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So, spoilers for the readings Brandon has done from SA5 (and all Cosmere) ahead. But my crack theory at the moment is : what if Kaladin becomes Odium’s Champion?? Thoughts? Sorry it’s a bit rambly, but it’s a new idea I had and I’m curious about what you all think.

So I don't know if this is even a theory, as it doesn't really have consequences that might be proven right or wrong, but rather an interpretation that I really like of the Diagram storyline as presented. Matter of fact, I was wondering how many people defaulted to this interpetation, and I was just slow not getting it right away, or if there's anything in the text that counters it. We are told the Diagram is difficult to interpet because Taravangian was so smart on that faithful day that he had to trascend "linear note taking" and instead had to bunch information together in what became the Diagram. What I think makes more sense, is instead that Taravangian's plan was to become Odium since that day, the diagram had to be so complex to hide his endgame from both other people and dumb Taravangian himself. He needed to create the cult related to the Diagram to reach his goal, but its full understading was unattainable for them by design, if super smart Taravangian had wanted the Diagram to be understandable, he would have made it so, but hiding the endgame is vital for the plan itself to work.

At the end of Rhythm of War we saw that the chasmfiend helped the Listeners. In the prologue there were three colors of blood. Red and orange are human and singer, and violet is the color greatshell blood. What if there were chasmfiends that were killed with the original fused and they got turned into thunderclasts? If they are sapient then they theoretically could be turned into cognitive shadows.

Hello all, I just finished listening to the Old Cosmere Theories Shardcast from last year. I've got a theory cooking in my head and could use some help validating or poking holes in it! Theory: The Sleepless will be the mechanism to reform Adonalsium and will be the primary antagonist against Hoid in the endgame of the Cosmere Supporting Evidence: A vessel picking up a shard requires a sapient being in the Physical Realm. The Sleepless are sapient beings in the Physical realm. A vessel must have sufficient Connection to a shard to hold it. A being can be Connected to multiple shards. * Connection can be tied to an area (ex. Shardworlds) in the Physical Realm. This can cause beings that are heavily invested to be "stuck" in a specific location. * The Sleepless are Cosmere aware and have the ability to world hop. Connection can be inherited. * The Sleepless can selectively breed hordelings for a purpose. * The Sleepless bodies are thousands of hordelings, sharing a single mind. * There is an underlying theme of Identity and self-perception in the Cosmere. A table does not think of itself as multiple pieces of wood or nails. It sees itself as a whole. Hordelings have the ability to separate from the hive mind to operate autonomously, presumably changing their self-perception and Idenity in their spirit web. * They can even lose contact Cognitively. * Sleepless reproduce by forming multiple beings from their existing horde, meaning (presumably) all Sleepless are ancestors of a single original swarm. Through a mental link (presumably in the Cognitive Realm) they can communicate with other swarms. The Sleepless will play a very important role in Mistborn Era 4 * Hoid will be a main character in Mistborn Era 4 * Hoid's goals are unclear, but he may wish to reform of Adonalsium. Another entity doing so may interfere with his goals. A Hoid/ Sleepless race to collect shards could be a major plot point towards the end of the Cosmere. In plain English: I believe the Sleepless, over thousands of years, will spread across all of the shard worlds, adapting to the local geography, cultures, and magic systems. Independent swarms with be Connected with the local investiture and shardic intent, and when the time is right, they will take up the power of each shard. Once possessing all of the shards, the Sleepless (communicating via their mental link) will re-identify as a single entity, pulling together all of the aspects and powers of Adonalsium. This, IMHO, is the most elegant way to overcome the barriers of a human or dragon reforming Adonalsium, namely geography and Identify. Other facts that seem connected, but I don't know what to do with: The first Sleepless swarm to come to Roshar were said to look like spiders. * Could this play into the Spirit Webs? The Iriali's religion of a single entity breaking into smaller parts to have diverse experiences, only to one day reunite. They are aware of the Sleepless. * In this way, the Sleepless thematically match the shattering of Adonalsium. Known contradictions: The Coppermind says once a vessel ascends, they lose connection with their former species. This is lowercase c connection. I disagree with the interpretation of the WoB, as question was more about classifying the vessel. Bonus Theory: Kelsier will inhabit a Sleepless body and will be that primary antagonist in MBE4 Supporting Evidence: The Ghostbloods have a Sleepless aligned to their cause. Kelsier is bound to Scadrial. Kelsier is known as the "Lord of Scars". Sleepless, when imitating humans, have lines along their body where the hordeling intersect, appearing as either scars or tattoos. Kelsier and Hoid have had conflicts. Hoid considers him very dangerous. * The Set are said to have a longer timeframe for their goals The Set are aligned to Trell (presumably Autonomy) The Sleepless have a long timeframe, taking hundreds of years to selectively breed to meet their needs. * Bonus Theory: Autonomy now, or in the future, will be held by a Sleepless (maybe Patji) Supporting Evidence: Autonomy is referred to with male, female, and non-gendered pronouns. The Sleepless can present themselves as male or female and use non-gendered pronouns. Autonomy has many avatars on many planets The Sleepless are present on multiple planets Autonomy has been known to appear in various forms The Sleepless have the ability to change form by configuring different sets of hordelings Patji (linked to Automony) is a shard of Adonalsium * Patji (the island) has locations named after body parts (ex Eye of Patji, Patji's fingers) Sleepless hordelings have been known to get as big as buildings. Perhaps they could continue to grow to the size of islands. Known contradictions: Brandon was explicitly asked if Bavadin is a hive mind or an Amian, to which he said no. * This question was about Bavadin, not Autonomy. Bavadin's coppermind page lists them as the original and current shard of Autonomy, but the citations don't appear to confirm this. PHEW! That was a lot. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, both confirmative and constructive.

What do you think of a possibility of Adolin becoming the third Bondsmith? It makes sense to me that if anyone could restore all, or a large number of Deadeyes, it would be Cultivation's Bondsmith. Adolin seems to be interested in helping more of them do what Maya did, and he remains the only major character who isn't Radiant. That would also continue the trend of Kholin becoming Bondsmiths, and of Cultivation manipulating events that bear fruit much later. Maybe she removed Dalinar's memory of Evi in part to make him a more nurturing father to her future Bondsmith. Maya is a cultivation spren as well, so there's a connection there. I'm aware that this is just speculation, but I thought it was fun. Also sorry if this was already discussed before but I haven't found anything.

Harmony is currently having trouble acting, because he is limited by the conflicting intentions of Ruin and Preservation. Consider Ruin and Preservation as two parties in a negotiation with each other. Since they are equally strong, they are at an impasse. Imagine a third, much weaker party joins the negotiation. Say, a pinch of Devotion's Investiture. As was mentioned in Mistborn Era 1, in a negotiation involving three parties, the weakest party is actually the most powerful, because each of the stronger parties needs the weakest party on its side to defeat the other strong party. So if Sazed had a splinter of Devotion, then whenever Ruin and Preservation were deadlocked, Devotion's splinter would break the tie. Obviously, Sazed would want to choose Investiture carefully for this purpose, since his Intent would probably become a watered-down version of the third Shard. Devotion would probably be fine. Odium would not. The original Vessels would probably be opposed to such a plan, because it is moving toward a re-unified Adonalsium. They should see, however, that it only slightly enhances Sazed's Investiture power, and might greatly increase his freedom, since the Intent of whatever Investiture he eats a pinch of might be so diluted by the neutral Intent of Harmony that Sazed's will might be able to steer the new Intent quite a lot. As far as I know, the Vessels have no problem with freedom, though they may object on the grounds that it gives Sazed too much power in practice. What do you think?

We see early in the book that Wax mentions Steris wants another child. This statement might seem minor but considering what happens near the end of the book this could have major implications for Scadrial. We know Max has been exposed to a small amount of Lerasium, which rewrites your spiritual DNA. While the size of Lerasium bead is relevant to the strength of the Mistborn, even a small amount is very likely to have a huge effect genetically. Decedents of people who where given a full bead by the Lord Ruler where able to have create Mistborn nearly 1000 years after the initial exposure, so even a tiny exposure is very likely to be significant for Wax's direct descendants. Considering this, if Wax and Steris have that 3rd child like she wants, that child will have the strongest alomancy genetics in approximately 1300 years. It is very likely we could see full Mistborn in Era 3 because of this.

So, as of the end of The Lost Metal it's become rather obvious that Harmony is shifting into Discord. It just occurred to me that this could have major implications on his God Metal. Now, I can't say I have any real evidence for this, but I'm going to outline my thought process here. We learned in the Ars Arcanum that Sazed has been suppressing Ruin, making Preservation the dominant of the two, despite having more Ruin in him thanks to the creation of humanity. He's actively fighting against half of himself. It's rather like the struggle Rayse had with Odium. However, now that Ruin is reasserting itself, causing the combined Shard to shift into Discord. Now, normally a change in a Shard wouldn't affect the properties of said Shard's God Metal. Taravangianium will function the same as Raysium. With Sazed we're seeing something new: A Shard shifting Intent. In a very real way, the very nature of the Shard is changing. That could very well affect the properties of its God Metal going forward and have all sorts of wide-ranging implications for the future. Like I said though, I have no evidence for this, so feel free to tear it to shreds.

Disclaimer: I originally posted this theory as a response to another topic, I worked on it some more, but some of this post will be verbatum from that I was looking through everything Lift-related to try and make up my mind on what could explain... well Lift. While there's clearly something important weird about Lift's origin before her visit to the Nightwatcher, I don't think we have enough data to theorize about that, but I do have an idea what happened with the Nightwatcher, and, yeah, you read the title To show you I got there, I'll copy here the evidence that I found most relevant (I took notes notes Jasnah style) and then just summarize "my findings" and explain how I connected the dots. I'll be using Spoiler tags for spacing, and I bolded the snippets that I found most interesting, all the relevant info in the quotes is repeated in my final thoughts 1) WOBs on what Lift is\her origin 1) WOBs on the mechanics of Lifts powers 3) General info on Nightwathcer, Bondsmiths and multiple Naheel bond: So to summarize what's in the info I looked through and just some known facts: Lift is something very special only possible through an act of Cultivation, result of meddling with her spirit web. What she is and how she is however fits within a certain mechanic and is not a one-off thing, but Cultivation's experiment on her is a first on Roshar. Wyndle guesses she has a stronger connection to the spiritual realm, which makes sense in how for instance she can see Szeth's afterimage, and touch spren. This connection to the spiritual realm is probably related to how she is slightly different from other radiants (at least in how she would react to a dead shardblade). Still Wyndle bonded her as he would have a normal radiant, though the decision was made because she had been touched by Cultivation. She can only burn foods (not metals) and transforms the resulting energy as lifelight, with mechanics much like those of getting energy from digesting sugar. She does generate the investiture from the food, not quite like metals (allomancy) work though there's a similarity there. Finally, we know that she asked the Nightwatcher: I put this together with the fact that Bondsmiths can generate their respective lights for personal use, with not clear mechanics, and with the fact that the Nightwatcher is different from other spren, in how she's disconnected from human perception and thus more unchanging. So back my thesis: Lift has been bonded to the Nightwatcher since she was ten, and is already the third Bondsmith This explains how she can self-generate Lifelight, which as far as we know is only possible for the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith. We know that it is possible to bond multiple sprens, and we know that Cultivation is very capable of meddling with one's memories, so it's easily explainable how she could be bonded to both her and Wyndle without knowing it. With what we know about surges, it makes sense she can't do Bondsmith things beside istinctive Light generation until she's aware of what she can do. There's a lot of wiggle room on the details on how her Connection to the spiritual realm and not-aging, as we know Cultivation ultimatly gives boons and curses as she pleases, so anything is fair game. From a thematic perspective, the Nightwatcher's "untied to human perception" nature works well with Lift's boon request to be unchanging when everything else does. Tt would also make sense that the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith would have a stronger focus on the Cognitive realm and spren, as she is less connected to the Physical, this expelaining Lift's Connection with the Congitive realm. This could make a nice simmetry with the 3 bondsmiths being "more focused" on the three planes, Spiritual for Stormfather, Physical for Sibling, Cognitive for Nightwatcher. Of course this clashes with the simmetry between Shards and Lights, so it's just a thematic idea not a mechanic of their powers. In terms of mechanics we have to go with some wild theory, as she's supposed to be an "experiment that's never been tried before", so here it goes: Her bond is unique because it's a somewhat backwards Nahel Bond, so rather than the bond making the spren more tied to the Phyisical realm, it's Lift who grows more Connected and aware of the Spiritual. This would explain her special connection with the Spiritual realm and all that comes with it, and could be worked in the explanation of her 'not aging' Of course there's a number of reasons that could explain her not aging if you accept she's a Bondsmith plus Cultivation shenanigans. Bondsmiths' mechanics are not really clear, and supposed to be very Bondsmith-specific. I mean she burns Lifelight for breakfast for the Almighty's sake But that's it from me, what do you guys think? does this make any sense?

Enough is enough! I have had it with all of these monkey-flipping Dawnshard theories on this Multi-Fractal forum! First off, Dawnshards aren't real, have never been important in any canon Cosmere book, and aren't going to be important in any canon Cosmere book. This is because Dawnshard isn't canon, which is self-evidently obvious but I'm going to explain it anyway (because you SMART PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET said my theories were unlikely and unsupported-by-evidence-and-logic so I'm insecure about making claims without at least a page or two attempting to justify my thoughts). This is best demonstrated by the fact that Dawnshard, for the longest time, was not published as a physical book, but was only available as an electronic text. You know what else is only available as an electronic text? The Way Of Kings Prime. Which, as you all know, is not canon, and is also garbage and not worth reading (don't worry, I didn't read it). Just because Sanderson wrote it doesn't mean it counts, if Moshe, Joshua, and the publishers don't deem it worthy of the printed page. If the book was worthy like the others, it would have been published from the start. Also, Dawnshard cannot count as existing/mattering/canon because it would ruin the entire Stormlight Archive's basic structure of being ten books (that's the entire basic thing of it, with a world built around tens, and Sanderson promising ten books, it has to be ten books), and Dawnshard sure as heck isn't Stormlight 5. Mistborn was promised as a trilogy of trilogies, and Stormlight was promised as a ten-book series. The Way Of Kings Prime doesn't count in the numbering, it doesn't count as canon, and Dawnshard must be the same. Look, I have faith in Sanderson's abilities, I don't think he's going to screw it up when he has ONE JOB (a ten-book series). Okay, Sanderson screwed up a bit with Mistborn by writing a trilogy that wasn't the second trilogy but saved himself by making it a side-thing that's not part of the proper Mistborn Trilogy Of Trilogies, but then you fans Ati'd that all up and got it republished and marketed as Era Two and as the second trilogy, so you either ruined the WHOLE THING or cheated me out of three books. Still, I stand with the publishers of 2020, no matter what happened in February of this year. In Summary: Dawnshard = not a physical book at release. Way of Kings Prime = not a physical book at release. Therefore, Dawnshard = Way of Kings Prime. Way Of Kings Prime = stupid garbage unworthy of publication which is not canon. Thus, Dawnshard = stupid garbage unworthy of publication which is not canon.

Rayse claims the shard embodies all passion, though the other shards named him Odium. We see that voidlight does enhance emotions in general, but especially aggressive and hateful passions. So is Odium the shard of all passions because passion directly causes hatred?

I return from my slumber beneath the mountain to plague you all with unwanted and unwarranted speculation! (Spoilers up to and including Rhythm of War and the entire lesser Mistborn Trilogy). There's always another secret. The simplest explanation is, for the Cosmere, often unlikely to be the truth. Thus, speculation should tend to the far-fetched, if only for the sake of being interesting. I propose that The Ghostbloods are much more accurately described as a South Scadrian intelligence agency sent to destabilize other words than as a criminal organization seeking a non-metaphorical power monopoly. Furthermore, I propose that their aims are essentially Preservationist in nature, rather than Ruinous (though their methods may be ruinous). With its lamentable corruption into Harmony, the only true legacy of Preservation is Scadrial itself. With the loss of Ruin, the only genuine threat to Scadrial is other worlds, and as in many things, the greatest dangers to a world are discovery and innovation (Anyone who doubts this should consider what happened to the Dinosaurs when the comet hit, or what happened to the comet itself... when worlds collide, worlds collide, and one or both are destroyed. Contact is contamination, contamination is destruction, destruction is ruin). The next greatest danger to the worlds of the Cosmere is the shard Odium, currently quarantined in the Roshar system (to those who doubt that innovation is the greater threat, consider that it was the curious mortal Navani Kholin, rather than the shard Odium or one of its Fused, who discovered how to permanently kill spren. To those who doubt that discovery is the greater threat, consider what the discovery by humans of Roshar and how to get there meant for the native Parshendi, or what would happen if Odium were to discover a way to escape its prison). The Rosharan system represents an undeniable and existential danger to the rest of the Cosmere. Its vast and easily accessible sources of Investiture alone would make it the epicenter of cross-system contamination as Worldhoppers would inevitably seek to exploit it. Such power, for the sake of preserving all else that is, must be controlled, must be seized. Establishing a non-metaphorical power monopoly is the best way to prevent anyone else from uncontrolled, unauthorized, unsafe-in-the-long-run, irresponsible use of investiture. Controlling the Oathgates, Urithiru, and the Perpendicularities is the best way to keep Roshar as the quarantine it ought to be, rather than the crossroads it might become. Odium, regardless of its bearer, is likely to stay contained so long as no clever little monkey figures out the wrong trick... Yeah, so long as J. Kholin and N. Kholin breathe, it's only a matter of time before the "wrong trick" is figured out and Odium is set free. Those of Scadrial, of all people, know what happens when an evil shard is set free from its prison. To prevent more catastrophes such as what happened to Sel, any true follower of Preservation* would find themselves with the same objectives as the Ghostbloods. Add to this Thaidakar's rather hands-off style of leadership, and the tendencies of those-organizations-sent-by-authority-to-destabilize-other-places-in-order-to-serve-the-interests-of-the-homeland, and it stops being a mystery why monsters like Mraize get in positions of influence and power in the Ghostbloods. TLDR; The Ghostbloods aren't an Investiture Cartel, they're the South Scadrial CIA... which is honestly scarier, and probably worse. *as in Preservation, rather than Harmony

Whilst I was rereading oathbringer I got up to the scene where shallan reenacts the story of the child and the wall and I couldn't help but think it sounded like foreshadowing for when we find out the humans were only given Shinovar but became greedy and tried to invade and became the void bringers. Just a theory but I think it has a good chance of being true

My pet theory is that using a Rasium metalmind would store your emotion or passion at the time. This could be really useful in making calm rational decisions. Not sure how useful releasing said emotions would be in large quantities (maybe for therapy)?

(EDITED because I cannot use hotkeys properly) OK so bear with me, this is going to be a bit insane. Also IDK if or how the timeline matches up. I think that is Trell, based on the process of elimination, previous WOBs, and Harmony's actions being the antithesis of that Shard's Intent. So what I'm thinking is--Kelsier/Thaidakar is interested in getting SOMETHING from Roshar. We know Talenel's Honorblade went missing (WOB), and it still hasn't been located. What if Kelsier's plan is to kill and take the Shard? He matches well with its Intent, and a zany scheme to trap and kill a god is absolutely his kind of scheme. So what if the Ghostbloods got wind of the Set's schemes and weird quasi-occultism, and decided to start using them in a scheme to take them out (because I don't think Kelsier is super on board with evil forced breeding programs), and kill their god on the bargain? What I'm thinking is this. Kelsier has Talenel's Honorblade and plans to use it as to kill and take to go on a Cosmere-wide god-killing spree? This also ties into an idea I've been kicking around where Kelsier might be trying to kill every god in the Cosmere except Harmony (who I suspect he still likes), either to reforge Adonalsium under Sazed's control, or just to break the Shards so they stop messing with people. IDK just my crack theory, please shoot me down lol.

As I was reading Rhythm of War, Kaladin's vision of Tien caught my eye and one particular phrase raised a huge question for me. When Tien says (paraphrasing here, will add actual quote later today) "look at them Kal. Look at their colors" in reference to his Connections to others, it almost seems like a huge hint as to the significance of color in the Cosmere. And because Kaladin later found the wooden horse that was handed to him in the vision, it seems that it was a genuine Connection he had with Tien from the Beyond. Does anyone else get the feeling that this is vastly important? Or that it might be worth getting a WoB on? Also, side note to make this post super long, we have a WoB confirming that color is important in the Mistborn series and we know that Honors color is blue and Honor is the force of cohesion, that which binds and Connects things to each other. I'm assuming this is why the lines that show allomancers sources of metal, or their Connection to them, are blue. The only other reference to color in Mistborn that I know of is that Ruin is black and Preservation is white. Is it possible that Ruin was directly involved in the creation of nightblood which is why nightblood turned black upon its creation? It's command is "destroy evil" and destruction is exactly ruin

So, after the cliffhanger from chapter 13 tells us that Trellium and Harmonium are “reacting”, I had an idea. If Trell is Autonomy, would Trellium cause Harmonium to divide and become “autonomous”? And therefore give you atium and lerasium again??

In tWoK prologue with szeth he mentions that the alethi are “not too far” from acquiring new shardblades. A thought followed by him commenting on the alethi warmongering and worried about the future. this of course brings up an important question. Why were the alethi confident to have new shards soon? my first thoughts was they had fanciful thoughts of new fabrials. But after O, RoW, and book 5 prologue, I think the alethi were rather talking about 1) a possible voidspren bond, 2) having the radiants return therefore the shards return with them. 3) or that gavilar was talking about a great new weapon and the alethi in their wisdom, thought it was a Treasure of shardblades.

Shards intent Shards have a core emotion/feeling, or intent, and that affects different things they can do. But, what if that intent was separated from them or their investiture? Certainly this would confuse, disorient, and even harm the vessel mentally, but also make them vulnerable to attack. Pretend for now there is a bundle of pencils with a pen in the middle, held together by a rubber band. The rubber band is the intent, the investiture the pencils, and the vessel the pen. Removing it would scatter the pencils, making it easy to manipulate or break the pen. But let’s also imagine that the whole bundle is in a box, 1ft by 1 by 1. If the rubber band is removed, then the pencils scatter but stay in moderate control of the vessel. Now the question is, is this possible? what I am meaning is that you take away the intent, but with a little bit of investiture atttached so then it becomes a cognitive being, and the shard is now intentless. In reply to spinning sky, I would say that if you somehow canceled out them just right, you could get a a neutral wave. You can do the same with sound, why not investiture, and if investiture, why not intent.

How did Nale convince himself to ditch his honorblade and leave Taln to rot in Braze? It’s clear that he still attempts to adhere to his ideal of justice. In fact he is still bonded to his spren. I think it’s pretty safe to say that he didn’t just have some moment of weakness and then go straight back to doing what he did before; rather I think he must have convinced himself this was the right thing to do. Well, how did he do that? One thing I’m sure about is that that convincing argument had a central concept: “I’m adhering to the letter of the law, therefore I am not breaking the law or acting unjustly”. This is in strong contrast to his flashback, where we see him crafting the law to embody the ideals of justice and honor, and evaluating different implementations of the same legal structure on those terms. What we see of Nale in present times is a complete 180 in the opposite direction: a willingness to degrade the spirit of the law into irrelevance as long as he maintains adherence to the literal law on the most superficial level. I’m sure this could be extended to the other Heralds, but it’s late and I need to get some sleep. Perhaps we’ll need more flashbacks like Nale’s to be certain. But given the evidence available (not much) I’m pretty confident about this.

This may have been discussed already, but I was thinking that some of Lift's anomalies could be explained if she was a cognitive shadow stapled to her body somewhat akin to a Returned (but without the divine breath). Specifically, it could explain: 1. Her strong connection to the cognitive realm (since she's a CS), though we haven't seen another CS with her exact properties. 2. How Cultivation granted her wish "to stay the same" since a CS can be considered a fossilized version of the living entity (per Vasher, at least). Her powerset also explains some things that would otherwise pose issues if she were a CS -- e.g., the constant need for investiture (she can produce it fairly easily, so she's not in danger of running out unless she starves to death -- which would also kill her anyhow). This theory could generate some narrative interest for her flashback chapters in the back half (if she dies as a child and is saved by Cultivation, for example). That's the theory in a nutshell. If anyone is aware of any outright deconfirmations via WoB or would like to offer comments/critiques/refutations, be my guest.

I’m going to sketch out this theory and maybe get around to providing quotes and stuff to substantiate it later. And I don’t love time travel mechanics. Just too messy. So I’m not thrilled with where the evidence is leading me. But a couple of thoughts, all paraphrased: * Cultivation to TOdium: “you’ve been on this path for a long time” - ie before you asked for a boon from me - “I just tried to help you learn to wield the power with honor.” This is in response to TOdium shocked that she would try something so audacious like putting him in position to because Odium - which would absolutely include the Diagram. In other words, the Diagram was NOT part of her boon+curse. I take this to be explicit in the text - that T’s path to TOdium-hood started long before Cultivation got involved directly, and that that path kicked off with the Diagram * Speaking of the Diagram, Taravangian: “thinking that the Diagram was about anything more than saving Kharbranth was dangerous.” Dangerous why? I think we know the answer especially when we reach T’s last days: “he cried over the lies [about trying to make utilitarian sacrifices to save a seed of humanity] he told Dalinar - because the truth was much more shameful”. Yeah the truth - namely that you were doing all this with the goal of usurping Odium - is pretty shameful. Finally, there’s that moment that I’m struggling to recall in detail where he says “you don’t understand, Odium sets things up so that if he loses, he still wins.” Does that sound like the Odium we know? L O L. Our Odium loses without winning left and right. Our Odium is almost a beautiful loser: he prioritizes sending a message about doing things his way over actually winning. (This was during his last conversation with Dalinar.) You know who sets things up so that if he loses, he wins? In fact you might say “the only way to agree to a deal is to make sure that no matter the outcome you are satisfied”? That level of craftiness I’ve only seen from T - especially as TOdium, when he makes fun of Odium’s foolishness and says this! One more related piece of evidence: the epigraphs in WoR: ”You must become King. Of Everything.” 1) Taravangian was still able to achieve his primary goal without being king of more than Jah Keved 2) Everything contains quite a bit more than Roshar! But it is consistent with trying to save the entire Cosmere from incompetent shards, and waging a “war for everything”. “You must destroy the Parshendi if this one starts to explore their powers it will form a bridge” Why destroy the Parshendi if they might form a bridge between the Singers and the Listeners? That would be bad for Odium if he loses the Singers as an ally! But it would be GOOD for TOdium who clearly does not want whatever is happening between Leshwi, Venli, Thude, Rlain (+Renarin perhaps), Sja-Anat, and their associated followers - very bridge-like. At a minimum, the Diagram contains information about Odium with Taravangian as the vessel. But I would go so far as to say that the Diagram was a vision Taravangian got of himself - not Rayse Odium - from the future, and that Cultivation was certainly not involved.

We've learnt from Syl's Interlude that Bondsmiths can strengthen bonds between humans and spren, which Dalinar doesn't seem to know how to do yet. Could it be the Spiritual version of the Surge of Tension? We've mostly seen Dalinar using pure Adhesion or the mix of Bondsmith Surges (e.g. repairing objects) so far and strengthening a bond seems to kind of fit the description of "making things more rigid, less flexible" (a definition of Tension from this WoB). Assuming that this is the case, what about the Surge of Cohesion, which is pretty much the opposite of Tension (at least in the physical sense): We know that Willshapers are all about seeking freedom, so it seems entirely possible that they can use Spiritual Cohesion to weaken bonds. That leads to two interesting implications: A. Syl is bound to remain within some distance of Kaladin, but what about the Reachers? Is it possible for Willshapers to weaken their bond somehow so that their spren can explore their surroundings more (which we know they love to do). The fact that Willshapers also have the Surge of Transportation (which seems to allow Soulcasting at a distance) might also be a factor in maintaining a bond despite physical isolation B. The first Willshapers on modern Roshar are Singers, which offers some very interesting options. Can they use bond weakening to "exorcise" Voidspren from Singers (and replace them with other spren)? Can they go even further and expel the Fused from Singer bodies?

Well, greetings to the Shard. Today I was suddenly struck by realisation so strong that I brought my thoughts about it here. A note: English is not my native language, therefore sometimes I probably will sound like Huio speaking Alethi; please forgive my occasional mistakes. So, what's this all about? I looked on Divine Attributes, then looked on Heralds, and I saw this: most Heralds lost their so-called Primary Attribute, but kept their Secondary Attribute. Nale is unjust and even psychopathic, but he's definitely very confident in his own motivations and actions (at least when there's no Lift, Szeth or Dalinar around). I'm not sure about Shalash's creativity, but her obsession with destroying Heralds depicting art sounds to me like something opposite to creativity. However, she's very honest wuth herself and others about Heralds' - and her own - guilt and responsibility for their lie. Kalak is not resolute in any way: we saw him in RoW as totally indecisive person, and he's getting worse. But he's still a builder - at least he built Sons of Honor IIRC. Ishar is claiming godhood and making abominations, so, I think, he's not counting as pious. But is he guiding? Yes; we saw him guiding Nale and Kalak to killing potential Surgebinders, and he possibly led Heralds to betrayal of Oathpact. If Taravangian is right, and Dova is really Battar in disguise, we see another example of madness: she cares about people and Desolations, but suggesting Death Rattles is not wise at all, rather quite opposite. I'm still not for 100% on Chanarach Davar side, but if it's true...well, we see probably obedient, but not so brave woman. About other Heralds I have doubts or no important information about their madness. What do you think?

So we know in rythm of war that stormlight leaks faster then voidlight. Where people arnt surprised if voidlight last for months at a time. As for stormlight it can’t even last the weeping without going dun. the question becomes, why. and I think it is a two part answer. 1) gemstones, we know that more perfect gemstones hold light longer and that perfect ones hold light indefinitely, and are much more resistant to cracking and other damages. 2) rhythms, we know stormlight has an orderly rhythm, and that voidlight is chaotic but with an order to it. well the theory is that stormlight “vibrates” at just the right frequency to escape the gemstones faster then voidlight, and because voidlight is so chaotic it might be resistant to leaking to the point of lasting months in a gemstone. what’s yalls thoughts anything I missed?