Fifth of Daybreak

This is fair, I am contradicting myself. She had to suspect that the antidote was in the jam before this if she suspected poison, it's the only reason to soulcast the jam and then wipe her finger off. In which case, Jasnah is just betting on herself and the availability of resources in a hospital setting. No where do I say she doesn't care about Shallan, only that she's willing to risk her life to kill a ghost blood. Also, in the same scene Jasnah also blames Shallan's attempt on Kabsal, so we can't be entirely sure about her guilt or not. I didn't bring up the soulcaster. If you suspect poison, you tell someone. Point blank. She has time to say no to bread, then say yes and Soulcast it after taking the jar and opening it and Soulcasting the inside and closing it and handing it back. She doesn't like jam and has made that knowledge public. She has no reason to suspect jam. Kabsal knows this.

There's probably a good deal of blame to go on my end. I'm still trying to get back into the terminology and lost a lot of ground. Take every opportunity you get to correct me when you can.

It's a crime of opportunity. Jasnah had about three seconds to make the decision. It wasn't premeditated and well thought out. [Edit: As Reborn Radiant has pointed out, this is a contradiction of my main theory, and I retract the poor argument.]

Her vigil was for Shallan's suicide. Of course she'd panic when her actions directly were causing her Ward's death and we're well before she revealed the soulcaster. Your points seem to be made based on what you expect and not based on text.

Thanks for clarifying. I hold your opinion in high regard so I very much appreciate the nuance you put into your reply. That's a misrepresentation of my argument. If there's an ability that holds people to their oaths, and punishes them if they break them, the oath is an internally placed magical restriction. The stone would be the pre-magical object that would be able to release him from whatever punishment would be inflicted if he didn't follow his oath that's been sealed to him.

I think all of the evidence points to this. Jasnah employs an assassin and was planning on killing the queen. Jasnah kills ghostbloods. Jasnah casually threatened Wit for nothing. Kabsal was surprised when Jasnah grabbed the jam and alarmed when it didn't smell the way it was supposed to because he knew what was up. He eats it anyway out of desperation, and still tries to save Shallan as well, despite it making him physically ill. Spoiler tag for length

Why does it matter if she looks suspicious or not? If her intention is to save Shallan and she just needs to have Kabsal held under suspicion until Jasnah can have the things tested. She mentions later that they tested for antidote in other jars, and they named the poison they found in the bread. This is answered by Shallan in the text.

I've always kind of imagined him as having a realistic older man's wizened head on the body of the Burger King mascot. As much as I hate that storming mascot King T won't take the costume off.

On my latest readthrough of WoK in preparation for Oathbringer, something struck me about Kabsal's death that hadn't before. Jasnah's actions all not only point towards suspicion of Kabsal, but intent to kill him, and a reckless disregard for the life of Shallan in her attempt to catch the assassin in his own trap. Here's the scene below in a spoiler tag for length: So Jasnah here, as she herself later tells Shallan, anticipates that this is the last interaction that she will have with Kabsal, and she is presented with a unique opportunity to grab the jam. Since strawberry is rare, she has a readily available excuse, the scent, to grab the jar and touch the jam and soulcast it. Her hesitation before she actually sniffs it is evidence that she did not actually intend to smell it, and knows that it is going to smell rancid due to the soulcasting. She likely here has anticipated that the jam has an antidote since she is not fond of jam herself. This gives her a way to at the very least prove her hypothesis about Kabsal. If she's wrong, all she's done is ruin a good jar of jam. Shalln comes to the faulty conclusion that Jasnah suspected poison is in the jam, but Jasnah doesn't need to get rid of poison she has no intention of ingesting, and she certainly doesn't need to cover up the fact that she tampered with the antidote, as Shallan observed she had: But Shallan was far too caught up in the realization that Jasnah had a fake soulcaster to continue to follow the trail to its logical end, or maybe she was too sick from the poison to remember all of the details. Either way, Jasnah has no reason to soulcast the Jam if she suspects the poison is in there, as she has no need. In fact, as the first selection shows she never intended on eating anything at all until Shallan forced the issue. This was a crime of opportunity that put Shallan right in the crossfire. Shallan comes to the wrong conclusion and thinks that Jasnah is trying to protect her, which is understandable, it's not an assumption you want to make about your mentor and hero, especially when you have personally betrayed that person. This will be a large enough realization, that Jasnah was willing to gamble with Shallan's life to kill an enemy, but it becomes even more egregious than that when another few details are brought into the context of the situation. Not only does Jasnah move forward with this plan knowing she's not in any danger, putting her ward in harm's way, but she does so knowing that her talents make it dificult for her to save Shallan, and she does it without a garnet on her to perform the soulcasting necessary to save Shallan. Jasnah is so obsessed with the mere opportunity of taking out a member of the Ghostbloods that she's willing to risk Shallan's life when Jasnah doesn't have the tools necessry to save her, even though it would not be difficult to have those tools on hand. Jasnah is one of the wealthiest women in the world, a garnet should be easy for her to gain access to, and it stands to reason she would want to have one around as a soulcaster for how useful it could be, especially if you plan on risking the life of one of your dependents to kill an enemy. I think it will have a profound effect on Shallan's opinion of Jasnah if she ever reexamines the events and realizes what happened, especially when she correlates them with the things Mraize has said to her. It's actually entirely possible that this is another 'truth' that Shallan has realized and hidden away to protect her admiration for Jasnah, though I don't find this as plausible as Shallan drawing her own false conclusions. I think she'll follow the logical steps later and realize the mistake she made and Jasnah's true intentions, and I think that will push her closer to the Ghostbloods. As an aside, I just watched Deathnote for the first time recently, and going through Kabsal's death scene, I felt a strong paralel to one of Jasnah's quotes.

I'm guessing that it will have something to do with Urithuru. It will be a key of some sort that can be used to power up one of the functions the city hasn't needed to use since the Heralds first arrived. Something like a lockout key where all the Heralds need to be there with all the keys at once.

I'm going to have to ask you to be more specific about where your points of contention like here, as I'm not seeing the contradiction. Your own WoB seems to be contradicting the point you're making as I understand. I'm going to summarize what I understand it to be, let me know where I'm going wrong so I can better understand where the disagreement is: "Cultivation cannot invest through Light because we know she both has a role in the nahel bond and has an influence on crem." If this is your argument, I don't see it as actually being in conflict with my own Theory. The theory doesn't necessitate that cultivation nahel spren bonds be fueled by anything other than Stormlight, but even if it did that wouldn't be a problem because of precedent already made. Mistborn spoilers For the part about Crem being influenced by cultivation, again, I don't see the conflict with my own Theory. The cultivation/odium back and forth conflict over the influence on crem/stone is the cornerstone of my theory, as one of the things we are told repeatedly by stone Shamanism is that stone outside of Shinovar is curse. We have the precedent that stone/crem can be influenced by shards, to say that Odium can't because Brandon says that Cultivation does is a little preemptive in my opinion. Mistborn spoilers

For the most part I feel both that I've got a solid understanding of your viewpoint and that it's based on a well reasoned and logical assessment of the situation. I think we might be approaching the point where we'll be forced to agree to disagree. I can definitely see where you are coming from and that your points have merit, it just isn't quite enough to sway me. I do have a few quibbles though. Act here is a verb, not a noun. It's used a synonym with behave. "That was how Radiant would behave." I don't disagree with most of your analysis on the internal usage of Radiant, but I do think that's where the problem comes from. I do want to say that your arguments have convinced me that Veil is exactly as you say. There's been no trouble of this sort with veil. Pattern's comment though is that Radiant is not a good lie for that reason, she's slipping between them as if she can't tell the difference. Three chapters later she has to ask if she killed her brothers and Pattern asks her if she can tell the difference between the lies and says "there is something wrong with these lies you place upon yourself." Ten chapters later, we see the weirdness with the Stormlight I described. i think it's significant to also note that Adolin is there as a touchstone, but the first time she forms Radiant alone is when the alleged trouble starts. Using the acting metaphor, Adolin is there to break the fourth wall and remind Shallan that she's herself. Radiant wouldn't understand that she's not acting like Shallan and being too formal and admonish herself for it without Adolin breaking the illusion Shallan is placing on herself, but even then, it rarely breaks. In this selection, Shallan refers to herself as Radiant in the narration five times and then even contrasts herself (Radiant) with Shallan as two separate individuals. Comparing it to Veil Chapters, I can't recall a single time she referred to herself as Veil in the narration. I chose a selection at random to illustrate this. I don't know if there's evidence any more convincing than referring to herself as a different person from her own perspective, not even out loud. It's not something that can be explained away by acting, it's not consistent with Veil, and even Pattern says that there is something wrong with her "lies she places on herself."

You know you've read SA when you're helping play test a tabletop RPG set in a virtual reality where your character can break the server physics and your only thought is "I'm a windrunner now."

Water under the bridge Thanks for being so open about it. Basically, when I try to form my arguments, I try to build towards a unifying theme with the weakest evidence first gradually building upward. Think if it like building a fire. You want your smallest fuel, the tinder first, then build on top of it with small sticks, the kindling, then the fuel. The tinder Sparks which then catches flame to the kindling which eventually sets flame to the fuel. (You can just ignore this if you want, it's really just a side not to help you navigate my arguments in the future.) I don't disagree with anything here, but it also stops right where I think her conscious actions stop. I don't think her forming Radiant was not conscious, but the other images were. I completely agree that everything up to that point is written with a very clear emphasis that the actions are consciously taken. But the next line is the one that I think demonstrates she's lost conscious control of her Stormlight. (Emphasis mine) We've never seen an instance where a character has felt like Stormlight has chased them before, and to feel it instead of commanding it is more passive, giving me the impression it's not a conscious choice. I don't think this is quite accurate. The sequence isn't quite as you presented. Sequentially it is correct, but narratively it is out of order. (I feel like I am not communicating my meaning well there.) She becomes radiant, she feels the light chasing her, she charges into the room and stops, the images "split around her and dash through the room" but then are described to have "vanished after passing her." She readies her blade, she notices the room would be dark except for her Stormlight. She notices the room is empty. There's a few things I want to draw attention to here. First, the passive way that the images are written. It's not written that "Shallan split off a dozen images" but that "a dozen versions of herself...split around her and dashed through the room." I disagree with your interpretation on their movement as well, but the wording here is so hard to decipher I don't think that we can blame either of us for that. I'm just going to walk you through my logic for how I'm interpreting it. Shallan is being chased by the light, runs into the room and stops, as she enters the room, the images split off and run through the room, through meaning following the same general path Shallan took until the images pass her and disappear. Because the light was chasing her, it stands to reason the images would be following her too. I don't think they would be used for light because light isn't mentioned until after they are gone, the next line after they disappeared was Shallan readying her sword and mentioning that her Stormlight is the only source in the room. I think that's the problem and that's what I'm getting at, she's using Soulcasting to make it so it's not an act. Here she implies the problem is that Veil is just an act, and that if she can "go deeper" (cue inception sound effects) it will solve things. I think we are seeing the results of that attempt with Radiant. I want to take one of your points and work backwards for a minute. If Radiant is just an act to deal with her problems, then she shouldn't need magic in order to put it on. There's no reason for the Stormlight trigger if there's no magical transformation to her mind, and since Radiant isn't used in any way to fool someone, there's no good reason for traditional Lightweaving. And yet, she uses it here, and when she first creates Radiant, even though she has no intention on fooling Adolin. She says some very specific things in that chapter that are not about putting on an act and are about becoming a different person. Shallan refers to all of her characters in third person...and they refer to her in third person back. There's no good reason someone's who's acting and is consciously aware of that act would refer to herself in the third person when talking to her fiance that I can think of. It does, thanks for the clarification. I definitely understand where you're coming from. I don't share your interpretation, but your argument is solid. Sure thing. So Shallan's Lightweaving has some sort of mental block that forces her to draw before she can use it. The idea of Soulcasting people into better versions of themselves has always been predicted on the fact that it's a mix of Soulcasting and Lightweaving. Because Shallan has a block on her lightweaving, it's irrelevant whether or not she can Soulcast without drawing, because as soon as she mixes in the Lightweaving, the new power, Soulcasting people, becomes subject to the same block as the Lightweaving, having to be drawn beforehand. (I tried to find the Pattern quote but couldn't, so I'm just going to post as is.)

We don't have any evidence at all of any modern methods of treating mental illness, and Alethi society would ostracize anyone who would suggest that fighting would cause spiritual damage to a person's soul. We do have evidence fro. The starfall chapter that the radiants were concerned about those damages or "changes" and had ways to protect against them, we just don't know what they are. I am not trying to suggest light can deal with physical pain or injury, or that it can power surges or fabrials, there's no evidence. I think that the stone is crucial. Tien finds the special stones that have cultivation has been able to invest in and gives them to Kaladin. Szeth only feels better when he's in the Holy city of Urithuru, the only place where the stones aren't cursed. Dalinar only has his vision in Urithuru. There are many places where either the shin or Szeth mention how stones are cursed or walking on them is profane. I'd be happy to cite them for you, but that's my explanation for why stones aren't heavily invested with cultivation out side of Urithuru. The stones have been 'cursed' by being invested with odium's influence instead. That's another reason for the large glass window in Urithuru and for its place above the clouds. More sunlight gets inside. The cursed stones also explain thunderclasts. If odium is already invested into stone, it's easier for his spren to animate it.

From the evidence I've collected, cultivation's investiture from the light would be to lessen pain or heal damage done to the soul. In Tien's case, the investiture acts as an anti-depressant for Kaladin. For Szeth, it heals damage that has been done by his fighting. For Dalinar it is much the same, which is why it reminds him of a time before he was the blackthorn. "Why would the Parshendi need Gemstones...?" They 'need' it because it makes the process faster. They can grow food without it the same way humans do, it's just too slow for their needs. I think you're misremembering what is stated in the book and attributing the Stormlight to a necessary part of the growth instead of as a fertilizer effect. This was easily answered by just reading the relevant passage. "What corresponding mechanisms of magic do we see on Roshar?" Forgive my tongue in cheek response here, but I didn't have the benefit of attending silver Light University or studying this in person. It's a little unfair to expect me to have the same knowledge as the foremost in world expert on magic two books in.

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm implying here. I'm not saying 'soulcasting+Lightweaving=aGold.' If this is the specific hangup let me go at this from a different angle. We have the precedent from aGold and aaMalatium that it is possible to use investiture to see the versions of yourself/others that could have been. Now I can definitely understand why you would have a problem with "magic is the reason why Characters can do everything they can do." It's trite, it makes characters useless, and it doesn't make for an interesting story. I had never looked at it from that perspective here, but rather, the magic is possible because of what the characters are able to do. Here, Shallan's natural talents in seeing what someone's potential could be, an innate aMalatium/gold in her personality(non magical) allows her to draw out what those images would be if she happened to be a misting. She draws on that knowledge to then change people later using magic and Soulcasting. Radiant isn't just an act, Radiant is a fully formed persona, as is Veil, and Shallan is having trouble separating them. It wouldn't make sense for her to split and be them at the same time with her magic set, but if she's unable to control her mental state and separate out her different personas from each other, it makes sense they could start to fight for 'dominance' when her prime personality 'Shallan' gives up control and recasts herself as someone else. First, your tone is straying slightly towards being directly abrasive and confrontational. I don't think I've done the same so far, but if I have I apologise. I am enjoying our discussion and I don't want to give the impression I'm not. I would be interested to see your argument with cited passages from the text. I'm going to quote the whole passage then make my argument. 1. She's chasing it, not being chased. 2. Contextual clues don't speak to me of being actively conscious. "Light escaped her lips, transforming her more fully into Radiant. Luminescent wisps trailed behind her, and she felt it chasing her." The first action is written as if deliberate, the second, she feels the Stormlight chasing her. It doesn't lend itself to the interpretation that Shallan is taking an active role in shaping it. When she comes to a stop, the images form and keep going. 3. Going on the assumption it is tactics. This is the worst use of tactics I could imagine for the situation, and your argument did not address the points I made in that regard. In this situation, the tactical advantages of a distraction would be: a: keep your enemy distracted - the images dissipate before she knows the room is empty. b. Hide yourself - none of the images are copies of herself. c. Present a bigger threat (a la huge Kaladin) - with the possible exception of the soldier, none of the images would be armed. Radiant has a shardblade and is the biggest threat. d. Maintain your advantage throughout the confrontation - not only do the images dissipate before she realizes it's empty, they dissipate before she has even readied her sword. If this was an active tactical decision by Shallan, it is the worst use of her powers I've seen to date and she needs to retire Radiant for failing to think tactically. I would definitely disagree that Shallan was being smart if it was conscious. The person she was chasing was watching her beforehand, so any illusions that weren't exact copies of herself would be useless anyway. Shallan didn't draw everything on the stage to Lightweave, and she was in Shadesmar speaking directly with the soul of an object in that instance directly using one of the surges, not a theorized power that exists by combining two of them. Jasnah is able to soulcast without touching things, I don't think that automatically means Shallan can do the same. Also, Pattern has specifically said Shallan didn't used to have to draw to Lightweave, as I believe it's a result of her own mental restrictions. When I said it's a pre-requisite, I meant that it's a self imposed restriction Shallan has placed on herself by her own perceptions as with Lightweaving. It would make perfect sense if the block is just on Lightweaving that Soulcasting wouldn't be affected,but the combination of the two would be, since adding in the block would necessitate the sketch to Soulcasting where there wasn't a need before. A better question is when did he steal the drawing. I think he stole it right then. WoR Chapter 20 the Coldness of Clarity He was standing next to the wagon where her notebook was stored with the paper and sphere. The next time Shallan pulls out her notebook is when she noticed it is missing. Is the Stormlight has nothing to do with his interest, why does the timeline match up so perfectly, and why is the missing picture talked about immediately following Pattern's comments? As listed above, I think I pinpointed the exact moment he stole the picture, when she sucked in Light during the bandit attack. It's the only time he had the opportunity. If you can find anything in the chapter to support your points here I'll reconsider, but i don't think you're basing this on evidence from the book, but rather on your own assumptions, which is not convincing. "Honestly, this is your best argument." Just a quick note here about my debate style, I like to do the evidence avalanche where I start with the weakest evidence and keep building with stronger all building towards my conclusion. Most of the time it's all working towards a singular point, so saying this is my best argument is to ignore that all of my arguments, for the most part, are intended to be a small part of a whole working towards the conclusion. I'm a little confused here. Vorin beliefs originated from the Knights Radiant and the Heralds. When you say it's a common expression of the Vorin religion, I don't know what you're arguing, because that common expression has its roots from back when the people who actually knew what they were doing knew how to soulcast. Soulcasting is one of the only surgebindings that still exists and the Vorin church is the one who controls it. Can you clarify? Thank you for that. I felt like I was getting mixed signals and that I was beginning to frustrate you. I understand that I can be difficult to debate with sometimes because I refuse to budge unless I am satisfied with the counter argument, but I've really enjoyed this discussion and I don't want anyone else to be miserable when I'm having a good time. If it does get to a point where you feel that you're starting to get frustrated or you no longer want to continue, please just let me know. I'm always happy to agree to disagree and the last thing I want to do is turn this from a friendly enjoyable discussion to a troll war comment section on YouTube.

First off, a big mea culpa. I think part of the problem is I'm internally mixing the effects of malatium and electrum up. Sorry for that. As an aside, have we ever seen anyone on screen use electrum and duralumin? I wonder if we might see something similar to Allomantic gold. "They are both people simultaneously." I think this reinforces my point. Shallan isn't Shallan when she "splits" she's actively trying to become Radiant, a casting of herself, but in the same moment, she splits into dozens of versions of herself. I don't think we can conclusively say she was creating a distraction. This obviously isn't conscious. She wouldn't end it when she gets to the point where it's dangerous, and she wouldn't have every single one different, and the only 'real' Shallan be the one armed with a sword. It doesn't add up I also don't think the drawings are necessarily relevant. Her lightweaving has been restricted up to this point to what she has drawn, her other abilities could be restricted by similar mental blocks. "her cognition and awareness does not travel with the phantom Shallans" I disagree. Brandon makes a point of describing the emotional and mental state twice. While that could be observed by physical clues, it would be more readily apparent to Shallan if she was sharing their consciousness. "A happy wife...in pain." I don't think there's enough there to conclusively say either way, but she's definitely taking on the role of someone else, and that split her into dozens of different versions of herself. Would you mind looking linking me the thread? I'd love to see the discussion. "Her drawings we're popular before she started..." Not in the instance of Bluth specifically, though this could be explained by him wanting to steal the picture and being nonchalant admittedly. But, I want to tie this into your other point. AsI said before, the drawing could be a pre-requisite for the Soulcasting to happen. She didn't use Stormlight when she drew, as you said, and he wasn't interested. Later on however, when she goes to recruit the deserters and Bluth as well, she is holding Stormlight, and suddenly, Bluth is incredibly interested in the drawing he has stolen, and takes her orders If Shallan can access Lightweaving from drawing she has done before, and assuming I'm not incorrect about Soulcasting being connected to Shallan's drawings, I don't see a good reason we can't assume a similar latent effect with Soulcasting. She draws the paper, plants the seed in Bluths mind using conventional inspiration, then when the time is right, uses Stormlight and Soulcasting to trigger the change and inspire him to recast his soul into something greater. I feel like I've done a fair job rebutting your points with passages from the story. Do you see any flaws in my logic?

I've actually had a lot of thoughts on this and have made a few prototype boards, though I haven't done much more than that The Stormlight Archives: Race for the GemHearts 1 2-4 players 45 minutes to an hour Worker placement/dice rolling strategy. Each player picks a highprince who has a strength in some way. Sebariel excels in the market, Dalinar can earn VP protecting the king, Sadeas has the fastest bridges. The game works as a combination of worker placement, set collecting, and dice rolling games. As others have said, imagine a mix of Catan road building for bridges, set collecting from five tribes for book collections and fabrials in the marketplace, and worker placement mechanics from Agricola and stone age for resource management. Then for the battle system, use the great synergy introduced in Champions of Midgard. Different dice represent different soldiers with different strengths. Spearmen are the weakest, then archers, then swordsmen. You could win shards in the arena which could be a large size die like a d12. When you fight a parshendi on the shattered plains you have to beat a certain threshold if hits against the chasmfiend to open it, or take out the parshendi before the do the same to you. Each strength die would have either damage or hammers for attacking the parshendi or the GemHearts. If you're unfamiliar with Champions of Midgard: I've actually considered taking this idea to Crafty Games once I get it more concrete, but I think the worker placement is the best way to get. It captures the feeling of setting up camp in the early days on the plains, and then the dice battle system they created for CoM is quick, fun, and adds a great element of random chance to an otherwise strategy heavy genre.

I'll preface here by saying I'm definitely willing to agree to disagree, but I'm not entirely sure that it's just an affectation of her mental state, especially since it is mirroring effects seen in other magic systems. It's electrum and gold though, if it is a mirror, you're right there. As a child and as a mother so past and future. I'm heavily subscribed to the idea that there are special abilities to each order as a result of them mixing the powers. Soulcasting has been hinted to be more than just physical transformation. Just by sketching Shallan's changed the attitude of Bluth, as he is enamored with the idea of being a spearman. Take this quote from Pai: Soulcasting is the surge of transformation while lightweavers is illumination. Mixing the two it's not absurd to think you could get a similar effect to gold and electrum where she 'illuminates the possible transformations' in a similar way her sketches have done for others. Like I said, I'm definitely willing to agree to disagree here, but this is my interpretation here, and I think I've got enough evidence to support standing by it. I'll readily admit that your explanation is more plausible, but the idea that it's just her mental illness is also personally unpalatable to my tastes, so it could be bias in action for me as well.

That's how I interpreted this selection from "The Girl Who Looked Up."

To preface, part of this theory is predicted on another on of my theories that stone can hold investiture. You can see more information here, but it is on the Oathbringer spoiler board so be properly forewarned before following the link, Oathbringer spoilers inside. So I think, assuming that isn't incorrect, that Cultivation is similar to Autonomy in that her investiture is tied to sunlight. First off, it just makes sense thematically. Cultivation is usually tied to farming and the growth of plants, and photosynthesis and sunlight is central to this process. Going into actual evidence though, I've got a few things I want to present. The first is the most obvious. I'm fairly sure it's a general consensus that Dalinar's vision at the end of WoR is from Cultivation. The beginning is in darkness, the end of the description is heavily based in sensations of warmth and light. Next, and I went into this a little bit with my other thread, we have Tien and his rocks, and how they always cheer up Kaladin. It think that Tien had a naturally close connection to Cultivation and was able to somehow find rocks that we're able to store her investiture in it. I won't provide the examples of the rocks cheering Kaladin up, but instead, the specific quote where Tien mentions the light changing the rocks color and illuminating strata. I think it's very like Brandon to hide the truth in both a flippant comment and the mouth of a babe. Finally, and I think this the strongest evidence, we come to Szeth at Urithuru. In Dalinar's vision in WoK, the radiant mentions that fighting hurts the soul, or at least that's the assumption I draw from the passage. This brings me to Szeth, where we see a clear demonstration of the damage over the course of the books. This brings us to Urithuru. Now while it is only one line, I think it is a fair conjecture to assume that the reason the damage recedes in the sunlight is because if cultivations influence in the context of other clues. Any thoughts?

Having seen the actual quote I'm actually a little more confident in this theory that I was before. Let me clarify a little bit and run it by you again. I think it still fits even knowing what we do from the WoB, because in this instance I'm not trying to suggest that the oath stone is a magically invested object that would be causing the effect. Instead I think that the oath is the magical part of that transaction and it would be because the shin hold the honorblade for the bondSmith's that it would be significant, mostly due to this quote from the epigraph on chapter 30: I don't know if this epigraph has been fully explained in my absence or not, but Shallan is showing electrum like abilities, so I don't think it's too far off base to postulate that BondSmith's could have some sort of oath keeping ability. As long as my assumption that stone can keep investiture in the same way as a dunce peer could keep Stormlight or that metal could keep a chemical feruchemical charge, especially spiritual connection, I think it could hold true. The stone shamans, if they understand how the powers and abilities work, have their law set up to be very strict and have severe punishment to prevent abuse of the honorblades. At one point, I don't want to look up the quote right now, Szeth nonchalantly mentions that stone shamans would have no problem reclaiming the honorblade on his death. Between that and Szeth's own mastery of his blade, it's at least the safe assumption that they have a working knowledge of the surgebinding abilities. All of this would still hold true with what Brandon is saying. Szeth can be magically bound to an item that has no magical properties while that items still can be able to hold investiture or spiritual connection.

Opposite as in the opposite action from returning. Instead of interfering to allow a soul freedom it's interfering to imprison a soul in stone.

1: I don't think we disagree, I'm only interjecting the reason why they would count it as a blessing. 2: I wasn't aware of it, but that does necessarily mark a contradiction depending on how Brandon rationalizes that answer. If the stone shamans have that belief but it a false one, then technically, it would be only Szeth's honor holding him to that belief, whilst still be under a pseudo metaphysical duress. 3: Only because of Shardic intervention. The opposite of Returned. I'm not as well versed in this part of the theory as I could be so if I'm beating off the known path here set me right.