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So we now know that Virtuousity is or was a Shard . If so could it's inverse , Depravity be one. I've been rooting for Depravity to be a Shard since i learned about them so i hope so. What do y'all think ?

So what’s the deal with Heightenings? From Warbreaker, we got the impression that it was a specific to Nalthis thing. Then, when it very clearly appeared in Dawnshard, I gathered that it must, instead of being a Nalthis thing, be a Invested being thing. Holding breaths tie them to your Spiritweb, granting Heightenings. Metalborn and Radiants don’t really get Heightenings, as while they hold Investiture, they never really hold it for long, and so they themselves aren’t particularly Invested. But then here, we get informed that Elantrians are more Invested than Returned, and from what I understand, Elantrians sure don’t have any Heightenings. So what’s the deal? How do you acquire Heightenings?

Since secret project 4 is about a worldhopper, and I think its long overdue that we see somebody go through the process, wouldn't it be a great way to tie all the secret projects together to have Nomad visit the world's from secret projects 1 + 3? Is this something you'd like to see or prefer it be separate?

Could someone give me the rundown on what is currently known about the Magic Systems shown in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter? Because I'm a little lost and need a summary.

Unified Theory of The Nature of Nightmares on Creation, Behavior, and Destruction Introduction This theory seeks to describe a cosmerically sound explanation for everything currently know about Nightmares. Some of what is mentioned here may have been mentioned by other users, but this is my take. It uses a base assumption that Nightmares are cognitive shadows. Creation There a couple of ways that cognitive shadows (or similar beings like spren) can be created. The most likely is a direct infusion of investiture at death. While it is possible that free investiture became sentient, I don't think that is what happened here. 1700 years ago, Virtuosity splintered near painter's planet. If we assume that this splintering was similar to Ambition's, chunks of corrupted Virtuosity would have fallen to the nearest planet during the battle with Odium. These pieces of investiture, a mix of mostly Virtuosity but some Odium, fell on Painter's planet, leading to the accounts taught in school about the nightmares originally coming from the sky. One account said "I watched it rain the blood of a dying god". Frequently the shards are referred to as gods, so this matches. When this highly corrupted investiture made contact with humans, it changed some of them, investiture is known to do. "I crawled through tar that took the faces of the people I had loved. It took them. And their blood became black ink." Now, this investiture tar did not take everyone, as not everyone had enough cracks in their spirit web to hold the investiture. "He doesn’t know why he was spared." This tar became the shroud, similar in nature to the mists or a highstorm in that it is the "gaseous" form of investiture. At the same time the hions were created (by some process unrelated to this theory*) which pushed back against the shroud making pockets of shroud free areas. In these areas uninvested humans survived, but those taken by the tar were so warped that they now relied on the investiture in the shroud and retreated to its depths. In the shroud, these people died and created the cognitive shadows known as Nightmares. Behavior The traumatic and corrupted nature of their conversion to Cognitive Shadows, wiped the Nightmare's minds. Now they resided mainly in the Shroud when in the physical realm, tied there as it is their source of investiture. Occasionally, they will be attracted to nightmares of those in Hion protected cities, as artistic representations of their last moments living. Remember that their investiture is of Virtuosity so artistic appreciation is inherent. Feeding on that artistry allows them to have a stronger connection to the physical realm, the same way Syl says that spren feed off humans, giving the sapience and form. Potentially, it is even ripping off parts of the victim's spirit-web like Hemalurgy, tacking on a connection to the physical. The more they do this, the more stable they become, becoming fully stable after the 13th feeding, as 13 is important to Virtuosity. When they are not stable, they are constantly leaking investiture until they no longer have enough to prevent being pulled into the Beyond, similar to how the Returned must consume a breath once a week. Returning to the shroud then refills their investiture, preventing death. Once stable, they then must continue to feed to prevent destabilizing, causing them to ransack cities. Destruction To kill a cognitive shadow, you must destroy their connection to all three realms. Painting does those in a couple of different ways. It works of some of the same principle as spren being locked into the physical attributes that they are perceived as. Painters fundamentally alter what the Nightmare is in a way that is opposite of their spirit. This is similar to how a Knight Radiant harms the spirit web of their bonded spren, creating deadeyes. This damage to the spirit-web breaks any cognitive and spiritual connection. Once trapped in that form, the rate at which they loose investiture is greatly accelerated, breaking the physical connection and killing the Nightmare. Killing a fully stable Nightmare likely includes additional steps. Conclusion I would love to hear other's thoughts, any gaps I missed, or inaccuracies in how the cosmere works. I will edit if I made a mistake. Notes: * This maybe caused by Virtuosity's splinters being on two planets after the shadowing and the connection between them created a current of investiture between the two, aka the hion.

In no particular order. Hoid the coat rack! I don't know why this tickles me so much, but man, imagining the self-important Hoid being used as a coat rack for decades just tickles me silly. This is obviously a reference to Ishar and his experiments, and possibly other experiments we don't know about yet. I'm glad to know we won't have to deal with physical spren monstrosities walking about in future Cosmere. I love love love Yumi's world - I'm going to call them Light and Dark world for now. The rock stacking is such an awesome and unique expression of art and calling to the Spren. I love the visually idea of this planet where everything floats above the ground - planets, buildings, people just tenuously connected to the burning earth. I love the foreshadowing of connection between the worlds. The Light world spirits always splitting into two separate but related parts. The hion lines that are tied together in the Dark world. The benevolent vs malevolent spiritual (probably invested) entities on the two worlds. I'm so excited to discover the mystery of how these two worlds got tied together and how our protagonists are going to set things right. Speaking of which... Virtuosity! which means "of great technical skill". I'm so stoked we got another unknown shard. I hope we get some ideas about how/why she shattered herself. I wonder if any other places have been affected and how their arts may have been changed. Obviously this is somehow related to both the painting and rock stacking which are both art and used to contain or draw on the spirits of the two worlds. I imagine Virtuosity is particular associated with Adonalsium's creative power - theoretically she could have been a particularly potent Shard. So much else! I love both our main characters and their opposite but similar responses to their duties. I can't wait to watch them bounce off each other and interact. I love the mystery and the visual story-telling of the world. I'm excited for what seems to be a pretty future timeline Cosmere story. I love all the visuals too. I thought I was excited for SP1, but this story has me beyond excited! I hate that we have to wait till July 2023 to read the rest.

Alright, who is Hoid - - talking to? 1.) Rosharan, or at least someone extremely familiar with Roshar. 2.) This is being told a good ways into the future of the timeline. Given how many modern things he mentions - like planets, schools, firefighters etc, this is getting pretty late timeline wise. Lightbulbs have JUST been introduced to Scadrial during Era 2 and are not "common on many planets." Definitely could be someone we've never met before - in fact quite likely. 3.) They ate marbles. 4.) Scadrian or extremely familiar with Scadrial. Also, Design is here and I love the world building in this! So freakin' excited for this one. Any guesses? Any clues I missed?