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So I have been doing research for the wiki on the Ryshadium, Sureblood and Gallant. And as I have been looking back through Oathbringer I have noticed some interesting development and a lot of glaring gaps when it comes to the Ryshadium, specifically the way they choose a rider. Every time in every book when taming the Ryshadium or being chosen by a Ryshadium is brought up it is vague or cut off in the characters thoughts. I am starting to think this is on purpose. We know that you must be chosen by a Ryshadium otherwise they cannot be tamed, we don't know anything about this process. Additionally there is some interesting development with Dalinar in relation to horses in the flashbacks of Oathbringer. At the beginning he rides a horse and doesn't care at all when he breaks it's back in battle, compared to now when he has this special connection with Gallant. For me that shows a lot of development in a lot of ways. He went from a man who would never be chosen by a Ryshadium, to one who was chosen. Also does anyone have any theories as to why music spren would be seen around Ryshadium? Are there any book descriptions of music spren?

So I have been thinking about this for a while and I want to know what people think. Warning, I will be diving in to the Christian Faith a bit and I do not mean to cause any hard feelings. I also want to know what other people have to say because I think that Sanderson does a really good job on his religions and I want to see the parallels to Earth religions. I have been comparing some of the stuff the New Testament says and the Oaths of the Knights Radiant. They do seem to have some correlation, specifically the Bondsmiths. Here we go: First Ideal: Life before Death, Strength before Weakness, Journey before Destination. Correlation: see the Immortal Words page on the Coppermind Wiki but I will break it down. Life before Death: in my family, we are taught that dying for Christ is easy, but living for Christ is hard, I think that this is reflected in the explanation of this part of the Oath. Dying/killing should never be the first option. Strength before Weakness: Servant Leadership, we see this in Kaladin in the first book and is a theme through out the NT. Journey before Destination: Your faith should effect how you live your life, the walk is just as important as the end goal. Bondsmiths: I will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man: That really resonates with the idea in the Christian faith that we should keep growing and expanding our faith and that there will be set backs. If we ignore our set backs and sin, they will keep us from The LORD and growth in our faith. Only by acknowledging what we have done can we really change for the better. Now I know this will be controversial, but I do not mean it to be so. I want to know if other people have seen similar correlations between their faiths and philosophies when reading Sanderson's works. Thanks.

What is the population of the Radiant Spren in Shadesmar? What was it before The Recreance? This question has been bugging me for a while now; lets take Honor Spren for example. They have been trying to take over Shadesmar, and they own several cities there. Along with this they've been waging war against the other "Radiant" Spren. So owning this much land and cities I'd estimate their population at least at 100,000 or so. This would probably be accurate or similar to the population of Honor Spren before the Recreance; as it was said that it took them a long time to get back to where they were population wise before. The Order of Windrunners who they bonded to, had over a 1000 members at its height; however even assuming they had this number during the recreance. So they betrayed their oaths only 1000 oaths would have been broken, so only 1000 spren killed. However it is said that The Recreance decimated population's of these spren and it took them centuries to recover. 1000 spren is nowhere near the benchmark of 100,000 is stated earlier. Yes it would have been a very big deal to the spren, yet it shouldn't have had the affect that it had. What does this imply for the Spren Population?

Is Roshar's water level draining? More islands in the archipelagos are appearing since the silver kingdoms epoch as well as the existing islands become larger.

I was reading an interlude from the Way of Kings, and the Purelaker's religion reminds me very much of Trelagism from Scadrial. Particularly that there are two competingbrother gods, with one more jealous than the other. For the Purelakers, the only place where it's safe to openly worship their god is in their holy grottos. If there really is something to this religion, and its similarities to Trelagism imply there is, I wonder if the grottos are somehow (naturally or otherwise) made from aluminum rich metals, which would in fact block the "gaze" of a Shard, like we saw in Oathbringer under Kholinar. The second one is a bit looser: In that interlude, the Seventeenth Shard is asking their fisherman spy Ishikk if he's had any luck finding Hoid, and he tells them he hasn't. As they leave, Ishikk overhears one of them (good old Galladon) say that this is a fool's quest, which amuses Ishikk. Admittedly this is a stretch, but a royal Fool is pretty similar to a King's Wit (or an Imperial Fool on Sel). Any chance Ishikk knew they were looking for Hoid, and that they were in fact literally questing for a fool? In that case Ishikk would have to be a friend of Hoid, or at least someone he paid off to mislead them. I thought by the names he might be Ishar too, but insane god-king-Heralds probably don't do much fishing in their spare time. So what do you think, either of these have anything going for them?

Creating this topic for Oathbringer-related discussion concerning Roshar's moons, as a continuation of this topic: With that said, here's some things I've been meaning to record... (1) Private message with Peter via Reddit about a reference to Salas in Oathbringer: (2) Also an interesting observation concerning the Oathbringer endpages in the Tor edition (Herald artwork): Ishar - Notable that we apparently see the three moons depicted in the background. Not much interesting about this as far as I can tell, but I figure it's worth pointing out. Jezrien - Look very closely at the "buckle" on his belt. There's a circle of the ten polestones, with heliodor at the top. And inside of that circle are three other stones spaced at different angles, seeming to be purple, blue and green... Vedel - Those are also depicted in the stained glass window behind Vedel. We can also see their positions inside the circle with a bit more accuracy here. Also note that we can compare their sizes: the purple one is slightly smaller than the green, and the blue one is definitely largest. I think it's pretty clear that the three stones/circles we see in Jezrien's and Vedel's artwork are depictions of the moons. I believe their positions are actually indicative of their timing--presumably the time that they rise. Think of Vedel's stained glass window as a 10-hour clock (matching Roshar's 20-hour day). Rather than splitting the day by noon/midnight, they split the day by sunrise/sunset. So if you have exactly 10 hours of light/dark, the sun would rise and set at 0:00 (or 10:00, depending on convention) and noon/midnight would be at 5:00. Eyeballing the position of the moons around this circle in Vedel's image, it would suggest that Salas rises around 3/4 of an hour after sundown. Fits pretty well with the descriptions that it rises right around full dark. Nomon is only about 2 hours later, suggesting that Salas moves pretty darn fast. I think there's a WoR reference suggesting Salas reaches full height in half an hour, so that would actually work well. (if I remember right). Nomon sets as Mishim rises, which means it's up for a good 4 hours. Then Mishim would be up for another 2.5 hours or so until sunrise. It's hard to say how exact those positions are meant to be. And I could be interpreting something wrong here? But I think it seems to generally fit the right idea, if nothing else. It also reinforces the idea that they follow the same rise times everywhere. (somehow) It's curious to me that the artist (I think it's supposed to be the same one in both of these?) would inscribe the moons inside of the ten polestones. That's some interesting Vorin (?) imagery and I'm not sure what the meaning could be. The fact that they both have it suggests to me that it has some kind of significance.

In the Greater Cosmere there are 4 major magic systems I'd like to discuss and make comparisons. My purpose is not to theorize who'd win a fight between magic users of different systems, more a comparison of the nature of the magics themselves. Note that I'm not including White Sand, Aether of Night or Shadows of Threnody. The first isn't fully published, the 2nd may not quite be canon yet and the third we don't know nearly enough to evaluate. So, first the Planet and the systems. Sel-AonDor/Dakhor Scadrial-Metallic Arts Nalthis-Awakening/Chromatics Roshar-Surgebinding/Voidbinding Granted this list is of course incomplete. As Brandon writes more books and opens up more of the Cosmere we will potentially see more planetary systems and more magic. Up to this point the 4 major magic systems of the Cosmere are the ones listed above. Easiest Entry Point: That title goes to Awakening. Everybody in the system is born with a seed of the magic in Breath. It's not terribly difficult to get more, at least in comparison to the other systems. And if one gets enough Breath you get the magic handbook. In fact the only restrictions come when you make it to Cognitive Shadow territory and even that's not onerous. 1 Breath a week, substituted for any raw Investiture if breath isn't available. Most Mobile: The Metallic Arts take the cake on this one. If your sDNA allows for metal manipulation then you can do it anywhere in the Cosmere. It's not location dependant like on the other Shard worlds because the doorway to the power is already incorporated into your spiritweb. Most Investiture: This is obviously Roshar. Two living Vessels and a shattered third are all in system. Raw Power circles the globe on a semi-regular basis. That raw power can be harnessed by practitioners of different magic systems with a simple hack. Probably a different hack for each system but it's probably not terribly difficult. Unlike say Scadrial where the hack into their system involves material that no longer exists (lerassium) or finding someone with the appropriate spiritweb and ripping a piece from their soul. On Roshar all you gotta do is stand out in a storm with a kite. I'm sure there are more but that's all I could come up with for now. I'm sure there are others. I tried to stay away from the more subjective comparisons like Most Useful or Most OP but feel free to explore.

I was up late last night and an interesting question popped into my head. I know we probably don't have enough information to actually answer it, but would a Bronze misting on Roshar hear the Rhythms?

Hello and welcome, I don't post theories or interpretations very often but this is one that I wanted to get off my chest. Ashyn isn't the Tranquiline Halls, Roshar is. Now, very quickly, I want to make sure that I am not misinterpreted: I am not claiming that humans did not come from Ashyn, the vast majority of humans on Roshar are descended from Ashynites that fled their self-caused cataclysm. What I am claiming is that the Vorin mythology of humanities fight for the Tranquiline Halls is originally a singer tale, co-opted by humanity and twisted into their own theology. So, I just want to establish the mixing of cultures that has occurred between humans and singers on Roshar. I only have 2 (Maybe 2.5) examples of this. I wish I had more but I feel we don't know enough about old singer culture to say what came from them other than what we have been told directly. 1. Human use of the term Voidbringers This ones an easy one, Eila Stele shows that singers were the first to refer to humanity as Voidbringers during the first Desolation. We actually also have a little of the opposite happening, with Listener songs describing humanity in a very similar way to the way Midnight Essence are described. Eshonai mentions this in the prologue: 2. Humans took the singer names From Leshwi and Moash's conversation: So what we see here is humanity on Roshar seems to have adopted some of singer culture, intentionally or not. The Tranquiline Halls So, the tale of the Tranquiline Halls has the following as it's main points of belief: Humanity is not native to Roshar Humanity was forced out of their old home by an invading force of Voidbringers When a human dies, their soul sticks around, they are given super powers and get sent to fight for the Tranquiline Halls The Heralds are leading the fight Now, points 1 and 4 we can trace in human culture. We know humans are not native to Roshar, we see Jezrien telling the people this lie in Oathbringer: But where do points 2 and 3 come from in Vorinism? What are the origins of these parts of their belief? Humans weren't pushed out of their homeland by Voidbringers. Humans don't die, get given super powers and get to continue the fight against said Voidbringers. But you know who does? Singers were pushed out of their homeland by Voidbringers. When singers die, they do get given super powers and get to continue the fight against said Voidbringers. Humanity took the singers world, their god, their names and even their religions. In Vorin myth, Ashyn would be the Tranquiline Halls. In reality, it's Roshar. Thank you for reading.

Who do you think would win in a giant, interplanetary war between Scadrial and Roshar? Ok so in order for this to work we're going to need to establish so ground rules. Rules Scadrial is set in Wax and Wayne era Roshar is set in the current era The only way to travel from one planet to the other is through perpendicularities. Both planets know where all available perpendicularities are. No space travel. Also they can't just surround the perpendicularity and kill anyone who passes through. Let's assume that in both sides, all nations on each planet are unified in this war, but not by a lot. Meaning all the Roshar kingdoms want to defeat the Scadrians, but for example if the choice comes to either protect their own nation or defend another's, they're probably gonna save their own. Which is similar for what we've seen so far. Same goes for the Northern and Southern Scadrians. Also since Scadrial has so many mistings and ferrings, let's assume Roshar gets 50-100 more surgebinders (We can change that number if you guys don't think that's fair).

So I've been doing some Stormlight Archive fanficing when it suddenly occurred to me... I can't remember any references to spiders or webbing... I'd like to use the imagery within the story, however, as this story is told from the perspective of the character, I'd rather only use it if the character is aware of these possible elements. So does Roshar had spiders or their equivalent?

I mean, there's some strange things about Zahel, yes. And once you tell me that, hey, Zahel is Vasher, I can connect them to things we already know about Vasher/Nalthis. But if someone's starting from square one, what was it that made people make the connection? After I read that Zahel was Vasher on TV Tropes, I went back and reread all the parts I could find with him in them. And the only conspicuously odd thing I found was the bit where he thinks about how he used to hear a voice in his head- and that could have been anything, there's so much we still don't know about Roshar. It could have been a spren he bonded and then killed by being dishonorable. What was the smoking gun here?

Did Roshar originally have Spren? Sylphrena indicates 4 genders of spren. 2 for the Parsh, 2 for the human. I don't think Roshar was formed like other Shardic worlds. No other Cosmere world has spren like Roshar, so far. It would seem that the Parsh thought of their objects being Malen and Femalen, voila SPREN! Perhaps? Maybe? Did the way they think or sing create the spren way back then? Shard worlds seem to have the 3 realms setup. Roshar wasn't created by a Shard (that I'm aware of.) The way I understand the history is that Odium saw the existing native Parsh and decided to become their god. He got invested to that Solar System. Along comes the human Voidbringers to settle around Shinovar (initially.) Honor and Cultivation either settled with them or decided to call it home at a later time. Introducing Honor's high storms, Odium's Everstorm (old in design) and the Cultivation's/Nightwatcher's Old Magic. When I read TWoK, I assumed Honors' death and Splintering brought about the spren. I have now been proven false. So, I suspect Roshar was similar to an Earth like world and topography. The Parsh evolved naturally and all was pleasant until Odium rolled on in. My question is HOW and WHEN do you think Roshar got spren? A certified timeline of these early events would be great to read. Thank you.

can somebody explain resonance on a bit of a deeper level? it makes sense that mixing magic systems might create an effect that neither magic system would have had before. a great example of this are the knights radiant and how incredibly different each order is. what i don’t understand is resonance on scadrial, specifically between feurochemy and allomancy. so twinborn can use their feruchemy to give them certain perks when using their allomancy and vice versa. but asides from compounding, i cant think of any crazy effects that twin born have. according to khriss, mixing magic systems spawns a type of effect or “reaction” that is unusual. wax can use his mass to affect his speed using the properties of conservation of momentum, but anyone who has a basic understanding of physics know that any iron ferring can do the same thing (minus the steel pushing part). ex: you tie up an iron ferring and decide to catapult him at a pile of mistwraiths, if he decreases his mass he will get a little spurt of speed because he is still conserving his momentum. no steel pushing required what can wayne do because of his powers’ resonance? he can put up a time bubble and use that extra time to heal himself, but anybody that has been out in a time bubble can do that regardless of whether they are the ones doing it or not. brandon mentioned in a WoB that TLR didn’t have the same resonance as a twin born did, since he had all of those powers and didn’t use any two of them enough for them to resonate. the just confuses me since i don’t know what TLR couldn’t do with with his powers that Wax can. would TLR not be able to play with soeeed and momentum by messing with his ironmind and allomantic steel? any thoughts or answers or wild guesses on the subject would be much appreciated!

The various races of humans in roshar have several odd traits. For example: Herdazian rock like fingernails, thaylen eyebrows, horn eater bones, aimian's abilities to change, the blue tinted skin of the people hoid told the story about, alethi hair, shin eyes, etc. Some nations dont have light eyes. I have two theories as to why this might be. The first is that soulcaster savants children might have modified genetic heritage. The second theory is that the decendants of different orders of radiant gained different traits. While on the honor spren ship, one of the honor spren said that until the fifth ideal, if kaladin died, syl would survive. Is it possible that the spren at the fifth ideal become interlinked more fully to the radiant to the point it changes genetic heritage? Is the body focus the thing changed by the spren bond? (I am aware that khriss believes the body focus to be a philosophical interpretation) Which spren could be associated with each race? I will make a spread sheet to help illustrate this,