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First ideal edgedancer vs tin eye First ideal windruner vs thung. Third ideal wind run v mistborn era one mental Third ideal mistborn v era one mentals +atium mistborn. 4 ideal wind runner vs mistborn all metals.

It's pretty much exactly what the title suggests; I'm looking for any hints of Hoid having his Cryptic when he shows up in the Wax and Wayne series, which would suggest that he figured out the trick to taking Spren off of Roshar. Any mentions of "strange patterns/markings/symbols" when Hoid is on screen? Or him talking to someone that didn't seem to be there?

Let's talk about The Shattering of Adonalsium. (bit of a long post, I know, but trust me). Now, we can all agree that the Shattering is A Big Deal™ by Cosmere standards, and we've all been dying to get any tidbits as to the how's and why's of such a monumental event. Storms, we barely know the where's and who's! Most we can say is it happened A Long Time ago, in Yolen, and maybe Uncle Andy went along with it? That is why whenever Hoid or Khriss or whoever makes a reference to the Shattering, we pay VERY close attention! We are desperate to know what it looked like, why it happened, how it went about, what everyone in the Cosmere felt, and a million other things. We would love nothing more than a first-hand account of Adonalsium's death. But you know what Brandon gave us instead? Not a recollection of events by a scholar, not exposition by one of the Shards, not the how's or why's or the answer to any of those questions; no, instead of telling us how it looked or sounded or came about, Brandon showed us how the Shattering felt. From Dawnshard, ch. 16: Now I don't know about you folks but to me it seems that the first ever look we get at the Shattering, the first POV from the death of Adonalsium, is in the form of emotions. Those are the emotions that Adonalsium itself felt at the moment of its death. And how amazing is that?! For such a foundational event for the entirety of the Cosmere, we don't get something "normal" like 'Hoid remembered that fatal day, when everything ended' or some "regular" storytelling like that! Any other saga based on such an event would have just released a prequel featuring the Shattering. But instead, we get to experience firsthand what the Shattering felt like. We learn not what was said, nor the details of what transpired, but the feelings of God's death from millenia ago. And that, dear Sharders ,is the most original thing Brandon has ever written. Thanks you for coming to my TED talk.

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?

Are certain names and words in Stormlight Archive of Indian origin, eg. Navani, Narak, Shallan, Amaram?

So I assume that every theory I come up with, someone on this site already had in like 2007, and it was disproven by 2008 That being said... here goes. A long time ago, the planet Yolen was home to Humans, Dragons, Sho Del, and a being called Adonalsium. The sixteen cornered Adonalsium and Shattered him. The sixteen, newly Ascended, each went their separate ways. Most went to their own Shardworlds. Some, like Bavadin, went to a sun. At least one just went somewhere in space. A few went two-at-a-time to a planet - like Aona and Skai on Sel - despite having bound themselves not to do that. Some used the powers of the Shards to make their own worlds, like Scadrial. (Aside: I wonder if Ati and Leras made their planet just to avoid some specificity of the language of their oath not to settle on the same planet. Which explains why Odium And Friends weren't able to kill and splinter them as easily as they did - even when their own fighting left them both preposterously weakened. Imagine if Ati and Leras were lovers or best friends, and the opposing nature of their Shards drove them to such enmity. All for their hubris. What a tragedy that would be.) Rayse - Odium - went off to his own Shardworld. This was not Braize - he would not end up there until much later. This planet was probably in its own solar system where Rayse could be a God unquestioned. Two Shards, however, decided not to leave. They would stay on Yolen together. These shards were Mr. and Mrs. Avast - Koravellium and Tan - the shards of Cultivation and Honor. When Rayse went to his planet, he took a group of humans with him. But he did not take every human off of Yolen. Many stayed with Cultivation and Honor. As did many dragons - Cultivation's species - and many Sho Del. We don't know much about the Sho Del. But they, and their ecosystem, was in conflict with the humans and their ecosystem. If Honor had stayed on Yolen alone, he would have established firm rules that allowed the two ecosystems to live side by side. If Odium had stayed on Yolen, he would have pitted them against each other until the stronger survived and the weaker died. But, true to her Shardic intent, Cultivation offered a compromise. She would let the two species grow together into one. The same will that would one day lead to the creation of the Sibling and its mixed light, spread across Yolen and all its people. Sho Del and humans could come together and create one species to live in harmony. The human and Sho Del ecosystems were also intermixed, creating wholly new hybrid species at every level. It is possible that some elements of each ecosystem were kept unchanged. Whether to act as a control group (like the South Scadrians), or through xenophobia, or just to preserve diversity, I cant say. This is related to one of the few pieces of Yolish trivia we have: that a common saying there was "May two worlds become one to you." Perhaps this is the same as many people on Earth say a variation of "may peace be with you" - because thanks to the intervention of the Shards, the conflict between these two ecosystems was ended by their merging. On Yolen, "two worlds becoming one" was literally synonymous with peace. And there was peace. Until there was Odium. Odium's planet was originally populated by humans who followed him from Yolen. As best as we know, those people destroyed their planet. They tried to manipulate the fundamental Surges, using even the Dawnshards, and in the end it was too much for them. They delved too deep, in the Moria sense; they opened the Bore, in the Collam Daan sense. This is a facially probably story. I mean, storms, look at what Rashek did - and he didn't have a Dawnshard - and he was fueled by an intent to Preserve! Yet still, I question the historicity of this account which blames humans. I rather expect that it was Odium who was trying to use the Dawnshards to do things that even his Shardic power did not allow him to do - such as change the fundamental rules of the universe. He failed. In his failure he destroyed his planet - maybe even his entire system. He needed help. He reached out to other Shards, who mostly told him to go pound sand - they knew what he had done to Aona and Skai and Uli Da. But when he reached out to Koravellium and Tan, they were willing to listen to him. In part because there were two of them and only one of him and they felt they could control him. In part because they felt sympathy for Odium's desperate humans - Cultivation to protect life, Honor to support a ruler's obligations to his people. (This leads me to another theory about what happened on Odium's planet - which is that he intentionally destroyed it, in order to create a situation whereby he could con Honor and Cultivation into helping him. It doesn't really matter - Honor is dead, and Rayse is too.) There were probably other factors at work. Perhaps Odium had something which Honor and Cultivation wanted: the ability to forgive them for breaking their word and choosing to reside on the same planet together. Perhaps he had something else they wanted: a Dawnshard. Perhaps they had a Bondsmith and so they felt they could create a pact which would protect them. Perhaps all three. In the end, they offered Odium a deal. He could return his people to Yolen. They wouldn't be too much of a bother - hell, if Honor and Cultivation had managed to find peace between the humans and Sho Del, dealing with just a few more humans would be easy. They would take these refugees. But in exchange, Odium would have to agree to restrictions, for Honor and Cultivation's safety. He would have to agree to be bound on a barren planet next to Yolen and would only observe and interact with his people through intermediaries. Odium agreed. Odium's planet was brought to the Yolish system. I expect this was done for practical logistical reasons, such as because Odium's people did not have enough idea of the Cosmere to find Yolen in the Cognitive Realm. While they were about it, they brought in a second planet, one just as barren, which would serve as Odium's prison. Suddenly Yolen went from being the only major planet in its system, to one of three. The other two were the planet that Odium's people came over on, and the planet on which Odium now resided. These were positioned to either side of Yolen so that visual astronomy, and therefore travel in Shadesmar, would be possible. This might have made it easier to get the humans from their planet to Yolen - but it would have been necessary for Odium's intermediaries to continue leading and viewing the people to whom he was a God. It is quite possible that Yolen's orbit was altered slightly, so that both of its two new planets would be visible to the naked eyes of its inhabitants. Unfortunately things did not go exactly as planned. Whether by natural occurence, or by Odium's influence - and of course I am disposed to expect the latter - the human/Sho Del hybrid race on Yolen began to worship Odium. By a turn, the humans that came with Odium began to ally themselves with Honor. This lead to a conflict between the two that threatened to be just as terrible as the ancient conflict between the humans and Sho Del. Cultivation attempted to solve this conflict the way she had solved the last one, by creating a hybrid species between the hybrid race and the humans. This did not work. In the end, Honor returned to Odium and offered him a new bargain: the Oathpact. Odium already had his ten intermediaries who could move between his prison-planet and Yolen. These ten humans... perhaps they switched loyalties to Honor, just as the human/Sho Del hybrid race had switched loyalties to Odium. Or perhaps something even more sinister is going on here. I can hardly speculate. This resulted in the Desolations, the death and splintering of Honor, and the modern history of Yolen as recorded in the Stormlight Archive. This is because my theory is that Yolen and Roshar are one and the same. The world we know as Roshar was once known as Yolen. The physical evidence has mostly been subsumed under crem. The memory of Yolen has mostly been subsumed under the eons, aided by the Desolations. That is why the location of Yolen is not known to (say) Silverlight - but rather than calling it 'unknown' or 'lost,' Khriss refers to it only as 'shrouded.' Its shroud is that it is known by the world which replaced it. It is hiding in plain sight. I do not know whether the Sho Del continue to exist, on Yolen or anywhere else. I don't see any evidence that unmixed humans remained on Roshar - or dragons, for that matter - so it seems unlikely that unmixed Sho Del persisted either. It is possible that they dwell in the oceans of what we now call Roshar. The Tai-Na could be the original Sho-Del - but I expect they are more likely to be a cross between the human Giant Turtle and a Sho Del equivalent. However, you can see much of the Sho Del ecosystem remaining in the rockbud-and-cremling ecosystem of modern Roshar. Perhaps this is the Sho Del ecosystem as it once existed - the equivalent of what in Dragonsteel Prime was called the fain. I expect that the Rosharan ecosystem is a hybrid between the Sho Del and human. Human dogs and their Sho Del equivalent were mixed to create axehounds; crabs and bulls were mixed to create chulls (a straightforward portmanteau of the words "crab" and "bull"). It may even be that the word for the human-Sho Del hybrid is a portmanteau indicating its origins. Part Sho Del, Part Human: Parshendi. The Parshendi are the Sho Del/human hybrids that were created by Honor and Cultivation to be the sole inhabitants of Yolen from the Shattering onwards. They were the sole - or at least, the primary - inhabitants, until Odium returned with his desparate band of humans. These humans were given Shinovar, which became a refuge for both the descendants of the humans of Yolen and their customs. I expect the Shin reverence for stone derives from the Yolish period, as a practice that resulted from humanity's conflict with the fain, whereby clean stone was kept in rings around towns so that moss, a sign of the advancing fain ecosystem, could be noticed as soon as possible. As with much in Sanderson's work, reasonable practices of survival and culture were eventually transformed into religion, disconntected from its original reason for being. It began on Yolen, was removed from its original context when brought to Odium's planet, and by freak happenstance ended up back on Yolen - a Yolen so changed that it was just as irrelevant, and yet, like so much of culture, persisted. The planet known to Vorinism as the Tranquiline Halls is what is known to Rosharan astronomers as Ashyn. What is not commonly understood is that the planet Ashyn is not native to the Rosharan system. Neither is Braize. When Odium destroyed his own system, Ashyn and Braize were brought to the Yolish system. Ashyn was brought to facilitate the transfer of its people to refuge in what is now known as Shinovar. Braize was brought to be a prison planet for Odium: Damnation. In subsequent years, we have seen interbreeding between the human/Sho Del mix known as the Parshendi, and unmixed humans. This can be seen in such human genetic groups as the Unalaki and Herdazians, wherein the human genetics are more and most dominant respectively. Perhaps this was forced by Cultivation in an attempt to recreate her solution to the human/Sho Del conflict of eons before. Or perhaps it is a pure happenstance, resulting from the Parshendi being half human - enough, it seems, to interbreed. We have seen similar levels of genetic expression as to another species: the Siah Aimians and the Natan. This makes me wonder whether the Siah are a nonhuman species and the Natan a new mixed-genetics species, or whether the Siah are a mixture like the Parshendi, and the Natan a point between the equal mixture and full human rather like the Unalaki or Herdazian. Because of his partial shapeshifting ability but humanoid appearance, it would not surprise me to learn that Axies the Collector, and his fellow Siah Aimians, are a hybrid between human and the other species of Yolen, the dragons. The Natan people are the result of breeding between this half-human hybrid and pure humans - the descendants of those who left Yolen with Odium, and then returned from Ashyn. As the Parshendi are to humans and Sho Del, the Siah are to humans and dragons. Perhaps there is even a mixed dragon/Sho Del species - I would suspect the larkin, like Chiri-Chiri. One related possibility is that the planet Yolen was moved somewhat in space, like Scadrial was. This may have been done in order to better accomodate the sudden arrival of two new planets in its system. Or it may heve been done before that, by Shards trying to create an ideal habitat for its combination human-Sho Del ecosystem. In either event, it seems like it required a little tweaking - much like Rashek giving the North Scadrians adaptation to ash and its effects. Perhaps throgh magical evolution, perhaps through the hand of the Shards, some animals of this new ecosystem were bonded to various nonsapient manifestations of investiture in the Cognitive Realm - what modern Rosharans would call the spren of Shadesmar. This can be seen in greatshells who bond to luckspren, or in Rhyshadium who bond to musicspren - probably the result of horses who left Yolen and returned later from Ashyn. (Fans of the Giants series might see reflections of Minerva in this theory.) One derivative theory might be of interest. How did the humans get from Ashyn to Yolen? They could have crossed through Shadesmar. I have a hunch that they crossed through the physical realm. I bet that Ishar, whether or not using a Dawnshard, created a physical portal between Ashyn and Roshar - a kind of super Oathgate, the Gotthard Base Tunnel or Danyang–Kunshan Bridge of Oathgates. I base this on only one thing: crem. We know that crem was not always part of the Highstorm cycle. Perhaps it was created by Cultivation in order to provide an environment that would be adaptable to her new hybrid ecosystem. That is perhaps the most likely explanation. But another is that a physical gate was opened between Ashyn and Yolen/Roshar and was never closed. This maybe by intention, or by Odium's trickery (maybe their pact said "it will close as soon as the last person crosses," and yet one billion-ass-year-old person remains on Ashyn, thus keeping the portal open.) This portal is located at the Origin. Because Ashyn has been rather destroyed, its shredded topsoil keeps getting blown through the gate. It gets spit out onto Roshar, where the Highstorms then carry it across the world. This would explain why the crem cycle only began so relatively recently in the life of the planet. It would also mean that, at every Highstorm, anyone on Roshar could look up and say "Ashyn fell from the sky." A final point is that this implies that Adonalsium was shattered on what we now know as Roshar. I expect this is likely from evidence we have of modern Roshar. The Shattering caused a release of energy so great that its seismic effects can still be seen in the form of the Shattered Plains. Yes, indeed, Adonalsium was Shattered in Plain sight. The only reason the Shattered Plains are still visible is that their deep crevices drain away the crem from the Highstorms - otherwise they would have been turned into a simple field long ago, the site of the Shattering forgotten. It would not surprise me to learn that some of the great features of Roshar were created through cymatics back when the world was still known as Yolen. This could have been through the deific music of Adonalsium. It could have been through the non-shardic "gods" of Yolen before the Shattering as referenced in WoB. Or perhaps it was simply as a result *of* the Shattering. That great release of Investiture carried with it the rhythms, the pulses, of that investiture, which were so great that they created structures such as the Windblades in an instant. In any event, I expect it shall be seen that such features of ancient Roshar are in fact relics, not of an older Roshar, but of Yolen. (Woolheads might say that Urithiru is Rhuidean, but things like the Windblades are straight up Paaran Disen.) Finally, it may well suggest that Frost has been on Roshar this whole time. Perhaps we've seen him already. Or perhaps he's a Sleepless who is also a Kandra, okay I'm tired I'm a stop now. Thanks for reading. Hope you all went long on tinfoil stonks.

I ran across a closed discussion on Mistborn vs Radiant from a few years ago yesterday and it got me thinking how a conflict between the two might resolve and in who's favor. In it they were comparing a Vin with a Kaladin both having ample means of investiture which in cosmere practicality would have to happen during a high storm with mist though that wasn't stated. So how would a contest shake out between a Skadrian and a Rosharan given that there is every possibility that if Odium wins the contest of champions Rosharan's could be sent out into the Cosmere to conquer or bring order. Radiants seem to operate like twinborns with 2 surges and a hybrid surge or compounding, but they are limited to 10 specific combinations where Scadrian twinborns have an Alamantic investiture and a Feruchemical Investiture combining to 256 different investitures including 16 that compound while the other the other 240 create an enhanced composite effect of the 2 investitures. That doesn't include the 2 God metals one of which would create a full Mistborn with a feruchemical compounding. For this discussion limit it to Twinborn vs Radient and the possibility of cross investiture such as a spren bonded Scadrian or hemolurgically enhanced Rosharan or some plausible Rosharan misting without Lerasium. Atium legal but only as a misting or fering though that might only be available on Scadrial in the mist since Harmony doesn't produce it anymore. To start with could an aluminum compound Twinborn be the ultimate immune to direct investiture attack Maybe even to the point that a shard blade doesn't sever the spirit but instead becomes a conduit to drain the Radiant's storm/void light? An aluminum gnat actively burning acting as a sink to any overt lashing like soul casting, gravity, adhesion, etc... Also with any hand held aluminum piercing weapon of any kind they might be able to drain the storm light from shard plate or sword and the radiant. The other thought I had was that windrunners could fire projectiles using reverse lashings on low mass objects in hand turning them into guided missiles at their opponents. Those dun spheres, chips, pebbles, would then make dangerous projectiles with multiple reverse lashes that would almost never miss their target. Or imagine a Rioter who bonded a cryptic or Soother who bonded a High Spren. Any Scadrian Twinborn who bonded a spren might be able to use storm/void light to invest their metal mind. I could see a Tin compounder bonded to any Spren having the physical skills to take full advantage of the awareness given by their Tin. It also seems to me that it would be easier for a Twinborn to bond a Spren than a Rosharan to develop metal arts giving Scadrian's an advantage in the long run in the contest and perhaps over other forms of investiture in the Cosmere. My guess is that upon initial contact the advantage goes to the Rosharan's, but in the long run the advantage goes to the Scadrian's. (I hope my spelling is ok since I listen to the books not actually read them so I spell them phonetically.)

In the RoW Chapter 6 epigraph it is stated that the fabrial function is determined in part by the metal used. I think it would be worthy to ask Brandon if the metals used in the metallic arts are the same that can produce functional fabrials.

The economy in Roshar is based on gems. But there is no mention, as far I remember, to mining. Well, there are emeralds in chasmfiends, but I don't know where diamonds, rubies, etc can be found. And why are there so many gems that a beer costs a small diamond? Moreover, if diamonds in Roshar are so cheap, there should be tons of coal, shouldn't it? Then, why is the expensive wood is used to make fire? Is all the steel made by soulcasting? If not, coal is known... Where are the mines? If yes, how do they know what steel is to start? Is there a reason or it is just fantasy? What do you think?

Brandon has said that Era4 will be a clash of cultures. We now know that this will probably involve a Rosharan/Scadrian conflict. And in RoW we’ve seen what may well be its beginnings. So this is what I think will be the heart of the Scadrian/Rosharan conflict. Scadrial is society created by thieves. They revere a conman, Kelsier and venerate am assassin, Vin. They naturally seek the mists, which actively work to conceal Allomancers. They are a society naturally drawn to the shadows. Fighting fair is NOT how they operate. Roshar is the opposite. Knights in literal shining armor, bound to honor codes. The most duplicitous of the Orders revolves around Truths. They’re practically designed for a straightforward fight; you can’t hide if you glow in the dark! I can’t imagine why the Rogue planet doesn’t get along with the Paladin planet... Chaotic Good/Neutral vs. Lawful Good/Neutral... We can see this with the Ghostbloods, which we now know are run by Kelsier. As I’ve pointed out on other threads, they’re on the same side as the coalition - quietly. They want Dalinar to win. But the way they’re doing it (leaving aside the actions of individuals) is not a method most Radiants could approve of. But it gets better. Scadrial is the world most like Earth. It utilizes mechanical industry and the metallic arts. It’s the type of industry that, as we know, can easily scour the land. On top of which, the allomantic and feruchemical arts are internal and intrinsic. And those two combined allow for fairly easy sharing of powers. And then there’s Hemalurgy. The ability to steal any power with the proper training - so long as you’re willing to kill. On Roshar, in contrast, industry is almost entirely Investiture based. And we now know that fabriels can be created by Spren, without needing to harvest resources. On Roshar, industry may very well follow a more symbiotic path; note that much of their nature and their major investiture system is all about symbiosis. The powers so granted, however, are not easily transferred. And while Bondsmiths can more easily manipulate Connection, there are some fairly strict limits (including an inability to travel). Hemalurgy lacks those constraints, being limited only by knowledge and morality. And there are no Oaths to enforce the latter. And what is the Shard of Scadrial? Harmony. What is the hypothesized union of the three Rosharan Shards? Conquest. Honestly, when you look at it, it makes a lot of sense that these two would end up conflicting. The natures of the worlds are inherently opposed.

After a re read of RoW I kept noticing more mention of color and it’s effect on the spen or magic system on roshar. There was the talk about Spren and the colors of gemstones which was interesting but the stranger one was about the pursuer and his husk. I noticed how it was mentioned that the color was drained from the husk leaving it dull and grey. is there a connection or similarity to nalthis magic? To me it read like the color was drained from his body and was needed for his next. just a thought. Thanks for any input!

Raysium is now confirmed to exist, and we know that it can steal stormlight. We have also seen the mechanism reversed, and the captured stormlight (or voidlight) was pushed along the blade into whatever was stabbed. Raboniel told us that the transfer of Stormlight works best if you stab the holder of the Investiture. I think this sounds an awful lot like Hemalurgy. If anything, this may be a more effective way of hemalurgy. What if you stabbed an allomancer with it and stole their powers. You go over to your friend, reverse the effects, and stab them. The power flows into them, and then the knife can be removed.

So in chatting on another thread I’ve realized we have two unanswered questions that are vital for Roshar as it moves into the larger Cosmere: 1. Does aluminum/ralkalest occur naturally on Roshar? 2. Can soulcasters turn other things into Aluminum? I can’t find any clear answers either way, only assumptions made by in world, non-expert, characters. But the answers are crucial for Rosharans as they move toward their technological/industrial revolution. Personally, I think it does not occur naturally, and cannot be made by soulcasters. And that it may only occur naturally on Scadrial. I feel that makes for really interesting dynamics between Scadrial and Roshar moving forward. However these questions are answered though, it’s going to change our understanding of the economy of Shadesmar, and our understanding of the conflicts between Shards/Shardworlds in the future. Edit:

Much of the plot of Oathbringer and now Rhythm of War has been driven by Odium's desire to free himself from Honor's shackles and escape to do Odium things in the rest of the cosmere. His first plan was stopped dead by Cultivation's timely restoration of Dalinar's memory, and his second plan was rudely interrupted by Nightblood. And now he is bound to an agreement with Dalinar that focuses exclusively on his release. However, should he win that duel, I think Odium will be rather surprised! THEORY: Odium is too Invested in Roshar to leave, just like any other Shard on their homeworld. That is to say: he's stuck. Interestingly, this theory also involves the details of the Recreance, of which several more have been revealed. There was a theory post floating around somewhere that I will try to find and edit the link in where large parts of this were discussed, so this is not entirely my original work. EDIT: Similar thoughts were noticed here, specifically the ten-centric argument. The two three tones of Roshar The first and most important step for this theory is an off-hand comment by the Sibling. In RoW Ch 69, they specifically refer to the two pure tones: Obviously, given that this is the Sibling speaking, they are referring to the tones of Honor and Cultivation. It is not hard to reason that when the Sibling was created, Honor and Cultivation both had become Invested enough in Roshar to start making great works. This also comes with the necessary perpendicularities, the magic systems, and so on. And, importantly, until now, they were only aware of the two tones and had no idea Odium was involved at all. Another aspect of being significantly Invested in a planet is that Shards can't really leave. I don't have the exact quote for this (I'm looking for it), but WoB tells us that Shards get stuck to their home planets and that their shardpool is actually a manifestation of this. As it applies to Roshar, it is not hard to see that Honor and Cultivation are stuck. Then why does the Sibling refer to two tones instead of three? Well, the natural guess is that Odium was not previously Invested enough in Roshar to cause it to register as "home." I propose that the introduction of the third tone is what caused the Sibling to forget his original tone, on account of everything shifting in the Spiritual Realm to accommodate the new tone. This seems like it would be a vastly unpleasant experience in all three Realms, and indeed the Sibilng refers to it as such in RoW Ch 49: RoW Ch 49: In summary, when Odium was suddenly Connected enough to Roshar to register his own tone, it changed the others enough that the Sibling forgot theirs. Now, what sort of event would that be? Ba-Ado-Mishram and the Recreance The previous theory reference above made a rather elegant claim: the Recreance was caused by Melishi doing whatever was necessary to bind BAM into a gem and stop the False Desolation. The Knights, seeing the damage done to the singers, decided that they could no longer continue on in good faith. And, as RoW showed us, the spren agreed. I propose that the damage was much more serious. The first example of this is in Kalak's epigraphs (RoW Ch 97): We also know that the Recreance changed something fundamental about spren and the Nahel bond (note the Sibling quote above, and here in RoW Ch 115): It's not hard at all to connect the dots here: Melishi imprisoning BAM led to the singers being Disconnected, the Sibling to losing their rhythm, and the creation of deadeyes. The Everstorm and Voidbinding A cosmere scholar might ask at this point: if Odium is now tied inexorably to Roshar, where is his corresponding manifestation? Shouldn't there be symmetry here? And the answer is yes, that's the Everstorm. Honor and Cultivation both are involved in highstorms -- Honor's power and Cultivation's life-giving crem. Odium, correspondingly, has a storm that allows his Fused to be reborn. Now, the Everstorm cannot itself be the catalyzing event described above since it is too new, but it's not actually new (as we see in RoW Ch 73): What I am proposing, effectively, is that the Everstorm has been building ever since the Knights inadvertently tied him to Roshar. Actually getting it to cross over into the Physical Realm took time and planning, of course, but it stands to reason that a huge chunk of Investiture like the Everstorm can only exist if the Shard in question is tied down to the planet. It's also worth noting that the vast majority of power employed by the Fused during the war does not appear to be of Odium. Instead, they are using Voidlight to power Odium's corrupted (i.e., red) version of Surgebinding. This is obvious from the fact that the Fused are merely imitating the magic system: no spren and access to only one Surge. Assuming that this was true during true during past Desolations as well, Odium was not using his own Roshar-based Voidbinding. We know that Voidbinding must be Roshar-based because it has ten levels (and Braize is nine-centric), so its existence means that Odium is Invested in the planet enough to form a magic system. As an aside, a good question for Brandon is to ask if there is an Odium perpendicularity in the Everstorm. Given that the Fused come out of the storm and inhabit new bodies, I would say that is is likely. Conclusion Originally, Odium was fighting a foreign war on Roshar, sending Fused who used Rosharan magic to fight the humans. He was not originally Invested enough in Roshar to have his own tone or magic system, but this changed during the Recreance. 'Suddenly Odium' was a problem for the spren and specifically the Sibling, but it also means that Odium is too Invested in the planet to leave. If he hasn't figured this out already, he's in for a rude awakening should he defeat Dalinar. EDIT: Thanks to whichever mod moved this to the appropriate subforum

So, I have been thinking about the endpapers of Rhythm of War and I think that the Kalak and Pailiah ones are Alethi (or otherwise Vorin), the Chanarach one is Shin, and the Nale one is either Azish or Shin. My reasoning is that Kalak and Pailiah both fit into what I imagine the Vorin range of appearances to be, Pailiah has a covered safehand but an uncovered freehand, and they have the same artist. My reasoning on Chanarach is that she is very pale for a Rosharan, has round eyes, and has an uncovered safehand, plus, there are fairly Earthlike trees behind her. Nale has the same artist as Chanarach, has birds in the background, and while his eyes are closed they appear fairly round, which support shin, but his uniform also seems to fit what has been described as an azish uniform, and his background prominently features metallic spheres and domes, which we know are a major part of the architecture in Azimir, and presumably other Makabaki cities. So, does anyone else have any thoughts? Theories about the OB papers are welcome, too. Also, while this is in the RoW spoiler section, please avoid RoW spoilers, at least for now.