with the other people I find suspicious is a little too on the nose. Partially because I think Biplet talking about elim!Thugs D1 is also a little too on the nose. Partially because of gut and other hand wavey reasons I can't remember. Szeth_Pancakes - I thought they were village at the beginning of the game, but my read has become more and more conflicted. Some of this pertains to the role analysis bit I said above, the rest of it pertains to general behavior in thread. Matrim's Dice - I already listed a bunch of reasons this cycle why I think Matrim is Evil. I feel that most of that reasoning is still sound. DrakeMarshall - I know I am a villager and apparently you all do too, although obviously I could now be the Kandra. I have been saying the whole time that Araris and I are evil teammates after all (incidentally I am using my Archivist ability today and if I'm lucky it will let me prove I'm not the Kandra, at least unless the game ends before then) Archer - I know I sussed them for a bit but I have an increasingly village read. I feel like I've been in a similar enough headspace of "oh crap the village is in danger" as Archer this last cycle, and some of their schemes like trying to lure out the elim roleblock would be very unnecessary for an eliminator. They could probably still be evil, but heck, if they are they deserve the win lol. Dannex - I am automatically paranoid about anyone who claims to be an alignment scanner at exlo (probably bc that was exactly what I did the last time I was an elim ), but tbh, how they are acting is not how I would expect elim!Dannex resurfacing to act. As much as I don't like the whole "pretend to be inactive thing" it feels like a genuine village strategy, and I have a hard time envisioning elim!Dannex coming up with this lie. So... Tentatively a village read, but one that is kinda weak since it is only backed up by one cycle of activity. Part 3: Voting History Day 1: Experience (4): |TJ|, Archer, Ashbringer, Matrim's Dice, Ventyl Matrim's Dice (2): Araris Valerian, manukos, Szeth_Pancakes Araris Valerian (1): DrakeMarshall DrakeMarshall (1): Flyingbooks Mist (1): Devotary of Spontaneity Ventyl (1): Biplet A delightfully active vote, if scatterbrained. Ashbringer breaks tie in Matrim's favor, with stated reasons being the avoidance of ties. Vote removed from Matrim was basically just manukos storing, and probably not significant. Day 2: |TJ| (6): Araris Valerian, Archer, Biplet, Devotary of Spontaneity, Flyingbooks, Szeth_Pancakes Biplet (3): |TJ|, DrakeMarshall, Matrim's Dice, Mist Araris Valerian (1): Ashbringer Ashbringer does not get involved with the TJ vs Biplet vote. One of the votes on Biplet is probably Soothed. Day 3: Biplet (3): Araris Valerian, Archer, Devotary of Spontaneity, Matrim's Dice Matrim's Dice (3): DrakeMarshall, Flyingbooks, Illwei Araris Valerian (1): Szeth_Pancakes The Unknown Order (1): Biplet Archer unlikely to be E/E with Matrim. Day 4: The Unknown Order (5): Araris Valerian, Ashbringer, Biplet, DrakeMarshall, Matrim's Dice Matrim's Dice (3): Archer, Flyingbooks, Szeth_Pancakes Biplet (1): Devotary of Spontaneity Potential defense of Matrim by Ash and/or Bip, as Archer(?) already pointed out. Part 4: Conclusion So who is the Soother and who is the Leecher? Well, I already said I'm pretty sure the two allomantic roles are possessed by the two players Archer and Ashbringer. Archer said they aren't the Soother. I think Archer is lying, and is in fact a Soother. I am village reading Archer for the reasons I gave before, and I have also noticed that Archer seems much more confident than I do about there being a next turn in the game, which feels like something that would come out of knowing for sure that there is a village!Soother. They have also expressed concerns about revealing too much information that would paint targets on people's backs, so denying that they are a Soother is completely consistent with how Archer has been playing so far. If my hunch is correct, than Ashbringer is very probably the eliminator!Leecher. Or Archer could be telling the truth. In which case, Archer must be the eliminator!Leecher. This is certainly reasonable grounds for some to suspect Archer. In this case, Archer might also know for sure that a village!Soother exists (if the elim team does not include the Soother) and therefore this could also explain why Archer appears to be planning for a turn after this one. Obviously, if Archer is in fact the Leecher, then Ashbringer isn't. That is why I voted on Ashbringer. I am reasonably confident that they are the eliminator!Leecher, or at least that they were the eliminator!Leecher (bc they could have been converted last night). In this case, Ashbringer would be a fairly safe vote, in the sense that it would definitely remove an Evil and it would under no circumstances allow the eliminators to reach parity before the D6 execution is decided. Also, Matrim voted for Ashbringer, and as much as I really suspect Matrim, this vote intrigued me. I strongly suspected a Matrim and Ashbringer eliminator team, so why the beans did Matrim vote for Ashbringer? Well, there are a few possible explanations to that. One possible explanation is that spreading village votes between multiple eliminators and then hammering right at the end is a totally viable tactic for exlo. This assumes that the eliminators can actually all be online at rollover, though, which while possible does not seem the most likely. Another possible explanation is that there is (perhaps justified) conflict between the eliminators. I would be totally unsurprised if Araris managed to bag an eliminator as his successor. A Kandra!eliminator is totally disastrous for the elim team, since the Kandra can hijack the eliminator kill in addition to using their own intrinsic kill ability, and furthermore an elim-turned-Kandra should probably wish to weaken the eliminator team right now, so such internal strife could actually make complete sense. In this case, killing either Matrim or Ashbringer would be a decent choice, it should not matter much which one we chose. Edit: Since I didn’t get to it anywhere else, I will also note here that both Matrim and Ashbringer would have been potentially rather clever conversion choices by Araris in their own ways. Matrim bc then Araris could have targeted both thieves in a (possibly flawed) attempt to ensure that at least one eliminator was hit, keeping the game from ending in the Kandra’s defeat which was a pretty big danger. Ash bc not claiming kinda makes it a bit less of an issue that your old role was stripped from you, and bc converting someone you think could be an elim has significant potential gains. Edit2: Also because Matrim keeps saying “if you kill me the village loses” and that feels like it might be another technically true but misleading statement similar to the “I only started with one role” thing, not “I’m village” but “you need me to win” bc Matrim is the Kandra. But enough about Kandra conspiracies back to our regularly scheduled programming of catching elims /edit Obviously, another possibility is that Matrim and Ashbringer aren't E/E teammates. And if it's between Matrim and Ashbringer, if one of my reads on them had to be wrong, I guess I'd rather trust in my role analysis of Ashbringer being the Leecher, if only by a narrow margin. Because I am fairly confident in that role analysis. And even if it were wrong, that would probably make Archer evil, and I already noted that I don't think Archer and Matrim are E/E, so in that case Matrim is probably good, and Ashbringer would therefore still be the better choice for the exe. So uh... Yeah. That is basically my thought process. There are a few different possibilities I can see, but in every case it feels like Ashbringer could be an execution that is more likely to succeed than Matrim. I am still deeply paranoid about the fact that I can't think of a third member of the elim team that clicks, and I am also deeply paranoid that whether or not Ashbringer is Evil my decision to split the vote will still have doomed the village. I will hear out a case for a different vote. @Archer @Biplet @Dannex this is my thoughts, which in some way shape or form you said you sorta wanted me to explain. Sorry if it was long. I am interested on what your thoughts on my thoughts are

HELLO FELLOW 17th SHARDERS! I've been gone for 2 years now on my mission in Texas, I was very active before my mission, but I figured I'd just say hello on the introduction thread since it's been such a hot minute. You'll probably spot me theorizing about realmatics once I finish RoW and playing SE. It's good to be back in my favorite community!

For regular battle themes: CS1 > CS4 (great but a little too short) >>> CS3 (great first 10 seconds, rest of the song is meh and too short) > CS2 > FC = SC >>> 3rd > Zero >>> Ao.

granted, you will lose all your limbs and everyone will hate you. I wish for Narsil.

Finally gets shardblade, puts it in table

I feel like Navani wouldn't be worried if it wasn't a known possiblity, possibly something that happened on a small scale while these were being developed, but not extensive enough to be life-threatening, just a kink to iron out. Ohh, I've not picked up a lot of the information from there yet, many thanks. ¤_¤

Codename: Blood monger Known Name: James Grey. Real Name: Jason Harton. Gender: Male. Age: 23. Backstory: it was seven years after calamity, he was twenty when it happened, he was part of a group of reckoners under his known name he lost his parents on the day of annexation. he left Steelcago when it happened as a 13 yearold and met Prof. he joined the reckoners then 7 years later he became an epic. Personality: he used to be joking like Cody, when it happened now he is cruel, but his reckoner side tries to break free. appearance: he wears a black suit with a red bowtie, on his head he wears a crown with a red gem on it. his eyes are cruel, he has dimples as he used to laugh a lot. Epic statues: High. Power set: he can manipulate blood. he can therefore stop most poisons in his body, he can control people sort of. his second power is regrowth he can regrow limbs, so the best way to kill him is to chop off his head. weakness trigger: he feels guilty for his parents deaths, because he was the one who wanted to get out of the car during their trip and get some hotdogs. Weakness: hotdogs.

It's likely given some of Brandon's comments that TLR actually used the well to make himself super powerful instead of nicrocil/lerasium. blood and water are the same essence

I'm inclined to agree with Frustration here. And this sort of seals the deal, does it not? If the BoM, which, per WoB, don't have enough investiture to be a shardblade can't be affected/sensed by allomancy then it stands to reason that shardblades can't either, so pushing on them, in whole or in part, is essentially out of the question. It might be possible with the Bands and Vin could probably have done it while she was ascending, but I wouldn't be suprised if even Rashek at baseline super-mistborn (no nicrosil shenanigans, just baseline strength) couldn't sense a blade, let alone affect it. I'd rate that a maybe, I could also see an augur becoming indecisive from their understanding that every choice would close off so many paths and I don't know if they'd be that much more self-aware than a particularly introspective person. But you're also left with no more aluminium reserves after burning it. Either it burns incredibly rapidly, it wipes itself when burned, ot both and I see no reason to doubt its given rate of burn. So I'm willing to grant that you could burn away a lashing applied to you, or a single "jolt" from a painrial (though you'd still get hit by every "jolt" except that one if you remain within its influence) as these are foreign investiture imposed on you, but I'm not willing to grant that you could continually burn aluminium to be investiture immune, as I have no reason to believe that it doesn't burn away practically instantly. Ah, then I've misunderstood you, I thought you had interpreted the suppressors to use tones. If I may be very pedantic, by this logic we've actually only seen anti-voidlight and anti-stormlight and we can't infer anti-life-, war- or towerlight. To me it seems clear that any investiture manifesting in the same way (gaseous) could be flipped to anti-x with the right tools and knowledge. Now, we don't know of any way to store, say, Preservation's mist, but that is to me the only hurdle, we know a method that works to flip it once you can do that. I don't see why they need to be able yo do that, we see fabrials all the time that can do things that seem outside the skillset of any radiant and we can easily infer functions that we haven't seen. For instance the battlefield dehumidifier (water attractor) used in WoR, where Navani worries that they might have tuned it wrongly and that it might suck the blood out of their soldiers, we've never seen this happen, but we know it's a real possibility and you could deliberately make a blood attractor to, say, drop on an enemy position like a bomb. I frankly think that a Rosharan industrial revolution is possible on the backs of pairing fabrials and waterwheels and a bit of engineering, heatrials and soulcasting could see them have bona fide steam turbines, with the ability to turn stormlight into mechanical work. Yes, there are far more possible combinations of metalborn, but they are also not reliable powersets, every windrunner gets the same powerset, reliably, but not every metalborn gets a power that's useful in a fight, let alone two, or two that interact in such a way that one of them becomes incredibly useful. I'd also be cautious of claiming five powers for a twinborn, as Allik has only seen one medallion in his life that does three, IIRC, and he talks about the ones that do two as absolutely wonderful devices, though they're obviously common enough to outfit an entire airship crew and they have at least one that does another power combination as well. So personally I'm sticking to two per medallion, as that seems to be, if not common, then at least not rare. This is not to say that having a reliable powerset is inherently better than every possible twinborn + medallion interaction, but the static powersets of the radiants might still beat most ability combinations possible for metalborn and radiants are far more common than any given twinborn, even the known possible number of bondsmiths matches the number of known crashers, ever. Sure, a twin gold, twin steel is incredibly dangerous, but you need one of two very rare combinations to start with, and such a person would still need to eat and sleep and might be vulnerable to adhesion (glued to the floor) and abrasion (sliiiiiiide), as well as more traditional things like caltrops and they'd presumably not be immune to pain, unlike Miles, because they've not been doing the infinite healing for forever. I'm also not sure if you'd get resonances off medallions, but I know there's a rough threashold where you stop getting them because you have too many powers. Ah, I misunderstood then. ¤_¤

Out of context this quote is hilarious.

Man this got off topic very fast While I definitely have a disliking for Moash, I actually really enjoyed his interactions with the Parshendi and singers and so I think it would be a satisfying plot line if he, while being completely shunned by the rest of humanity for his pretty atrocious acts, finds sympathy in the community of the singers who, like himself, have been manipulated and mistreated by Odium, eventually coming to a leadership position among them and encouraging them towards unification. The only problem I see with this is he's pretty much being pushed in the direction of being incredibly selfish (I mean, he doesn't even feel remorse for killing Teft) and so it would be a very miraculous change in direction to go from where he is to being someone who strives for unity. I think this could possibly be achieved by making Odium get on his bad side somehow (he stops taking his pain etc) and because 'enemy of my enemy' joins with the humans to defeat Odium, I'm just not sure how quickly this turnaround could happen without making it feel contrived. Regarding the casteism (which totally deserves it's own topic), I think this is one of the cases in which Brandon, because of the massive amounts of world building he has done, has a much bigger picture of the effects it's currently having on society in his head than is translating into the stories. Because these books are stories rather than political metaphors a lot of the philosophic quandaries about race (eye color in this case), culture and gender have basically been sidestepped in favor of a more fluid and succinct plot line. I would, however, love a short story/novella about what's going on, either with Lirin and Hesina during their stay at the tower and how their lifestyles contrast with Laral's and the other lighteyes or maybe the members of Bridge Four struggling with being part-time lighteyes?

I will address only points others did not, or to add some point. Wax never even approached what Vin was doing. Vin: 1) Pushed on trace metals 2) Pushed on metal inside peoples bodies (including very full metalminds) 3) Pushed on hemalurgic spikes 4) Flattened a giant castle just by trace metals in stone Wax: 1) destroyed one wooden building, but pushing on nails holding the building together. And since he was above the building, the metal items needed to support his increased weight. He did nothing else that would be comparable, and in fact cannot do those other things (he does not even see trace metals, if he could push on metalminds impaled in hands, he would do so against Miles, in BoM he never pushes on spikes (but I am not there in my re-read yet)) EDIT: One last point, Wax was unable to realize that Bands were not aluminum, and those are even less invested than Shardblades. If nearly full metalminds is too Invested for him to push on, Shardblades are completely out of his reach. Oh, we do have a baseline. Rosharan gravity is ~0.7 that of Scadrial, and since humans did not evolve there but only adapted it would stand to reason they would be at worst roughly 0.7 times weaker than usual. Then again, there are bridge crews that support bridge that weight ~2000 kg (in Rosharan gravity) at minimum for hours on end and can be lifted by 25 men, giving them strength comparable to normal human (lifting 80 kg overhead). So for worst case scenario, If we assume that warform is 2-3 times as strong as Rosharan human, that gives it 2*0.7 = 1.4 / 3*0.7 = 2.1 strength of Scadrian human, potentially nearly that of someone burning pewter. Again even Regals are stronger, and Fused stronger still. The one that hit Jasnah was of Progression so could grow his muscles as he desired, and he knew what plate can withstand so he had no reason to hold back. Conservatively he was as strong as ~4 Scadrian humans, and he was hitting her with both hands. But if Rosharan humans are closer in strength to Scadrial ones, as the bridge crews suggest, then the Fused hitting Jasnah could have been as strong as ~5-6 people. I re-read that section, Kal lashed exactly two stones and neither at Amaram. He lashed (multiple lashings) one at one Fused to stop it from going after Dalinar, and another to spook Amaram's horse to carry away Shardbow. In neither case does he comment on it consuming a lot of stormlight, in fact he does not comment on it at all he just does it. In that fight he fought Amaram (with plate, 2 Shardblades, and Yelig-Nar so learning to use all surges), couple of Fused with Gravitation (2-3) and a couple of Fused with Progression (6-7), and he had to split his attention between Amaram and protecting himself and Dalinar. He mostly used up his light to heal his wounds, because Kal sustained the following injuries Broken both ankles. Broken shoulder. Some internal injuries from being hit and flung with a club. Stabbed into stomach. Grabbed by a foot and slammed into ground (2x). Again hit by clubs at least two more times, causing internal injuries. Stomped on (by Fused with Progression), shattering multiple ribs and causing most likely massive internal injuries. After all this (and with Fused carrying away spheres) he runs out of Stormlight, but is still healed well enough that his injuries are no longer life-threatening. Even Bloodmaker would use up at least 1 month of health to survive this (Wayne used up 2 weeks to heal two bullet wounds and having his back burned). That is only ever mentioned by Mr. Suit, while talking with Wax who holds Bands, and trying to get him to stand down. He had every reason to overstate what the explosives could do. Considering that ship was only meant to destroy relatively single temple, it does not make much sense they would carry this level of ordinance. Also, when previously in Mr. Suit's head he was mostly thinking about the airships themselves, not about how impressive the weapons are (this is admittedly not that strong an evidence, but you would think he would also think about city destroying weapon when thinking about how will warfare change). But we can calculate how much speed they can get up, and how long it will take them, very easily. And it is a couple of seconds to move at hundreds of km per hour under few lashings. We also now that Kal went from Shattered Plains to within a few days of walk from Hearthstone under half a day, and that distance is ~1800 km (since we know roughly the size of the continent), giving speed ~150 km/h of sustained lashing. All Shards have related anti-investiture. In the latest youtube Livestream someone asked what would happen if you introduced proper anti-investiture into Sel's cognitive, and per Brandon that would be a bad idea. In fact he himself used the words 'anti-investiture of right type', so clearly Investiture of other Shards also has anti-investiture. (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/467/#e14713)

RP to be added. -- Archer was killed! They were a Member of the Heritage Faction. Liranil was killed! They were a Member of the Heritage Faction. Szeth was killed! They were a Member of the Heritage Faction. VC: Liranil(2): Illwei, Matrim Szeth(2): Archer, Liranil Player List:

I'm not inclined to believe Ishar and Taravangian that Szeth's father is dead. Ishar has a very questionable perception of reality and there was almost nothing that was true in his other statements. Taravangian was in the process of gaslighting Szeth and could very well have been improvising. As for Heleran's Shardblade/Shalash's Honorblade, I've seen people guessing that Heleran's Blade was an Ashspren(I think that's the Dustbringer spren?) based on the flamelike design. I managed to find the art that I think you're referencing for Shalash's blade, it does technically match that description assuming Chaos labeled it right. Here's the link for anyone interested: Edit: For some reason the link wasn't working, it's the news from May 3rd 2020 on this website. I was ready to dismiss this at a glance. I figured the Honorblades would look somewhat like the Shardblades of the corresponding order and that the flamelike pattern a solid indication it was a Dustbringer deadeye. But I suppose not all of them, if any, really match their corresponding order. So, I don't think this can be entirely dismissed, though I'm not entirely sure how much of a narrative purpose it would have for the currently released books if this Shardblade turned out to be an Honorblade. Last we saw, it was on its way to the Horneater Peaks, so if there's anything to be revealed, it would happen in the Horneater novella. Though I can't remember if Brandon was going to be able to get that out before Stormlight 5, I feel he said the schedule might not allow it.

That's exactly my point. The entire issue was just tossed aside. It is both casteism and racism. What jobs people have and their position in society being decided by superficial physical features is very much racism. Did you read WoK? How well did getting a Shardblade turn out for Kaladin? How many Darkeyes have actually gotten there? Kaladin does talk about it, how impossible it is to get a Shard without access to another Shard, and how there are no such Darkeyes except in legends and how usually the Lighteyes would probably claim the Shards.

Not everyone has the ability or desire to write a book themselves, but that doesn't make the need any less present in literature.

Honorblades for one.

I really hope we'll get an explanation of how the Shinovar culture survives. I don't see how they can possibly keep the warriors from rebelling against their low place in society and taking over - if no one else is allowed to learn how to use weapons, it would be super easy. No human society is so strongly culturally constrained that they have no rebels - even the most conformist. And the Shinovar culture seems old, so it must be relatively stable.

Thanks!! You make a great point as well. I like the Deadeye/Shin Warrior symmetry for narrative sake, didn't even about symmetry on Roshar. Awesome catch. This is my favorite of my cosmere theorizing, because I have to wait the least amount of time to see if I'm right (2023 baby!) and it's the one I think has the best chance of being true. I mean, I was able to pick up that Elhokar was a proto-lightweaver so who knows. Two other points that didn't make it into my original posts: 1) Especially with the Adolin/Maya plotline in RoW I think the missing shard blades are more important than people think. It wouldn't just be a fun reveal for shock value or to explain a minor historical plot hole, but something that could have a major impact on the plot going forward. Adolin has shown that he's able to heal a deadeye, but his process relied on his relationship with her in the physical world as a sword. Right now that means Dalinar's coalition could only heal maybe 20 or so deadeyes at max, using the Adolin method. Finding the hundreds (thousands??) of missing blades would massively increase the practical impact of what he's discovered. 2) A reveal that the Shin have hundreds of shardblades just feels so...Sanderson to me for lack of a better world. His style makes heavy use of 'oh rust' revelations that are carefully foreshadowed (Shardblades are dead Spren, Parshendi are the Void-bringers, Humans are the original aliens, etc.). To me, this twist fits into his style. There's been extremely heavy setup for some major reveals with Szeth's flashbacks. I think that this could be one of them.

I hear eating a lot of crows can be murder (anyone get the joke)

The idea of that theory was they didn't move her and made protections for her gemstone at the same place they captured her And possibly to punish her for acting like a God

Oooooh. I wonder if Odium purposefully didn't free Mishram in order to keep... whatever the heck happened when Mishram got captured from undoing itself.

My point is that they tried to capture it before BAM was captured so there’s no reason to think that she is there

I want to provide an interpretation of what Autonomy is about, and/or how Bavadin may be interpreting it. These are the events that are most associated with Autonomy - some more concretely than others. Bavadin-Autonomy had some light role to play in the story of White Sand - source Taldain entered into a long period of isolation because of Autonomy - sourced from the AU essay, where Khriss says "Autonomy’s policy of isolationism in recent times (in direct contrast to her interference with other planets, I might add) has prevented travel to and from Taldain for many, many years." Autonomy is potentially the one attacking Scadrial - speculated from source Patji is an avatar of Autonomy - source There are worshipped pantheons out there where every member is Autonomy. - source It's hard to come up with a coherent nature from these disparate elements. But I think we have enough to start making guesses. The Isolation of Taldain - Why? The easiest place to begin is point #2: Autonomy caused Taldain to enter into a millennia long period of isolation, during which the planet was cut off from the outside in almost every way. So we can ask this - Why would Autonomy have needed to do this? If indeed this was a decision made consciously, then what would've happened if Autonomy hadn't done this? What about Taldain required it to be isolated from the greater Cosmere, even as Autonomy was itself looking outward in seeking out places to seed Avatars? Was it done to keep someone/something in, or to keep someone/something out? The only thing we really know about Taldain is that it was technologically further ahead than any of the other planets in the cosmere, and that it was on track to become the first planet to get to space. source. Then, in this intervening period of isolation, Taldain got "frozen." And here we can speculate. Technological progress is exponential, so the farther ahead someone is, the faster they progress. A consequence of not isolating Taldain then, is that it gets unfettered access to space, including the capability to get to other planets with civilisation on them, like Sel, Ashyn, First of the Sun, and whatever the other Shards/Shardworlds/worlds are out there. And because of human nature, we can probably guess how well this would've gone for any of those other civilisations. Imagine what happens when a space age civilization - unopposed in any way - manages to land on First of the Sun a thousand years before the events of Sixth of the Dusk. Before Patji the Avatar was there, and when the natives were even less advanced. Subjugation and conquest and exploitation is a very likely result. The loss of Autonomy of some peoples in the Cosmere is a very likely result. Autonomy in White Sand That thought gives us a good starting point in trying to intuit what Autonomy is all about. With that context, the next place which will give us any idea is this: Autonomy, through the Sand Lord, kicked off the events of White Sand. And it makes so much sense. At the beginning of the story, the Diem under Lord Mastrell Praxton, is a dominating entity, over all the other professions. It's elitist, arrogant, and aloof. With that simple command, Autonomy allows events to unfold in such a way that the old Diem is destroyed, and people like Kenton and Khriss, and Ais (who are all very strong-willed and independent, and have a lot of self-agency but are also otherwise repressed in their natural environments) are enabled and given space to shine, and bring a certain balance to the world. Kenton's actions directly cause the Diem to start acting on an equal footing with the others, by creating situations where he either removes the Diem's advantage over someone else, like he does with the Merchant Guild's debt, or by offering to work with others, as opposed to over or under others, like he does with the Mason's Guild. Notice how Autonomy doesn't balance things herself in this. She doesn't take away others' capability to act, others' Agency, others' Autonomy. For example, she doesn't tell the traitor how to go about attacking the Diem, or even compel him to do so. She just tells him to. To accept to do this, and to then plan, and go and actually do it, are all things the Traitor himself does. She doesn't take decisions for him or force/control him. She just creates certain circumstances around certain people, and leaves it to the individuals to make their own decisions and come to their own solutions. She only puts the right people in the right positions, and then they act to restore Autonomy. Maybe other arguments can also be made. You get Autonomy, and you get Autonomy, everybody gets Autonomy! There is a little bit of a problem in being the very force of Autonomy in the Universe - you have to choose what Autonomy is, to you. And you can approach this question from many directions. From the perspective of resolution, you have to ask - whose Autonomy do I represent? Do I represent the Autonomy of a person? A state? A nation? A continent? A planet? All life, everywhere? Should one person be completely autonomous, or should I try and work for optimum autonomy of state, at the cost of individual Autonomies? Do I go down to the absolute tiniest level, and represent the Autonomy of every individual quanta of investiture/matter/energy in the Cosmere? Because if so, the existence of anything and everything is impinging on it. Molecules impinge on the Autonomy of the individual atom, by binding them. Let's say I represent the Autonomy of every individual person in the cosmere. If so, should I try and come up with a perfect system where every individual is perfectly Autonomous? If I do manage to come up with such a system, and I go about imposing this everywhere, am I not taking away the ability to choose one's own definition of Autonomy, by giving them mine? And I'm only really skimming the surface with these question, and very quickly at that. But I think Bavadin came up with a beautiful solution to such... conundrums. What I think Bavadin is doing, in seeding Avatars across the Cosmere, is letting others choose their own take on Autonomy. Bavadin will then go and give life to their culture, their expression of Autonomy, and it will be instilled with their beliefs and act in their interest. Take Patji, for example. The island Patji was always revered by the people of First of the Sun. They associated with it a personality, one stemming from their own beliefs of what a greater god should be like. Autonomy, then, came along and gave it life. Patji's beliefs and personality, in this case, will be mostly what the people of First of the Sun gave him, and his task would to guard and represent their Autonomy, their way of life, their culture and civilisation. And you can see this, in Sixth of the Dusk. Patji the island communicates with and channels Sixth onto a path that teaches him what The Ones Above really want and represent. And he does this in a way very inline with the personality associated to him by Sixth's people. He doesn't tell Sixth what to do when he leaves. He doesn't tell Sixth what he should be doing. He doesn't tell Sixthwhat the one's above are trying to do either. Sixth has to figure out the answer himself. Sixth, then, chooses the life he wants to live afterwards. Patji never controls him, nor does he compel him beyond putting him in particular situations. Patji fights, in that story, for the Autonomy of the people of First of the Sun, but without impinging on their own Autonomy to do so. Each Avatar of Autonomy, then, could potentially be meant to represent the Autonomy of a separate group of people - sometime this can be a civilisation, sometimes a culture, whatever has similar beliefs. The Sand Lord is likely an early manifestation of the Autonomy of Dayside Taldain, just as Patji represents the Autonomy of the Drominad System. It would be interesting to see whose Autonomy Trell represents. An easy answer is likely the Autonomy of Scadrial, but who knows? Harmony, you egg! Imagine you just ascended to Godhood along with 15 of your other compatriots, and you became the very force of Autonomy in the Cosmere. But you're new to the power, and you don't have much experience being a god yet, and you're excited to play god, so you go off and create your own little utopia. Over time, you become more and more compelled by your power to care about autonomy as a concept, and as you get more experienced as a God, you begin to understand the consequences of your own actions. Seeing firsthand what your own people could do, you now understand the consequences of technology and progress, and you have begun to grasp at the importance of cultures meeting each other on an equal footing so that they can all maintain their own Autonomy. You barely managed to check your own people, and correct for your earlier mistakes. So you start looking outward, and towards the far future. You are Autonomy, and you want all peoples with their own origin to be Autonomous. So maybe you help Odium take care of Dominion, who was God's own Conquest, before it became a danger to the Autonomy of others. And now you look outward, finding other civilisations and seeding with them an expression of their own Autonomy. In your searches, you run across this weird planet that two of your compatriots created. They call it Scadrial. Maybe they came to you, asking if you want to seed your own worship there. However you found it, you keep an eye on those two and their merry little planet. You find out about their deal, where one would get to destroy the planet, and you become less concerned. You see that Preservation sacrificed his own mind, and for all you can tell, it was in vain, and Ruin will win, and get to destroy Scadrial eventually anyway, before it gets to be trouble. You check in periodically anyway, and see that it's been frozen too, by a sliver of Preservation. So you're not that concerned. Then one day, the slow draining of Preservation's mind allows a freed Ruin to finally choke him to true death. But then, surprisingly Ruin dies without destroying Scadrial. And now Scadrial has a new, much more powerful god, one in which the destructiveness of Ruin is paired with the now proven Futuresight of Preservation. A god, who is just as inexperienced as you once were, but with double the range and a ton of emotional weightage. A god who, in his inexperience, and ironically, with good intentions and the want to improve things from how they were in a harsh, technologically frozen and repressed world, gives his people a fertile valley to grow and develop in, and progress quickly. A god who has no idea of there even being life out there when he does this, and is not experienced enough to have any idea of the consequences of this action of his on other civilisations in the future, at all. Someone who just shattered your careful plans with the single act of giving his people conditions to grow fast, and one who is actively, and from your perspective recklessly, promoting growth. So you scramble to stop this as fast as possible, in the only way you can act anymore, after 10,000 years of being compelled to be Autonomy, and after millennia in which you've been splitting off parts of yourself for the betterment of all. You decide to go to war. Conclusion In the end, I think Autonomy has learnt to take the long view of things. It is looking forward to the time when all the different cultures and peoples, all the different "children of Adonalsium" intermingle, and is trying to push the Cosmere towards a future where all peoples interact with each other on an equal footing, and are able to maintain their own identity and Autonomy. Any one culture or God that has the potential to become a problem to this future, Autonomy wants gone. So... yeah. What do you guys think?

Just because he behaved within the bounds of his culture doesn't absolve him. That's a very dangerous trap to fall in. As for Sadeas, that man was universally recognized as a bad person, so not the best benchmark.