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Apologies if this has been posted already and I didn't find it, or if this is so obvious it doesn't warrant its own post. I was talking to a friend who recently read Warbreaker, and I had this thought when we talked about the potential that Awakening had that is still underused. And while the obvious one is Type Four (Five) Invested Entities, I think RoW showed us a glimpse of another potential application of Breath: Storing Attributes What we saw at the end of RoW in the Meeting between Hoid and TOdium was Hoid losing memories that he had stored in Breaths. In Breaths, or As Breaths. So, who's to say that that's only possible with Memories? You probably see where I'm going with this. (And why I think it might have been posted already) Feruchemy and Awakening are both End-Neutral systems. And while their applications are different, they both are End-neutral because of the closed loops they utilize. In Awakening, you give your breath to something or someone, which endows them with the powers associated with it. They can utilize your breath, no more than what you've given. In Feruchemy, you store attributes in your metalminds. Specific Metals allow for the storage of specific attributes. You can later get these attributes back, no more than what you've given. Now, Feruchemy uses the kinds of metals as keys. Depending on what metal you (can) use, you store different attributes. From how I understand it, Feruchemists use their innate investiture, which is somehow imprinted with the attributes. Attributes in form of Investiture, to be used later. Now, we've seen Hoid do this with Breath. Storing Memories in a different form of Investiture. Of course, Hoid had a lot of time to practice and figure things out, but I think this is an angle of BioChromatic Breath that we might see more of in the future. Storing Attributes and giving these to others. We've seen something similar with Unkeyed Metalminds, where I could store wakefulness, strength, speed etc. and give it to you to tap. For Breath, the difficulty is just figuring out how to store attributes in Breath. I don't know if you need to be a Feruchemist too for that, if you need a specific command or whatever. But once you figure that out, it could be as simple as My life to yours, my Strength become yours. My life to yours, my Memories to yours. My life to yours, my Health to yours. etc. etc. What do you think? Is this possible? How difficult would it be? Does it make sense to expect more of this in the future or will just Worldhoppers like Hoid be able to figure it out?

Alethela, the country that is the watcher at the rim. Who learn war to better protect the world when the voidbringers return. Within this country is a book. An important book that every officer has to read. But why? lets look at two people that suffer from the same affliction especially when you look back. Moash and Amaram. exhibit 1: Amaram Let’s look at past interactions with the light of RoW to see what’s happening in the background. (Also SA5 Prologue in spoiler section) We know after kaladin gained his first pair of shards Amaram betrayed and killed kaladins squad. But why? in tWoK after winning his shards kaladin and his remaining squad are in Amarams command tent waiting for Amaram to finish talking to someone. This someone we find out is restaries. The herald Kelek, leader of the sons of honor. we then hear Amaram saying that after hours of discussion he finally agreed to restaries idea to take the shards himself to better serve alethkar. Within this we can see that kaladin himself mentioned that he saw Amarams guilt on his face. And tried to do the most honorable thing in his position and sold him as a slave. after Amarams confrontation with kaladin and Dalinar he starts regretting letting kaladin live. A bit different then during the confrontation, where he looked hurt and guilty but also apologized and said that he did it for alethkar not personal. now in oathbringer we start seeing Amaram descend into a downward spiral. he tries to forge an alliance with Dalinar(who he witnessed burn a city killing everyone in anger) but keeps being shamed by him(for killing four men for literally one of the most powerful weapons in roshar). Being put to physical work in a broken country that every alethi knew would be a perfect, easy, capture. Being contacted by odium with promises of power, and no guilt or anger. exhibit 2: moash not much is really needed to be said in this post about moash. I talked more about Amaram because people don’t seem to want to understand him. Hating him because kaladin hates him. Or at best feeling sad about lost potential. but moash has been debated on and hated on constantly sense WoR we know he’s effected by the unmade losing his negative emotions and feeling a void. (Interesting especially sense it seems positive emotions aren’t effected as far as we know) and it seems he truly wants this. So theirs that. so back to alethela, my theory on this is that people read tWoK not just to make it easier to bond spren, but to help the leaders not to make miss steps, to not act in greed to open themselves to the unmade, as we saw the unmade alone completely wiped out cities, countries, with their advance emotional allomamcy. so what do you think? Was tWoK used as a life style to better live by honor?

Rhythm of War spoilers ahead! Do not read unless you have finished it. If someone has already posted this, or if it's intuitively obvious, sorry. This is from RoW, Chapter 8: And this is from Chapter 111: These quotes show me that somehow, Odium has the power to suppress, or take away altogether, emotion. I'm sure it has similar mechanics to Soothing with Allomancy, but on a much larger level. But then there's this death rattle that makes me think there's something else: This death rattle implies that the Unmade Dai-Gonarthis, a.k.a The Black Fisher, also somehow has the ability to suppress or take away emotion. And because the Unmade serve Odium, this makes me think: What if the "gift" that Moash speaks of isn't directly from Odium? What if, instead, Dai-Gonarthis is the source of this ability to remove emotion, and Odium somehow delivers the power to Moash? This is something that has always seemed to fit for me. My theory is that Dai-Gonarthis is the source of Odium's ability to take away emotion. The one problem with this theory is that because Odium is the god of passion, it would make sense for him to have this ability himself, meaning that Dai-Gonarthis may have similar powers, but isn't necessarily behind Moash's emotionlessness. What do you think? What problems are with this theory? Was this already obvious? Tell me below!

[Massive Rhythm of War spoilers proceed at your own risk.] So I've been running out of things to do, and all my usual RP's have been inactive so I thought I'd put this together. The RP is set after SA 5 has happened, and as we don't know what happens there we are going to be rather specualtive. I'm more than willing to discuss the how everything has played out to get here, I'm mostly posting this right now to gauge intrest, if you want to join let me know.

All of the following is open to correction: We know that a sound wave can be represented by a sine equation, specifically y=a*sin(bx-c)+d. The opposite of a sound wave, the one that will cancel it out, can be represented by a phase shift equal to exactly half of that of the original sound wave, which is exactly the same as a simple inversion, or multiplying the equation by a negative. The collision of the sound waves cancels out the energy, but because the energy of the two hits at such a point that net motion of the air is negligible. Because the frequency of the wave is not changed, the two sounds are exactly the same to hearing, but still cancel each other out. It is generally only with intent that this can occur, as it is very hard to create the opposite of the sound by accident. In ROW, Navani creates anti-lights by using this inverse of the sound, so she is creating a sound that is exactly half a phase shift off of the rhythm of Odium. It makes a great deal of sense that doing this requires Intent, as it would be very common to find the anti-lights otherwise, or impossible to find at all. Something else that is interesting, is that light itself can be represented by the same equation y=a*sin(bx-c)+d, as it is an electromagnetic wave. Light can have the same equal-cancelling pattern, with two light waves that look the same cancelling each other out. This results in the bottom of the two images below, where the light cancels out in some places, and amplifies in other places. We know that the anti-lights annihilate each other like matter and antimatter, and that the sounds would as well. Now, I propose that if we positioned them correctly, the photon emissions from the two gaseous investitures would cancel each other out, though the air-warping around the anti-voidlight sphere(and possibly others) might interfere with that.

We saw Sja-Anat uses her windsprens as spies at the end of RoW. Clearly Kaladin can command to armor's windsprens. So I wonder that is Kaladin can use his armor's windsprens as spies. Also I wonder about Jasnah's armor's spren. Is she can command to them or it's a windrunner thing?

So I’m on my 3rd reread of the SA and I’m doing it right after finishing mistborn era 1 and I can’t help but notice the similarities and differences between the two series. Namely how they both treat “the end of the world” narrative. In mistborn especially HoA the entire atmosphere is depressing as. People trying to survive something that is desperately trying to kill them. And when you take a step back you notice the fact that with all the deaths that they were fortunate to even have won. (this post i like, even with the confusion, it shows the true devastation that the people were dealing with. ) Stormlight handles things vastly different than mistborn. In stormlight the hero’s are able to fight back. Sure it’s a “hopeless” fight but the humans are able to push odium into a disadvantaged deal. Where as in mistborn Ruins purpose was to extinct everyone and everything. Odiums is to conquer and control. But here’s the thing we didn’t know that until book3-4 especially RoW when odium flat out says that he doesn’t want to kill off all of humankind( just use them as fodder for better soldiers (his words not mine)) for book 1,2 we are lead to believe that the desolations were catastrophes with the human race existence On the line. (Wile it was true for a few desolations it is not for the Final Desolation) So here is where the differences really are. mistborn era 1 is the death of scadrial (no more mistborns, no more keepers, vast parts of the population killed) and it’s rebirth Stormlight is the revival of Roshar. (the magic coming back, ancient enemies, cities, access to the CR) tldr: mistborn era 1 and stormlight are stories of the end of the world. One is the death of the world and the other is death of the current world.

The thought came to mind after people were talking in another post if an aluminum mirror would reveal a lightweaver. And they mentioned how being able to look into the CR might reveal them with the discrepancies. Then I thought maybe not them but possibly reveal the spren. And who have we seen that can sense spren? That’s right mr unhappy zahal himself. So how can radiants counter such a measure. That’s easy, get rid of the spren. ok ok so it’s not like I’m saying break the bond or to somehow hemalurgy the spren for the abilities but simply leave the spren at home, in RoW kaladin and syl get separated and syl loses herself due to the distance between them. But once they are close she is right back to being herself. Kaladin is still awake, and able to use stormlight during the dampening of his abilities. So as far as we know this doesn’t hurt the spren just dumbs them down for a time, and it doesn’t matter for the radiant as they can still use their abilities. Now obviously they work better together than alone but in order to properly infiltrate some places they might have to separate, maybe the spren can go back to the CR to retain thoughts? As long as the bonds not broken it should be fine right?

I’m rereading the whole cosmere and am in the Words of Radiance. I came across this scene right before Shallan enters the Shattered Plains. She is just drawing what she feels like drawing when: I had never noticed that these two scenes almost certainly are real. The first is of Yalb surviving and the second of Shalash (shoutout to my wife for catching that). It makes me wonder if this is a part of the ability she has with Dalinar and the Stormfather to draw what either one’s seen in the Highstorm. However, Dalinar hadn’t bonded the Stormfather at this point. Furthermore, she was just thinking of her wreck before drawing and had burned a prayer to Shalash. I wonder if that’s important? Maybe she’s feeling very connected to them at that point. Do we have any information about this scene?

So I came up with this theory when reading WoB and he talked about the afterlife in the cosmere When he basically said that he will neither confirm nor deny the existence of one so as to not discredit his characters views. I then remembered the one chapter in The Way of Kings of the cobbler who bonded a spren and was killed by Nale. He talked about a god who allowed himself to shatter and splinter into everything to have more experiences. Perhaps the true rejoining of everyone and everything is when everything dies. Similar to the egg theory that some people believe. this would also explain why shadows in the CR go towards the “sun” instead of away. It’s being pulled to the beyond to rejoin with adonalsium also a couple of “assumptions” (or counter arguments) I Have if this theory is true. what happened to “people” when they died before the shattering? -rather nonexistence or they merged with adonalsium why would he have to “die” if the process already happened? -for more diversity. Perhaps he got bored with himself being the only “god” Wouldn’t adonalsium be a cognitive shadow? -we don’t know how adonalsium CS would work, if it’ll work how we seen them in book or if it’ll work in a different way due to how much unimaginable power they held.

In the pre-chapter text (can't remember what it's called) of the Rhythm of War chapter 'A Cage Without Bars,' Harmony says that he is looking for a sword that embodied the two aspects of the power he holds, Ruin and Preservation. In the previous pre-chapter text he mentions being hampered in his ability to act due to his two held Shards being opposites, so is it logical to think of this as Harmony seeking a champion to act on his behalf against/with other Shards? If so, I have a theory. I'm not sure if there's a running theory on this, but the main Cosmere character that comes to mind for that is Kaladin. He's trained/training as a surgeon and is a skilled fighter. Particularly in The Way of Kings, there was a constant internal dialogue about whether Kaladin or his father were correct in how they could protect: Kaladin choosing to protect using force while his father protects through medical care. Kaladin is currently in a spot where he can protect using both methods, acknowledging that he needs time to deal with his PTSD and depression but is enhancing his abilities in the medical area. The main barrier I see to this potentially occuring is that due to Kaladin's nahel bond with Syl he is anchored to the Rosharan system, as per Mraize's conversation with Shallan/Veil/Radiant in part 1 of Rhythm of War. Now this is entirely conjecture, but I am assuming that by the end of Book 5 several key things relevant to this will occur: a way of transporting Rosharan Lights to other systems will be discovered, which will be linked to finding a way for Connected individuals to move outside of their systems as well. While I don't believe Kaladin is intended on being a main character for the back 5 (correct me if I'm wrong), that doesn't necessarily mean that he won't still be a major player in another form like being a champion of a Shard that isn't "native" to the Rosharan system and is thus not present for Rosharan events all the time. If there is an existing theory thread regarding this, could someone please point me in its direction?

I’m rereading the whole cosmere and am in the Words of Radiance. I came across this scene right before Shallan enters the Shattered Plains. She is just drawing what she feels like drawing when: I had never noticed that these two scenes almost certainly are real. The first is of Yalb surviving and the second is of Shalash (shoutout to my wife for catching that). It makes me wonder if this is a part of the ability she has with Dalinar and the Stormfather to draw what either one’s seen in the Highstorm. However, Dalinar hadn’t bonded the Stormfather at this point. Furthermore, she was just thinking of her wreck before drawing and had burned a prayer to Shalash. I wonder if that’s important? Maybe she’s feeling very connected to them at that point. Do we have any information about this scene?

Ok so this theory has been bouncing in my head for a good week and I read WoB but haven’t seen anything related to this. but here is the theory the stormfather didn’t always have the power to invest gems with stormlight. now we have some interesting facts about roshar 1) it was purposefully made by adonalsium, no tectonic plates, storm, spren everything. 2) we know honor and cultivation made new spren, but not the listeners 3) from RoW we know the stones remember when they (most likely the listeners) used to “sing” and mold the rock around them, making bowls, swords, whatever they want out of stone. we don’t know if this is before the power of surges 4) in oathbringer we hear how honors perpendicularity is vary unstable in that it’s constantly moving. 5) in RoW we find out that the stormfather is invested enough to have a small bit of a perpendicularly and that’s what allows The gems to be infused 5b) we know its not exactly a shard only power more a heavily invested property. 6) the honor spren seem to be much older, older then the bonds. so the theory time line is this. honor and cultivation come to roshar and start to effect things on their own honor creates honor spren and they form “bonds” to live in the physical realm. The singers hear the pure tone of roshar and are able to use stormlight to manipulate the stone. Their civilization is magnificent but limited due to their dependence on their stone based abilities. humans come, honor and cultivation are happy to see humanity after thousands of years and decide that it’s good to have humans as it reminds them of home human and singers battle. Yada yada, honor is dying and has limited time. With help he makes the animals produce gem hearts(like the singers) to store stormlight and splits himself further to give the stormfather the ability to produce stormlight as well as higher thinking capacity. So yeah. I think stormlight was not a part of the storm until honor was dying.

So I listened to secret project 4 the other day and I was shocked by how auxiliary was still able to shape shift dispite being “dead” so I started to think how this might be related to “freeing the dead eyes” that RoW set up with Adolin and shallan. And i started to connect distant dots that became scarier the more I thought about it. first: we don’t know if dead eyes can come back in a traditional sense. That being full restoration, free thinking and being able to bond those that they choose. second: the rosharian magic systems are vary powerful but are a bit limiting with the oaths that need to be spoken to access their full potential. third: BAM capture really effected the spren in ways that were not anticipated. We don’t know the repercussions for releasing BAM and if it’s an actual good thing. (We have kalaks words but common. All the haralds are crazy) forth: we know that wile a bit limiting a person with a haralds blade is really dangerous especially because of the lack of oaths binding them to their power. (Same with dead shard blade and plate) fifth: we know that shard blades (dead) are not always practical weapons. Example being when adolin killed sadeus both didn’t go for their blades because they knew it would be a disadvantage. using the above knowledge I think this is what’s going to happen. I think when BAM gets released their presents will “Zombify” the shard blades. They will become more practical honor blades ultimately. I don’t know if they’ll have access to surges but I can see a case being made for both ways. TLDR: I think that BAM release will make the (dead) shard blades now, honor blades 2.0 radiants without oaths

Hello Sharders, i have a question about Healing in the Cosmere, especially about Dabbid. In RoW, the Sibling tells Dubbid that he will heal from his mental illness once he bounds a spren. In my understanding, a person can only heal from wounds that they don't see as a part of themselves, because Healing typically heals the Physical version by matching it to their ideal Spiritual version. So the Sibling cannot know whether bounding a Spren will heal Dabbit or not. It depends on how much Dabbid accepts his condition as part of himself in his subconsciousness. Do you guys know if these statement is correct or have i missed the point here? Ps.: Let me know if this toppic has already been on the forums before. I am new in the community i don't have the overview yet. Thanks

Do plated windrunners need to expend stormlight to fly or do the living windspren just carry them?

One issue I have noticed when people talk about Roshar going off world, rather it be radiants, stormlight or anything else highly invested, people tend to forget the gravity-like pull that the investiture feels to the planet (or system) of origin. As mentioned by Mraize in RoW when he was telling Shallan the ghostbloods purpose. So I wanted to use this to brainstorm ideas on how to possibly make this work. we know first off that we’ll need perfect gemstones to hold the stormlight. second a way to cut off the connection to roshar, to lower/negate the pull. we have two possible options. 1) as shown in oathbringer, stormlight used inside an aluminum casing is not detected so the most likely is a chest made of aluminum to resist “the pull” 2) we have seen how anti-stormlight/voidlight was made using a vacuum. could a vacuumed container also be used to possibly resist or severe the pull to roshar? maybe a combination of the two? What are your thoughts, also my first post so I’ll love to start meeting y’all.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but my random Sanderson thought of the day was about Renarin. In Way Of Kings, it was always being stated that Renarin should become a Stormwarden. Stormwardens are the only people in Vorin culture who are allowed to tell the future, even just the little bit that they do. My thought was that this was totally foreshadowing for Renarin's arc where he becomes an enlightened Truthwatcher and can tell the future. Thoughts? If this has already been discussed before, just point me in the right direction!

My theory revolves around finding the BEST thematic ending for kaladin. The thematic is important because that excludes narrative foreshadowing or clever wordplays and stuff. This is strictly the ending Kaladin should get if the the plot went along with his character arc. For example The name kaladin means 'born unto eternity', the line' Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do' and 'Son of Tanavast' seems to imply that Kaladin would become Honor. There is foreshadowing but it's not the most natural conclusion to kaladin's arc. Same with him being a herald or becoming king(that one stupid death rattle) What I think the most natural thematic conclusion will be: Kaladin becomes a worldsinger. Kal will go with szeth to shinovar. His budding therapist skills will be put to the test by szeth and ishar. This will become more complicated near the ending with the arrival of Moash. Kal will have a struggle if he really should kill Moash and then chooses to instead talk some sense into Moash. On the other side, something happens to todium prolly and Moash loses his 'gift' to not feel pain. So if he can't escape pain, what will he do? Moash will try to end his miserable life. Kal runs forward, grabs the weapon and says the fifth ideal, 'I will help others protect themselves'. The suicidal character will stop someone from killing themselves. Kool Kaladin moments ensue, for three seconds. Ishar goes crazy again, creates a perpendicularity and pulls syl thru it. Syl becomes a full human.( No I am not a syladin shipper) And Kaladin loses his epic stormlight powers and becomes a normal human again. I am guessing he will still use the windrunnur honorblade for the final fight before giving it up for Dalinar to reforge honor or something. My big theory is that the night of sorrows will be the darkest event in the books, where a major catstrophe occurs, a significant fraction of humanity will die(like a third). The human race will survive by escaping to shadesmar, but be broken by the sudden calamity At the end of book 5, Kaladin will start living more for himself while still doing his best to help other people. He wants to be a therapist. Who has been giving Kaladin free therapy since book one? Wit. The worldsinger who shares stories. Also after a calamity, knowledge will prolly be hard to pass around, humans will be fragmented. Stories, like the legend of stormblessed and a religion around Dalinar and oathbringer will connect people. Kaladin will finally learn how to play a flute and sing honor's and cultivation's rhythms to people as Instructions to create stormlight or lifelight. So kal and sigzil will go around shadesmar listening to and sharing their own stories almost definitely around a stew. Kaladin as the posterboy of the new worldsingers will become the travelling swordsman kind of figure/legend, cuz he will still be a badass in normal combat. He will prolly try to bridge the gap between humans and singers and listeners. In the back half of stormlight, kal will be a zahel,wit kind of figure who wouldn't be invested but still pretty badass. He could be the therapist for the new heroes. He will also reveal that in 10-15 years he has been successful in reviving many of the deadeyes, something he learned from Adolin, which will quite literally save the good guys side. Why does no honorspren bond Kaladin u ask? Because a nahel bond is more 'intimate' than even a romantic bond and I am pretty sure the honorSpren would consider Kaladin 'taken' and violating it 'cheating'. Kaladin might become a edgedancer, but only in the distant future. This is my perfect ending to Kaladin. What do u guys think?

Hello, I have been rereading ROW and trying to focus on some of the Radiants with less screen time. We see that Gaz, like all of the other members of Shallan's Deserters has joined the Unseen Court and presumably bonded a Cryptic. I remembered that Brandon said that if Elokhar had been allowed to progress with his oaths he would have had to eventually admit to being a bad king. We know more about Gaz than any of the other new Lightweavers, so I tried to guess some of his Truths. I imagine his first truth (besides the oath) would be about his gambling. Admitting that an addiction is real and out of control is the first step after all. Gaz reads as a pessimist because he is always complaining and expects the worst from people, but he is one of several people to become inspired after seeing Shallan's drawing of them. I imagine another early oath might be admitting that he actually can become a better person, like in the drawing. However I think that a later oath (4th or 5th) would have to be him admitting his culpability in the deaths and mistreatment of the bridgemen. We see in WOK that he is bothered by what he is doing and in WOR when he explains it he is quick to pass the blame onto Sadeas and his superiors. This oath is the one I would be most interested in seeing on screen, either the actual swearing or a scene where he apologizes to the bridgemen and its made clear that this is part of him admitting truth. He may also have to admit to his cowardice Tib

I've noticed in the last 2 stormlight books, we've had 2 very similar conversations at the end of each book. In which 2 characters talk, and me personally reading, was ABSOLUTELY sure it was going to go a certain way, only for the conversation to do a full 180 and leave me emotionally devastated. I of course mean the Ashe-Taln conversation in OB and the Venli-Leshwi conversation in RoW. Between Ashe and Taln, both Ashe and Myself are sure that Taln will be angry, or at least upset with her, instead he tells her what a wonderful gift she's given humanity. And Venli and I were sure that Leshwi would be angry that Venli bonded a spren, instead she breaks down in joy and says they have forgiven us. Two stellar moments that totally shocked me emotionally when I was already losing it with everything else that went on at the end of those awesome books. Anyway I wracked my brains if any of the other books had similar moments but couldn't think of any. Pretty cool we got it twice, here's hoping for a hat trick with SA5

So I've not finished RoW but I just started part 5 and wanted to drop this line of thought before it escaped me. So, we know that to some degree that Shards have difficulty travelling between worlds, and from my understanding the prime reason behind this is when the shard becomes too heavily invested in the planet. But the thought also occurred to me when Navani was creating anti-light with the vacuum, was that the tones wouldn't be able to pass into space. Now at this point (at least where I am in the book) the full extent of the tones relation to the Shards isn't abundantly established, but I'm curious if the shards' tones would be able to be heard in space. Now, I'm not a physicist so correct me if I'm wrong here, but if the tones couldn't be heard in space, would this not be a possible opening to 're-program' the free-flowing investiture of that shard with the corresponding anti-investiture as it exists in a vacuum, assuming that somehow part of that investiture could be captured in some closed vessel (Like... you know.. a spaceship.) Again, I haven't finished RoW so maybe some of this comes up, but maybe this is a way that large amount of anti-light could be generated to splinter a Shard. In fact it would give some reason for a Shard to occupy a Shardworld (beyond my own suspected Dawn-Command to Create) as it would essentially make Shards vulnerable in space. In fact this may be why Ambition's shattering left a spiritual wound as it was more dramatic possibly? This all also makes me curious how the tones reflect in the Cognitive realm, as the fact that people can talk while between worlds indicates sound can travel there, but maybe that's more how humans think sound would work manifesting in the cognitive realm than sound ACTUALLY being transmitted? Anyway, this all also leads to my last point, that the existence of anti-investiture and it's method of creation seems to show that investiture's Identity can be removed by removing it from its Tone, and because ultimately the Identity of the 16 shards is just parts of the Identity of Adonalsium, that begs the question of who's Identity is linked to anti-investiture? Is there a big scary void god anti-Adonalsium lurking out in space? Thank you for listening to my TED-ramble.

In epigraph of the 4th part of row kalak is telling someone to release ba aod. Now this is curious as it implies someone knows where she is, right? So who is kalak talking to? If it is the humans he would have simply told this to adolin. So it must either be ghostbloods or the singers right?

Hello! Just about halfway through my reread of Rhythm of War and some information sort of jumped out to me that I hadn't connected before. I think that Thaidakar has actually been off of Scadrial and visited other planets--in both the cognitive and physical realms. His dilemma isn't necessarily how to travel and exist in different worlds--he's figured that out already--but rather the other common theory as to what his motives are--curbing the insanity that comes with immortality. Two excerpts from RoW and one WoB are fueling this theory. (1). During the final paragraph of Chapter 64 in RoW, Hoid reveals that not only does he know Kelsier (the more obvious tidbit, via Secret History), but that he's met him several times on different worlds: “I believe it is time,” Wit said, “that I told you about Thaidakar.” “I know of him,” Jasnah said. “Oh, you think you do,” he said. “But I’ve met him, several times. On other planets, Jasnah" (p.761 Kindle Edition). This suggests that Kelsier does not have a problem getting off-world, and we already know he's been able to manifest himself on at least Scadrial through the BoM/SH reveal. (2). During the epigraph of the very same chapter, Raboniel reveals that chains from Threnody have the ability to "...anchor a person through Cognitive anomalies" and expresses that she "...fails to see what use this it could be to [her], as [she is] unable to leave the Rosharan system" (p. 751 Kindle Edition). So we know there exists some other ways for someone like Thaidakar to perhaps anchor himself--or his Connection--to systems he is non-native to (this being a big problem for highly-invested entities, something Vasher confirmed while talking Realmaic Theory with Kaladin). Hoid further confirms the notion that Thaidakar might have found a way to travel AND exist in foreign realms/planets by revealing to the reader that he has in fact met with him on other planets. I believe Brandon is being deliberate in denoting that Hoid and Thaidakar have met or had their run-ins on the actual, physical planets, rather than having Hoid say that he's met him in a more ambiguous manner or locations, ie. in just the Cognitive Realm. Thaidakar still cannot gain access to Roshar--which is where the key to his final problem, curbing his insanity, might lie. (3). This might be why Brandon stated in a WoB that if given the opportunity to punch another Shard (the other being Ruin's vessel in SH), Kelsier would "...find it really fun to punch Honor. Really fun" (Orem signing — Arcanum - 2017-12-21). Access to the Rosharan system might be one of the only or few planets (and all of their magics and artifacts) that he's unable to gain access to and it just might hold the key to solving his dilemma (something that has yet to be revealed to us readers)--and is ultimately why he wants to punch Honor (or a representative, or whatever) in the face. I'm not sure how novel these connections are that I've made, but upon my reread of RoW I realized I hadn't spotted just how obvious of clues we were given in respect to Thaidakar and the Ghostbloods operations, way before the Thaidakar reveal near the end of the novel. The fact that the chapter starts and ends with those two excerpts only solidifies the connection between what Raboniel writes in the Epigraph and what Hoid reveals to Jasnah. Be gentle, this is my first post.

It has been bothering me that Zahel was nowhere to be seen once Urithiru was invaded in Rhythm of War. I understand that his whole prerogative these days is just to lay low and stay uninvolved, but I feel like that wouldn't of been possible during the invasion. Is it possible that Kelsier could have attempted to kidnap him? I dunno if the ghostbloods would even be able to pull that off but it does align with his motives. His whole reason for wanting shallan to capture kelek was to (correct me if I'm wrong) help him find a way to break his tether to Scadrial. Vasher would be WAYYY more helpful in that regard. he is also a highly invested cognitive shadow that has been world hopping for longer than almost any other world hopper we know of. That might be what Mraize was up to in Urithiru. It is hard for me to believe that the ghostbloods would be capable of that but not entirely impossible for me to believe it either.