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AirsickHighlander

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Everything posted by AirsickHighlander

  1. I really like this post, it's inspiring some extremely airsick thinking on my part. What would the implications be if Shallan was a human woman whose body acts as the storage container for a spren, like Wrath from Fullmetal Alchemist? By either tragic fate or intricate design, a little girl was used to try to contain one of the Unmade. Cryptics had already left in search of new radiants, so the group watching over her with the seon-box arrange for Testament to bond with the girl, because lightweavers had been effective against the midnight mother in the past. This fails to contain the spren's influence, and her family is irreparably corrupted. Her mother sees what's happening and tries to defend her family by sacrificing her daughter, but Shallan is able to defend herself, after which she breaks her bond with testament in her grief, and things get SO much worse as there are now even less checks on the Unmade's power. Her father is driven to cold furies, her brothers start torturing small animals, gambling to poverty, and other such character flaws. Of course, here it falls apart, why does the spren not influence the sailors she hires, or jasnah, or really anyone she meets before she breaks off Formless with Veil and dampens its power again... BUT, Shallan does have a connection with the Midnight Mother, telling her "I know you"(although MM seems like a Darkweaver(tm), so that could easily explain the connection) and she can resist the urges of the Soul of the Revel (although she's radiant at this point, so..), so some sort of bond with an unmade could be giving her strength? The one thing I found in my perusal after reading your post robardin was this tidbit which could imply that her MM connection and MM's fear of lightweavers may be separate: but even that's weaksauce. It was a fun theory to type up though!
  2. Kingsdaughter613, this is beautiful, you put my disorganized notecard jumble to shame. Survive, Inspire, Unite, Change. These do sound like the four commands that spurred creation. "Inspire" chafes a little bit, from my perspective though. I'd like to suggest something indicative of initiative or individualism, something separate from the Unite command in a significant way, but not as powerful as Rebel, like how "survive' isn't the OPPOSITE of change, but it can have that implication if you see change as a form of destroying the old to make room for the new. I can't come up with anything better though, so i'm gonna subscribe to your framework as a jumping-off point.
  3. A good point, but I think the metal already in existence continues to be Raysium. I wonder if there's any reason that Taravangium would behave in a distinct way from Raysium though.
  4. The dawnchant is the original language of the Singers, right? If the glyphs come from the dawnchant, could their power be related to the way that the primitive stoneshapers used their magic naturally? That would contradict teknopathetic's theory, which I also really like, but how would he inject that power into Alethkar's glyph system even if he did copy/corrupt it?
  5. Moreover, unless I'm wrong, Amaram uses the name Restares in front of Kaladin, implying he suggested Amaram's actions
  6. I'll throw in Midius. Hoid went by that name in one of the unpublished books, and Ash refers to a figure she knew when she was young by that name. I think it may have come up again in RoW too. I'd theorize that this was the name Hoid used when he moved among their society.
  7. I don't feel like that's likely, though, because Gavilar was foiled by Ulim and Nale more than anyone in the Son's of Honor. He'd already acquired voidlight (I think) and anti-voidlight, and made contact with off-world scholars, whether he was aware of that or not. I have to guess that Kalak believes for whatever reason that the secret to escaping Roshar lies in manipulating the Son's of Honor to return Odium. Either he believes that something in their process would coincidentally give him what he thinks he needs - perhaps one of the anti-lights? - or he thinks that only by bringing Odium back can he escape. In that second case, Kelek must believe that whatever Odium does to escape the system might pave the way for him.
  8. If you can't find a physical copy, Amazon has the Comixology version available digitally. It's a pretty good app for reading comics, i liked the cinematic mode a lot.
  9. Honestly, I hope you get a chance to read White Sand at some point, because I think Sand Mastery might be my favorite investiture system. Specifically the way a less-powerful user can overcome a more powerful user through careful strategy and precise execution. It gives users another axis to improve along.
  10. I do really like the idea of Maintain, as Hoid's unchanging nature is allegedly due to the influence of the dawnshard he once held. It's also worth pointing out that one of the shards is "different" from the rest, could that also be "Maintain?"
  11. I'm going to stick to my Mistborn inspired framework for the purpose of this exercise, because picking out that Cultivation Changes primarily through creation and Ruin Changes primarily through destruction sets them up as a perfect pair. While Whimsy and Ambition aren't as perfect a pairing, you could see one as imposing change on the self while the other imposes change on the world. So are there any other shards that pair off in this way? I would argue that the first pair that jumps out is Valor and (Survival). Courage in battle and the wisdom to avoid battle definitely seem to fall on the same axis, and i'd compare them to Cult/Ruin in the first example. Similarly I'd pair off Autonomy with Dominion, between power over the self and power over others it fits nicely into the established Whimsey/Ambition framework above. Endowment I think pairs well to Devotion. Endowment imbues souls with power so they can fight for themselves, but Devotion (I assume) would fight directly for them, making this another internal/external pair. I don't think I can see a clear pair for Odium, so I'm going to tack it to Mercy. One is passion, the raw feeling of acting on the world from emotion. An internal version of this could perhaps be mercy? the feeling of acting on YOURSELF because of emotion? Honour is another tough one, I think we could perhaps tie it to (Sorrow) perhaps, or (Wisdom) if they exist. Invention (rather than Ingenuity) would be the essence of making something new in the world, so perhaps his partner is a shard dedicated to either making new things within the self, or else making existing things STOP existing. Okay so let's see where I stand at the end of this word vomit - Change: Ruin Ambition Cultivation Whimsy Other pairs: Endowment/Devotion (Suvival)/Valor Autonomy/Dominion Odium/Mercy? Honour/(Wisdom)??(sorrow)??? Anyone have any other pairings that work well like this? Or do you see a Command that would group any of these pairs together? I'd just keep in mind that we're looking for the four commands that shaped all of creation, starting with Change.
  12. Secretive society on Roshar guarding forgotten magicks? If they aren't Nefarious they better at least be Inscrutable.
  13. I just went through these again, and the only thing that really hopped out to me is the insistence from the unnamed ardent that the glyphs cannot be broken down. I think the secrecy of the calligrapher's guild may exist to hide that they've cracked the power of glyphs and they are much more than they seem.
  14. I'd have to swap out Edgedancer. Kind of cheating going off-main series, but I had a lot of trouble getting into it because I didn't realize I'd already read the first chapter and was getting serious deja-vu.
  15. Did he? I thought Ruin used them, but TLR didn't trust anyone with the secret of koloss control?
  16. So do we know for certain that there are four Intents? I've been trying to intuitively group them into some sort of internal/external or pushing/pulling framework, something that further pairs off shards beyond their Commands. As for commands, I'd swap out Dominion for Ambition, although I agree with seriodor that create, or even destroy could fit. I feel like a good way to start would be with the grouping of the shards we know due to shared characteristics, and then deriving the commands from these groups, instead of working in the other direction forcing us to work on three assumptions. Having Change as a seed can help us with this, as it can help us build the first quadrant to use as a framework for the later three, so that's where I'm going to start. Ruin is the most obvious, as he refers to himself as a catalyst of change. Ambition is another good candidate, as the ambitious are never content and always need to become more. I'd considered Invention, but i think that implies making something that didn't exist before, rather than "innovation," so my third pick for the Change-gang is going to go to cultivation, who changes humans with her touch and encourages both pruning and growth. The last slot I would give to either Endowment or Whimsy. Endowment prunes memories to make her tools more able to achieve their grand designs, so she's somewhat similar to Cultivation, but I think that her sending back Returned is less about change and more about maintaining her people. We don't know much about Whimsy, but I'm going to take the chance and guess that the changably-named shard is itself commanded to Change. So if Change is Ruin, Ambition, Cultivation, and Whimsy, the question is whether these four shards have enough in common to help us form the other three quadrants of the system.
  17. Duh, I'm an idiot >.<, he definitely seems to have cracked it could be a case of that method not working cuz he's not the kind of alive kel wants? also a good point More good points, but I was under the impression that Kel (who i'm assuming is Thaidakar for the moment) found out that he couldn't leave because he's a CS in Secret History. We can also assume that he is a CS because, even if he's not Kel, Hoid claims to have hit him once and seems to be willing to do so again, which as far as we're aware is something he can do only to a CS. I'm going to run with these assumptions about Mraize simply because I haven't come up with or read anything that convinces me otherwise, but you're right, either of those would potentially invalidate my theory. This I think is the point that breaks my theory down the most. Maybe there's something specific about a CS living in the cognitive realm? I'd say they definitely want a Herald, because they used to be human, right? They'll want someone as close to Kel's circumstances as possible. And why not Ash?... Maybe they didn't have the knife yet? Not the strongest defense, but it's something. Maybe they intended to test it with ash, but couldn't get it quick enough. As to why Shallan (and the reader) is being misled, maybe it's because Mraize suspects she wouldn't risk a herald's life to test a tool to rescue an alien she's never met, so he ropes her in with bits of the intrigue she's addicted to instead.
  18. I think you might be on to something with the pre-shattering background magic. To me it feels like something akin to Elantris Spoilers: I think the best place to look for clues as to why glyphwards work the way that they do is by examining the inter-chapter notes on glyph composition and history that appear in the last few books.
  19. You just got me thinking, have we ever seen an unchained CS? Maybe nobody can do it, and these folks in the GB are just the closest. You note that they got stormlight off of Roshar, so presumably, THAT plan didn't work. They figured out how to get the Seons off Sel, but for whatever reason, the method doesn't seem to have translated to Thaidakar. They know a whole lot about Connection, and they think they've figured out how gemstones work with investiture. I think that you've really hit at the core of this plotline with this bit. I would posit that you're right, they DON'T know whether the weapon will capture or kill. THAT is the mission. They aren't sending Shallan on an assassination mission, they're sending her on a product test. I think that this squares with their mission to capture B-A-M. They want to test with shallan if they can put an intact CS in a gem, and they want to test with B-A-M whether carrying that gem to a new planet will kill the being inside. So they sent A Seon, to allow for instant feedback on the results of the experiment An irreplaceable weapon, or perhaps prototype tool, which they don't know is functional. Three other such weapons that I recall are mentioned in the book, should the test be successful You've got me here. Perhaps the most powerful non-member who wouldn't have important information when inevitably caught? I definitely got "Mraize is gonna kill Shallan" vibes the moment he offered her full membership, which made me feel like it would never really be on the table, but that's just me. exactly Another good argument for sending Shallan, if she's their only hope to get in or to test the gem as a cs capsule, but the combat abilities I can't account for. True desperation after all their other plots have failed? Maybe they're fine with her being captured, hoping she can hide the Seon and send reports on the health of the herald in the knife? Showing that they see Shallan as expendable in every way, if it gets them closer to their goal, perhaps? At least this chapter of ghostbloods seem like real jerks. REAL jerks. In conclusion, I think you're entirely right. The plot as presented to us doesn't add up. I did my best to bridge the gaps, but be warned, I cut my teeth over at the ASOIAF boards. Nine years without a book... It's no four thousand years on Braize, but let's just say that none of us are fully sane anymore.
  20. Even so, it looks like it's had ripple effects with other plot points, as Harmony mentions already having chosen his champion in one of the epigraphs from RoW. In any event, it definitely implies to me that the incursions on Scadrial did take place during the life of Rayse.
  21. We've seen spren imagined by nonhumans (probably Rhyshadium, among others), and we've seen the Rhyshadium themselves, who definitely have some relationship to the cognitive realm and are, according to their riders, much more than horses. The WoB about there being only three intelligent species on Yolen throws a bit of a wrench into things though. As I see it, this necessitates either that our Horseman was a pre-shattering alien, or perhaps some kind of sentient investiture like the spren and sprenhorses. I will posit that Adolnasium left a field of background investiture around Yolen by nature of being SO powerful, and the investiture could form into spren-analogues of any creatures who observed it for an extended period of time. I'll also say that Yolish horses, like earth creatures, are herd animals, so the cumulative observation of the energy in the herds of Yolen was significant to create a horsey-aspect, who slowly developed high enough level intelligence to plot, and to plan, and soon to overthrow the bipedal one's god and hope to replace it with a properly-quadrupedal deity. My theory: Kaladin Stormblessed is a dragon in human form, having not yet realized his lineage
  22. Someone in a similar thread mentioned a recent WoB moving MB2 to coincide with WoK, but I don't have it in front of me. I'll see if I can hunt it down.
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