Sixteen

[+Harrycrapper]

11 minutes ago, ftl said:

Allomantic time dilation - flare cadmium (?) so that 16 days outside is a minute inside the bubble. Could be that as far as sixteen is concerned, he’s been in Lasting integrity less than a day, repetitively doing “flare metal to pass time, go outside to check or wait for (whatever it is)”. 

I'm not sure how long he's been there but he'd still need a pretty hefty amount of cadmium to manage that. He's been there long enough to have established the whole 16 day thing as a pattern. And I don't think the cadmium time slowing works on the scale you have there. 1 minute to 16 days sounds like way too much. IIRC Marasi and Wax were in her bubble for maybe 5 minutes with Miles and a few hours passed outside it. I'd need to go back and re-read AoL to be 100% sure but I know that it's on a scale of minutes inside the bubble = hours outside the bubble, not days outside the bubble. I'm not sure a savant would even be able to achieve that, though maybe a savant with Lerasium level allomantic strength, or swap savanthood for hemalurgically enhanced. Or just all three. 

[Xerun]

On 30/11/2020 at 2:49 PM, KSub said:

I've wondered this before, but from everything we've seen losing that kind of investiture doesn't usually end well.

The only thought I had here was that when we’ve seen shards die before it’s the Vessel that is destroyed but the shard persists. Adonalsium isn’t really a Vessel but a true god. So even though his power was stripped he survived. 
 

Dawnshard spoilers: 

Spoiler

Nikli says the Dawnshards were used to UNDO Adolnasium not destroy him or kill him, which leads me to think he still exists  

 

[KSub]

Yeah Xerun you're right about the way in which the shards died, but I think they become cognitive shadows after picking up the shard. I don't think you could remove the power after that and go back to normal. But the shards do leave corpses when they die so who knows. 

Also, I'm not sure if Brandon talks directly about Adonalsium in any of his unpublished work, but I don't think we have confirmation that Ado is a person.

[Kingsdaughter613]

The only person we’ve seen give up the power and continue existing is Kelsier, and he was already a CS. So we really don’t know.

[Subvisual Haze]

It's an Elantran isn't it?  The same as the bald "Shin" fortune teller the gang encountered in Shadesmar back in Oathbringer.

[+Oltux72]

On 25.11.2020 at 1:34 AM, Ookla the Disproportionate said:

My guess is that he’s a Kandra.
1. The number 16 is seen the most on Scadrial
2. Kandra can go a long time without food.
3. Sixteen is bald, and Kandra can’t create hair on their own. 

Him being a Kandra would mean that a Kandra were to adopt human form, but then weakened its camouflage without need by doing something ordinary humans are not capable of.

The same goes for a Sleepless or a dragon. Any shapeshifter doing this would be either stupid, arrogant or desperate. The stupid part clashes with him being in Lasting Integrity or in Shadesmar at all. It is not a benign environment for the stupid to survive in. Ig he were arrogant, why would he lower himself to checking on a few statues?

[danex]

54 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

Him being a Kandra would mean that a Kandra were to adopt human form, but then weakened its camouflage without need by doing something ordinary humans are not capable of.

He doesn’t necessarily need to be trying to blend in, most Kandra take humanoid forms even when not on assignment. What other form would a Kandra take?

Also, not all Kandra are perfectly sane, missing a spike could explain the erratic behavior. 

[+Oltux72]

56 minutes ago, Ookla the Disproportionate said:

He doesn’t necessarily need to be trying to blend in, most Kandra take humanoid forms even when not on assignment. What other form would a Kandra take?

An impressive one. If you were capable of any look, would you look like a bald, elderly man?

56 minutes ago, Ookla the Disproportionate said:

Also, not all Kandra are perfectly sane, missing a spike could explain the erratic behavior. 

So we are talking about beings of which there are a few hundred in the whole Cosmere? A small fraction of whom is insane? And then disciplined enough to come out every sixteen days and would flee from some strange woman?

[ftl]

Yeah, I don't think he's insane.

I think the key to understanding who he is and what he's doing is figuring out why, exactly does he need to come out once every 16 days. I don't have good ideas, though. Waiting for a dead drop? A message? A signal?

[+Oltux72]

1 hour ago, ftl said:

Yeah, I don't think he's insane.

I think the key to understanding who he is and what he's doing is figuring out why, exactly does he need to come out once every 16 days. I don't have good ideas, though. Waiting for a dead drop? A message? A signal?

Well, we already had an example of statues not being what they were universally considered to be. If you are looking for a reason to look at them regularly.

[Ishar]

14 hours ago, Subvisual Haze said:

It's an Elantran isn't it?  The same as the bald "Shin" fortune teller the gang encountered in Shadesmar back in Oathbringer.

This was my immediate thought while reading it. 

[Maya]

I always thought he was one of the Sleepless.

I mean, in Dawnshard, they themselves admit that most of them are awful in blending in as people.

And, in a way, they are numbered, 1 to 24 depending on hordling age, If I remember that correctly. 

[+Child of Hodor]

7 hours ago, Maya said:

I always thought he was one of the Sleepless.

I mean, in Dawnshard, they themselves admit that most of them are awful in blending in as people.

And, in a way, they are numbered, 1 to 24 depending on hordling age, If I remember that correctly. 

This makes a ton of sense! Explains why they don't appear outside otherwise and don't seem to eat or bathe. They probably are dispersed when not going to the garden.

I guess they need to take a humanoid form to carry their notes to the garden and check something against them. That's the only issue I have, why do they feel the need to assume human-ish form? Can't they have a few hordlings in the garden looking for whatever they are looking for while the rest of them is in their room looking at the notes for comparison? Or even have the rest of them outside the fortress? Unless there is something about the fortress that blocks their psychic link. 

We don't know what Sixteen is trying to accomplish which makes it difficult to understand their reasoning. 

 

[Roocifer]

My theory is that this is Szeth's father.

[Aminar]

18 hours ago, Roocifer said:

My theory is that this is Szeth's father.

That was part of my thought process. But why would he be 16? Not 10. And why would Ishar have lied about killing him? I suspect he's from Ashyn. Someone that's managed immortality without being a Herald maybe. But someone that knows a whole lot. 

[teknopathetic]

It is likely someone we have not seen before, but will meet later and will go OOOOOOOH. I really think this is a breadcrumb for something in the future. 

Edited December 4, 2020 by teknopathetic

[Xerun]

Ok. Starting my reread of RoW and Godeke in chapter 22 talks about how I’d Honor was killed he wasn’t the true god and that god cannot be killed. This reminds me that both Dalinar and Sazed have said the same. So now I’m getting more and more certain that Adonalsium survived the shattering and was just de-powered and is hiding as Sixteen. 

Vessels can be destroyed but not Shards of Power and id like to think this can be applied to Adolnasium as it is the true God.