Chaos

I do not think Soulcasting could alter gender. Right now, all Soulcasting effects we have seen are entirely Physical in nature. Even if you were able to alter the right organs (which already seems very, very challenging for Soulcasting to do), your Spiritual would remain the same. Soulcasting effectively hacks the Cognitive to alter the Physical, whereas Forgery hacks things to alter the Spiritual Identity of an object. There's no evidence that Soulcasting could alter Identity in that way. Forgery, though, I could definitely see having such abilities. Much more likely than Soulcasting, at least.

I see what you're getting at, and I like what you're trying to do in reconciling it. Your point about Slivers is entirely valid, though I would argue that we have never seen an example of someone who fully ascended to a Shard and was able to give it up without dying. Mistborn spoilers: If a Shard could give up their power, I feel that would have already happened in the history of the cosmere. I can't imagine all sixteen were willing to pick up this burden. This would be a good question for Brandon: has a Shard willingly given up their power before? So, I'm still skeptical that a Shard can give up their power, but I'll wait and see if there's any new evidence. As for the reconciliation, perhaps the Nightwatcher could be a Splinter of Cultivation and share some of Cultivation's mental attributes--as that power could be colored by Cultivation herself--and Cultivation could still be a separate entity. I don't know if that makes much sense though. Hard to tell at this point.

Could you find a quote for this? It's entirely possible I missed this, but I've never heard it before. Very cool, though.

The Radiants were

I suppose I can understand that, and I'm sure for similar reasons some would've disliked Kaladin's arc a lot.

Yes, it's the dead spren saying that, but the only reason the dead spren screams is because of that contact with Syl.

I'm not sure a holder can release their Shard without killing themselves. When you ascend, you become the Shard. You are the power, at that point. So releasing the power, I think, would effectively kill you, not to mention having the bad side effects of an unheld Shard...

Yes, but nothing mysterious with Relis, I mean.

If she was Splintered, then it wasn't via Odium's method, so I'm not sure about this. Brandon had said that Odium's method of Splintering would almost certainly kill the user--it's like Hemalurgy that way (and if you lived, you'd be... very different. I wouldn't even classify it as alive, necessarily). So I don't think she is Splintered, personally, though she may have particular Splinters that she created on her own accord. But she is alive and well; I would like to reserve "Splintered" to refer to Shards that are totally Splintered, not ones that have a few Splinters.

was totally jerkish

I suppose so, but he has a lot of growing to do as a Radiant. Just because he realizes these ideals in times of crises doesn't mean he truly lives the ideals, deep down. That's what I felt Kaladin's arc was all about in this book: learning to truly be a Radiant. Because he wasn't before.

I hope you don't mind, but I'm moving this to Events. We'll see! Though this time, it seems as though everyone can read what is unlocked, which minimizes the need for that scavenger hunt.

Awesome theory. I like it. Makes a ton of sense to me. I think I will espouse this one. Nicely done.

With Sigzil's reaction to that scene, it is unquestionably Hoid. God of mischief? Yep. And his description matches the common Hoid descriptions.

its spren, which

I had always interpreted this scene as Syl being the major reason why Relis heard the Shardblade scream. It's only when Kaladin touched the blade that Relis heard the screams, and I think that's just because Syl's reactions, which must have been transmitted through touch. I don't think anything mysterious is going on here.

I don't at all understand people saying Kaladin and Shallan are flat in Words of Radiance. Shallan had phenomenal character growth that was unexpected and wonderful, and her flashbacks were far tenser and more interesting to read than Kaladin's. That one where she kills her dad? Powerful. Additionally, I felt that Kaladin's arc was exactly where he needed to go. His struggles were a natural extension of what had come before. I couldn't see his arc being anything different than what it was. It was wonderful. Maybe someone can explain why they didn't like Kaladin's arc, because I genuinely do not understand it. ' Pattern was wonderful. Adolin was wonderful. Shallan is totally amazing, as always. But you know what I felt was great? That though we had almost no Szeth viewpoints, we know his character so much better than in Book One. I was really impressed with that character development.

I felt Kaladin's arc was such a natural logical extension of his character. Some might have issues with Kaladin not talking to Dalinar immediately about his powers, but you know what? Kaladin had darn good reasons for not doing that! It was exactly what Kaladin's arc should have been, in my opinion.

Oops. I kind of forgot about this. I'll work on it this weekend. Right now my priority has mostly been investigating the mysterious Fatal Error so far... But thanks for reminding me! I really need to post a Chaos To Do List I think.

So in the search bar in the upper right, the dropdown used to allow you to select Members, and now it doesn't. I am looking into this. Don't know what's up with that... We're busy at work trying to figure out that Fatal Error, by the way. We're going to get rid of it soon, I think.

MINE MUWHAHAHAHA. Look, you said you don't know how to post these in the right format

Hey everyone!I evidently need to make a reminder: multiple accounts are strictly prohibited. This has been long stated in the rules, just like this, in fact: I shouldn't really need to explain why this is prohibited, which is why the rules are short and sweet. You guys, for the most part, are some of the kindest, most excellent people on the internet. But in case you weren't aware, here are some reasons why multiple accounts are banned: 1. Reputation abuse. There are restrictions on the amount of downvotes you can make in a time frame, and obviously abusing the reputation system is not acceptable. Additionally, upvoting your own posts is also reputation abuse. 2. It's intentionally deceptive. If it's something you wouldn't say on your main account, you shouldn't say it at all. 3. Discipline avoidance. If there becomes a time when a member's actions are not in line with the forum guidelines, trying to use another account to get around this is very bad form. For those of you in shared computer households: don't worry! Usually this can be obvious from an introduction post--saying something like "oh I'm so and so's sibling". Just let us know. This won't be an issue for almost all of you, and we'll be very nice about that. For the rest of you, if we discover you have multiple accounts and suspect foul play, we will not hesitate to ban you. There will not be notice. We will be very strict about this. If you believe any such banning has happened in error, contact me at [email protected]. Have an awesome night, you awesome guys and gals. Sorry I had to post this; I really didn't want to, but certain events have transpired that are forcing my hand.

I have some audio evidence to the contrary, I'm afraid...

Hmmm, did you fully clear your cache (like, saying remove from "beginning of time"?). Kerry has also told me that doing a hard refresh is not sufficient; you actually have to go into Tools. While we're at it, does the Rich Text Editor load for you? EDIT: I've checked and spoiler boxes work for me in Incognito windows. It is very strange, because in Incognito windows, your browser shouldn't be caching anything, so that shouldn't be an issue. Very strange. I'll have to think on it.