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It's been mentioned by Brandon that Vasher has a way of getting Stormlight into himself that's different from how Squires, Radiants, and people with Honorblades do it, and that's how he's keeping himself alive on Roshar. I have a theory about how he does it. So, my first thought upon seeing this was that he swallows the gems. A bit blunt, but we see that in Mistborn, having at least a part of something inside you makes the object act as though it were Invested due to your Spiritual Aspect. That idea went out the window nearly as soon as I'd thought of it. Swallowing the sphere doesn't suffuse its Investiture into your soul, which is required for what Vasher is doing. Besides, things in your body resist Invesiture more because the presence of your SA is interfering, rather than the object becoming part of your SA. After that, I landed on a much better idea. Vasher can, as a Returned, have access to the first 5 Heightenings whenever he pleases. One of those Heightenings is perfect pitch. What if Vasher collects a mound of Stormlight-Infused spheres, then sings Honor's Pure Tone, loud or intense enough to the point that Stormlight actually leaves the spheres and enters his body? That way, the Investiture will have actually entered his body and soul properly, which he could feed on to stay alive, and it's something regular people can learn (As evidenced by Navani). It seems to tick all of the boxes Brandon outlines in the WoB. I have some questions though. Would having Stormlight in your body that way trigger Stormlight healing, even a bad version of it? If a Scadrian learned to replicate this, could they burn the Stormlight similar to the Unkeyed Dor in TLM as a hyper-efficient replacement for metals without needing a Spren bond?

so to my knowledge the reason shardblades work is because they are very highly invested and its the same with shardplate, so if you were to pour a high amount of breaths into a sword of cloak without awakening it would it still cut through anything (like nightblood) or block blows (shardplate)

So I recently finished tress and was listening to the podcast and I had a thought. If we believe as was discussed that potential the primal aethers are essentially cultivating a bunch of aether strains all over the cosmere, and we have re-shephir on roshar it is as proposed entirely plausible that this is a prime midnight aether from roshar or ashyn. however going from this I think it makes way more sense to be from ashyn. because as Brandon has said ashyn was supposed to have a magic system based around diseases that infect you and give you powers, given what we see in tress this sounds right In line with another very virulent strain of aether as we see in this book. so essentially the magic system on ashyn was an essentially viral strain of aether possibly similar to that seen in tress though potentially far more stable due to potentially a lot more water. Re-shepir is just a corrupted prime aesther from ashyn then. granted it’s also very possible that the ashyn magic system has been scrapped and possible that the idea was actually turned into the aether gestator we see in tress

[All Spoilers] Apologies if this is behind the times. I just finished RoW. [And am, as a result, the most sleep-deprived] POINT 1: We know that the Sixteen all came from Yolen. POINT 2: We know that there are three Yolish races: Human; Sho Del; and Dragon. POINT 3: We know there is currently only one Shard on Roshar. POINT 4: We know that dragons can shapeshift. POINT 5: Hoid said something about there being a dragon on Roshar. POINT 6: Specified that the dragon is a woman. POINT 7: And states that she hides her draconian form. POINT 8: During Taravangian's Ascension, we are explicitly told that Cult has many forms, but only one true form. So... Cultivation is a dragon. Right? FUN THEORY 1: "The Dog And The Dragon" is about Hoid and Frost on Yolen. Hoid, a poor widdle human, wanted to be all awesome like the dragons. Whether or not Dragons can actually shapeshift, Hoid acquired an equivalent ability in the form of Yolish lightweaving. He may have done other things as well. But it wasn't the same. Perhaps that is what drove him towards The Shattering. And/or towards being a walking talking museum for forms of investiture manipulation. FUN THEORY 2: We know that Lift turns food into Investiture. We know that this ability was granted her by Cult. I kind of wonder whether food-to-investiture is a dragon thing, and to affect it, Cult modified Lift's spiritual DNA to resemble the draconic. Guys I just want Lift to be a dragon. Is that wrong? Maybe! But I could still be right! FUN THEORY 3: Cultivation's Vessel is named Fyiad. AYYO BRANDON, MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Panorama of Roshar. Hope you guys like it! I had a LOT of fun painting this one, though I was nervous about accidentally spoiling something as I was only starting the Oathbringer at the time of painting this. I'm definitely painting more of Stormlight in the future. Maybe Jasnah... or Pattern? I'd love to be commissioned for official art for the future books, that would be the dream! I also welcome any feedback and critique, both for artistic execution and lore, but keep in mind that there had to be some liberty in putting together Urithiru so low and close to the Shattered plains and Horneater Peaks, for the sake of making the focal pieces clustered [Urithiru + Stormfather above the Shattered Plains] in the center of the painting as requested, for custom book sleeves with for all 4 books. Their spines, when put together, show the center of the painting. "The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it? It's the next one. Always the next step."

Ok so the theory that the tranquiline halls are somehow real has been going around for a bit on the forums, and I like most people mostly dismissed it as extremely unlikely to be the case, however in light of autonomy’s actions within the lost metal it strikes me that maybe the theory should not be dismissed and I will outline a few reasons for this as well as I think the most logical version of theory goes. 1. Odium’s actions on roshar have been entirely non-conducive to his stated good which are a. Killing shards- it seems like once the fused were made odium had clearly given up on easily or quickly splintering honor or cultivation, clearly this was still on the table but his later stated plans seem to indicate that his main plan had switched from just running around and splintering shards quickly to his cosmere army plan. b. Winning the war- it also further strikes me that in light of how autonomy has just given her people all this advanced technology that Odium’s actions have not been helpful in terms of winning the war at all. If quick victory was what he truly wanted all he would need to do is introduce his forces to guns, even if the resources were somewhat problematic on roshar soulcasting renders that a non-issue. c. Training an army- from here it also seems like Odium’s plan to train an army is also incredibly stupid, because it seems as if without the desolation’s roshar would have nearly 7000 years of advanced civilization, they would be so far ahead of other civilizations it wouldn’t even be fair. now I think it’s fair to say that maybe he expected a quick war, but I think after the first desolation it should’ve become clear that killing 9/10 people on the planet every desolation wouldn’t get you an army, and yet he seemed pretty confident in this plan and taravangian seemingly approved. furthermore Odium’s plan just doesn’t seem to make sense because of those level of casualties, trained soldiers do not contribute to your army if they are dead. I will also grant that now it seems like Odium’s goal has become to just win outright, but I think that may be because it’s gone on longer than he would have liked and he needs it to end. but ultimately there are very few ways in which Odium’s plan can somehow manage to bypass these issues unless his goal was not to own the war but to draw it out as long as possible and the army he trained was made of the dead form the 7000 years of war and only now has he decided it’s time to end it after a far too lengthy gap(because odium was gonna win, if taln hadn’t done his thing). 2. granted all of this does not point to the tranquiline halls and Odium’s undead army so let me explain why I think that is a logical explanation for these discrepancies. my main point here rests on one question- what does the thrill do for odium? the thrill 1. Enhances the combat abilities of the afflicted, and 2. Opens them up to Odium’s influence. but based on what we’ve seen the first seems to hep odium only minimally and the second doesn’t seem to allow him to control them only to influence them and so doesn’t seem to have proved that helpful. however the things that are important here are 1. Where does the thrill manifest and 2. How do shards get the ability to go influence people. the answer to 1 is obvious alethkar and vedenar highly militant vorin nations, the ones with the myth of the tranquiline halls in the first place and the ones with the best most elite militaries. The answer to 2 is also fairly straightforward, by investing people. this leads to the conclusion that what the thrills actual purpose is, it’s to invest an army or the best warriors on roshar as they die and send them to Odium’s undead army. while this is still pretty crackpot, autonomies actions combined with the assumption that odium is not a total idiot and generally has a reason for the things he does/makes lead me to think that it may actually be quite plausible even likely.

Elantrians can create a variety of items through use of AonDor. My question is, can they create Gemstones? the more perfect the better.

I am sure this idea exists but I have to wonder about Odiums Perpendicularity. Odium has been on Braize and is invested on it making it a possible place for the Perpendicularity. However he is also invested on Roshar so could he have two?

If you were to exchange American dollars for Rosharan Spheres, how would they compair value wise?

I was thinking last night about the significance of broken oaths and damaged bonds on Roshar, and how Adolin has helped with some of those on the back end. His relationship with Maya is the most obvious example, but I also think that his relationship with Gallant is similar. Dalinar's modes of action no longer have much use for a courageous Ryshadium and so Gallant ended up kind of abandoned in a paddock at Urithiru. Adolin recognized this and came to spend time with him, which I imagine was good for Gallant, and ultimately Gallant even allowed Adolin to ride him (something Ryshadium essentially never allow for anyone but their chosen rider). I think that this was underplayed in Rhythm of War. I don't think that Gallant was damaged in the same way as Maya, nor to the same degree. But we now have two examples of Adolin helping rare, strong-bonding beings not through the formal commitments those beings normally make but instead by dedicating himself, his time, energy, and compassion to them. And in turn he's getting things from them that, we've been told, simply don't happen-- a deadeye who can think, act, and speak, as well as a Ryshadium's respect and service (or at least assistance). In Cosmere terms these things really make me think of Devotion, though I know we don't have a lot of information on how she behaved before she was Splintered. Adolin is a devoted person: to his family, his friends, his duties, his swordsmanship, and probably other things as well. I don't think that Adolin is going to take up the Shard of Devotion, if only because that's already getting too common in the books and typically fails to resolve much. I doubt that very many long-running, inter-book plotlines are going to converge on that same outcome. And I don't want to get ahead of myself with specific predictions on matters about which we still lack basically all detail. But given that Devotion's Splintering (along with Dominion's) was reportedly an unusual type, and wound up with Devotion being crammed into the cognitive realm and its Vessel killed, I see some parallels. Radiant spren becoming deadeyes was (theoretically, once) irreparable, and yet Adolin has upended that through a method totally different than anything Honor might have promoted. Maybe something else broadly thought to be impossible, even for Shards, is in the works. The Splintering of Shards is going to be addressed at some point in future books, and what Adolin has been accomplishing has already started to rock Roshar. I think that his actions' significance will continue to be impressive, surprising, and important, and that his characterological alignment with Devotion, conceptually, is ultimately going to matter for that too. Does anyone here have any other thoughts, evidence, critiques, or anything else for discussion around the topic?

So, something I've wondered about since I read RoW is what has happened to the Honorblades, and what will happen with them going forward. Based on Dalinar's encounter with Ishar, it's strongly implied that he attacked the Shin and took the Honorblades from them. He may have only recovered his own, so we don't know that he has all the missing ones. But that means that 6-7 of the Honorblades are either in the possession of the Shin or Ishar's forces, or split between them. Nale has his, Moash has the WindRunner blade, and we still don't know what happened to the StoneWard blade. Since Kaladin and Szeth are headed to Shinovar in book five, it's more or less guaranteed that more information about the other blades Shinovar protected all those years will come out. What really happened to them, where they are, who has them, we don't yet know. But we will hopefully find out. What I'd like to ask/postulate, is what will happen if they honorblades are recovered by the radiants? If the desolations truly end after book 5, then there won't be the same kind of need for them anymore. The desolations will be done. The heralds my eventually recover, but who knows what state they'll be in. And as a certain honorspren said and Szeth has proven, the honorblades are dangerous. Without any kind of oath restricting the actions of the ones holding them, they can be used to terrible effect. Of course, some of the honorblades could still be useful. The blades could be used to train people in the surges of that blade's corresponding order, which would be useful in times when there aren't many radiants of that particular order, such as BondSmiths. Or ElseCallers at the present time. So the honorblades could still be very useful, but also very risky. This brings me to my conclusion. I think the honorblades should be destroyed. They were forged from Honor's soul, and Vorenism likely considers them holy artifacts, but with the danger they represent and the need for them greatly diminished, they should probably be disposed of. The way to do this, of course, is with Knightblood. If that sword is capable of damaging one of the honorblades, then it should be capable of destroying them. It would be tricky, given how Knightblood works, but it should still be possible. Of course hiding them or locking them away is an option, but the Shin tried that. And while they were successful for a long time, the blades were ultimately recovered by insane heralds who have done Adolnasium only knows what with them. That's why I think the honorblades should be destroyed. What do you think?

I'm putting this under Cosmere discussion, even though it only really pertains to stuff in the Stormlight Archive. First of all, thanks to @Ranryu for reminding me about the weird things spren do, which led to this theory. Brandon has said that all the planets in the Cosmere could one day develop faster than light (FTL) travel, though Scadrial is expected to achieve it first of all. This is really interesting to me. We can see how Scadrial, most likely with some applications of speed bubbles, access to the spiritual realm, and the handy technology of Ettmetal, could achieve this pretty soon. But what always interested me was the other planets. How could worlds like Roshar or Nalthis achieve FTL? Their magic systems don't really have anything that could be used in that way, and it seems incredibly far off. (Sel technically already has it (Aon Tia), they just need to work out some kinks and figure out how to use it offworld. Can't be widely applied at this point.) Now focusing on Roshar. I think, with many of the technological developments that are coming around as we read, it's safe to assume that Rosharan FTL will be fabrial based. And what do you need to power fabrials? Spren. In an interlude in Words of Radiance (I think it's WoR, anyway) we see a pair of ardents conduct some experiments on some flamespren. They find that once you define a specific value for a measurement of the spren, the spren has to stay that value in that specific measurement. This coincides exactly with our current understanding of quantum mechanics: particles exist in a fluid state, in multiple locations or states of being at once, until they're observed. After observation, they're stuck in the position or state they were observed in. I think it's safe to assume that other spren share this attribute, but right now, only flamespren are confirmed to have these strange quantum properties. And, unless I'm remembering wrong, flamespren are the most commonly used spren when creating conjoining fabrials. Conjoined fabrials are very handy, as we see with the Fourth Bridge in Rhythm of War. Using some clever tricks involving Aluminum, a latticework of conjoined fabrials are effectively able to create an airship. This kind of fabrial is probably the future of Rosharan transportation. Now here comes the long shot. My theory is that if a fabrial were to be created that somehow exploited the quantum properties of spren, they would be able to use that "multiple locations at once" function to effectively transport a vehicle using the fabrial to another location faster than the speed of light. I have no idea how you'd do that. You'd probably have to use some kind of trick to amplify very small scale effects to an incredibly large scale, and Aluminum to isolate variables and make sure your spaceship actually appears where you want it to be. It's a long way off, if it's even possible. But Brandon is hinting at something with those flamespren, and it seems likely that it's something along these lines. What do you think? Am I grasping at straws, or am I onto something? Tell me below!

There are some interesting similarities between the way radiant/pre-radiant readers on Roshar (specifically Dalinar, with Gavilar serving as a nice contrast) interpret the in-world WoK, and how Returned (+Kaladin) interpret Nathalian Invested Art. 1) It appears that both the WoK and Invested Art hold special meaning for Returned and/or Radiants. This WoB explains the mechanics of Invested Art- essentially the artist is placing a piece of their soul into the Art, and a sufficiently Invested person is able to see a piece of their soul. Lightsong truly is seeing something different than your average joe- what looks like random strokes to Llarimar resolve into an almost premonitory visions for a returned. I think this parallels well with Dalinar’s reading of the WoK. He truly does seem to be getting “more” out of the book, and Connects (capital C) with it on a deeper level. Chapter 26 of Oathbringer, where Dalinar begins his Journey (Gavilars funeral) is chock full of semi-mystic allusions. Dalinar, moments from drinking himself to oblivion, hears Jasnah read the introduction, and asks himself “If words can give off light?” After Jasnah finishes reading, he [understood the words, but misses what the book says]. This short chapter is among the most pivotal in Dalinar’s life, as it sets him on the path to the Nightwatcher. This is a nice juxtaposition to the Gavilar prologue- he has read and memorized the entire book, quoting lines at random looking for the most important words a man can say. It’s reasonably clear it’s just not clicking with him- those on the path to Radiance are experiencing something on a deeper level. Gavilar’s view on the book: [the words were sheltered among the self righteous moralizing like a whitespine in the brambles] Dalinar, at the end of Book 1, as he has begun to understand WoK, supports this supposition: “The book was written to embody an ideal. It was given to people who already had momentum in doing what was right”. (Wok ch 69- nice) 2) Dalinar feels the book, despite being unable to read it. Words “emanate from the page”, and the same paragraph explicitly notes visions started after he begins listening to the readings. (Wok ch 26) The obvious rebuttal: it’s not actually the Way of Kings, it’s been translated and diluted through Rosharan history. However, I am not certain it matters- it’s pointed out again and again how important this book was as a “guide” for the Knights Radiant. Also, I think Brandon is drawing some real world inspiration from the Bible- the abundance of parables, divine inspiration, & vastly different interpretations from readers. Does it matter? Not sure- Brandon has been pretty clear something interesting is going on with Nohadon WOB WOB WOB , so perhaps it has some impact in the next book. Its interesting to me that Dalinar started hearing UNITE ME (all caps) after odium bolted his copy of WoK. Very symbolic.

At some point in the future cosmere, it seems likely Roshar and Scadrial will come into either direct conflict, or at least the cosmere equivalent of the Cold War. It’s my belief that, in order to avoid bestowing overt advantages to either side, Brandon will “give” each of these planets 3 shards. Roshar: Odium, Cultivation, Honor Scadrial: Autonomy, Ruin, Preservation I’ve been theorizing as to what the names/intents of these tri-shardic entities could be. My thoughts are below… let me know what you think. I could see Odium and Cultivation forming something along the lines of Vendetta or Enmity (Count of Monte Cristo-esq). Maybe the light is something like RageLight or Strifelight…. Brandon definitely prefers the less interpretive names for the lights. Perhaps all 3 merge into something like Fervor or Ardor…. Trying to find words that capture strong passion growing from deep seated roots, with the positive tint of honor. In my mind Fevor or Zeal would represent a lessened honor, whereas Ardor or perhaps Vehemence is a lessened Odium. On Scadrial, I could see the 3 (Ruin, Preservation, Autonomy) merging into something like Hegemony or Empire. This one is tough… you want to capture the destructive aspects of ruin, the almost crystallized preservation, but at the same time independence and self sufficiency.

Apparently, Hoid is now stuck on Roshar due to his Bond with Design. But if he is a Feruchemist, he could overcome this by storing his Lightweaving and Soulcasting abilities inside a nicrosil metalmind, then compounding those powers, which would replace Honor’s investiture with Preservation’s, thus allowing him to leave. Well, that and he’d also need to break his Bond with Design, but that would be comparatively simple (if somewhat selfish and traitorous).

My brother and I want to create Roshar in Minecraft, but we need a little help in the following areas: 1. Topographical Map: M will be using a world editor to do the heavy lifting, so we won't be building the landscape block by block. In order to do this, he needs a topographical map of Roshar. I don't really have the skills to make this myself, so help would be much appreciated. 2. Structures: Once the world is painted, we will need a sizable team of Minecraft players to actually build the structures found throughout Roshar. These will include the warcamps, cities like Kholinar, Urithiru, and Kharbranth, and even ships in port. Some of the building work will just be designing generic houses to copy with World Painter, and some will just be massive building projects. To do this ourselves would take years, so help would be MUCH appreciated. The world download will be made available to all volunteers when completed, and probably to others, though not through this site.

So I had a thought. Could someone that has reached the second or third heightening (the one that grants perfect pitch) out sing the Singers and possibly control all the lights? If so could someone like Vasher or Hoid possibly give breaths to Nivani, Jasnah, or Shallan in order to help them either more efficiently use Stormlight or steal the void light from the singers without Aluminum?

prove me wrong On page 120 of words of radiance shallan takes in so much stormlight that the gemstones break, my theory as to why this happened is that she pulled so much that it created a vacuum of investiture and when investiture came crashing back in the gemstones broke. I think this could be of interest to the cosmere as a whole if investiture vacuums can be made.

Can Nightblood feed on the anti-void light?

So I haven't really seen any pages talking about what people think will happen in the cosmere in the later eras, specifically the space/sci-fi. I recently just read a very interesting WOB that I believe is not canon but could show us Sanderson's plans or ideas for the future. (spoiled for length) (Underlined Bold is mine for most important parts) So long story short, Scadrial and Roshar seem to be in some sort of a conflict and both want control of the Avier. Their ship uses Allomancy to fly, and the Knight Radiant is a Skybreaker and has learned of a way to make a gun from their spren that can use an external ammo. What are your thoughts and predictions? Why would they be fighting, who do you think would win, etc. Also, do you think that their respective planets will be united or not? And will the other planets take sides or form their own factions?

Can a radiant knight be promoted to shard? And if so: what would happen to the spren?

Boy, I'm going to be using this a lot now. Okay, i know I read a thread somewhere talking about it, but what has BS said about taking spern bonds and shardblades of Roshar?

On Roshar, we can see some of the characters speak to inanimate objects, and even reason with them (i.e. Shallan Soulcasting the ship in Words of Radiance). In Mistborn Secret History, we see Kelsier interact with inanimate objects, but they don’t really talk to him, even though they have a small amount of a cognitive presence. Does Roshar have more awareness to its inanimate objects due to the presence of Cultivation, and the relatively high concentration of investiture?