Criggleworth

My 100% a joke theory for the men of gold and red is that they are mannequins full of invested sand. And Autonomy basically just sand masters them into battle.

I think that basin rune is basically a wifi repeater. It calls to Elantris (perhaps there are other repeaters out there? Or maybe the Ire fortress is still near Scadrial in Shadesmar?) and tells Elantris where Shay-I is, where to send investiture to her. She almost certainly recreated it after leaving the cavern. I believe that the continuous flow of Investiture to her as an Elantrian actually sustains the soulstamp. This book solidified that you can fuel abilities with multiple Investiture sources and I don't see why a soulstamp would be different. Instead of restamping to maintain the needed Investiture, the stamp just feeds off the Investiture that flows to her through her Connection to Elantris.

I've been wondering if perhaps the lichen from White Sand is an offshoot of one of the aethers. Like, maybe one of the varieties of core aethers had an offshoot that mutated, for lack of a better word, into what we see in White Sand. When Kenton over masters and recovers, he mentions feeling like there's some sort of awareness in the sand. It's not really touched on or explored in the graphic novels. But it could be an indication that there's more to the lichen than we think. Could also explain why the Sand Lord hates sand mastery- an Avatar of Autonomy would probably not want its people to be involved with aethers that originated from off world. Or it could just be one of those similarities that happens across magic systems, like how you can Lightweave in at least three magic systems.

I think there must be multiple core aethers. We know that SP1's world has 12 moons that rain aether spores. Something must be generating them. And the fact that they are mutated/evolved compared to TwinSoul's aether, to me implies that they have their own core aethers. Additionally, TwinSoul refers to the 12 Primal Aethers. The capitalization suggests that it is known that there are specific original core aethers that others have split off from.

I know I'll be picking it up. The world building definitely didn't come across strongly in the three separate volumes, so I'm hopeful for the additional pages! I'd love to see something like a proto-Ars Arcanum: something like between each volume or issue, share some a Khriss' early notes as she builds towards her later scholarship.

My speculation is that the stain is not from Amberite. Instead, it's from a Ferrous bond. The stain is described as a mix of oil and blood, which makes me think it's the "blood" of a corpate. Maybe he injured the corpate, which bled on him, when securing his piece of Amberite.

From what we've seen thus far, the Fused require consent before they take over a singer's body. The exception is when a crazed Fused takes over rocks to become a Thunderclast. This is not to say that a Fused can't form other kinds of bonds. We've just not seen it yet. There are some WoBs suggesting that cognitive shadows can form Nahel bonds- or something close enough. Now, whether this also extends to them being able to possess Rosharan life? Totally unknown.

I would guess they sense vibrations, given the Dune vibes that Taldain has. Otherwise... no idea! I really hope that should a cosmere art book happen, it has some nice Shallan style research sketches for Taldain and any other non-Earth life.

My best guesses: a. The older a sandling gets, the denser its shell gets, which means more lichen, and b. The lichen dies when it is digested, so it keeps the disruptive property but can't be charged anymore.

I hold to the theory that a sandling's shell is made out of, at least partially, the lichen from sand they ingest. I think it explains both the general investure side effect of their size and the terken's resistance to sand mastery. Basically, being made out of lichen, the terken disrupts sand mastery in the same way that two sand ribbons disrupt each other. As of yet, we have no evidence that terken disrupts other forms of investiture, though I admit that it very well could.

I definitely had been thinking about that. I went with Lifebinding to fit with the naming of Surgebinding and Voidbinding.

This may be an odd theory, but please hear me out. I think there is a third type of binding of Surges on Roshar, that I've been calling Lifebinding. It hinges around a not uncommon theory that Voidbinding uses the Surges, but expresses them differently than traditional Surgebinding. The Voidbinding chart in Way of Kings shows the glyphs for the Surges, but has half of the glyph flipped upside down. To me, this suggests that Voidbinding uses the same Surges but that something about them is different. Renarin is the closest we've seen to a Voidbinder, as far as I can tell. He's not a full Voidbinder, based on the below WoB, but seems to be half Surgebinder, half Voidbinder. Now, Argent Let's talk about Renarin, and Voidbinding. So, with that page we talked about, Renarin Voidbinds. I asked about visions, you pointed to Voidbinding chart, he Voidbinds. Is that using Stormlight to power abilities different from the Surgebindings we've seen? Brandon Sanderson Yes. Argent Is that what voidbinding is? Brandon Sanderson No, but close. You're on the right track. We are gonna get into that, I'm not gonna tell you what the chart means, and things like that. But yeah, something really weird is happening there. Footnote: The chart referenced is the back endsheet in The Way of Kings. Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017) Now, in the Ars Arcanum, Khriss notes that there should be something more esoteric than Voidbinding and that she did not think it is the Old Magic. Thinking of the other forms of magic we know about on Roshar, none of them fit as more "esoteric" than Voidbinding. Singer forms, Regals, Fused, Fabrials, Honorblades- none strike me as more esoteric. In my mind, that suggests that there is a third system that deals with the Surges, one that we've seen no hints of yet. I propose that this is Lifebinding- a different way of expressing the Surges, not matching traditional Surgebinding (Stormbinding?) or Voidbinding. Now, this is not to suggest that traditional Surgebinding is not of both Honor and Cultivation. Instead, I'm suggesting that it uses Honor's expression of the Surges, while Voidbinding is Odium's expression. That would make Lifebinding Cultivation's expression of the Surges. Lift, note, is NOT a Lifebinder. She seems to fuel traditional Surgebinding with Lifelight, in the same way Venli fuels Surgebinding with Voidlight. Surgebinding doesn't seem too picky with what Light fuels it- as long as there is a connection to get the Light, the binder can use it as fuel. (This reminds me of how a Returned can survive on Investiture other than Breaths.) Now, I admit, this is wildly speculative and relies on a theory of Voidbinding that is far from confirmed. But I think it's an intriguing possibility.

I take Lift to be the same way, fueling traditional surges with Lifelight. I agree that Renarin is adding Odium's power in. But, I believe Sanderson has stated that Renarin is not a Voidbinder. I believe he is both a Surgebinder and a Voidbinder- one surge from each table. I have thought about Surgebinding as a mix of Honor and Cultivation, especially since the Radiant spren are clearly mixtures of their investiture. But, it feels like there should be a more "Cultivation-y" surge power, since there is Voidbinding as separate but related to Surgebinding. And then the half and half ones like Renarin overlap between the different systems. I don't think the Old Magic or fabrials would fall under the "more esoteric" power than Khriss mentions in the Ars Arcanum. Even though fabrials clearly can do the surges.

This is definitely something I've been pondering. Like most people, I think Adolin will help heal Maya. And I agree with the idea that Adolin won't become a traditional Knight Radiant surgebinder. However, a thought just occurred to me. The Ars Arcanum in Stormlight notes that there should be something more esoteric than Voidbinding and that Khriss does not think this is the Old Magic. Which has me wondering- maybe there is a third type of "binding" of the surges, one that is more Cultivation focused. In this idea, Surgebinding is primarily of Honor, Voidbinding (which i believe is similar to Surgebinding but with a different expression of each surge) is primary of Odium, and the esoteric surges are primarily of Cultivation. Perhaps called something like Lifebinding. I'm starting to think that Adolin and Maya will be the first of this new, esoteric category of surge binding- the first "Lifebinder". Of course, I could be wildly off base. We shall see!

I keep thinking of Surgebinding and Voidbinding in similar terms to the Metallic Arts. Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy all use the same 16 metals as their base, but the powers are wildly different. I think we have something similar on Roshar, where Surgebinding, Voidbinding, and fabrials all use the surges, but the manifestations are different. I always think of Renarin's Illumination actively different than Lightweavers and Truthwatchers. Now, I recognize that the metals on Scadrial are the keys for the powers, not the source of the powers. But it's still the comparison that leaps to mind for me.

There's still the magic of the Darkside of Taldain- I swear I remember seeing it called something like Shifting Colors. Khriss notes at one point that the lichen is on Darkside as well. Could be that, if the lichen is charged, a Sand Master could throw around anything covered in the lichen. Sand Mastery strikes me as more similar to Aviar and the disease magic of Ashyn. Honestly, it almost feels like it's not from a world with a Shard in residence. I've wondered if Autonomy actually "resides" in the star while Taldain only has an avatar.

We know Autonomy has definitely blocked travel to Taldain. I think my theory is different in regards to motivation. Instead of trying to keep all worlds to themselves, Autonomy is trying to allow them to develop without being exploited. Basically, more altruistic and less conquest. Thanks!

After a re-read of Sixth of the Dusk (and thinking about the recent reading of the sequel to SofD), I came to a bit of a theory. Well, perhaps more of a hunch. With Dusk seemingly striking out to find allies against the Ones Above and the other ones who were also from above, it had me thinking. Could perhaps the avatars of Autonomy be preparing their planets to become a quasi-federation to maintain their independence? Instead of being a cosmere big bad, Autonomy is working to prevent the spread of colonialism from (probably) Scadrial and Roshar. Non-shard worlds joined in mutual defense. Now, admittedly, this may not fit with the theory that Trell is an avatar of Autonomy. What do you guys think? Am I just nuts?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who immediately jumped to Elantris after Brandon's comment. I have to imagine that breaking the oath is a sharper breaking of Connection than a Radiant dying. Could BAM have been some sort of Bondsmith type spren that facilitated restoring that damaged Connection? Brandon also mentioned that historically there have never been more than 3 Bondsmiths at one time. Which is not the same as saying that there are only three Bondsmith spren...

That's my thought as well. I thought there was a WoB about Rhysadium having like proto-gemhearts. I'd be very curious to see a singer in Shadesmar. I wonder if they would have a similar effect from the spren inside their gemhearts.

I'm super intrigued by Foil. I mean, we know a couple things about him- he lives deep in an ocean (or somehow owns it) and he wants to "control" the aethers. I'm hoping Foil isn't an Avatar or a dragon. To me, he'd be more interesting as a new sapient species, to stand (or swim) alongside humans, singers, and dragons. And what does control the aethers even mean? Can they not be bonded or is Foil aiming for something much bigger?

I could totally see initiation to Whimsy's magic being random. Or perhaps related to being tricksters or whimsical story tellers.

That has me wondering if there will be "tiers" of aethers similar to the differences between the nature spren and the Radiant spren. Smaller aethers that are more natural and form easier bonds, like with Aviar, and the heavy duty ones like Amberite and Verdant that form deeper bonds.

Hm. An interesting idea. I suppose we can't dismiss it. But, I hold to the theory that the Siah are actually half human, half spren. By being partially Cognitive beings, I think it explains their immortality and their Returned like ability to change their appearance.

It's small compared to, ya know, the whole Dawnshards and shattering of Adonalsium. But, we also learned that at least some Horneaters are able to form (probably temporary) bonds with non-Radiant spren. Cord mentions that her dad had the blessings of spren that used to strengthen his arm.