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  1. Hello, everyone! This is my first post here on the 17th Shard, so please excuse if I mark anything wrong on here. I do not know if this has been said anywhere else, but while listening to one of the Shardcast episodes theorizing about who would die in Stormlight book 5 and who would survive to make it to the back half, I had this thought come to me. It is a common theory that Kaladin will not make it to the back half of the Stormlight Archives since so much of the front half has centered around him, and so much of his character arc has already been completed. Thinking about how complete Kaladin's character arc feels made me realize how incomplete Moash's character arc has seemed to me. I do not know if anyone else has felt this way, but throughout all of the books it has felt like Moash should be an important character, but comes across more as a side character that sometimes is heavily involved with the plot. In theory, Moash's character and story arc seem really important and impactful, but I remember not feeling that way completely while reading the books, like I was waiting for more to be done with his character. In short, if Moash's charcter arc ended anywhere near where it is currently, I feel like I would be left with the impression that he was not used to his fullest extent. In addition, Kaladin cannot just die in book five. If he does, he needs to go out in a big and important way. He is too important of a character for anything else. This leads me to my theory. I am not sure to what extent spoilers need to be marked, so I am just going to mark the entire thing as a spoiler. Thoughts?
  2. Ok this one is a little crazy but here me out. A lot of importance has been placed has been place on Kaliden being called the son of honor/tanavast some have theorized that this means that he is the biological son or grandson of the vessel of honor but this make little sense unlike the Greek gods shards don't seem to have a body that can impregnate someone . They are much closer to the abrahamic form of divinity, however there is a abrahamic form of divine sonship. Now is there anything similar to the incarnation in the cosmere. Yes Avatars appear to function very similar to the biblical incarnation, How coincidental that we are first introduced to the concept of avatars in stormlight. Some other things to consider Kaliden is called storm blessed before he become a windrunner implying a pre syl connection to the highstorm. The storm father seems oddly interested in Kaliden, he rarely takes to humans other then Dalinar but has communicated several times to Kaliden. What do you think dose these make any sense even in a crazy sort of way.
  3. 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.
  4. So, I don't really have any proof for this, but I was talking with a few other Sharders during school about how to shatter Shards and we came to this conclusion. Shards must be shattered by forcing them to act against their primary intent. It clearly doesn't work to just kill the vessel (examples of this is Mistborn and RoW), so there has to be another way to shatter the shard. Basically, the only thing that I think could truly break a power is forcing that power to do something it cannot. In this case, that is act against its primary intent. In the case of Honor, Odium probably managed to get Honor to break an oath. The Stormfather said that Honor got to the point at the end where he didn't care what the oath was about, as long as it was kept. Odium could have used this to force Honor into a Kaladin-in-Words-of-Radiance situation that forced Honor to break an oath. This would go against everything the power stood for, effectively destroying it. Like I said, I don't really have any proof, and I don't think that I did a great job explaining it, but hopefully it makes sense!
  5. Initial train of thought Navani makes an interesting discovery in Rhythm of War: while Intention is needed to produce an anti-tone, the person playing it does NOT need Intent so long as the person creating the tool used to produce the sound had it when manufacturing it.[1] This Intent requirement brings to mind something else in the Cosmere – Hemalurgy. Hemalurgy requires Intent to create a spike, on the part of the stabber or someone else involved.[2] This got me wondering, can one create a metal with the Intention of it being used as a Hemalurgic spike, without the person using it knowing? And then I had another thought from there... Have we already seen this? Specifically, my mind went to the mystery of why Nightblood contains Ruin's Investiture.[3] An interesting thing with Hemalurgy is that it can be done by anyone with the right knowledge, no extra power required.[4] We also know that some of the Scholars had visited worlds that had gone through the Industrial Revolution and had a more developed sense of scientific theory.[7] Scadrial's tech level pre-TFE was apparently "early industrial era"[8], so it's possible that it was the place they saw, and perhaps they picked up knowledge of Hemalurgy, since it was known in Alendi's time.[9] (Note that I do not mean to say they visited pre-Ascension, just at a point where some things were still more widely-known in certain more Cosmere-aware circles than by Vin's time.) Now, we know that Nightblood was not originally a spike.[5] So I'm not suggesting that. But there's a key word there: originally. What if it's an object like what I speculate above, a piece of metal imbued with the Intent to rip off a piece of the soul of everything it attacks, but given a mind of its own and an incredible amount of Investiture to supercharge this effect and rip the whole damn thing out? (We know that larkin, Leechers, and Nightblood all work off roughly the same mechanics,[6] so whatever it's doing, sucking Investiture from the soul seems to be a key part.) That would explain how Ruin's power got in there, as well as explaining why it behaves very differently from anything else we've seen Awakened objects be able to do, and demonstrates a much more subtle yet terrifying way to mix various magics than something like Compounding. A small clarification Something I should note: Vasher has only been to the Physical Realms of Nalthis and Roshar, though he may have been to the Cognitives of others.[10] However, as the other WoB[7] says that some of the Scholars had been to worlds that had gone through the Industrial Revolution, and Roshar does not seem to have done so, and so I feel it's safe to say some of the other Scholars probably visited other planets, with Scadrial and Taldain in my opinion being the only real contenders for that one, and maybe Vasher just stayed in the Cognitive for that part of the field trip. And since Taldain is closed off[11]... Well, Scadrial certainly seems more likely to me. After all, as long as at least one learned about Hemalurgy, they could share it with the rest, and truthfully only Shashara really needs to have known exactly what was going on with Nightblood at the time. References
  6. Ok so what if it's really just the gods playing poker where they bet there power on the outcome of the world they govern and they nudge the humans along with power and other stuff like that. They're investing in the humans. Get it invest,investiture
  7. Please go watch the announcement first before looking at this.
  8. I’ve been thinking about the classification of Rosharan magic and its weirdness for quite some time and I believe I’ve finally come up with something useful. I think that all magic systems on Roshar could be understood using three simple rules: 1.We have a magic system (or at least a set of abilities) for each Light, which is typically used as the primary source of power for the magic 2. Full magic systems (i.e. having 10 powers) are only possible for Lights including Honor's Investiture 3. The classification is murky because of several reasons: the Light doesn’t need to match the magic’s Shards fully (e.g. original Surgebinding is of H+C, despite using primarily Stormlight) Shards and spren can copy the abilities of other magic systems (e.g. the Fused or Yelig-nar and Surgebinding) in certain situations the powers of one magic system can be fueled using different Lights (e.g. Venli using Voidlight to Surgebind) Surgebinding - Stormlight Not much to add here, Surgebinding (at least the original one) uses Stormlight primarily. The abilities of the Fused mimic it using Odium’s power. Old Magic and ancient Stoneshaping - Lifelight The Old Magic is of Cultivation, but there’s more to her magic and Lift’s abilities are apparently a hint: We also know from Venli’s chapters in RoW that the Dawnsingers used to have Stoneshaping abilities that didn’t require Nahel bond and were related to Cultivation’s pure Tone and certain Rhythm or Rhythms. Dawncities, cymatic patterns and maybe even what happened to the Shattered Plains are possibly related to this. Thunderclasts seem to be Odium’s corruption of these powers. Voidbinding – Voidlight (futuresight) and Warlight (ten Voidbindings) Voidbinding is extremely mysterious, but I think it could be understood by assuming that it is actually two magic systems: one purely of Odium (core, proper Voidbinding a.k.a. futuresight), the other of both Odium and Honor (ten Surge-like Voidbindings). Voidbinding is described a cousin of Old Magic and apparently its heart is trying to predict the future. Also, per Taravangian’s word, we know that all of the Unmade (primary source of Voidbinding) have futuresight abilities to some extent. This seems to indicate that seeing the future is not just one of the powers, but the core of the magic itself. The Voidbinding chart possibly hints at that by showing the center two “Orders” not connected to any powers. On the other hand, the Voidbinding chart also shows ten Surge-like abilities, organized just like in KR Surgebinding, which looks to me like a strong signal that Honor might be involved as well. Additionally, we know from RoW that corrupted Mistspren are of both Honor and Odium. I believe that Renarin’s Progression and Illumination abilities might actually be Voidbindings, different from baseline Surges by providing an access to the Spiritual Realm. The whole situation actually has a very nice parallel with the state of Allomancy after the recent atium retcon (Mistborn spoilers): One obvious problem is that Renarin is the first person bonded to a corrupted Mistspren: If that is the case, how is it possible that Voidbinding has been studied in the past enough to create the chart with ten abilities? I can see three possibilities: A. The chart has been predicted using futuresight B. Sja-anat has corrupted spren of other Orders before C. Voidbindigs have been observed before without any influence from Sja-anat, for example in Knights Radiant affected by some other Unmade Fabrials – Towerlight Navani describes the combined Rhythm of Honor and Cultivation as the Rhythm of science itself, so it makes sense that fabrials would be the magic associated with Towerlight. A recent WoB sheds some light on the history of Surge fabrial development: It seems that portable Surge fabrials (at the very least Progression fabrial from Dalinar’s vision and “universal” Soulcasters capable of any transformation) are a relatively late addition, essentially the KR co-opting fabrials to replicate their own powers. That gives us a lot of space to search for the esoteric abilities that Khriss mentions in Ars Arcanum. What could they be? I can see three interesting clues: Oathgates: they apparently predate other Surge fabrials and have been the inspiration for them. They have two spren and two powers: transporting to Shadesmar and to other Oathgates. The former is clearly a Surge, but could the latter be a separate power, possibly (Aether of Night spoilers) Aimia: Aimia used to have some impressive fabrial infrastructure and has been long associated with Soulcasters. Could these be Soulcasters capable of only one transformation? Do they have some additional secrets? I wonder what would happened if such Soulcaster was used with Towerlight – I hope Navani does such experiment in the next book Suppression fabrials: the corrupted suppression fabrial Lezian uses must have been an H+C spren once, right? It seems to indicate that the Sibling’s power protecting Urithiru can be replicated and given to people
  9. Yeah, title. Personally, I do think there's a decent change that Lift becomes the Kaladin of the latter half of the series, with her as the arguable main character of books 6-10 the way that Kal has been for 1-4 (first book of the era both establishing the greater world at the current moment and also the past of the main viewpoint character, character deals with trauma related to their parents and deals with their own problems relating to doing violence for a good cause,) and we've seen her grow solidly through the present books, while also keeping her out of focus enough to prevent her from overplaying her hand in terms of history and things she has to work through. But as we've seen, she's already pretty far in her bond with Wyndle; Lift becomes a Third-Ideal Edgedancer as of, well, Edgedancer, and I'm not certain a Fourth and Fifth Ideal would be enough to deal with whatever craziness goes on in the latter half of the series. For this reason I believe Lift will bond the Nightwatcher (assuming that it is in fact a Bondsmith spren), as well as a few others. Firstly, there's the fact that Lift is a magical little goblin person. Lift is one of three characters we know of to have been gifted a boon by Cultivation directly rather then the Nightwatcher, and I personally believe her modifications are a bit more in depth then either Dalinar's or Taravangian's. Lift's spiritweb being modified to 1. run on Lifelight rather then Stormlight, 2. metabolize said Lifelight directly from caloric intake, and 3. exist a bit more in the cognitive realm (if i remember correctly) is to me a much more overt changes then Dalinar's temporary amnesia, and maybe even more overt then Taravangian's intelligence and passion. By modifying her spiritweb to run on Lifelight, it's possible that Cultivation is setting Lift up to deal with significantly more taxing abilities, such as the Connection-based powers of a Bondsmith. Lift also being an Edgedancer means she has one of the more simplified powersets of the Radiants IMO, so giving her access to four surges would be not too strong to be a main character, as neither Edgedancers nor Bondsmiths have been primarily combative in terms of abilities and instead forces Lift to continue using her intelligence and instincts in combat. (Also, having a living Shardblade already accounts for Bondsmiths so far not giving Blades.) The other important part of Lift's cultivation ties is looking, again, at Dalinar and Taravangian, more importantly looking at where they ended up due to Cultivation. Dalinar went from the Blackthorn, a man who treated the Geneva Conventions like a checklist, to the leader of the Radiants who sold a priceless weapon from an ancient time to free slaves, who is imperfect but trying, and who is one of two present Bondsmiths (and you could also make a pretty solid argument that him being in close proximity to Navani and helping her deal with her trauma due to Gav put her in a better position to be the other Bondsmith), and Taravangian, who's a frickin' Shard. Cultivation does not mess around, and that means Lift is definitely in for great things. "So," you say, "when would this happen? How do you see it going down?" Well, firstly, it's kind of rude to interrupt me while I'm writing, isn't it? But because I'm just that magnanimous, I'll tell you anyway. I see this bond being either the epilogue of book 5 (unlikely), first third of book 6, (maybe) or ending of book 6 (now we're cooking with oil!) I'll go through these in reverse order of likeliness. I doubt this'll happen at the end of book 5, because I imagine book 5 will be crammed tight already with Szeth and Kaladin vibing, the challenge, and everything else that I'm forgetting for the moment, and also because when this doesn't happen in book 5 I want a few years to hold out hope that my theorizing isn't wrong, dagnabbit. First third of book 6 I could see, but it would require a good amount of more obvious buildup in 5 and 6, and again, there's already approximately five billion irons in the fire for book 5. This bond occurring at the end of book 6 I really like, though, because buildup to a spren bond has generally taken a full book for a PoV character (Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Navani, etc) so having the Sanderlanche of Book 6 include a Lift Bondsmith Bond would be enough time to establish dual spren bonds, etc; this also gives a character the ability to play with the Connection-based powers of a Bondsmith in combat more often, as Dalinar has been more of a logistics guy then a boots on the dirt combatant since gaining his Bondsmith bond, and I don't expect Navani to be jumping into combat soon but instead to explore the realmatic/scientific ramifications of Bondsmith powers instead. (Plus the whole can-the-sibling-bond-live-outside-urithuru thing.) Additionally, since there'll be a 10 year gap between books 5 and 6, I could see quite a few things going down. Dalinar either loses or ties the contest of champions and suffers a bad fate, removing him from the battlefield; and if Urithuru was destroyed/conquered again, that would serve to demoralize the Radiants and remove our second Bondsmith, giving the characters ample reason to seek out a combat-based Bondsmith to assist in the retaking of Roshar. This would give Lift, as a uniquely gifted individual in terms of Spiritweb, someone who already knows the location of the Nightwatcher, and theoretically one of the last remaining Radiants, significant motivation to be the one who directly seeks out Cultivation in order to see if she'll help them; and when she gets to where she met Cultivation as a young child, she's instead met with the Nightwatcher, who offers to bond Lift in addition to Wyndle, either on Cultivation's orders or just because Lift is that... Awesome. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the theory, been brewing on it for a while. Thank you for reading this, and have a lovely day. (Edit - Totally forgot that Lift has an Aviar now too. I don't think that factors into this theory, but it does give Lift a way to grow in book 5 without going up an Ideal, and if it has an ability like sensing other minds, could also help Lift find the Nightwatcher. )
  10. First time posting, so sorry if this is the wrong thread. Some spoilers for Misborn Era 2, RoW, and other cosmere books. Crackpot theories developed around 2 am ahead, so please take with a grain of salt and give honest feedback. In Mistborn Era 2, we are given some information of Trell, the strange entity that is corrupting kandra and being worshiped by the Set. Debates with friends have led us to a few theories, and I was hoping for community feedback on them. Sanderson confirmed in book signing that Trell was a shard we already knew. At the time of the signing, only 9 Shards were known: Devotion, Dominion, Odium, Honor, Cultivation, Autonomy, Endowment, Preservation, Ruin. We saw many people on here with the theory that Autonomy would be Trell, or that Trell would be an avatar of Autonomy. This doesnt feel like their motivation or Intent. Trell seems to be about control of the planet, or sphere as the kandra phrased it. Autonomy does not feel like one to actively control or rule a planet. If they did, why would Taldain not be the first taken over? Ba-Ado-Mishram was a name that came to mind early in the talks. Her manipulation during the False Desolation sparked the idea that she could be manipulating the kandra. Her ability to give huge amounts of Investiture to the Singers along with her tricky nature was what led to that idea. However, despite her being missing from a long time on Roshar, we found no connection that would lead to her being on Scadrial. The next idea was another popular one, Odium. Due to a timeline confirmed in another signing, Era 2 takes place in the time skip between Stormlight 5 and 6. In RoW, Taravangians deal with Dalinar would allow the Odium shard to finally leave, if Dalinar can not win the challenge in Stormlight 5. The sneakier manipulation of the planet feels far more akin to the planning shown by Taravangian, rather than the violence Rayse used. Again however, control does not appear to be part of the Odium Intent. Perhaps it was just Rayse himself, but Odium never seemed conserned about the people, just the Shards on the worlds. If he cared to rule or destroy them, Sel and Threnody would be ruled or extinct. The final thought that was brought up was a strange one. The Dor, the mash up of Devotion and Dominion, left broken by Odium. Trells desire to be worshiped and control a planet seems to fit both Intents of the shards. Sanderson talks about the Dor gaining emotions in a Q&A from 2015, along with the Arcanum Unbound mentioning that the Sel landscape, effected by the Dor, seems to becoming self aware. This would also be oddly connected to the Kelsier memory seen at the end of Mistborn 6, as Kelsier is aware of the Ire past attention on Scadrial. The Ire are a group of Sel based world hoppers, seen in Mistborn: Secret History, where they had goals of stealing Preservations Investiture. A strange connection of Sel and Scadrial. All of these were simply ideas thrown around by a grouo of friends. We are looking for more community ideas. Hopefully this thread can become a Trell theory board. We think Sanderson has given enough hints or clues to prove who it is, if we look carefully enough.
  11. ...or at least, unlocking AonDor. So, Selish arts being geographically locked is a result of Devotion and Dominion's combined investiture - collectively the Dor - having been shoved into the Cognitive realm by Odium after he splintered those Shards. Most end-poitive arts pull Investiture from the Spiritual Realm, Selish arts can't do that because it being in a location-dependent Realm keys parts of it to certain locations through Identity and Connection. Seons, meanwhile, are splinters of Devotion accidentally created as a side-effect of the splintering of Devotion. Which means that, while they do seem to be mostly-cognitive beings like spren, they weren't part of the central shardic mass of Devotion at the time it was trapped in the Cognitive. Now, Brandon has been cagey when asked about whether Seon communication is truly instantaneous, because if it's Spiritual in nature then it would be instantaneous since distance isn't a factor, but if it's Cognitive then there'd technically be a slight delay. The simplest means of achieving instant or near-instant communication, both over great distances and (Rhythm of War spoilers) between the Physical and Cognitive Realms using Cosmere mechanics that we've seen on-screen would be by manipulating Connection in a certain way. In the case of Seon-to-Seon communication, this would be the Connection between the two Seons, or possibly the two people speaking through them using Seons as a medium. So, quick recap: Shards can normally transmit Investiture at a distance because the live in the Spiritual Realm, and the reason this doesn't work on Sel is the Shards are in the wrong Realm. Seons were broken off of Devotion before it got moved to the wrong Realm. There is a good chance that Seons pull of their long-distance and inter-realm communication by manipulating Connection, just from what we know of Cosmere mechanics. Now, here's the kicker: So, you can use f-Duralumin - manipulating Connection - to hack AonDor and let an Elantrian use it at full power regardless of location. So, what if instead of having your Seon contact another Seon, you have it dial the Dor's metaphorical phone number? Could doing so allow you to use AonDor regardless of your location in the Physical Realm?
  12. Ok so this will have spoilers all the way up to (you guessed it) Shadows of Self and secret history So I'm reading mistborn for the second time and HoA this exchange happens between sazed and the first gen kandra: “Preservation’s power remains, for power cannot be destroyed. His mind however, was all but destroyed-for this was the sacrifice he made to imprison Ruin.” “The sliver remains,” another reminded. “The shadow of self.” I found a post from like 6 years ago discussing it but nobody touched on one point I thought about (sorry if this is the wrong place for this I'm new here ><) So it seems to me in the context of HoA the "Shadow of self" refers to what was left of Leris after he created ruins prison. Slowly fading eventually leaving the power up for grabs. Reading Shadows of Self the first time I figured the title more leaned towards being about Wax as in this book we learn the bulk of his past (or at least the key moments like his childhood with his uncle, meeting Lessi etc) and where his identiy is in question. But what I wonder this time around is that maybe it's a hint about Trell too. Trell atm is not confirmed to be a shard however it must be shard like at least. This book is where we get confirmation that Trell is actually real. It has it's own form of hemalurgy, a more refined version maybe given what Lessi/Paalm was able to do with it which implies investiture in some capacity in my eyes. Trell must be something big being an object of worship pre-dating the lord ruler and being able to control/influence others. Even Miles was a follower and seem to have been influenced in some way by it? Anyways where I'm going with this is what if something similar is happening to Trell where only a sliver remains of them and they are trying to act with whatever time they have left. At the very least they have a plot in motion and if my previous thought is true they have a power that cannot be destroyed. Whether Trell is a shard or not that could have interesting implications in the cosmere especially if Trell isn't a shard. What do you guys think though? I'm mostly just eagerly awaiting The Lost Metal to come out so my brain is spinning trying to figure out whats gonna happen.
  13. So I just recently finished RoW (I know, super late), and have been listening to my backlog of un-listened Shardcast episodes. In one (I think it was "lights") the possibility of Sja-anat forming a Bondsmith bond with someone was discussed, which got me thinking: We know that in the current system the Radiants are really all about Honor and Cultivation, so the three Bondsmiths bond (respectively) a spren for Honor (Stormfather), a spren for Cultivation (Nightwatcher) and a hybrid between the two (Sibling). But Radiants like Renarin seem to show that there are other ways of doing things beyond the system. Is it possible for other representative spren to for bonds for bondsmiths? Could Sja-anat, an Odium corrupted spren previously of Honor, become a hybrid bondsmith spren like the Sibling, but for the new Honor/Odium light? Could a spren of Odium bond a bondsmith specializing in Voidlight? Of course this hasn't happened before because anything connected with Odium was connected with an enemy. But one of the themes I picked up in RoW is that things aren't as simple on Roshar as good guys and bad guys. Also that the situation with shards can change very quickly. I can theoretically see (probably in the back 5) a new situation where Odium's investiture is used for good, and "odious" bondsmiths join the ranks. Or, alternatively, if another faction like Odium or Sja-anat forms a Bondsmith to rival those of the Radiants. They don't all have to be on the same team (I'm looking at you, you dirty Skybreakers). Whadda you guys think?
  14. I was giving some thought to the mechanics of Breaths, and I've got an idea as to both why (or maybe, 'how') it gives you perfect pitch/color vision/life sense/etc. and why it makes colors more vibrant in a bubble around you. In the past, we've seen the way the realms are set up be compared to the platonic theory of forms, especially when it comes to things like spiritual ideals of things that exist in the cognitive and physical realms. So rather than making colors or tones stronger, I believe bio-chromatic breath pushes both the perception of colors and sounds as well as the nearby physical colors themselves much closer to the ideal forms of those sounds and colors. I believe this is also why people with a lot of breaths hear everything in 'musical' ways and why colors looking stronger to them doesn't come off as garish, the way that it would if the saturation was just being cranked up. They're no longer just seeing the physical colors next to each other, which could clash, but they're seeing ideal colors that are going to look beautiful no matter how you pair them.
  15. 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.
  16. Basically, I was just wondering about the possibility of Spiritual Shadows. If Cognitive Shadows are the imprint of a person in the Cognitive Realm, is it possible for there to be imprints of people in the Spiritual Realm? Thoughts?
  17. I will start this off with a warning that this thread will contain spoilers for most if not all of the Cosmere so I recommend turning away now if you aren't caught up, with that being said let's begin. *WoB/Sources/Quotes in spoiler sections to help reduce length* 1. Odium is the wrong name for the shard. I propose Odium's true shard name should instead be fear and that he excepts being called Odium and being seen as passion and hatred to hide this. Multiple WoB references Rayse as being both afraid of other shards and afraid of taking up shards since they may change him and in his mind that is no better than being destroyed. 2. It is well accepted that at least Rayse-Odium's main goal was to splinter all other shards and become the sole god of the Cosmere though he seems to be zoning in on exactly what that means based on the different methods of splintering shards. Devotion/Dominion being splintered and pulled into the cognitive realm to form the Dor though this seems to have displeased Odium since the power is still accessible through inhabitants of Sel. Ambition who's splintering seems to have been very messy although I suspect was much more intentional. We know Mercy was involved in at least one of the clashes between Odium and Ambition so perhaps the condition of her request was that in helping splinter a shard he was not allowed to go as far as before in pulling them through to the cognitive so Odium instead created or helped shape a pseudo vessel for the shard's power in the form of the evil that would constantly leak the shard's power forming shades to prevent it from ever completely reforming into a full shard. This brings us to Honor who I believe knew what was coming and perhaps even knew he could not defeat Odium so instead decided to lean into the process and splinter himself as much as possible before Odium could in order to create the most useful tools for after his death. I believe the largest portion to be the Stormfather since he was named Honor's heir and transferred as much of himself as he could over creating what I will call the first subshard, essentially something in between a full shard and a sliver and split the rest of his power into 9 other subshards perhaps each one appears as a spren such as the stormfather and each order has one of these subshards. 3. Honor shattered himself? If I am correct in the assumption that Honor intentionally split his power I believe he did it in the hopes that he would actually be stronger divided and splintered than as a whole shard. Harmony specifically states that having two shards makes it more difficult for him to act, a sentiment Rayse-Odium seems to at least somewhat agree with since he refuses to take up a second shard. Perhaps Honor attempted to mimic the shattering of Adonalsium upon himself to create even smaller shards in a hope that it would grant them greater control over their powers. I believe this is the reason the Dawnshard of change is in the Rosharan system at all, since the 4 dawnshards were involved in shattering Adonalsium perhaps Tanavast used this dawnshard to further shatter his shard. After all, Harmony seems to act much more like a single shard than as two separate shards combined so perhaps the days of 16 shards have been over for quite a while today and in fact, there would only be 1 great shard(Harmony) the only double shard we know of and while theoretically stronger has less ability to act. Possibly followed by the Dor which seems to be something similar in the mixing of Devotion and Dominion but without a true vessel and leaking far more into the physical realm. Then followed by the 10 remaining full shards Then the splintered shard of Ambition which I believe is in a semi vessel called the evil that is leaking similar to the Dor in Sel but instead by creating shades and enforcing rules to purposefully hinder humanity from becoming to advanced to itself be a threat to Odium, and finally my theorized 10 new subshards of Honor that would be the last thing on the power scale of shards with slivers being close behind although to distinct from shards to be considered in this Hierarchy. In the end, this would mean there are 23 "vessels" of Adonalsiums original power at this point although taking many forms from the original 16 shards. 4.Taravangian Odium-I believe the new Odium is going to attempt to escape the Rosharan system by tricking Dalinar into thinking that since he is a new vessel he should not be bound to the system any longer and instead be allowed to leave and set up his own system. Whether this will work or not I have no idea but most likely even if Taravangian tries this and means it at first I believe the fear of the shard would soon corrupt him and he would begin destroying other shards again out of paranoia. 5. The downfall of Odium will inevitably be due to something less than a shard I believe. I think his fear is driving him to focus too much on the other shards and his fear of Harmony furthers my belief in this since Harmony is likely the smallest threat to Odium being so powerful that he can actually barely act and could do no harm to Odium. Instead, I think the new set of subshards of Honor will be his downfall. The bridge between shards and humans allows absolute control of the shard's full extent by unifying together. Individually they may be weaker than Odium but theoretically, if Dalinar connects the other 9 subshards(him being one since bonded to stormfather) together then this will be the true end of Odium since they will have all the power of a shard but be able to use it without the restriction of intent binding them such as Harmony. 6. The end of the Cosmere- since Odium seems to be the primary antagonist of the Cosmere I theorize that the true end of the series will only occur once Odium is either himself splintered so far that his shards power no longer poses a threat, he ends up combining with other shards that actually mellow out the fear and only by becoming more powerful does his rampage stop, or Odium succeeds in splintering every other shard then proceeding to kill most of the intelligent life in the Cosmere in fear that it could also oppose him since after all it was mere mortals that shattered Adonalsium. Perhaps the only race left will be Dull form singers or his fused that are either too weak to resist Odium or bound and controlled by him explicitly like how Harmony can control Hemalurgic Constructs. Side Note: Odium's arc seems to be associated with the trope of creating your own downfall by being so afraid that he will be taken down that he becomes a harsh tyrannical god that everyone wants to take down whereas if he had just gone and invested his own system from the start likely would have been fine. I apologize if this wasn't well written or if I missed anything/didn't use enough sources. I happily invite discussion and will try to update and improve this as I go since this is my first attempt at theorizing and is only a first draft of my ideas.
  18. I'd like to share my favorite theory that no longer seems possible. So, when I started reading stormlight archives, my brother shared several ideas he had about the series. He avoided spoilers, since he hates them, but since he was three books ahead of me at the start, he had a few ideas about the future of the series. My favorite one that he came up with involved Taravangian's diagram. Since Taravangian isn't able to remember what his super brilliant self (brilliant T) was thinking the day he wrote the diagram, there's always been a lot of speculation about what exactly he was planning on that day. Based on the translations a certain king of Karbranth and his people were able to make, it seemed to be pushing him to try and assume control of Roshar to put himself into the best position to negotiate with Odium. Now, like Dalinar, I think Taravangian's pride and desire to prove himself the best and smartest ruler influenced the not-so-brilliant Tarangian's actions, but this isn't about that. What interests me is what was his brilliant self really planning. This theory is probably not relevant any longer, since Taravangian is now Odium, but what if brilliant T was trying to maneuver his future self in a way that created an opening to defeat Odium? Not put him in a position to negotiate with him, but actually defeat him? However, there's not much to support this idea, other than the fact that it would be a truly spectacular plot twist. It seems similar to a detective style story where the protagonist was the killer the entire time, which is part of why I like it. Only in this case, it's the past self tricking the future self, knowing that the future self can't be trusted. It would have made for a great reveal, if present Taravangian realized he'd been tricked the entire time by his past self, and deciding what he'd do going forward. And again, I realize the theory is almost certainly debunked, now that Taravangian is Odium and no longer following the diagram. Unless he thinks on what his past brilliant self wrote him at some point in the next book and makes a decision based on that, it seems impossible. So, what are some of your favorite theories/ideas that didn't end up happening?
  19. 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.
  20. This isn’t much of a theory, but we’ve seen each secret society so far led by or influenced by some Herald or Someone Important. Skybreakers: Nale Sons of Honor: Kalak Ghostbloods: Thaidakar (Someone Important, bot just for being GB boss) Diagram: King T Veristatalians: ?? Evisagers?? We know hardly anything about the Stone Shamans, though Ishar might have to do with them. So, who is it? I think we’ll find out in book 5. Also, perhaps there is an actual Herald for each secret society? I believe there is a WOB that there are 9 secret societies. There could be one for each Herald sans Taln (though which Jezrien was involved with under this theory, beats me).
  21. Something about the physical appearance of the heralds seems off to me, particularly the ages of Ash and Jezrein. Sanderson was askedabout it and he was very evasive about the timeline of the Oathpact and particularly how it related to the ages of the heralds. The only hard comments we have about the timeline is that 1) The Heralds appear the age they were when they became heralds, 2) At least some time passed between escape from Ashlyn and the Oathpact (They left when they were "younger than they were when they became Heralds"), and 3) Shalash is the youngest herald was born right around the time of the escape, possibly right after. The first point is a bit of an issue because Jezrein canonically looks to be in his late 30s. Shalash doesn’t have a canon age description due to the absence of comments on her being a teenager, so probably early twenties at the youngest. This is a bit of an issue because is Jezerin in Ash's father. The simplest explanations - Ash is Jezrin’s biological daughter and he was a teen dad, but Jezerin as a father that young doesn't really make sense to me with his character - Ash is adopted. She’s more ‘western’ looking while Jezrerin is described as more ‘eastern’ looking by Rosharan standards. If so she could be around 10-15 years younger than him which fits the appearances better than the biological limitations. Whatever caused Ashlyn to be destroyed likely created orphans, and adoption is a totally Windrunner thing However, this discrepancy also led me to a fairly tinfoil theory, but one I think there is mounting evidence for. That the Oathpact was founded over many years, and not all of the heralds were created at the same time. Specifically, they joined up in their numerical order. In general, the consistent ordering of the heralds has its roots somewhere, and the surge binding diagram, with its extra connections, implies that there is an innate organization to the Rosharan surges. I also think it's likely that the heralds were specifically selected individually as the best candidate to wield a pair of surges, not that the most awesome-est ten people were chosen and then assigned surges. It's not too much of a stretch to perhaps people had to be added to the Oathpact (or the Honorblades had to be created) in some specific order. This actually works well with the scant evidence we do have about the Herald's early history and synergizes well with some of the numerology and mythology we have about them. Jezerin was the first, which makes sense as the leader. Ishar is technically 10th/last, but since the heralds are portrayed on a circle, Ishar could have initially first (and Jezerin 2nd) which got the perception got shifted over time since Jezerin was seen as the leader. Or Ishar could have been the last officially made a herald (last Honorblade made maybe?) and was using his non-Herald Ashlynite bondsmith powers initially. We see in Nale’s flashback that he is approached by Jezerin who says that “Ishar and I agreed. There is no person we would welcome more eagerly into this pact than you.” To me the grammar implies to 'we' welcoming him into the pact is 'Ishar and Jezerin' which places Nale as the next (2nd) before others were selected. Also the 'welcome into this pact' could be interpreted as the pact already existing, with people added to it over time. Shallash as #6 is much later than Jezerin. This allows time for her to grow into an adult while Jezerin is frozen at the 30s/40s he became a herald in. Taln was supposed to be Herald, and hadn't distinguished himself before being chosen like the others. As 9th, the last except for Ishar, Odium could have time to catch on and eliminate the initial choice, or do something to threaten the plan and force Ishar to make a snap decision (maybe Taln was just the best candidate in the right place/right time). Any other ideas or interpretations? I think the adoption explanation is the simplest to clear up the Ash/Jezerin age discrepancy but I do there's something to the numerology.
  22. So, what got me thinking about this was Spook's observation on how well a-Tin and a-Pewter pair together, sort of like they're two halves of the same whole (not his exact words, but that seemed like the gist of it). Now, I know that's certainly not the case for all push/pull pairs, but I think for a-Gold and a-Electrum it is. a-Gold, on it own, is a very disorienting metal to burn. Your brain isn't equipped to handle existing in two self-states at once. However, we know that Atium enhances your cognitive abilities to be able to process the information you get from the atium shadows, and as near as I can figure a-Electrum would have to do something similar with your own electrum shadows. So if you burn them together, I think the enhanced cognitive abilities from a-Electrum would let you process the increased information coming in from a-Gold.
  23. While working on a previous post about the unseen winds that are referenced from time to time in the SA, my attention was also drawn to the extensive symbolic use of the sun. But I noticed that the sun symbolism didn't necessarily seem consistent. At various times, the sun seemed to be characterized or experienced differently by different characters. Sometimes, the same character is compared to, or experiences, the sun differently at different times. The most obvious example I can think of is Odium, who is sometimes associated with darkness, blocking out the sun, or with the idea of the sun setting, but at other times is actually likened to the sun, with descriptions of intense heat and brightness. (a thorough list of examples is included toward the bottom of the post) My initial take on this seeming inconsistency was that maybe Brandon's symbolic use of the sun/sunlight was just all over the place. But as I dug a little deeper, I hit upon a different, more subtle possible explanation; one that ties in with some of the other themes that crop up over and over. Specifically, I'm thinking here about the power of perception, the exercise of free choice, and the (in)ability to exert control over one's emotions. What I've found is that the ways that characters perceive/experience the sun changes depending on their behaviors, their emotions, and their environment. And I think this idea - that two different people (or a single person at different times) can see the same sun in different ways - also ties in with the idea that the conflict between Honor's and Odium's forces is in part a battle for the hearts of men. A struggle to see which side will have more hearts open to it. Wit even tells us this in RoW 99: But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start with the excerpt that I think cuts to the heart (har har) of this matter, which is essentially that Odium can, at least for periods of time, possess humans if they open themselves up to it. And I don't just mean cause them to experience the Thril or the gluttony inspired by Ashertmarn. This is from OB 115, the scene where Odium takes control of Amaram's army: A couple of things to point out here. First, I don't know if others have caught this, but upon doing a close read of this sequence I realized that I had, for quite some time, mistakenly believed that it was the Thrill that bonded to the soldiers in Amaram's army. It's not. The Thrill is just there to get them in the right mindset. Those are Fused souls that possess Amaram's men. Explanation is below and spoilered for length. Second, and more interesting is the highlighted line, where Odium talks about the two requirements for him to take control of a human: the right mindset and the right environment. As I went through the various times when characters describe/experience the sun, it became clear that whether they saw it positively or negatively was based on their mindset and their environment at the time, essentially showing us when characters were most at risk of falling victim to Odium's influence. There are actually a couple of other places where this idea - of humans opening themselves up to Odium's influence - comes up. One is waayyyy back in WoK Chapter 45. Shallan is trying to figure out what the Voidbringers were, and gets answers from three different sources: Jasnah: Jasnah studied her with a curious expression. “Nobody knows for sure. Most scholars consider them, like Urithiru, mere myths, while theologians accept them as counterparts of the Almighty – monsters that dwelled in the hearts of men, much as the Almighty once lived there.” The folk tales that Jasnah had compiled: It seemed that everybody knew something about the Voidbringers. People in rural areas spoke of them as mysterious creatures that came out at night, stealing from the unlucky and punishing the foolish. Those Voidbringers seemed more mischievous than evil. But then there would be the odd story about a Voidbringer taking on the form of a wayward traveler who – after receiving kindness from a tallew farmer – would slaughter the entire family, drink their blood, then write voidish symbols across the walls in black ash. Most people in the cities, however, saw the Voidbringers as spirits who stalked at night, a kind of evil spren that invaded the hearts of men and made them do terrible things. When a good man grew angry, it was the work of a Voidbringer. And lastly, Kabsal: “Everything has its opposite, Shallan. The Almighty is a force for good. To balance his goodness, the cosmere needed the Voidbringers as his opposite.” “I don’t think you want to get into the deep theology of this. Suffice it to say that the Almighty’s pure goodness created the Voidbringers, but men may choose good without creating evil because as mortals they have a dual nature. Thus the only way for good to increase in the cosmere is for men to create it – in that way, good may come to outweigh evil.” One of the things we slowly realize over the first three books of the series is just how wrong most of the present-day Rosharan beliefs are about the Voidbringers, the Desolations, the Heralds, and the Knights Radiant. But I think Brandon may have pulled a fast one on us here and hidden something that is actually true - that humans really can be possessed by Team Odium if they open themselves up to it - in plain sight in a way where we're inclined to think it's ridiculous. Want another example? How about Jezrien (Ahu) talking to Dalinar in OB 88 about which one of the Unmade might have gotten to him: It's fairly clear that Odium's long game involved trying to subtly influence humanity and exploit what Kabsal calls their "dual nature," trying to push them in subtle ways (often though the Unmade) to make dishonorable choices. We're told as much in the blurbs authored by the Sleepless on that back covers of the books. From WoK: And then WoR back-cover blurb notes the dangerous duality experienced by Radiants: Dual Nature Here are some other textual references to dual natures - seeing the same thing in different ways depending on how you're approaching it. Tien in WoK 37: Bringing things back around the to sun references, here's Shallan in WoR 48, engaging in word play with her brothers: Let's stay with Shallan for another weather-related reference, this time from RoW 26: Here's young-Nohadon from the vision in WoK 60: And then let's jump to old-Nohadon and bring the sun back into it, from OB 103: I'm with you Dalinar. How, indeed, could the sun be pointing in those two different directions? Maybe because adopting a different mindset or being placed in a different environment literally changes not only the way you see the sun but also which Shard you're open to. I ... don't really know if this theory came together the way I thought it might. But I feel like there's something here. I'm interested as always to hear others thoughts. Textual Evidence If you're interested in a rundown of the changing characterizations of the sun, here's my list, broken down by character and the nature of the sun symbolism. I'm going to spoiler these for space. If you read nothing else, I recommend you read through the section discussing times when Odium is associated with the sun and referred to as the "god of gods." It seems to me like juicy stuff that may feature prominently when we get to Shinovar in book 5. Dalinar With Dalinar, the ratio tilts toward negative associations with the sun, which makes sense given all the years he spent beholden to the Thrill. Dalinar: sun = bad (there's a pretty consistent theme here tying a setting sun to Odium, the Thrill, and Desolations) Dalinar: sun = good Kaladin With Kaldin, who is so closely aligned with Honor, the sun is pretty much always viewed favorably as something that Kal needs and misses when he doesn't get enough. Kal: sun = good Kal: sun = bad (not too many of these, but they demonstrate the connection between mindset and characterization of the sun nicely) Odium As noted at the top of the post, Odium is a weird one because sometimes he's associated with the sun, while other times he's associated with darkness. Odum - sun (some of these don't mention the sun but are included becasue they refer to Odium as the "god of gods" which Szeth and others associate with the sun) Odium - darkness In addition to the specific examples below, I'd also say that most of the negative associations up in the Dalinar and Kaladin sections above also count as examples of Odium being portrayed as shadows/darkness/setting sun. Other Notable Sun symbolism Lastly, just wanted to note that I'm intentionally leaving out for now the exploding sun mural in Akinah, seen in Dawnshard. I'm also leaving out the "other light" that Dalinar says the sunlight is distracting him from in OB 122. I suspect those two are related in some way, and I may revise later to incorporate them, if I feel like I have anything coherent to say. Thanks for reading!
  24. So, I've been looking over a lot of things related to the Truthwatchers over the past few days, and I think I may have stumbled on an intriguing thread. Up to this point, I (and so far as I can tell, most other readers) have chalked up Renarin's foresight visions as being the result of Glys' corruption/enlightenment by Sja-Anat, since predicting the future is regarded as being of Odium in-universe. And I do still think that's part of it, but I don't think it's the whole story. Remember way back to WoK, what Honor said in his final message to Dalinar: Emphasis mine. 'Cultivation,' the growing of things in a certain way, is also an Intent that lends itself well to predicting the future, and we know she was at least skilled and confident enough in her abilities to gamble on the creation of Todium. Taken together I think all this goes to show that the in-universe attitude of acting like future prediction 'belongs' to Odium is a false assumption that fails to account for Cultivation's affinity with that ability, and this is what the rest of my theory ultimately hinges on. Now, moving on, let's take a look at the radiant order/surgebinding chart: If you look, there's a couple dichotomies between the top and bottom halves of the chart, which I believe indicate that the two halves are mirrors of each other with the top weighted towards Honor and the bottom towards Cultivation. On the top we have all male (like Honor) Heralds, and on the bottom we have all female (like Cultivation) Heralds. Where we have the Windrunners (bound to Honorspren) above, directly below we have the Edgedancers (bound to Cultivationspren). Where we have "Honor's truest surge" of Adhesion above, below it we have Progression (which, while as far as we know is not purely of Cultivation, seems to be the closest of the surges to her thematically and was one of two usable radiant surges during the occupation of Urithiru). And while it's not on the chart, we have a WoB saying that Truthwatcher spren are closer to Cultivation than Honor. So, with this in mind, I think the Truthwatchers are the Cultivation-aligned mirror of the Bondsmiths, being capable of using their respective Shard's 'truest surge' and mimicking their Shard's abilities, and using their surges in more Spiritual ways than their neighboring orders. And as we've seen, in Dalinar's case that affinity with the Spiritual Realm tends to manfest itself in the creation of visions for himself and others. It was at this point that, to me, Renarin's visions looked less like a product of Odium's influence, and more like something that was already there and tweaked by Sja-Anat. Before i get to this last bit, I'll freely admit I think this is the flimsiest evidence I have in support of this theory. There's a lot of potential for unreliable narrators and missing or corrupted pieces of history and all that. The quote from Mythica would seem to indicate that the corruption of radiant spren is a new phenomenon, or at least that the ancient radiants didn't seem to know about it if it was happening. In that case, there wouldn't have been any spren like Glys around, and there wouldn't be any precognitive Truthwatchers if Sja-Anat's corruption is the source of that ability. Now, take a look at that recorded quote from the Urithiru gem archive. While the speaker could be speaking in a mundane sense when they say they foresaw something (probably the Recreance or the side effects of bonding BAM), the fact that it was included in the book makes me think it's more significant than that. If this unknown Truthwatcher really did have foresight, then that leaves two potential possibilities I can think of. The first is that their Mistspren (and possibly other radiant spren) had become corrupted, but that between them probably not wanting to advertise that fact and it being so close to the Recreance that fact was lost to history. The other possibility is, as I've said, that Truthwatchers don't need to be corrupted to have precognition. Like I said at the start, I do still think that Sja-Anat's corruption/enlightenment changes how the precognition works somehow. It's possible that, in normal Truthwatchers, the precognition is far more subtle, circumstantial, difficult to get working, etc., which could be why we haven't seen or heard mention of, say, Stump seeing the future. I think there's a good chance that the corruption makes it stronger or more accessible, possibly at the cost of 'flavoring' the visions, making it more likely that you'll see painful things or worst-case-scenarios. But I think it is a change to an existing ability, not creating a new one altogether.
  25. It seems like Hoid has some abilities that somehow involve people around him eating food. There are scenes with Kaladin, Shallan, and Jasnah where they are eating food while talking to Wit and are hungrier than they expect to be. Shallan’s scene is in Oathbringer at the inn in Kholinar. Kaladin’s is when Wit interrupts his Odium dream. Jasnah’s is when she is eating fruit after fighting in the battle in Emul. I know this is probably nothing, but I have been stewing on this (pun intended) ever since I read Shallan’s scene in Kholinar eating at the inn with Wit. It just isn’t like Brandon to include specific details that aren’t relevant. And then when Kaladin had the same reaction eating stew during his Odium dream, and Jasnah when she was eating fruit after her battle. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence. Not much of a theory, just seems like Hoid is doing something weird. Healing people through making them eat maybe? Or just talking to folks when he knows they’re hungry? Rioting their hunger? Chicken soup for the soul?? Lol I have no idea, but I feel like something is happening there, even if it’s something trivial. If there’s any existing theories or WoB related to this, I’d love to know. I plan to look up the excerpts and list them here, but if anyone beats me to it, please feel free to add excerpts of the scenes in question.
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