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ram433

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  1. I think Ishar is the more obvious choice. We have a WoB that all the Heralds are now pretty thoroughly insane in the modern era. Not too hard to think that Ishar went the sort of nihilist "let it all end" sort of insane. That said, it being one of the Unmade is a more interesting choice and feels like the sort of twist Brandon would put in.
  2. I'm conflicted about Rothfuss. I don't want to be an entitled fan, but every time I see another post on fb about a new kickstarter or some other side project it gets harder and harder not to think he's milking our anticipation a bit. To be entirely fair, a good portion of that "milk" goes to feed starving families through Hefer International so its tough to condemn him for it too much. Plus I get how someone who has written what is arguably 2/3 of the best single story of our generation is worried about blowing the ending. Procrastination in that situation is understandable. Still, as time goes on it gets more difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt.
  3. Their lack of physical influence is sort of my point. They do subtle mental manipulations NOW but we don't know what their role in an actual Desolation was/will be. For them to be so well known you'd think it would have to be more than what we've seen so far. Maybe that difference is a presence in the Physical during Desolation but only the Cognitive otherwise.
  4. I see the point about voidspren not needing a perpendicularity but maybe the Unmade do. We know some of them do things like the Thrill and deathrattle but that is not exactly ringwraith level shenanigans. Maybe right now they can only have limited physical influence from the Cognitive (like Kelsier could talk to or subtly influence certain people from the Cognitive Realm) but to create real mayhem they need a way to manifest physically like a Perpendicularity. I wonder for voidspren if it has to do with Connection. They are Connected to Braize so if they stray too far they fade until something about the Parshendi songs create Connection for them stay on Roshar. My only idea on how the Oathpact fits in is maybe the Oathpact interferes with the process for voidspren Connection and Unmade manifestation?
  5. Somehow I think Wyndle might huff and puff at picking a lock directly but might agree to becoming a master key as long as it was a FANCY master key. he seems to have a different moral compass than Pattern.
  6. you know if Lift is going to keep being a thief, Windle would be an absolutely perfect lockpick. In fact he'd be a universal key.
  7. I bet it has to do with perpendicularity. From what we know of world hopping you can only cross over from cognitive to physical in places with a large amount of Investiture. Remember how Syl called the amount of stormlight the honorblades used "dangerous?" Maybe that is what she means. Otherwise why would a magic that makes you stronger and heals all your wounds be dangerous in high amounts? A fully powered Radiant or group of Radiants might be able to release enough stormlight to create a perpendicularity allowing the void spren to cross over to Roshar from Braize. Cultivation probably already has perpendicularities (the Purelake?) but as she is alive she can probably keep the spren from using them. Khryss's comments in the anthology about Taldain and Autonomy imply a shard can do this. With Honor gone but his power still available, maybe its like an unguarded door to use too much stormlight.
  8. I think this is extremely likely. Its possible she is homosexual, but if she is I think it will be same way Dumbledore was homosexual. It will be tangential to the story, and never really appear on the page. The real world reason for this is that Jasnah is already sort of an alternate pov from the author with her atheism. There is WoB that he did this very carefully and with a lot of input from atheists. Making her blatantly homosexual as well would probably come off as didactic (whether intended or not) and distract from the story. For Jasnah there are very logical and practical reasons to avoid romantic entanglements. It would distract from her urgent work. Also if she married and had children it would create rival claimants for the throne, which is the last thing Alethkar needs.
  9. I would buy him trying to put Adonalsium back together. From his conversation with Dalinar in WoK I got the impression that either Adonalsium shattering was his fault or that he at least partially blamed himself. Seems like maybe he is trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again to fix his mistake. I really thought that this a while back when i thought maybe he was the author of the ars arcanum ,but I think we have a WoB that he is not. Seems like maybe hemolurgy could be used to stitch the pieces back together. But that is pure speculation. I think that would explain his "world burning" talk. He could easily see putting Adonalsium back to be worth sacrificing a few worlds.
  10. Good point. I didn't think about the timeline on Nalthis for Returned. I just remembered Brandon saying somewhere that Vasher was intended to be on Roshar even before he wrote Warbreaker. The SA as independent is a good point too, but the Herald's planet of origin does not really need to be a major plot point. They could just be from "elsewhere" for readers who haven't read Warbreaker. In a sense all the godlike entities are from another story anyway(Dragonsteel). But now that I think about it might be a little too "on the nose" to have it fit in that neatly.
  11. So after WoR we know that the Heralds got their surgebinding from their honorblades. Pretty safe to assume these were given to them by Honor. However, we have a WoB as well as evidence in the text that they have other powers as well. For example, we know that if they are all still around, they are either immortal or very slow to age. The strange thing about that is why would they have powers both with and without their honorblades? It's pretty clear that Honor was using the Heralds as a way to combat the Desolations. From Taln's comments in the Interludes it seems like that in addition to just fighting they also tried to restore some level of technology and civilization between Desolations too. So for those purposes, the immortality and the surgebinding make sense. They'd need both to do their jobs. But granting them surgebinding by giving them swords seems an odd way to give them power from Honor's perspective. As we can see with Szeth, the honorblades can be used by others and represent a potential abuse of surgebinding. It would make more sense to give the Heralds innate surgebinding that they lose if they abandon their duties, the same way spren do it. Maybe Honor can't though. He have seen that is most of the Cosmere worlds humans need some sort of medium to directly use Investiture. The powers in mistborn all need metal. The Elantrians need some sort of writing. Maybe Honor has to use Invested objects. Or maybe not. After all, the Heralds seemed to retain their immortality and maybe their enhanced physical abilities. But if so, it still leaves the questions of why to sets of powers? One innate and one not? Linking the immortality to the honorblades would have been smart. It would be harder to abandon them, and it would leave the responsibility open to succession. Tired of being of tortured in Damnation? Find a successor! It seems more enduring model than the one used. What I come up with is maybe Honor can't make people immortal. All of the Shardholders have different strengths. Also I think there has been WoB that the worlds themselves shape somewhat what magic is possible. If that were the case, where does Honor find himself a set of 10 immortal champions? Nalthis! The Returned of Nalthis would be sort of ideal for this role. They are reborn with no memory of their lives so they have no baggage to leave behind. They are immortal and physically enhanced. Plus they look like gods. If you want a band of people who show up every few hundred years and need to get people to follow them quickly, having them look impressive would really help. From WoB on Zahel/Vasher and the comparison of Nightblood to shardblades we know that Roshar magic and Nalthis magic are highly compatible. Its a pretty good assumption that stormlight can function for a Returned like Breath, without the need to drain people. So Roshar is a pretty nice place for a Returned to live. Also, look at the way each Herald has his or her own sphere of influence. Taln is Herald of War, Jezrien is leadership, Kalak is a forger, etc. Representational deities are nothing new to us, you see them in countless real world cultures, but the only other Cosmere culture we have seen them in is Nalthis with the way the Returned are worshiped. This theory might explain a few Roshar oddities. Zahel for example. We don't know how Cosmere literate Nalthis is yet, but if Shadesmar-type travel were well known we'd expect a flood of Returned on Roshar. Its possible Vasher was just among the first to discover it. He is way ahead of the curve on magical research. But it might also be likely that while doing research he encountered some record of 10 Returned leaving in the distant past and just decided to follow. It might also explain Lift's ability to get investiture from food. The royal locks in Warbreaker we know are inherited from Returned having offspring. The Heralds have been kicking around the world for a few millennia, it's pretty likely they would have at least a few offspring. What if on Roshar they inherit something else? The Returned live off Investiture. A descendant might have some sort of DNA that blends a normal metabolism with a Returned metabolism and lets the person get investiture from food. I'd like to see what others think.
  12. It looks like the red lines depict orders with inverse Cultivation/Honor make-ups. If each order is part Honor, part Cultivation; and if the two "eyes" are the orders that nearly "pure" Honor and "pure" Cultivation then that set up makes sense. The two orders that are closest to the Bondsmiths (share a surge) are Windrunner and Stoneward. Their red lines connect to the Lightweavers and Edge Dancers, the two orders that share a surge with Truthwatcher. If make your way around the wheel then each Order is balanced by another order.
  13. I think this is extremely likely. There was a fairly recent WoB that the Parshendi weren't of Honor, Cultivation or Odium originally. I am betting they were put on Roshar by Adonalsium. They had their planet and some of form of spren. When Honor and Cultivation showed up, they made humans, which eventually led to conflict. I also have this crazy idea that maybe the "Tranquiline Halls" were really a space ship and it crashed on Roshar. Honor and Cultivation favored them because the Shard Holders were originally human and that caused the conflict. However, I have no evidence to support that theory. It just sounds really cool.
  14. The main difference between the Adolin/Shallon/Kaladin triangle and the Gavilar/Dalinar/Navani triangle is the relationship between the two men. From the way people talk you get the sense that maybe Dalinar, the little brother, was in many ways the better man, but he deferred to his older brother with the exception of that one little temptation he had that thought about in WoK. But Kaladin doesn't defer to Adolin at all. He would be very aware of the social obstacles, but he would not give up something he wanted in order to please Adolin. I think Shallan will either choose Kaladin, or Adolin will think she is and that will be what sends the golden boy over the edge. I have a pet theory that Adolin is our Anakin Skywalker. Odium needs a champion and I think he is it. But further argument on that point is off topic.
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