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The question of "what does Lerasium actually do" is one of the greater mysteries surrounding god metals, but we do actually have quite a bit of information. Let's start with God Metals in general. Lerasium can be burned by anyone (or perhaps, more likely, any Scadrian/person with a Connection to Preservation), and some (though not all) God Metals have a similar property. Any Allomancer can burn Lerasium, and any Scadrian Allomancer could burn Atium as well given their Connection to that Investiture. With some Connection though, well, any God Metal is open game. But here's the interesting bit: Alloys of Lerasium with another God Metal, when burned, may grant access to other Shards' invested arts. Given what Lerasium does by itself (gives access to Preservation's invested art), and how alloys with base metals and Lerasium make a non-allomancer a Misting, and how an Allomancer burning Lerasium or a base metal-alloy of Lerasium will become stronger in their Allomancy or in the corresponding metal, I believe this is enough to make a case for the following: A non-Allomancer burning an alloy of Lerasium with another God Metal gains access to the entirety of that shard's invested art or becomes more powerful with it, with potency corresponding to the amount of Lerasium burned. Without another God Metal, Lerasium defaults to Preservation. A non-Allomancer burning an alloy of Lerasium with another God Metal and a base metal gains access to the entirety of that shard's...what? Here's where I drop a wild conjecture: each and every shard has precisely 16 invested arts that they can work with and shape. They correspond to the base metals. Some, like Preservation, have their 16 all as part of one big invested art. Some, like Honor, do not appear to put all of their eggs in one basket. Shards may collaborate with each other on these arts, like Honor and Cultivation with nine of the ten surges, though this seems to allow other shards the ability to meddle with them as well, such as Odium. Comparisons to how having a cracked spiritweb allows shardic influence abound here. It may also possible for some of these 16 invested arts to be bound together into larger, more potent abilities, such as how Bondsmiths can use Adhesion in ways that Windrunners cannot, manipulating Connection directly. I also here posit that Bavadin's sixteen arts developed their own autonomy, being her sixteen additional personalities/avatars, each associated with a completely unique invested art. Perhaps this is why Brandon has a soft spot for her, since her arts are not only unique, but have their own personalities as well. The fact that she was turning Telsin into an avatar does imply that all 16 aren't currently incarnated in the Cosmere, and thus all sixteen invested arts likely aren't present, but the Sand Lord/Sand Mastery, Patji/Aviar, and Telsin/the weird mind expansion thing she had seem to confirm this, as well as the likelihood that an avatar of Autonomy on the Darkside of Taldain is the incarnation and/or source of Starmarks. Finally, Odium has ten Voidbinding arts, and I believe it is likely that the other six are represented among the Unmade. Comparisons to the seven deadly sins aside, several of the Unmade have very similar "powers". Ashertmarn and Nergaoul, for example. I'd put money on the ten kinds of Voidbinding and the nine powers of the unmade resolving quite easily into sixteen distinct invested arts. Shards may each have particular "numbers", but I believe they all have sixteen parts. Notably, this means that burning pure Lerasium and Trellium could give you some very unpredictable invested arts, as some of them likely are completely unknown to anyone but Bavadin herself. As such, I believe that the triple-alloy effect is: A non-Allomancer burning an alloy of Lerasium with another God Metal and a base metal gains access to the entirety of that shard's invested art corresponding to that metal, or becomes more powerful with it, with potency corresponding to the amount of Lerasium burned. Without another God Metal, Lerasium defaults to Preservation. But that is all, according to Brandon, one big side effect. An Allomancer burning any of these alloys would get this affect, and something else. I strongly believe that this effect is in forging a Connection. The side effect is becoming Invested by that Connection because you're using Investiture to Connect directly to a shard, the predominant effect is in creating that original Connection, and the actual purpose of the alloys is to act as a tuning fork. An Allomancer burning Lerasium could direct this Connection to anything they want, with Allomantic power corresponding to greater control and variability, with alloys focusing this Connection more directly where the Allomancer wants. Bondsmiths appear way better at taking existing Connections, sensing them, and moving them around, but this would be an excellent route for making strong Connections in the first place. It's possible that directing the Connection this way would lessen the invested art-boosting effect, since you're not Connecting as much to a shard, but it's also possible that all you need is some Connection for the invested art to get granted or boosted, and the rest of it can be spent Connecting to whatever you want. Applications could be things like Connecting to a shard in order to become a better Vessel for it, Connecting to a person to see insights into their past, super-long-range intercontinental ballistic bonding to any spren (imagine burning some Lerasium and Koravellium, then forging a truly unbreakable bond to the Nightwatcher), messing with Selish invested arts, finding or tracking anyone or anything (iron and Edglium to track Nightblood, perhaps?), making a Luhel bond with anything at any time, or even potentially stuff like forging Connections with the dead, stealing Dawnshards, and re-forming splintered Shards with yourself as their Vessel by becoming highly Connected to them. It also seems that when you're very highly Invested, you get some kind of intuitive use of your invested arts, such as with the Tenth Heightening -- perhaps that is accomplished through Connection and as such you can get a deep, intuitive understanding of an art through this method. In short, just as Cosmere-breaking as pure Atium's grand future-sight. But there's one question left: what's Feruchemy? Ruin's art is Hemalurgy, right? I say no. Hemalurgy is not an invested art. It requires no Investiture to use, just Intent. It is literally a byproduct of Ruin's existence. Instead, I say Ruin's invested art is actually Feruchemy. Burning an alloy of Atium and Lerasium would make someone a Feruchemist, and adding a base metal would make you a Ferring. Some might protest, saying that Feruchemy doesn't fit Ruin, but Allomancy doesn't actually fit Preservation either! Allomancy involves burning a metal away, Ruining it. Feruchemy takes something and locks it in a metalmind, Preserving it. And so I'll finish with an incredibly bold and (aside from the above, and the Terris people's name coming from their word for Preservation) totally unsubstantiated proposal: Preservation's original art was Feruchemy, Ruin's was Allomancy, and they swapped them, possibly in an attempt to curb their Shard's Intent's influence on their minds. I'm not convinced by this nearly to the same degree as the above Lerasium use or the 16 invested arts per Shard, but I think it's a definite possibility.

From the Coppermind's article on Fortune: Coincidences like making a series of investments that appear to be ridiculously fortunate and like pulling off the impossible with his bendalloy at the end of LM. With Fortune, Wayne could literally see the future without realizing it, which is why he made such great investments. Hoid trades his precious harmonica to Wayne for a rat. Are there other fortunes Wayne received? I'm dying to do an Era 2 re-read, now! My favorite thing was something I had noticed after my first read as sounding particularly prophetic, but that was before I realized that Sazed had essentially granted Wayne the gift of prophecy in LM by giving him so much Fortune. Wayne prophetically uses 17 or 17th a total of four times in this book alone, even though Marasi corrects him and says, dude, it's like supposed to be sixteen! Something is absolutely up with that. I cannot help but think we have a 17th Shard confirmed, and that Shard will mean a 17th godmetal. I'm not sure that's the case, but something is definitely up with seventeen. Here are the four quotes and my thoughts on them at the time... https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/123106-wayne-his-17th-metal-17th-shard/

Warning: This post contains a single Stormlight 5 prologue spoiler, masked, and potentially significant spoilers should these theories prove accurate. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. Just as the Stormfather provides Stormlight and surgebinding powers to all of Honor's children, Ba-Ado-Mishram (BAM) became the Voidmother proving Voidlight and voidbinding powers to all of Odium's children, all of her Singers, during the False Desolation. One BAM to Connect them all One BAM aligned them One BAM to draw them all And with her Voidlight bind them One gem severs the whole One gem divides them One gem rips away souls And then the darkness finds them In the Land of Roshar Where the Singers die And Listeners live We'll explore much relevant history leading up to and beyond BAM's imprisonment (see Coppermind's BAM and False Desolation articles for supporting canon references) and theories explaining the magical science behind what happened with BAM, her Singers, and related events. BAM-SINGER CONNECTION HISTORY The lead up to and fall out from BAM's gemstone capture includes: Long, long ago, Odium unmakes 9 spren who fight during many desolations in which BAM serves as highprincess and commander of Odium's forces, The last desolation comes where all but Taln survive, Taln holds Odium and his Fused on Braize all by himself (spanning a total of 4500 years), During the long imprisonment of Odium and the Fused, BAM somehow gains the ability to pull Voidlight into the Physical Realm and to Connect herself with all the Singers of Roshar, a feat previously only managed by Odium, making herself a little god (RoW 847-848), Even though Odium and the Fused are still trapped on Braize, BAM's newfound powers give her the ability to provide Singers with forms of power including all the Regal forms plus stormform, which allows BAM to wage war against the Knights Radiant during the False Desolation, with no end in sight, The Listeners, tired of endless war and manipulation from both Odium and Honor, "cast off everything - including our very forms - to find freedom," which severs their Connection to BAM (RoW 159), Honor's long, slow death begins around this time, The Knights Radiant form a special Strike Team to imprison BAM inside a gemstone in order to end the False Desolation, Because BAM is a little god and holds strong Connection to the spren and souls of every Singer in Roshar except the Listeners, these tethered souls and spren get sucked along their Connection to BAM, ripping out pieces of their souls, removing both their Identity and Connection, and possible damaging or destroying their gemhearts in the ripping process, Somehow even Honor and Cultivation's spren and the Sibling get damaged by BAM's imprisonment, though to a much smaller degree that perhaps signals a much smaller Connection between the Voidmother and "all who belong to Roshar," affecting the Sibling's abilities to make Towerlight and crippling Urithiru (RoW 621), Close to dying, Honor cannot help the Sibling, Urithiru, or the Knights Radiant, The Battle for Feverstone Keep begins before BAM's imprisonment since the enemy still pushes for that ground and parshmen are anything but pushy (OB 809), BAM's imprisonment, if during the Battle for Feverstone Keep, would have caused all fighting Singers to experience excruciating pain and then simultaneously transform into docile, mindless parshmen, All Singers Connected to BAM become parshmen through a break in Identity and Connection; only the Listeners escape because of their previously broken Connections to her, Hundreds of Windrunners and Stonewards at Feverstone Keep become the first to abandon their oaths en masse as Honor says, "they are the first" (OB 547), Two thousand years later, the Everstorm travels to Roshar through the Cognitive Realm and is brought through to the physical realm, and The Everstorm restores both Identity and Connection by repairing the Singers’ souls and possibly their gemhearts. SCIENCE-MAGIC THEORY BEHIND CONNECTION, CAPTURING SPREN, AND THE SINGERS' SOULS From Newton, we know: Force = mass * acceleration From Jasnah (OB 1179), we know that "concentrated Stormlight has a faint mass to it." So the more we accelerate the physical mass of the Stormlight, the stronger the physical force we have acting on the Stormlight and anything Connected to and by the Stormlight. How do we move or accelerate Stormlight? Navani's lecture on fabrial mechanics includes details on sucking Light into a gemstone in order to trap a spren inside a gemstone. We first lure a spren into close proximity to a gemstone with something it likes (e.g., flames for flamespren) and by using the type of gemstone it prefers (RoW epigraphs, Chapter 1). Interestingly, we already know the type of gemstones preferred by each Order of Knights Radiant (and each associated herald). Moash's knife had a large sapphire gemstone hilt that gave a subdued glow after capturing Jezrien's spren-soul (OB 1205), which makes me wonder if the gemstone in Leshwi's spear (RoW 80) that drained Kaladin's Stormlight and nearly sucked out his soul (RoW 101) was sapphire, as well. The first questions we must ask ourselves would be 1) what would BAM be attracted to and 2) what kind of gemstone would she prefer? To answer the second, maybe the Voidmother would prefer a heliodor, as the Stormfather would. As for the first question, she appears to like war and commanding, and she has shown particular interest in Feverstone Keep (OB 809). One might imagine Melishi, the False Desolation's Bondsmith, and her Strike Team showing up at the Battle for Feverston Keep with a large and perfect (or nearly perfect) heliodor gemstone, knowing that BAM would be nearby commanding her troops and in search of something in the area that interested her. Navani's next stages in capturing a spren (RoW epigraphs, Chapters 2-5) would be filling the gemstone to around 70% full of Stormlight (Voidlight in BAM's case) and then quickly sucking that Stormlight out to create a vacuum that will suck in a nearby spren. Suppose you take a brown paper lunch sack and suck the air out. It collapses, right? The same would be true of a Ziploc bag. By collapsing to reduce the volume, the bag equalizes the pressure. But what about something that has a rigid structure like a gemstone, especially a gemstone that doesn't leak? If you suck all the air out of a glass, for example, you'd suction that glass to your face since you've created a vacuum of extremely low pressure. Because air and Light will always seek the lowest pressure possible, they'll get sucked into a vacuum until the pressure outside of the gem roughly equals the pressure inside the gem. Since volume is inversely proportional to pressure, the larger the gemstone, the lower the pressure (where the lower pressure goes the stronger the vacuum becomes). And finally, the tighter the seal, the less a gemstone will leak and the stronger the vacuum will be. So large, perfect gemstones make the perfect traps for these gods. At this point, you might be asking yourself, how does the spren gets sucked in along with the Stormlight? That's where Connection comes in. When the Stormfather gives Stormlight to his children - his spren and his surgebinders - an invisible cord of Stormlight will Connect that spren or that Radiant to the Stormfather. The same can be said for the Voidmother's children - BAM's spren and her Singers: they're all Connected to their mother by a physical force from the Voidlight she provides. Let's say you have a massive gemstone and a larkin quickly sucking a ton of Light out of your stone. The gemstone will quest out seeking to replace all or almost all of the light it just lost with a powerful force. Once it captures a nearby Stormlight Connection cord, the spren will be drawn in along with the Stormlight the spren is tethered to. Yes, the Connection is mostly spiritual, but there is a small physical Connection, too (because the Stormlight Connecting them has a small mass, as Jasnah said, and mass * acceleration is force, as Newton said). If we yank hard enough on that tether, the spren cannot help but be pulled in. We see this with spren pulled into fabrials, yes, but also with human and Singer souls, tethered to their home planet by their Connection to the Investiture there. We saw Jezrien's spren-soul sucked into Moash's sapphire knife and Kaladin's soul nearly sucked into Leshwi's gemstone-capped spear, both of which had metal that specifically draws in Stormlight including the Stormlight cords of Connection. Let me digress for a smidge to explain that Identity and souls are nearly synonymous. For instance, the Fused (where each Fused is the soul of one ancient Singer fuzed together forever to a surgebinding spren, granting surgebinding powers and immortality) maintain their Identities - and most of their intellect, knowledge, and memories - even though they constantly lose the rest of their bodies because Identity is stored in the soul. Connection for the traditional Singer bond appears to be stored in their gemhearts since that is where their spren and probably their souls reside. Now I said all that to say this: this, this, this is how Singers' souls were ripped away, how their Identity and Connection were stolen, and how they became mindless parshman slaves, by having parts of their souls that were tethered to their Voidmother ripped free, likely destroying their gemstones in the process, as BAM and all her many Connections were sucked into her gemstone prison. With Singer souls damaged, they were not quite soulless and mindless nothings but nearly so. And with Singer gemhearts damaged or destroyed, the parshmen lost their abilities to bond any other spren or to hear the rhythms of Roshar inside their gemhearts. The Listeners were spared, maintaining their Identity and their abilities to Connect with other spren because they had previously severed their Connections to BAM before her imprisonment. TRAVEL & WORLDHOPPING We'd be remiss if, while we're here with Connection, we didn't speculate on travel and worldhopping. Connection tethers Invested individuals to their home planet, not letting them escape lest they rip out part of their souls, their Identity, and destroy their Connection. But of course there is a way around this problem, a way out, because this is Sanderson, after all. The remainder of the post includes a little speculation about how off-world travel may be possible based on what we know of Connection above and a single spoiler from the Knights of Wind and Truth prologue that gives a bit more detail regarding the quote above. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. I've kept all non-Stormlight cosmere spoilers out of this post.

I’ve been sitting on this one for about 2 years; the recent pre-read chapter from Jasnah pushed me over the edge. Let’s jump into the “evidence” such as it is: * The pattern whereby Odium kills/splinters a shard by teaming up with another shard has been well-established; we’ve just been ignoring the most available teammate because Cultivation is a “good guy”. * “We killed you” enough said. * It would fit as part of an overall goal of selecting new bearers for each of the 3 shards, including potentially Lift to replace herself. She was clearly instrumental in Taravangian killing Rayse, and by the same token would be grooming Dalinar as a successor to Honor. * Why is Hoid no longer on speaking terms with Cultivation? (Yes I know he wasn’t explicit about it - come on.) This is a pretty good reason. This is quite substantive - if Cultivation is actually trying to preserve Roshar, this should be a no-brainer to help out on - yet Hoid doesn’t even try. * Hoid’s parable of the people pushing a boulder, where he says “the person who just gives it a nudge is the most dangerous” - Cultivation is that person, and yup that would fit. * From a meta-plot, Sanderson point of view it just makes too much sense. Probably the biggest source of pushback I’m going to get is the idea that Cultivation has no motive to do this. Even given as little as we know about Cultivation, frankly that’s nonsense: Odium’s propaganda about how Honor represents calcification and stagnation would definitely ring true to the shard of growth and progression. From her point of view, oaths, commitments, and moral principles should change in response to circumstances - not be ironclad for eternity. Moreover I urge you all to stop thinking of Cultivation as a “good guy”. None - literally none - of the shards that we’ve met so far have been close to unambiguously good. Preservation was last seen regretting the death of the Lord Ruler because of just how stable his kingdom was. Cultivation is definitely going to have a dark side just like the rest of them, and my money is that this will be it. Where does that leave us? I’m not sure. We still don’t know anything that will let us parse Cultivation’s goals. But I’m pretty confident that when we get around to finding out how Honor died, she’ll turn out to have been a participant.

Big theory about Unmade, Roshar Races, Spren and Shallan. Please, my weakest aspect of fandom is the knowledge released in WOBs. Help me and show me why I’m wrong. General Theory / Ideas: Based on the convolution and details regarding the surgebinding chart that Brandon has mentioned, plus the thematic relevance of numbers 9/10 on Roshar in regard to how Odium’s forces align with the others. And finally, culminating in a human/spren theory that informs my SHALLAN theory. Enjoy and let’s poke some holes. Part 1: Odium Unmakes True Spren · The First Desolation begins and the Oathpact is made to help humanity. · True Spren start forming bonds to make Knights Radiant · Seeing how effective this was for human forces, Odium takes action. The same way creating a Nahel Bond makes Spren more physical and human like, Unmaking them does the opposite…even distorting these Spren cultural/personal inclinations. · Now because this is happening on Roshar, there are natural effects and laws of the world that separates the new Unmade into categories (this relates back to the Surgebinding chart alluded to before. o There are a couple ways to divide the Unmade into categories (physical, cognitive, spiritual realms, etc.) But for this I made a 3X3 organizer with Odium, Cultivation and Honor on one side and Intelligent, Middling and Unintelligent on the top. Nine positions for nine Unmades. o Starting at the TOP position with Honor/Windrunners, then counting three for each group: Honor = Windrunners, Skybreakers, Dustbringers. Cultivation = Edgedancers, Lightweavers, Elsecallers. Odium = Lightspren, Peakspren, Mistspren. o Also, within each of these three groups, there should be ONE intelligent Unmade, ONE middling Unmade and one unintelligent Unmade. · Odium Unmade the 9 TRUE SPREN to create these Unmade: o Honorspren = Odium pulled an Honorspren into the physical world and they became Ba-ado Mishram. BAM was a leader for their side much like Windrunners. Also, people think BAM gave the singers forms to help Odiums forces, but if you look at it like BAM wanted to do it in spite of Odium…BAM kind of broke its oaths. This is the Intelligent Unmade for the first three positions. o Highspren = Odium pulled a Highspren into the physical world and they became Chemoarish. This Unmade has little known about them. I predict they will be a middling Unmade (not too smart or too primal). Skybreakers DO have the Surge of Division, so maybe Dustmother incorrectly became associated with the Dustbringers when in reality, it was connected to the Skybreakers. No idea how Highspren’s sense of law factors into Chemoarish yet. o Ashspren = Odium pulled a Ashspren into the physical realm and it became Re-shephir. Re-shephir is the Unintelligent Unmade for these three. Dustbringers are interested in breaking things apart to see them. As a result, Re-shephir was altered and now observes how things work rather than breaking them. This doesn’t count if humans kill, because she doesn’t see this as breaking, but imitating. o Cultivationspren = Odium pulled a Cultivationspren into the physical realm and it became Sja-anat. Sja-anat is the Intelligent Unmade for the next three spots on the Surgebinding chart. Cultivation spren are defined as fearful and trepidatious. Sja-anat became a daring Unmade who was brave enough to take secrets, pruning and planting secrets into the world to manipulate it as she tries to forge her own way in the world. o Cryptics = Odium pulled a Cryptic spren into the physical realm and it became Moelach. Moelach is the middle intelligence spren for these three on the chart. This is because he can observe and speak through dying people. Cryptics enjoy truths and lies, so Moelach gravitated towards future sight and relaying it as a FACT even if it wasn’t…thus confusing humanity. Also, Moelach is in the Cultivation region of the Surgebinding Chart, and Cultivation is deemed the most gifted at foresight. o Inkspren = Odium pulled an Inkspren into the physical world and it became Nergaoul. Inkspren are logical but when they were Unmade, they beame the Thrill…an illogical force of nature and the Unintelligent Unmade for this section of the Chart. (Also a little connection, but Inkspren can’t disappear in the physical realm, and The Thrill can’t disappear in the Cognitive realm.) o Lightspren = Odium pulled a Lightspren into the physical realm and it became Dai-gonarthis. (First, rhythms and sounds seem to be more natural to Roshar, thus Light investure may be more of Odium or humans, hence his section of the Chart and his most intelligent Unmade is Dai-gonarthis.) Lightspren seem to have the strongest connection to singers…they can go in gem hearts, hear rhythms and understand them, know how to subdue Voidspren. We don’t know much about Dai-gonarthis, but if it was the Unmade that scoured Aimia, Odium may be behind this to get at the Dawnshards or something else. The one note in COPPERMIND I saw is that Dai-gonarthis is classified as a mid-level Unmade, but I NEVER see that mentioned anywhere in text. And the reference COPPERMIND has doesn’t seem to imply that either in my opinion. o Peakspren = Odium pulled a Peakspren into the physical realm and it became Yelignar. We don’t know much about Peakspren other than they are described as Individualistic. This was corrupted when it became Unmade because now it can’t exist without another person to bond and use. Since Yelignar can communicate once inside someone, it is the Middle intelligence Spren for this section of the Chart. o Mistspren = Odium pulled a Mistspren into the physical realm and it became Ashertmarn. Ashertarn is a mindless Unmade focused on extreme emotion and passion because it is from Odium’s part of the Chart. Mistspren are open to enlightenment and truth, and as such were corrupted into being an Unmade who seeks no truth, only carnal pleasure. These ideas leave no room or explanation for BONDSMITHS. There is always something funky going on with them, and this is about Odium’s balance to the 9 surges of Roshar. Part 2: Ba-ado-Mishram’s Powerful Effects · The next part of this theory relies on one major tenant: we have NO idea the extent of BAM’s powers or the ramifications of what they did before their capture. · So following the timeline, Knights Radiant and Heralds are fighting and succeeding in Desolations until Odium pulls these Spren into the physical world, Unmakes them and now the Unmade are making it more difficult for humanity to catch up, Heralds break faster and humanity can’t recover. · The Heralds Abandon their oathpact. · One thing to note here, which will become important later, is that based on most visions we get from the past through Dalinar’s eyes, the peoples of Roshar at this point do not look as varied in their races and physical appearances as later in Rosharan history. · Ba-ado-mishram does SOMETHING that we know gives Listeners forms. o But what’s more important…is what happened to Spren. · Spren who were of the fourth ideal or lower became Deadeyes. · Spren of the FIFTH ideal were ripped from the cognitive realm and became humans. · Despite this, most orders of the Knights Radiant wanted to imprison or destroy BAM. · Fearing this would never allow the problem to fixed, Windrunners and Stonewards…two groups dedicated to protection and winning battles that seem unwinnable, they gave up their powers so as to protect their Spren from this happening again…since they wouldn’t be killing BAM. · Once the False Desolation was over and the Knights Radiant disbanded, a more modern version of society began to take place as Roshar drifted away from the Epoch Kingdoms and the Desolations. · The fifth ideal spren who became humans, spread across Roshar, mating with humans and creating the diverse races we now see on Roshar. o I’ve tried matching Spren descriptions with Racial descriptions on Roshar, allowing for some tweaking, but there are some interesting connections and theories…there are 9 True Spren and anywhere between 8-11 races on Roshar depending on how you break it down or look at it…also which history or historian you believe. (Including Sanderson here) · As a result of all this, any Spren who understood how Nahel bonding worked or what was going on in the physical realm either a.) became humans trapped in the physical realm, or B.) became a Deadeye who can’t communicate. This means the old, reluctant spren who stayed in the cognitive realm and didn’t want to bond became the only survivors (why Syl was special?). This gives them a biased and illogical recollection of these events. Part 3: So What’s this Mean? · So far this theory really focuses on World Building and history that puts certain things more into categories and profiles, rather than using it as a basis for a theory going forward. · Everything on my theory going forward hinges on what we DON’T KNOW about Ba-ado-mishram. · My prediction is that when BAM is released and does the thing that it does…along with the aid of an UNCHECKED Bondsmith (Ishar), she will transport the ENTIRE spren population into the physical realm…or rather combine them together…thus eliminating the Nahel bond as we know it in terms of using STORMLIGHT. · One theory I saw online that helped spark this idea was the fact that the 5 POV characters in the back half are characters with SPECIAL circumstances that will allow them powers WITHOUT a typical Nahel Bond. o Jasnah will use ADVANCED fabrial technology to perform her abilities. o Lift uses food to power her abilities. o Taln uses his Honorblade o Ash uses her Honorblade (but about this time in the series I see the connection being fixed in time for Ash to join ANOTHER Order, thus proving it can be done again) o Renarin uses Voidlight to access abilities. Part 4: One Last Tin-Foil Connection to SHALLAN/SPREN NOTE – I’m not going to refer to Veil, Radiant and Shallan in this part because the specific actions taken my each don’t affect this theory really. ALL Shallan’s refer to whatever Shallan is speaking at a particular part. · As I’m doing my re-read, the one major theory I’ve had for a few years now ALWAYS pops back into my head as more evidence appears. I’ve written about it before on here but have ALWAYS been refuted because of one specific WOB: o Shallan’s parents are really Shallan’s parents. · This is relevant because I’m almost POSITIVE we have seen someone on page who is or was a SPREN…only they don’t know it because they were pulled into the physical realm similar to Ishar has done and BAM has done if you believe this theory. · I think when Brandon mentions Shallan’s history in WOBs, he answers sometimes as in world interpretations. If Shallan’s parents THOUGHT or BELIEVED in her enough, or took the proper actions to BRING her into the physical realm, maybe they truly DO think of themselves as parents. · I don’t want to repost my ideas and evidence about Shallan being a spren become human…but some new ideas connecting this to her RoW journey popped up as I read. o This all comes specifically from chapter 26 in RoW (A Little Espionage) o Shallan starts the chapter not great, comes out and does OK, but by the end something really freaks her out bad and she retreats again. o When we first see Shallan, she is drawing and Cryptics are standing around her observing her. The same way someone sent on a spy quest is debriefed for intelligence by their commanding officers, they seem to be acquiring the knowledge of what Shallan has come to understand about people and humans. o Next, Shallan begins investigating Ishnah who got into something she didn’t understand or realize the extent of and is now over her head. § SHALLAN transforming into the Physical realm and not knowing it and being over her head. o Next Shallan goes to Beryl who says: “That I could walk away if I wanted to. Nothing was keeping me there. § Nothing is keeping Spren from doing this if they know how. SHALLAN is proof of this. o Next, Beryl says: the almighty’s greatest blessing to humans, the ability to change. Sometimes all we need is a seed. § SHALLAN changes from Spren to human (not sure about the seed) o Next, Vathah says: Figure if I learn to Lightweave well enough, Maybe I’ll turn into someone else…” § SHALLAN is a Lightweaver and she changed from Spren to human. o The NEXT LINE After that quote, Shallan thinks: That stabbed her straight through. § It’s because she sort of remembers this… o Finally, when Vathah says it again that he would like to be someone new…Shallan replies with this! “YOU CAN DO IT WITHOUT LIGHTWEAVING” § Because she knows she has done it…become someone new. A human from a spren. o At the end of the chapter, Veil specifically says that something Shallan thought in the last few pages was about to stir the truth and her memories… § But SHALLAN ties herself in a knot and shuts down. TL:DR: · Surgebinding Chart gives clues to how Odium took the 9 TRUE SPREN and Unmade them; using this as justification to attempt it, Ba-ado-mishram attempts this as well and screws up the world by bringing over bonded Spren and killing bonded Spren when she connected to Listeners. This led to different Races on Roshar and gives evidence to my theory that Shallan is really a Spren turned human and doesn’t know it. PS – I have another big piece I’m working on that says Szeth was also a Spren, maybe Nale’s, before he was brought into the physical realm as well. (fifth book based on Szeth would be the place to present this.) Let me know what you think.

I'm of the opinion that Stormlight's time skip (I've heard rumors of 10-15 years, still not sure if the exact amount has been pinned down) serves two functions in terms of literary composition: Character development and plot development. The first is pretty obvious, even if I don't look forward to this. As I've re-read the series three times now, I've come to enjoy RoW slightly more than OB. The sole exception being the ~year long time skip. I understand it was needed to tell the story BS wanted to with Bridge 4, Windrunner squires, etc. But it just wasn't for me and I often wonder if the symmetry of 10 books to the world's significance with 10 strong-armed BS into leaving out some stuff or skipping time as he did so he would hit the 5 and 5 = 10 mark. Doesn't matter, it's just an artistic choice I wasn't a fan of. The second function of the time skip is much more interesting to me. Roshar has been around for millennia. Wars were fought that lasted centuries. Time means nothing for Spren or Shard Vessels. This is a series about long, cultural and 'scientific' evolutions that culminated in the True Desolation...then something will happen in KoWT. Whatever this plot point/event is will have sort of conclusion, but then will continue with the later half. So here's my question: What sort of event or resolution could be entertaining enough, satisfying enough, logical enough and meaningful enough to END one story, then have NEW problems or events come about in Books 6-10? To me, there are only so many avenues/options where any sort of time skip is feasible...let alone one that can be upended only 10-15 years later. The most obvious is a new oath pact formed, some of our old heralds (or not) and some new characters are sent to Braize and after 10-15 years one of them breaks. (If it goes this way, my prediction is Adolin is made a herald who chooses to wield Maya instead of an Honorblade, thus being the first Herald without powers - something the originals HAD but didn't NEED as their original purpose was to guide humans and help them, something Adolin is damn good at.) After this idea though, I'm lost. Which means this won't happen because it's too obvious. But WHAT could be conclusive enough to end Part 1, but then cause problems enough to continue a series Part 2, 15 years later? If Odium wins, I imagine he'd be ITCHING to get after it and cause some Cosmere chaos. I don't see how anything could happen in a Universe extending War within that time period that would cause a new storyline on ROSHAR to begin. Other planets fighting Odium and FuseDalinar might have problems, but I can't Roshar. They were beat, subdued, conquered and are Odium's grasp now. If Dalinar wins, Odium is trapped. So I guess this all comes back to Todium seeing a mistake in Hoid's contract and exposing it. (damn) I just went in a circle and ended up at the obvious answer being one we know, but don;'t understand yet (the Sanderson Special his empire has been built on). Well anyway, I'm still going to post this and see if anyone can use these parameters to maybe get MORE specific with theories about WHY the time jump exists in terms of its function and how that will be explained? Rock on, Gons.

I've been mulling some of these over for years and with Rhythm of War, I think that there's enough information to make a coherent theory. I'll add citations later... There are 16 surges. We know that Radiant Surgebinding is based off of the Surgebinding granted through the Honorblades. We know that Honor added safeguards to surgebinding so that Roshar wouldn't be destroyed like Ashyn The Lord Ruler hid 16 allomantic metals by telling the world that there were only 10 Looking at the overlap that we see between the other investiture systems that we've explored, there are some glaringly obvious gaps in Surgebinding No emotional surges, even though we see emotion spren... No temporal surges, except for Renarin who has an "enlightened" spren and has lost access to the surge of illumination No direct action surges. We have lashings, but those are changing the direction in which things fall... we don't have surges for pulling and pushing stuff. We now know that the spren that make up Shardplate are related to the sapient spren that form the shard blades. I believe that Honor created the Honorblades by mutating natural spren like windspren and creationspren by giving them splinters of Honor (and Cultivation) and then continued creating the sapient spren to hide the method of creating the Honorblades.

“My spren claims that recording this will be good for me, so here I go. Everyone says I will swear the Fourth Ideal soon, and in so doing, earn my armor. I simply don’t think that I can. Am I not supposed to want to help people? —From drawer 10-12, sapphire” ~epigraph for Oathbringer 86 Anyone else find this chapter opening to be extremely ominous? I think that it may refer to the 4th ideal of the Elsecallers due to their utilitarian and somewhat Machiavellian attitude. But the idea that the 4th Ideal of an order goes against the idea of protecting others is wild. Noticing this on a fresh read through of OB. Anyone have thoughts? Not much on the coppermind regarding this.

First of all, some WoBs: So, I recently came up with this theory. The theory was: pure atium burned allomantically would give the burner innate knowledge of hemalurgy, allowing them to instinctually know and use the finer points of hemalurgy, such as where to place the spikes and which metal to use for the desired effect. But from these WoBs I got that that’s not what it would do. It would just be more powerful (I believe). But I think it is possible that it is not impossible. Maybe, if you use pure atium hemalurgically it could give that ability. Some supporting points are: burning lerasium allomantically gives you the power of allomancy. Lerasium is the body and metal of Preservation, and allomancy is his magic system, so it makes sense that lerasium would give you his power. Would it not also make sense to use Ruin’s metal in his power to get the best effects? It also makes me wonder if you could do a similar thing with harmonium and feruchemy! Please prove me wrong, or supply me with more information to make it more rock-solid! I really like this theory, and I’m not the best at predicting what Sanderson is going to do. Odium Reigns…

Hello! So, I'm back again with another hairbraned theory with little to no evidence to back it up. But, it sure would be cool if it were true. At the very end of the Ars Arcanum of RoW, we get an interesting quote about an entity named Foil that lives in an ocean and wants control of the aethers. When RoW came out, the identity of this being was unknown. Then Tress was released and we got introduced to a fun dragon named Xisis. Xisis lives at the bottom of the Crimson sea and studies, you guessed it, the aethers. This implies that they're the same. This is only circumstantial evidence, of course, but it seems to me like a pretty strong connection. A quick search of Coppermind and Arcanum didn't reveal anything, so I'm asking for thoughts. Do you think that Foil and Xisis are the same? Is there any evidence I've overlooked? Please tell me your point of view.

Here's the theory. BAM specifically Connected herself to the power of the Nahel Bond on Roshar, and I think a lot of problems are caused by an asymmetrical breaking of the Bond. Perhaps the bond is now slightly too strong and unregulated. Elantris spoiler: Here's some things we know or highly suspect: When a Radiant dies, their spren does not become a Deadeyes, that only happens if the Radiant forsakes their Oaths. When this happens, the spren gets a more permanent tie to the PR, either they manifest as a Shardblade or they are dismissed while bonded to a Shardbearer. The deeper the bond, presumably the more damaged the Deadeye. BAM gained new abilities that allowed her to grant forms of power to the ancient Singers, possibly as a copy of Ishar's Knights Radiant. Singer forms by their very nature are spren bonds, Nahel bonds. Presumably when BAM was imprisoned, the Singers became Parshmen, unable to form bonds with spren to gain forms and they lost their minds in the process. Voidspren, particularly Ulim seem to have far, far more mental stability in the PR than they ought to, considering Ulim was able to leave Venli's gemheart with no negative consequences to his mind. There is an imbalance here. Not a new idea, but I agree with the idea that at the imprisonment of BAM, the Singers with forms of power, basically all of them except the Listeners, lost a portion of their Cognitive selves to the Voidspren that inhabited their hearts. This provided an anchor to the Voidspren in the PR, allowing them to retain their minds even when in the PR. This widespread rending of the fabric of Roshar's nature may have kicked off the decisions that lead to the Recreance, though 17 Sharders who track the history would need to check that. At the Recreance, by a similar mechanism the spren became Deadeyes, a portion of their mind trapped in the other realm. Just as a Deadeye can forcibly be Connected to a Shardbearer by application of Stormlight, perhaps the Everstorm on the first pass forcibly Connected the Parshmen to the CR and restored their ability to form bonds with Voidlight. This allowed the Fused to be more directly reborn in their bodies with the Everstorm. The restoration of their minds may have been a side effect, though Odium is likely better served by thinking, passionate Singers. Why did the Parshmen still have their lost minds after generations? Perhaps the mostly severed bond that kept the Voidspren sapient was passed down generation to generation. Nahel bonds can be passed. I also wonder if a Deadeye Enlightened by Sja-anat would have their mind restored with the Everstorm. Thoughts? I wrote this late at night, and needed to get it out of my head.

So ever since I read RoW I saw a potential loophole that Odium could exploit if he won the contest of champions. So the stakes of Dalinar losing are basically that Dalinar must serve Odium (either as a cognitive shadow fused, or alive) and that Odium still cannot leave the system regardless of the outcome. Anything else is less relevant to this theory. So the idea I had was that if Odium is able to win the challenge without killing Dalinar, then Dalinar should still be bonded to the Stormfather. At this point, what stops Odium from ordering Dalinar to speak for Honor's power and release Odium from the system? It was seen in previous books that Dalinar has this ability, when talking to Odium in the visions he almost accidentally did it as an example. The problems with this theory would mainly come from how the Stormfather's bond is affected by Dalinar aligning with Odium and if the bond breaks before the contest somehow (such as Ishar stealing it). I don't think losing the fight would directly break the bond between the Stormfather and Dalinar since he is still upholding an oath/deal he made with Odium. Anyways I'd love if anyone could pick holes in this idea as this was just my gut reaction/thought to Dalinar wording the deal the way he did. I haven't seen this idea talked about anywhere else, but I have only recently gotten into 17th shard stuff. This is my first post here, so sorry if I messed something up with rules about spoilers, I tried to word everything in a way to have minimal spoilers, just in case.

1) The Recreance and the “False Desolation” First a few preliminary thoughts. The Recreance happened during the "False Desolation", in which BAM handed out Forms to the Singers, as Jasnah concluded in chapter 56 of OB by inspecting Dalinars vision of the Recreance. The Humans in Dalinars vision also appear to be a very multi-ethnic group, a kind of coalition that only came together to fight against the Singers in a Desolation. The following two epigraphs confirm this, as the “sentiment of betrayal” was surely regarding the war against the Singers and not some other human group, which would not have access to surges. The last epigraph suggests that all these events were connected somehow. “This act of great villainy went beyond the impudence which had hitherto been ascribed to the orders; as the fighting was particularly intense at the time, many attributed this act to a sense of inherent betrayal;” WoR chapter 41 epigraph. "Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow connected with the parsh people, as Odium once did. She provides Voidlight and facilitates forms of power. Our strike team is going to imprison her." OB chapter 80 epigraph. “I was there when Ba-Ado-Mishram was captured. I know the truth of the Radiants, the Recreance, and the Nahel spren RoW.” Ch. 94. Epigraph. (Kalak speaking) 2) The Discovery As the original Radiants faced the False Desolation one thing was made patently clear: The Heralds had lied to them, when they said that the Humans or Team Honor had “won” the wars of the Desolations. Because here was BAM, handing out void forms and leading a Desolation in all but name. This must have caused some considerable consternation and a desire to know what actually happened. I think they figured out pretty quickly that the Heralds had walked away from the Oathpact at the cost of Taln staying back. That was pretty easy to find out given the nine swords in Shinovar. They learned that they were in this kind of limbo state inbetween Desolations and Peacetimes. Odium would come back eventually. I do think however that Taravangian was right in seeing the discovery of the Humans as Odium`s original people being the “fact” that caused the Recreance. But as with many other things, this lacks its proper context in order to be meaningful. 3. Singer Slavery Here comes my actual theory. I think the Singers being reduced to servitude was not a consequence of BAM`s imprisonment. They already had been made slaves sometime after the Humans had “won” the war of the Desolations, let`s say after 1000 years. The False Desolation probably started out as a mass slave rebellion of the Singers. So why did the KR accept Singer slavery? Institutions corrupt over time. The Vorin church was founded during the time of the Heralds as well. The Skybreakers were a KR order and currently serve Odium. Or take the storming Honor Spren of Lasting Integrity, which condemned all Humans based on the false belief that the Radiants had killed their spren en masse during the Recreance. The Knights Radiants could likewise condemn all Singers based on the false belief, that Singers were by nature Odium`s people, like the orcs in LotR, and Humans Honor`s chosen ones. This should be seen as the core ideology, which justified the enslavement of a large portion of Singers, if not all of them. As the Radiants figured out the secrets of the Eila Stele, the core ideology upon which they had justified the enslavement of large numbers of an entire species fell apart. 4. The Recreance As we know from Way of Kings slavery is not compatible with Honor. Sadeas used slaves as bridgemen, Dalinar did not. The Knights Radiants therefore discovered something equally shocking: their own order had become corrupted to the ways of Odium as according to the Eila Stele all human beings can be. If things would go on unchanged forever, the Knights Radiants as a whole would become servants of Odium, as the Skybreakers are now. So the Radiants decided to end their order altogether by breaking the Nahel bond and telling the Spren in Shadesmar this was done in malicious intent to make sure no new bonds would be created in the future. This way they wanted to ensure no corrupted KR institution would ever arise to make a resistance to Odium impossible, once he did come back. Secondly, to eliminate the reason for anti-singer prejudice the KR wanted Humanity to forget millennia of wars against the Singers as Voidbringers. In this regard they conducted a large scale cover up operation to ensure key information was lost, like that the Parshmen were the Voidbringers or the location of Urithiru. There is a certain symmetry to Dalinar`s arc in OB I think. Humanity, like Dalinar, had to forget, in order to be make a rebirth of an honorable KR order largely impartial to the Singers possible. The gift of forgetting goes for the Spren as well. They could only "forgive" the Singers as Leshwi put it, because they were so mad at the Humans in the first place. The same also goes for the Singers of course. The fact is there are now Singer Radiants, which had not existed for all those millienia of Desolations. I think the Recreance has made that possible. I also think that the KR, like Dalinar, had help from Cultivation in this regard. Did you ever wonder how a gigantic tower in the middle of Roshar could go unnoticed for millenia? Or that a community of sentient Singers with convinient knowledge of millenias past could be hidden from Humanity though being situated right at the border of Alethkar? Cultivation made sure it stayed that way.

So with the recent revelation that Virtuosity is a Shard I think we finally know the Intent of the Wisdom/Prudance shard. Now hear me out, I have some reason for this. First we have to define Virtuosity From google: So the most basic understanding of the shard is artistic skill. However just like how Honor means more than a code of Ethics I think Virtuosity means more as well. Art isn't just the making of something, it's also the knowledge of how to make it. I think Virtuosity is the knowledge of creating, especially art. And with how often the golden ratio came up, which was a common mathamatical prinicple used to create some of the most famous works of art I think that it's not a stretch to say that the knowledge is included in Virtuosity's intent. Additionally the Wisdom shard belives that survival might not be the best thing for it. And Virtuosity splintered herself. Therefore I prepose that the Wisdom/Prudance shard is Virtuosity.

TL;DR: Siah Aimians were Honorspren that came over to the physical realm like Ishar is trying to do. That's why they are all blue and that's why Aimia was where all the ancient Fabrial's, spren turned into objects came from in the Silver Kingdoms. Axies can change his skin at will is the physical realm, this is a remnant of Spren like Syl changing her appearance in the physical realm. Axies is documenting every possible spren in the physical realm, building a family tree of sorts. Axies has been alive for a loooooong time, spren live theoretically forever. Ishar is trying to convert or "translate" Spren cognitive realm humanoid bodies into physical realm bodies. It's not going well. The Radiant spren type that lasts the longest in the physical realm are the Honorspren. Ishar is insane, but he is not ignorant. He thinks this can be done and he's had some success with Honorspren. I was chatting with @HoidvsVoid about the origins of all the different varieties of humanoids. Some were native like the Singers others came from Ashyn others came from other systems in the cosmere (Iriali) and others are a result of interbreeding between these humanoids. The Siah Aimians (the blue guys like Axies) we don't know a lot about. The Dysian Aimians (Seepless) came from somewhere else, but we don't know much about the blue ones. The two types are both called Aimians because they lived in the same place, but they have little in common. Then I saw a picture of Axies. It's fan art, but it jogged something in me. In my head Axies was a darker blue, but that's just in my head. This color is what I would call Syl Blue or Honorspren blue. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Siah_Aimian Axies fan art vs official Dragonsteel Syl artwork hidden for size: What do we know about Aimian's? Well they were masters of ancient Fabrials, which we learned in RoW are spren transformed into physical realm objects. They were fabrial central of the Silver Kingdoms, in other words they were the "Spren turn into something in the physical realm other than a blade" central. What else do we know about Siah Aimians? Axies can change his skin at will to jot things down. We see Syl constantly change her physical realm appearance in the books. What if this is a remnant of that ability? They can't fully change shape, but they can change things within that shape at will. Axies himself has dedicated his life to seeing every spren in the physical realm and documenting them. Building a family tree kind of. Regardless, this reinforces the Siah Aimian - Spren connection. Axies has been alive a looooooooong time. Spren don't have a natural lifespan, although we do know they can be killed under certain circumstances. Axies wasn't wearing any clothes in his interlude. He comments that this happens a lot, he gets robbed or otherwise loses all his possessions. It's funny, but it could also link back to how spren don't have clothes in the cognitive or physical realm they just change part of their body to look like clothes. Wearing clothes doesn't come naturally to a spren, you'd think Axies would adjust after thousands of years, but maybe it feels unnatural to him. EDIT: Credit to @some punny username on Discord. Axies shadow casts the wrong way which we know is a thing that being's close to Shadesmar do.

So just something quick, who needs birth controle in the cosmer? Like for example scaa or at least scaa heritage seems to add the chance of getting pregnant whereas noble women had a higher chance of not being able to get pregnant. That of is course being part of TLR “Grand” design. then we look at roshar, and it’s not uncommon to hear some families with 4+ kids and others with just two even shallan and adolin don’t seem to be worried about having kids. But the entire world is constantly at war So we can assume that more kids are being born then on screen. And don’t get me started on the parshindi the way they reproduce makes no sense to me. I’m unsure how other planets work as I have only read mistborn and stormlight. but here’s my working theory. That places like roshar where the average person is more invested doesn’t have to worry about birth control as they can intend to have a child or not. Or it can be altered by someone who can see the SW like TLR. Whats your thought? WoB?

I know, I know, copper Comounding is hardly a new topic. But I believe I can shed new light on it: an unexplored possibility The most common theories about what copper Compounding does are 1. It duplicates the memory 2. It enhances the details 3. It lets you see things in the memory that you hadn’t seen before. I believe that there is another underlying Cosmere mechanic in play, one that allows all of the above to some extent. To avoid Stormlight spoilers, I’ll put the relevant WoB here and use the Coppermind’s description unspoilered. “Visions are almost like glimpsing into the Spiritual Realm, but viewed through the Cognitive Realm.[2] This is done by a person being pulled through the Realms into the Spiritual Realm, with the Cognitive Realm adding framework to seeds set in place. This allows the person to interact with the vision, and for the vision to respond, similar to an AI.[3] Almost anything can be shown in a vision.” It is my theory that Compounding a memory creates one of these visions. Creating said vision lets you vividly replay that memory and you could theoretically record your experience after, thus providing chances to duplicate or relive an event. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you act a different way in the vision than you did in the original event, you can see new possibilites. Like a more detailed version of gold. But there’s also one other possibility. While you can’t use any physical objects from the vision, things that affects your mind and soul should still carry over. For example, let’s say I’m a copper Compounder and I had a memory of battling a strong Lightweaver. In the vision, I do something different and they successfully use Soulcasting to turn me into fire. Assuming I provided enough Investuture, perhaps by Compounding the memory several times, the power should still work even in the vision. And while the details are provided by the Spiritual Realm, most of what you experience is fabricated by Preservation’s easily renewable Investuture. Of course, you’d also have to figure out what actually affects the spirit or mind. Hemalurgy is probably a no since you need a physical spike. Repeated Essence Marks might give you a power without needing a physical stamp. Maybe you could trick a vision into giving you Breaths (the Breaths would self convert into a proper physical form). That would be a nice way to back door Compound Breaths. If you guys have any other candidates, let me know. Finally, you may be able to bring others into the Vision if they are Connected, perhaps with proper Intent. That would be good for communication or even distraction if you have allies. Anyway, that’s my theory. Brandon was being especially cagey not just to save Compounding, but because there is an underlying mechanic that can do unexpected things. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

We know that Brandon has wanted the Aethers to be important for a long time. We see that the Shades on Threnody are vulnerable to silver which kills Aethers. They also have a significant physical resemblance to the Midnight Aether and Midnight Essence. My theory is that the Evil on Threnody is the Midnight Aether and that the Shades are manifestations of it.

I was over in the Ars Arcanum and went on a bit if a deep dive of WoBs today. Here's what I found Brandon keeps his cards close with this RAFO. Sometimes he let's something slip before dropping the RAFO hammer. But what does Odium mean? 'We killed you.' He says, right after Dalinar opens Honors perpendicularity. You is presumably Honor. The only other option that makes sense is Adonalsium but I think that the less likely option. But who is we? Brandon makes a point of saying 'at various points'. I think he is saying that Odium has worked with multiple shards. It's been implied that Mercy may have helped splinter Ambition and Autonomy helped splinter Dominion and Devotion. Brandon says that it is dangerous for one shard to attack another. So would Odium attack two shards. I think it's more likely he convinced another shard to come to Roshar? My guess is Odium would have convinced Autonomy. It was a dishardic world. That seems like something Autonomy would be willing to help with, as she did on Sel.

I think at this point, we've all heard the "Shallan's mother was Chanarach theory". If you hadn't the main points of evidence gathered up through RoW were: Appearances. Most notably, the physical similarities between the released images of Chana and Shallan are also pretty obvious. Process of elimination. Sanderson has said that most (possibly all) of the modern heralds were mentioned on page in WoK, and we've found most of them. Kalak, Shallash, Jezerin, and Nale are obvious. Battar is Dova, and Paliah was confirmed as the ardent in the Palanaeum. I am fairly convinced Lyss is Vedel. Chana has no other good candidates. The Davar household is full of more secrets than Kelsier. Sh*t was clearly going down there, with everyone from Hoid to the Unmade to the Knights of Honor getting involved. Personality. Chana should be acting as an inversion of brave/obedient, which Shallan's mother fits with. The might also be something to the mental troubles of Shallan and her siblings also (WoB) having some magical elements, almost like the herald's insanity. It might just be the UnMade, but it might not be... Overall, I thought it was an interesting theory, but more on the tinfoil-side. However, I think the just released Stromlight 5 Prologue reveals some info that blew my mind, and I starting to get on board. First, and more simply, we get on page confirmation that Chana does have bright real hair (previous evidence was "in-universe" and could have been inaccurate). This really reinforces Chana's red hair, and draws an obvious connection to some of the only other (non-horneater) gingers, the Davars. Chana being a redhead is also important enough to emphasize as canon, so unless it's a red (lol) herring, it should be relevant. Before I go into the second, I want to shout out this theory (@teknopathetic), since the reveals are basically supporting evidence for the main idea laid out here. TLDR: Chana is Shallan's mother, Shallan killed Chana and sent her back to Braize. Channa later breaks and releases the Oathpact/Taln. So we get this in released Prologue: So, one of the heralds dies the same day as Gavilar and the Stormfather (somehow?) covers it up. The phrasing, particularly the commentary "The Oathpact" suggests to me that this was 'return-to-Braize' died, and not perma-killed a la Jezerin by Moash. All this explains how/why Taln came back to Roshar after the Battle of the Tower. One of the Heralds returned to Braize, and then held out ~6 years until they broke, which released them and Taln back to Roshar. What's even more interesting is that Gavilar and the mystery Hearld die in 1167. The year Shallan kills her mother? 1167.

I have assembled here a WOBs, and I will also assemble them piece by piece, with the longest stretches ever, into a Hoid theory. :So, the first one:. This, I believe, tells us that Hoid is looking very much to see someone again. I will get back to this one. I have a quote from tWoK, chapter 57. I see this as him basically saying that he was originally created as a thought. "Words on a page". Forgery, anyone? Well, where could MAGIC such as forgery come from before the Shattering of Adonalsium? That's right, Adonalsium. Hoid was created by Adonalsium. I don't remember when, but sometime in tWoK or WoR Hoid tells Kaladin that he stole his name from someone he should have loved, his old master. I don't want to stretch this argument too long, but maybe his master was Adonalsium? Just consider it for me, would ya? Another WOB: He can't hurt someone. OK. But he becomes nauseous just by thinking of physical pain. Might it be so that he regrets hurting someone? Someone he should have loved? I promise, the next part will be the last. THE FINAL WOB: So we know that Hoid is collecting lots of magic systems. Magic systems are Investiture right? And where does Investiture originally come from? The shards. The shards are all parts of Adonalsium. So, if he collects all the magics, and maybe even learns to combine them he may be able to get a piece of Adonalsium. THE FINAL STRETCH: I believe that Hoid wants to see someone he's lost. He also was created by Adonalsium, so Adonalsium is kind of his "parent". If he made a mistake and killed his Parent, then he obviously regrets it. He does not want to hurt someone, as he's already made that mistake once before. He also wants to remake Adonalsium. Well, that's it- He wants to remake Adonalsium. That's why he for example, in the Epiloge of RoW Wit/Hoid is having a fight with Odium/Rayse. Odium is destroying/Killing Shards, something which makes it harder for Hoid to collect everything. Thank you for staying with me! Here's a cookie! Please feel free to tell me your thoughts.

Clearly, there is a plan for Marsh down the road. I don't think Sanderson would make him immortal and keep him around for no good reason. So what's going to be his story going forward? Marsh is currently probably one of the most (if not the most) heavily ruin-invested individuals in the cosmere, save Harmony himself, and as lost metal tells us that's not likely to change. Hemalurgy was different in the era of the final empire, and you just can't have as many spikes now as Marsh does. Sazed, meanwhile, has a problem. He has more ruin in his system than he does preservation, and it's making things difficult for him. Perhaps one way to solve this issue is to shunt that extra ruin into an avatar, a minishard. And who better to make an avatar of Ruin than the person already most heavily aligned with him? Ruin is the end of all things. The fall of the great civilization, the mountain ground into dust, the star that goes out. Preservation gave a part of himself up to create life. So what then, is the avatar of that opposite part of Ruin? Death.

I have a personal theory on how the three main Rithmatic lines (Warding, Forbiddance, and Vigor) work, based on electromagnetism. My physics knowledge is pretty elementary so please let me know if this makes any sense. I believe we can characterize our 3 OG Rithmatic lines by what they do in terms of E&M analogues. Lines of Vigor, as we have heard over and over again, are the equivalent of waves. They carry energy along the line that they travel, and the chalk is just a visualization of the magnitude of the electric field at a given point in a transverse plane wave. Lines of Forbiddance are just conductors. A flat sheet of conductor is able to reflect an electromagnetic wave, just as a line of Forbiddance reflects a line of vigor. It is, however, not a superconductor, and therefore some energy is lost when a line of vigor bounces, which goes into breaking the line of Forbiddance A line of Warding, at the moment of drawing, is a conductor in which free-flowing charged particles are dumped in. The charged particles distributes across the conductor, which then "cools down" and becomes insulating, locking the charge in place. The charged particles are what actually give the Line of Warding strength, which is why the Line of Warding is stronger along curved areas. I think that seeing as Rithmatics functions in 2 dimensions, the laws that Rithmatic charge would follow would also be in 2 dimensions. From a quick Google there seems to be a mathematical analogue for electrodynamics in 2 dimensions: https://www.reed.edu/physics/faculty/wheeler/documents/Electrodynamics/Miscellaneous Essays/E&M in 2 Dimensions.pdf. My E&M/calc skills are too scrubby for me to understand basically anything of what's going on here, but I hopefully the theory doesn't break down.

Having seen the soldiers the Sorceress in Tress utilize, I feel we have a pretty concrete idea of what Autonomy's army of golden men are; they're Awakened constructs. In the Lost Metal, the army is described as statuesque, with golden skin. The Sorceress' soldiers are described as having burnished brass skin, and they stand unnaturally still until they have to obey their instructions. As per the below WOB, we also know that they utilize a known magic system. Now, this probably isn't a new theory, but I noticed the similarities and thought it worth mentioning.

So, this is my first theory in years, and I maybe did two before this; also, English is not my mother tongue. Furthermore, I just finished The Lost Metal, and haven't given the proper time to research and revise WoBs before I write this (anyone does?). Therefore, I apologize beforehand for whichever mistake I make. Now, let's get to it: In Kelsier's epilogue, he thinks about how Hemalurgy "had proven ineffective on what he'd become. It held his soul and body together, but no more", and he had hope, "hope he'd be able to touch the metals he could see in the world all around him". We're going to ignore the question that arises, if he can or can't physically touch metals, and instead understand his words as "Kelsier cannot use Allomancy in his current state". Does this mean that Kelsier has lost his prime Allomantic abilities? Did it happen when the Lord Ruler killed him? I think that's not the case, though there could be some WoB that say otherwise. I think that, when Kelsier died, the ability to access Allomancy was severed, but not extinguished. Much more like the link between his physical body and his congnitive shadow state were severed. We know that his eye's spike is made of steel, therefore it lacks something to link body to mind and soul. That brings us to the following theory:I think Kelsier had another spike before getting his eye's, this one made of aluminum. And here's why: Aluminum, according to the chart in TLM Ars Arcanum, has the Feruchemical power to store Identity. Also, as a Hemalurgic spike, it has the power to remove all powers. Hence, the core of my theory is that he used some kind of Aluminum medallion to store his Identity there (though I don't know if a cognitive shadow can access medallions, or if there's a WoB explaining it), then got someone to move it to the Physical Realm and stab his body with it, we don't know where. BUT, as he was Mistborn, the aluminum spike removed all his former powers and, potentially, his ability to use his steel one to touch metals around him. That would also could explain why Lerasium wouldn't work on him, as Sazed says, since the aluminum spike would automatically wipe out the new powers Lerasium brought. So, that's my theory for you guys. I hope I made it alright. Comments, opinions and insightful responses from someone who knows WAY more than I do would be appreciated. Thanks everybody for reading this far!!!