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Background Lift converts food into Cultivation’s Lifelight to power her Radiant abilities There is connection between the Horneaters and Cultivation by virtue of Cultivation's perpendicularity being in the Horneater Peaks Rock, the self-appointed chef of Bridge 4, described a birth-order based caste system where the first two sons are responsible for obtaining food so there’s always enough Theory Food is particularly important to the Horneaters because it fuels Lifelight Horn-eaters, including Rock, have abilities granted by Cultivation/Lifelight. Rock has enhanced physical ability as he was able to draw the shard bow Rock’s unwillingness to bond a spren is related to his Life-light abilities Lift’s ability to touch spren while in the Physical Realm by existing partially in the Cognitive Realm is from Cultivation and is related to the Horneater’s ability to see spren Rock says that those who swim in the ‘Water’s of Life’ (aka Cultivation’s perpendicularity) can see the ‘place of gods’ (aka Shadesmar) Rock has the ability to see spren and implies that other Horneaters can do the same Horneaters are a hybrid race of humans and singers. This is the result of Cultivation’s influence. The Horneater people have been 'cultivated' since the early days of Roshar and will be important to Cultivation's future plans Open Question Cultivation’s perpendicularity is spread out over several pools on several peaks. Would they all grant the same powers or does each grant something different. Brandon has said the number of peaks is important but RAFO'd the specific number – could this be related to the number of abilities? EDIT: WOB Link: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6332

I have had this theory for a long time now that Cultivation cultivated Syl as a part of her gambit. But listen to me for once. This might sound crazy but might make sense in a minute. I guess we can all agree that Syl is different from most of the honorspren. She is just too jovial and lighthearted than most honorspren we have seen. Well... also Rua, but that's probably due to his bond with the Lopen. Then I reread the part in Oathbringer when Kaladin returns to Hearthstone. Another pure voice. Pure being the keyword here. I'm certain that spren can hear the Rhythms of Roshar. And the tones of the three Shards are described to be the pure tones of Roshar in RoW. Honor is dead. Why would Odium bother Syl? It is Cultivation's voice. Like tapped crystal. Dalinar described Cultivation's voice to be like 'tumbling stones'. Tapped crystal. Tumbling stone. Maybe I'm overthinking, but both of these voices are of Cultivation. What else did she do? Probably kept Syl sleeping for that millennium. I mean, we can't take the explanation to be Syl's mind being childish. That... doesn't sound Brando's style to me. 'Cause there is only her. Only her. A single spren slept for a thousand years after breaking her bond. Coincidence? I think not. Why? The bigger question is why. Ok now. Hear me. There is too much in my head that I can't remember now or can't explain. But here is my theory. Kaladin is the 'Son of Tanavast'. The successor of Tanavast (refer to this WoB). And Cultivaton wants him alive. Syl is mostly the reason Kal is alive. And that's why we love her. In Book 5, Dalinar loses the contest of champions. Yet, somehow, he will be able to reforge Honor. Instead of bearing the Shard himself, he gives it to Kaladin because now he is bound to serve Odium. And Kal ascends to Honor. I don't have much to support this other than: Kal's first chapter being 'Honor is Dead'. Kal saying 'Honor is Dead'. Cultivation only influences people who will somehow be related to godhood. And Dalinar being too obvious a choice for Honor.

does anyone think cultivation was just abess glass from book of the ancestor but a dragon before becoming cultivation. (If you don’t know who that is it’s one of the most fun characters ever and a good example of characters whose plans always work out not stealing any narrative tension) Ok so i’m a believer that cultivation has been manipulating everyone and has some massive master plan and I think there are some interesting things about kaladin that make me suspicious of her having a hand in some of the events surrounding him. 1. Kaladin spends a good amount of book one believing he is cursed with bad luck and speculates it was the night watcher. What if he is right, considering what we now know about cultivation It seems legitimately possible she had some hand in it. 2. Why did nobody know about kaladin, heleran at the command of the sky breakers came to kill amaram, it seems that the sky breakers knew Tien was a proto radiant nobody ever knew about kaladin or came after hmm despite him killing their shardbearer. On top of this the sky breakers seem to take some level of orders from cultivation since she must have given nightblood to nale who then was to give it to szeth. 3. when syl describes her early time coming after kaladin she describes a pure sound that called her there, this has been assumed to be mean Tien by pretty much everyone but what if it wasn’t what if cultivation woke syl up and led her to kaladin? 4. Kaladins spear feedback loop- basically the feedback loop through the spiritual realm is really really strong. We see plenty of others who are natural and gifted warriors and none of them ever display a similar degree of it affecting them. Neither adolin nor Dalinar or anyone else ever describe the degree of affect on them outside the influence of the thrill or odium but kaladin despite significantly less training or experience compared to either is at least as good as if not better then them. It’s specifically odd because these are two incredibly talented people he degree his natural skill enhances his abilities is abnormal. but we do see someone who displays similar natural aptitude, vin, no I don’t know if this whole idea was thought out previously as in when mistborn was written but I think in hind sight it seems very likely that vin had a similar spiritual feedback loop(in fact it’s likely that the idea of “talent” in general in the cosmere is related to this). Now it’s possible that they just are more talented since they are main characters but that doesn’t explain other similar symptoms like the relationship they both have to their respective talent. Both vin and kaladin seem to have an almost physical need to exercise this talent, kaladin picks up a spear and it takes over completely changing him, vin after being stuck inside for long time becomes restless and feels a need to use her powers it’s very similar to the way kaladin picks up a spear and needs to fight. Now other characters have similar things like Dalinar has an addiction to the thrill and adolin loves dueling, but adolin while he loves it never displays a similar bordering on physical need to fight. Dalinar does display this and that is related to the thrill and direct shardic influence. Dalinar also has a similar but slightly different relationship to the thrill, I think his is related to much more active shardic influence. He never displays this as a passive thing the way vin and kaladin do, for them it’s part of them for Dalinar it’s an effect being put on him. So basically we have 3 cases of this strange talent/addiction/ physical draw to a power/ fighting/ whatever else, one of them is different from the other two and is clearly due to direct shardic influence, one of them being vin seems very likely to be due to either direct shardic influence since she was groomed by cultivation I think either the spiritual feedback loop that grants skill, or the loop was naturally stronger because she took up a shard. Kaladin I think in this instance is unlikely to be dealing with direct shardic influence because his thing is more similar to vins then Dalinars, it is possible that it is due to him taking up a shard depending on how vin got her feedback loop enhanced. but it cannot be that honor enhanced the loop so there are two possibilities I think. 1. Kaladin will take up a shard(or become some other powerful entity)- which I do think is very possible considering the strange other abilities he has shown and the fact he is called son of tanavast. or, and this is the one relevant for my crazy speculation 2. Cultivation must have enhanced the spiritual feedback loop, it cannot have been honor since he is dead and idk why odium would do it.

In RoW, Venli mentions “Honor’s Moon” when referring to Nomon (the light blue moon). This got me thinking and I went onto Coppermind. Sure enough, we have a green moon (Mishim) and a violet moon (Salas). The same colours as the Lights. Is Mishim Cultivation’s Moon and Salas Odium’s Moon? It makes sense. Could each moon on Roshar be connected to a Shard?

Cultivation in my opinion seems to be shaping up to maybe be the real villain of not just stormlight archives but the cosmere. she has manipulated to our knowledge three major characters all of which we knew had been touched by the night watcher. We know cultivation has good future sight and has been manipulating things a lot, and her plans judging by the end seems to keep going, additionally rayse calls roshar a testing ground which seems sounds very cultivationy. But that’s not the point so let’s lay out people who may have been manipulated known- Dalinar- whose role was to become a bondsmith and we don’t know after that maybe become honor? taravangian- role was to become odium and save the cosmere? lift- unknown but the pattern seems to suggest her becoming cultivation. likely- Jasnah- what broke her has been mentioned before as some kind of mental problems as a child but she describes it as “a childhood illness nobody remembers” which sounds to me like the work of cultivation. evie- I think it’s very possible that she was somehow manipulating evie maybe not in terms of a boon or memory snip but maybe just straight up giving her instructions while she meditated. szeth- I think szeth may very well have been manipulated by cultivation, we know she had nightblood and it’s quite possible nightblood is the manipulation or there may be more. He had to have been there for taravangain to become odium and she must have known that. sja-Anat- I think it almost certain cultivation has worked with sja-Anat and maybe is what enabled her to break from odium, by extension I think she is also manipulating renarin and all those with corrupted spren. possibly- Rysn- idk what role she could have but I think it possible that she could have manipulated her lots of event shave been prodding her and Changing her life. aesudan- a lot about her is unknown and odd but certainly seems possible venli- not sure what would have been done but venli seems uniquely able to resist forms influence and is always herself even more so then Eshonai, maybe she caused her mother’s memory loss. Idk but it seems possible. Unlikely- Gavilar- possibly did soemthing to him but no indication of anything weird going on with him that seems in any way to fit cultivation’s methods so far. navani- same as a with gavilar sadeas- doubt it nothing seems to fit there on the fence- shallan- I think it possible that shallans memory compartmentalizations could have been something caused or at least aided by cultivation I mainly think this because they conveniently start to drop at certain times causing problems where nothing seems to have triggered it. kaladin- ok hear me out on this, something is going on with kaladin, something that I don’t know the end of but there he has a role we don’t fully understand im certain of it. The things that have happened in Rythm of war especially in terms of his fighting process remind me a lot of vin who we know became a shard for a while. My evidence 1. child of tanavast- sure it means soemthing not sure what 2. those yellow eyes when he killed the pursuer- I think that it had to do with the strong emotions he was feeling and his bond to odium the full extent of which we may not understand, also when I learned that war light was the name of honor and odiums light together It made me think that kaladin is gonna take up the two shards and become war, idk if this is gonna happen or not though. 3. Kaladin is being set up as the next dalinar- kaladin especially in Rythm of war and especially relating to his leadership style and evolving role has been described very similarly to dalinar especially early on in the series, i doubt cultivation would start her plan without a back up and it strikes me depending on what happened to kaladin he could become honor or odium, especially if you manipulate some of his past events. 4. vin parallels- kaladin especially this book in fights has seemed to be very similar to vins miraculous skill, and while this was always the case now more then ever the best example Being how he defeated a fighter with 7000 years of experience while unarmed and an emotional wreck and doing it all so fast that everyone around could barely register what was happening, that’s not just stormlight that’s something else. so while I can’t prove and can’t offer any specifics on her manipulation of kaladin it just seems very odd that cultivation wouldn’t have a plan or want to control kaladin considering that he seems like he has somewhere to go in terms of the grand story. Insane- syl- why did syl go dormant after bonding a Knight, we get basic explanations but we never hear about this being a problem other times, she also seems decidedly more independent and even like she has actual neurological things going on with her like adhd, overall she is a very odd spren. On top of this she slumbered for a long time and was only rediscovered recently only to immediately bond the redo under of the order of windrunners seems convenient, coudl cultivation have been keeping her hidden and asleep? ok actually just thought of soemthing to make syl more plausible she says she heard a pure tone or note in relation to kaladin many people think this is tien but couldn’t it be cultivation? also everyone needs to start wearing aluminum hats. just had a thought they are all shards, maybe kaladin is valor, and ambition coudl be venli, etc...

Three facts that we know: 1) Tanavast and Koravellium were romantically involved (https://wob.coppermind.net/entry/2786) 2) There are probably descendants of the original Vessels still alive today (https://wob.coppermind.net/entry/6383) 3) The Stormfather calls pretty much everyone a Child of Honor, but calls Kaladin a Child of Tanavast (https://wob.coppermind.net/entry/12688) Could it be that Kaladin Stormblessed is a living descendant of Tanavast, the original Vessel of Honor?

So the Dawnshard novella just recently came out and it had some seriously juicy lore tidbits for all of us to chew on. I'm going to be putting my interpretation of it here along with what I think is a probable timeline of events involving the Dawnshards. Nature of the Dawnshards So Adonalsium gave four primal Commands that spawned the Dawnshards and created the Cosmere. We know that one of them is Change and that together all four were used to Shatter God himself. I'm thinking these Commands are similar to the Christian notion of "Let there be light" while the resulting Dawnshards are a sort of imprint on the world left by the Commands. If God turning on the lights was a boot, the Dawnshard is a boot print. I believe these four Commands were Change, Survive, Unite and Distinguish. I don't know if these are the actual names of the Dawnshards (I would be surprised if Distinguish was 100% correct) but the gist of it remains the same. These four are two sets of two that, while not exactly opposite, are in some respects opposed. None are negative or positive, they simply are. Change and Survive are opposed as survival requires a certain amount of stasis. Unite and Distinguish are opposed as Distinguish implies individuality and unity implies a certain common ground. The Shattering of Adonalsium I believe that at one point they were all combined into a single weapon that was used to Shatter Adonalsium and that Hoid was the one who actually holding the thing when it all went down, as is referenced by Hoid being both "Topaz" as well as the "Bearer of the First Gem" as well as the WoB's that we have stating that the weapon used to kill Adonalsium is drained and inoperable and that Hoid's immortality is derived from it. It's drained because the Dawnshards were removed from it and Hoid's immortality comes from Survive. From Nikli's line in the novella we know that wielding a Dawnshard makes "Demands on a level that no person could ever manage alone..." Thus I believe that while Hoid was the one actually pulling the trigger, there was another group bracing and bolstering him, probably a group of 16, aka the Shardic Vessels. Think the ending scene from Guardians of the Galaxy. Starlord got his hands on the Infinity Stone but he couldn't use it until they all united their strength by using the secret move "Power of Friendship" :). I think that's what happened here only more premeditated God-murder and less dance off. Scattering of the Dawnshards My next bit of wild speculation is that I believe that when Adonalsium was Shattered, the Dawnshards contained in the weapon were scattered to four of the Vessels. Which Vessels got chosen probably had to deal with the specific theme of each Shard of Adonalsium. Cultivation and Ruin, for instance, both fit squarely in the Change quadrant. Here's how I think the Shards fall into the quadrants. Change - Ruin, Cultivation, Endowment Survive - Preservation Unite - Honor, Devotion, Dominion Distinguish - Odium, Autonomy, Ambition Ruin is Change through destruction. Cultivation is Change through improvement. Endowment is Change through transfer. Preservation is Survival through stasis. Honor is Unity through shared ethics. Devotion is Unity through love. Dominion is Unity through law and government. Distinguish is all about individuality (which is why I was having trouble with the word Distinguish. Individuality is not a verb!!!). This would mean the Odium is individuality through emotion, Autonomy is individuality through isolation and Ambition is individuality through accomplishment. I believe that Hoid either got the Survive Dawnshard or had it before the Shattering and the it somehow ended up with Preservation after everything was said and done. It is currently hidden on Scadrial somewhere. Honor got the Unity Dawnshard and took it with him to Roshar. I'm not sure who ended up with the Change Dawnshard but they must have given it up or had it taken from them somehow, probably the former, and it was then carried to Roshar and hidden in the cavern in Akinah. This leaves Distinguish, which I believe fell into Autonomy's hands. It's use might explain her weird avatar situation, granting herself an excess of individuality. She gave it to Odium to use in killing Devotion, Dominion and Ambition. This is how he wiped the floor with them without breaking a sweat, even in a two on one fight. This is also probably why Brandon was cagey about whether Bavadin helped Odium splinter D&D. She didn't really help commit the murder, she just handed the murderer a gun at some point. Dawnshard Battle on Roshar After Odium got done taking out D&D and Ambition, he set his sights on Honor and Cultivation. Big problem here though. Honor had a Dawnshard. I don't think he was actively using it though. It's my guess that there was some sort of agreement among the Vessels to not wield both a Shard and a Dawnshard at once. It would upset the balance of power too much. This is why Survive is being stored away on Scadrial, why Change was sort of floating around until it ended up in Aimia and why Honor was letting Ishar hang on to Unite, which he used to bind the surgebinders with oaths and create the Oathpact. But Odium broke the rules and so Honor took his Unite Dawnshard back to kick some butt. The problem for Honor was that Odium is just insanely more practiced and skilled in Shard on Shard combat at this point and was just more skilled with using a Dawnshard in general. Sure they both had guns but one has a seasoned fighter and the other was an amateur. Regardless Honor was enough of a threat with his Dawnshard that Odium had to take things slow and be cautious. This is also probably why Cultivation stayed out of this for the most part. She wasn't armed. Eventually Odium gets the upper hand and slips in a killing blow but Honor leaves his cognitive shadow, along with the Dawnshard that it's carrying, behind and has it fuse with the Stormfather. This now means that any Bondsmith that bonds to the Stormfather now has access to a Dawnshard as well as the Shard of Honor relative to how closely bonded they are with the Stormfather. The more oaths they say, the closer they get to becoming the Vessel of Honor and attaining the full power of the Dawnshard of Unity. This is probably how Melishi was able to bind the Singers into slaveform. This is probably also how Dalinar is able to Unite the realms. It also occurs to me that this might be a good explanation for why the Recreance happened. Honor was dying and as he was dying he gave his Dawnshard to the Bondsmiths. Since the Dawnshard was presumably what destroyed Ashyn people might have been worried about misusing that power. It would be like the President showing up to your house one day at random, mortally wounded, screamed something about the end of the world and gave you the nuclear launch codes before dying on your couch. Anybody would be freaked out, let alone the descendants of the people who once blew up a planet. They then immediately have their fears validated when Melishi, the new Dawnshard of Unity, uses his newfound power to lobotomize an entire sapient species. Yeah, I can see why they were concerned. Future of the Dawnshards It is my current opinion that at some point in a future book, Dalinar will say his fifth oath and bond fully to the Stormfather. This will cause him to ascend to become the Vessel of Honor and also grant him full access to the Unity Dawnshard. This time however the fight against Odium will go differently because Odium won't be facing kind old Tanavast. He'll be facing the Blackthorn. At that point Dalinar either keeps the Dawnshard or gives it up, either one seems plausible. The Change Dawnshard stays with Rysn for now but that could change in the future depending on how things play out. The Survive Dawnshard is probably being held by Kelsier currently, both because Kelsier is probably the most realmatically aware Scadrian, and thus probably knows all about Dawnshards and realizes that one is on Scadrial, but also because it fits thematically. Kelsier The Survivor, who fought gods and won, gets a god slaying weapon called Survive? It's freaking perfect. I honestly don't know what happens to the Distinguish Dawnshard. It honestly comes down to how the fight with Odium actually plays out. I doubt it can ever be truly destroyed but it might get lost somehow or simply gifted to someone responsible. Some Extra Reasoning Tidbits - I used Survive as one of the Dawnshards because Kelsier mentions hearing a voice tell him to Survive within the Pits and because it fits as a nice clean opposing force to Change. We also know a powerful weapon is hidden on Scadrial. - I used Unite because Dalinar's "I am Unity" moment as well as several mentions of Unity in Elantris in regards to Devotion and Dominions religions. There's also mentions of a Dawnshard that binds things, which I believe is Unite. - Distinguish (still feel like that's not a perfect word) is in there because I needed something to oppose Unity that fit for the remaining three Shards. Individuality seems to fit in my opinion. - As for why Honor mentioned that they won't have access to the Dawnshards, I have no idea. There's already one confirmed to be on the planet and if my theory is right there's another two. Maybe he's saying they can't use them because of the oaths? That seems to be the original purpose of Radiant oaths, to keep the people who could potentially misuse a Dawnshard in check. - I believe the one Dawnshard that is different from the other, as mentioned in a WoB, is the Survive Dawnshard as it's on Scadrial and the other three are on Roshar. - The Shard of Adonalsium that is loosely associated with wisdom and "just want's to survive" is probably in the Survive quadrant. - It seems to me from the line in the novella about Rysn not being able to use the power and the restriction in their contract about becoming a surgebinder suggests that the Dawnshard requires some sort of magic already present in the wielder in order to make it work. This suggests to me that the Dawnshard is less of a powerful spell and more of an amplifier of other magics, making them far more powerful and versatile. This is probably due to the problem that Nikli mentions about needing the breadth of understanding equivalent to a deity. A Dawnshard in a Soother's hands might let them manipulate the minds of everyone on a whole planet because the Soother's powers are being used as a framework in place of that required understanding. A Soother with Dawnshard could probably not manipulate the laws of physics to the same extent as he could manipulate emotions. Maybe a little, but not to the same apocalyptic degree that a Shardic Vessel could. - We know that Hoid derives his immortality from the weapon that killed Adonalsium and we know that he's been cursed to never harm another living thing. I believe that both of those come from the Survive Dawnshard. He survives through anything, including death, because of the residual influence of the Dawnshard. He also can't kill or maim because that's antithetical to the concept of survival. What are your guy's thoughts on all of this? Let's discuss.

I assume Rayzium (the investiture conducting metal the fuzed use) is the god metal of Rayze (Odium). I also assume that given how spren both come from shards and manifest in the physical realm as metal, this metal is the god metal of the associated shard the spren came from. If this is the case, could a mistborn burn a shardblade? If so, what would that do to the spren?

Sja-Anat is showing with Glys and now others the ability to modify True Spren which she couldn't in the past. So far, Dalinar and Taravangian were major parts of her plan that she used the Old Magic to cultivate, but Renarin seems to be one of the most important. It seems interesting that Cultivation wouldn't have used the Old Magic to cultivate Renarin's path in some way. Could Sja-Anat have went to the Nightwatcher and been granted a boon/curse by Cultivation herself? Sja-Anats new abilities seem like they could be Cultivation linked, allowing her to help sentient spren change their paths. Also, letting some children die so that others may live seems a Cultivation type approach. If its possible, a long view of Cultivation's plan could mean she helped link BAM to the Parsh and cause the False Desolation leading to everything happening now, but mainly curious if she could be responsible for Sja-Anats boosted abilities.

Odium killed Honor, but did he have help? I was going over some death rattles, (getting all kinds of ideas) and had this thought: Did the Heralds kill Tanavast? or somehow knowingly allow Tanavast to be killed? Did they have Cultivation help, did her machinations go back this far, did her power take over her vessel, and she cultivates plots? We know she has sought to replace at least one shard vessel. Chapter 1 Epigraph: "You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me! While the sun is still hot, I die!" Is this Tanavast, referring to the heralds, the heralds and cultivation, or maybe cultivation and odium? Why would Cultivation want to kill Honor and let Odium splinter his shard? What motivation? The Rhythm of War. The force created by Odium and Honor, as long as the two existed as equal power, the war would continue. Cultivation and the heralds would both have motivation to stop this. Chapter 54: "The burdens of nine become mine. Why must I carry the madness of them all? Oh, Almighty, release me." Was this Taln? Tortured on Braise, giving in, unable to take the torture, but Tanavast, being dead, unable to release him? If the herald could not be released, then perhaps the enemy could be locked away, and indeed it was, for a time. Tell me what you guys think.

Honor died, but we have several clues in RoW indicating that he may be re-emerging. We've known since OB that Dalinar has taken up Honor's perpendicularity. Rayse believes Dalinar ascended, but I don't think Dalinar is the one ascending, actually. Like ... like ... like Odium. Everywhere we see red and gold together, it is Odium. Perhaps this is merely an indication that Kal is close to becoming a Child of Odium at this particular moment, howling after losing Teft and then these eyes. At the same time, Odium-red eyes have previously always been caused by a bond with voidspren, which seems not to be the case here. And why would soldiers fear a child of Odium, like themselves? Instead, perhaps these colors point to Kaladin's coming ascension. Honor's robes are gold, as well. Moash's continual insistence surrounding Kaladin's immortality certainly points to ascension. Finally, Tara-Odium notices a "growing" and "verdant" power, which is clearly pointing toward Cultivation. However, just as the back of RoW falsely implies that Navani will be a Lightweaver with its half-dozen references to truths and lies, I believe this most obvious allusion to Cultivation is not the one actually intended. Verdant can also mean brand new and budding. Growing points to something new.

First time poster, so I'm not sure if this theory has ever been brought up before. I apologize if I'm retreading some well worn ground here. I can't explain why or how, but I think that going through an Everstorm for some reason starts to heal/reverse the effects that Cultivation bestows on her visitors. Dalinar in the Storm at the end of WoR starts remembering Evi soon after. Lift in the Storm at the end of Edgedancer and she can tell she is getting bigger and older in Oathbringer. As far as Taravangian, well I haven't finished RoW yet and I know that stuff is supposed to go into that section of the forums. Anyway, just an idea I've had up in the old brain so I thought I'd throw it out to you guys and gals to tear apart. Enjoy!

I've been thinking about the importance of songs and the singing the Listeners due with infused gemstones to encourage plants to grow. What if Cultivation's 10-centric magic system is a set of 10 songs which can be used by someone with a deep Connection to Cultivation and Roshar (such as the Singer/Listeners). These Songs of Power can do things like encourage plants to grow via a hypothetical Song of Progression. Lifelight in the system would be acquired by singing Cultivation's song by a Connected individual to infuse a sphere as we see with the Song of Prayer and so on. The songs would follow the 10 surges we've seen, and the Song of Transformation especially, could inspire the Old Magic stories.

If this has been suggested elsewhere, I'd love for someone to direct me to the post. In reading this short scene about Lift in RoW, I came across this quote from her - the wish she gave Cultivation: “I said when everything else is going wrong, I want to be the same. I want to stay me, not become someone else.” I've been wondering if one of Odium's goals is to somehow end or stop Highstorms, so that it becomes much harder (or impossible outside of Dalinar's abilities) to get investiture on Roshar. If that happens, "everything will be going wrong" and yet Lift won't change; she will still be able to use investiture. What do you all think? Any other clues that support or discredit this idea?

Where is Cultivations Perpendicularity? I thought it was the horneater peaks but know I'm not so sure. I'm new to the 17th Shard but I've read all the cosmere books. Now I just gotta reread them.

OK, this isn't a theory per se, more like an observation. The basic idea is this – there seem to be many parallels between Cultivation's magic and the Metallic Arts. I have no idea why or what to do with it, so I'm looking for suggestions Here is what I came up with so far: Artificial creation. The Metallic Arts come from an artificially created planet, Old Magic comes from an artificially created godspren Form on Investiture. Cultivation's gaseous Investiture is explicitly called mist and it's green color seems to match the Shard's symbolism, just like on Scadrial. Unlike Breath or Stormlight, it doesn't seem to be directly usable by regular magic users, which again matches the character of Preservation's mists and Ruin's black smoke The effects of the Scadrian godmetals. Allomantic Lerasium and Hemalurgic Atium allow for very general spiritweb modification, and so does the Old Magic. A person burning atium and duraluminium gets pulled into the Spritual Realm, so the regular atium users seem to exist there at least partially, just like Lift exists partially in the Cognitive Realm. Burning atium allows you to see the future, which is an occasional side effect of visiting the Nightwatcher's Valley Cultivation's boons. We have a confirmation that Dalinar and Taravangian got their boons and curses directly from Cultivation. Lift is also a very likely candidate, based on the “Act of Cultivation” WoB. The boons of these three characters actually share some similarities with the three Metallic Arts, and each character also seems to provide a different look at famous users of said magic from Scadrial: Lift – her boon (using food as a gateway for Investiture) is clearly based on the same principle as Allomancy. She also happens to be a young, very Preservation-minded thief with strange, incomprehensible powers given her by a Shard. Unlike Vin, however, Lift is a skilled healer, not an assassin Taravangian – his cognitive abilities (intelligence and compassion) can be increased/decreased at the cost of the other attribute, which bears some similarity to Feruchemy. Like Sazed, he figures a plan o save the world in a moment (OK, more like a day) of transcendence. He doesn't use knowledge gathered by other people though, he uses people as a resource to get knowledge Dalinar – when his boons wears off, he mentions that his pain seems like “tiny spikes in his soul” and he hears a mysterious voice talking to him, a known side effect of Hemalurgy. He's a Sliver (I think he counts after the ending of Oathbringer?) that tries to keep a hostile Shard imprisoned, but unlike Rashek he didn't end up conquering the world There are also some open questions: The Well of Ascension was used to contain a Shard and dramatically change a planet – something very similar to what the Dawnshards are supposed to do. It was also used to create the mistwraiths (and by extension kandra) and had a great effect on Preservation's sanity. We have the kandra-like Siah Aimians on Roshar and Honor wasn't very coherent in his final days... Are these all connected to each other and to Cultivation somehow? The ettmetal is crucial for developing Scadrian technology. Is Cultivation's magic somehow necessary for creating fabrials? Just like the previous question, it points to Aimia If this cool theory turns out to be true, Cultivation's magic helped to create the Nightblood, which contains Ruin's Investiture – another potential link to Scadrial

First of all, I am not very knowledgeable about Shards in general, I have pondered here and there. We know that once the 16 Shards after being picked up, made a kind of agreement to 1. 2 shards shouldn't settle in one system. 2. Shards will keep away from each other. There could be more agreements but I'm not aware. So we know of many breaches to the agreement above from what we have read in Mistborn and Stormlight series, also on smaller other works. So to the main topic. We know Shards Honor and Cultivation settled on the Rosharan System which has 3 planets. Ashyn, Braize and Roshar. This system was already in place as it was made by ADO. So my question. Did Honor and Cultivation go settle in Roshar from the start? My theory is that no. Maybe Cultivation was in Ashyn and Honor was in Braize. Roshar itself was already made by ADO and had life there as maybe crem. Maybe a young sentient life. But mostly it was stone. So to continue my theory we can imagine the Shards as their vessels or Avatar. Cultivation was in Ashyn. Hers is the surges. Then Odium came looking and Cultivation knew she wasn't powerful enough to fight against him alone causing her to panic and flee. But then Honor agreed to help fleeing Cultivation by trying to hold off Odium so that she can shelter in Roshar. But Honor got wounded but managed to trap Odium in Braize thus leaving Ashyn completely under the influence of Odium. This later caused the destruction of Ashyn once Odium became God there alone. Meanwhile Cultivation induced a lot of Investiture by her presence in Roshar. Later joined by a weakened and deteriorating Honor. They then mutually agreed to keep fighting Odium together with Honor making sure that he doesn't die in vain using his remaining power to set up various precautions against Odium namely Sprens, Unity (Spren of Roshar maybe), Oathpact, Oathgate, Honor's Perpendicularity, Heralds etc. The Sprens started copying their gods and started doing themselves creating the Knights Radiant. Until Odium started getting powerful enough to corrupt Roshar's magic system causing loss of Investiture and killing Honor finally. Personally I think with Cultivation' future sight she is playing the longer game of waiting than Odium who is like ADD hyper active, who eventhough has future sight is just using it for short term gains. Cultivation is in it for much longer. Sorry about the rambling.

I theorize each Shard gives access to its Investiture through a unique “primal force/fundamental law/something natural.” I believe the quoted WoB shows Cultivation’s primal force is the cosmere’s First Law of Thermodynamics: the inter-convertibility of mass, energy, and Investiture. Lift is a “hint” of Cultivation’s magic. Odium styles Cultivation’s primal force “transformation.” Roshar’s natural spren are an example of Cultivation’s transformative magic (from my magic theory post): Cultivation tells Dalinar, “I CONTROL ALL THINGS THAT CAN BE GROWN, NURTURED.” (OB, Chapter 114, Kindle p. 1079.) I believe Cultivation exercises her transformation magic through the pre-Shattering life “natural pathway”: Conclusion: Cultivation represents evolution – a Shard that’s primal force is mass-energy-Investiture conversion exercised through life’s natural pathway. Brandon says Cultivation would be a mono-green M:tG deck. TL;DR? Cultivation’s personally met with Taravangian, Lift, and Dalinar. Does that mean she’ll also meet with someone whose name begins with an R? Rlain? Idle thought. P.S. - All of you, wherever you live, please take care of yourselves and your loved ones during this plague. All the best, C.

There is more to Cultivation's magic than just Surgebinding or Old Magic. If you think about it, it does make sense that there would be more. Half of the Nahel Bond spren are theorised to be more aligned towards Cultivation but the overall system of Surgebinding is more of Honor. The Nightwatcher too is one spren, there should be more than just her boons and banes. We do know that something like Cultivationlight exists, Cultivation's Investiture in gaseous form: Some people assume that Fabrials are Cultivation's magic, due to some WoBs like: Which makes it seem like there are one for each of the Shards. But I don't think so, after all aren't Fabrials just an outgrowth of the Surges? They are the same forces, being tapped into via artificial rather than the more organic means of spren bonding that we occurring on Roshar including the Parshendi/Singer/Listener (what would be the correct way to refer to them now?) Forms of Power, as well as the Nahel Bond itself. We do also have this WoB though: And that made me wonder, what if, in regards to Cultivation's magic, Fabrials are, once again, "a part of it" Let's observe the Old Magic then, which is confirmed to come from Cultivation for clues Now that's interesting... There is also the magic from Ashyn which is related: Okay, then what do they all have in common? I think this: This has been theorized before, of course, notably here: And it's only fitting, I suppose, that the Roshar and Scadrial comparisons come full circle here. Much like Feruchemy, Surgebinding is of two Shards but leans towards one, magitech! Fabrials and medallions (when will we get a canon name for this?) and this unnamed magic and Hemalurgy. I'm proposing that Cultivation's magic might be a... metamagic like Hemalurgy. That it can be used to modify things via the metaphysical realms but in a more broader sense than Hemalurgy. I suspect that we've already seen an example of this happening: Vyre's knife. A knife with a sapphire on the pommel that glowed when used against the Herald Jezrien. It shouldn't be impossible for Odium's forces to use it, after all: We do see situations close to what's described above in multiple Cosmere books. The Fused have access to the Surges, Allomancy being stolen via Hemalurgy.

I was rereading OB and in the end Odium meets Taravangian and they make a deal in which the Diagram will work for Odium and in return Odium will spare anyone born in Kharbranth, their spouse and the city itself. I think this deal will be very important in the resolution of the first arc. 1 - There's the popular theory that Mr. T is a plant by Cultivation, i think the diagram was Cultivation way to bind Odium to an agreement which he, as a shard, has to follow as long as Taravangian keeps his word. 2 - This deal makes Odium ineffective against someone who was born in Kharbranth or their spouse. So i was trying to find some important character that was born in Kharbranth and was not Taravangian until i found one Hesina, Kaladin's mom. 3 - We know Hesina is not from Hearthstone and from some conversations in WoK we can assume she was born in a city, we also know Lirin lived in Kharbranth from a long time. So we can assumed they met there. 4 - We don't know when they returned to Hearthstone, i didn't find anything saying that Kaladin birth was in Hearthstone. And we know one of Kaladin grandparents is lighteyes, perhaps they were the ones who named him when they were still in Kharbranth. So in conclusion Cultivation plan was to force Odium to compromise with Taravangian, so that she could give an advantage to Kaladin, which might be Honor's champion.

Odium started doing this before Dalinar had his unity moment. Hence it is possible that he thinks to deny it to the Knights Radiant as the only good way to get into and out of Roshar. Or he needs for his own goals. Indeed I see three basic options Something hostile to him needs to be blocked from going into Roshar. Hoid? Is he that important? Mercenaries fighting for the Radiants? Nightblood? Odium wants to pass something physical into Roshar. That could be anything. Ideas? Does he still have forces on Ashyn after all these years? The perpendicularity offers some way to hurt Cultivation. What do you think?

Throughout the Cosmere we have seen Avatar of other shards , the island Patji in six of dusk is supposedly one of autonomy Avatars which got me to thinking . What other Avatars have we seen and are any of them on Roshar Of the top of my head I would assume said Avatar would be filled to bursting with power . But that is just me thinking , I’m a mortal sue me . But perhaps it doesn’t have to be so . All the Shard has to do to make an Avatar is find a area infested with investiture and change it according to the shards design and boom Avatar . When Honor and Cultivation came to Roshar that’s pretty much what they did to the Mega spren . Stormfather , Sibling , and Nightwatcher. But there has to be others : based upon what we have seen can u think of any others ? Here is my list of what could be 1. Urithiru , I think Urithiru is an avatar of Honor thus in hibernation since the Sibling is as well 2. The purelake . Something is going on with that place , thier are faint traces of magic . Little things like eating certain fish will give you access to fortune , etc . I think this is an Avatar of Cultivation 3. Everytime I mention Lift people get upset but I think she is more than a Radiant . She does too much , like entering Dalinar visions and leaving when she felt like it and took gaux with her 4. That giant spren that look like a great shell , that the Aimian guy was searching for 5. All the Heralds 6 the unmade can anybody think of any more that you might think qualifies to possibly be an Avatar? merry Christmas members !

This is obviously purely philosophical, but I was just wondering, if not for her relationship with Honor, would Cultivation have been drawn to Scadrial either instead of or in addition to Preservation? People often say that Preservation and Ruin were both drawn to Scadrial because of their opposing intents, kind of like two poles of a magnet. But strictly speaking Ruin and Preservation are NOT opposites. Ruin is essentially regression and Preservation is essentially stasis. The true opposite of Ruin is actually Cultivation, at least if we assume that her overall intent is growth/progression, which appears to be the case from what little we’ve seen of her. Preservation is effectively smack in between Ruin and Cultivation in terms of intent. And indeed, I would think that if someone were to simultaneously hold the Shards of Ruin and Cultivation, the result very well might effectively be a second more powerful Shard of Preservation, since the net effect of their two intents would cancel each other out. Anyone have any thoughts?

Let's start with some basic facts and my assumptions about the third magic system on Roshar: Fabrials are part of the third magic system (WoB) There is more to Cultivation's magic than Old Magic (WoB) and the green mist surrounding Cultivation and Nightwatcher seems to be Cultivationlight (WoB) Given that there are 30 magic systems on Roshar, I assume Cultivation's magic is also part of the third magic system Lift's boon seems to be the ability to use Cultivation's magic (WoB). There are also off-screen users of the same magic – I think the most reasonable candidate are the Sleepless, which are kind of Cultivation's agents (WoB) For Lift, food is the focus allowing her access to external Investiture (like metal on Scadrial, WoB). The exact type of accessed Investiture is a RAFO (WoB), but I assume this is Cultivationlight. If so, it can power Surgebinding (just like Stormlight can power fabrials) Given their short descriptions in Poem of Ista and their connection to Aimia (WoB), the Dawnshards seem vital for Surge fabrial creation I think the relation between Dawnshards and Surge fabrials is somehow similar to Honorblades and Shardblades/Shardplates (Surgebinding fabrial-like items) I assume that the analogy between Surge fabrials and Sharblades goes even further – the spren in these fabrials (unlike in modern fabrials) don't seem to be bound in the gemstones, but form the metal (godmetal) parts of the fabrial (Soulcaster chains, Oathgate keyhole). Or example, breaking the gemstones doesn't destroy the Soulcaster, but breaking the chains does. Gemstones are there to power and control the device (the latter also provides some analogy with bonding a dead Shardblade) What potential effects might Cultivation's magic provide? Here is the list of possible candidates I came up with – as you might suspect, they're generally very spren/fabrial–oriented: Wyndle believes that Lift exists partially in Cognitive Realm and this is supported by the fact that her shadow behaves abnormally with respect to the sun (WoB). It allows her to interact with spren in untypical ways (e.g. touch them). This is possibly the effect of Cultivationlight in her body If the magic system is inspired by the Dawnshards, imprisoning spren might be a part of it (an effect similar to what Timbre does to the Voidspren in Venli's gemheart). Lift even says this to Wyndle: It seems like a friendly teasing, but this might be foreshadowing hidden in plain sight Fixing broken Surge fabrials. Just like Stormlight is used for Shardplate regeneration, Cultivationlight might potentially be used to regrow fabrials (e.g. a broken Soulcaster) Continuing with the regrowth theme, I think Cultivationlight might be the key to reviving deadeyes Changing fabrial settings. Oathgates are currently tied to Urithiru route only, but it seems possible that they once provided transport between each other. Some Soulcasters provide many modes, but most are locked in one (safety measure?). I think Cultivation's magic might be the solution here, allowing its users to change fabrial's behavior I have absolutely no idea how Cultivation's magic can be obtained by humans (except by Nightwatcher's boon), but I believe there are multiple reasons why Adolin would be the perfect candidate for the first guy to achieve it: Killing Sadeas. At first it seems like an unnecessary plot with little to no payoff. But it proves that Adolin has the right mindset – he is ready to make a hard decision that would benefit all in the future (something that Cultivation would probably called “pruning” instead of murder). Such actions directly violate the First Ideal, but I don't think Cultivation's magic would have this type of restrictions. It would allow her agents to operate outside the bounds of Honor's oaths. Just look at Arclo killing two Skybreakers that followed him – it's not technically necessary (he admits it's barely self-defense), but, given their mission to eliminate Radiants, it saves lives in the long run Accepting necessary evil is something Shallan struggles with and Adolin could really help her with this. Kaladin could use some help as well It could potentially help him revive Maya Dalinar is a Surgebinder and Renarin is a quasi-Voidbinder – it would fit if Adolin had access to the third magic system (beyond fabrials, obviously). Also Dalinar can repair items with Tension/Adhesion and Renarin can heal people – it would be really interesting if Adolin could revive spren and fix fabrials Dalinar has access to huge amounts of Stormlight and Navani has the necessary knowledge, but Adolin might provide the catalyst to reboot Urithiru and wake the Sibling up