TheArcanist

When you read through a book over lunch, then have in-depth discussions about it with the teacher. Yeah... roughly 100 pages an hour. If I really wanted to, I could finish Words of Radiance in a day.

I have done that so, so many times. Brandon spoils us with those. When Breeze helps you get a date.

I need more Words. Darn it- where's your Honourspren when you need them? When you realize that you're having an in-depth, intelligent discussion about Realmatic theory. Then realizing that your Realmatic knowledge is helping you with physics.

Yeah, I am. Where I fence, there's a game we play called "England vs. France". It's basically Doctor Dodgeball with swords. The King/Queen is the Doctor, who can bring back any person knocked down. My team had lost just about everyone on it, except for me, one other person, and the King. The King went to go rescue some people while the other person defended him, and I was left to face down seven people on the other team. I somehow managed to beat all of them, felt extremely invincible, was practically sure that I'd taken down their King, and then turned around to find my remaining teammates down and another ten people waiting for me. Yeah... I didn't make it through that. Must've run out of Stormlight.

When you beat seven people in a freeform fencing match and assume this is what it feels like to use Stormlight to fight.

When you suddenly become more popular at school because you're acting like Lightsong or Hoid.

When you suddenly get much better at sparring at your martial arts club and realize that the reason behind it is that you've been listening to Zahel. When you are suddenly much more proficient at dealing with weapons because you treat each one coming at you like it's a Shardblade

He just held the power of Preservation the one time- the Well refills once every 1,000 years. I think some of the Terris texts call it the "Millennial Power". However, being a former Shardholder, a Sliver, he would've been affected by the time he'd held the Shard. We also don't know how much knowledge of the metallic arts the Worldbringers had- Rashek, as the nephew of Kwaan -could likely have had copious amounts of knowledge regarding them already; at least in the case of Feruchemy. We know for sure that he had a near-perfect knowledge of Hemalurgy, but that he never managed to surpass what he was capable of doing while holding Preservation's power. We also know that he knew things about Allomancy that no one else knew, and that he was quite likely the most proficient, skilled, and knowledgeable Allomancer in Scadrial's history. I would've added 'most powerful' as well, but Vin seems to take that spot. Then again, we really have no idea what he could do. In any case, there's no real way of knowing what the Lord Ruler's Hemalurgic Atium spikes were for without asking Brandon what was invested in them other than age via Feruchemy.

I wonder what that means for this theory then.

Makes sense, now that I think about it. Still- how much Atium would that have taken and would it have been practical to even attempt to acquire that much? In any case, the only way to get some real answers would be to ask Brandon what trait the Atium spikes had stolen.

How on earth would he have been able to coat his skeleton with Atium without killing himself?

I just remembered something I think might help. At one point in one of the Stormlight Archive books, I can't remember if it was TWoK or WoR, Syl mentions that all the spren basically keep reality stable through mass consensus. Then we have a moment in TWoK where the spren researcher learns that the observation of a spren makes it static, unchanging, fixed at a certain size. I can't remember for the life of me where I read this, but I'm fairly certain that it's scientifically accepted that the observation of a sub-atomic particle changes it from being in flux, constantly changing size and position, to a static, observable object. Sort of like what was being tested in the "Schrodinger's Cat" experiment. So, if all of this is true, would that make spren and similar Cosmere entities the sub-atomic particles of the Cosmere?

Well, according to the Coppermind, Atium's Feruchemical purpose is to store age. We already knew this, and we also know that compounding enables the Feruchemical stores to be multiplied by something like a factor of ten when burned. Therefore, chances are the Lord Ruler transferred some of the Atium metalminds' Investiture stores to a bead of Atium, swallowed it, burned it, then used it to reduce his age while storing the excess. Now- the primary reason he used them as Hemalurgic spikes is quite easily explained. No normal Allomancer would've been able to remove them from his body if he impaled them in his skin, and no Feruchemist who figured out what he was doing would've been able to get close enough to remove them. However, it's also stated that the Hemalurgic use of Atium is to steal any trait at all. Whether it be Allomantic, Feruchemical, or 'Human'. The emphasis seems to be more towards stealing some sort of psychological trait, and the bind point on the arms is Allomantic Bronze. However, as this is an Atium spike we're talking about, it could probably do whatever the Lord Ruler wanted it to do, and give a boost to his Allomantic Bronze. The truth is, we really have very little evidence to go over, so this is the best I've got.

I'm very excited to hear what Brandon has to say, if you get the chance to ask him about all this. Also- I've been working to recreate the duel on the scroll with some sparring partners of mine, but it's fairly difficult. We don't have Shardplate to make things lighter, and the closest thing we have to a sword that big is a staff. In any case, I'm trying my best and if something comes of it I'll post the video of the experiment here.

Oh, so I did. I'm going to have to fix that. Yes, the original diagrams really suck- thank God that ebook comes with actual pictures.

We need to get Inkthinker back over here so he can confirm or refute our ideas. I absolutely agree, however, that both sides of a Shardblade are probably sharp. Having a weapon as undiscriminatingly destructive as a Shardblade be handicapped by having one blunt side doesn't seem like a smart idea.

I think it's pretty much a given that a Shard can unconsciously influence the planet they're invested in.

Here are my votes: Flamestance: 8 Ironstance: 2 Smokestance: 7 Stonestance: 5 Vinestance: 3 Windstance: 4 Scroll is the same as 2: No Scroll is the same as 4: Yes Previously, I have asserted that Fig. 4 was likely a form of Ironstance, but going back over the information and seeing how similar Ironstance and Windstance are supposed to be, I am now of the opinion that Windstance is Fig. 4 and Ironstance is Fig. 2 In light of that, I went back and re-examined the duel depicted on the scroll, and have decided that the Left-Hand Warrior is actually in Windstance. In that case, I'm probably going to have to go back and edit it. Could someone link me the translation key for Alethi glyphs and a larger copy of the scroll image? I happen to enjoy translation, and I'm pretty good at telling the difference between glyphs.

Well if that's true [And it sure seems to be] then what would happen if a Thug managed to jury-rig the system so that Allomancy could work on Roshar? Would he be limited to just burning pewter, or could he access Stormlight? If the thug could access Stormlight with the same power-level of a Surgebinder, then chances are the only advantage the Surgebinder would have is the Surges themselves.

You wouldn't be inclined to give us a hint now, would you Inkthinker? Just to make things easier?

I was thinking scalpel vs. sludge hammer, but hacksaw vs. crane-mounted wrecking ball works too. So if all of this is true [and I'm assuming it is] then what is the relation between colour, Investiture, and Spiritual/Cognitive connections on Nalthis?

Huh, how about that. No jury-rigging needed. I wonder if there's similar examples of sDNA-overwriting materials/powers on other worlds. I imagine the ability to Return is one.

You'd probably have to jury-rig the lerasium first. It seems like the humans of every planet have a different Innate Investiture which lets them have potential access to the magic system of their world.

I figured someone asked Brandon about it. Couldn't find a mention of it, but thought I'd ask anyways. In any case, asking a question about the connections between different magic systems would probably be a good WoB question.

Question- are there any hints in the Ars Arcanum of Words of Radiance that implies Cosmere awareness, and comparisons to various magic systems?