tipbruley Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Ever since I read WoK about a year ago, I have had some lingering theories that I wanted to flush out. Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy for the last year and have had a bit of a setback in being able to reread the book. I wanted to get out a few unflushedout theories I had that I wanted to "do research on". I have some free time to do a reread of all the Cosmere books, so I'm planning on updating this thread after my reread. Although, it would be great if anyone could support or shoot down any of these. This is my first time posting here, so I may be restating some obvious ideas. I tried to quickly go through top posts and skipped the "Shallan has a shard blade" theories, but no promises. Remember these will be brief with only a little support until I reread. Here we go The following line from Hoid's letter will be extremely important "Let me first assure you that the element is quite safe. I have found a good home for it. I protect its safety like I protect my own skin, you might say" I take this to be a subtle way of saying that Hoid is now infused with whatever element he is holding (a shard?). It is apart of him (or in him). I'll try and flush out if there are any clues about what the element is, but would love opinions. This might be obvious, but I figured I would start out with it. I had thought that Min's earing was obvious, but was completely shocked about Ruin changing the prophecy (which I had read in other forums was the complete opposite of most people) Shallan's Memories are a part of her Knight's Radiant Order Power - Her order is Female Only First, I think that there is plenty of evidence (albeit not strong evidence) that Shallan's memories are a power fueled by stormlight, and thus, most likely a Radiant power. The sensation she describes when drawing Jasnah is very similar to how Kaladin described his power without knowing it. In addition, during the drawing of Jasnah, she had put all of her gem's in the lantern thing to get light to see (a source she could easily draw from). For the second part of the thoery, Sanderson does a great job in creating rich cultures that reflect the world's history, and abilities of its citizens. The split between feminine and masculine arts I feel had to have come from somewhere, and I think if only female Radiant's had the power of perfect memory they would be in charge of reading/writing/drawing. I'm not saying all Females were of this order (which we know is not true, since we see one kick some butt in one of Dalinar's visions) Szeth is called Truthless and made a slave by the Shin because he is a Knight's Radiant This one I also think was straight forward. I'm guessing that the Shin hate the Radiant's for breaking their oaths, and thus why their culture is against lying or because.... The shin will be an antagonistic force in books to come. They may not be evil, but I think they will try to prevent the rise of the main characters (who would reform the Order of the Knight's Radiant). Right now everyone dismisses them as pacifists that can't lie, but we really don't know too much about them. Their treatment of Szeth to me at least shows that they are against the Radiants. I think we are led to believe this is true because the Radiant's gave up their post, but I believe it's something else which I haven't flushed out yet. I need to follow up some more but the key here is that Stormlight is sacred and walking on stone is forbidden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter she/her Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 re Szeth Brandon has said the following about Szeth "Szeth is not a Radiant, something different is happening with Szeth" although granted, the Shin might not realize that as he is using the same powerset as one of the orders of the KR). Also, some people think the element was a bead of Lerasium (the same metal Elend ate that made him Mistborn). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahak he/him Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 re Szeth Brandon has said the following about Szeth "Szeth is not a Radiant, something different is happening with Szeth" although granted, the Shin might not realize that as he is using the same powerset as one of the orders of the KR). The scene in I-3 "Glory of Ignorance" p178 where he's going on about how much better than the peasants whose privies he cleans has him describing himself as "a Shardbearer and a Surge Binder. A Windrunner like the Radiants of old". So he knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiveAM he/him Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Well regarding the Female KR we saw in Dalinar's visions, that person could have been Soulcasting. I know there are some people who speculate her use of Regrowth to be a different Surge from Soulcasting (there's a thread called 'Regrowth' where this is discussed in length) but I think Regrowth is very likely still Soulcasting or at the very least not it's own Surge in itself but similar to what Lashings are. So if we assume that, then every female KR/possible KR we've seen Soulcasts, an possible loose end however is Elhokar and him seeing Symbolspren too. Shallan's Memory being a part of her Radiant powers is pretty divisive topic for many people. It seem so unnatural, and yes Shallan had her spheres out while doing some of her drawings.. BUT we haven't seen her mention any unnatural dunning of her spheres like Kaladin when she used her Memory. There are also other times when spheres aren't definitively present that she uses her Memory, and that she seems to have had this ability for her entire life. I think her Memory probably isn't natural, but i don't think it's a direct usage of her Radiant powers. Maybe its Old Magic, maybe it's a side effect of her developing KR powers, maybe it's the POSSIBLE 3rd Shard's magic. I agree that the Shin are mighty suspicious. They don't seem just mysterious, but i get a sort of malevolent vibe from them. I mean, they have super strict laws and rules: Szeth and his utter destitution of free will as Truthless, walking on stone being taboo, allowing a freakin death god like Szeth to wander around being controlled and used to kill people, and of course the suspicion that they are hoarding mass amounts of Blades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eri she/her Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 I think Shallan's memories are of the same nature as Kaladins innate talent for spear fighting. A talent, maybe being one of the prerequisites for gaining a spren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triasmus Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 I personally don't think we have enough to go on to even begin to think about how the Shin are going to turn out. Szeth as truthless isn't allowed in the Valley of Truth (or he's not allowed in the Valley, and therefore he's truthless. Which came first: the Chicken or the Egg?). There's a certain quote that I don't really want to find (it's in the "Several Theories" thread though) that leads me to believe that the Shin call Shinovar the Valley of Truth, but the Valley might just be within Shinovar. And having Szeth rampage across the world is probably something that they wish didn't happen, but is a "necessary evil" because of his powers or whatnot. Sorry. The previous paragraph doesn't feel like it flows how I wish it would, but I don't want to fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aradel he/him Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 The following line from Hoid's letter will be extremely important "Let me first assure you that the element is quite safe. I have found a good home for it. I protect its safety like I protect my own skin, you might say" I take this to be a subtle way of saying that Hoid is now infused with whatever element he is holding (a shard?). It is apart of him (or in him). I'll try and flush out if there are any clues about what the element is, but would love opinions. This might be obvious, but I figured I would start out with it. I had thought that Min's earing was obvious, but was completely shocked about Ruin changing the prophecy (which I had read in other forums was the complete opposite of most people) I've always been suspicious that hoid might be gathering fragments of shard power. Shallan's Memories are a part of her Knight's Radiant Order Power - Her order is Female Only First, I think that there is plenty of evidence (albeit not strong evidence) that Shallan's memories are a power fueled by stormlight, and thus, most likely a Radiant power. The sensation she describes when drawing Jasnah is very similar to how Kaladin described his power without knowing it. In addition, during the drawing of Jasnah, she had put all of her gem's in the lantern thing to get light to see (a source she could easily draw from). For the second part of the thoery, Sanderson does a great job in creating rich cultures that reflect the world's history, and abilities of its citizens. The split between feminine and masculine arts I feel had to have come from somewhere, and I think if only female Radiant's had the power of perfect memory they would be in charge of reading/writing/drawing. I'm not saying all Females were of this order (which we know is not true, since we see one kick some butt in one of Dalinar's visions) Elhokar mentioned seeing "symbol-headed creatures" in mirrors and out of the corner of his eye, I'm pretty sure he's of the same order as Shallan. BTW: "Flushed out" means "Gotten rid of" . Like flushing a toilet. You meant "Fleshed out" meaning "Filling in, Building on the bones of" ; which makes much more sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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