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I've been fiddling around with an attempt to place Warbreaker in the larger Cosmere timeline recently, and that led to me trying to figure this question out. We know for a fact that the Five Scholars were Worldhoppers and fairly Cosmere-aware, both via WoB and because they hacked Awakening to create a Shardblade. So at this point we know that there were Nalthian Worldhoppers at least before the Manywar, who most likely passed through Endowment's perpendicularity in Hallendren since that's the easiest known method for most people to reach the CR. If I remember correctly, there was also mention of Nalthian traders in RoW, which we know takes place after Warbreaker (though due to Vasher's immortal nature and the possibility of Vivenna extending her life with Breaths, we don't know how far after). The trouble comes in that we don't know how open the 5 Scholars were with their knowledge, like how the Ghostbloods existing doesn't translate to the Elendel government being especially Cosmere-aware. We also know for a fact that at least some of their legacy has been forgotten; i.e. people forgetting that the D'denir statues were Kalad's phantoms. My best guess is that in establishing the Court of Gods, Vasher entrusted the highest rung of authority with the knowledge that there's a gateway to other worlds out in the jungle so that they wouldn't be completely caught off-guard if another shardworld launched an invasion, unless he decided to withhold that info to lower the risk of more Nightbloods getting created. But even if he did tell them, then there's still the question of whether or not that knowledge survived the deaths of Susebron's predecessors and then the deaths of his priests during the Pahn Kahl revolt. The other option I can imagine is that some of the court is Cosmere-aware, but it's treated like the lifeless command codes; the knowledge is restricted to a handful of returned, so that they can shape policy with the larger Cosmere in mind without turning Nalthis into an expansionist force.

On earth it would take 5,588,472 basic lashings of a windrunner to go the speed of light. On Roshar it would take 3,911,930 basic lashings of a windrunner to go the speed of light. Can anyone do some investigating on how much stormlight that would take up?

Could the Stormfather be an Awakened being? It could help explain why he does not recollect a Herald dying as mentioned in the SA5 Prologue: He does not remember, because his memories have been tampered with. in the same manner as Wit's as seen at the end of RoW. Other theories seen so far: Current Stormfather being a fake/SA5 Stormfather being a pretender-Ishar/Cultivation shenanigans.

To preface this, I'm tired, so I'll probably delete this topic later. Now for the "theory" (please point out all the things I get incorrect): Cultivation is going to die at the end of KoWT. but that's not the end of her story. Since the vessels of Honor and Cultivation were in a relation and Honor died, Cultivation went fully into her shardic intent, while still being able to join Tanavast in the beyond (or whatever it's called). At some point I think Wyndle said something (in Edgedancer?) along the lines of (about Cultivaiton and Honor) I feel like of the shards we know of, Cultivation has the best future sight. So, Cultivation has some plan that "maximizes" growth in the peoples of Roshar (and not necessarily in the good or bad way). The protagonists are going to spend the second half of the Stormlight Archives trying to figure out what Cultivation's plan is. And just to throw this in at the end with nothing to back this up, Adolin has a chance of becoming cultivation, due to his "cultivation"-like relationship with helping Maya "develop" consciousness.

Man this was a fun journey, but it's kind of sad that I caught up so quickly having started stormlight only a few months ago. That said I love it, it's my favorite sanderson series and I look forward to book 5 immensely. I read the audiobooks, listening to them at work. I think Michael Kramer is absolutely killing it, I understand some people love him and others don't like him but I really like him, although it always feels weird to hear him voicing characters Kate Reading normally voices, such as pattern. Kate's pattern voice is just perfect, sells the comedy of the character a lot. Here's some wild shot predictions: Prediction 1: Shallan I don't know how, I don't know what caused it, but somehow Shallan has been invested with breaths of life from warbreaker. There was a scene, I think it was in either RoW or Oathbringer, where Veil notes that Shallan sees colors with more detail than her, and the way it was phrased was exactly like the warbreaker breaths. There's also the way that Shallan's drawing powers only work for her and not her other personalities, as well as the similar ways that her drawing power works to things like perfect pitch or sight from warbreaker, makes me so confident this is the case. It also explains why a cryptic like pattern was willing to bond with her, even though she'd already killed her previous cryptic. It makes the fact that Wit reacted so strongly as soon as he saw her as a child make more sense as well. It makes me wonder if maybe Shallan's whole family isn't actually from Roshar, and maybe they were brought there from the Warbreaker world after some big conflict there. My gut feeling is that they may in fact be a royal family from there, just because Shallan's father reminds me of Siri's father for some reason. This would also explain why BS has said he can't write the Warbreaker sequel until after stormlight book 5. I think Shallan's Mother was almost certainly a member of the ghostbloods, and tried to kill Shallan, after which Shallan responded by summoning Testament to defend herself. There's still a lot about Shallan that doesn't add up and after the Testament reveal I want to re-read way of kings because there's a lot about what happens to her in that book that still doesn't make sense to me. In particular the line "what are you" that I believe one of the cryptic spren said to her back then feels off now. Prediction 2: Kaladin I think we'll definitely go to the horneater peaks in book 5 for sure. I don't know how book 5 is going to end, or how different "part 2" of stormlight archive is going to be from "part 1," but BS has been promising the horneater peaks since book 1, it's clear that whatever's going on with Rock is a BIG deal in the narrative and I am certain Kal hasn't seen the last of Rock yet, despite what was said in RoW. Kal has come a long way in swearing the 4th ideal, and while I once thought he would swear the 5th for sure in book 5 after finishing RoW I no longer think this. The 5th ideal definitely needs to span at least 2 books of buildup because otherwise it wouldn't feel like as big and important a deal as the 4th. As for bridge 4, I don't know where they stand to go as characters. It feels sad how lately a lot of them seemed to be killed off in order to help kal come to terms with the 4th ideal, maybe now we won't have to worry about so many of them dying off since he's come to terms with it, as unrealistic as that sounds. I really just want a scene of the remaining members of bridge 4 getting together and hanging out, having fun. They deserve it. Prediction 3: Dalinar I have a feeling, a sinking feeling, that Dalinar is going to lose the contest of champions. It just doesn't feel right, it wouldn't work for a big climax for this massive story with so many key characters to be a battle between only two, especially when one of the champions was only introduced at the end of book 4. I think he'll fully realize his powers as a bondsmith but lose the contest somehow. Anyways, those are my predictions! I don't know if the community as a whole has already predicted similar things, or if people feel I am wayyyy off base with these, just wanted to get my thoughts out since the story is fresh out of my mind. really glad I can finally discuss this series now that I've hit the current end.

(lots of spoilers) Ok, I don't have any concrete proof, but the reason for my argument is that I refuse to believe that something that only requires 1000 breaths, and is relatively easy to create (with a wide perspective) could ascend to the spiritual realm and kill a god. There has to be another answer. if this could be done so easily, the 16 would have reacted somehow, instead of refusing to acknowledge the swords existence. So I thought about it, and came up with a possible theory; Nightblood is a dawnshard, specifically the dawnshard of destruction (I have another theory about what all 4 dawnshards are, but that is for another time.) You may say, "Oh but Shashara and Vasher made it with just breaths, and Vasher would not have killed shashara if it was a dawnshard, because he knew it could not be re-created." While that is all true, it can be thwarted with a simple fact. Vasher and Shashara did not know it was a dawnshard. "Oh but how would they have accidentally got ahold of one of the most powerful forces in the cosmere?" Think about it. The Shard that abides on Nalthis is the Shard of Endowment, whose intent is believed to be bestowing gifts and talents upon people. My theory is this: Endowments saw Shashara desperately trying to make a breakthrough about investing steel, likely in emotional distress because of how envious she is of Yesteel, after he invents ichor alcohol. She hits a roadblock unable to do anything, so Endowment, true to her Intent, decided to bestow her a gift, a dawnshard, which maybe she has held since the shattering, or maybe she found it later. Endowment places the shard in the sword. Shashara does not know this happened, and just believes she got this effect through investing the sword with 1000 measly breaths. Possible right? I believe it is the most possible reasoning. But it does make things kind of sad, because it means that vasher killed Shashara for nothing, as re-creating the sword would have been impossible. Anyway, that's my theory! I'm excited to hear what yall think!

Contains spoilers for anything from Oathbringer and before: Hello everyone ❤️ I just want to say that I am brand new to this forum and still haven’t finished Oathbringer, so if I get anything wrong then that’s why haha. Anyways, I was curious on what exactly Spren are and how they came to be. So I know that the Spren are supposed to be the embodiment of people‘a conception of certain things, but they are also splinters of Honor, killed by Odium. So they are splinters, but it says on the Coppermind wiki that Spren existed before humans even came to Roshar, so did Honor die during the time of the Dawnsingers? Or did he still exist, and if so, then how are Spren splinters of Honor if Honor wasn’t dead at the time? Did Honor create the splinters himself??

Alright, so, 1st post here, but something clicked in my mind and I wanted to know what you all think about it. Shallan is used to having multiple voices (Intents?) in her head, to find a common path among them. Would she be more ready than most other people to hold 2 shards with conflicting Intents? (or even 3, given the ones in Roshar and the fact that 3 were the main personalities she's had). Is it too far fetched to think that her psyche's situation could be foreshadowing/preparation for this possibility?

Hello lovelies! So I'm currently reading rhythm of War for the first time (I'm on chapter 15) and was wondering. If Taln returns to Roshar during the epilogue of Way of Kings.. Why didn't the new desolation start then? As the fused would now be free. My apologies if this is something that has already been asked and answered here! And ofc if its something that comes up during Rhythm of war absolutely feel free To RAFO me! Thank you!!

Okay, I got to thinking these past couple of days, and I had an idea for what kind of extra power could be given to a 5th ideal windrunner. Although I will first need to explain my theory of adhesion. Adhesion stands out among the surges, for a few reasons. Obviously, it's Honor's truest surge. The fused don't see it as a surge, rather as something very specific to Honor. I don't think this is true, seeing as the surges predate honor and cultivation, and the number 10 shows up too often in rosharan ecology to be created by honor, but I digress. Adhesion is also said to come in two forms, "spiritual" and "physical". Bondsmiths get spiritual adhesion, and Windrunners get physical adhesion. Except that's not true, since in Oathbringer, Dalinar is clearly shown to be able to use adhesion in the same way that Windrunners can, minus the reverse lashing of course. He can stick rocks to walls just fine, and can even likely use a full lashing. So I think that adhesion is really just connection. The ability to manipulate connection. Specifically meaning connecting and potentially disconnecting things on a spiritual, cosmere level. It would make sense for this to be Honor's truest surge, as he's all about bonds and connection. Odium wouldn't want to give this surge to his fused, as it would be far, far too powerful. A fused with connection might be able to connect themselves to honor instead of odium, essentially freeing themselves. And I think this clearly lines up with what we see in the text in terms of ability. Dalinar connects things together, that's his job. "Physical" adhesion, under this framework, is essentially just telling an object "oh hey, this is part of you. Both of you are strongly connected" and so they stick together for a while. I also argue that windrunners having extra squires isn't due to their resonance power, and is entirely due to the surge of adhesion, granting them connections to the people around them far more easily. Obviously all radiants have some connection shenanigans, but that's likely just due to the nature of spren bonding, which goes beyond radiants and permeates all creatures on roshar. So, if adhesion is just connection, where does that lead to the fifth ideal. I think that if 5th ideal windrunners get any sort of extra power, it's an enhancement to their resonance power, the reverse lashing. The reverse lashing is clearly the real resonance ability, as is stated in ROW. The reverse lashing connects objects at a distance to an object of your choice, telling them to be gravitationally attracted to it. I think the clear way to improve this is to cut out the specific object of attraction. Consider mistborn's iron and steel. It grants the ability to connect yourself to things around you at a distance, and push and pull on them. The blue lines that make up steel and iron sight are connection lines, as indicated by what Dalinar sees in ROW. I think that it makes sense for a 5th ideal windrunner to be granted that sort of sight, and be able to lash at a distance, through the same mechanism as iron and steel sight. Doing so would likely be difficult, and would almost certainly require you to command the object, unlike the flexibility you have when touching the object in question. I think this represents a clear use of the systems involved, as well as what I think is a natural step up in power. It's definitely very powerful, but I think limiting it with specific command helps to balance out that power increase. I also think that it is narratively satisfying, given the extra attention that has been given to adhesion and resonance powers in ROW. I of course present this as a potential option, as I don't think it's a given, or that it is the only possible increase. The natural answer of "perfect stormlight retention" is also plenty likely in my opinion. I just wanted to present this as an option as I have been thinking about it. I also don't know how controversial my theory of adhesion is. It might already be taken as a given for most people, I haven't really seen any discussion about that. Anyway, feel free to tell me what you think

New here, but not new to Sanderson. I'm really looking forward to going through the forums and catching up. I've read all of the Cosmere as well as the Skyward series, and my favorite is the Stormlight Archive; my favorite book being Words of Radiance. Anyway, HI!

I've been considering a Stormlight Archive tattoo (and a Mistborn one, but for now Stormlight Archive) and am running into a problem when I think of what I want. Dalinar's Oathbringer quotes really resonate with me - you know the ones (rise a better man, most important step, I will do better). My first thoughts were to get the Bondsmith Glyph and then to put a line of text above and/or below it. I would probably go with the "Always the next step" part of that quote or "I will do better" as they encompass the soul of the whole quote to me without being too wordy. The problem? I don't really identify as a Bondsmith. When I think about the orders and which one I would fit into there are many options but Bondsmith isn't really one of the ones that come to mind so I'm not sure I want a Bondsmith glyph. The only other thing I can really think of would be the Kholin glyph but I'm not sure what other ideas are out there. Thoughts?

We see Kaladin use the Reverse Lash to rip off the Pursuer's head after he reaches the fourth ideal in Rhythm of War. Is this something he could've done before the fourth ideal, if he had practiced the Reverse Lash more? He starts using the ability in creative ways due to lacking the ability to use the Basic Lash for most of Rhythm of War, and don't really see anyone use it besides Kaladin in the first book. I thought surges don't become more powerful as you make oaths, you just gain access to new ones and your Shardblade/Shardplate, plus becoming a better "container" for Stormlight.

Ok so I was thinking about how awakening draws color from things, turning them gray, and shardblade wounds also turn things gray. I was also pondering how Nightblood leeches the color from people when they wield it. So I have a few questions on this topic and I am curious to hear what other people think. I have no idea if this is supposed to be a discussion or under questions (as I have multiple questions). A lot of this is probably theories only, and some of it may have already been discussed. First, how is the lack of colour related between the two (Awakening color-loss and Shardblade wounds)? Is it related at all? If a Lifeless is cut by a shardblade is it cut in one swing? Second, if Nightblood bled someone's hand gray could said hand be cut off in one swing from a shardblade? Third, how is colour related to the soul? Color is lost when the soul is disconnected by a shardblade, and why is this color-loss happening? Fourth, can people killed by shardblades be turned into Lifeless? Do shardblades need multiple swings to cut through awakened objects? If something was invested with enough breath (say Vasher's cloak but it is given more breath than necessary to protect him), would it block shardblades?

So, i want all of your opinions on this matter. What do you think would happen if a Shardbearer attacked a Kandra? How do you think it would work?

So I was reading in the coppermind, bouncing around the Stormlight archives, when I noticed that under relatives for Kaladin, Gavinor is listed there. Can someone explain??!?

[double post glitch]

Can you join multiple orders or can you not bond more than one spren? And do the Ideals decrease the amount of Stormlight you use?

What are these and how can they grant Hoid immortality?

Welcome to the Museum of Cryptics Please follow our guide through Cultivation's perpendicularity. Once on the other side, kindly refrain from touching the petrified lifeforms, as the disease may spread. Follow the guide, and keep a quick pace, as you may have to run from angerspren at some point in the journey. If you are still alive once you have entered the building, present your passes to the Admittance Officer and enjoy your visit.

So now we've had our first in book appearance of a Dragon in TotES and learned that various parts, horns, teeth etc are made of actual Dragonsteel do we think that if we ever see Cultivation in her Dragon form that her horns & teeth would appear as Dragonsteel or would they be made of her god metal (Koravalliumium??)? I'm not sure if we'd be able to tell unless we ever see her god metal but I think it would be a cool touch if we were to ever see her in Dragon form.