Truthwatcher

I've successfully hooked over ten friends on the cosmere by starting with Mistborn. My rationale is that a 1,000+ page epic like WoK is pretty intimidating, and even though Mistborn is a trilogy, they feel like they can just stop after the first book if it's not something they like. Which is fine by me, because I have yet to find someone who wouldn't actually finish the series after the first book

Okay, thanks for the information about Shadesmar/The Cognitive Realm. Still, I wonder how simple it would be for Jasnah to enter Shadesmar, head over to the Expanse of the Densities, and wreak soulcasting havoc on the objects of whatever world that is. In theory, it doesn't seem that difficult, but the point about the KR having access to Shadesmar but having no records of worldhopping seems to imply there's a lot more to it than it would seem.

So, I was thinking about and how it works now that it's on Roshar. Did it suddenly become a spren? Was it a spren back on Nalthis, but just not called that? Then, I realized something I hadn't before, which may be pretty obvious and mentioned by others previously, but some preliminary searching didn't turn up anything, so I figured I'd go and make a thread about it. We know that Shadesmar is the Cognitive Realm, and that it's accessible from all the Shardworlds. This is how Worldhoppers get from world to world, presumably popping out of their world into Shadesmar, and then out into their destination world. This would imply Many Shardworlds--->One Shadesmar. Imagine, if you will, a wagon wheel. The spokes are the worlds, Shadesmar is the hub. Simple enough, and nothing new here. But, if that's true, then do all the cognitive aspects of everything from every shardworld exist in Shadesmar? When Shallan and Jasnah are in Shadesmar, convincing the little glass beads to turn into other things, they're only interacting with the cognitive aspects of objects on Roshar. But, if The Cognitive Realm is actually a "center hub" of sorts for all the Shardworlds, couldn't the Cognitive aspects of anything be found there? I wonder if it would be possible for Jasnah to head in to Shadesmar, and convince a stick on Scadrial that it wants to suddenly soulcast into fire. Like I said, this may have been explored before, but I couldn't find anything. Hopefully this will at least prompt some productive thought.

One thing that I feel like I disagree with is the assumption that Nightblood has Odium-esque connections here. I know one person already mentioned that due to Nightblood's creation on Nalthis, it couldn't technically be "of Odium," but there still seems to be a general sentiment that Nightblood is more "aligned" with Odium than with nothing. This just doesn't make sense to me. Odium is hatred–Nightblood is anything but hatred. Yes, Odium leads to destruction, but that's not the main point to Odium. Nightblood seems to be far closer to Ruin–he simply destroys things (evil, in his mind.) However, the very fact that he does so without any emotion, and that there's even a "safety built in to influence who wields him, makes me very hesitant to link Nightblood with Odium at all. If anything, Nightblood seems to run contrary to Odium. Rather than being a creature of malice and hatred, Nightblood is simply an investiture-draining killing machine with minimal will. Also, in regards to Nightblood being an Honorblade/how is Szeth going to fuel the investiture/ect. We do have a WoB that Szeth has been approached by a member of one of the Orders, or something to that extent, which makes it seem highly probably that Szeth will, in fact, become a full-blown Skybreaker. (Not certain, mind you, but I would say highly probable). If so, he would have the ability to breathe in and hold Stormlight with the same efficiency that Kaladin has, rather than relying on the Stormlight-drawing abilities of Nightblood the Honorblade, which would be much inferior.

This is genius.

While it would be fascinating if she could do so, I doubt this is the case. It would be . . . incredibly powerful. Most likely the stormlight gained from the food would be equal to or less than the stormlight used to create the food. However, I have no evidence for this position, other than feeling like the ability to have a nearly infinite supply of stomlight would be a major loophole that could cause problems later on. But it could be the case.

Interesting theory. I have a question, though. Do we have any reason to believe that Syl's tendency to "bind things" is any different from any other Honorspren's? Or are Pattern's mimicry abilities different from those of any other Cryptic? If not, then these passive abilities would be the same for all Radiants of a single Order. This doesn't really pose a problem to the theory in and of itself, except possibly in the case of the Windrunners. It would really seem to me that this sort of "bonding" would really be an ability of Bondsmiths rather than Windrunners. However, if it is true that each Order has one ability for each surge, then it could make sense that both Kaladin and Dalinar have this ability. However, then it would raise the question of what Kaladin's passive gravitational surge ability is. I'm trying to think of some sort of passive gravitational ability, but am blanking at the moment. Perhaps someone else will have more insight.

The Mistborn one is just . . . priceless.

Why, thank you for Endowing me with the upvote to Lift my rep. Hopefully it's the beginning of a trend that will lead to a Spike in my reputation. Regardless, I wonder if there's some sort of mental muscle one can spren by reading too many puns. Or is it more of a rigid thing, that might Splinter instead, or maybe bend(alloy) a bit before Snapping? I must have mist that lesson in school.

I think this is a big point. And if it is true, it could be argued that it makes sense for the Returned to be able to change their looks–after all, they've died completely, so their new body hardly has the same level of "permanence" as their old one. I feel like there's a quote by Shai from The Emperor's Soul that mentions objects becoming more cognitively "used" to their state the longer they're in it. So by that logic, a Returned would have a much easier time changing his/her appearance than a normal human would. Also, if merely being filled with Stormlight gave on the ability to change their appearance, it would make Shallan's abilities as a lightweaver a little . . . boring in comparison with the other Surges.

Well, Nightblood the physical sword is obviously focused on the Physical Realm, and it seems that the way it destroys is somehow linked to the Spiritual Realm, in much the way Sharblades are, judging from the WoB quote mentioned earlier

Thanks for the welcome! I have in fact noticed Hoid, and in the year or so since discovering the cosmere have expanded my knowledge quite a bit, mostly thanks to lurking around the Shard and going through everything I could find on the Coppermind. There's always more to learn, though.

Oh yes, wonderful. Although I do find myself wishing that "Me!" had been the response all three times. I have to say my favorite quote is: "Hello, a cheerful voice said in his head. Would you like to destroy some evil today?" (Apologies if it's not perfect, I don't have my text with me at the moment)

I fear that even fifty Lashings might not be able to Lift it up past the first Heightening–you'd most likely need to Return with a whole Legion of bridgemen to span that chasm.

I think this is a quite interesting theory, and I just thought I'd add a bit in regards to Snapping and Surgebinding. I'm new here, and still a little gun-shy when it comes to posting things without spoiler tags, so I think I'll play it safe–my apologies if this doesn't need to be tagged. Anyway, from WoR I'm not sure exactly what this means in terms of the overall interplay between broken souls and Investiture, but I figure that any information that's relevant ought to at least be examined and taken into account.